In a deal spanning 20 projects, seven states, two power markets and more solar than the entire state of Florida has installed to date, ACCIONA has agreed to a deal with Tenaska to acquire 3 GW of utility-scale solar and 1 GW of co-located solar and energy storage.

This represents one of the largest deals known to pv magazine. What’s more is that the projects aren’t all that far from going on-line, CEO of ACCIONA’s Energy Division in North America, Rafael Esteban boldly shared: “We will bring a significant portion of the portfolio into service between 2021 and 2023.”

Specially, ACCIONA envisions commissioning eight projects by the end of 2023, adding around 1.5 GW of peak capacity to its North American renewable energy portfolio.

And, if we want to play the exponential capacity game, it seems as if this deal will set the record. Prior to this acquisition, ACCIONA’s entire American solar portfolio was comprised of just the 64 MW Nevada Solar One concentrated solar plant, just outside of Las Vegas. On the global scale, however, the company owns over 10 GW of renewable generation assets.

And while 3 GW of solar is massive, 1 GW of battery storage is, quite literally, unlike anything we have ever seen in the United States. To date, the country has only 899 MW of operating batter storage. And while that figure is anticipated to reach 1 GW by year’s end, even then this is 1/67th of the total installed solar capacity and an even smaller percent of installed renewable energy capacity.

In July, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released a report predicting that the volume of battery storage will more than double to 2,500 MW by 2023. Considering both the above goal of having the majority of this project pipeline in operation by 2023 and the size of the pipeline, this deal alone could help the United States achieve or, moreover, surpass that figure.

Now that wind energy has gone mainstream, the big challenge is how to squeeze the most kilowatts out of a wind turbine. The task is more complicated than simply increasing the size and efficiency of the turbine. People—and businesses—need electricity when they need it, but the wind blows when it will. The result can be an undersupply of wind energy during peak demand periods and an oversupply at other times, especially at night.

Until recent years, batteries and other energy storage systems were too expensive to help bridge the mismatch between supply and demand. However, more economical technology is coming online, and it’s having a powerful impact on both the wind and solar energy markets.

Meeting the wind energy challenge
Idaho-based KORE Power is one company tapping into the potential for scaling up the global wind industry through energy storage.

Lindsay Gorrill, CEO and director of KORE Power, explains that energy storage can help spur investor interest in wind farms, because it can significantly reduce the amount of time that wind turbines are idled or operating at a lower capacity due to oversupply.

“When you drive by a wind turbine and you see only one (or none) running, it means they are not utilizing the wind. Storage enables you to utilize that large capital you’ve spent,” Gorrill explains.

To be clear, energy storage is just one cog in the many gears of grid management, so there are other considerations in play. Nevertheless, the basic idea is that investment in a wind farm is more attractive when the capital is sunk into equipment that creates energy more of the time.

Estimates vary by a wide amount, but energy storage has the potential to enable wind farms to operate consistently at close to 100 percent capacity. Without energy storage, some wind farms barely operate in the double digits.

Bigger and better wind turbines
The benefits are coming into sharper focus not only because energy storage costs are falling, but also because wind turbine technology is improving.

The U.S. is already dotted with wind farms that are operating with older, less efficient turbines. Existing wind farm owners are seizing the opportunity to re-power their wind turbines with new technology. That provides an opportunity to scale up the energy storage component as well.

Gorrill also notes that energy storage technology, like wind technology, is evolving rapidly. Until recently, for example, lithium-ion battery technology has focused primarily on the electric vehicle market. That means finding a delicate balance between cost, efficiency, size and weight. In contrast, the stationary energy storage field can focus primarily on cost and efficiency.

KORE Power’s Mark 1 utility-scale battery illustrates the difference in approaches between mobile and stationary energy storage, and the company is already keeping an eye out for future iterations of the technology.

The energy storage market received a boost Oct. 17 when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the first two compliance filings implementing Order 841, a rule the commission said is designed to eliminate market barriers to electricity storage.

Order 841 was enacted in February 2018. The measure directs regional power grid operators to establish rules opening capacity, energy, and ancillary services markets to energy storage, and affirms that storage resources must be compensated for provided services. (Read “5 Key Takeaways from FERC’s Recent Energy Storage Order” in the June 2018 issue of POWER.)

