PV is now producing more electricity than coal in the U.K. But don’t expect a storage boom to follow.

According to GTM Research’s Global Solar Demand Monitor, the U.K. has become the largest market for solar demand. But concerns over the eligibility for subsidies are forcing asset owners to delay adding storage to PV projects, said Jill Cainey, director of the Electricity Storage Network. 

The U.K. PV industry is largely supported through a Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC) scheme that was designed before the advent of solar-plus-storage plant designs. 

PV asset owners wishing to add storage to their plants would have to reapply for ROC accreditation with their distribution network operator. Payments under the ROC scheme would then be suspended pending the outcome of the accreditation process. 

Even though any interim payments would still be awarded once the accreditation was granted, the temporary halt in cash flow “is something an investor would not be excited about,” Cainey said. 

This month, she attended a U.K. renewable energy trade show, Clean Energy Live, and “there were no solar farms deploying storage.” 

At the same time, the U.K. market for residential solar-plus-storage looks unlikely to take off in the near future because of unfavorable economics. 

Recent research by Delta Energy & Environment suggests the payback time for U.K. residential PV-plus-storage could be 16.9 years for a new system and 24.5 years for a retrofit, not taking subsidies into account.  

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Rival energy storage companies sonnen and Tesla each started the week angling for the emerging smart battery market, with news of financing and partnerships.

Sonnen is positioning to grow its virtual energy business sonnenCommunity, a move it sees boosted by $85 million in new equity investments. The German-based company is expanding on its native turf as well as in the United States, Australia, UK and Italy.

Sonnen wants to become an “energy supplier of the future,” said Christoph Ostermann, CEO of sonnen Group, in announcing two new minority equity partners, including international energy technology company Envision Energy.

“Fast growth and leadership in innovation are the keys to reaching this goal,” he said. “With Envision Energy, we have gained a strategic investor who shares our vision, supplements our technology and has a strong presence in both the U.S. and Asian markets.”

Sonnen’s energy sharing platform, sonnenCommunity, allows customers with solar-plus-storage to feed excess energy into a software-linked pool. Others in the network then tap into the supply rather than purchase power from a utility.

More recently, the company began offering sonnenFlat, a virtual power plant product that allows aggregation of sonnenBatteries into a storage pool that provides balancing energy for Germany’s grid.

Thomas Putter, former CEO and ex-chairman of Allianz Capital Partners, also took a new minority stake in sonnen. Earlier investors include CAPITAL, MVP, SET Ventures, Inven Capital and GE Ventures.

Meanwhile, Tesla and Panasonic have formed a partnership to manufacture solar photovoltaic cells and modules in Buffalo, New York.

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What’s on tap? The makings of advanced batteries and a better way to deal with brewery wastewater.

Engineers at University of Colorado Boulder have come up with a process to make lithium-ion battery electrodes from the sugar-rich wastewater created in the beer-making process. The bio-manufacturing process is not only a sustainable source for battery materials and fuel cells, but it’s also an inexpensive way to deal with the large amount of wastewater breweries produce.

“Breweries use about seven barrels of water for every barrel of beer produced,” said Tyler Huggins, a graduate student in CU Boulder’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and lead author of the new study. “And they can’t just dump it into the sewer because it requires extra filtration.”

The use of biomass in battery and fuel cell technologies isn’t new, but the researchers found that the beer wastewater was especially suited to the task. They found that they could easily cultivate a fast-growing fungus, Neurospora crassa, which then becomes the carbon-based electrode, in the wastewater. The partnership between the researchers and breweries is mutually beneficial: the scientists need a sugar-rich material for cultivating the fungus and the breweries have a lot of wastewater that needs to be treated.

The university said, “By cultivating their feedstock in wastewater, the researchers were able to better dictate the fungus’s chemical and physical processes from the start. They thereby created one of the most efficient naturally-derived lithium-ion battery electrodes known to date while cleaning the wastewater in the process.”

The process could easily be scaled up because everything needed to produce the energy storage material already exists. The engineers are teaming up with Avery Brewing in Boulder to work on a large pilot program. Watch the video below to hear more about the process.

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Carmaker Daimler has completed construction of the world’s largest energy storage facility using second-hand car batteries in Lünen, Westphalia, in Germany.

The new site, which utilises batteries from Daimler’s second-generation smart fortwo electric cars, will provide 13MWh of capacity to the German energy market by the end of the year. Daimler said the first power units are already plugged into the German energy grid.

Daimler said in a statement energy output from the facility will be made available to the “winner of weekly auctions among the network operators for primary controlling power range”.

