Stacking energy storage values — capturing many value streams — can lead to profitable projects, even at current storage costs, according to a new report from economists at The Brattle Group.

The report, “Stacked Benefits: Comprehensively Valuing Battery Storage in California,” focuses on California, but its conclusions apply generally to the entire U.S., said Ryan Hledik, principal with Brattle.

Brattle conducted models and simulations using a 1-MW battery — which provides four hours of storage — and estimated the comprehensive savings associated with “stacking” battery storage uses, or operating batteries to capture the benefits from a number of value streams. Energy storage advocates say stacking is critical to take advantage of battery benefits.

The economists identified costs for utilities and others to acquire certain services, including energy, capacity and frequency regulation, and concluded that using batteries for these services could save $280/kW annually. That amount could be captured through utility bill reductions, by avoiding retail rates, or through a third party (an aggregator, for example) selling demand response into the market, said Hledik.

“We calculated the total system-level value that could be captured and divided it up among parties, depending on the situation,” said Roger Lueken, associate with The Brattle Group.

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AUSTIN, TX–(Marketwired – Sep 18, 2017) – ViZn Energy Systems Inc. (ViZn), a leading provider of utility scale energy storage systems, was named the top non-lithium ion (Li-ion) battery for grid storage by Navigant Research. The recently released report, Navigant Research Leaderboard: Non-Lithium Ion Batteries for Grid Storage, concluded that ViZn’s zinc-redox flow battery systems are in the best position to capitalize on the numerous weaknesses of Li-ion technology and capture a piece of the rapidly growing stationary storage industry.

“We’re thrilled that a highly respected research and consulting firm like Navigant has recognized the unique value proposition that our flow batteries provide to utilities and C&I facilities,” stated Ron Van Dell, CEO of ViZn Energy Systems. “They join an ever-expanding list of industry analysts, media, and most importantly customers that see the bankability of a flexible energy storage system that performs a greater mix of energy and power applications than other technologies on the market for 20 years and with non-toxic chemistry.”

The Navigant Research report ranked thirteen top non-lithium ion battery energy storage vendors based on the following criteria: vision, go-to-market strategy, partners, production strategy, technology, geographic reach, sales, marketing, and distribution, product performance, product quality and reliability, product portfolio, pricing, and staying power. ViZn’s systems stood out among the competing flow batteries, advanced lead-acid batteries, and zinc-based batteries as being best able to compete with Li-ion batteries for stationary energy storage market share and having the most well-established and comprehensive product portfolio.

“ViZn’s advantage in this market results from both the advantages of its technology and the ecosystem of partnerships it has developed. The operational flexibility of the company’s technology combined with the ability to reduce prices using low cost materials will be key as the market matures. ViZn has developed pre-configured products targeting multiple customer types including utility-scale, C&I, and remote/off-grid, along with partnerships to support its strategy in these markets,” said Alex Eller, energy research analyst at Navigant Research.

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While lithium-ion is rapidly racing ahead to become the “de facto grid storage solution” and is the most popular technology choice by far, vendors of other types of batteries are also targeting the market, with varying degrees of success.

US firm Navigant Research published ‘Navigant Research Leaderboard: Non-lithium ion batteries for grid storage’,  earlier this month, examining the technologies, business models and strategies for commercialisation and larger scale production of energy storage batteries that sit outside the many different sub-chemistries making up the lithium battery market ecosystem.

Lithium remains by far the most popular technology in energy storage. A recent edition of GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association’s jointly-published US Energy Storage Monitor, which gives quarterly updates on deployment figures, notable projects, market design and policies, found 94.2% of energy storage systems installed in Q2 2017 in the US used lithium batteries. Around 5% of the remainder were flow battery projects and a further 0.5% used lead acid.

While that percentage was in fact the first time since 2015 that lithium-ion battery systems had been found by GTM to have less than 95% market share, the lead looks all but unassailable. Indeed, even in longer duration applications of up to four or five hours, as one expert from IHS Market recently told Energy-Storage.News, lithium batteries are starting to have fallen enough in price to make sense.

According to Navigant, the speed at which costs of production fall and the presence of reputable, renowned vendors in the lithium battery space are its key advantages. However, as the ‘Leaderboard’ report shows, there are numerous companies making other types of battery energy storage that have reached commercialisation of their technologies and are already deploying them in the field, although still at the pilot stage in some cases. 

