While energy storage system (ESS) batteries are often described as stationary storage to distinguish them from batteries used in automotive applications, a new partnership in Europe turns containerised ESS into mobile power sources.

GreenChoice, a renewable energy retailer headquartered in the Netherlands, is developing ESS battery ‘docks’ along with German engineering startup Greener Engineering. GreenChoice’s wind farms will be used to charge the latter company’s containerised battery energy storage units with electricity.

Those batteries can then be “wheeled” over to customers that need a mobile or emergency power source. Greener Power Solutions co-founder Dieter Castelein previously wrote a technical paper for PV Tech Power (reproduced here in full on the Energy-Storage.news site) about how mobile energy storage units can be used to “take-over” grid functions when grids need maintenance.

Greener also provides energy storage to outdoor events including popular dance music festivals in Europe, providing a cleaner alternative to diesel generators that have long been necessary for such occasions where there is no grid connection to get power directly from. The engineering company told Energy-Storage.news today that the partnership with GreenChoice now gives both provider and customer an option to do this with renewable wind power.

“If a festival or construction site needs an energy solution, we can provide a battery. And when the battery is empty, we can quickly replace it with a battery that is recharged with wind energy,” Dieter Castelein said.

For the latest project, 10 mobile systems of uniform size with a total capacity of 3,360kWh form the charging station. Batteries themselves come from Greener’s partnership with provider Alfen.

They can charge from GreenChoice’s Hellegatsplein wind farm in just 43 minutes and are used on a day-to-day basis to help regulate frequency of the grid by matching imbalances in supply and demand. It’s also GreenChoice’s second large-scale battery deployed at one of its wind farms, after a 10MWh battery was installed at Hartelkanaal wind power station near Rotterdam last year.

As readers of Energy-Storage.news are no doubt well aware, the United States energy storage market is achieving rapid growth.

As analysts project a thirteen-fold increase for the category over the next six years reaching 158 gigawatt-hours by 2024, there is now significant demand for battery manufacturing capacity in the U.S. This is true for the entire category, but especially so for industrial scale applications, as evidenced by utility-scale storage representing the largest market segment in 2018 at 394.8MWh, and experiencing double-digit growth of 11.3% year-over-year.

Many expect there to be continued growth and viability of industrial-scale batteries that are capable of powering energy storage systems. These solutions include those that sit predominantly in front of the meter, supporting utility-scale electricity generation, transmission and storage.

This technology can replace fossil fuel peaker plants, enhance wind and solar plus storage projects, optimise microgrids, improve the utility’s ability to meet fluctuating demand, manage power disruptions – and be deployed in commercial, industrial, mining and military projects.

It is a common misconception that “the technology isn’t there yet,” as most industry insiders will tell you that many of the hurdles to mass adoption of industrial energy storage relate to a lack of supply. Across the current landscape, many energy storage supply chains are bottle necked and wracked with costly inefficiencies that delay the process of production to delivery. While there are a number of international companies shipping product that has helped spur this sector’s growth, domestic manufacturing would help the U.S. meet battery demand with batteries made in the U.S.

The overall global energy storage was at 4.2GW in 2019. It would be witnessing a steady, strong growth in 2020 as well, with an estimated capacity of above 6GW.

Energy storage is gaining importance with increasing demand for energy in residential and industrial applications. With growing data consumption and a proliferation of cloud services, the demand for energy increases proportionately. Energy storage is a viable solution to utilize renewable energy and an attractive option for implementing clean energy sources.

Key countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, India, and the UAE have set a target to achieve significant power generation through clean energy sources. Most governments have come up with supportive legislative policies, regulations, and incentives that drive energy storage installations.

Battery Energy Storage Solution (BESS) is a strong segment, along with the Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system. Within BESS, lithium-ion (Li-ion) is the most widely used storage solution, followed by flow batteries and sodium-sulfur (NaS) batteries.

South Korea was the global leader in energy storage solutions in 2018. However, in 2019, the United States surpassed South Korea and became the global market leader.

Growth in 2020 will be largely determined by the demand in the United States, China, and South Korea followed by other key countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, India, and UAE.

Among end-user categories, residential-scale storage is witnessing significant growth, exceeding commercial and utility, while utility-scale storage is also gaining momentum alongside commercial/industrial applications. Residential scale storage is predominantly dependent on BESS, while commercial and utility-scale storage uses both BESS and other alternative storage solutions.

Steady price decline of Li-ion batteries is an important factor that drives the demand for residential energy storage systems, along with the concept of solar + storage, where solar panels installed at residential dwellings prefer to have a storage unit as well for use during peak hours of the day and during peak summer and winter when the grid lines could not cater to the surging energy demand.

Ice Energy filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December, in a setback for small-scale thermal energy storage.

As lithium-ion batteries proliferated for grid storage, a small contingent of entrepreneurs pitched an alternative technology: thermal storage, which preheats or precools a building to cut electrical usage during expensive peak hours. The technology is simple and cheap and has helped large commercial buildings for years. Ice Energy wanted to extend it to small businesses and homes.

