Northvolt, the start-up aiming to manufacture lithium-ion batteries on a massive scale in Europe sustainably, has signed a contract to deliver its own first commercial energy storage system (ESS) project and revealed news on a second planned ‘gigafactory’ in Germany.

The company emailed Energy-Storage.news to draw attention to the fact that, while there has been much discussion of Northvolt’s Masterplan, which includes the capacity to make 32GWh of battery packs each year including cells in Sweden, it’s perhaps less well known that the company intends to use those battery cells and racks to assemble systems.

“Many people imagine Northvolt simply to be a cell manufacturer, but with an in-house battery system [of our own], we’re actually positioning to deliver complete solutions,” Northvolt media representative William Steel told Energy-Storage.news.

A contract has been signed to deliver an ESS which will “support peak shaving at an EV charging station,” Steel said, in the city of Vasteras, Sweden, for Mälarenergi, a municipally-owned electricity and heating company. The system initially deployed will be relatively small, at 220kW peak power output and 330kWh of storage capacity. It will use Northvolt’s branded battery rack, called Voltrack.

A company press release said the system will reduce the charging solution’s draw from the grid at peak times – the most expensive and often most polluting energy on the grid – by as much as 80%, lessening the impact of EV charging on the local grid. The project is expected to go into operation in summer 2020.

Further gigafactory announced for Germany
Initiated by a former Tesla executive who then went through an extensive headhunting process to source talent from Asia’s battery industry and Silicon Valley’s tech and software space, Northvolt has attracted investment from partners that include Goldman Sachs and a number of big automakers.

Northvolt will begin with Northvolt Ett in Skeleftea, Sweden, ‘Ett’ being ‘One’ in the Swedish language. Just announced today: a Northvolt-Volkswagen joint venture (JV) is to establish another vast production facility in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, Germany. Called Northvolt Zwei, the 50-50 JV between VW and Northvolt intend to begin construction in 2021.

When production begins, sometime in late 2023 or early the following year, the facility will produce 16GWh of batteries, primarily aimed at the electric vehicle and mobility market. Northvolt touts its ambition to make batteries with minimal environmental impact, including carbon footprint at each of its gigafactories.

Over 10,500MW of battery storage planning applications have been made in the UK, compared with 6900MW a year ago, according to new research from RenewableUK (R-UK).

The trade body’s latest Project Intelligence report said that the number of companies involved in the sector is now more than 450, up from about 300 this time last year.

R-UK said that average project rose slightly in the last 12 months to 28MW from 27MW previously.
“The pipeline of storage projects is expected to continue growing and an increasing number of grid-scale battery projects of over 50MWs are expected, after BEIS agreed earlier this year to change planning rules which have, up to now, deterred development at this scale,” it added.

The report said that renewables developers are at the forefront of the market.

It said the UK also has a pipeline of over 600MW of compressed air or liquid air storage projects in development.

Gravitricity is developing gravity-based storage and OXTO Energy is pioneering the use of flywheels in energy storage, while RheEnergised is developing dense liquids as an alternative to pumped storage, R-UK said.

R-UK director of future electricity systems Barnaby Wharton said: “As we build the net-zero energy system of the future based on renewables, we’re changing the way we manage the entire network, using a wide variety of extraordinarily innovative storage technologies. The pace of change in the industry is hugely exciting.

“Energy storage has reached a tipping point with major companies entering this new market, providing new services to guarantee the security our energy supplies and maximising the amount of power available, providing massive benefits to consumers.”

The new figures were unveiled at the Energy Systems Storage 2019 event in London organised by R-UK and the Solar Trade Association.

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NEOVOLTA INC. (OTCQB: NEOV) – During the third quarter of 2019, the U.S. residential energy storage market saw record growth. According to the Wood Mackenzie U.S. Energy Storage Monitor, residential storage set a quarterly record with 38.1 megawatts installed. That marks a 32% increase over the second quarter of 2019.

It was also the second consecutive quarter of record growth for the home energy storage sector. The second quarter saw a deployment of 35 megawatts, a 41% increase over the previous quarter. Wood Mackenzie expects the U.S. residential storage market to more than double between 2019 and 2020.

