While Tesla is best known for making electric cars, it also has an interest in solar roofing thanks to Solar City and energy storage devices with Tesla Energy. It is these two brands that will likely be most affected by a new patent application that was published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that describes a new, safer storage battery.

The patent was originally filed January 20, 2017, and specifically mentions, “energy generated from photovoltaics” and is basically an “improved energy storage system” that is designed to release the hot gases that can be generated in the charging and discharging process if cells fail. The gases would be released thanks to two “interconnects” (one on the positive ends, the other on the negative ends) that have weak spots (made from a thin layer of mica, perhaps) that would rupture and vent the gases when necessary.

This is how the patent application describes the process in detail:

The energy storage system includes a module housing having multiple battery cells positioned inside the module housing. Each of the battery cells has a first end and a second end. Further, each of the battery cells has a positive terminal and a negative terminal. A first interconnect is positioned over the multiple battery cells. A second interconnect is positioned over the multiple battery cells. Multiple first cell connectors connect the positive terminal of the battery cells to the first interconnect. Similarly, multiple second cell connectors connect the negative terminal of the battery cells to the second interconnect. A top plate having an interior side and an exterior side is positioned over the first interconnect and the second interconnect. The top plate includes one or more weak areas above the one or more battery cell. The weak areas are regions that have less integrity and thus, where mechanical failure is more likely to occur if a battery cell releases gas. These regions may be physically weaker areas compared to the surrounding areas and may rupture when pressure builds up due to a failed cell. Alternatively, the weak areas may be chemically weaker and preferentially rupture when exposed to the caustic gases released by a failed battery cell. The weak areas may also fail due to a combination of physical and chemical weakening.”

In other words, a patent for better, safer energy storage, brought to you by a car company.

Energy storage is picking up pace as renewables did a decade ago. It is perhaps the crucial missing piece of the puzzle to bring about greater penetration of renewable energy and accelerate the smooth global transition to clean energy.

With developed nations already striving to be big storage players in the industry, new energy storage projects are now seen to be sprouting in emerging markets, primarily driven by the rapidly falling energy storage costs. Indeed, it has been estimated that approximately 80GW of energy storage capacity is expected to come from developing countries from the existing 2GW today.

A common trend amongst the reports on energy storage is that the rate at which storage is being deployed poses a challenge to the traditional grid system within the next five years. In other words, we may be looking at a hybrid between a decentralised power system and the existing central design and dispatch system.

As the demand for electricity goes up and with increasing renewable sources in the energy mix, what is clear now is that utilities must now be alive to the impending integration of energy storage for it is the trending solution to increase the flexibility of the grid to meet with the daily cyclical demands.

A 48MW grid-scale battery project looks to be under development at an unnamed location in the Philippines, local news outlets have reported.

The chief operating officer of Aboitiz Power, described recently by PV Tech as one of the country’s largest power producers, told reporters last week about the forthcoming project. Emmanuel Rubio was speaking at a forum event on electricity policy, hosted by the University of the Philippines’ Energy Policy and Development Program-hosted event (EPDP).

The Manilla Times and other local news outlets reported the COO’s remarks. According to Rubio, the 48MW project would be located at an existing fossil fuel plant on Mindanao, the Philippine’s second largest island.

According to The Times, Rubio said the project would be used to “enhance” Aboitiz’ “ability to provide ancillary services,” while also mentioning that the storage system could provide “contingency reserves” to the grid. However, the COO was reported as saying that the project was at a “preliminary” stage, including carrying out technical studies.

Rubio said the company would have to work closely with the national grid operator, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, but that the project could be completed by the end of 2019. So far the US Department of Energy’s Global Energy Storage Database lists only one large-scale, grid-connected battery storage system in the Philippines, a 10MW project executed by AES at a coal power station and connected in 2016.

Energy-Storage.news also reported in 2017 that developer Solar Philippines was developing a utility-scale solar-plus-storage project, pairing lithium batteries with a 150MW PV plant. Meanwhile, on a smaller scale, a 2MW PV microgrid, with 2MWh of Tesla battery storage and 2MW of diesel backup was completed by Solar Philippines in March this year, with villagers proudly proclaiming that due to the improvement of power reliability there would be ‘NO MORE BROWNOUTS!’

There have also been a handful of commercial or community systems developed in the country, while German residential and small-scale commercial battery storage company Sonnen struck a distribution deal to get into the Philippines and Malaysian markets in late 2017.

The Evolve system allows new or existing residential solar customers to store excess solar power generation. In the event of a power outage, the system will keep the solar system operating, ensuring that power is available to support essential loads.

“The Evolve system allows us to offer a fully-integrated, LG Chem battery-based, AC-coupled solution to our customers. With an attractive price point we expect the Evolve to pick up immediate traction in the Southeast,” said Russell Seifert, CEO of Creative Solar.

“Creative Solar is an established solar firm who was recently awarded the contract to install Solarize Atlanta and Solarize Carrolton customers, a validation of their leadership position in their regional market,” said Justin Holland, CEO of Eguana. “We are excited about our new partnership and look forward to bringing our solutions to additional US and Caribbean markets in the near future.”

Creative Solar is scheduled to become an Eguana certified installer in July, initial product orders have been placed and initial installations will commence immediately. Evolve energy storage systems will continue to be deployed throughout the balance of this year. One in four Creative Solar’s customers are already requesting storage as part of their solar installations due to low solar export rates in Georgia and a desire for solar-driven backup power.

