French oil and gas major Total has this week inaugurated the Hélio Boulouparis 2 solar project in New Caledonia, the largest solar power plant in any French overseas territory.

The Hélio Boulouparis 2 project consists of over 58,000 solar panels with a cumulative peak capacity of 16 MW – enough to cover the energy needs of over 21,000 residents of New Caledonia.

The plant will also feature a lithium-ion battery storage system with a capacity of nearly 10MW (The hours of storage were not released)..

“With nearly 60% of the total photovoltaic capacity installed in New Caledonia, Total Quadran is positioned as the first player in the New Caledonian solar market,” said Thierry Muller, General Manager of Total Quadran, Total’s French renewables subsidiary.

“As a historical player in the territory, Total is proud to be able to contribute to a less carbon-intensive energy mix of the region, while promoting the integration of renewables into the electricity grid through appropriate storage facilities.”

Total Quadran – which develops, builds, and operates renewable facilities in France and its overseas territories – now boasts over 300 renewable power projects with a cumulative capacity of nearly 900 MW, generating 1,675 GWh of renewable electricity each year.

Total Quadran now manages 7 solar power plants in New Caledonia with a cumulative capacity of 50MW. This latest New Caledonia solar project is the second Boulouparis project, joining a 11 MW project commissioned in 2017.

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The proportion of contracts by category tracked by the research frim in the quarter was as follows:

1. Supply & Erection: 11 contracts and a 47.8% share
2. Power Purchase Agreement: five contracts and a 21.7% share
3. Project Implementation: four contracts and a 17.4% share
4. Consulting & Similar Services: two contracts and an 8.7% share
5. Repair, Maintenance, Upgrade & Others: one contract and a 4.3% share.

North America leads in energy storage activity in Q3 2019

Comparing contracts activity in energy storage segment in different regions of the globe, North America held the top position with 12 contracts and a share of 52.2% during Q3 2019, followed by Asia-Pacific with four contracts and a 17.4% share and Europe with four contracts and a 17.4% share.

Solar is leading technology for energy storage contracts in Q3 2019

Among the technologies, solar accounted for 13 contracts with a 72.2% share, followed by wind with three contracts and a 16.7% share and thermal with two contracts and an 11.1% share.

Energy storage contracts in Q3 2019: Top companies by capacity

The top issuers of energy storage contracts for the quarter in terms of power capacity involved were:

1. City of San Jose (United States): 110MW from one contract
2. New York Power Authority (United States): 20MW from one contract
3. East Bay Community Energy (United States): 7.5MW capacity from two contracts.

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Global new capacity additions of utility-scale energy storage (USES) are expected to reach 1,557.0 MW. This number is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 34.8% to reach 22,909.2 MW of new capacity deployed in 2028.

That’s according to a new report from Navigant Research that examines the market drivers, challenges, key trends, and growth projections for the global USES industry, with forecasts for power capacity (MW), energy capacity (MWh), and deployment revenue, through 2028.

As the global USES industry continues its pattern of rapid growth, inflection points are arising around the world. The technology is becoming competitive with conventional power grid systems and, while the industry remains diverse, repeating trends are surfacing in the early adopter markets that have grown and become more mature.

The emergence of solar plus storage projects has been the most important trend seen in the global USES industry in the past 2 years, according to the report. These combined projects account for a large percentage of newly announced energy storage capacity, including some of the largest projects being built. Standardization among these new solar plus storage projects has been key to driving their growth, both in terms of technical designs and contract structures through combined power purchase agreements (PPAs).

The report, “Utility-Scale Energy Storage Overview,” provides an update on the market drivers, challenges, key trends, and growth projections for the global USES industry. Additional insight is provided on the leading technologies in the market and the leading players across various elements of the USES value chain.

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A report published in Science magazine by a team of scientists claims nanomaterials are the key to widespread, affordable energy storage. “Most of the biggest problems facing the push for sustainability can all be tied back to the need for better energy storage,” says Professor Yury Gogotsi of Drexel University and lead author of the paper.

“Whether it’s a wider use of renewable energy sources, stabilizing the electric grid, managing the energy demands of our ubiquitous smart and connected technology or transitioning our transportation toward electricity — the question we face is how to improve the technology of storing and disbursing energy. After decades of research and development, the answer to that question may be offered by nanomaterials.”

“The better we become at harvesting and storing energy, the more we’ll be able to use renewable energy sources that are intermittent in nature,” Gogotsi says. “Batteries are like the farmer’s silo — if it’s not large enough and constructed in a way that will preserve the crops, then it might be difficult to get through a long winter. In the energy industry right now, you might say we’re still trying to build the right silo for our harvest — and that’s where nanomaterials can help.”

Nanomaterials — More Surfaces For Electrons
According to Drexel University, the main thrust of battery research is finding better energy materials and combining them to store more electrons. Using a process called nanostructuring, researchers introduce particles, tubes, flakes, and stacks of nanoscale materials into the components of batteries, capacitors, and supercapacitors. Their shape and atomic structure can speed the flow of electrons — the heartbeat of electrical energy. Their enhanced surface area provides more resting places for the charged particles.