It won several utility contracts to help reduce peak demand by installing Ice Bear devices on commercial customer sites, expanding into the residential market with its smaller Ice Cub product.

Ice Energy filed for bankruptcy with the Central District of California on December 17; the filing scheduled a meeting of creditors for January 27. The document offers few other details about the circumstances.

The company’s website is no longer active, and COO Marcel Christians did not respond to a call for comment.

Chapter 7 means the company will liquidate its assets rather than trying to reconstitute and exit bankruptcy. That’s an abrupt change of fortune for a company that had a clear path ahead of it, with a plan to execute on contracts it had already won with creditworthy utilities.

A part from driving a clean transportation revolution over the next three decades, electric vehicles (EVs) could help the power grid’s storage needs as growing shares of renewable energy sources—predominantly solar and wind—are being incorporated into electricity grids.

Batteries from EVs could have so much more potential energy storage by 2050 that electric cars could be the ones to boost the energy storage of the power grid to accommodate rising solar and wind capacity, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) says.

While electric vehicles and renewables may now look as two totally separate clean-energy technologies, and EVs are a strain on power grids when charging at peak electricity demand, there are potentially huge benefits to the power grid if EVs are plugged in to smart grids, IRENA experts say.

The EV fleet of the future could create vast electricity storage capacity, the agency says.

Future EV battery capacity may dwarf stationary battery capacity by 2050, experts at IRENA said in an analysis from last year. In 2050, around 14 terawatt-hours (TWh) of EV batteries would be available to provide grid services, compared to 9 TWh of stationary batteries, according to the agency.

“Smart charging for electric vehicles (EVs) holds the key to unleash synergies between clean transport sector and low-carbon electricity. It minimises the load impact from EVs and unlocks the flexibility to use more solar and wind power,” IRENA said.

Smart charging, unlike uncontrolled charging, also decreases simultaneity and lowers peaks in demand.

In addition, smart charging of EVs has the potential to significantly cut the peak load and avoid grid reinforcements, at a cost of 10 percent of the total cost of reinforcing the grid, according to IRENA’s experts.

In the key forms of advanced EV charging, in V2H/B (vehicle to home/building), vehicles could act as supplement power suppliers to the home, while in V2G (Vehicle-to-grid), the smart grid controls vehicle charging and returns electricity to the grid.

Adjusting charging patterns, considering that EVs currently are idle in parking for 90–95 percent of the time for most cars, could contribute to both system and local flexibility, IRENA says.

The continued growth of renewables in the global energy mix is inextricably linked to grid level energy storage, which can smooth out the inherent intermittency of solar and wind generation, ensure that generated power is in the right place to meet demand and provide a range of other services to the grid.

While lithium-ion is the best-known storage technology today, a range of different battery technologies offers the potential to provide valuable services to electricity grids around the world, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

In a new paper, researchers at Tianjin University in China examine these battery technologies, providing a broad perspective on the state of battery technology for grid applications today, and offering a roadmap to guide future studies in this areas. Their findings are published in the paper Battery Technologies for Grid-Level Large-Sale Electrical Energy Storage, published in Transactions of Tianjin University.

The researchers identify three main roles for batteries to perform at grid level:

• Peak shaving & load leveling: To balance gaps in demand.
• Voltage and frequency regulation: To achieve a real time balance with non-uniform load on the grid
• Emergency energy storage: Providing back up power and preventing outages.
• The paper discusses the role of a wide range of existing battery technologies and their ability to provide these services safely and cost effectively, and the challenges that exist for each.

“Battery energy storage technologies with rapid response, low cost, long lifetime, high power, and energy efficiency can be distributed throughout the grid and therefore are desirable for utilization in grid-level electrical energy storage,” say the researchers. “However, some trade-offs often exist among different properties and no existing batteries can meet all the requirements.”

The paper offers analysis of battery technologies including lead-acid, nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride, sodium-sulfur, lithium-ion and flow batteries of various chemistries.

Three broad conclusions are drawn from this analysis – that research should move in the direction of novel battery systems aimed at meeting all the requirements of grid level energy storage, that cost efficiency requirements mean efforts should focus on batteries based on cheap, abundant materials – such as sodium-ion. And finally, that modelling and comparison between different battery technologies is vital in establishing the best option for a given use case.

With US$5.4B projected for U.S. storage investments by 2024 — a 12-fold increase in annual growth in less than five years — the trajectory for energy storage is clear. What’s also clear is that policymakers across the country see the value of encouraging this striking market growth with policies that enable expansion. What’s less clear is whether states or the federal government will take the lead in encouraging the integration of storage into the electric grid.

Energy storage is an increasingly important technology that serves myriad retail and wholesale services, and with robust economic, grid reliability, and climate benefits. So, is it at the state level where homes and businesses might need these resources to ensure resilient and clean power? Or is it at the Federal level where developers and utilities can reinforce the reliability and efficiency of electric wholesale services?

