U.K. grid operator National Grid has just put its money behind one of the world’s single largest procurements of energy storage. Late last week, the owner and operator of the transmission grid in England and Wales announced 201 megawatts of winning bids of its first-ever tender for “enhanced frequency response.”
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Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) deployed its first commercial PB3 PowerBuoy—a wave energy conversion system that incorporates energy storage—off the coast of New Jersey this July.
The Pennington, N.J.–based firm has been working to advance its PowerBuoy technology since the firm was founded in 1994. Development of the wave energy conversion technology for naval and civilian applications was catalyzed by small-business innovative research (SBIR) funding awards from the U.S. Navy.
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US Senator Dean Heller issued the following statement after becoming a cosponsor of S. 3159, the Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act. The legislation, introduced by Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, establishes investment tax credits (ITC) for business and home use of energy storage. The bipartisan bill was also cosponsored by Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), and Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii). The proposed tax incentives are modeled on the current ITCs for solar energy and apply to either large, grid-connected energy storage systems or to smaller battery systems for residential power. Home battery storage, coupled with a small wind or roof-top solar system, could be used to store energy during the day for use later in the day or during overcast skies and to help consumers reduce their energy bills.
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RenewableUK’s Maf Smith argues the UK’s first energy storage auction could offer the perfect complement to a fast-expanding renewables industry
Energy storage is often seen as the holy grail of the renewables industry. The final piece in the jigsaw, and one which has been decades in development.
The possibility of storing clean energy that everyone can use makes intuitive sense. It’s an exciting thought that we live in a world where such ingenious and efficient ideas are coming to life, and that large-scale battery storage is a here and now technology.
In research there is evolution, revolution and sometimes, what I call “retro revolution,” which happens when old methods have new applications. All three are in play in the world of electricity, and they are having an extraordinary effect on energy storage.
The inability to store electricity has been a challenge since the time of Thomas Edison. Electricity is made and used in real time, putting huge pressure on utilities at particular times of the day. For much of the East Coast in summer, for example, the peak is in the evening, when people come home from work or play, crank up the air conditioning, flip on the lights, the TV and start cooking. In many cities, the subways operate at peak and the electricity supply is stretched.
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Some utilities may think that it will be up to a decade before there is a mass market uptake of battery storage, and the chair of the Australian Energy Market Operator may even try to convince themselves that the technology won’t be commercial for another two decades, but they might be kidding themselves: New research suggests that the cross-over point between the value of solar and storage and grid prices for Australian households may occur within one year.
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Chemists at the University of Waterloo have developed a long-lasting zinc-ion battery that costs half the price of current lithium-ion batteries and could help enable communities to shift away from traditional power plants and into renewable solar and wind energy production.
Professor Linda Nazar and her colleagues from the Faculty of Science at Waterloo made the important discovery, which appears in the journal, Nature Energy.
In research there is evolution, revolution and — sometimes — what I call “retro revolution,” which happens when old methods have new applications. All three are in play in the world of electricity, and are affecting storage.
The inability to store electricity has been a challenge since the time of Thomas Edison. Electricity is made and used in real time, putting huge pressure on utilities at particular times of the day. For much of the East Coast in summer, for example, the peak is in the evening, when people come home from work or play, crank up the air conditioning, flip on the lights, the TV and start cooking. In many cities, the subways operate at peak and the electricity supply is stretched.
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The UK’s energy system entered a new era on Friday with the announcement that eight huge battery systems will be used to help the country’s power grid cope with the influx of wind and solar power.
Germany’s Eon and France’s EDF are among the energy companies to win the first four-year National Grid contracts to supply split-second power to the electricity system in a £66m deal that analysts said was the largest of its kind in Europe.
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The outcome of the National Grid auction for Enhanced Frequency Response (EFR) services has today been welcomed by the REA. Through the auction, the National Grid will have a capacity that will help them balance the nation’s, sometimes under stress, electricity system.
This outcome shows that new and low carbon flexible technologies can provide services traditionally provided by large, conventional plants. This kind of technical capacity has traditionally been provided by fossil fuel generation, and it enables the integration of more renewable energy, decarbonising the grid in line with the UK’s legally binding carbon targets.
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