Swell Energy, an installer and manager of residential renewable energy, energy efficiency and storage technologies, is raising $450 million to finance the construction of four virtual power plants representing a massive amount of energy storage capacity paired with solar power generation.

It’s a sign of the distributed nature of renewable energy development and a transition from large-scale power generation projects feeding into utility grids at their edge to smaller, point solutions distributed at the actual points of consumption.

The project will pair 200 megawatt hours of distributed energy storage with 100 megawatts of solar photovoltaic capacity, the company said.

Los Angeles-based Swell was commissioned by utilities across three states to establish the dispatchable energy storage capacity, which will be made available through the construction and aggregation of approximately 14,000 solar energy generation and storage systems. The goal is to make local grids more efficient.

To finance these projects — and others the company expects to land — Swell has cut a deal with Ares Management Corp. and Aligned Climate Capital to create a virtual power plant financing vehicle with a target of $450 million.

That financing entity will support the development of power projects like the combined solar and battery agreement nationwide.

Over the next 20 years, Swell is targeting the development of over 3,000 gigawatt hours of clean solar energy production, with customers storing 1,000 gigawatt hours for later use, and dispatching 200 gigawatt hours of this stored energy back to the utility grid.

It has the potential to create a more resilient grid less susceptible to the kinds of power outages and rolling blackouts that have plagued states like California.

The transition towards low carbon, renewable energy generation is building momentum globally. While renewables are expected to contribute significantly towards meeting climate change objectives, the transformation in the way we generate electricity poses challenges to existing energy transmission networks. In this week’s instalment Will Argent, Fund Adviser to the VT Gravis Clean Energy Income Fund discusses. 

Renewable energy generation is intermittent: wind speeds are temperamental and therefore wind generation oscillates, irradiation levels are not always sufficient to deliver solar power generation (and solar generation is ‘offline’ at night), and rainfall patterns (among other factors) impact hydroelectric power generation. 

By contrast, conventional forms of power generation, such from burning fossil fuels or nuclear power plants, generally provide a far more reliable and continuous supply to meet ‘baseload’ power requirements –the minimum amount of power required at any given time. The relative unpredictability of renewable energy generation, combined with its increasingly dominant position in the energy mix, means natural gas and nuclear power stations are needed to help balance the supply and demand requirements of the grid. However, investment in energy storage solutions will provide scope for the full potential of renewables to be harnessed, by capturing output during times of high generation and smoothing the delivery of power to the grid. 

Pumped-Storage Hydroelectricity. The oldest form of large-scale energy storage, the use of pumped-storage hydropower can be traced back to c.1900 in Italy and Switzerland. Two reservoirs at different altitudes are required. When water is released from the upper reservoir it is channelled through a turbine and generator to create electricity. The water is then pumped back from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir and represents a store of gravitational potential energy until it is released again. Pumped-storage hydropower can provide a dynamic response to balancing grid requirements, offering critical backup during periods of excess demand. 

Could a more reliable, resilient power system result from a project funded by the US Navy Office of Naval Research? Researchers at Stony Brook University, together with the University of Massachusetts Lowell, hope to make that a reality. Another goal is to improve energy generation efficiency, system operation, and storage in microgrids, including those located in shore-based environments.

The two schools will each take on nine distinct research projects to improve grid control, security and infrastructure monitoring, energy storage, materials and grid management, and zero-carbon fuels. The projects will complement each other, and the schools will split the $7.36 million grant. 

The universities expect to develop new training methods to align with those of National Grid and the Long Island Power Authority. The project will run through fall 2022.

“Efficient energy is vital to the security and economic stability of our region and nation,” said Maurie McInnis, president, Stony Brook University.

“This important work will address needs in energy generation, storage and system operation that ensure a secure and efficient future for the nation’s energy systems,” said Jacquie Moloney, chancellor, UMass Lowell.

Others working with the project note that: 

• The timing comes as the energy industry is experiencing more significant technological change than at any time in the last century. 
• Enhancing energy resiliency on the microgrid level is another critical step to advancing energy security and efficiency. 
• The work is a vital part of innovative research in energy resiliency.
• The project brings together energy experts from both universities with industry partners who collaborate to advance energy systems’ next generation. 
• The participants will benefit from the results as the industry continues to develop.

Cummins, a leader in engine design and manufacturing, serves its customers through a network of more than 500 distribution locations, some wholly owned, some independent. The company, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, has 8,000 dealers in more than 190 countries.

“So we are a truly global partner,” said de Verdier. 

As for what the company was focused on at Microgrid 2020 Global, de Verdier said Cummins was excited to be an event sponsor and to have an opportunity to discuss the global future of sustainability and renewable power solutions. 

The company also launched its new Power Command microgrid controllers at the event. 

“Designed and tested  to accommodate distributed generation architectures and with the ability to control renewable energy resources and energy storage, these new products are central in creating a completely integrated microgrid power system,” she said. 

Looking at current trends and opportunities in the energy market, the executive director explained that worldwide need exists for clean energy that is reliable and cost effective. 

Green incentives, even mandates, are increasingly used to foster the energy transition, and “renewables are taking a greater share in energy investment resources as we move towards decarbonization,” de Verdier said. 

She pointed out that while renewables help decrease our carbon footprint, they also cause greater volatility across power grids. 

“This leads to increased demand for grid balancing services and opportunities for customers to participate in new ways in energy markets,” de Verdier said. 

A good example? Microgrids. 

Microgrids also play an important role in off-grid applications — reducing carbon and other emissions as well as improving energy economics.

Cummins is trying to address these trends by integrating new energy technologies into solutions and business models. 

Back in 2016, I was serving as founder and executive director of the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA). CESA is membership-based trade association and advocacy group that has helped build California into one of the world’s most robust energy storage markets. At that time, CESA did not know exactly where California was headed with clean energy, but we did know other jurisdictions, such as Hawaii, were committing to 100% renewable portfolios.

The CESA team was curious – if California created a similar clean energy goal, how would that drive California’s energy storage needs? To answer this question, we performed a simple exercise. The CESA team took one year’s worth of daily loads from CAISO OASIS data and ran a model that increased the wind and solar on the system until total production matched total energy consumption. Then we plotted the results for every day of the year, as shown in Figure 1.

The resulting graphic clearly demonstrated that in a very high, 100% renewable scenario, multi-day and seasonal energy storage solutions would be required to balance the grid. At that time, the largest form of energy storage within CESA’s membership was pumped hydro, and even that could not offer nearly enough capacity for seasonal energy storage needs.

Driven by curiosity and resolve, I started a search for a technologically and economically feasible seasonal energy storage solution for California and beyond. I spoke to experts far and wide and evaluated solutions from major energy companies to startups. From my explorations, it became clear: of the commercially available solutions, green hydrogen was the only low-carbon, potentially economically viable option to support seasonal, dispatchable, scalable energy storage for the grid.

In my research, I learned that hydrogen was a mature industrial commodity, with approximately 70 million metric tons sold each year around the world – and that virtually all of this hydrogen produced is sourced from fossil fuels. I also learned analysts were predicting that with the increasingly low cost of wind and solar, green hydrogen via electrolysis would become cost competitive with grey hydrogen (hydrogen made from fossil fuels) in coming years.

Even more exciting, my research uncovered the amazing flexibility of hydrogen molecules. For example, hydrogen gas can power the grid via multiple pathways, either through conversion in a fuel cell or by direct combustion in a gas turbine. Indeed, many gas turbines were already able to combust a blend of natural gas and hydrogen, and several leading manufacturers, such as Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems and Siemens, were developing new gas turbines that could consume 100% hydrogen gas.