There’s the battery in your watch. There’s the battery in your mobile phone. And then there’s the battery at Green Mountain Power’s Stafford Hills solar farm in Rutland, Vt.

The lithium-ion gargantuan is housed in two trailer-truck-size green metal containers. It sits atop a 10-acre former landfill and captures electricity from 7,722 nearby solar panels—enough to power 2,000 homes on a sunny day. What’s revolutionary about this system isn’t the solar farm; it’s the size and purpose of the battery, which offers 3.4 megawatt-hours of storage, enough to supply backup power to about 170 homes for a day, if needed.

The rap on solar and wind is intermittence—they don’t produce power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, making them unreliable as the primary source for power grids. But if vast amounts of renewable energy—say, enough to power entire cities—could be captured and stored in giant batteries and deployed when needed, that downside would fade away.

‘Missing piece’

This has been the “missing piece” in the renewable-energy revolution, says Venkat Srinivasan, director of the Energy Department’s Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science. But it’s starting to come into view, thanks to the scale and progress of current research and real-world applications such as Green Mountain Power’s.

Green Mountain’s project puts it in the vanguard of power companies that are showing that utility-scale battery storage can be technologically and economically viable—depending on the scale and how it is used.

Like all utilities, Green Mountain faces issues meeting “peak demand,” the high-use period, typically in the early evening, when people return from work and school and crank up air conditioners and energy-hungry appliances.

Many U.S. utilities fire up natural-gas-powered generators to help their baseload plants meet peaks, often imposing hefty surcharges on customers to offset the extra generating costs. Green Mountain instead stores energy from its solar-and-battery combination to meet peaks—shaving as much as $200,000 an hour off demand charges for its 265,000 residential customers, according to the utility. Green Mountain, which says it invested $12.5 million in the project and received a $285,000 government grant, benefits in that it doesn’t have to build additional plants to meet peak demand and gets a public-relations boost among its green-leaning customer base.

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ALBANY, N.Y. — New York lawmakers last week unanimously passed a measure requiring the state’s Public Service Commission to set targets to increase the adoption of energy storage in the state through 2030.

The new law requires the commission to work with the New York State Energy and Research Development Agency (NYSERDA) and the Long Island Power Authority to set targets and develop a storage deployment program.

“This newly passed bill gives New York’s PSC clear direction: set a storage target and design a deployment program by the end of 2017,” said Anne Reynolds, director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York. “This is a great signal to the storage industry that New York will be a promising place to invest. But first we need Gov. [Andrew] Cuomo to sign it into law.”

The Energy Storage Deployment Program bill combined Assembly and Senate measures sponsored by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin and Sen. Joseph Griffo.

Both sponsors of the legislation pointed to enhanced reliability of the electric grid as a top benefit of increased use of energy storage, as well as the jobs expected to be created.

A NYSERDA study earlier this year found that about 4,000 workers were employed in the state’s energy storage industry by the end of 2015, up 30% since 2012. The study projected the state’s industry could grow from about $1 billion in revenue to up to $8.7 billion in 2030, with the number of jobs possibly exceeding 25,000.

“Storage also increases the resiliency of the electric grid by supplying power in the event of an electrical outage. The creation of an energy storage deployment program will increase the installation of energy storage systems throughout the state and accelerate these benefits,” Paulin said in a statement after the bill’s passage.

Setting Targets

Because energy storage is applicable to so many electricity grid functions, a narrow focus on one area fails to capture the complete value of the technology, according to Dr. William Acker, director of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium.

“By analyzing the system as a whole and setting targets, you’re able to create a situation where the energy storage can be adapted into a variety of different applications,” Acker said. “That will open up the markets and lead to penetrations that are far greater than the targets that will have been set. The energy storage industry has made rapid technological advancement over the past few year, but equally important, the costs have dropped dramatically in terms of both the technology and the scale of production.” (See Storage Technology Still Outracing RTO Metrics, Rules.)

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The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has announced that up to $6.3 million is now available for emerging energy storage technologies that have not yet been commercialized but could support renewable power sources in the state.

