UK energy: ‘inefficient and carbon intensive’

Lux’s breakdown of the market as forecast by analyst Chris Robinson and team. Image: Lux Research.

One of the world’s leading suppliers of solar PV trackers is targeting sales volumes of approximately 15MW per week of the new battery solution it has paired with its products.

NEXTracker, which according to GTM Research held 30% of the global PV tracker market as of April this year and was sold to Flextronics for US$330 million in 2015, recently launched its partnership with Avalon Battery, a flow battery maker from Oakland, California.

The solution, NX Fusion and NX Fusion Plus, comes pre-wired and pre-assembled, designed to serve as its “own independent renewable energy power plant,” according to the company. The bundles include the NX Horizon tracker, capable of rotating PV modules up to 120 degrees, DC wiring, string inverters, PV modules, UPS, piers and tracker monitoring and control system.

While many other companies are focusing on lithium-ion batteries, NEXTracker was persuaded to go with Avalon Battery’s flow technology after Avalon responded strongly to a novel request for proposal from the tracker specialist. NEXtracker director of sales for the storage solution, Ralph Fallant, told Energy-Storage.News at Intersolar Europe that it was a good fit overall.

“Our CTO Alex Au and one of our consultants, Josh Wiener, they produced an RFP called “decapitate the duck”. They were looking specifically for the best battery technology to be deployed with our type of product, to deal with the duck curve [the lack of overlap between peak solar production and peak energy consumption famously experienced in California],” Fallant said.

“They released a load profile that had two small discharges and one very deep discharge and that was the model people were supposed to compete against.”

As well as being the best entrant in that impromptu competition, the Avalon battery met other criteria that NEXtracker sought.

“What we found was a form factor that fits very well with our product. Our typical row is about 30kW, this is a 25kWh battery and it’ll be paired with a three-port Ideal Power inverter,” Fallant said.

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Jamaican utility company Jamaica Public Service (JPS) announced Monday that its board of directors has approved a hybrid energy storage solution which — pending approval from the Office of Utilities — will be the first of its kind in the Caribbean.

The energy storage solution will have power readily available, which will be utilised in case solar and wind renewable systems suddenly lose power due to cloud cover, reduced wind or other issues.

If approved, the 24.5MW project will be developed at the Hunts Bay Power Plant substation and will feature both high speed and low speed flywheels and containerised lithium-Ion batteries. Once approved for construction, it would become operational by the third quarter of 2018.

The proposed project will allow JPS to provide a faster response when the output from renewables is suddenly reduced — as well as mitigate stability and power quality issues that cause outages to customers.

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India is expected to add more than 1GWh of lithium-ion battery assembly capacity this year, with a host of companies getting in on the act, according to the head of the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA).

The South Asian country has already surpassed 1GWh of distributed lithium-ion battery deployment for applications such as telecom towers and bank ATM machines, but to reach this stage companies had been importing complete battery packs from outside India.

However, Rahul Walawalkar, IESA executive director, told Energy-Storage.News that strong demand for batteries in such applications has continued. Therefore, since the end of last year, many firms have started setting up assembly capacity in India and only buying cells from the likes of China, Japan and Korea.

Walawalkar added: “There are multiple companies who are putting in 100MWh or more pack assembly capacity right now.”

Major companies including Acme, Delta, Exicom, to name a few, are all working on such facilities of various capacities. At least five companies have already completed plants, while several other projects are expected to be completed in the next two or three months, once equipment has been delivered. This week, Indian business newspaper Economic Times also reported that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation’s biggest fuel supplier, is developing batteries and other technology for energy storage applications. According to Economic Times, while IOC is mainly focusing on lead-acid, it is also working on lithium-ion battery chemistries.

Walawalkar also noted: “There are at least four or five additional companies who are right now at earlier stages; they have identified the land; they are finalising partnerships for procuring cells.”

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Giants of the UK energy sector are to work within a new collaborative group aimed at enabling significant cost reductions for the electricity system through the use of energy storage applications.

The Energy Systems Innovation Platform (ESIP) has been unveiled today by emissions reduction advisory group, the Carbon Trust and brings together utilities Centrica, DONG Energy, SSE, Scottish Power, Statoil and Wood Group’s Clean Energy division.

The companies will work together to solve what they see as “key issues” currently preventing a more cost effective transition to a low carbon energy system by developing new business models.

Andrew Lever, director of innovation at the Carbon Trust, said: “There is now general consensus that the UK energy market needs to be revamped so we can embrace a flexible and more decentralised energy system. However, the fragmented nature of the energy market is driving fragmented decision making and many investments are led by technology, not market needs.

