Researchers in Akron, Ohio, are filling silos with sand in hopes it might lead to the next breakthrough in energy storage.

Echogen Power Systems, founded 11 years ago on the principle of capturing heat for energy, is among 10 recipients to receive millions of dollars in Department of Energy funding for long-duration energy storage.

In the Midwest, a team from Michigan State University was also selected. A common theme between the Ohio and Michigan projects: heating up cheap materials to reduce storage costs.

“In order to get a large penetration of renewable energy onto the grid, we really need low-cost and robust forms of energy storage,” said James Klausner, chair of Michigan State University’s Mechanical Engineering Department.

By storing thermal energy in relatively cheap materials, the researchers are looking for a low-cost, long-duration technology to support widespread deployment of renewables.

Echogen received $3 million and MSU received $2 million through a DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program. The DAYS program focuses on storage for roughly 10 to 100 hours, and projects must also demonstrate a path to commercialization.

Echogen’s project turns thermal energy into electricity with sand as the storage medium. The process involves using a carbon dioxide heat pump cycle to convert electricity into thermal energy by heating a reservoir, which is converted back into electricity on demand. The product is geared toward larger-scale projects at 50-100 MW capacities.

“Using these low-cost storage media, we can keep increasing capacity for megawatt hours almost indefinitely,” said Echogen chief technology officer Tim Held, adding that storage durations could exceed 100 hours.

French power giant EDF has acquired a 50% stake in the Togo-focused unit of off-grid renewable energy specialist BBOXX, with EDF adding its financial clout to speed up solar home system deployments and its technical expertise to improve the energy storage offering.

The new joint venture seeks to progress BBOXX’s operations in Togo where it has been supplying solar home systems with batteries since 2017 and through which it now supplies power to 26,000 Togloese. The solar systems are eligible for mobile payments and they allow customers to power domestic appliances, such as TVs, radios, fans and mobile telephone chargers. So far BBOXX has opened 20 shops and employs around 100 people in this African country.

Along with its 50% stake in BBOXX Togo, EDF will aim to improve the performance of the battery storage solution, having been working on this technology as part of its Electricity Storage Plan, aiming to develop storage capacity of 10GW worldwide by 2035. EDF’s R&D department will also be testing and certifying solar kit components.

This is the latest investment from EDF into the African renewables sector, having been working in the Ivory Coast with Off-Grid Electric, recently starting operating in Ghana and offering solar pump irrigation solutions to farmers in Kenya. The firm has also been active in Africa’s utility-scale solar tenders under the World Bank’s ‘Scaling Solar’ programme, for example in Ethiopia and Zambia.

Under the new joint venture, EDF and BBOXX, which also plan to work together in other African countries, will first focus on the Togo government’s electrification programme, known as ‘CIZO’, which aims to supply more than half a million households with solar home systems by 2030. The two partners are aiming for a market share of 35% in Togo by 2024.

Mansoor Hamayun, CEO and co-founder of BBOXX, said: “Working with global partners like EDF shows our commitment to scaling up, mobilising greater investment, generating meaningful impact and powering the economic development of some of the world’s least developed communities.”

CMI Energy, part of Cockerill Maintenance & Ingénierie (CMI) Group, has opened an industrial energy storage facility called the Micro Réseau Intégré Seraing (MiRIS) in Seraing, Belgium.

Located at the CMI Group’s international headquarters, MiRIS features renewable, as well as energy storage systems, and is integrated with a microgrid.

The renewable portion of MiRIS includes a 2MWp, 1.75GWh per year, the photovoltaic system with 6,500 rooftop and carport panels, while the 4.2MWh energy storage part comprises a lithium-ion battery system and two different flow battery systems.

CMI Energy president Jean-Michel Gheeraerdts said: “We now have ways to use green energy sources that eradicate their major flaw – intermittent production.

“Energy storage and management can be applied in a number of fields as an alternative to diesel generators for unconnected regions, as a way of deferring investment in parts of the network, as a means of optimising existing photovoltaic or wind systems, and as an enabler of participation in the primary or secondary reserve markets.”

The company noted that its new energy storage pilot plant has been designed to demonstrate an advanced integration of intermittent renewable energy resources with battery-based energy storage to produce a fully dispatchable renewable energy resource.

Additionally, MiRIS will focus on the interoperability of renewables and different energy storage technologies for a variety of user energy profiles.

SERAING, Belgium — CMI Energy, part of CMI Group, will be inaugurating Europe’s largest industrial energy storage facility on October 26, 2018. The MiRIS (Micro Réseau Intégré Seraing) energy storage pilot plant consists of energy storage and PV integrated with a microgrid. The purpose of the full-scale pilot project is to demonstrate advanced integration of intermittent renewable energy resources with battery-based energy storage to produce a fully dispatchable renewable energy resource. MiRIS is located at the CMI Group’s international headquarters, located in Seraing (Belgium).