The project, a joint venture between German firms Daimler, The Mobility House, GETEC and Remondis, will see 1,000 used EV battery systems grouped into a single storage solution.

Each partner takes a distinct role in the new operation, with Daimler covering the initial manufacture and configuration of the battery systems, The Mobility House and GETEC handling their installation and marketing to the energy markets, and Remondis taking charge of their recycling at end-of-life.

Meanwhile, German manufacturer Bosch said in a blog post it has worked with car giant BMW and energy company Vattenfall on a parallel storage project using “second-life” EV batteries. Its project, located in Hamburg, incorporates 2,600 battery modules from 100 electric cars, and provides 2MW of output and 2.8MWh of capacity.

“This energy is available within seconds to stabilize the power grid,” it said in the post.

The German Ministry for the Economy and Energy (BMWi) wants around 45% of power consumed in Germany to be generated from renewable resources by 2025, increasing to around 60% by 2035.

EV batteries remain operational even after the electric vehicles themselves have been scrapped. Daimler said: “If used in stationary power storage, the systems are fully operational even after the service life guaranteed by the manufacturer – with slight capacity losses only of secondary importance. Cost-effective use in stationary operation is possible for at least 10 years longer.”

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The U.K. government should learn from California and incentivize energy-storage technology to help move away from dirty fuels, a cross-party panel of lawmakers said.

Ministers should reform the Capacity Market, a subsidy program designed to lower the risk of blackouts, to reward both energy-storage projects and power users who lower consumption at times of high demand, Parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee said in a report published on Saturday. 

“There is an incredible opportunity for the U.K. to become a world leader in these disruptive technologies,” Chairman Angus MacNeil said. “Yet our current energy-security subsidies favor dirty diesel generation over smart new clean-tech solutions.”

Britain is trying to ensure it avoids power cuts as coal-fired power stations and aging atomic reactors close down. In March, the government said it would begin payments to power generators to guarantee electricity supply in the winter of 2017 to 2018, a year earlier than previously planned, in an attempt to encourage the building of new gas plants. 

Ministers should aim to spur projects that store excess power at times of low demand and feed it back into the grid when demand peaks, as well as those that encourage users to reduce their own demand, the committee said.

Get it Right

“We need to learn from California where strong public financial support and clear legislation have helped develop a storage industry and integrate storage infrastructure into the grid,” MacNeil said. “Getting demand-side response right will empower consumers, reduce bills, ease pressure on the grid, and lower carbon dioxide emissions.”

“We are fully committed to a low carbon energy future and the potential benefits that new technologies such as storage could bring to this,” the government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said in an e-mailed statement. “However, for the capacity market to work effectively it relies on flexible technology that is ready to be deployed.”

The committee also concluded that there are only “limited” short-term effects on electricity and gas supply of the U.K.’s decision to withdraw from the European Union. It urged ministers to publish an emissions-reduction plan because “the vote to leave has reduced already weak investor confidence in the energy sector.”

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PAIA — The end of incentive programs doesn’t mean the door has closed on rooftop solar, but customers and businesses will have to start relying more on the still-growing technology of energy storage, industry experts explained at a community forum Thursday night.

Held at the Kaunoa Senior Center in Paia, the forum took a community-focused look at Maui’s energy future. After the Public Utilities Commission rejected the merger between Hawaiian Electric Co. and Florida-based energy company NextEra over the summer, the state now has a little more clarity on the path to its goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2045, moderator Dick Mayer said.

But community involvement in this goal has become tougher since Maui Electric Co.’s net-metering program closed last October, and the customer-grid supply program hit its 5-megawatt capacity in June. Both gave customers credits for energy they sent to the grid.

Now, batteries are “the way forward for the grid,” said Brad Albert, co-owner of Rising Sun Solar.

“Industry-wide there’s a big transition going on,” Albert said. “Between the price of batteries coming down and what it can do for the grid, I think there’s a lot of opportunity.”

MECO’s customer self-supply program allows customers to install solar as long as they don’t export to the grid. However, the solar industry has had little time to adjust to the rising need for energy storage, and many companies are still working to create viable products. Rising Sun Solar, for example, has worked with Tesla and has a battery that Albert thinks will bring cost savings similar to the MECO programs.

“The issue today is that there is no compensation if you have a distributed battery for the energy services you could provide to the grid,” Albert said. “As soon as we create that incentive, I think we’ll have a lot more batteries to be installed. . . . Customers can be part of the solution.”

Stored energy could help residents in power outages, possibly bring energy to the grid in the future and reduce the need for fossil fuel, Albert said.

