Nine-hour requirement adds big cost

Regulations for the safe use of energy storage systems still need adaptation to “accommodate a broader use of energy storage with higher energy content like lithium-ion batteries in private homes”, experts at Fraunhofer ISE (Institute for Solar Energy Systems) have said.

In an exclusive technical paper article contributed to the last edition of Solar Media’s downstream solar technology journal, PV Tech Power, and now available to download from this website, Fraunhofer’s department head for electrical energy storage Dr Matthias Vetter and battery modules and systems expert Stephan Lux discuss two research projects into the safety of stationary energy storage systems for households, including their use for self-consumption of solar PV generated onsite.

With funding from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), Project ‘Safety First’ looks at the standards and quality of energy storage systems for homes currently available on the market, including how well they connect and interface with the grid. The other project, Project ‘SpeiSi’ looks specifically at the safety and reliability of stationary energy storage systems for PV self-consumption.

In the article, Vetter and Lux look at existing provisions for safety, mainly through the lens of their own domestic market in Germany, where more than 50,000 residential energy storage systems have been sold to date already and existing safety guidelines, published by national solar trade group BSW Solar, are voluntary.

From there, the authors explain what they think is necessary to bring energy storage into the mainstream, for utilities, financiers, other industry players and for customers. Key topics include battery lifetimes and charge-discharge cycling, the threat of thermal runaway, which causes lithium-ion batteries to combust and the safety and reliability of switching devices.   

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Strategic location

California’s grid operations will be supported by the ramping of an estimated 3,000MW of energy storage, when a solar eclipse expected across the Pacific North-West of the US will cause PV generation to dip.

The California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) trade group issued a statement on Tuesday, asserting that the near-three hour period when the California sun is obscured by the passing moon, between 9:02am and 11:54am local time, will see energy storage ramping to support the grid and providing energy and other support services.

According to CESA, the ability of energy storage to also ramp down i.e. take energy off the grid as well as put energy into it, will be a useful tool for the grid as solar generators start to come back on when the eclipse is over. The sun in Northern California will be 76% obscured, while the sun in Southern California will be 62% blocked out.    

“The eclipse is an important example of how energy storage can help the grid,” Alex Morris, policy director at CESA, said.

“Whether ‘front of meter’ or aggregated customer-sited (behind the meter) storage, energy storage solutions – as part of the electric grid ‘tool-kit’ – not only provide benefits to the environment and the grid, but can also help customers manage electricity costs.”

Morris also said energy storage is “an innovative part of the California grid that provides key capabilities for operating a cleaner and more affordable grid, while also ramping up extremely quickly to meet electricity needs when solar power wanes, as we expect during the August 21st eclipse.”

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Black start with ‘Kickstarter’

The latest phase of a AUS$55 million (US$43.8 million) programme giving remote communities in Australia’s Northern Territory reliable and clean power will see a 2MWh battery installed and paired with more than 3,000 solar PV panels.

Daly River, a remote indigenous community in the Northern Territory, is projected to save 400,000 litres of diesel fuel each year with the installation of the 3,200 panel, 1MW PV system and co-located lithium-ion battery-based energy storage.

Our sister site PV Tech reported on the first phase of off-grid installations under the Solar Energy Transformation Program (SETuP) in late July. That wave of deployment fitted out 3.325MW of PV projects across 10 different communities in the Northern Territory, using solar PV-diesel hybrid generation solutions without battery storage.

In total, the AUS$55 million SETuP scheme will install 10MW of solar across 28 remote communities. AUS$27.5 million of the scheme’s cost has been supplied by the national government, via the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) with other funding coming from the Northern Territory government and its local Power and Water Corporation.

The 1MW PV / 2MWh battery storage Daly River project is the only one of the SETuP installations to use batteries in conjunction with PV. ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht said he hoped Daly River could serve to demonstrate how reliance on diesel could be reduced or eliminated altogether, while Northern Territory Power and Water Corporation chief exec Michael Thomson said the Daly River plant would reduce the town’s diesel consumption by 50% and meet half of total energy demand.

Thomson called it: “…An effective demonstration of dependable technology use”.

“As battery costs reduce over the next few years, solar and battery technology will become more and more economically compelling as an alternative to traditional ways of powering remote communities. We’re excited to see the outcomes of the Daly River installation which will help guide deployment of more renewable energy in other remote communities as the technology becomes more cost effective,” ARENA CEO Frischknecht said.

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Founder and CEO Paul Nahi last night announced his resignation from Enphase, the PV microinverter maker and energy management specialist, which also makes its own AC Battery for energy storage.

Nahi revealed his decision during the company’s most recent earning’s call last night, when second quarter results for this year were discussed. The results showed a revenue improvement over the previous quarter but the company continues a difficult journey to become profitable and continues to face strong competition in the inverter sector of the solar industry. 

“It has been an enormous privilege to lead Enphase since inception and through its growth to become a leading global energy technology company,” Paul Nahi said.

