Elon Musk sparked a competition for the world’s biggest battery.

Ever since Tesla completed the 129-megawatt-hour Hornsdale Power Reserve battery plant after Musk’s high-profile Twitter bet, others have been looking to beat it.

This summer, for instance, saw two “world’s biggest battery” announcements coming out within days of each other. Given different commissioning dates, both might actually claim the prize for a while. But which country will ultimately end up with the biggest battery?

Here is a rundown of the top contenders, based on announcements made to date.

South Korea

LS Industrial Systems (LSIS) and Macquarie Capital Korea have won the contract to build and operate a 175-megawatt-hour battery storage system across five sites owned by SeAH, a steel conglomerate, LSIS announced in July.

LSIS did not give a commissioning date for the energy storage project but said it would be used to save cheap nighttime electricity for use in the daytime, creating savings of around KRW 130 billion (USD $116 million) over 15 years.

United Kingdom

The U.K. bagged a new national record for battery size in July with the opening of Stocking Pelham, a 50-megawatt-hour facility containing 150,000 lithium-ion cells.

However, the SMA Sunbelt Energy-owned installation could be dwarfed if plans for a 350-megawatt-hour battery system move forward in Graveney, near Kent in southeast England.

The battery is due to serve a 300-megawatt solar plant proposed by Hive Energy and Wirsol Energy. But both projects face significant opposition from campaigners concerned about their impact on nearby marshland ecosystems.

Australia

Despite worries that Hornsdale may have killed the business case for other big batteries in the market, Australia seems keen to stay at the forefront of massive battery development.

In March, GTM revealed that a British businessman, Sanjeev Gupta, plans to build a 120-megawatt, 140-megawatt-hour battery complex in the same region where Tesla completed its Hornsdale plant late last year.

And in May, Reuters reported that a consortium including JERA of Japan, Australian developer Lyon Group and battery provider Fluence was planning to develop a 400-megawatt-hour storage system in South Australia. Construction could begin “within months,” Reuters said.

USTDA Tweet reveals Vietnam feasibility study

The world’s first grid-scale demonstration of a liquid air energy storage (LAES) plant was officially launched in June.

UK-based long-duration energy storage firm Highview Power developed the 5-MW/15-MWh project in partnership with recycling and renewable energy company Viridor with more than£8 million in funding from the UK government. The plant located at the Pilsworth landfill gas site in Bury, near Manchester, in the UK (Figure 4), works by using surplus power (during off-peak hours) to refrigerate air into a liquid at –196C (–320F).

The liquid air is then stored “very efficiently” in insulated tanks at low pressure. When power is required, liquid air is drawn from the tanks. Exposure to ambient temperatures causes rapid re-gasification and a 700-fold expansion in volume, which is then used to drive a turbine and create electricity without combustion. “Heat harnessed from the liquefaction process is applied to the liquid air via heat exchangers and an intermediate heat transfer fluid. This produces a high-pressure gas in the form of air that is then used to drive the turbine and create electricity,” Highview Power explained.

The company says the technology draws from established processes from the turbo-machinery, power generation and industrial gas sectors. Components used in the processes “can be readily sourced from large OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] and have proven operating lifetimes and performances,” it said. The technology doesn’t depend on “exotic materials” like battery storage and is comprised mostly of steel, giving it a lifespan of between 30 and 40 years, in comparison with 10 years for batteries. At the end of its life, an LAES plant can be decommissioned, and the steel can be recycled. And because the system uses a thermodynamic cycle, it can interface with co-located thermal processes such as liquefied natural gas regasification plants, peaking plants, and industrial applications. “This means we can utilize waste heat and cold streams, improving the efficiency of our customers’ main processes by converting their waste thermal energy into a useful resource for our system,” it said.

According to Gareth Brett, Highview Power’s vice chairman (and CEO of the company for 10 years before Dr. Javier Cavada Camino took on that role on June 28), completion of the grid-scale plant is a major milestone in demonstration of “the only large scale, true long-duration, locatable energy storage technology available today, at acceptable cost.” The project was preceded by a 350-kW/2.5-MWh pilot installation at SSE’s biomass plant at Slough Heat and Power in Greater London. The pilot underwent full testing between 2011 and 2014, before it was relocated to the University of Birmingham Center for Cryogenic Energy Storage to support further testing and academic research.

Aug 01, 2018 (Heraldkeeper via COMTEX) — New York, August 01, 2018: The Global Energy Storage Systems Market is segmented on the basis of its Delivery Technology Type, Application Type And Regional Type. By Technology Type this market is segmented on the basis of Electro Chemical, Lithium-Ion battery, Lead Acid battery, Sodium Sulfur (NaS) battery, Flow battery, Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) & Nickel Metal Cadmium (NiCd), Mechanical, Pumped Hydro, Flywheel, Thermal Storage, Thermo Chemical, Latent

By Application Type this market is segmented on the basis of Transportation and Grid Storage. By Geographic Analysisthis market is segmented on the basis of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of World.

