New York has become the latest US state to decide to support energy storage through its legislature and will be setting targets for deployment of the technologies in the coming weeks.

State governor Andrew Cuomo, credited by some in the industry for helping initiate and persevering with the New York Reforming the Energy Vision (NY REV) programme to modernise and add flexibility to the grid, has just approved Assembly Bill A6571 – Establishing the energy storage deployment programme.

First tabled by multiple sponsors in March this year, the bill was delivered to state Assembly and passed through Senate in June. It instructs the regulator, New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC), to develop a programme supporting the deployment of energy storage across the state. As part of that, a procurement target will be established, which is to be reached by 2030. There has been no indication yet of what that target might be. Cuomo signed off on the bill on 29 November.

The bill calls for “commercially available technology” which is cost-effective and can assist in lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reducing peak demand, reducing the need for expensive infrastructure upgrades and otherwise improving the reliability of the electrical network, all cornerstones of the NY REV programme. Technologies could include mechanical, chemical or thermal energy storage.

California has in place the mandate AB 2514, which requires the three investor-owned utilities in the state to deploy 1.325GW of energy storage by 2024 in four biennial solicitations, another 500MW was added to that target in May this year. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has set a 200MWh “aspirational” i.e. non-binding target for electric distribution companies by the beginning of the year 2020. More recently in New Mexico, the state Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC) in August unanimously voted to amend its rules governing utilities’ integrated resource planning (IRP) to allow power companies to include energy storage in those IRPs.

As with June’s announcement that the bill was passing through the legislative process, key trade groups NY BEST and the US’ national Energy Storage Association have warmly welcomed Cuomo’s approval of it.

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One battery to rule them all: when it comes to energy storage technology, it’s hard to beat lithium-ion. However, the rise of wind and solar has brought forth new motivation to develop new batteries that offer higher energy density at lower cost, and it looks like magnesium is in the running.

In the latest magnesium energy storage development, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory have teamed up with MIT to demonstrate, for the first time ever, the potential for magnesium mobility in a battery.

The Magnesium Energy Storage Problem…

Magnesium offers two potential advantages over lithium-ion, on cost and electrical current. That’s because magnesium (Mg) is a multivalent ion, as Berkeley Lab explains:

Whereas a Li-ion with a charge of +1 provides only a single electron for an electrical current, a Mg-ion has a charge of +2, which means Mg-ions, in principle, can provide twice the electrical current of Li-ions if present with the same density.

So, what’s the problem? In the energy storage field there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch:

The catch for multivalent ions is that their increased charge draws more attention to them — they become surrounded in the battery’s electrolyte by other oppositely charged ions and solvent molecules — which can slow down their motion and create energetic penalties to exiting the electrolyte for the electrodes…

…And The Solution

Got all that? The basic problem is that the liquid electrolyte in a Mg-ion battery tends to corrode other elements in the system.

The good news is that Mg-ion technology is so new that researchers haven’t reached the end of the rope yet. In fact, the new study gives the boot to liquid electrolyte altogether and goes straight to cutting edge solid state energy storage technology.

That’s quite a leap of faith, considering that the conventional science indicates that magnesium moves sl-o-w-ly through most solids.

You can get all the details from Nature Communications under the title, “High magnesium mobility in ternary spinel chalcogenides.”

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SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) strengthened its commitment to a clean energy future with the presentation of six energy storage contracts totaling 165 megawatts (MW) to the California Public Utilities Commission for review and approval on December 1. California’s Energy Storage Decision requires investor-owned utilities to procure 1,325MW of storage by 2020. PG&E’s share is 580MW. Since 2015, PG&E has signed contracts for 79MW of new energy storage capability.

Storage plays an increasingly important role for California energy companies as they work to achieve the state’s ambitious clean energy goals. By the end of 2017, PG&E forecasts that about 33 percent of its retail electric deliveries will come from renewable sources. Energy storage will help integrate many of those resources, such as wind and solar, which are intermittent or provide peak output during times of low demand.

