In a paper published in Chemical Science, an open access journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry, researchers in the lab of Ellen Matson, assistant professor of chemistry, describe modifying a metal-oxide cluster, which has promising electroactive properties, so that it is nearly twice as effective as the unmodified cluster for electrochemical energy storage in a redox flow battery.

The cluster was first developed in the lab of German chemist Johann Spandl, and studied for its magnetic properties. Tests conducted by VanGelder showed that the compound could store charge in a redox flow battery, “but was not as stable as we had hoped.”

The key to a redox flow battery is finding chemicals that can not only “carry” sufficient charge, but also be stored without degrading for long periods, thereby maximizing power generation and minimizing the costs of replenishing the system.

By making what Matson describes as “a simple molecular modification”— replacing the compound’s methanol-derived methoxide groups with ethanol-based ethoxide ligands—the team was able to expand the potential window during which the cluster was stable, doubling the amount of electrical energy that could be stored in the battery.

 “The straightforward, efficient synthesis of this system is a totally new direction in charge-carrier development that, we believe, will set a new standard in the field,” said Matson.

The electrochemical testing required for this study involved equipment and techniques not previously used in the Matson lab. Hence the collaboration with Timothy Cook, assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Buffalo, and Anjula Kosswattaarachchi, a fourth-year graduate student in the Cook lab. VanGelder visited the Cook lab for training on testing equipment, and in turn helped Kosswattaarachchi with synthesizing compounds.

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Texas Waves are designed to provide ancillary services to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas market and can respond to shifts in power demand more quickly, improving system reliability and efficiency.

“We’re excited to be able to provide fast-responding, dispatchable generation to help meet the energy demands of one of the fastest growing populations and economies in the country,” said Mark Frigo, VP and Head of Energy Storage, North America at E.ON. “In addition, Texas Waves helps to solidify our position as a leader in the North American energy storage market.”

These projects are the second and third grid connected lithium-ion battery systems installed by E.ON in North America. E.ON’s first grid connected lithium battery system project, Iron Horse, contains a 10 MW energy storage facility with an adjacent 2.4 MW solar array southeast of Tucson, Arizona, and came online in 2017.

E.ON has developed, built, and operates more than 3,600 MW of solar and wind renewable energy generation across the U.S., with more on the way. 

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Sunverge Energy has deployed dozens of energy storage units at geographically dispersed locations across the service territory of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) while managing them as a single virtual node on the grid.]

The net aggregated power flow at the virtual node level is controlled through coordinated operations at the individual unit level based on the predicted load, PV generation and available storage capacity. The project aims to demonstrate how centrally managed distributed resources on the Japanese electricity grid can help ensure greater reliability, an issue that received widespread attention following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011.

The project, operated in cooperation with Mitsui & Co Ltd, connects multiple storage units into a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) managed by Sunverge’s energy management platform. This in turn provides the grid operator with an energy control system that can be adjusted within 15 minutes, or less, of major changes in demand. It will demonstrate several important abilities of the system:

Site Demand Target – The ability to maintain a target wattage reading at the individual meter level, dispatching power if the net load is greater than the target (i.e. load minus PV generation) or importing power if the net load is below the target.

Demand Charge Reduction – The Sunverge Demand Charge Reduction algorithm will set a Site Demand Target for the unit based on the forecasted load for the site, the forecasted PV for the site and the current battery stored energy. The resulting Site Demand Target value protects the unit from energy depletion due to dispatch and from reaching maximum stored energy capacity using power imported from the grid.

Virtual Power Plant (VPP) Demand Charge Reduction – Similar to the single unit Demand Charge Reduction use case, with the addition of certain operations performed in aggregate over multiple units rather than for an individual unit.

Sunverge’s energy management platform provides the energy control system required for the operation of the VPP. The VPP will function as an adjustment and supply source of the energy, addressing the demand for increased grid reliability.

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Annette Verschuren, Chair and CEO at NRStor Inc., said, “This facility is a major milestone in the development and expansion of the Canadian energy storage market. The facility allows NRStor C&I to accelerate its deployment of BTM commercial, industrial, and institutional energy storage solutions. Incorporating long term flexible and sustainable solutions is our mission and we are delighted to be working with SUSI Partners in growing this sector.”

The SUSI Energy Storage Infrastructure Fund finances storage projects in the areas of spectrum regulation, load management and off-grid solutions with a focus on the OECD area.

Asif Rafique, Managing Director of Energy Storage at SUSI Partners, states: “Our agreement with NRStor C&I represents another important step for the SESF and the wider energy storage market. We are delighted to complete this deal with NRStor’s market-leading team and are looking forward to realizing further investments in the near term.”

Otto von Troschke, CIO and co-founder of SUSI Partners, pointed out his company “has a solid track record of energy efficiency projects with commercial and industrial customers and is now pleased to tap into this customer segment in the energy storage sector as well. “

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The new batteries are more efficient and powerful than lithium ion, as well as being safer and more environmentally friendly to manufacture. They are based on the ultra-capacitor principle and feature vertically aligned carbon nanotube electrodes. These have a unique coating which enables the batteries to provide five times the power density than existing ultra-capacitors.

