The COVID-19 crisis is bringing into the public eye the US’ dependency on importing goods, particularly batteries for advanced energy storage and electric vehicles, the CEO of a battery materials startup has said.

Dr Francis Wang, head of Nanograf, a US company working to commercialise a high energy density battery anode made with a composite of silicon and ‘curved’ graphene, replacing existing anodes which use graphite, said that the situation created by the novel coronavirus “is bringing to light… cracks in US infrastructure and the supply chain”.

Asked by Energy-Storage.news for an upstream technologist’s opinion on how supply chains have been impacted by the shutdown of operations in factories first in China and then elsewhere in the world, Wang said that “the US doesn’t make anything anymore, and we are having trouble because we don’t make equipment or materials and batteries is one of them”.

“Most battery production is split between Japan, Korea and China. It used to be roughly one-third, one-third, one-third, in terms of output. But in recent years it’s become closer to 60-70% of lithium ion batteries being made in China. That’s a big deal,” the Nanograf CEO said.

“Energy storage, especially portable power, for electric vehicles or iphones, iwatches, consumer electronics, and other use cases — it’s all linked to China. Coupled with the trade war – and the increased tensions generally between the US and China – you wonder whether the US might be in trouble because China isn’t very happy with us right now.”

All the US has these days in terms of advanced battery technology production, is the Nevada Gigafactory operated by Tesla-Panasonic, Wang pointed out, with legacy battery companies like Duracell and Rayovac largely reliant on alkaline tech: “a relatively antiquated technology”.

A survey of present and expected impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on member companies in the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA) has underscored their faith in recovery prospects, despite the worries of nearly 80% of respondents over “reduced operating income and tightening of liquidity”.

A summary of findings emailed to Energy-Storage.News said there has been an undoubted impact on both the upstream and downstream end of the energy storage industry, with supply chain production and project deployments and grid connections alike suffering delays.

However, association research manager Wang Si said in his summary that 64% of survey respondents believe “new opportunities for energy storage will emerge after the outbreak is contained,” while “most also believe that the energy storage market can still achieve its predicted growth rate in 2020”. The survey’s response-gathering process began on 5 February, while China was the focal point of the COVID-19 outbreak before the global spread that followed.

“In general, because the energy storage industry is still in an early stage of rapid development, the epidemic is likely to have a limited impact on the overall market development for the year,” Wang Si of CNESA wrote.

Cost reductions slowed by supply chain, demand impacts
In other words, CNESA noted that the domestic industry only began its full-on commercialisation last year and still awaits the creation of a supportive policy structure and market environment that could bring energy storage to rapid growth.

Perhaps hardest hit in terms of revenues will be small and medium-sized businesses that are primarily focused on the energy storage market, including system integrators, project developers and asset operators.

6 April 2020: China’s energy storage industry hopes for rebound in second half of 2020

A survey of present and expected impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on member companies in the China Energy Storage Alliance (CNESA) has underscored their faith in recovery prospects, despite the worries of nearly 80% of respondents over “reduced operating income and tightening of liquidity”.

A summary of findings emailed to Energy-Storage.News said there has been an undoubted impact on both the upstream and downstream end of the energy storage industry, with supply chain production and project deployments and grid connections alike suffering delays.

However, association research manager Wang Si said in his summary that 64% of survey respondents believe “new opportunities for energy storage will emerge after the outbreak is contained,” while “most also believe that the energy storage market can still achieve its predicted growth rate in 2020”.

Read the full story here.

6 April 2020: New York’s economic relief plan to back ‘rapid transition to clean renewable energy’

New York State has opted to “dramatically speed up the siting and construction of clean energy projects” as one facet of its roadmap for economic comeback from the COVID-19 crisis, which has hit the US state hard.

New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) emailed PV Tech and sister site Energy-Storage.news over the weekend with the announcement. NYSERDA is one of the public agencies enacting the new legislation, which will help speed up the permitting of large-scale renewable and clean energy projects (defined as larger than 25MW, or between 20MW to 25MW), as well as the development of projects in areas such as landfills and abandoned or underused sites.

The raft of bills is called the Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act and will be enacted by NYSERDA along with the NY State Department of State, its Department of Public Service, its Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Empire State Development Corporation.

If coronavirus containment measures continue to curtail movement of goods and people through Q2 this year, alongside an economic downturn, the market impact could trim Wood Mackenzie’s 2020 global energy storage deployments forecast by 19%.