The global Energy Storage Systems Market is expected to exceed more than US$ 1 Billion by 2025 in the given forecast period.

The scope of the report includes a detailed study of Global Energy Storage Systems Market with the reasons given for variations in the growth of the industry in certain regions.

The key roles played by energy storage systems in power grids include time shifting to manage peak loads, providing power quality by aiding in frequency regulation, mitigating power congestion on grids, and supplying power uniformly in distributed generation. They are also used as a primary power source in electric vehicles.

Energy Storage Systems are equipment that can efficiently and conveniently store multiple varieties of energy which will be utilized as per requirement, as example Li-ion batteries.

Browse Full Report Here: https://www.marketresearchengine.com/energy-storage-systems-market

The report covers detailed competitive outlook including the market share and company profiles of the key participants operating in the Global market. Key players profiled in the report LG Chem, Ltd, ABB Ltd, GS Yuasa Corporation, Samsung SDI Co., Ltd, General Electric Company, SaftGroupe S.A, Tesla, Inc, Evapco, Inc, Calmac, Baltimore Aircoil Company, Inc, BYD Company Limited, Hitachi, Ltd and Panasonic Corporation. Company profile includes assign such as company summary, financial summary, business strategy and planning, SWOT analysis and current developments.

The compromise in Massachusetts, should it be approved by the state’s Department of Public Utilities, would open the door for development of an energy storage market in Massachusetts by expanding the potential revenue streams available to owners of energy storage projects.

Last summer, Massachusetts set a 200 MWh by 2020 energy storage target. But aside from demonstration projects, there was little activity for commercial energy storage projects.

The state’s Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program is seen as the major vehicle for developing an energy storage market in the state, but it became embroiled in a debate about ownership of capacity rights that had its roots in the state’s net metering program.

The tension at the heart of the conflict was trying to reach agreement between providing incentives for developers of energy storage projects and allowing utilities access to capacity rights as a way to offset the costs of the net metering on ratepayers.

The compromise proposal allows the state’s utilities to retain the capacity rights for Class II and Class III net metered and SMART facilities, but also includes an option for developers of those projects to buy out the capacity rights from the utility. There is no buy-out option for standalone, non-residential solar projects not paired with storage.

Utilities would have two options when it comes to retaining the capacity rights. The first option would allow the utility to retain 20% of capacity revenues. In the second option, all capacity revenues would flow to ratepayers. The advantage of the first option is that it would flow more potential revenues to the utility. The advantage of the second option is it would potentially offset a higher level of net metering payments.

The proposed compromise was reached among the state’s utilities, clean energy companies, the Massachusetts ratepayer advocate and the state’s Department of Energy Resources (DOER).

Renewable energy sources are naturally inconsistent, and thus require new energy storage technologies. Supercapacitors offer rapid charging and long-term storage, but it is important to be able to monitor their working state. To tackle this issue, a team including Tuan Guo and Wenjie Mai at Jinan University adapted an approach based on an optical fiber-based plasmonic sensor. The sensor is embedded inside the capacitor and is able to measure the state of charge of the electrodes and electrolytes in real time, while operating, and over its lifetime. The sensor demonstrates a clear and repeatable high correlation between measurements of the optical transmission of the fiber device and simultaneous supercapacitor‘s state of charge, offering a unique, low-cost method for real-time monitoring of energy storage devices in operation.

This result has been published in Light: Science & Applications (July 11, 2018), with a manuscript title of “In Situ Plasmonic Optical Fiber Detection of the State of Charge of Supercapacitors for Renewable Energy Storage. ”

Electrochemical energy storage devices (such as supercapacitors) are considered to be the next generation of energy storage devices with the highest energy storage efficiency and very promising prospects. They are widely used in clean electric power, electric vehicles, mobile medical, portable electronic devices and other fields. In situ and continuous monitoring is a key method for understanding and evaluation of their performance and operation quality. However, the present methods cannot offer the real-time charge state information when the energy storage devices are in operation. They are required to take the supercapacitors offline (thus interrupting their function) and carry out electrical measurements, and in some cases, opening up the supercapacitors to examine their components by electron microscopy.

To address this fundamental challenge, Prof. Guo and Prof. Mai and their colleague developed optical fiber devices small enough to be inserted near the surface of the capacitor electrodes. Based on telecommunication-grade fibers, they can be left there and monitored remotely at any time and from any distance. Another important aspect of their approach is that in contrast to current techniques that rely on an indirect estimate of the state of charge from current/voltage tests, the optical fiber devices detect the amount of charge accumulated in a sub-micrometer-sized layer on the electrodes and the adjacent electrolyte directly through its impact on the plasmonic properties of a nanometer-scale gold coating applied to the fiber surface.

The role of energy storage batteries in Australia’s future electricity market is critical, claims the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC).

The comments come as the corporation released record renewable investment figures for 2017-18.

The government-funded finance body directly committed to 39 projects in the past financial year, up from 36 the previous year.

