Oil and gas giant British Petroleum has partnered with Tesla to install a storage battery at one of its subsidiaries’ wind farms in South Dakota, US, as part of a pilot programme which could see the firm further embrace battery storage.

A 212kW / 840kWh Tesla battery unit will be installed at the 25MW Titan 1 Wind Farm, owned by BP Wind Energy subsidiary Rolling Thunder 1 Power Partners LLC, in what is being described by BP as a “potential step forward in the performance and reliability of wind energy”.

The battery will be configured to help manage internal electricity demands of turbines when the wind isn’t blowing sufficiently enough to provide power. The unit will also be able to charge when the site is generating.

The battery is expected to be launched in the second half of 2018 and will allow BP to make a more informed decision when “evaluating and developing” battery storage projects in the future.

Laura Folse, chief executive at BP Wind Energy, said the project stood to provide the company with “valuable insights” as it pursued battery storage opportunities across its portfolio.

“It’s another way that we’re working to create a wind energy business that is sustainable for the long-term and supporting the broader transition to a low-carbon future,” she added.

The pilot too forms part of a much wider investment programme into low carbon technologies, for which the O&G major has set aside US$500 billion annually.

A behind-the-meter energy storage system made by Sharp Electronics with a capacity of 240 kW/324 kWh will be installed at Paradise Village Retirement Community in the San Diego area by NW Photon Energy. It will be integrated with 516 kW of solar PV and installed in 6 buildings.

An energy usage analysis found that the solar + energy storage system could save the senior community about $90,000 per year by reducing demand charges. It has been estimated that the new hybrid energy system will reduce demand by over 2,000 kW annually.

“The significant savings unlocked by addressing peak demand may have a positive impact on the quality of life for the seniors in Paradise Village’s care, so we’re very proud to be involved in this project,” explained Carl Mansfield, Founder and GM of Sharp’s U.S. based Energy Systems and Services Group.

HVAC, refrigeration, and medical equipment are primary energy consumers at the site and carry a startup load that results in demand requests and charges, but the new system is expected to result in reductions. The utility in the area is San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E). Additional savings are expected from using the solar PV system.

Energy storage has gone global, but in a lumpy and heterogeneous way.

That’s the upshot of new report on worldwide storage deployments from GTM Research.

The U.S. and Australia led the pack in 2017, thanks to several mega-projects coming online, and market drivers that reward storage investment. Germany and Australia thrive in the residential storage segment, which hasn’t achieved significant scale in the U.S.

China is just getting started, but could surpass almost everyone in deployments over the next five years.

Most of these markets have barely emerged from their pilot stages, and offer very few use cases for storage that can earn a profit. Expect that to change rapidly in the coming years. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know about the global energy storage market.

And the first place goes to…

It depends on what you’re counting.

For power capacity, Australia’s 2017 deployment of 246 megawatts beat out the U.S. and every other nation. Tesla’s record setting Hornsdale project played a pivotal role, delivering 100 megawatts in one go.

Based on energy capacity, though, the U.S. remained top dog with 431 megawatt-hours deployed last year. Australia came in second on that metric, followed by Germany, China and Japan.

South Africa’s potential as a market for energy storage could be set to improve following a change in leadership last month.

The appointment of a new president, Cyril Ramaphosa, looks likely to unblock a stalled renewable energy programme and woo back foreign investment scared off by irregularities in the previous administration.

Ramaphosa this week reinstated Nhlanhla Nene, a highly regarded finance minister ousted in 2015 by former head of state Jacob Zuma.

The new leader, who took control of the country after Zuma succumbed to pressure to resign over corruption allegations, named another former finance minister, Pravin Gordhan, to run the Ministry of Public Enterprises.

The Ministry is key to the energy sector because it is in charge of signing off power-purchase agreements between the state electricity company Eskom and plants developed under the nation’s renewables procurement programme. 

South Africa’s renewable energy programme

Developers selected under recent rounds of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Procurement Program (REIPPPP) had been trapped in a hiatus caused by a scandal involving Zuma and Eskom.

Zuma’s government had dragged its feet over signing the agreements while Zuma handed Eskom coal supply contracts to a family business tied up in the corruption allegations.

When Eskom came clean over faltering finances this year, Gordhan’s predecessor hastily approved outstanding REIPPPP power-purchase agreements in the days before Zuma was forced to resign.

Assuming Eskom can now limp back to financial health, which observers say is only a matter of time, the outlook for renewables in South Africa is once again bright.

One of the consequences of Eskom’s financial ill-health is that it has abandoned plans to build new nuclear plants, leaving renewables as one of the most viable options to increase generation capacity in future. 

Since the success of its giant Powerpack system in Australia, Tesla has been rolling out several other massive energy storage projects in the country despite some high-profile critics at the federal level and now within the new South Australian government who think the initiative is overvalued.

Nonetheless, the Australian Energy Market Operator praised the performance of the system in a new report this month.

Tesla’s 100MW/129MWh Powerpack project in South Australia, the largest in the world for now, has been demonstrating its capacity since going into operation in December.

When an issue happens or maintenance is required on the power grid in Australia, the Energy Market Operator calls for FCAS (frequency control and ancillary services) which consists of large and costly gas generators and steam turbines kicking in to compensate for the loss of power.

Electricity rates can be seen reaching $14,000 per MW during those FCAS periods.

Tesla’s battery system can provide the same service cheaper, quicker, and with zero-emissions, through its battery system.

It is so efficient that it reportedly should have made around $1 million in just a few days in January, but Tesla complained last month that they are not being paid correctly because the system doesn’t account for how fast Tesla’s Powerpacks start discharging their power into the grid.

The system is basically a victim of its own efficiency, which the Australian Energy Market Operator confirmed is much more rapid, accurate and valuable than a conventional steam turbine (left) in a new report:

The (possible) solutions