“Electricity storage must be able to participate on an even playing field in the wholesale power markets that we regulate,” said Neil Chatterjee, FERC chairman, on Thursday. “Breaking down these market barriers encourages the innovation and technological advancements that are essential to the future of our grid.”

Regional grid operators submitted the first compliance plans in December 2018. FERC’s orders Thursday concern the compliance filings of Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a regional transmission organization (RTO) that serves all or parts of 14 states, and PJM Interconnection, the RTO serving all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia. FERC found the two market operators mostly complied with Order 841, and said it largely accepted their filings, though the agency did provide additional directives for further action.

FERC on Thursday said it found that proposals from both PJM and SPP would for the most part enable electric storage resources to provide all services within their capability, and would allow those storage resources to be compensated for services in the same way as other resources. The commission also said the RTO’s filings recognize the unique physical and operational characteristics of electric storage resources. FERC directed both SPP and PJM to submit further compliance filings to address other issues within 60 days.

Joe Hall, a partner with global law firm Eversheds Sutherland, told POWER in an email Thursday: “The potential for cost-effective energy storage development and integration presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. In my mind, there are four basic storage models, each implicating different federal and state regulatory issues. While it certainly includes battery technologies, the first model is in the tradition of large-scale pumped storage projects meant to satisfy significant native load obligations. The second model is smaller scale storage (often paired with renewable generation). These projects certainly can be used to satisfy native load obligations, but often are discussed in the context of merchant dispatch into organized ancillary services markets. The third model is storage as an alternative to a transmission upgrade. The fourth model is storage as an alternative to a distribution upgrade.

The government is seeking views on amendments to the treatment of energy storage within the planning system.

In the last consultation, it had been proposed that the 50 MW Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) capacity threshold should be retained for standalone storage facilities. However, following disagreement from respondents to the consultation, the government has changed its stance. This week’s consultation proposes that electricity storage, with the exception of pumped hydro, be carved out of the NSIP regime in England and Wales.

In order to support the continuing decarbonisation of electricity generation, as well as decarbonisation of other sectors like transport and heat, energy storage will become more and more crucial, so removing obstacles in this way is a positive and pragmatic move by the government. The additional cost and uncertainty under the current regime for battery storage schemes that might be construed as falling within the DCO regime has certainly hindered progress in this important sector of the energy market.

We consume more and more electricity every day. The utilities and grid distribution operators must ensure industry and households are provided with the necessary connections. In order to do that, the grid must be expanded, and must be maintained periodically. This means that more often the power on the grid will be cut off while the necessary works are undertaken.

How is this currently done?
Today, when the grid is being maintained, the power is cut off at the transformer where the maintenance is done.

Nowadays, it is not possible to do any business or run a household without having power available; that is why also during this time of maintainance, a solution has to be found.

It’s all about efficiency
Traditionally, the energy demand for these periods has been supplied by diesel- fuelled generators. To absorb the peak demands of the grid and to prevent power loss, an oversized setup of generators is used to guarantee a consistent flow of energy.

Research from multiple festivals, where a lot of diesel generators are used, show that the average load was 12%, while the generators are the most efficient between 60% and 80% of their maximum engine power output. See Figure 1 for the energy data of a four-day festival and the average power output of the diesel generator.

The inefficient use of generators means that a great deal of diesel is being burned unnecessarily. These emissions contribute to climate change and poor air quality in cities.

Moreover, we see that more and more buildings have solar panels on their rooftops. A diesel generator cannot cope with current coming back on its output side. This means that when the load on the grid is smaller than what the solar panels in this area are producing, this energy has to be (quite literally) burnt away in big heaters. Which naturally is, again, a waste of energy and is not helping in our efforts to tackle climate change.

Also, these diesel generators produce quite some noise. This can be quite irritating to inhabitants when this solution is applied next to their bedroom.

LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – It accounts for around 75% of all rechargeable energy storage around the world.

It is in just about every car and truck, regardless of whether the vehicle has an internal-combustion engine, uses hybrid technology or is pure electric.

Its proven reliability makes it the metal of choice for energy back-up services in hospitals, telephone exchanges, emergency services and public buildings.

It is one of the most recycled materials in the modern world, more so than glass or paper, with the United States and Europe boasting near 100% recycling rates.

Yet it is largely absent from any discussion of battery materials in the coming electric vehicle and energy storage revolutions.

Welcome to lead.

