Researchers have identified a glow-in-the-dark dye as optimal material to develop batteries for energies like wind and solar in the continued quest to develop storage for large-scale alternative energy reuse.

A team of chemists at the University at Buffalo have discovered that a fluorescent dye called BODIPY — an acronym for boron-dipyrromethene — executes two energy-related tasks extremely well: storing electrons and participating in electron transfer. These are exactly the tasks batteries must perform to save and deliver energy, they said, making BODIPY a perfect material to store large amounts of energy in rechargeable, liquid-based batteries that could one day power cars and homes.

Researchers tested BODIPY in what’s called a redox flow battery, which consists of two tanks of fluids separated by various barriers. Flow batteries are one method being pursued by a number of researchers as candidates for large-scale solar- and wind-energy storage. Researchers think these types of batteries will solve the problem of scale and reuse because they can easily be enlarged to store more energy for reuse later in both residential scenarios and for use by energy utilities.

“A flow battery using BODIPY can be used to store any energy source that drives the generation of electricity,” explained Timothy Cook, an assistant professor of chemistry at the University at Buffalo and the leader of the research team. “For example, a solar panel can generate a current and voltage that can be used to charge up the BODIPY dye, but the same battery could easily be attached to a wind turbine, a hydroelectric dam, or even a hand-crank generator. As long as a high enough charging voltage can be created, any source capable of generating electricity can be stored.”

The effectiveness of a redox flow battery depends on the chemical properties of the fluids in each tank. When the battery is being used, electrons are harvested from one tank and moved to the other, generating an electric current that in theory can power from the smallest device to an entire house. To recharge the battery, a solar or wind energy source would force the electrons back into the original tank, where the process of generating an electric current starts over.

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Battery storage coupled with low-carbon electricity generation could have helped to avoid the power outages experienced in South Australia earlier this year, according to a study by RES and Lloyd’s Register.

RES Australia technical head Jeremy Moon said the power outages, which were caused by severe storms will mean a detailed review of the Australian state’s power system security policy.

“We understand this requires investment long term and the adoption of new technology and solutions that enable sustainable energy provision now and in the future.”

The two companies said new technology should be planned for now by both government and operators.

Lloyd’s Register energy services manager for the Australian power engineering division Andrew Jones said: “New technology solutions in energy storage can be leveraged to help operators use more cost-effective and locally produced energy.

“This study seeks to open discussions on … how large-scale grid connected battery storage available right now can play a critical role in improving power system events such as those experienced in South Australia.”

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The largest battery storage system in the world will also be one of the fastest constructed in history.

In August, San Diego Gas & Electric tapped energy storage company AES to install two energy storage projects totaling 37.5 MW, 150 MWh. When completed, the larger, 120 MWh project is expected to be the single biggest lithium ion battery in service on a utility grid in the world. 

Both battery facilities are expected to be online by the end of January 2017 — nothing short of miraculous in an industry where deploying assets, especially newfangled technologies, can take years. 

And the companies are not alone. Southern California Edison and Tesla announced a 30 MW, 80 MWh project in September that is expected to be online even sooner, and will be the largest operating battery for a time.

The accelerated deployment comes in response to an unprecedented shortage of natural gas for electricity generation in southern California. Last October, a leak at the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility outside Los Angeles caused it to be shut down, constricting fuel supplies for area plants. 

Fearing blackouts, the California Public Utilities Commission quickly mandated a series of mitigation measures, including an expedited procurement for local energy storage resources. The more renewable energy that can be stored during the day, the reasoning went, the less need to fire up fossil fuel generators as electricity demand increases in the evening.

The CPUC order directed the utilities to identify storage projects that could be sited, constructed and put into operation in only a few months. Though the regulators said storage resources must be “cost-effective” compared to other local capacity products, no pricing details for the projects have been released.

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Researchers claim new polymeric electrolyte could overcome the main downfall of supercapacitors as energy storage units – their low power density

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Eos Energy Storage (“Eos”) – pioneer of the safe, ultra-low cost Znyth^® battery – today announced a number of appointments to the company’s Advisory Board. The advisors will lend strategic guidance as Eos transitions to become a customer-facing product company and will help to expand commercialization of Eos’ innovative energy storage technology globally and in markets beyond utilities –including commercial, industrial, and military applications.

Newly appointed Advisory Board members include:

• Steven Chu, former U.S. Secretary of Energy, American physicist and Nobel Laureate, and former Director of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory
• Jerry Yang, Founding Partner of AME Cloud Ventures, co-founder of Yahoo! Inc.
• Lawrence H. Summers, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, former Director of the U.S. National Economic Council, and currently Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University
• General Wesley Clark, retired U.S. Army General and Commander of NATO
• James Kelly, former Senior Vice President of Transmission & Distribution at Southern California Edison, having responsibility for operation and maintenance of over 12,000 miles of transmission, 900 substations, and 100,000 miles of distribution lines spread across a 50,000-square-mile service area

With the support of this expert Advisory Board, Eos is now delivering safe, robust and cost-effective energy storage solutions to major utilities around the world and is quickly establishing itself as the global energy storage cost leader. The company’s core product –the Eos Aurora^® 1000│4000 – is a 1MW|4 MWh DC battery system utilizing Eos’ aqueous, zinc hybrid cathode (Znyth) technology. The Eos Aurora is currently being sold at a volume price of $160 per usable kWh for the full DC system with performance guarantees providing up to 20 years of continuous operation with limited maintenance. Eos’ solution allows utilities to optimize capital allocation, increase utilization of grid infrastructure, and provide more reliable service to customers at lower cost.