Energy storage has been a part of PG&E’s power mix for decades, starting with the Helm’s Hydro-electric Facility and continuing with pilot projects such as the 2MW Battery Storage Pilot at the Vacaville Substation and the 4MW Yerba Buena Battery Energy Storage System located on the property of Silicon Valley storage technology company HGST.

On December 1, 2016, PG&E issued a request for offers (RFO) to solicit proposals for energy storage projects. The projects were required to be between 1MW and 50MW, and needed to be operational no later than the end of 2024.

In addition to third-party owned storage offers, PG&E identified a distribution substation where it would like to consider energy storage projects on distribution circuits to defer distribution investments. PG&E also identified three sites where it owns and operates solar photovoltaic facilities where energy storage could be added.

Martin Wyspianski , PG&E senior director for Energy Portfolio Procurement and Policy, said he was pleased with the progress PG&E has made toward meeting California’s renewable energy and storage goals.

“As our clean energy portfolio grows, so does the importance of storage technology. These contracts and the storage capacity they represent will help us better integrate our growing renewable generation sources, and bring increased reliability to the grid. They are an important milestone in our progress toward a clean energy future,” Wyspianski said.

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A new report into energy storage commissioned by chief scientist Alan Finkel highlights the enormous opportunities for storage in Australia, but underlines how little is actually needed over the short to medium term, even at relatively high levels of wind and solar.

The report, The role of Energy Storage in Australia’s Future Energy Supply Mix, funded by Finkel’s office and the Australian Council of Learned Academies (ACOLA), says the required investment in energy security and reliability over the next 5-10 years will be minimal (see graph above), even if wind and solar deployment moves far beyond levels contemplated by the Energy Security Board.

The contrast with the ESB modelling – and the attempts by Coalition parties at state and federal level to dismiss high levels of renewable energy as “reckless’ – could not be more pronounced.

While the ESB, in arguing for a National Energy Guarantee, speaks of the system threats and urgency to act with a level of “variable” renewables accounting for between 18 and 24 per cent of total generation, this new report says surprising little storage may be needed with 35 per cent to 50 per cent wind and solar.

Even in the 50 per cent variable renewable energy scenario – more than double that contemplated at the high end by the ESB – the new report suggests enough battery storage may be available “behind the meter” – households and businesses – to meet the storage needs.

In one of the most detailed reports into energy storage, the authors point to the huge potential of battery and energy storage in Australia – both in core mineral resources, manufacturing of battery storage, R&D,  deployment, and even renewable hydrogen.

At the same time, the report also warns that Australia needs to develop a recycling strategy for battery storage, and also needs to take into account other social aspects, such as the origins of lithium and cobalt.

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The starting point is that Australia’s electricity sector will get a minimum 35 per cent and potentially 75 per cent of power from ­renewable sources by 2030. South Australia and Tasmania could be as high as 100 per cent by this time.

To achieve it, storage costs alone could top $22 billion.

The report, compiled by the Australian Council of Learned Academies, says this spending will be critical to make intermittent wind and solar power possible at this scale.

Also critical would be “financial incentives” for either states or the private sector to build the level of storage required. Without storage, the council report says, the costs of electricity in Australia will continue to increase with “large negative implications” for the Aust­ralian economy.

There is plenty of political mischief in the projections for renewable energy penetration and potential cost. But, given that global climate change talks limped over the line in Bonn at the weekend there is reason to expect the global fixation on renewable energy generation and how to store it will become only more pressing.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change talks in Bonn achieved little other than survive US President Donald Trump’s ­declaration of withdrawal.

The more significant meeting will take place in France next month where the Paris Agreement host nation will work to keep the proposed $100 billion-a-year ­climate funding promise alive without US participation.

But lobby groups are already ramping up demands for government’s to increase their “ambition” ahead of next year’s meeting. Storage is the big hope but still poorly understood, ­especially in Australia.

The council report says the most likely forms of energy storage over the coming decade or so are pumped hydro, batteries, compressed air and molten salt.

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Having been subject to discussion for years within the academic sphere, energy storage projects have become a topic of high interest to energy sector focused investors in recent years.

