Companies in search of more renewable energy to power their growth can take heart from the example of Texas. The Lone Star State relies most heavily on natural gas and coal to generate electricity. It also has a fairly healthy nuclear sector. However, wind power has already leapfrogged past nuclear in Texas, and coal could be the next domino to fall. A new study indicates that the right balance of wind and solar power could provide for a reliable grid, without having to depend on expensive energy storage systems.

The New Texas Renewable Energy Study

The new study comes from Rice University under the title, “Assessing solar and wind complementarity in Texas.” The study was performed by undergraduate student Joanna Slusarewicz and Rice professor Daniel Cohan, an environmental engineer.

In a press release, Slusarewicz explained the goal of the project:

 . . . batteries remain too expensive to store Texas-sized amounts of energy for later use. “I did this project to see if there is a way, before we even start building more wind and solar farms, to distribute their current output to take advantage of differences in climate throughout the state,” Slusarewicz said.

Cohan added:

…Only in the past couple of years has solar become competitive with wind. Now Texas has two strong renewable options. That’s why this is the time to look at integrating these sources so they can do better than either can do on its own.

The point about energy storage is a critical one. The market for small scale, on-site energy storage is growing rapidly, but utility scale systems are still a long way from commercial viability due to their expense.

Currently, pumped hydro is the only large scale, low cost storage system available in the U.S., and appropriate sites for those facilities are few and far between.

Complementarity and grid stability

“Complementarity” refers to balancing the output of solar and wind power facilities.

Because wind and solar rely on natural conditions, the peak performance of wind turbines and solar panels varies considerably over time. The output can be optimal at different times of day, in different seasons, and in different regions of the same state.

Following a report on Friday that Hawaiian Electric has contracted PPAs with 75MW of solar projects including battery storage with developer Clearway, the utility has put before regulators proposals for five other grid-scale projects.

Energy-Storage.news reported last week that Clearway has been awarded two grid-scale solar-plus-storage projects on the island of Oahu, one of 39MW PV generation capacity linked to 156MWh of energy storage (the Mililani 1 Solar plant) and another of 36MW PV and 144MWh energy storage (Waiawa Solar project).

In total, Hawaiian Electric Company group companies have submitted to the regulator, Hawaiian Public Utilities Commission, seven projects of this type. There will be one more project on Oahu, two on the main Hawaii Island and two on the island of Maui. If all approved the projects will add 262MW of PV capacity to the islands’ networks, as well as 1,048MWh of energy storage.

Each project will have four hours of energy storage duration, currently thought to be the upper limit which can be effectively provided by lithium-ion batteries. The battery systems will help reduce the usage of fossil fuels in Hawaii, particularly at times of peak demand and other times when solar production is low.

As has often been stated on this site, as a series of islands within a modern economy, energy use in Hawaii has historically been linked with the expensive import of polluting diesel fuel. This has led to some of the highest rates of rooftop solar deployment, as well as supplying a solid business case for using batteries to create dispatchable solar power plants.

While fossil fuel generation in the state comes in at a price of around US$0.15 per kilowatt-hour, two of the proposed projects hit prices of US$0.08 per kilowatt-hour, with even the most expensive, Paeahu Solar on Maui by Canadian developer Innergex coming in at an expected US$0.12 per kWh. It is also worth noting that Paeahu Solar is the smallest project on the list by some way at 15MW / 60MWh, implying that scale plays some part in setting prices.

Premier Inn, a chain of budget and competitively priced hotels in the UK, has installed a 100kW lithium ion battery at its Gyle at Edinburgh Park hotel in the Scottish capital, claiming it to be the first ‘battery-powered hotel’ in Britain.

The battery itself was supplied and installed by Premier Inn’s project partner in energy giant E.On, which will also take care of the battery’s operation via the company’s remote energy management centre in Glasgow. 

While precise technical details of the battery have not been disclosed, the 3m3 battery will take two hours to fully charge and will be used for between two to three hours per day by the site, depending on the needs of the national grid. 