The batteries can be charged and discharged in seconds and can do so over a million cycles without any loss in performance, far in advance of conventional lithium-ion batteries which take minutes, sometimes hours, to fully charge and typically have 5,000 cycle limits.

NAWA Technologies, based in the South of France, has also pioneered a specialised nano-manufacturing process and has begun low volume pilot manufacturing of the batteries. The company believes that key markets for the batteries will include automotive, industrial, defence, aerospace, power tool and personal mobility. They could also play a key role in managing energy across the smart electricity grid.

The company’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Pascal Boulanger spent 20 years at the CEA (French Atomic and Alternative Energies Organisation), working across a variety of fields including nuclear energy, solar photovoltaics and smart grids. In 2008, he joined one of the first R&D teams in Europe working on new nanocarbon structures: carbon nanotubes and graphene.

Within two years the team of researchers had shown that nanomaterials could be produced on a large scale and at a competitive cost. And in 2013 NAWA Technologies was born, spun off from the CEA, creating 25 jobs in Rousset, in the south of France.

Co-founder of NAWA Technologies is Sales and Marketing VP Ludovic Eveillard, who has held various senior positions in R&D with companies such as Honeywell. Technical Director is Harald Hauf, who has 23 years’ experience in the semiconductor and solar photovoltaic industries, while General Secretary is Veronique Goudet who brings with her huge experience in management, having worked in finance for Deloitte among other companies, and is a trained lawyer.

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GRIDSTOR is an independent set of recommendations combining all key standards and guidelines with credible industry experience and insights, to help guarantee the safe implementation and operation of energy storage systems for all stakeholders such as end users, manufacturers, investors or insurance companies. The updated version, compiled by an international consortium of experts from 15 global organisations, incorporates the latest storage technologies and market developments and provides the most up to date recommendations on safety, operation and performance for grid-connected energy storage systems.

The Recommended Practice requires regular updates as the energy sector undergoes rapid developments and innovations. Currently over 200 other guidance documents are available that can be applied to grid-scale energy storage systems or components. As the grid-scale energy storage market is rapidly growing, it relies on independent risk mitigation, to ensure growth happens with the required quality and safety standards, further enabling the energy transition.

Energy storage is a key measure to provide flexibility, as increasing renewable generation is needed to allow electricity systems to continue to operate stably and economically. DNV GL’s recently published Energy Transition Outlook report forecasts that renewable sources will account for 85 percent of the world’s electricity production. Additional ‘flexibility’ functions such as storage technology are needed to allow electricity systems to continue to operate stably and economically.

“Energy storage is playing an increasingly important role in providing a reliable and secure power supply” said Ditlev Engel, CEO at DNV GL – Energy. “Whether this is with regards to the integration of renewables into the energy mix, ancillary services, bulk energy services or any other form of the wide variety of applications. GRIDSTOR provides the most relevant Recommended Practice allowing all stakeholders to safely develop the vital technological and system advancements using energy storage”.

David Lentsch, Senior Manager Energy Storage at Maxwell Technologies, added that the new and updated global standard on advanced utility and microgrid energy storage explains how storage performs as a Swiss army knife delivering multiple streams of value to utilities, ratepayers and their regulators.

The international consortium that has updated GRIDSTOR includes experts from: Alaska Centre for Energy and Power, Alfen, Alevo, ATEPS, Conergy, Datawatt, DNV GL, Enexis, Gaelectric, Highview Power, Hybrid Europe, Maxwell, PNNL (in support of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity energy storage safety strategy), RWTH and Wärtsilä.

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Commercial-scale intelligent energy storage company Stem is developing an aggregated fleet of customer-sited energy storage in Texas.  The company is to partner with Austin Energy which will offer its commercial customer’s energy storage options to help Stem reduce energy costs while simultaneously providing a reliable energy storage resource for the Austin Energy grid.  The project is one phase of a larger Austin Energy grant from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar Photovoltaics (SHINES) programme. The programme’s goal is to reduce the cost of electricity from combined solar and storage projects to below $0.14/kWh.

It is the eighth utility contract for Stem, giving the company an opportunity to prove how its innovative aggregated platform can integrate solar and energy storage to increase grid performance and reliability and enable higher penetrations of solar PV.  Austin Energy is using the Stem partnership to test new customer offerings that result in sustainable aggregation models.

REM talked to Stem CEO John Carrington to find out more.

Can you tell me more about the two companies involved in this partnership?

Stem is headquartered in Millbrae, California and was founded in 2009, with projects in operation since 2012, and backed by the industry’s largest project finance pool at $350 million.  Our mission is to build and operate the largest digitally-connected energy storage network for our customers. Our world-class analytics optimise the value of customer’s energy assets and facilitate their participation in energy markets, yielding economic and societal benefits while decarbonising the grid.  Stem is funded by a consortium of leading investors including Angeleno Group, Iberdrola (Inversiones Financieras Perseo), GE Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures, Total Energy Ventures, Mitsui & Co. LTD., RWE Supply & Trading, and Mithril Capital Management.

