The British retailer, Marks and Spencer, and the property developer, Landsec, announced that they are exploring battery storage technologies on their estates.

At a recent edie webinar, hosted on the topic of energy resilience, Energy Managers for the two companies revealed their interest in the technologies.

Maria Spyrou, Energy Manager at Marks and Spencer, confirmed that the company is currently undergoing feasibility checks.

Landsec’s Energy Manager, Charles Sainsbury, also commented that for the firm, energy storage is ‘crucial’ for security.

“We’re committed to looking at energy security as one of the biggest issues for our company in terms of infrastructure and energy supply,” Mr Sainsbury reported.

“It’s a big part of what we do. We are constantly looking at opportunities where we can bring in battery storage across our sites.”

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When you hear energy storage and graphene mentioned in the same sentence this usually refers to electrical energy. Let’s take a brief look at some of the research that has been coming out of the labs recently…

Batteries

Energy storage is of critical interest in road transport because you have to carry the energy you need around with you. Electric vehicles (EVs) run on batteries.

Batteries work by storing electrical energy in a chemical reaction. When the battery is connected and circuit is made, the pathway for the reaction is opened and electricity is released in a controlled way.

There are two problems with the technology. Firstly the batteries take a long time to charge. Secondly they don’t store a lot of energy in comparison with liquid fuels like diesel.

This means you cannot travel long distances without recharging. Then when you connect to the power grid you have to wait quite some time for the batteries to recharge.

Improving batteries with graphene

Recent work reveals that graphene could help with the charging time. Samsung claim to have developed a graphene coating for the electrodes that can make batteries recharge faster.

The secret seems to be that they have made a graphene powder from graphite with a sophisticated milling technique developed by the Hosokawa Micron Corporation in Japan. This machine is called the Nobilta. It grinds up solid graphite to create an exfoliated graphene nanoplatelet powder that looks a bit like microscopic popcorn.

This form of graphene is coated on the battery electrodes. It has a high surface area, which means there are more sites for the chemical reaction to operate. This is why the reaction can go faster and this speeds up the charging time. However it is hard to see how this development can increase the energy density of the battery.

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With renewable energy generation now cost-competitive with electricity produced from fossil fuels, significant challenges remain in how to integrate renewable energy into power grids and systems, as renewables cannot always match supply with demand.

Sustainable energy company, Vestas, and battery-manufacturer, Northvolt, announced a technology collaboration on the development of a lithium-ion battery platform for Vestas power plants. As an initial phase of the partnership, Vestas is investing 10 million EUR.

The solution to solving this challenge is storing renewably-generated electricity so it can be provided when needed. Battery storage is a key technology to support the large-scale integration of renewable energy into energy systems and to speed up the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

In this context, providers of both wind energy technologies and battery technologies are looking for ways to accelerate this integration.

With the support of Northvolt, Vestas is looking to bring the most competitive and sustainable hybrid storage solutions to the market and to better integrate storage and renewable energy generation technologies as a means to meet broader industry challenges and increase the uptake of more renewables.

This is being done both through existing research and development and by combining it with unique competencies and experiences of new partners. In this way, Northvolt will become a part of Vestas’ hybrid supplier ecosystem.

Northvolt, with the support of Vestas, is looking to better understand the needs of the renewable energy sector in order to develop batteries for solution providers and OEMs. Northvolt is building a next-generation battery factory with the aim to produce the world’s greenest batteries to enable and accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

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With energy storage deployments in the US up almost 50% year-on-year, according to GTM Research analysis, the next big question for the industry might be who gets to own all of the assets.

In the latest edition of PV Tech Power, Solar Media’s downstream tech journal for the global PV industry, Jigar Shah, clean energy entrepreneur and financier says in an interview that he expects 2018 to be a year that utilities in the US start to carve themselves a bigger stake in the nascent industry.

Speaking in the ‘Storage & Smart Power’ section of the journal, which is brought to you by the Energy-Storage.News team, Shah says that many utilities in the US, that were similarly sceptical on the potential of solar PV some years back before beginning a wave of deployments and acquisitions, are increasingly seeing the value of energy storage.

“Energy storage has broken through such that utilities [in the US] admit that their value is very high, at least to a 3.5% penetration,” Shah says in the interview.

“The fight now is really about who owns the storage – I am inclined to believe that the utility companies will win that battle.”

In solar, there was a long period – still extant in some states of the US – when utilities were often accused of trying to shut down the industry, particularly rooftop PV. Having seen their retail electricity business eroded and less and less customers fully reliant on the grid, utilities were often accused by the industry and advocates of lobbying against solar through self-interest. The picture is now rapidly changing, with major utilities such as Duke Energy and California’s main investor-owned utilities all prolifically deploying renewables.

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This year brought numerous record-breaking battery projects, dozens of acquisitions and partnerships, and over a dozen utility integrated resource plans that factor in storage. Within a decade, the U.S. storage market could be 25 times bigger than it is today — swamping natural-gas peaker plants and enabling a vast array of new grid applications.

In this week’s episode, we open up our vault of data and describe the state of storage in America: which sectors are dominating, how utilities are thinking about the technology, where the economics stand, and what to look for in 2018.

Plus, we’ll have a conversation with Green Mountain Power CEO Mary Powell about how customer-sited battery storage fits into the utility’s broad culture and tech shift.

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The California Public Utilities Commission could soon require Calpine replace three natural gas plants in the state with energy storage.

The regulators will vote on the matter January 11, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Both Calpine and the California Independent System Operator oppose the move, saying the plants are needed to ensure reliability.

