[Graeme]

Hydrogen Energy Storage: A New Solution To the Renewable Energy Intermittency Problem

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he need for a complete energy storage solution is becoming more acute where fields of wind turbines are already generating gigawatts of electricity, often with a significant mismatch in grid power demand.

It’s a well-established problem for the industry, and there are a number of energy management and storage systems in the pipeline today, but few offer a complete solution allowing wind and solar energy to be plugged into the grid seamlessly.

Water electrolysis technology is the most flexible and tenable solution to store renewable energy on a large, long-term scale. Using excess renewable electricity the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer splits water into its constituent parts, hydrogen and oxygen, that can be stored in common tanks. Hydrogen is a flexible energy medium and the technology to produce the gas is working today. Our challenge is to scale-up hydrogen generators to meet the demand of the growing renewable power industry.

Hydrogen gas has the largest energy content of any fuel, making it a very good ‘vehicle’ for holding and distributing energy. With the ability to hold 120MJ/kg, a relatively small amount of hydrogen is needed to store significant amounts of energy. The stable chemistry of hydrogen also means you can store energy longer than any other medium.

[Graeme]

The Coming Storage Boom: Project Proposals Nearly Double California’s Storage Target

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')alifornia’s push to transform the market for grid-scale energy storage is working even better than expected -- at least on paper.

Last year, California created a mandate calling for 1,325 megawatts of energy storage projects by 2020, to be scaled up every two years. The first installment of proposals due this year adds up to 200 megawatts.

As of mid-2014, more than 2,000 megawatts of energy storage projects have applied to interconnect with the state’s grid, according to recent data from state grid operator California ISO (PDF). In other words, project developers have received the market signal of a 1.3-gigawatt mandate and proposed enough storage to provide nearly double that amount over the coming years.

The list includes 1,669 megawatts of standalone battery storage, 44 megawatts of other standalone storage, 255 megawatts of batteries combined with generation projects, and a 90-megawatt project combining solar and batteries. They are all seeking interconnection under the initiative's “Cluster 7” window, which closed on April 30, 2014. (A project-by-project breakdown of all the applications is available in PDF.)

[Keith_McClary]

Norway: Energy storage for Europe$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')orway derives almost 100 percent of its energy from hydropower. For Germany's planned transition to renewable energy, a close partnership is crucially important, because Norwegian pumped storage power stations could balance out variations in renewable energy sources.
But do Norwegians actually want to their country to become Europe's storage battery? The state energy companies scent a market worth billions, but many Norwegians view an extension of hydropower with concern. Of the country's 28 large waterfalls, only two remain untouched by electricity production. Will gigantic power lines spoil the view of the romantic fjords in future?

[Newfie]

Thought you guys might like this. Sorry if it's been posted before.

Compressed air varient to be tried in Nova Scotia.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scot ... -1.2721882

[Graeme]

Flywheel Energy Storage Breakthrough in Canada

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he first grid-connected energy storage facility in Canada, in the country’s leading solar province, Ontario, is now operational.

The 2MW flywheel storage facility will provide regulation service to Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator, allowing it to balance increasing volumes of intermittent renewables on the grid.

Developed by storage specialist start-up NRStor and built by Temporal Power, the facility uses a spinning steel flywheel on magnetic bearings to store energy in the form of kinetic motion, rather than chemicals, as are used in battery systems.

To ‘charge’ the system, grid to power is used to drive a motor that accelerates the flywheel to high speeds. When discharging, momentum from the wheel drives the motor in reverse to act as a generator.

The so-called Minto flywheel system will allow IESO to balance the grid in real time, by matching scheduled generation with actual consumption.

[Newfie]

We just bid on a job that required some form of regenerative energy storage be supplied. Our technology supplier, also from Canada, proposed some rather large capita or banks they have been developing.

Apparently these are pretty cutting edge and very little technical info was available, and I was butt deep in alligators at the moment so I didn't get to look too deeply into it.

This was on a 750 VDC propulsion system. Braking out power into the rails that the caps then stored and fed back once the voltage dropped below some level.

[Ulenspiegel]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Keith_McClary', '[')url=http://www.dw.de/norway-energy-storage-for-europe/av-17762986]Norway: Energy storage for Europe[/url]$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')orway derives almost 100 percent of its energy from hydropower. For Germany's planned transition to renewable energy, a close partnership is crucially important, because Norwegian pumped storage power stations could balance out variations in renewable energy sources.
But do Norwegians actually want to their country to become Europe's storage battery? The state energy companies scent a market worth billions, but many Norwegians view an extension of hydropower with concern. Of the country's 28 large waterfalls, only two remain untouched by electricity production. Will gigantic power lines spoil the view of the romantic fjords in future?

[Graeme]

'Wetting' a battery's appetite for renewable energy storage

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')un, wind and other renewable energy sources could make up a larger portion of the electricity America consumes if better batteries could be built to store the intermittent energy for cloudy, windless days. Now a new material could allow more utilities to store large amounts of renewable energy and make the nation's power system more reliable and resilient.