“Our invention of the microinverter and the introduction of module level data monitoring has transformed the global solar energy landscape. Having managed Enphase from a concept through global leadership, I feel the time is right for a new CEO to continue its growth, while Enphase increases market share, expands into new geographies and explores new opportunities.”

While Enphase has deployed more than 650,000 systems in over 100 countries, including 15 million microinverters, the company is still battling to turn a profit in a highly competitive space. The company netted revenues of US$74.7 million in Q2 2017, 36% up from the previous quarter, shipping 224MW (DC) of microinverters. This meant a quarterly reduction in GAAP losses, from US$23.3 million in Q1 to US$12.1 million in Q2.

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Arizona Public Service (APS) announced Wednesday that rather than rebuild miles of electricity transmission lines, it will install two battery storage systems totalling 8MWh in rural  Punkin Center, Arizona — making it one of the first electricity companies in the US to utilise batteries instead of traditional infrastructure.

The two, 4 MWh Advancion batteries are made by AES Energy Storage. Construction on the project is slated to begin in fall 2017. While the use of energy storage to replace or complement the role of traditional wires, cables and substations has long been talked about, with one New York project discussed a few years ago thought to provide an opportunity to save a network operator more than three-quarters of a billion Dollars in upgrades to a substation for utility Con Edison, there has been little in the way of traction since. At present most utility-scale storage systems are providing grid-balancing or renewables integration – or both – rather than being seen as an alternative to transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure spending.

Scott Bordenkircher, APS’s director of transmission and distribution technology innovation and integration, said: “This project is a crucial step in the right direction for Arizona’s energy future. Over the next 15 years, APS has plans to add 500MW of storage capacity. This project is indicative of the type of smart grid APS envisions for customers, one that enables people to have more technology in their own homes.”

Currently, APS is using batteries to store excess solar power for use after sunset, with the batteries storing energy to use at peak times and for other functions such as voltage support.

Bordenkircher added: “We are watching as the prices come down on battery technology. Thoughtful implementation of battery storage is key to its future success. For a community like Punkin Center, the rural location, reduced implementation costs and added technological benefits make it the perfect candidate for this technology. ”

The batteries will increase power reliability to serve the community of 600 residents — who are located roughly 90 minutes northeast of downtown Phoenix.

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Pierre-Pascal Urbon, CEO of solar inverter manufacturer SMA, has said that the company is anticipating medium-term “exponential growth” in the energy storage market, reporting a “positive performance” in storage-related sales.   

SMA, which in around 2014 and 2015 could comfortably have been said to have supplied around one third of all central inverters deployed worldwide, this morning released its financial results for the first half of this year.

In short, the company reported 3.8GW of inverter sales in the six month period, similar to 2016’s first six months, when 3.9GW of devices were sold. This equated to €381.1 million and EBITDA of €29.0 million. SMA also said it has an order backlog of €673 million. However, due to price pressures in the PV market overall, sales figures were considerably lower than in H1 2016, when almost the same number of inverters sold meant €482.3 million in sales.

“After a moderate start to the year, SMA increased its sales by 20% in the second quarter of 2017 as against the first three months of the year,” Urbon said.

“We saw a favourable increase in all key segments, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC). For the second half of the year, we expect the business to significantly pick up again based on strong incoming orders in all markets”.

The company is forecasting sales across all segments of between €900 million and €950 million for the 2017 financial year and net cash to rise to over EUR450 million.

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The sale of an NEC Corporation business division involved in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries will have no material impact on the group’s activities in energy storage, according to a company spokesman.

AESC (Automotive Energy Supply Corporation), a company owned 50-50 by NEC Corporation and carmaker Nissan, makes lithium-ion batteries, mainly for supply to the automotive sector, but also including stationary energy storage. Nissan confirmed yesterday that the entirety of that business will be sold to a Chinese investor, GSR Capital.

Nissan will implement the transaction by first taking full control of AESC – founded in 2007 to develop advanced lithium-ion batteries – by acquiring the combined 49% minority holding held by NEC Corporation and its wholly owned battery and electrode subsidiary, NEC Energy Devices (NECED).

The deal includes a stake held in AESC by NEC Energy Devices, which is an NEC business division making electrodes for lithium-ion cells, supplying AESC, among others. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of this year, but remains contingent on GSR purchasing all shares in NEC Energy Devices from NEC Corporation.

Meanwhile NEC Energy Solutions (NEC ES) sits further downstream in the energy storage value chain. This division, as the name implies, makes and delivers full-service solutions in stationary energy storage, for balancing grids and integrating renewable energy into networks and microgrids.

In short, NEC ES focuses on everything expect for the lithium cells themselves; in terms of hardware this includes battery systems, power conversion systems and control systems. But the company’s range of services offered on top of that include construction and commissioning, service and maintenance, warranties and financing.

“The rumour [that was reported] last week, was about NEC exiting the battery manufacturing business. It’s really the [electrode] and cell manufacturing business was sold,” said Roger Lin, marketing director for NEC ES.

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