Two of the targeted gas plants are in Feather River and Yuba, and total 47 MW each. The third, in Metcalf, totals 605 MW. None of the three have long-term contracts with utilities.

An investigation by the Los Angeles Times concluded California overbuilt the state’s electrical system, primarily with natural gas facilities.

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AMHERST — The state has awarded the University of Massachusetts Amherst a $1.14 million grant to build a large battery together with the company Tesla Energy.

The funding is part of $20 million in state grants awarded last week to 25 communities. The grants are part of a state initiative meant to improve the energy storage market in Massachusetts.

“The development and deployment of energy storage projects will be vital to the Commonwealth’s ability to continue leading the nation in energy efficiency,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a statement. “Funding these storage projects is an investment in our energy portfolio that will reduce costs for ratepayers and help create a clean and resilient energy future.”

Tesla will design and construct the one megawatt/four-megawatt-hour lithium ion battery storage system at UMass as part of the 15-year project. The company will also provide $80,000 of educational opportunities for UMass students such as paid internships, career mentorship and curriculum development around the issues of solar and energy storage.

The battery will be located next to the campus power plant, and is meant to lower peak energy demand on campus, thus reducing the university’s reliance on the outside power grid.

“We’re very excited to be able to integrate a 1 MW lithium ion battery into our utility infrastructure on campus,” Raymond Jackson, the university’s physical plant director, said in a statement. “This project will help us optimize our on-campus renewable energy generation, increase resiliency and further diversity our utility portfolio.”

Currently, the campus receives 15 megawatts of power from the university’s central heating plant, which has a 10-megawatt solar combustion turbine, a 4-megawatt steam turbine, three natural gas boilers and a heat recovery steam generator. The campus also gets around 5 megawatts from solar panels around campus.

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California is considering energy storage to replace two peaking plants and one larger facility, the 580 MW Metcalf plant. It is not the first time the state has turned to batteries for a grid solution, but shows how the solution is becoming increasingly viable.

The Yuba City and Feather River plants are each about 47.6 MW, and are needed for capacity and high voltage sub-area shortfalls, respectively. Last month, CAISO determined that the entire Metcalf Energy Center was necessary for local reliability needs in a sub-area of the Bay Area local capacity area.

The CPUC proposal would order PG&E to hold at least one one solicitation to address “two local sub-area capacity deficiencies and to manage a high voltage issue in another sub-area.” The utility can solicit bids for energy storage and other alternative energy resources individually or in aggregation. 

Regulators have embraced energy storage in other recent situations to replace capacity, such as the Aliso Canyon gas leak. 

In May 2016, the CPUC directed Southern California Edison (SCE) to conduct an expedited procurement for both utility-owned and third party storage resources to address the Aliso Canyon gas leak and resulting generator shortages.

It’s not the first time SCE was asked to consider energy storage as an alternative capacity resource: in 2013, the CPUC required the utility to procure a minimum amount of energy storage and other alternative resources, related to the closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant, and wound up far exceeding it. For storage alone, SCE’s target was 50 MW and more than 260 MW were procured. 

Gas plants, and proposals to build new ones, are increasingly drawingregulatory scrutiny, especially after the Los Angeles Times investigated whether the state was overbuilding the resource. Earlier this year, NRG Energy asked the California Energy Commission to suspend its application to build the 262 MW Puente natural gas facility.

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2017 has been a big year for energy storage projects — Aliso Canyon, California’s six month rapid-fire deployment of 100 MW of storage in response to gas leaks, Tesla’s record breaking big battery bet in South Australia. Utilities across the globe are commissioning more and larger energy storage installations, from backup power supplies in island locations like Nantucket to E.ON’s most recent large project in Texas.

These big projects have been making big waves — but big profits are proving trickier. UK battery energy storage investors Foresight calculate that battery storage costs need to fall a further 30% to be truly competitive. Forging ahead, energy storage developers have had to seek other ways to make their projects economically viable.

The Rocky Mountain Institute in their 2015 white paper “The Economics of Battery Energy Storage” identify 13 value drivers in the sector — but the fast-paced nature of new developments and rapidly falling costs of technology mean the figures are already out of date. So how are developers making bankable projects in practice?

Solar developers SunRun in California have been seeing both profit and growth, using energy storage to add value to their rooftop solar systems. Anesco’s Clay Hill development in the UK, the first to forgo subsidies, also credits its success to energy storage. Leasing solar-plus-storage systems allows for both an ongoing income stream from consumer contracts and grid-balancing opportunities — Germany (SonnenFlat), Australia (GridCredits) and the UK (GridShare) are seeing promising early results.

Adding energy storage to existing generation sites (such as with Tesla’s South Australia installation) is another way to reduce overall costs. By taking advantage of existing transmission and distribution infrastructure, initial capital expenditure is reduced and revenue generating activities can start on an accelerated timeline.

Utilities are finding that the cost of energy storage is measured as much in what you don’t spend as what you do. Energy storage can be used to defer or avoid upgrading electrical transmission and distribution equipment (T&D deferral), as in the aforementioned Nantucket example. This value proposition is especially interesting for remote sites or emerging markets where reliable grid connections are not or cannot be established.

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Energy storage proved itself in 2017.

The industry stepped up with two major high-speed deployments to resolve grid emergencies. Utility-scale projects got bigger and longer-lasting. Major international conglomerates bought up storage startups. And all the major solar developers started getting into the game.

Much of the action remained at the pilot stage. But some projects showed that storage economics already make sense without subsidies, grants or other interventions — in the right circumstances, of course.

GTM will be diving deep on these themes at the Energy Storage Summit in San Francisco December 12-13. In the meantime, here’s a roundup of the key developments from 2017.

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