THE LEAD-ACID BATTERY

The lead-acid battery was invented in 1859 by a French physicist, Gaston Plante. While plenty of other scientists were experimenting with electrical storage in the middle of the 19th century, Plante’s breakthrough was to create a battery that could be recharged.

The lead-acid battery was quickly adopted by the newly emerging automotive sector, which at the time was experimenting with both internal-combustion and electric propulsion systems.

Although the industry plumped for internal combustion, lead-acid batteries became the power source of choice for starting, lighting and ignition (SLI) functions.

And they still are.

Even most pure electric vehicles use lead-acid batteries for SLI purposes as well as newer functions such as electronic door-locking and in-car entertainment.

Technical innovation of the lead-acid battery has been incremental rather than revolutionary over the last century, but that’s started to change with a new generation of more powerful batteries produced to meet the tougher demands of stop-start engine technology.

Singapore scientists from NanoBio Lab (NBL) of A*STAR have developed a novel approach to prepare next-generation lithium-sulfur cathodes, which simplifies the typically time-consuming and complicated process for producing them. This represents a promising step towards the commercialization of lithium-sulfur batteries, and addresses industry’s need for a practical approach towards scaling up the production of new materials that improve battery performance.

While the lithium-ion battery is widely recognized as an advanced technology that can efficiently power modern communication devices, it has drawbacks such as limited storage capacity and safety issues due to its inherent electrochemical instability. This is set to change with a new simplified technique developed by NBL’s team of researchers, in the development of lithium-sulfur cathodes from inexpensive commercially available materials. Sulfur’s high theoretical energy density, low cost and abundance contribute to the popularity of lithium-sulfur battery systems as a potential replacement for lithium-ion batteries.

Theoretically, lithium-sulfur batteries are capable of storing up to 10 times more energy than lithium-ion ones, but to date are unable to sustain this over repeated charging and discharging of the battery. NBL’s lithium-sulfur cathode demonstrated excellent specific capacity of up to 1,220 mAh/g, which means that 1 gram of this material could store a charge of 1,220 mAh. In contrast, a typical lithium-ion cathode has a specific energy capacity of 140 mAh/g. In addition, NBL’s cathode could maintain its high capacity over 200 charging cycles with minimal loss in performance. Key to this was NBL’s unique two-step approach of preparing the cathode.

By first building the carbon host before adding the sulfur source, the researchers obtained a 3-D interconnected porous nanomaterial. This approach prevents NBL’s carbon scaffold from collapsing when the battery is charged, unlike those of conventionally prepared cathodes. The latter collapses during the initial charge and discharge cycle, resulting in a structural change. As such, the conventional cathodes become highly dense and compact with a lower surface area and smaller pores, resulting in lower battery performance than NBL’s carbon scaffold. In fact, NBL’s cathode offered 48% higher specific capacity and 26% less capacity fade than conventionally prepared sulfur cathodes. When more sulfur was added to the material, NBL’s cathode achieved a high practical areal capacity of 4 mAh per cm2.

The UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published proposals that would mean utility-scale energy storage projects are processed via local planning.

Usually energy storage projects above a certain size threshold have to proceed via the National Planning Regime, similar to other power projects at present.

The national planning process has significant costs associated with it and can take 18-24 months, while energy storage projects are typically “relatively unobtrusive and established technologies”, according to the Renewable Energy Association (REA).

The REA has campaigned to raise the threshold above the current 50MW level. The group said details will need to be assessed via the consultation process and appropriate planning conditions applied.

The proposals apply to all energy storage technologies excluding pumped hydro energy storage projects, due to their significant size.

REA policy head Frank Gordon said: “In this consultation the government is recognising the value that energy storage can bring to the electricity system and are making a major step towards a more flexible network in the future.

“At present most energy storage project planning applications are sized at or around 49.9MW in England where the 50MW threshold is in place, but in Wales where the threshold is much higher, they vary in size usually at around 70MW.

“This shows the major impact the planning system threshold is having on projects.”

Solar Trade Association chief executive Chris Hewett said: “We are pleased to see that the government has taken our feedback on board.

“This is a promising step forward for enabling energy storage to be connected more swiftly, and giving local communities a stronger voice in determining which developments are right for them.

“Energy storage is safe, low-impact, and essential for delivering on the UK’s legally binding Net Zero commitments.”