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With grid-connected energy storage a relatively new technology, stakeholders are yet to fully understand many of the risks and business opportunities it presents, DNV GL’s Dr Martijn Huibers has said.

Huibers, business leader in energy storage for the accreditation and certification house, writes in the latest edition of PV Tech Power that diverse aspects of the energy storage business, from using grid-scale energy storage to tackle multiple applications, sizing a system correctly and mitigating risks around battery degradation are all relatively new issues that the industry is learning to navigate.

DNV GL published GRIDSTOR, a recommended practice guide for energy storage technologies and applications, in early 2016, with an updated version due out this quarter. With eight industry stakeholders and 36 reviewing parties contributing to the so-called ‘Joint industry project’, DNV GL claims GRIDSTOR is aimed at creating a “common language” for discussing technical and safety standards.

Volume 12 of PV Tech Power, Solar Media’s technical journal for the downstream sector of the solar PV industry, features Storage & Smart Power, a dedicated section brought to you in association with Energy-Storage.News. ESN commissioned Huibers and colleague Paul Raats, a DNV GL senior solar energy consultant, to write about and shed light on how GRIDSTOR helps stakeholders get to grips with the fast-emerging sector.

There are over 200 guidance documents of various kinds around the world that can be applied to grid-scale energy storage systems or components, Huibers points out in the article, but GRIDSTOR is the first concerted attempt to be a “single comprehensive standard that covers all relevant aspects”, aimed at utilities, investors, developers and others.

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FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz., Sept. 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Fernhill Corporation (OTC PINK: FERN) announces patent application for a Capacitor-Lithium hybrid battery storage system with integrated system management.  This application could provide a fully functional solution that provides an array of features including charge control monitoring and protection for multiple EDLC capacitors and a lithium battery bank with individual unit monitoring and balancing.

By using high performance analog peripherals, the system can measure and maintain an accurate record of available capacitance, state-of-health, voltage, current, temperature, and other critical parameters. The management system could also provide protection on overvoltage, over temperature, and overcharge along with hardware controlled protection for overcurrent in discharge, and short circuit protection during charge and discharge.

By incorporating two technologies, together with sophisticated balancing controls both in the individual unit level as well as the system level creates a solution with the combined advantages of two already proven technologies. In addition, this design can allow for greater flexibility in system stability, capacity, and thermal safety while accelerating charging speeds, and offering higher current availability.

A hybrid storage system could be customized to address a significant array of applications that are difficult to address with one technology alone. Future development of this technology could provide advanced solutions for emergency and portable power, electric vehicles, heavy equipment, and uninterruptable power supplies for computers and telecommunication equipment.

The above patent will be filed in Fern Technology Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Fernhill Corporation. The Company has engaged BOAG Law PLLC of New York to assist in the patent filing process. BOAG Law will provide services for preparing and filing the application, along with responding to communications from the USPTO.

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Officials from 56 Muslim-majority nations have come together to pledge new climate-related technology goals that included promoting microgrids, energy storage and renewable energy targets.

The Islamic world’s first ever Science and Tech summit, which ended last night in Astana, Kazakhstan, involved heads of state and government ministers from 56 Muslim majority nations. All countries pledged to increase investment in science as a way of addressing energy, food, water, health and climate change challenges. The summit included the presidents of Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan among others.

The countries have pledged to reduce greenhouse gases by targeting 10% renewable energy shares in the national energy mixes of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) States by 2025.

They also plan to introduce microgrids and encourage distributed standalone systems for small communities.

The countries will also design and develop energy storage systems such as fuel cells and batteries using lithium-ion and vanadium redox technolgies for small-scale energy storage applications.

Other pledges by the OIC nations involved nuclear energy, addressing food and water shortages, space exploration, managing big data, education and health.

OIC assistant secretary general for Science and Technology ambassador Naeem Khan, said: “As more people in the Islamic world emerge out of poverty, energy demand is increasing. This is being aggravated by climate change, with many OIC countries inhabiting climate-sensitive regions already facing desertification and degradation of land and water. Several studies have also shown a link between climate change and the subsequent effect on drought, food prices and the outbreak of conflict.