NYSREDA says the funding is part of the state’s long-term investment in the energy storage sector and supports Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) strategy to build a cleaner, more resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers.

Janet Joseph, acting president and CEO of NYSERDA, comments, “New York continues to lead the nation in finding innovative technologies to build a resilient and efficient electric grid. Energy storage will play a critical role in Governor Cuomo’s fight against climate change as we continue to add renewable energy resources throughout the state making our power cleaner.”

As the agency explains, energy storage can save power generated from clean energy systems such as solar, wind, and combined heat and power for later use, enabling buildings to reduce their reliance on the electric power grid during peak demand periods when electricity costs are highest. The ability to store energy also can make it possible for buildings and other critical facilities to continue to function in the event of disruptions on the power grid.

NYSERDA will accept concept papers during the first round of this solicitation through July 20. Papers should focus on advancing, developing and field testing of energy storage technologies that will address cost, performance and integration opportunities in New York. They should also identify how the technology will advance the state’s goal to have 50% of its electricity come from renewable resources by 2030. Through a competitive process, NYSERDA will request the best concept papers to submit follow-up proposals. The proposals selected will receive funding to move forward with their projects.

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There are quick bucks to be made from battery storage. But in three or four years, many assets will be in the bin, reckons redT chief Scott McGregor. He claims sustainable energy storage that can handle multiple functions for decades without degrading is now viable. Brendan Coyne reports

Predictions for battery storage penetration vary wildly. UK Power Networks recently reported it had received 12GW of connections requests in little over a year, much of it for batteries, much of it “highly speculative”. Western Power Distribution has 1GW of storage connections agreements on its network, with a further 1GW offered.

National Grid meanwhile, sees up to 18GW of all forms of electrical storage on the system by the 2040. Government predicts around 4GW of batteries by 2033.

But Scott McGregor, CEO of energy storage firm redT, believes market sizing predictions and the recent rush to secure frequency response contracts obscure fundamental truths. He says battery storage as opposed to energy storage is unsustainable – and many of today’s frequency response “arbitrage exploitation” opportunities may not exist in three years’ time.

Neither, he says, will some of the assets.

“The returns [for frequency response] are currently good. That’s nice, but they are batteries which will degrade and have to be thrown away – and that revenue opportunity will also run away pretty quickly.”

McGregor points to California, which he suggests is suffering a lithium hangover. Battery owners that piled into frequency response now spy other revenue streams. But, says McGregor, “they can’t access them because the battery is only warrantied to provide one service – and if they do more it will burn out”.

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The municipal utility in Austin, Texas is trying to figure out how much money can be saved when solar and storage talk to each other.

Austin Energy will install its first large-scale batteries this year to join a growing fleet of solar generation, both central and distributed. With funding from the Department of Energy, the utility is syncing up the efforts around an integrated control system, to quantify the value added by coordinating the dispersed assets.

That will be more than an academic exercise, because Austin Energy is working toward 10 megawatts of distributed storage and 55 percent renewable energy by 2025. The grid implications of that surge will manifest more acutely in a smaller, municipal-sized service territory.

Kurt Stogdill, green building and sustainability manager for Austin Energy, pointed out that “200 megawatts [of] PV spread over 437 square miles is different from 200 megawatts spread over the whole of ERCOT.”

The program started with a challenge to reach a 14 cents per kilowatt-hour levelized cost of energy for solar and energy storage. The utility won $4.3 million from the DOE’s Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar PV (SHINES) program, in addition to $1 million from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, to support the solar-plus-storage exploration.

To get the costs down that low, the team started looking at how to add value with intelligent controls, rather than leaving the distributed resources to operate independently.

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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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One of the world’s leading suppliers of solar PV trackers is targeting sales volumes of approximately 15MW per week of the new battery solution it has paired with its products.

NEXTracker, which according to GTM Research held 30% of the global PV tracker market as of April this year and was sold to Flextronics for US$330 million in 2015, recently launched its partnership with Avalon Battery, a flow battery maker from Oakland, California.