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According to the latest edition of GTM Research and ESA’s U.S. Energy Storage Monitor, corporate investment in energy storage reached an all-time high in terms of quarterly investments in Q3. Disclosed venture funding and project finance totaled $660 million in the third quarter of the year, bringing the annual total to $812 million.

The largest announced deal during the quarter was $300 million in project financing from the Electric Gas & Industries Association for Tabuchi Electric. The report notes that Advanced Microgrid Solutions also closed a large project financing deal worth $200 million with Macquarie.

“Financing activities in this most recent quarter are noteworthy not just because of the scale, but also because project financing made up a significant portion of the total,” said Ravi Manghani, GTM Research’s director of energy storage. “While one quarter alone doesn’t constitute a trend, growth in project financing, especially in the residential segment, is a harbinger for further strengthening of deployment business models.”

Compared to corporate investment, deployments for the quarter were relatively quiet, however, as no front-of-meter projects above 1 megawatt were brought on-line. Across all segments, the U.S. saw 16.4 megawatts of energy storage deployed in the third quarter of 2016.

The behind-the-meter segment, which is made up of residential and commercial deployments, accounted for the majority of the quarter’s storage deployments. The U.S. deployed 14.1 megawatts of behind-the-meter storage in the third quarter of the year, which is essentially flat year-over-year.

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An open fund for solar energy and energy storage in various emerging markets has been launched by Franck Constant, the co-founder of Sonnedix Group and director of Sithe Pacific, Energy-Storage.News’ sister site PV Tech revealed today.

The new fund named ‘Constant Energy’ aims to reach US$100 million by the end of 2017 and while predominantly aimed at solar, it will have 20% focused on energy storage, Constant told PV Tech at the Solar & Off-Grid Renewables event in Bangkok.

Target nations in Asia include Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Korea, Taiwan, as well as selected African markets such as South Africa and possibly Kenya, depending on how the market evolves. Several of these countries have had regulation and policies favourable to PV deployment evolve at a slower pace to neighbours.

Nevertheless, Constant said: “A lot of these countries already have a tradition of private power generation in the conventional space. It’s only a matter of time before they are moving to private power generation in the solar space.”

To date, only a few funds have specifically focused on both solar and energy storage.

Constant added: “Storage is today where solar was nine years ago when we started Sonnedix. Probably as a first step, I expect it will be a combined solution, where we get land, we have a solar plant, and we add storage to improve the dispatch of the solar plant or to support the grid, like we have done in Puerto Rico in the past.”

Constant also expects a rise in standalone energy storage systems as has been seen in the UK – adding: “With this fund we want really to surf the wave of storage and I think it is coming to countries like Japan over the next few years. It is coming to countries like Indonesia, or some fragmented grids like in Cambodia. We want to do that.”

Isolated grids, as are common in Cambodia or across the multiple islands of Indonesia, are also “fertile ground” for storage .

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Zinc-air battery-based energy storage system maker Fluidic Energy has received US$20 million in investment for projects in Southeast Asia from a private equity fund which includes the Asian Development Bank as a partner.

Asia Climate Partners (ACP), the private equity fund which has invested in Fluidic, includes Japanese financial services company ORIX and Dutch asset management firm Robeco – which is also owned by ORIX – as joint venture partners alongside the Asian Development Bank.

Headquartered in Arizona, USA, with production facilities in Indonesia, Fluidic claims its batteries are made with low cost, non-toxic materials. The company is particularly keen to target remote applications such as telecoms towers and off-grid and microgrid rural electrification projects.

Fluidic claims to have installed more than 100,000 batteries already, including 22MWh at 96 solar-plus-storage projects in the Indonesian archipelago which serve more than 100,000 people. Following the signing of an MoU earlier this year, Fluidic is also deploying some 45MWh to rural Madagascar, enabling more than 400,000 people to have access to energy. The company has also signed an agreement with heavy machinery maker Caterpillar for solar-plus-storage projects and was selected as a supplier to US utility Duke Energy’s first “non-demonstration” microgrid earlier this month.

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The US energy regulator has opened a consultation process on the integration of energy storage into a competitive market structure.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said it wanted “to more effectively integrate electric storage resources into organised wholesale markets to enhance competition and help ensure that these markets produce just and reasonable rates”.

It has circulated a proposal and requested input from the country’s six regional transmission organisations (RTO) and independent system operators (ISO).

The proposal would require each RTO and ISO to alter their tariff structure in order to recognise the specific characteristics of energy storage resources and classify storage operators in a way that enables their participation in wholesale energy markets.

“Today’s announcement is a major step forward in transforming America’s power sector, and FERC’s action lays the foundation for competitive markets where energy storage and distributed energy resources are considered side-by-side with traditional grid assets,” said Matt Roberts, executive director of the Energy Storage Association.

“Regulatory and market certainty is paramount for our emerging industry, and the outcomes of this rulemaking will undoubtedly fuel continued energy storage growth – bringing even more jobs and investment in the advanced energy economy, and accelerating our transition to a more resilient, flexible, and sustainable grid,” he added.

The public have 60 days from the date of publication to respond. FERC began working with network operators in the spring.

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