Details pertaining to project financing have also not been disclosed. As well as aiding the hotel to shift its peak-time energy demand, E.On is to also use the battery to provide grid services, allowing the hotel to benefit from additional revenue streams. 

Premier Inn said the Edinburgh hotel had been chosen as the site of the trial due in part to Scotland’s high penetration of variable wind power.

Should the project be deemed a success, Premier Inn has stated it would consider extending the trial to further hotels, with 169 of the brand’s hotel’s currently benefitting from on-site solar installations. 

Richard Oakley, customer accounts director at E.On, said that adding the “flexibility of battery storage” to the site, the utility would be able to help parent company Whitbread upgrade to a “full-board option” of energy management benefits. 

“Premier Inn is showing how hotel chains and large power users can further save money, reduce their carbon footprint and support the development of a lower-carbon, smarter energy grid in the UK,” he said.

January 7 (Renewables Now) – Canada’s Innergex Renewable Energy Inc (TSE:INE) confirmed it has sealed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for two solar-plus battery projects on the Hawaiian islands with a combined photovoltaic (PV) capacity of 45 MW.

The deals with the Hawai’i Electric Light Company and the Maui Electric Company are for the Hale Kuawehi and Paeahu schemes, both of which are scheduled for completion in 2022, Innergex said on Friday. Located on Hawaii island, the 30-MW Hale Kuawehi PV park will be able to produce an average of 92,000 MWh of electricity per year and will incorporate 120 MWh of battery storage capacity. The Paeahu solar plant, with a capacity of 15 MW, will be set up in Maui and will have a 60-MWh energy storage system. Its average annual output will be around 45,000 MWh.

The PPAs have been filed for review with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Innergex said. It explained that the contracts are for dispatchable power, which will help maintain the grid stability on the two islands.

The two projects mark the Canadian firm’s foray into the energy storage sector. Its president and CEO Michel Letellier said: “With these two important and unique projects in Hawai’i, we are excited to enter the growing and promising battery energy storage market, in which we intend to become a key player.”

While market opportunities for energy storage in Texas are considered to be limited, the largest battery project in the state so far, a 42MWh system, has just come online.

Texas has no capacity market payment mechanism, utilities are not allowed to own storage due to competition rules as it is still classed as a generation source and as early as March this year, analysts were saying that frequency response markets for the state’s main network operator, ERCOT, are rapidly reaching its maximum cap.

Thus far, the state has deployed a large amount of wind power generation and some batteries have been deployed at wind farms to limit the curtailment of the generators’ excess energy. However, integrated power company Vistra Energy, identified that some niche opportunities exist to use batteries for the integration of solar energy, while also seeing a half-formed business case for energy arbitrage, charging batteries cheaply with off-peak grid power or renewables.

Located at the 180MW Upton 2 solar plant, West Texas, Vistra Energy’s subsidiary Luminant delivered a 10MW / 42MWh lithium-ion battery system. Upton 2 is capable of generating 200MW during peak solar production hours and the batteries allow some of that extra generation to be captured and then discharged during peak times. The batteries can also be charged with off-peak power from the grid at night, which again can be resold at higher prices when demand has risen. In Texas that’s also likely to include a proportion of wind power, Vistra said. A recent 10MWh project announced by RES (Renewable Energy Systems) for utility CPS Energy also serves a similar purpose.

An investor’s note: “Batteries, renewables and electrification of transport” published by Vistra during 2018 shows that the company identified opportunities across a number of service areas of major US transmission network operators, including California’s CAISO, the New York NYISO, Texas’ ERCOT and PJM across 12 states in the Mid-West.

Of all the strange things we do as a race on this planet, refining and over-complicating things are some of them. We’re never satisfied with letting things be and often time favor extravagant conspiracy theories over reality. After all, how would the opposing piston engine and the convoluted internal combustion engine system have worked until now otherwise? Even though it has brought us this far, we need to get rid of inefficiency for more effective solar thermal energy storage systems.

So, How About Turning Sunshine Into Liquid Fuel For Solar Thermal Energy Storage?