I posit that enabling policies are needed at both the Federal and the State level. But challenges loom large at the Federal level this year.

StorageITC is a missed opportunity, but not gone

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has been integral in pushing for the adoption of energy storage deployment with Order 841, and just a few weeks ago the Department of Energy issued the Energy Storage Grand Challenge. But Congress missed a big opportunity this past December. Despite broad, bipartisan and bicameral support, federal lawmakers ultimately took a pass on legislation to clarify that the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) should include stand-alone energy storage.

Even with the challenges of an election coming up in November, we will keep fighting to make sure this common sense, jobs- and economic growth-enabling energy policy ultimately prevails this year. A number of additional technology innovation bills that encourage storage are also working their way through Congress, and we look forward to doing what we can to help make them into law. But even though energy storage policy enjoys bipartisan support, there are obvious challenges associated in an election year in a deeply divided congress.

Thermal power has had its day in India, the head of a national PV trade body has claimed after the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) concluded what it called the world’s largest renewables-plus-energy-storage capacity tender.

The procurement exercise was held to contract 1.2 GW of capacity in the form of assured supply of 600 MW of clean power for six hours daily during peak demand hours – 5.30-9.30am and 5.30pm-12.30am – on a day-ahead, on-demand basis. The successful bids comprised at least 3 GWh of energy storage capacity – pumped hydro or battery storage – plus associated clean energy generation assets.

The tender was staged to secure reliable, fixed-price energy supply for state electricity distribution companies otherwise hidebound to the vagaries of spot markets.

The procurement round was oversubscribed, with bids received for 1.62 GW of capacity and Hyderabad-based developer Greenko secured 900 MW of pumped-storage project capacity with the most competitive tariff bid for the clean energy to be supplied. Greenko offered a weighted average tariff of Rs4.04/kWh and a quoted peak tariff of Rs6.12/kWh.

Haryana-based ReNew Power secured the remaining 300 MW of capacity with a weighted average bid of Rs4.30 and quoted peak price of Rs6.85, marking a world record for renewables-plus-battery storage capacity.

For the renewable energy supplied during off-peak hours, SECI will pay a pre-specified tariff of Rs2.88/KWh. The tariffs granted will be paid over a 25-year period.

The Indian government has mandated all electricity distribution companies to source at least 21% of their energy from renewables by 2021-22 and has said grid operators will not incur transmission charges or losses on clean power.

“With this, thermal power in India has become priced out,” said Pranav R Mehta, chairman of the National Solar Energy Federation of India. “The most recent thermal power tenders in the country have yielded levelized tariffs in the range of Rs5-7/kWh ($0.0694-0.0972) at 85% annual PLF [plant load factor – a measurement of the output of a power plant compared to its maximum generation capacity]. The peak tariff under this SECI tender is highly competitive vis-à-vis the recent peak tariffs in international markets like [the] USA (Rs8-9/kWh or $0.1111-0.125).

“This is also lower than the recent stressed thermal projects tender conducted by [state-owned power trading company] PTC, where the tariff discovered was Rs4.24/kWh ($0.0589) for only [a] three-year supply [contract], whereas the tariff discovered under this tender is fixed for 25 years.

An energy storage system made up of ‘second life’ batteries previously used in Renault’s electric vehicle (EV) has been deployed for Umicore, a multinational materials technology company headquartered in Belgium.

Taken from Renault’s Kangoo utility EVs, the batteries will provide firm frequency response to the grid, acting as a revenue generator for Umicore’s industrial site.

Maintaining stability of the network at its operating frequency of 50Hz is vital for enabling the addition of more distributed energy resources, as the world’s grids move away from centralised generation, also meaning that renewables – described as intermittent, or more accurately as variable energy resources – can be more readily accommodated. The system delivered for Umicore also helps the materials company maintain power quality for running its own operations.

Technology provider Connected Energy said that using EV battery packs as stationary energy storage systems (ESS) in this way can extend their lifetime by as much as seven years. The UK-headquartered company, based in England’s northeast automotive sector powerhouse, celebrated the inauguration of the Umicore project as its biggest to date at 1.2MW of output and 720kWh capacity.

‘Doubling the value of the battery asset’
“We, typically, are receiving the battery packs when they’ve reached, or fallen to 70% capacity,” Mark Bailey, Connected Energy chief commercial officer (CCO), told Energy-Storage.news.

“The batteries that are supplied to us have met our technical criteria and specification, and effectively certified before we reuse them in our stationary storage applications.”

Connected Energy “stays at the battery pack level,” Bailey said, seeing a keen opportunity to tap what remains in batteries that are, he says, built to the highest technical specifications and standards, given that they have to have met the stringent criteria of being safe and reliable for use in manned vehicles in their “first life”.

Renault is one of a number of OEMs and carmaker groups that Connected Energy is working with, while remaining open to other battery and tech partnerships, Bailey told Energy-Storage.news in an interview.