Evolve is a fully integrated residential energy storage system that includes the company’s proprietary power electronics system, LG Chem low-voltage battery modules and a comprehensive user interface. The system is rated at 5-kWac output with a modular battery design based on a 6.5-kWh battery, which is scalable from 13 to 39 kWh in storage capacity. The NEMA 3R wall-mounted package is suitable for indoor and outdoor installations. The package is backed by a 10-year standard warranty.

Currently attracting developers and investment alike, the opportunity to reduce energy costs for businesses in Ontario has led to an agreement for another 42MWh of energy storage from project developer NRStor and solutions provider IHI Inc.

Ontario’s commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage space has been found to offer one of the best policy-driven economic opportunities for reducing peak demand and therefore electricity bills in the Global Adjustment Charge.

The policy is a means by which to pay for the Canadian province’s grid upgrades and maintenance as well as for the development and promotion of clean energy and energy efficiency. Energy-Storage.news has reported on numerous multi-megawatt projects from the region in recent months, including last week, when multinational utility Enel said its second megawatt-scale C&I project in Ontario would save the customer, food packaging company Amhil North America, around 20% on current energy costs at the facility where the installation is being made.

In an announcement made this morning, NRStor, a developer founded in Canada in 2012, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IHI Energy Storage, with the latter set to supply energy storage solutions for eight contracted projects which will add up to 42MWh of energy storage. The projects will be completed during 2019, with no further details of timelines given at this stage.

Each project will be a behind-the-meter, customer-sited lithium-ion battery system. IHI Energy Storage will deliver batteries, inverters, temperature-controlled enclosures and balance of plant components as well as putting the solutions under warranty and performing operations and maintenance (O&M) tasks. They will utilise IHI Energy Storage’s proprietary software, ESWare.

NRStor in early 2017 closed a deal with a union-backed pension fund, Labourers’ Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada (LiUNA), which committed CAN$200 million (US$151 million) of project financing towards NRStor projects. That deal was considered something of a vindication of the appeal of the Ontario energy storage market, as was the market entry of SUSI Partners, a Switzerland-headquartered investment fund aimed at encouraging institutional investors to get on board with energy storage, which reached its first closing at €66 million (US$70.4 million) in April last year. NRStor itself is also active in other areas, striking a deal with advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) firm Hydrostor for a potential roll-out of the latter’s utility-scale systems across Canada.

The market for power conversion systems (PCS) used in energy storage is becoming “increasingly crowded” with competitors, while the diverse field of players will contribute to “rapid technological innovations and price reductions”, Navigant Research has said.

Due to it being home to some of the largest and fastest growing markets for energy storage, the Asia-Pacific region could represent as much as 43.2% of the overall global market cumulatively for energy storage PCS.

According to ‘Innovations in power conversion technology for grid storage’, a new report from Navigant, North America, Western Europe and Latin America will be other big contributors to the overall picture, although authors Alex Eller and Peter Asmus wrote that “all world regions are expected to see significant growth over the 10-year forecast period”. Navigant also added that while North America is likely to see a higher capacity of energy storage installations in the next few years, Western Europe will deploy more distributed systems – at higher price points – than North America, meaning revenues from PCS market will be higher.

The report also identifies some of the key and leading players in the nascent ES PCS market: digital automation specialist ABB, Dynapower, Hyosung, Rhombus Energy Solutions and Solaredge, for a deeper look. It also looks at products and system setups from specific vendors, including Ideal Power, SolarEdge and Tesla.

Navigant also gave predictions for price reduction trajectories for PCS, although figures will only be made available to subscribers to the company’s research service. Nonetheless, it did say that the energy storage industry’s focus on battery price reduction has diminished as the market has matured, resulting in increasing efforts to reduce costs for balance of system (BOS) components and the PCS.

Renewable energy sources producing DC power, such as solar PV, and variable AC (wind), use PCS to convert their energy to regulated AC power which can be grid-integrated, thus, “PCS enable the utilisation of renewables, storage, and microgrids on a large scale”.

“The market for energy storage PCS is growing increasingly crowded as new companies enter the market leveraging a variety of backgrounds and expertise to introduce new products,” the authors wrote.

Market participants come from a range of backgrounds and expertise, from more pure play component vendors to those with a track record of developing inverters and other products for solar and wind.

According to Eller and Asmus, there are three key innovations or areas of innovation likely to drive the market forward: Smart islanding and backup power, where inverters and PCS combine to provide resilience and uninterruptible power systems (UPS) in the event of grid outages or off-grid use; cost reductions, driven by innovations in materials and components, including improvements in system architecture that reduce the complexity of system design; and the use of energy storage to support grids, with “features such as automatic reactive power support and variable settings to ride-through disruptions” helping with the integration of variable renewable energy through coordinating the different distributed energy resources (DERs) attached to grids.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) has selected Hummingbird Energy Storage, a subsidiary of esVolta, to develop an energy storage system in Santa Clara County, California.

The firm will develop, build, and operate the Hummingbird Energy Storage project, a 75MW / 300MWh lithium-ion battery storage facility.

The energy storage system is expected to be complete by December 2020.

The project will be the largest battery system in the world, according to a statement.

The system is being designed to help PG&E provide affordable and reliable energy to its customers. The plant will provide ancillary services to California’s grid whilst enhancing reliability, especially during peaks.

The system is expected to help California achieve its renewable energy targets as it will facilitate integration of renewable energy resources including solar and wind. Read more: Eight trends impacting solar and storage industry