The CEFC invested $1.1 billion in renewables and $939 million in energy efficiency projects between 2017 and 2018. Total new commitments of $2.3 billion were made during this time. This compares with $2.1 billion in the previous financial year.

Energy storage batteries play larger role in CEFC projects

According to CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth, the battery increase is because storage technologies extend the benefits of low-cost wind and solar installations across the network.

The CEFC has contributed to four large-scale renewable projects featuring energy storage since starting in 2013. Twenty-four smaller storage projects have also been co-financed by partners.

The Federal Government is keen to develop battery and pumped hydro storage. This will counter the intermittency of wind and solar power generation. It’s also an effective way to exploit falling solar costs.

Major storage projects around Australia include:

• The 212MW Lincoln Gap Wind Farm planned for Port Augusta in South Australia with  around 10 MW of battery storage.
• Kennedy Energy Park in central north Queensland will be Australia’s first fully integrated wind, solar and battery project. It features 15 MW of solar generation and 2 MW of storage.
• Kidston Renewable Energy Hub near Townsville will be Australia’s first large-scale solar farm co-located with pumped hydro storage.
• Sandfire Resources’ DeGrussa Copper-Gold Mine in remote WA will also feature a 10 MW solar plant with 6 MW battery storage.

Energy storage is the key bottleneck of today’s power industry, attracting greater levels of investment to find alternatives to the ever popular, and intensely fought-over, lithium resources. Here, Scarlett Evans rounds up the new material contenders in battery technology.

As global power demand grows, so does the necessity to find sustainable alternatives to traditional battery storage systems – not only to extend smartphone and laptop life but also to power electric vehicles (EVs) and store energy from wind and solar sources.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have long been the favourite power source for modern technologies, overtaking lead-acid batteries due to their longevity and energy density. However, lithium’s rising costs – going up by 240% in 2017 according to the Financial Times – in addition to fears over supply chain, resource depletion and reports of sudden battery drains, have caused developers to look elsewhere for effective, low-carbon battery bases.

So far, the search has uncovered a range of materials with potential to solve the energy storage problem, including sodium, cobalt, water and gold. But with lithium now a staple of modern technology, will other materials ever reach the same level of commercial-scale success?

Ammonia boosts efficiency

Most recently, German industrial firm Siemens announced the launch of a £1.5m pilot project trialling the use of ammonia as a new form of energy storage. Traditionally used as a fertiliser, Siemens has voiced its belief that the ammonia project may have an advantage over other energy storage methods due to its repurposing of pre-existing technologies and hardware.

The project will take place at a proof-of-concept facility in Harwell, Oxfordshire, UK where the team will attempt to turn electricity, water and air into ammonia without releasing carbon emissions. The ammonia produced will then be stored in a tank, to be burned to generate electricity, sold as fuel for vehicles, or used for industrial purposes such as refrigeration.

In the instance of ammonia powering electric vehicles (EVs), rather than use the chemical directly, the scheme will extract the hydrogen only for use hydrogen vehicles.

The main benefit, Siemens claims, is cost-effectiveness, as is the case for many alternatives to lithium. Indeed, for many the aim is to simply find a cheaper battery that can provide the same storage capacity and longevity.

Imagine if the US had these three things: access to unlimited electricity from clean sources everywhere in the country, an electricity grid impervious to outages and electricity prices that were even cheaper than they are today.  These aspirations can become reality with advancements in energy storage.

This technology was developed right here in the good ole’ US of A, but unfortunately, the US is now falling behind other countries in this increasingly lucrative global market, and our outdated electric grid is growing more vulnerable to increasing threats like cyber-attacks and extreme weather.  So how do we regain our leadership in this critical technology, and how can we increase the development and deployment of energy storage here at home?  The answer is innovation.

What are the experts in the field saying?

Back in March, with the help of the Bipartisan House Advanced Energy Storage Caucus, UCS convened twenty-one experts on energy storage research, development and demonstration from around the country.  The goal was to develop recommendations for congress on how the federal government could best support innovation in this game-changing technology.  Our new policy brief, “Federal Support for Electricity Storage Solutions: State Perspectives on Research Development and Demonstration”, synthesizes the convening dialogue and includes a brief analysis of the applications and benefits of energy storage.  It also identifies and prioritizes the most important research questions and breakthroughs needed to advance the technology.  The brief highlights important ongoing work on energy storage across the federal government.  And most importantly, it contains recommendations for policy-makers on how the federal government can best foster and support innovation in energy storage.

We wanted to hear diverse perspectives, so we included a broad cross section of technical experts from different states and regions, including university professors, start-ups, the national labs, small rural electric co-ops and big utility representation, conservative political voices, the defense community, former state and federal officials, and financial analysts.

Three important points of unanimous agreement at the outset of the convening:  1) Energy storage RD&D across the federal government is underfunded relative to the strategic importance of innovation in this technology.  2) “The U.S. is no longer the global leader in energy storage technology.”  3) The private sector is not making the needed investments in energy storage RD&D to achieve transformational change.  Specific, strategic efforts are needed by the federal government to advance the technology.