“Energy consumption and production is a major challenge in the Islamic world where many of the OIC’s 57-member states are well placed to harness the power of renewables, yet also still rely heavily in traditional fossil fuels.”

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On a paved expanse next to an electrical substation in Escondido, 30 miles north of downtown San Diego, sits a row of huge silver boxes. The site resembles a barracks, but instead of soldiers, the 24 containers house racks of battery packs.

This is the largest lithium-ion battery in the world, according to its developers. When the local grid needs more power, these batteries deliver, almost instantaneously. They hold up to 30 megawatts fully charged – roughly equivalent to powering 20,000 homes – and can sustain that level for up to four hours.

AES Energy Storage built the system in less than six months for utility San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) in response to a four-month blowout at southern California’s Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility. The rupture in October 2015 leaked more gas into the atmosphere than any other spill in US history.

After the leak was finally plugged in February 2016, utilities needed a fast-response energy source to deploy quickly in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles and San Diego. They wanted to prevent blackouts during periods of high demand, especially when customers crank up the air-conditioning on hot summer days.

Traditional grid solutions didn’t make sense. Gas peaker plants – which can be turned on quickly to meet demand – can take years to gain permission and be built, and they burn fossil fuels. You can’t drop a hydroelectric dam in the middle of a city. Solar power doesn’t help much in the evening, when summer demand is highest.

Instead, utilities Southern California Edison and SDG&E chose something relatively new: grid-scale batteries. What followed was the Escondido battery plus several others totalling about 100MW. The project became a major test case for the grid storage industry’s ability to make the grid more efficient and clean.

“To go from something that we thought of as kind of the future technology to, all of a sudden, it coming to the rescue so quickly – yeah, I think that’s a huge success story,” said John Zahurancik, president of AES Energy Storage.

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TerraE Holding, a collaborative initiative to establish large-scale production line manufacturing of lithium-ion cells at a European ‘Gigafactory’, has signed a raw materials deal for anode materials with Australia’s Magnis Resources.

Six companies from the Germany-based KLIB (Kompetenznetzwerk Lithium Ionen Batterien – ‘Competence in Lithium-Ion Batteries’) group, which includes the likes of Daimler, Bosch, 3M, Manz, Wacker, Kuka, Varta and Litarion in its membership, formed TerraE in May 2016.

The plan is to build two lithium-ion cell production facilities in Germany with a production capacity of 34GWh by 2028. The factories will be operated as an OEM (original equipment manufacturer), with TerraE owning and running the facilities, contracted to assemble battery cells for customers.

TerraE claimed to have established a consortium of 17 unnamed companies and research institutions this summer and said that potential customers and investors had already been approached, from sectors including stationary energy storage system makers, electric vehicle companies and the industrial power and equipment sector. According to TerraE, all of these prospective customers and investors have a direct interest in establishing battery supply lines in Germany.

This morning the group announced that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sydney-headquartered Magnis Resources, for the Australian company to supply graphite with which to make anodes for the battery cells. TerraE said production is expected to begin during 2019. Magnis develops mineral resources in Australia and Africa, with a graphite production ‘flagship’ site in Tasmania.

“Ensuring our long-term supply of raw materials is highly important for cell production in Germany,” TerraE CEO Holger Gritzka said.

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General Electric (GE) is developing Mexico’s first ever grid-scale energy storage projects to aid with the integration of wind and solar into electricity networks.

The US multinational was reported by Mexican financial newspaper El Financiero to be developing five such systems, which the paper said was part of an increased investment in renewables. El Financiero said that according to GE Grid Solutions Latin America’s leader of digital solutions, Rodrigo Salim, each system would likely cost at least US$5 million to develop and deploy.

Salim said energy storage could help deliver power resiliency and quality in an age of renewables on the grid, the report stated. GE Grid Solutions is a joint venture (JV) between GE and power engineering company Alstom.

A representative of GE Power responded to an enquiry from Energy-Storage.News asking for more details on the reported Mexico projects. She said that while GE was able to confirm the reports, there were currently no further details available to press.

The representative said the projects “are in the very early stages” and that there was no further information she could give beyond the contents of the El Financiero report.

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