California continues to lead the country in residential storage, and state regulators have proposed $100 million in energy storage incentives for residents of areas at high risk of wildfire.

With demand for home energy storage expected to skyrocket over the next decade, one newcomer is positioning itself for growth: San Diego–based NeoVolta. With its NV14 system, NeoVolta has built a solar storage solution that combines safety, high performance, and a long cycle life, all at a competitive price point. This combination did not exist before NeoVolta filled the gap in the battery storage market.

The NV14’s lithium iron phosphate battery has superior thermal and chemical stability, making it safer than ordinary lithium ion batteries. Lithium iron phosphate chemistry also offers a longer life cycle. Energy generated during the daytime is stored in the NV14’s clean, cobalt-free battery and used during evening “peak demand” hours when utility rates are often twice as high. Homeowners can see significant savings on their monthly utility bills.

In the event of a power outage, the system will automatically disconnect from the grid and immediately start powering critical loads. With its high storage capacity of 14.4 kilowatt hours and 7.6 kW of continuous power, the NV14 can keep more household appliances running longer than competitors in its class.

The NV14 can connect with any residential solar installation—new or existing, AC or DC—to deliver maximum efficiency. The system is being installed in homes across Southern California and will be expanding to Northern California in the next six months.

“With growing consumer interest and financial incentives in California and other states, we are seeing real momentum for home solar energy storage,” said Brent Willson, CEO of NeoVolta. “For homeowners who want a safe, high-performance and long-lasting storage system, the NV14 is the perfect solution.”

As calls mount for an electricity future substantially reliant on renewable energy, how can we cope with the variability of solar and wind power? Households, businesses, and industries all want to access power in a timely way – not just when the sun is shining or the wind blowing.

Demand-response measures can modulate electricity consumption for uses as small as household appliances and as large as commercial heating and cooling. Time-of-use electric rates can provide a financial incentive for utility customers to shift key uses to non-peak hours. In addition, utilities can offer discounts to customers who grant them a degree of remote control over the operation of power-consuming functions such as air conditioning, electric vehicle charging, and commercial refrigeration.

Smartly timed use of electricity can play an important role in stabilizing a grid reliant on renewable energy, but a robust investment in energy storage will also be essential. Solar power today accounts for a modest 2.3% of U.S. electricity; wind provides about 6.5%. Making the leap from these modest numbers to a mid-21st century America powered primarily by renewable electricity will require development of safe and affordable ways to store vast amounts of power.

A brief overview of energy storage

Energy storage has been used for decades to accommodate fluctuations in electricity demand that baseload power plants – particularly those running on coal and nuclear – cannot ramp up quickly enough to address. Pumped storage is one technology that meets this need, taking water from a lower-elevation reservoir or a flowing water source and pumping it to an upper basin where it becomes a source of supplemental hydropower. Pumped storage plants total 22.9 gigawatts in capacity nationwide – more than any other energy storage resource. Yet most of these plants were built between 1960 and 1990, and no new ones are under development. Siting challenges are among the obstacles they face.

Far less commonly used are utility-scale flywheel systems, only three of which now operate in the U.S. Flywheels convert electricity to stored kinetic energy that can be released within milliseconds to ensure stable voltage on the grid. They cannot, however, deliver a sustained stream of energy over longer periods – multiple minutes, hours, or days. That constraint, along with the bankruptcy of one industry leader, has slowed flywheel deployment, currently yielding just a few tens of megawatts of storage capacity.

Pumping compressed air into underground cavities is another storage technology that has drawn some attention, but only one such facility has been built in the U.S. Molten salt is used as a storage medium for heat captured by sun-tracking mirrors at a small number of concentrating solar power plants in the Southwest. However, both of these storage technologies face high operating costs and technical hurdles that have dimmed their prospects for broader introduction.

Scientists in China have devised a way to reuse graphite anodes from spent lithium-ion batteries in sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries.

Producing new lithium-ion batteries is becoming more challenging due to the cost and limited supply of raw materials. Current recycling strategies only generate recycled compounds rather than functional materials, and most of those strategies deal with cathodes rather than anodes.

