A US utility is to trial a new battery storage technology that promises to deliver the holy grail of a grid based around wind and solar – ultra long storage of up to 150 hours that could revolutionise the way the storage technology is used and deployed.
Great River Energy – a major non-for-profit energy co-operative based in Minnesota – is teaming with Form Energy, a battery storage technology developer backed by Bill Gates, Australia’s Macquarie Capital, and others, to install a first-of-its-kind demonstration of Form’s unique “aqueous air flow” battery with ultra long storage.
The battery pilot will be a 1MW/150MWh, grid-connected storage system capable of delivering its rated power of one megawatt continuously for 150 hours, part of a broader plan to retire Great River’s main generator, a 1,151MW coal unit, and replace it with wind and ultimately battery storage and make 95 per cent of its power emissions free.
And while the battery component of this Great River Energy plan is relatively minor, if the pilot proves successful at delivering super-long duration and low cost storage, the implications for the electricity industry will be enormous.
Most big batteries currently in use in Australia and across the world are based on lithium-ion technologies, and often have very short storage time frames because they are used primarily to deliver super-fast, accurate and flexible grid services such as frequency control and inertia.
Even when used for storing wind and solar, the storage times are usually no more than four hours, beyond which it is presumed that pumped hydro has the cost advantage.
Form Energy was created three years ago by a group comprising a team from MIT, former Tesla battery leader Mateo Jaramillo, and Ted Wiley, a co-founder of Aquion. Its goal is build “ultra low cost” batteries with super long storage durations that would allow grid operators to store energy for seasonal storage, rather than just minutes and hours.
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