The thought of turning sunshine into liquid fuel might sound like a step back, but hear me out. The solar thermal energy storage system I’m referencing uses a liquid isomer to store and release solar energy. The discovery could lead to more widespread use of solar energy throughout the world, according to the researchers behind it.

According to BigThink, Swedish scientists from the Chalmers University of Technology figured out that using a norbornadiene compound that reacts to sunlight has some potential in this regard. It rearranges its carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms, which can be stored in an energy-storing isomer called a quadricyclane. Quadricyclanes hold up to 250 watt-hours of energy per kilogram, even after cooling down for a long time. And they doesn’t break down after being recycles.

One of the biggest energy problems for northern and southern countries is with the harvesting and storing of their vast solar energy. These countries have made great strides with hydro and thermal energy systems, but solar thermal energy storage is still a developing field. By using a cobalt-based catalyst, the energy is released as heat, much like how concentrated solar molten salt tanks work. This makes solar energy transportable and a contender for on-demand energy needs.

Denmark’s largest energy company Orsted – formerly known as DONG Energy – has announced the completion of its first large-scale grid-connected energy storage project, a 20MW standalone battery system in Liverpool, England.

The project, Carnegie Road, sees batteries housed in three containers. The lithium battery and power conversion system have been supplied by NEC’s Energy Solutions division, headquartered in Massachusetts, USA. NEC’s Grid Storage Solution (GSS) is in place, with the two companies having worked together previously on the Bay State Wind project in Massachusetts. Energy-Storage.news reported on the project as it was first announced by Orsted in April last year.

As mentioned at the time, details on the applications the system will provide and the business model behind it have not been given, except that Carnegie Road will help to balance the grid through matching supply with demand, implying that some form of frequency response service will be delivered.

Orsted has already got one battery project in operation in the UK, a 2MW/2MWh behind-the-meter system delivered in partnership with ABB, but Carnegie Road marks its first foray into large-scale grid batteries. In late 2017, CEO Henrik Poulsen stated Orsted’s commitment to a transition to a low carbon, green and sustainable energy system and that his company was working to establish “a scalable commercial model” for solar PV and energy storage, viewing both as potential drivers of long-term growth.

“Our electricity consumption pattern is changing and is becoming less predictable as we use more electronic devices and electrify our transport system. The way we generate electricity is also changing as we add more low carbon sources from wind and solar to the grid,” Orsted’s Bridgit Hartland-Johnson said.

Luminant, a subsidiary of Vistra Energy, recently announced that its Upton 2 battery energy storage system project has finished construction and began operating Dec. 31, 2018.

The battery system, which is the largest energy storage project in Texas and seventh largest in the United States, is located on the site of Luminant’s 180-megawatt Upton 2 Solar Power Plant in Upton County, Texas.

The 10-MW/42-MWh lithium-ion energy storage system captures excess solar energy produced at during the day and can release the power in late afternoon and early evening, when energy demand in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) area is highest. The battery system can also take advantage of low-priced grid power — during times of high wind output, for example — to charge the batteries to be available for higher demand periods.

Vistra is also currently developing the world’s largest battery energy storage project, the 300-MW/1,200-MWh storage system at its Moss Landing Power Plant in California, scheduled for commercial operations in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Other Texas Energy Initiatives
Texas has recently become a hotspot for renewable energy and energy storage projects. In October 2018, NestléWaters North America (NWNA), together with Engie Resources, announced that they signed a renewable energy agreement through which Engie will supply more than 50% of the energy needed for NWNA’s manufacturing and distribution facilities in Texas. With this agreement, NWNA operations in Travis, McLennan, Dallas, and Harris counties will be supplied by renewable wind energy from the Midway Wind Farm in San Patricio County, Texas, supporting Nestlé’s global goal to transition to 100% renewable energy use in its operations.