The new strategy proposed by Xing-Long Wu’s team at Northeast Normal University is not only a simple way to recycle graphite from lithium-ion battery anodes – the researchers also use the resulting graphite in sodium-ion and potassium-ion batteries. Producing these next-generation batteries has its advantages, as sodium and potassium are more readily available than lithium, and the batteries don’t need to contain unethically sourced cobalt.

Central to the new recycling strategy is a simple thermal decomposition process. The researchers scrape graphite anode powder off the exhausted anodes, stir in ethanol, centrifuge, and dry into a powder. They then calcine the resulting compound at 700°C, 1000°C, 1300°C and 1600°C for four hours under an argon atmosphere to obtain recycled graphite, which they use in new anodes.

Although scientists have explored reusing lithium-ion battery materials in new lithium-ion batteries before, Wu reasons that their proposed method is a more advanced concept. ‘This idea can simultaneously promote the development of next-generation batteries while solving the issues derived from extensively used lithium-ion batteries,’ explains Wu.

Nuria Tapia Ruiz, who researches the fundamental chemistry of lithium-ion and sodium-ion battery technologies at Lancaster University, UK, describes the work as thought-provoking. ‘The increasing demand on lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and electronic devices has posed an additional problem to the initial and exclusive thought of finding good-performing and long-lasting batteries. Recycling materials is an emergent area of research, which may undoubtedly contribute to a sustainable future with reduced waste,’ she says.

Green hydrogen produced using renewable energy is increasingly seen as a key asset for grid and transport decarbonization.

Interest in the technology is surging. Shell believes the hydrogen sector deserves the same levels of support that went to solar energy over the years.

But at least in the medium term, the decarbonization potential of hydrogen is limited. In some areas, it’s “just not economical, and it won’t be,” said Wood Mackenzie senior analyst Ben Gallagher.

Green hydrogen remains inefficient and expensive today, with an end-to-end efficiency of only around 30 percent, said Gallagher.

As a result, it’s hard to see it being used for electricity generation in markets such as the U.S., where natural gas prices are expected to remain low for the foreseeable future.

Similar challenges could hamper attempts to make hydrogen a viable alternative to electrification in the automotive sector.

“On the mobility side, you not only have the electrolyzer, you have a large distribution network that you need to build out,” said Gallagher. “Compared to either EVs or gasoline, I don’t understand how it’s going to be cost-competitive in any way, anytime soon.”

Not much “green” today
Gallagher’s views echo the findings of a major report on green hydrogen published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) in September, which warned that the fuel “should not be considered a panacea.”

“A hydrogen-based energy transition will not happen overnight,” Irena’s report states. “Hydrogen will likely trail other strategies such as electrification of end-use sectors, and its use will target specific applications. The need for a dedicated new supply infrastructure may limit hydrogen use.”

French oil and gas major Total has this week inaugurated the Hélio Boulouparis 2 solar project in New Caledonia, the largest solar power plant in any French overseas territory.

The Hélio Boulouparis 2 project consists of over 58,000 solar panels with a cumulative peak capacity of 16 MW – enough to cover the energy needs of over 21,000 residents of New Caledonia.

The plant will also feature a lithium-ion battery storage system with a capacity of nearly 10MW (The hours of storage were not released)..

“With nearly 60% of the total photovoltaic capacity installed in New Caledonia, Total Quadran is positioned as the first player in the New Caledonian solar market,” said Thierry Muller, General Manager of Total Quadran, Total’s French renewables subsidiary.

“As a historical player in the territory, Total is proud to be able to contribute to a less carbon-intensive energy mix of the region, while promoting the integration of renewables into the electricity grid through appropriate storage facilities.”

Total Quadran – which develops, builds, and operates renewable facilities in France and its overseas territories – now boasts over 300 renewable power projects with a cumulative capacity of nearly 900 MW, generating 1,675 GWh of renewable electricity each year.

Total Quadran now manages 7 solar power plants in New Caledonia with a cumulative capacity of 50MW. This latest New Caledonia solar project is the second Boulouparis project, joining a 11 MW project commissioned in 2017.

