One of the reasons California is a leader in energy storage are the multiple laws aimed at encouraging and supporting the technology, including AB 2514, enacted in 2010, that directs utilities in the state to energy storage resources.

The most recent energy storage related legislation, AB 546, is aimed at helping communities navigate the often confusing process of obtaining permits for energy storage projects. Though there are multiple state mechanisms for encouraging energy storage, the process can be very confusing.

AB 546 aims to speed that process by directing communities of 200,000 and more to provide web based resources and to provide a basis for making the permitting process and related fees more consistent from community to community.

The bill says that the implementation of energy storage is “not a municipal affair, but is a matter of statewide concern.”

The bill comes as municipal utilities invest in energy storage to meet ambitious renewable energy goals. 

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Senator Martin Heinrich has proposed granting tax relief for purchasers of energy storage systems, in a similar way to how the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) is applied to residential solar PV purchases.

Heinrich, democratic senator for the state of New Mexico, along with Minnesota’s Al Franken, also a democrat, last week introduced S.1851, a bill in Congress to create research and demonstration programmes for energy storage systems. Heinrich, with Franken as co-sponsor, also that week introduced S.1868, “a bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax credits for energy storage technologies, and for other purposes”.

At present in the US, the only nationwide, federal support scheme applied to purchases of energy storage systems is the solar ITC, which gives consumers the right to claim back 30% of the cost of installing a PV system from federal taxes. The ITC is applied to both residential and commercial and industrial (C&I) systems. However, at present, the tax credits are only available for energy storage system purchases if installed at the same time that a solar PV system is being deployed.

Heinrich’s bill, which is also known under the abbreviated title “Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act of 2017”, has been read twice and now referred to the Senate’s Committee on Finance. The bill was first floated in mid-2016, where it gained support from both Democrat and Republican senators. There are separate provisions for providing an ‘Energy credit’, defined by the internal revenue code as “the energy percentage of the basis of each energy property placed in service during such taxable year” and for residential energy efficiency measures on private properties.

The bill’s ‘Energy credit’ definition would include energy storage equipment from batteries to mechanical energy storage with compressed air, pumped hydropower, hydrogen storage, fuel cells, thermal energy storage, flywheels, capacitors, superconducting magnets and any other applicable technologies. Systems must however have a capacity of 5kWh or above. For the residential energy efficiency tax credit, systems would have to be 3kWh capacity or over.

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A new report from Navigant Research examines the global market for energy storage for microgrids (ESMG), providing an analysis of trends and market dynamics, with forecasts for capacity and revenue that extend through 2026.

Interest in energy storage-enabled microgrids is growing alongside an increase in solar PV and wind deployments. Although not required for microgrids to operate, energy storage systems (ESSs) have emerged as an increasingly valuable component of distributed energy networks because of their ability to effectively integrate renewable generation.

“There are several key drivers resulting in the growth of energy storage-enabled microgrids globally, including the desire to improve the resilience of power supply both for individual customers and the entire grid, the need to expand reliable electricity service to new areas, rising electricity prices, and innovations in business models and financing,” says Alex Eller, research analyst with Navigant Research. “Innovations in business models and financing will likely play a key role in the expansion of the ESMG market during the coming years.”

According to the report, the most successful companies in this industry will be those that can unlock the potential of new business models to reduce the risk and upfront costs to customers. This is particularly true in Asia Pacific and North America, which are projected to be the largest regional markets for new ESMG capacity by far.

The report, “Market Data: Energy Storage for Microgrids,” outlines the key market drivers and barriers within the global ESMG market. The study provides an analysis of specific trends and market dynamics for each major world region to illustrate how different markets are taking shape. Global ESMG forecasts for capacity and revenue, segmented by region, technology, and market segment, extend through 2026. The report also briefly examines the major technology issues related to ESSs for microgrids.

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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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There might be a debate in the political world about the value of solar energy and energy storage for the grid, businesses, and homeowners. But there doesn’t seem to be any disagreement in the military over the value of solar energy, both in the field and at bases in the U.S. 

Solar and energy storage could increase security for thousands of troops across the country, and in the next decade the military could be a huge source of growth for the industry. 

Where solar and energy storage provides value

According to a recent piece by Joshua Pearce, a professor at Michigan Tech University who also receives research funding from the DOE and military, there are three types of threats to energy the military is worried about at domestic bases: natural disasters, crime or terrorism, and cyber threats. 

Since the military normally relies on the “civilian grid” for electricity, it’s susceptible to the same forces that have left millions of Americans without power over the last two months because of hurricanes. Attacks of some sort and cyber threats, which are a growing concern for grid operators, would be major concerns for the military by proxy. 

Renewable energy installations or microgrids on military bases could help answer some of that challenge. SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) has built solar projects at the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California, and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. It even added a 1-megawatt (MW) energy storage system at Redstone Arsenal earlier this year to reduce peak power demand at the base. First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) recently supplied 120 MW of solar modules to a military base installation in Florida. 

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There may be an unexpected beneficiary of a trade case that threatens to upend the $29 billion U.S. solar industry: energy storage.

With solar construction slowing in the aftermath of the April trade complaint filed by bankrupt manufacturer Suniva Inc., that’s giving some developers time to change or expand focus.