NWNA will use clean, renewable energy to produce sustainably-sourced beverage options for Texans, including the company’s Ozarka Brand Natural Spring Water and Nestlé Pure Life Purified Water. The agreement will include up to 70,500 renewable energy certificates (RECs) per year from Midway Wind LLC. Based on current electrical usage, by transitioning its electrical power needs to renewable sources, the carbon footprint from the company’s Texas factories will be reduced by more than 44,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year.

And in May 2018, Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) announced it started construction on a comprehensive campus-wide energy efficiency project that will streamline facility operations, encourage sustainable behavior and improve the quality of life for students and staff. The university is partnering with energy and sustainability expert Schneider Electric on the project, which guarantees nearly $15 million in energy savings over the life of the project.

After another record-breaking year, in which the US surpassed 1GW of deployed energy storage and China began its programme of building flow batteries several hundred megawatts in size each, we canvassed opinion on what 2018’s biggest challenges and successes were. In doing so we also look ahead to what this year, 2019, will hold, from the strategies our industry will utilise to meet those big challenges and what the expected direction of travel will be in some of the world’s leading markets.

In this first part, we look at the challenges faced by the industry in 2018 and we’ll move on to those other aspects of energy storage in 2018-2019 and beyond in the coming instalments.

Lithium-ion cell supply

Physically getting hold of batteries for use in energy storage systems was a constraining factor in 2018 for many. Respondents Roger Lin, VP of marketing at the Energy Solutions division of NEC Corporation, said electricity policy in South Korea has “spurred an avalanche of local demand there, making it difficult to secure supply for other parts of the world,” and the only unaffected companies were those with long-term supply agreements in place. Karim Wazni, managing director of Aggreko (which bought up storage system integrator Younicos earlier this year) agreed that “the sourcing of lithium-ion cells” in particular was a supply chain challenge in 2018.

Policy uncertainty
Déjà vu for anyone making the sideways move into energy storage from the solar PV industry: politicians aren’t ever sure how to treat new technologies and environmentally-friendly energy sources are among the least understood.

Almost every one of our recipients said that while energy storage markets have grown significantly around the world, policy uncertainty remains one of the biggest challenges. Aggreko’s Karim Wazni said that rule changes have increased market risk and uncertainty – “particularly in the UK and in Germany”. NEC’s Roger Lin said that in the UK, changes to Capacity Market conditions and changes to grid services contracts and peak demand pricing mechanisms – still a work in progress – created “shifting market conditions” and uncertainty.

While a recent study said 10GW of energy storage by 2030 would offer overall benefit to Nevada, NV Energy will move forward with an Integrated Resource Plan: 1,000MW of renewables including 100MW of storage – by 2021.

NV Energy, a Nevada utility owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway vehicle, serves around 1.2 million customers in north and south Nevada, with electricity, as well as millions more tourists.

Just before the Christmas Holiday period in the last two weeks of 2018, regulators in the US state approved NV Energy’s proposal, which had been tabled in June. The plan would double NV Energy’s renewables deployment by 2023, green-lit by the Nevada Public Utilities’ Commission (PUC). NV Energy confirmed in a release that the plan will entail US$2 billion of investment, creating 80 long-term jobs and 1,700 roles during construction.

By the time the projects are completed, expected during 2021, NV Energy would have 3,000MW of renewable energy resources in operation. Wholesale electricity costs are expected to fall as a consequence of the investment in clean energy. The plan includes six projects in the state, while the company also has out a 350MW request for proposals (RFP) for large-scale solar projects.

The utility, one of only two regulated public utilities serving retail customers in the state, already offers incentives for eligible homeowners and businesses to deploy home or commercial & industrial battery storage systems from 4kW to 1,000kW. Depending on system size, up to US$2,000 or US$3,000 could be applied for, with payments capped at US$1,000,000 for every step of the programme.

From a bigger picture perspective, it’s not quite what the energy storage industry might have hoped for in the best case scenario but is certainly a big step forward. A recent study by consultancy The Brattle Group (commissioned by the PUC) determined that certain levels of energy storage deployment: 200MW by 2020, 1,000MW by 2030, along with 40MW of behind-the-meter resources would give a net benefit for the state.