The solution, NX Fusion and NX Fusion Plus, comes pre-wired and pre-assembled, designed to serve as its “own independent renewable energy power plant,” according to the company. The bundles include the NX Horizon tracker, capable of rotating PV modules up to 120 degrees, DC wiring, string inverters, PV modules, UPS, piers and tracker monitoring and control system.

While many other companies are focusing on lithium-ion batteries, NEXTracker was persuaded to go with Avalon Battery’s flow technology after Avalon responded strongly to a novel request for proposal from the tracker specialist. NEXtracker director of sales for the storage solution, Ralph Fallant, told Energy-Storage.News at Intersolar Europe that it was a good fit overall.

“Our CTO Alex Au and one of our consultants, Josh Wiener, they produced an RFP called “decapitate the duck”. They were looking specifically for the best battery technology to be deployed with our type of product, to deal with the duck curve [the lack of overlap between peak solar production and peak energy consumption famously experienced in California],” Fallant said.

“They released a load profile that had two small discharges and one very deep discharge and that was the model people were supposed to compete against.”

As well as being the best entrant in that impromptu competition, the Avalon battery met other criteria that NEXtracker sought.

“What we found was a form factor that fits very well with our product. Our typical row is about 30kW, this is a 25kWh battery and it’ll be paired with a three-port Ideal Power inverter,” Fallant said.

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The California Senate passed a bill that would give consumers more access to clean energy and provide the next critical piece for California to achieve its aggressive greenhouse gas and renewable energy goals. SB 700, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) would increase availability of local, customer-sited energy storage for schools, farms, businesses, and homes.

“In California, we are pushing aggressive renewable energy goals because we know that fighting climate change means taking action now,” said Senator Wiener. “This bill will push us down the path to 100% renewable energy. To meet our goals, we need solar, storage, and other renewable energy resources in every city and neighborhood in California, not just those that can afford it.”

Wiener added: “This bill will transform energy storage so that all can reap the benefits of clean, renewable energy.”

SB 700 would create a 10-year rebate program designed to grow the California local storage market and make storage more affordable for consumers.  The rebates would step down as more storage systems are installed and economies of scale are achieved, thereby driving down the installed cost of the systems. Local energy storage enables the integration of large amounts of renewable energy, creates value for consumers by helping them save money on energy bills, and increases grid reliability.

“Thanks to the leadership of Sen. Scott Wiener, Californians are one step closer to taking control of their clean energy future,” said Laura Gray, energy storage policy advisor with the California Solar Energy Industries Association. “This bill would allow homes, businesses, schools and public buildings to use solar and renewable energy at all hours of the day and night.”

“Energy storage is an essential tool to enable Californians to participate in achieving the Golden State’s critical renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals and to curb our reliance on natural gas peaker plants,” said Michelle Kinman, clean energy advocate with Environment California, the sponsor of SB 700. “With uncertainty on climate action at the federal level, it is even more important that California is now one step closer to demonstrating its clean energy leadership by transforming the energy storage market.”

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The installations, which are slated to begin this summer, are tasked with demonstrating a non-wires alternative to defer the need for a third undersea cable to Nantucket at a cost of between $75 million and $100 million.

The storage systems, which would cost about $3 million, would replace standard residential air conditioning units.

Ice Energy’s Ice Bear technology fits on traditional air conditioners and freezes water into ice at night when demand for power is low. During the day, the stored ice is used to provide air conditioning at peak hours, drawing down customer power demand. 

The Nantucket contract is the latest in a string of projects for the thermal storage company. In 2014, Ice Energy made headlines with a 26.5 MW contract with Southern California Edison and more recently signed a 1 MW contract with the Southern California Public Power Authority.

“Local participants will enjoy increased comfort as well as savings on their energy bills … and defer the need for traditional contingency support, such as back-up diesel generation and a costly third undersea cable,” Lauren Sinatra, energy project and outreach coordinator for Nantucket, said in a statement.

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