Jean-Michel Gheeraerdts, President of CMI Energy, when announcing the MiRIS project said, “We now have ways to use green energy sources that eradicate their major flaw: intermittent production. Energy storage and management can be applied in a number of fields as an alternative to diesel generators for unconnected regions, as a way of deferring investment in parts of the network, as a means of optimizing existing photovoltaic or wind systems, and as an enabler of participation in the primary or secondary reserve markets.”

MiRIS consists of renewable and energy storage systems. The renewable part includes a 2 MWp, 1.75 GWh/yr., photovoltaic system with 6,500 roof top and carport panels. The 4.2MWh energy storage part consists of a lithium-ion battery system and two different flow battery systems. The technology showcase interconnects with the building’s electrical network and its DSO 15kV distribution service connection. The existing facility consumes approximately 1.3 GWh/yr.

MiRIS will facilitate investigation of the interoperability of renewables and different energy storage technologies for a variety of user energy profiles, particularly with respect to renewable energy time shifting and energy resale to the grid. MiRIS will also enable evaluation of microgrid “islanding” operation, potential grid ancillary service opportunities, and the influence of user demand response.

A new-build school in the northern coastal suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, has become the first in Australia to be powered 100 per cent by rooftop solar and battery storage.

Atlantis Beach Baptist College in Two Rocks – which opened for business in February 2017 – sources all of its power, 24/7, through 20kW of rooftop PV and 30kWh of battery storage. Solar heat pumps are used for hot water.

The off-grid school initially chose to operate on diesel fuel generators, because the cost of connecting to the grid in early 2017 – around $250,000, according to the school’s principal – was ruled out as economically unfeasible.

The switch to solar – which was completed this month – was coordinated by Sydney-based company Upstream Energy, allowing the College to switch to solar and storage for no up-front cost.

To pay for the system, ABBC buys the solar power at a fixed rate from Upstream each month, just as it would do for grid power, with an electricity retailer.

Upstream says the solar and storage system – currently quite small – will grow in line with the campus, as more students enrol and more buildings are built. Upgrades will also come at nil capital cost.

At this stage, the school caters to students from pre-kindergarten to Year 10.

“The annual energy consumption of the campus is approximately 25,000kWh and the new solar and storage system will deliver up to 32,390kWh of sustainable energy at a substantially lower cost than what it would cost … to procure a grid connection,” Upstream Energy managing director Nathan Begley told the North Coast Times.

French multinational electric utility Engie has deployed an energy storage system in Holland that is powered entirely by second-life batteries from Renault electric vehicles.

The 150 kW/90 kWh E-STOR system in Rotterdam has been developed by UK energy storage technology developer Connected Energy and has been installed on a section of the TenneT distribution network.

The Rotterdam project is the first part of a three-stage project by Engie and Connected Energy. This first step is a seen as ‘proof of concept’, designed to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of using E-STOR second-life battery systems for frequency response services.

Engie says the results so far “are extremely positive: E-STOR has been proven to integrate seamlessly into Engie’s flexibility pool of industrial assets and has already generated its grid balancing revenues”.

In a wider context, the project is part of the Re-Use Re-Power initiative developed by Engie. Phase 2 and Phase 3 will see Engie and Connected Energy deploy much larger E-STOR systems at other sites in Northern Europe for grid balancing services.

The deployment at Rotterdam is also significant at a technical level: the E-STOR utilises a new system architecture which enables second-life electric vehicle batteries to be operated in series, which the company says thereby increases power and capacity while reducing cost.

A control room has also been built where the operations of the system can be demonstrated.

Connected Energy chief executive Matthew Lumsden said: “We are delighted with the positive results and feedback from the first stage of this exciting journey with Engie. Our second-life E-STOR battery containers have been proven to deliver on a technical and economic level: they should provide a guaranteed 10-year service in the frequency market with a substantial cost benefit versus new batteries.

“This is just the start of sequence of much bigger system roll-outs – 2019 is looking extremely promising indeed.”

Marcel Didden, project manager of the Re-use and Re-Power project, said: “Using second life car batteries is known to have technology challenges due to the different ageing history of the batteries. As this Rotterdam unit has been approved by the Dutch TSO to provide frequency reserve, Connected Energy has proven to manage these complexities.”

As well as Elon Musk remarking that the company may have had its “best ever quarter” for solar since the SolarCity takeover, Tesla’s energy storage deployments have enjoyed a ramp up, while a fellow exec hinted the stationary battery business is constrained by cell supply.

The solar roof tile remains delayed from reaching volume production until next year. Nonetheless, in an earnings call with analysts, Musk commented that “we saw higher revenues and better profitability in our energy business. In fact, it may have been our best quarter ever for solar”. Tesla CTO and self-professed battery tech fanatic JB Straubel said later in the call that cell supply is “somewhat tight” for the energy business which includes the Powerwall and Powerpack residential and grid storage products.