This equates to a 3 GWh reduction over the year. Notably, this would still make 2020 a record-breaking year with 12.6 GWh deployed.

Wood Mackenzie’s early estimates indicated a 10% lithium-ion battery supply reduction, mainly due to China’s work restriction measures.

Le Xu, Wood Mackenzie Senior Research Analyst, said: “As this happened in China, Japanese and South Korean facilities ramped up to capitalise on the shortfall. As of March, restrictions have been lifted and production facilities in China are now at 60% to 70% of pre-virus levels.

“As such, the major risks to battery supply have been somewhat mitigated. A similar story has panned out for inverters where major supply risks have also, so far, been alleviated. However, mitigation efforts will likely see the battery supply chain accelerate. This will have far-reaching implications, not just for energy storage but for the global economy too.”

A recession for 2020 is looking imminent and outside of installation restrictions there will be additional downward pressure on demand as consumers spend less on luxury high-cost items, such as residential energy storage.

“For large scale projects, particularly in markets where energy storage is predominantly a merchant play, financiers’ appetite for this type of asset is already being reduced. Final project investment decisions will be pushed further out to when market conditions make the risk-return-ratio for this asset class more palatable.

“On the other hand, interest rates are being slashed to record low levels. This may be a silver lining for financially borderline projects, with lower costs of capital available to help to tip them into the investable category. This will be of particular interest to merchant projects currently seeking finance that typically rely on high-cost equity capital” said Rory McCarthy, Wood Mackenzie Principal Analyst.

The global energy storage market contracted for the first time last year, falling from 6.2 GWh in 2018 to 5.3 GWh in 2019. This contraction was primarily due to market declines in South Korea, China, the UK and Canada, according to Wood Mackenzie’s analysis.

Despite slowdowns in key markets and this year’s coronavirus crisis, the industry should return to growth in 2020.

“It did not take long before cracks appeared in South Korea’s unbelievable 2018 market growth. Since breaking the market record for most storage deployed in a single year, 28 fire incidents were reported, pulling this bull market into a 70% year-over-year decline. 2019 saw over 1 GWh in annual deployment reductions – enough to put a generally slow year into the red in growth terms.

Plans to build five large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) across the islands of Hawaii will come up for public input via web links and community TV channels, as utility Hawaiian Electric (HECO) takes the process into the ‘virtual’ space.

A clear leader among US states for solar PV installations per capita, Hawaii has also been installing increasing amounts of energy storage in the form of batteries (and some other technologies including flywheels) in order to integrate that renewable capacity. This includes multiple megawatt-scale dispatchable solar plants, built to provide energy at much lower cost than from the imported fossil fuels on which the island state has long relied.

This time last year, six large-scale projects were approved by state regulator Hawaii Public Utilities Commission comprising 240MW of solar and 988MWh of four-hour duration battery storage that HECO said would will help to protect customers from the “volatile prices of fossil fuels”. The state also has the goal of reaching 100% renewables by 2045 as well as a 2030 interim target of 40%.

Subsequently, in August 2019, Energy-Storage.news reported main utility Hawaiian Electric’s plan to tender for 900MW of solar PV, along with grid services. The plan announced then was to select winning projects by May of this year, for them to be completed and online between 2022 and 2025. Under the request for proposal (RFP) issued by HECO, PV plants can range from 4MW to 119MW capacity.

Hawaiian Electric proposed to “self-build” five energy storage projects that go along with that renewables procurement and has decided to push ahead with the necessary community meetings to seek public input on those proposals. The islands of Maui and Hawaii will see their community meetings hosted on a local tv channel, with HECO accepting emailed public input. Plans for Oahu will be hosted via Webex.

Lithium-ion batteries offer high energy density in a small space. That makes them highly suitable for stationary electrical energy storage systems, which, in the wake of the energy transition, are being installed in more and more buildings and infrastructures. However, these positive characteristics have unique fire risks. This challenge can be addressed effectively by means of an application-specific fire protection concept for stationary lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, such as the one developed by Siemens through extensive testing. It is the first of its kind to receive VdS approval.

Each lithium-ion battery cell consists of two electrodes: a negative anode and a positive cathode. They are kept apart by a separator. Another essential component is the ion-conducting electrolyte.