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A new cooperative integration of AutoGrid Flex energy management with sonnenBatterie energy storage systems will enables energy project developers to better monetize the flexible capacity of distributed energy resources.

San Francisco Bay Area-based AutoGrid Systems, and German battery integrator sonnen have partnered to help energy project developers, utilities and other energy service providers better manage, optimize and aggregate sonnen’s battery systems and other distributed energy resources (DERs). The agreement will fully integrate AutoGrid Flex energy management capabilities with sonnen’s residential and commercial energy storage technology systems.

Among flexibility value streams that may be enhanced through the partnership are: optimizing self-consumption in real time across multiple factors including peak demand charges and time-varying prices; participating in utility demand response and resource adequacy programs; and creating a virtual power plant to participate in wholesale capacity, energy and ancillary services markets.

AutoGrid applications are all built on the AutoGrid Energy Internet Platform (EIP), with patented Predictive Controls technology that leverages petabytes of smart meter, sensor and third-party data, along with powerful data science and high-performance computing algorithms, to monitor, predict, optimize and control the operations of millions of assets connected across global energy networks.

The AutoGrid Flex application suite provides advanced forecasting, real-time controls and scalable architecture to manage large numbers of distributed sonnenBatterie systems in combination with other DERs. This fleet management is key to optimizing the utilization of battery storage capacity for both the local site and the regional grid network, and AutoGrid Flex is already integrated with multiple wholesale markets, including CAISO, PJM and ERCOT, and underpins several of the world’s leading utility DER systems.

Designed to optimize all DER asset categories including distributed generation, battery storage, and demand response resources, AutoGrid Flex provides out-of-the-box support for all prevalent grid services and wholesale market programs spanning all customer segments – residential, commercial and industrial – through its three main applications: AutoGrid DROMS, an enterprise-grade demand response management system; AutoGrid DERMS, a distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) for providing targeted distribution-level grid-services; and AutoGrid VPP, a virtual power plant (VPP) solution for participation in wholesale markets.

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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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A new report published by Allied Market Research titled, Energy Storage Systems Market by Technology, End-User, and by Application-Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014-2022, projects that the world energy storage systems market is expected to reach $264,953 million by 2022 from $172,236 million in 2015, registering a CAGR of 6.4% from 2016 to 2022. It is anticipated that pumped hydro storage technology segment would generate the highest revenue throughout the forecast period. In the year 2015,Asia-Pacific led the global market and is expected to maintain its position throughout the forecast period.

According to Eswara Prasad, Team Lead Chemical Research at AMR, “China and South Korea are driving the growth of energy storage systems market in Asia-pacific with an increasing focus on production of electric vehicles in future.”

The increasing production of renewable energy by major economies across the world is driving the market for energy storage systems. Coupled with the increasing usage of renewable resources, the growing interest towards adoption of electric vehicles will also fuel the growth of energy storage systems. Inspite of increasing need for energy storage systems elements such as high capital investment and environmental concerns pose as a constraint to the market. High cost is another hurdle for the energy storage systems market owing to price sensitive nature of the buyers.

In the year 2015, grid storage was the largest end-user, with major share of world energy storage systems market, followed by transportation. Although there is a keen focus of major economies such as China, United Kingdom, France, Holland, Spain, Germany,Japan, U. S. on increased production of electric vehicles with an objective to save to high cost incurred due to fuel consumption.

Key findings of the Energy Storage System Market study: 

• Pumped hydro storage segment is expected to account for major market share in 2015 and is expected to stay in the dominating position along the forecast period
• Non-residential end-user segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.6% during the forecast period
• Asia-Pacific is anticipated to lead the market throughout 2022, growing at a CAGR of 7.3%, in value terms.
• Flywheel is the fastest growing segment in the Asia-pacific region growing at an estimated CAGR of 28.9% in terms of value
• In North America, U. S occupies a major share of around 83.8% in 2015

In 2015, Europe and North America collectively accounted for nearly three-fifth of the worldwide demand for energy storage systems and are expected to grow at a steady pace during the forecast period. This is mainly due to increased focus of these economies on the production of renewable energy.

The report provides comprehensive analysis of the key players that operate in the world energy storage systems market such as LG Chem., ABB Ltd., AES Energy Storage, LLC, Beacon Power, LLC, BYD Company Limited, Convergent Energy and Power Inc., Greensmith Energy Management Systems, Eos Energy Storage, Seeo Inc., and S&C Electric Company. These players occupy a major share in the world energy storage systems market followed by other tier 2 and tier 3 players worldwide.

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