A paper published today in Nature Communications describes an electrode made of a liquid metal alloy that enables sodium-beta batteries to operate at significantly lower temperatures. The new electrode enables sodium-beta batteries to last longer, helps streamline their manufacturing process and reduces the risk of accidental fire.

"Running at lower temperatures can make a big difference for sodium-beta batteries and may enable batteries to store more renewable energy and strengthen the power grid," said material scientist Xiaochuan Lu of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

[Graeme]

Sodium-β Batteries Could Transform Wind And Solar Into Baseload Generators

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he cost of generating wind and solar power has been sinking like a stone, but the cost of storing all that energy for a rainy day has remained stubbornly high. With that in mind let’s take a look at a new advanced energy storage development announced by our friends over at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

PNNL has been working on bringing down the cost of sodium-β batteries (that’s β for beta). Sodium-β batteries are widely perceived to be the key to advanced energy storage for utility scale wind and solar energy power, but their relatively high cost has been an obstacle to widespread adoption.
Sodium-β refers to a class of rechargeable metallic batteries, in which the two electrodes are separated by a ceramic membrane made of beta alumina. Initially used to construct industrial furnaces, by the 1960′s beta alumina was rediscovered as a conductive material with applications for advanced energy storage.

According to the Energy Department, there are two promising materials for the positive electrodes, sodium-sulfur or sodium-nickel-chloride (the later is the ZEBRA battery, for those of you familiar with the topic).

In terms of performance potential, sodium-β batteries could far outstrip lithium-ion batteries, the current gold standard. In addition to advanced energy storage for utility operations, sodium-β batteries could also play a role in mobile energy storage for electric vehicles.

[Graeme]

Energy storage market rises to $50B in 2020

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'L')ux Research
Energy storage, driven largely by electronics and plug-in vehicles, will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent to $50 billion in 2020 with dramatic shifts’ coming from the transportation industry, according to a Lux Research report, “Finding Growth Opportunities in the $50 Billion Energy Storage Market.”

Transportation applications will outpace electronics growth — attaining an 11 percent CAGR to become a $21 billion market by the end of the decade. Its faster growth will close the gap with electronics, which still will remain the single largest market valued at $27 billion. The market for stationary applications will be worth $2.8 billion as it awaits cost breakthroughs.

In addition, incremental evolutions such as start-stop technology are leading to significant changes in the energy storage market. With global sales of 59 million, a 53 percent market share and $6.1 billion in annual revenue, microhybrids for the first time will overtake the conventional internal combustion engine and emerge the most popular drivetrain by 2020.

“The automotive market is well on its way to displacing consumer electronics as the biggest user of energy storage,” said Cosmin Laslau, an analyst at Lux Research and lead author of the report. “As that happens, it will lead to further scale and a new round of cost reductions, which will impact stationary applications, as well.”

[Graeme]

The Energy Storage Renaissance is Near

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'F')or one week, each cloudy, San Francisco July, the sun shines brightly on the solar industry. Intersolar North America comes to town and provides a venue for solar professionals from around the world to share insight into the technology and market trends propelling the industry forward.

For the past four years, Antenna has partnered with Intersolar to drive the show’s communications and marketing programs. Through this partnership, we’re offered an inside look at the show’s hottest topics. This year, the maturing solar industry was most heavily focused on resolving one specific challenge – how to bottle the sun, or in other words, develop cost-effective energy storage technologies.

As more solar is connected to the grid, utilities and project developers are becoming highly focused on how to stabilize energy intermittency. Energy storage is key to resolving this issue. Even though the solar storage market has grown steadily worldwide, particularly in recent years, storage technologies have yet to fall in cost like other critical solar equipment such as modules and balance of system components.

Intersolar panelists offered a diverse range of opinions on how to integrate more cost-effective solar onto the grid. Based on our close coverage of the four-day event, here are a few of the more notable sub-topics that dominated discussion:

[Graeme]

Energy Storage North America names top nine energy storage project finalists

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')nergy Storage North America (ESNA), the most influential gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage, today announced finalists for its 2014 annual Innovation Award, recognizing excellence in energy storage project development. The nine Innovation Award finalists represent excellence in installed energy storage projects across three categories: utility-scale, customer-sited (commercial, industrial, or residential), and mobility (electric vehicle charging and surrounding infrastructure).


ESNA 2014 Innovation Award Finalists:

Utility-scale: The finalists in the utility-scale category are: 2500 R Midtown (Sacramento, CA); Abengoa Solana CSP Plant (Gila Bend, AZ); and SCE Tehachapi Wind Energy Storage Project (Tehachapi, CA).
Customer-sited: The finalists in the customer-sited category are: EaglePicher PowerPyramid BESS (Promontory, UT); Green Charge Networks GreenStation 2.0 (various locations, CA); and UC San Diego/BMW 2nd Life EV Energy Storage System (San Diego, CA).
Mobility: The finalists in the mobility category are: Benecia City Hall Solar EV Fast Charger with Storage (Benecia, CA); Powertree San Francisco One (San Francisco, CA); and SEPTA Energy Optimization Project (Philadelphia, PA).