However, this functional principle, while successful and generally safe, has designrelated risks. The battery cells are characterized by the presence of a large amount of chemical energy in a small space and a very small distance between the electrodes (separator layer typically ≈ 30 µm). At the same time, the electrolytes used are typically combustible or highly flammable.

For this reason, a battery management system (BMS) not only controls and monitors the state of charge at the cell and system level but also manages the temperature during charging and discharging. This ensures that the cells are kept within the operating range defined as safe.

Thermal runaway as a hazard scenario
Exceeding the safe temperature range can result in what is called “thermal runaway.” When this occurs, the energy stored in the battery is suddenly released, and within milliseconds the temperature rises to many hundred degrees. As a result, the electrolyte ignites or electrolytic gas explodes.

During a thermal runaway event, the electrolyte successively evaporates as the temperature climbs. This causes the pressure inside the cell to increase until the electrolyte vapors are released through a relief valve or a bursting cell wall. Without countermeasures, this results in an explosive gas-air mixture. All it then takes is an ignition source to cause an explosive combustion. In addition, a thermal runaway event in a battery system can spread from cell to cell, leading to a major fire.

One site, one interconnection, multiple megawatts of clean energy from solar and wind systems, smoothed out and rendered grid-friendly with the addition of a co-located energy storage system. Such is the promise of hybrid renewable energy systems, which, as outlined on the previous pages, are seemingly poised to become an exciting new frontier in the decarbonisation of the global energy system.

The current interest in hybrids is perhaps unsurprising. Wind and solar have traditionally been thought of as having limitations related to their inherent intermittence. But side by side, those negatives are largely cancelled out, and coupled with storage offer the promise of reliable, dispatchable power traditionally thought of as the preserve of fossil fuel generation.

“Wind is typically strongest at night, solar production during the day, so if you put the two of them together you have a higher capacity factor,” says Navigant senior analyst Alex Eller. “And if you add in storage, theoretically you could have round-the- clock output.”

More surprising, perhaps, than the apparent interest in hybrids is the question of why it’s taken this long for them to come to mainstream attention. Individually solar and wind have an enviable track record of rising deployment and falling costs, and the notion of putting them together to overcome their respective weaknesses is not a particularly new one.

Storage is certainly a newer kid on the block, but as we hear elsewhere in this edition of PV Tech Power, in certain markets such as the US and Canada, the large-scale solar-plus-storage nut appears well on the way to being truly cracked (‘See also ‘A developer’s eye view on North America’).

The reality, of course, is that what looks on paper like a seductively simple idea masks a number of interconnected complexities relating to cost, technology and market drivers that together make the hybridisation of the three technologies (and possibly others too) far from a simple prospect.

New York is well on its way to meeting the state’s goal of having 1,500 MW of energy storage by 2025 and 3,000 MW by the end of the decade, and the ‘value of distributed energy resources,’ or VDER, mechanism gets part of the credit, according to a report released by state utility regulators.

The state had deployed or contracted for 706 MW of storage by the end of last year, equaling about 47% of the 2025 target and 24% of the 2030 target, the New York Public Service Commission said in a report released April 2.

The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has about 9,780 MW of storage projects in its interconnection queue, the commission said, noting that not all projects will be built.

“Due to the technology’s declining costs and the ability to pair with solar photovoltaic (PV) and capture additional revenue streams, energy storage is increasingly being used to augment the existing pipeline of utility-connected solar PV projects being developed in the state,” the commission said in its first annual report documenting how New York is doing in reaching its storage goals.

Partly, the strong energy storage development is being spurred by the state’s VDER payment mechanism, which makes it easier to obtain project financing, the commission said.

VDER preferred by solar developers
The VDER mechanism pays distributed resources based on how they benefit the grid and reduce customer costs. The value stack is based on a utility’s avoided costs plus other benefits a distributed resource may bring like demand reduction and environmental values. The commission approved the methodology in 2017 and updated it a year ago.

VDER is the most common payment mechanism chosen by storage developers, and coupling energy storage with renewable generation allows developers to maximize their payments in many cases, according to the commission

Increasingly, developers of larger solar projects have been splitting them into smaller parts to qualify for VDER compensation, which is capped at 5 MW, instead of interconnecting to the grid at the bulk system level and receiving payments in NYISO’s wholesale markets, the commission said.

Energy storage installed costs remain relatively high, but are falling, according to the report.