“We now have a window of opportunity to foster new business models and put in place the regulatory mechanisms that will give investors the confidence to stop chasing market distortions and focus on the long term.

“The formation of ESIP is indicative that no one organisation can solve this issue alone and a collaborative approach is essential to deliver the biggest benefit to society as a whole.”

Representing almost half of the UK’s electricity supply market and with initial support from the Scottish government and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the initiative will tackle regulatory barriers which many believe have held back the development of UK storage.

It will also seek greater transparency around the decision making made across the UK energy system concerning the services storage can provide. According to Lever, this includes the choices made across DNOs, Ofgem, National Grid and government which he said “needs to be joined up and transparent to ensure the right direction, rules and signals are given to the market”.  

It is hoped this will help ESIP develop the long term business models necessary to encourage stronger investment and reach the potential of greater flexibility in the UK energy system.

Last year the Carbon Trust led a study which found that the UK could be saving up to £2.4 billion (US$3.05 billion) every year by 2030 if flexibility solutions such as energy storage were integrated into the UK electricity system.

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SaltX Technology and CSP and integrated energy systems provider Aalborg CSP have signed off on a non-exclusive joint development agreement to develop and commercialise an integrated energy storage solution for Concentrated Solar Power.

The energy storage system will be based on SaltX’s technology for large-scale energy storage, known as EnerStore.

A first prototype of the storage system is expected to be developed later in 2017, with both companies planning to secure a commercial pilot plant during 2018.

Karl Bohman, CEO of SaltX Technology, said: “SaltX and Aalborg CSP complement each other perfectly – SaltX with its cutting-edge technology, and Aalborg CSP with its strong brand, global solar project portfolio and experience to engineer and build integrated energy systems.

“The market for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is expected to explode over the next three years, especially in China, Africa and India. It is therefore important to quickly position ourselves and to accelerate the development of EnerStore.”

Over the next few months, both companies will begin jointly developing a solution that integrates the SaltX EnerStore technology into Aalborg CSP energy systems. The solution will then be marketed and sold to Aalborg CSP’s target customers worldwide.

Peter Badstue Jensen, executive vice president of Aalborg CSP, added: “With the development of EnerStore we expect the competitiveness of our integrated energy systems to increase, allowing us to offer even better feasibility and improved return on investment for our customers.

“The future will see more hybridised energy systems and together with SaltX we will be able to offer a more cost-effective, on-demand renewable energy solution than our competitors. We see this as a long-term partnership where we can grow together in this rapidly developing market.”

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Hybrid systems combining the complementary aspects of more than one technology could “change the energy storage landscape”, with 2.1GW predicted for deployment in less than 10 years, according to a report from Navigant Research.

“Hybrid advanced battery markets: Battery-battery, battery-capacitor, and other hybrid systems: Global market analysis and forecasts” says that by 2026, the installed capacity of such systems will be 2.1GW, an enormous leap from around 78.6MW today. Hybrid energy storage systems “have the potential to change the energy storage landscape and give customers better options to service their needs,” Navigant said.

Navigant defines hybrids as “a stationary ESS that integrates two or more energy storage technologies with complementary operating characteristics”. Most battery-based systems are either designed to offer short bursts of high power or suited to energy-intensive applications that consistently put out low power for longer durations. Using energy storage technologies in applications for which they are not the best fit can result in performance degradation and can have cost implications – it can also lead to safety issues around charging and discharging batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries, for instance, are commonly used in grid-scale storage to respond quickly to grid signals that there is a fluctuation in supply and demand, leading to deviations in grid frequency. These will put out high bursts of power for short times to keep the grid operating at as close to 50Hz (or 60Hz as required) as possible. Conversely, the same battery may not be suited for storing solar PV energy for several hours, perhaps for use at night, where something like a flow battery, capable of storing larger amounts of energy for longer durations may be better.

In a recent interview, the CEO of redT, a company that makes flow batteries (but prefers the term ‘flow machines’) Scott McGregor, told Energy-Storage.News that a theoretical hybrid energy storage system of lithium-ion batteries and vanadium redox flow could be optimal for delivering both high power and high energy functions within the same installation.

While the promise of lithium-flow hybrids sounds enticing, no significant projects along those lines have yet been built. However, recently announced hybrid systems include a flywheel-plus-battery project in the UK and a lead acid battery-ultracapacitor system in Ireland. On a slightly different tack, US engineering giant GE has launched hybrid gas turbine-plus-battery systems, some units of which have already been provided to a California investor-owned utility (IOU).   

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