Autarsys GmbH is planning to develop an energy storage system and PV project in Mam Rashan, a refugee camp in the Dohuk district of northern Iraq near the Syrian and Turkish borders.

Autarsys’ energy storage system will be integrated with a 300kW PV project that will secure a more stable supply of power. The system’s energy management software will give camp administrators the ability to prioritise and schedule the delivery of power based on residents’ most critical needs.

While refugee camps are traditionally powered by diesel generators, diesel is more expensive than renewable energy and is dangerous to transport in a volatile region. The first phase of the project will have the capacity to power one portion of the camp at a time during the day.

Autarsys expects that the renewable energy system will be operable by spring 2018. Additional funding in the future may enable expansion of the system. The German company has developed and delivered a number of off-grid microgrid or ‘edge of grid’ projects pairing solar, energy storage and other resources including two in the Philippines, one at a resort, the other for a remote village, one for a remote village in Cameroon and another in Australia with Conergy Australia combining 13MWp of PV with 1.4MW / 5.3MWh of energy storage which is currently underway in Lakeland, Queensland.

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For the most part, it will take some years for solar-plus-storage in the ASEAN region to become economically viable on a large scale, but panellists at the opening day of Solar and Off-Grid Renewables Southeast Asia event in Bangkok, have warned that investors who come on board quickest are going to gain a huge advantage.

The ‘ASEAN Storage Market Potential’ session saw panellists disagree strongly over whether solar-plus-storage had already become an economically viable solution, with some claiming it had already reached grid parity with conventional power generation.

Leandro Leviste, CEO, Solar Philippines, said there was a need for more “daring” developers to enter Southeast Asia and take risks to allow for solar and storage to take on coal-fired power through the unregulated market. This echoed comments back in October about how Leviste’s company had commissioned a large-scale solar project in the Philippines without receiving approval from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), achieving a sub-6 US cents per unit tariff by taking merchant risk.

However, not all developers are able to take these risks from either a PV or solar-plus-storage perspective.

Edward Douglas, partner at Southeast Asia renewables-focused firm, Armstrong Asset management, said that putting together a commercial solution for PV and storage had been a challenge. He also noted that there is a lack of system integrators in the region and the storage technology providers were not interested in the smaller markets so far.

He added: “You’ve got this situation where, commercially, from a financing standpoint, the battery guys won’t want the work of the system integrator and vice versa.”

However, he also said the potential for solar-plus-storage is enormous, adding: “Investors aren’t waking up to it really yet; they are beginning to, but the execution of that idea or potential into real projects isn’t happening quickly enough and I think investors who manage to put their pieces in place quickest are going to gain a very significant advantage, because the cost curves like solar are moving much more quickly than most people anticipate.”

Patrick Jaeger, vice president of Conergy Group, a frontrunner in storage deployment, said there was still a lack of understanding of how storage and solar really work when connected to the grid. This was in spite of the large amount of theorising and risk modelling that has been undertaken already. Jaeger also said regulation is far behind the energy storage concepts and this “throws wrenches” into people’s economic models.

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Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe signed 11 bills earlier this week that promote solar and other renewable energy resources such as pumped hydro.

The bills include proposals for establishing a community solar pilot project, include energy storage in the mission of the state solar development authority and increase the size of clean energy projects eligible for permit from 100MW to 125MW.

The legislation indicated that the legislature is making a concerted effort to promote renewables and energy efficiency in the state; a move which was propounded by local utility Dominion Virginia Power – which recently has called for the integration of 5.2GW of new solar capacity over 25 years.

In this spirit, the state has increased clean energy investment from US$500 million to US$2 billion since 2014, with officials underscoring the associated job creation as an incentive for approving these bills. 

Key bills

Virginia is relatively demure when it comes to renewable energy, actually falling in rankings this year for installed capacity – going from 17th in 2016 to 20th this year – with 238.3MW of installed solar, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

But things are starting to get moving, thanks to this legislative effort by the state.

“It is clear that Virginia is moving in the right direction, especially with the recent announcement of record growth in our solar industry, but there is still work to do,” governor McAuliffe said Monday.

“[The] bill signing highlights the commitment we have to reducing energy consumption and providing more sustainable energy options in the Commonwealth,” added secretary of Commerce and Trade, Todd Haymore.