The effectiveness of nanomaterials allows scientists to rethink the basic design of batteries. Nanomaterials can permit future batteries that are lighter in weight and and smaller in size by eliminating metal foil current collectors that are necessary in conventional batteries.

“It is a very exciting time to work in the area of nanoscale energy storage materials,” says Ekaterina Pomerantseva, an associate professor in the Drexel College of Engineering and co-author of the study.

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Total Quadran, a wholly owned Total subsidiary involved in the production of renewable electricity in France and its overseas territories, has initiated Helio Boulouparis 2, a solar power plant with energy storage in overseas France. The plant is the second tranche of the solar park. The first tranche, Helio Boulouparis 1, was put on stream in 2017.

Equipped with more than 58 000 solar panels, the plant has an installed capacity of nearly 16 MWp. The plant will feature a lithium-ion energy storage system (ESS) with a capacity of nearly 10 MW. The combination of a large photovoltaic system with an ESS helps to improve the quality and reliability of the electricity grid for the benefit of the local population.

“The territorial aspect of these projects is crucial. They can only be carried out if local institutions are on board and with a strong support from all local stakeholders,” explained Stefan Sontheimer, Director of Total Quadran’s Pacific agency. “In all, 200 people from companies in New Caledonia worked on the project. They were involved at each stage, from site selection, design, permits and financing on through to construction and now operation and maintenance.”

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Developer Convergent Energy & Power’s first projects out of a joint venture (JV) with Shell have come online, while GE Renewable Energy touted the imminent implementation of the country’s ‘first hybrid electric gas turbine’ project.

Business division Shell New Energies said in May this year that it had spotted opportunities in Canada linked to the Province of Ontario’s policies that reward large users of energy that reduce their demand for grid energy at peak times and created the JV with Convergent Energy & Power, offering the latter’s services and products to its C&I customers.

The fossil fuels major announced an initial 21MWh of projects at Shell Canada Products production facilities, one at Brockville, a motor oils and lubricants plants and Sarnia, an oil refinery. A 10MW behind-the-meter (BTM) system deployed as part of that 21MWh is currently tied with another Convergent project as North America’s largest behind-the-meter battery project, the company claimed.

Energy-Storage.news has reported on dozens of megawatts of commercial and industrial (C&I) facilities’ energy storage projects in Ontario, with policy drivers including the Global Adjustment Charge (GAC). As early as 2016, we heard from the assembled industry at an event hosted by the Canadian Embassy in London that a long-term policy remit to provide “clean, affordable” electricity was the foundation of the province’s market. A more recent notable example is the 48MW / 144MWh Customer Energy Management (CMEa) programme battery energy storage project awarded to tech provider Fluence by a local electricity distribution company. In that instance, 357 businesses will be able to benefit from shared savings of around C$5 million (US$3.76 million) per year between them using a single, large-scale battery system to reduce peak demand. Convergent sent a reminder with its latest release that Canadian non-profit Fraser Institute found electricity prices in Ontario are 65% higher for large consumers of electricity in the province than elsewhere in Canada. Convergent itself now has 40MW in operation in Ontario, the company said.

Convergent, which was bought up in summer this year by infrastructure investment group Energy Capital Partners (see here to read an exclusive post-takeover interview with Convergent CEO Johannes Ritterhausen) is going to operate the 21MWh of energy storage, reducing the Shell facilities’ draw from the grid, using Convergent Energy & Power’s proprietary PEAK IQ asset management platform.

While the use of low emissions energy storage technology to ease the economic pains of operating a fossil fuels business may be a little hard to accept for some, they are nonetheless an effective showcase that energy consumption at such facilities could be reduced by a third using energy storage technology, as Convergent and Shell claim will be the case here.

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Developer NRStor and technology provider Hydrostor have completed work on a multi-megawatt, commercial, advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) system in Canada.

The project at Goderich, Ontario, has been under joint development by the pair since 2017. In a release sent out yesterday, Hydrostor described the plant as a “pivotal advancement on long-duration storage technology” as well as representing the world’s first “successful commercialisation of fuel-free adiabatic CAES technology”.

Associate Minister of Energy for Ontario, Bill Walker, and the province’s Minister of Government and Consumer Services, Lisa Thompson, were among attendees at a ribbon-cutting ceremony held a few days ago.

The plant will play into a number of energy market opportunities and potentially provide multiple services that include peaking capacity and ancillary services for the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), for which the CAES project is contracted, as well as “full participation in the merchant electricity market,” Hydrostor said.

“NRStor and Hydrostor’s Compressed Air Energy Storage project is a great example of the innovation we’re seeing in this province, and will help us further understand how these unique resources can best integrate with Ontario’s market and system operations, and drive down costs for consumers,” Ontario IESO president and CEO Peter Gregg, said.

“New technologies are changing the way we keep the lights on for Ontarians.”

As detailed by Energy-Storage.news on announcement of the project two years ago, depleted underground salt caverns are pumped full of compressed air, the salt naturally sealing cracks in the cavern’s walls. The project is 1.75MW peak power output rating, has a 2.2MW charge rating and 10MWh+ of storage capacity. Hydrostor also touted the fact that it is the first A-CAES project to meet IESO interconnection standards.