“The Suniva case actually makes us more excited about storage,” Wayne Chomitz, vice president of project finance at Panasonic Corp.-backed Coronal Energy, said Tuesday at Infocast’s Solar Connect conference in San Diego. “It gives us more time to focus on storage.”

Storage costs have fallen about 40 percent since 2014.

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Fresh from unveiling its latest LEAF model and new electricity grid and home storage offerings yesterday, Nissan has confirmed plans for three pilot projects next year aimed at expanding power grid and mobility access to developing world communities.

Each of the as yet unnamed projects will focus on providing access to energy and mobility in regions where energy and transport provision is unavailable or unreliable, the firm said. The projects are expected to deploy technologies such as home battery storage systems, electric vehicles, and local microgrids.

All three projects will be piloted and assessed in 2018, and could be expanded beyond the initial regions should they prove successful, Nissan said, promising that progress updates would be published throughout the year.

The announcement was made yesterday in Oslo, where Nissan unveiled the new version of its LEAF electric passenger car, alongside plans for a new e-NV200 electric van, investment in its European fast charging network, and a new range of home charging and power storage systems.

Gareth Dunsmore, electric vehicle director at Nissan Europe, said around 1.3 billion people worldwide live in communities where power generation and access to electricity is restricted, highlighting a clear need to expand electricity and mobility to these new markets.

“With a rapidly rising, urbanising global population, problems like access to energy, climate change, and poor air quality all risk getting worse rather than better,” said Dunsmore. “We’ve been asking ourselves: ‘How can we use our global reach and history of innovation, to help build a brighter, electric future for everyone?’ What better place to start than by bringing power and mobility to people in a sustainable and equitable way?”

One of the projects will see Nissan build a micro-grid system to provide power for local communities without access to electricity in a developing country in a bid to boost healthcare and education provision, the firm said.

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A report, “New York City’s Aging Power Plants: Risks, Replacement Options and the Role of Energy Storage” was prepared by Stratagen Consulting for the New York Battery and Energy Storage Consortium. The report describes a developing crisis of a large part of the Big Apple’s power plant infrastructure in varying stages of overdue retirement. Thousands of megawatts of steam and gas turbine systems, responsible for much of New York City’s non-carbon pollution, especially in proximate low-income communities, are apparently beyond effective retrofitting and their electricity generation, especially during peak hours, need to be replaced. At present, only a few hundred megawatts are at the facility study phase, which may mean an earliest date of online startup of 2021.

This challenge is especially acute due to constricted resource and demand needs. New York City generates slightly more than half its electricity locally, and cannot easily access clean power from hydro or wind power sources due to lack of transmission, particularly during daytime peak hours. On a statewide basis, the growth of natural gas sourced electricity threatens carbon reduction goals.

The Stratagen study determined that a serious commitment to energy storage systems would make them economically competitive with new leaker plants. Like solar and other renewable energy, energy storage would require long term contracts and NY Independent System Operator compensation for financial viability. An interesting note is that peakers apparently operate at less than 10%, below the capacity factor of PV, with energy storage providing dispatching capability to solar. New York City ratepayers meanwhile pay $268 million a year in capacity charges for peakers, which could finance energy storage instead.

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PALO ALTO, U.S. — Tesla’s massive Australian energy-storage facility, which CEO Elon Musk vowed to build quickly after regional outages, will be equipped with battery cells from Samsung SDI instead of main supplier Panasonic. 

The decision to use Samsung SDI is a blow to Panasonic, which has its hands full with orders for electric-vehicle batteries. To meet a self-imposed deadline of 100 days, Tesla turned to the South Korean company since it could swiftly supply the cells. Tesla is importing the cells to the U.S. for final assembly before sending them to Australia — apparently taking the promotional benefits over profit.

Following blackouts last year in South Australia, Musk took to Twitter this March, offering to solve the state’s problems in the form of a bet: “Tesla will get the [battery] system installed and working 100 days from contract signature or it is free.”

The South Australia state government then placed an order for one the world’s largest battery systems, capable of storing 100,000kW — enough to power roughly 30,000 homes. 

Tesla is poised to drastically expand sales of large energy-storage facilities in other regions. The U.S. company is likely to more heavily tap into Samsung SDI’s excess capacity in the future as it grows the business.

Taiwan and other areas that have experienced widespread blackouts are considering purchasing Tesla battery storage as well.

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Duke University brain science researchers are hoping to use electronics they developed for non-invasive brain stimulation to revolutionize energy storage technology, making batteries safer, more efficient and less expensive.

The idea to apply brain science technologies to battery technology came from Stefan Goetz, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, electrical engineering and neurosurgery, along with a colleague, Angel Peterchev, associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

For more than a decade Goetz has been creating electronics for non-invasive brain stimulation that allow signals from outside the brain to be processed and acted on inside the brain, he explained.

However, he also had some experience with cars. “I started my Ph.D with an advisor who was a power engineer who worked on drives for vehicles,” he said. “I knew a little about it and recognized the problems with batteries. It appeared to me they could be solved if you modified some of the circuits.”

He and his colleagues started looking for funding. They received funding from Duke University’s Energy Research Seed Fund for developing a prototype battery and conversion system, $500,000 from the National Science Foundation for developing, along with other researchers, control systems to optimize use of the battery system, plus car-part donations from Toyota and BMW, said Goetz.

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