Austin Energy serves more than 450,000 customer accounts and more than 1 million residents in Greater Austin. The utility’s mission — to safely deliver clean, affordable and reliable energy along with excellent customer service — has guided Austin Energy in powering the community and supporting the region’s growth since 1895.

Austin Energy has established a goal of 55 percent renewable resources by 2025.  To do this cost effectively for its ratepayers, Austin Energy is adding energy storage to increase grid resiliency and manage the variability/impact on their distribution grid associated with high penetration of renewables. Stem will help Austin Energy integrate Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) into their distribution grid and solve grid problems (e.g., ramping, targeted load reduction) with behind-the-meter resources. The deployment provides Austin Energy with a fast-responding and dispatchable resource in a portion of their grid with high PV penetration.  The aggregated resource may also help Austin Energy integrate with and reduce costs associated with ERCOT participation.   The SHINES project is the first step toward achieving Austin’s renewable and energy storage targets, with broader deployment to follow. 

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RES was awarded the project through a competitive RFP process and will be providing a full turnkey energy storage system powered by RES’ proprietary Energy Management System (EMS).  RES’ agreement provides engineering, procurement, and construction services, along with asset management and performance guarantees. Construction will begin this summer with an expected commercial operation date in the first quarter of 2018.

“RES is excited to be providing a tailored RESolve ESS solution to meet our IPP partner’s specific needs” said RES’ Director of Energy Storage, Matthew Krivos. “This marks RES’ second large-scale energy storage project contracted in the California energy storage market this year and third globally totalling 90MW/190MWh. The RESolve ESS provides safe, reliable, robust, and economic solutions for both IPP and utility customers.”

Currently, RES’ contracted energy storage portfolio exceeds 240MW and 275MWh. The company has been providing development, engineering, construction, and operations services to the utility-scale wind, solar, transmission, and energy storage markets across the Americas since 1977. It employs more than 500 full-time professionals and has over 9,000 MW of utility-scale renewable energy and energy storage projects. It has also constructed more than 1,000 miles of transmission lines throughout the US and Canada.

Globally, RES has developed and/or built over 12 GW of renewable energy capacity, has an asset management portfolio exceeding 2 GW, and is active in a range of renewable technologies including wind, solar, energy storage, and transmission.

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Eos is the first company to accept orders below $100 per usable kWh for a complete DC battery system including battery modules, battery management system, and outdoor-rated enclosure. The company’s price-cap guarantee ensures that future purchases will receive the lower contracted price or any future price for an equivalent volume purchased the same year. It is also offering up to 20-year performance guarantees at additional cost to optimise capacity under a wide range of applications and use cases.

“These price points correspond to a levelised cost of energy of approximately $50-60 per MWh for storage, roughly 30 percent lower than the lowest projected cost for any competing storage system” said Jim Hughes, Eos Chairman of the Board. “With these economics, Eos will become the default solution for new peaking capacity and will enable a dispatchable renewable energy product that outcompetes conventional power generation.”

The Eos Aurora is a best-fit utility-grade solution for multi-hour, high-throughput applications such as locational capacity, peak shaving, and renewable integration. integrates the company’s proprietary zinc hybrid cathode Znyth battery into an outdoor-rated, plug-and-play Energy Stack that enables rapid installation and reduces cost throughout the project lifecycle. According to Eos CEO Michael Oster, the company’s approach is aimed at providing a significant and sustainable cost advantage over lithium ion while delivering a battery that is inherently safer, longer life, lower maintenance, and more tolerant of extreme operating conditions.

The Eos Aurora has no moving parts and employs widely available materials and highly commoditised manufacturing equipment and processes. Eos recently announced a manufacturing and assembly partnership with NY-based Environment One Corporation (E/One). The two companies will be moving production to a dedicated facility in upstate New York, creating 80 high-tech jobs as the companies reach a production rate of 400 MWh per year in 2017. 

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Australian firm 1414 Degrees, formerly Latent Heat Storage, has developed a molten silicon thermal energy storage system it says can store 500 KWhs of energy in a 70-centimeter cube.  

If true, this is approximately 36 times the capacity of Tesla’s 14KWh Powerwall 2 lithium ion home storage battery utilizing the same space.

A prototype of the system had its first successful run on September 30, 2016.

By way of cost comparison, 1414 can build a 10MWh storage device for about $700,000. The 714 Tesla Powerwall 2s needed to store the same amount of energy would cost approximately 10X that amount, 1414 Degrees said in a news release.

Kevin Moriarty, a former chairman and managing director of zinc and gold miner Terramin Australia, joined the company late last year to help get commercial operations off the ground.

He says 1414 Degrees needs $10 million to $20 million to forward its plans, and is involved in “investment discussions” with several large energy companies.

The technology involved is unique in that it stores electrical energy by using it to heat a block of pure silicon to melting point – 1414 degrees Celsius. It discharges through a heat-exchange device such as a Stirling engine or a turbine, which converts heat back to electrical energy.

If the device stands up to commercial testing it could substantially reduce the costs of storing energy from solar and wind farms.

Rather than just sell its storage devices, 1414 Degrees wants to enter into joint ventures with customers – or partners – and share in the benefits.

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