While the requirement for appropriate site location may be a challenge, Hydrostor argues that its technology, which converts electricity into compressed air, goes a step further and also removes the heat generated by the compression process and stores that as energy to be used later. Therefore A-CAES is considered to increase the round-trip efficiency of storing energy as compressed air. A couple of months ago, Hydrostor received approval for its first Australia project after time spent scoping out potential sites and customers.

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At a session during POWERGEN International, representatives from the energy storage industry discussed the risk of fire for energy storage projects that include lithium-ion batteries.

Paul Hayes, CEO of American Fire Technologies walked the audience through what happens when a battery catches fire. He explained that no technology exists to stop Thermal Runaway (TR), the phenomena that takes place when a lithium-ion battery increases in temperature and that changes the conditions in a way that causes a further increase in temperature in battery cells around it. He said he is a big fan of the Battery Management System (BMS) because when working correctly, the BMS should detect an anomaly in a battery cell and shut down the system before TR takes place.

He explained that right before a battery catches fire, it off-gasses, and he showed a video of what that looks like in a cell.

Chris Ruckman, energy storage director at Burns and McDonnell spoke about some of the fire suppression systems that exist on the market. Aerosol systems, he said, are not always effective because they usually require smoke and heat to operate and those two elements are not necessarily present when TR of a lithium-ion battery system begins. He added that sprinkler systems are also ineffective since they only cover the top of the battery system and the issue is most likely to be inside a cell.

The only way to counteract thermal runaway is to cool the adjacent cells and neither aerosol systems nor sprinkler systems can do that.

Ruckman said the best preventative measure is to communicate early and often with first responders so they know what type of energy storage system is present at your facility. He recommended that there is signage posted about what battery chemistry is at the site and also lists a person that first responders can call if they have a question.

Next up was LG Chem VP Peter Gibson who talked about some of the myths around lithium ion such as that batteries themselves are the only safety risk and that batteries are commodities. He also wanted the audience to know that any lithium battery can catch fire, including some of those that are marketed as “safe,” particularly lithium phosphate. The last myth he wanted to dispel is that lithium batteries give off poisonous hydrogen fluoride gas, which they do not, he said.

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Glendale Water & Power (GWP) recently joined the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) to develop, support, and promote clean energy technologies and policies. The CESA is a nonprofit membership-based advocacy group committed to advancing the role of energy storage in the electric power sector through policy, education, outreach, and research.

Last year, the California State Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 100, making California the largest state to set a zero-emission electricity target. SB 100 mandates 100% zero-emission electricity by 2045, with 60% of electricity to come from renewable resources by 2030. This bill puts utilities into motion to look into and implement cleaner technologies.

In July 2019, the GWP received approval from the Glendale City Council to move forward with a plan to repower the aging Grayson Power Plant with a combination of renewable energy resources, energy storage, and a limited amount of thermal generation. The plan includes a 75-MW, 300-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), as much as 50 MW of distributed energy resources (DERs) that include solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, energy efficiency and demand response programs, and 93 MW of thermal generation from up to five internal combustion engines.

CESA membership provides the GWP the tools to educate and influence key stakeholders, access industry experts, network, build partnerships, and develop new business opportunities. “We became members of the CESA to help shape the future of energy storage and transition to a 100% clean energy future,” said Steve Zurn, general manager of the GWP.

The CESA’s mission is to make energy storage a mainstream resource in helping to advance a more affordable, cleaner, efficient, and reliable electric power system for all Californians.

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Saft, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Total, has won an order for three Intensium Max 20 High Energy containers from TuuliWatti, the Finnish wind developer and operator.

The Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) energy storage system (ESS) will support frequency regulation at a 21 MW wind farm in northwestern Finland. It will also optimize the wind power, as well as provide backup and black start capabilities.

The Li-Ion ESS, the largest in the Nordic countries, is sized to provide an energy storage capacity of 6.6 MWh and deliver 5.6 MW of power for frequency regulation throughout its 15-year lifetime.

It comes in three integrated containers of 2.2 MWh each, designed and manufactured at Saft’s site in Bordeaux, France.

Commenting on the contract, Tommi Riski, portfolio manager for power at TuuliWatti, said: “TuuliWatti’s goal is to be the leading wind power developer and producer in the Arctic region. Saft’s high-energy containers will help us achieve this at Viinamäki by improving the competitiveness of wind power. They provide a fast response in challenging environmental conditions, as well as the energy storage capacity to support grid stability, allowing us to adjust the output of our wind farm immediately.”

Hervé Amossé, executive vice-president ESS division at Saft added: “This contract is an early commercial success for Saft’s latest lithium-ion energy storage system, launched in May 2019. The Intensium Max 20 HE container offers more than twice the energy storage capacity of previous Saft containers and provides best-in-class energy density, lifetime and assured performance. It builds on Saft’s track record of success with high-power energy storage systems.”

Saft launched the Intensium Max 20 HE to address the majority of grid, renewables, commercial and industrial applications that require large-scale ESS solutions with discharge times of around two hours.

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