Tesla reported third-quarter energy storage deployments of 239MWh, an increase of 18% from the previous quarter (203MWh) and 118% compared to the prior year period. Energy storage continues to be the major catalyst in the segment revenue growth, which reached the second highest ever level of US$399.3 million. The company touted that due to the storage install growth, tripling of energy storage deployments in 2018, compared to 2017 was on track, despite expected seasonality issues in the fourth quarter of 2018. Supporting the growth claims was the eventual increase at Gigafactory 1 of its Powerwall production in the quarter, which was having an effect on reducing its order backlog.

Energy-Storage.news has reported on several grid-scale projects supplied or soon to be supplied with Tesla’s Powerpack battery systems during the quarter, including a contract to deliver a 52MWh storage system for a 280MW wind farm in Australia, the inauguration of New Zealand’s first grid battery storage facility and an order from Amazon for a 3.77MW system at the retail giant’s ‘fulfilment centre’ in Tilbury, England. Meanwhile the 129MWh battery Tesla put into operation in South Australia a few months ago is reportedly generating healthy revenues as well as network cost savings.

Julian Jansen, senior analyst, Energy Storage at IHS Markit pointed out that “strategically, it’s quite simple” for Tesla to serve both the C&I and front-of-meter market segments with the Powerpack, which is scalable to either or both sets of applications. This includes acting as supplier and integrator of Powerpack systems in the US C&I market for projects developed and operated by AMS (Advanced Microgrid Solutions). Jansen said that partnership alone equates to more than 100MWh of operational Powerpacks, based on publicly announced figures from AMS.

The world’s biggest and most effective battery, hydroelectric pumped storage, is more in demand than ever. The technology that uses water in an upper and lower reservoir to store and provide energy on demand is proving an important player in the rapidly changing global energy market.

The biggest driver for energy storage is the need for a reliable clean energy source that can ensure the success of the global movement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). It is estimated that the pumped storage market size will surpass $390 Billion by 2024. The demand can be seen from Australia to California, the United Kingdom to China. Pumped hydro, which already accounts for 97% of installed energy storage capacity, is rapidly growing.

The push for GHG reductions and the need for energy storage at national, state, and local levels around the world continues to be the biggest market drivers in a changing energy mix. In 2016, the Paris Climate Agreement brought 195 nations together to move forward in this push. Recently the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IGCC) painted a bleak picture . The Paris agreement is not enough.

Communities are increasing the number of intermittent renewables that need large-scale energy storage options to integrate them into the electricity market, making energy available when people need it and storing excess generation when the wind blows and the sun shines, but there’s no demand for the power. While batteries, compressed air and fly-wheels are small-scale energy storage solutions, pumped storage remains the most reliable and most impactful scalable solution.

Obstacles to Meeting the Need

Despite an increase market demand for pumped storage, several obstacles continue to plague the industry. In the United States one of the biggest issues is the long and arduous licensing and permitting process for hydropower projects. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued only a small handful of pumped-storage facility licenses in recent years. It can take up to five years just to get the approvals for a project, before construction can start. There must be more integration of federal and state agencies into the early-stage licensing process for these projects. Additionally, alternative streamlined licensing processes for low-impact pumped storage hydropower, such as off-channel or closed-loop projects with minimal environmental impacts, are needed.

The 21st-century grid is transforming faster than anyone imagined ten years ago, when natural gas seemed to be our power source of the future. Today, with ever-dropping prices in renewables and storage, the future is being re-defined.

A decade ago, the advent of horizontal drilling made natural gas the darling of the U.S. power sector, and for many good reasons. Natural gas lends itself to providing both steady baseload and easily dispatchable peak load power. Inexpensive, domestically produced and significantly lower in emissions than coal, natural gas was lauded as an abundant, cost-effective vehicle for enabling the lengthy transition to a renewables future that the domestic power sector faced. However, it now appears that the transition is happening much sooner than anticipated. As the deployment of renewables plus energy storage accelerates exponentially across the country, utilities are recognizing the proven ability of storage resources to supplement and, in some cases, completely replace gas-fired generation.

Stiff Competition from Renewables and Storage

In North America, natural gas is no longer necessarily the most cost-effective nor lowest-carbon energy resource to deploy. While gas will remain an important fuel source for a diverse generation base for years to come, it is facing competition. In early 2017, for example, for the first time in history, low-cost, clean electricity from Midwest-based wind turbines supplied over 50% of all power to the grid across 14 states in the central United States, from Montana to Texas. Utility-scale solar prices in the U.S. have fallen 73% since 2010, with average prices (not including subsidies or tax credits) at $45/MWh – and as low as $23/MWh in solar-rich southwestern states. Mexico’s 2017 solar auction resulted in the lowest price seen the world has seen to date: $19.18/MWh. Globally, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has stated that renewable energy technologies should be competitive on price with fossil fuels by 2020.

Batteries selected from list of contenders