Decreasing cost curves, changing regulatory environments within the energy markets such as deregulation and shifts away from subsidised renewables to market pricing modes, and evolving software capabilities, are increasing investor confidence in energy storage investments and result in increased demand for investment opportunities.

While this seems to be true especially for more mature renewable energy markets like Europe, the United States and several others, investors are facing the problem that energy storage projects as investments are – in most cases – discussed on a very abstract basis. Only considering the “big picture” and seeing the project as a future pillar of the energy market leaves out details such as the complexity coming with energy storage investments in practice.

In my opinion, the propensity to drastically reduce complexity by discussing energy storage as high-level topic has developed based on two major factors:

Firstly, energy storage is still a new topic in the market compared to the long history of energy generation and transmission. Hence, while accumulators and especially batteries seem to be part of consumers’ lives ever since, the discussion about energy storage as a viable part of the electricity market structure is relatively trendy and new. In addition, due to the high diversity of technology types and their evolution, economies of scale and market consolidation (as seen currently in the photovoltaic market) are not yet reached. This leads to different potentials, resulting in an ultimate mess of investment cases. Supported by the fact that storage investments are often declared as a “venture capital topic”.

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At Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) EmTech conference last week, Italian luxury car manufacturer Lamborghini unveiled a new concept electric supercar — and they weren’t kidding when they called it “the future of sports cars.”

The Lamborghini Terzo Millennio (which is Italian for the “third millennium”) certainly does look like it belongs to a future era. The product of a unique collaboration between MIT and Lamborghini, the Terzo Millennio doesn’t just lookthe part of a futuristic car, it’s  packed with next generation technology.

One of the highlights is its energy storage capacity. According to Road Show, the Terzo Millennio uses supercapacitors instead of regular batteries. Coupled with high storage capabilities, supercapacitors are also capable of receiving and delivering a charge faster than standard batteries. Plus, it carries more charge cycles than most batteries, which can supply power to the supercar’s four electric motors — one for each wheel.

Its energy storage capabilities don’t end there, though. The car’s carbon fiber body allows the entire vehicle to work as one big energy storage medium — almost like a battery on wheels.

“If I have a super sports car and I want to go the [race track], I want to go one, two, three laps without having to stop and recharge after every lap,” Mauricio Reggiani, head of R&D at Lamborghini, told CNN. 

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Utilility Integrated Resource Plans (IRPs) are beginning to catch up with the growth of energy storage.

Utilities across the country from Duke Energy Carolinas to Southern California Edison have implemented energy storage projects for a variety of reasons, but until now few have included energy storage in their IRPs. Now, utilities in states ranging from Indiana and North Carolina to Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon have included energy storage in their long term planning processes.

Portland General Electric’s 2017 IRP proposes five storage projects in a range of sizes and applications. The utility’s IRP is, in part, a response to a state law passed in 2015, HB 2193, that required PGE to procure at least 5 MWh of energy storage and up to 1% of 2014 peak load (38.7 MW) by 2020.

PGE’s rationale for including storage in its planning process is the need to support grid flexibility as its use of variable renewable resources grows. Last year more than 40% of the energy PGE delivered was from carbon-free sources. The state’s renewable portfolio standard mandates that 50% of electricity sales come from renewable sources by 2040. PGE says that if hydropower resources are included, it will hit 70% carbon-free energy by 2040.

In its 2017 IRP, PGE says it plans to install a microgrid battery storage pilot project at existing solar and biomass facilities to improve resilience; a battery at a substation to provide energy and capacity and other ancillary services; a storage asset at the existing 1.75 MW Baldock solar facility; up to 500 residential behind-the-meter batteries that would be controlled by PGE to pilot the development of a residential storage program; and a 4 MW to 6 MW transmission-connected storage device that would create a hybrid plant at PGE’s Port Westward 2 facility.

Despite the fact that some of the projects are called “pilots,” they will all be commercial scale, PGE spokesman Steve Corson told Utility Dive. An explicit part of PGE’s strategy, he said, is “to explore a diverse range of technologies in a diverse range of applications and sites so we can learn in addition to having the assets themselves.”

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