One key measure, SB 1393, authorises community solar pilot programmes to be run by the Appalachian Power Company, Dominion, and the Electric Cooperatives. Each utility will develop its own territory-specific programme that allows citizens and businesses the ability to subscribe to receive electricity generated by a small centrally-located solar generation system.

HB 1565 develops green zones giving special taxing and zoning exemptions for energy efficient buildings, and HB 1760/SB 1418 secures a rate approval for pumped hydro storage projects in the south-western area of the state. 

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Arguing that energy storage is “critical to ensuring a resilient, reliable, cost-effective and sustainable grid”, the Energy Storage Association joined with 52 other organisations to plead the place of storage in the Trump’s administration’s infrastructure priorities.

Penning a letter to Congress, the coalition of energy storage advocates asserted that any dialogue on enhancing and rebuilding infrastructure and modernising the grid must involve energy storage systems. Signing the letter alongside ESA’s leadership were companies and groups including Johnson Controls, Lockheed Martin, 24m Technologies, AES Energy Storage, LG Chem, Enel Green Power North America, Green Charge, Greensmith, National Electrical Contractors Association, Panasonic, Parker Hannifin, Siemens, Stem, Sunverge, UL and several others.

“If you want to talk about grid resiliency, energy storage is part of that conversation. If you want to talk about load modulation, demand response, storage is a part of that conversation,” Matt Roberts, executive director of ESA, told Energy-Storage.News back in February, noting the significant opportunity for storage in the federal government’s expressed priorities.

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NEC Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, announced that it is supplying the Sterling Municipal Light Department (SMLD) of Sterling, Massachusetts, with a 2MW, 3.9 MWh energy storage solution.

Once the project is completed in December 2016, it will be the largest battery-based energy storage system installed in New England and the first utility-scale project in Massachusetts.

The installation will help boost grid resiliency against weather-related power outages, while also generating enhanced clean energy usage and cost savings to the town of Sterling. The project was funded in part due to a US$1.46 million grant from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) — along with additional financial and technical assistance from the US Department of Energy, Office of Electricity (DOE-OE).

Additional technical support was provided by Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) through its Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP) along with Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Project through a grant from the Barr Foundation.

Judith Judson, Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Commissioner, said: “Energy storage technologies, especially when paired with renewable energy, have the potential to be a game changer for Massachusetts, helping to lower the cost of energy to ratepayers while reducing emissions. DOER’s Community Clean Energy Resiliency Initiative, through which this project received funding, is a testament to the Baker-Polito Administration’s commitment to embracing innovative clean energy solutions across the Commonwealth.”

Bud Collins, CEO of NEC Energy Solutions, “This project is the largest of its kind in New England and represents our ongoing commitment to deliver comprehensive, safe, and reliable energy storage solutions whether located across the globe, or like this one, in our own backyard. As a leader in providing energy storage solutions, we stand ready to implement further projects of this type here in the Commonwealth and in proud local support of the DOER energy storage initiatives that could make Massachusetts one of the largest energy storage markets in the world.”

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The term disruptor is thrown around a lot these days in a world rapidly facing digitisation and the fight to stay relevant is becoming ever more competitive in energy storage. While technological breakthroughs are always exciting, to paraphrase an old saying, there’s a lot that can go wrong between filling a cup with liquid and putting it to your lips. In the race to commercialise technologies and business models for a mass market still in its infancy, the real disruptors in energy storage aren’t just in the lab, they are making a real difference in houses, commercial buildings and on and off the grid.

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We all know that the solar industry, particularly in the UK has lost a significant number of jobs in the last nine months. We also know that energy storage is the hottest of hot topics at present, and a sector predicted to see substantial growth. However, as I’ve written before, the number of jobs available in the storage sector doesn’t come close to the number of solar jobs lost. Demand outstrips supply. What is more, many of the jobs lost to solar do not lend themselves to transfer to the storage sector, for an obvious example think roofer.

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The economic benefits of adding energy storage to solar in California at affordable multi-family dwellings could far outweigh the costs, even doubling savings on energy bills, a new report claims.

The report, ‘Closing the California clean energy divide’, has been produced by the Center for Sustainable Energy, the California Housing Partnership Corporation and the Clean Energy Group. Allowing families in affordable rented housing to take some stake in controlling their energy production and demand could have “significant electric bill savings”, the authors said.

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