The proportion of contracts by category tracked by the research frim in the quarter was as follows:

1. Supply & Erection: 11 contracts and a 47.8% share
2. Power Purchase Agreement: five contracts and a 21.7% share
3. Project Implementation: four contracts and a 17.4% share
4. Consulting & Similar Services: two contracts and an 8.7% share
5. Repair, Maintenance, Upgrade & Others: one contract and a 4.3% share.

North America leads in energy storage activity in Q3 2019

Comparing contracts activity in energy storage segment in different regions of the globe, North America held the top position with 12 contracts and a share of 52.2% during Q3 2019, followed by Asia-Pacific with four contracts and a 17.4% share and Europe with four contracts and a 17.4% share.

Solar is leading technology for energy storage contracts in Q3 2019

Among the technologies, solar accounted for 13 contracts with a 72.2% share, followed by wind with three contracts and a 16.7% share and thermal with two contracts and an 11.1% share.

Energy storage contracts in Q3 2019: Top companies by capacity

The top issuers of energy storage contracts for the quarter in terms of power capacity involved were:

1. City of San Jose (United States): 110MW from one contract
2. New York Power Authority (United States): 20MW from one contract
3. East Bay Community Energy (United States): 7.5MW capacity from two contracts.

Global new capacity additions of utility-scale energy storage (USES) are expected to reach 1,557.0 MW. This number is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.8% to reach 22,909.2 MW of new capacity deployed in 2028.

That’s according to a new report from Navigant Research that examines the market drivers, challenges, key trends, and growth projections for the global USES industry, with forecasts for power capacity (MW), energy capacity (MWh), and deployment revenue, through 2028.

As the global USES industry continues its pattern of rapid growth, inflection points are arising around the world. The technology is becoming competitive with conventional power grid systems and, while the industry remains diverse, repeating trends are surfacing in the early adopter markets that have grown and become more mature.

The emergence of solar plus storage projects has been the most important trend seen in the global USES industry in the past 2 years, according to the report. These combined projects account for a large percentage of newly announced energy storage capacity, including some of the largest projects being built. Standardization among these new solar plus storage projects has been key to driving their growth, both in terms of technical designs and contract structures through combined power purchase agreements (PPAs).

The report, “Utility-Scale Energy Storage Overview,” provides an update on the market drivers, challenges, key trends, and growth projections for the global USES industry. Additional insight is provided on the leading technologies in the market and the leading players across various elements of the USES value chain.

A report published in Science magazine by a team of scientists claims nanomaterials are the key to widespread, affordable energy storage. “Most of the biggest problems facing the push for sustainability can all be tied back to the need for better energy storage,” says Professor Yury Gogotsi of Drexel University and lead author of the paper.

“Whether it’s a wider use of renewable energy sources, stabilizing the electric grid, managing the energy demands of our ubiquitous smart and connected technology or transitioning our transportation toward electricity — the question we face is how to improve the technology of storing and disbursing energy. After decades of research and development, the answer to that question may be offered by nanomaterials.”

“The better we become at harvesting and storing energy, the more we’ll be able to use renewable energy sources that are intermittent in nature,” Gogotsi says. “Batteries are like the farmer’s silo — if it’s not large enough and constructed in a way that will preserve the crops, then it might be difficult to get through a long winter. In the energy industry right now, you might say we’re still trying to build the right silo for our harvest — and that’s where nanomaterials can help.”

Nanomaterials — More Surfaces For Electrons
According to Drexel University, the main thrust of battery research is finding better energy materials and combining them to store more electrons. Using a process called nanostructuring, researchers introduce particles, tubes, flakes, and stacks of nanoscale materials into the components of batteries, capacitors, and supercapacitors. Their shape and atomic structure can speed the flow of electrons — the heartbeat of electrical energy. Their enhanced surface area provides more resting places for the charged particles.

The effectiveness of nanomaterials allows scientists to rethink the basic design of batteries. Nanomaterials can permit future batteries that are lighter in weight and and smaller in size by eliminating metal foil current collectors that are necessary in conventional batteries.

“It is a very exciting time to work in the area of nanoscale energy storage materials,” says Ekaterina Pomerantseva, an associate professor in the Drexel College of Engineering and co-author of the study.