[Graeme]

Energy Storage Market To Hit $50 Billion By 2020 (Lux Research)

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he global energy storage market will rise to $50 billion by the year 2020, according to Lux Research — with a predicted compound annual growth rate of 8% until then.

Much of the predicted rise will be in “transportation applications,” which will rise to $21 billion by 2020, according to Lux Research. Narrowing the gap between that portion of the market and the portion represented by electronics — which is predicted to rise to $27 billion by 2020. The remainder will be filled out by “stationary applications” — which are expected to rise to $2.8 billion.

[Graeme]

Top Energy Storage Companies In 2014 Innovation Award Competition

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he nine finalists for the 2014 edition of Energy Storage North America’s (ESNA) annual Innovation Award have now been announced — setting the stage for the winners to be announced at the Energy Storage North America convention, which is taking place at the San Jose Convention Center from September 30th to October 2nd.


Here are the finalists:

Utility-Scale Energy Storage

2500 R Midtown (Sacramento, CA)
Abengoa Solana CSP Plant (Gila Bend, AZ)
SCE Tehachapi Wind Energy Storage Project (Tehachapi, CA)

Customer-Sited Energy Storage

EaglePicher PowerPyramid BESS (Promontory, UT)
Green Charge Networks GreenStation 2.0 (various locations, CA)
UC San Diego/BMW 2nd Life EV Energy Storage System (San Diego, CA)

Mobility Energy Storage

Benecia City Hall Solar EV Fast Charger with Storage (Benecia, CA)
Powertree San Francisco One (San Francisco, CA)
SEPTA Energy Optimization Project (Philadelphia, PA)

[Graeme]

S&C on Energy Storage Drivers and Roadblocks

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')&C Electric Company is in the thick of the battle for the grid-scale energy storage market. It's an emerging multi-billion-dollar market, and much of the territory is still up for grabs.

Do competitors need to be small, agile specialists like software-intensive integrators Greensmith or Stem? Or is the vertical integration of firms like leaders S&C or AES (a la SolarCity in solar) the optimum way to approach this emerging market? Is being a battery maker the best way to get to market? And how long until energy storage is a material part of the energy picture?

S&C Electric Company has been building grid scale energy storage since 2006, uses five different battery chemistries and has a number of industry partners. But make no mistake -- this is a vertically integrated company.

In the battery value chain consisting of:

Battery and battery container
Power electronics/inverters
Switching and protection
Software control
Systems studies
EPC
S&C does everything except the battery and battery container. S&C sees competition in power electronics, systems and EPC work from ABB, AES, Black & Veatch and Eaton. Greensmith, Stem and Green Charge compete with S&C on the software and system integration side of the business.

GTM spoke with the energy storage people at S&C yesterday, who were enthusiastic about a 6-megawatt/10-megawatt-hour "capacity relief" energy storage project in the U.K. that was "being commissioned as we speak," according to Troy Miller, business development manager at S&C.

Tim Qualheim, VP of strategic solutions at S&C, sees the growth of the energy storage market poised for the "hook in the hockey stick" driven by "storage on feeder circuits over the next two to three years."

[Graeme]

Energy Storage: Progress and Promise

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he pending boom of the energy storage industry is right around the corner, and the U.S. is taking a front seat. According to recent IHS research, the U.S. is the largest market for grid-connected energy storage installations through 2017, and global sales of combined solar energy storage systems are expected to reach nearly $30 billion by then.

This mounting interest in energy storage is evident from the expanded deployment of storage-backed solar, extensive battery research efforts across the country and increased investment activity. California continues to be a progressive leader in renewable energy technologies and now has a mandate calling for 1.3 GW of energy storage by 2020. The state has already applied for installation projects totaling double the required amount. Even the Intersolar North America Conference this past July had multiple sessions dedicated to energy storage. The industry has also seen growth in venture capital funding sparked by technological improvements and local policies, and the first quarter of 2014 attracted $107 million in investments for smart grid and energy storage in the U.S.

Energy storage systems can be beneficial on a small or large scale.

- Commercial consumers combine storage with renewables or demand response.
- Residential consumers pair storage with PV installations to reap maximum benefits of solar systems.
- Utilities use storage as reserve capacity to accommodate peak loads and improve grid resilience.

Although the basic technology has been around for years, there have been many improvements in effectiveness, safety and cost. Current grid-scale storage typically uses lithium-ion or sodium-sulfur batteries, which provide multi-hour capacity at relatively high temperatures. The main technologies currently emerging in the market are flow batteries, fly wheels, solid state and thermal. Sodium-beta batteries are also being tested. They operate at significantly lower temperatures, allowing cheaper materials to be used and reducing overall production cost.

[Graeme]

Australian owned solar technology makes storage breakthrough

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')ovatec Solar – a company majority owned by Australia’s Transfield Holdings – has commissioned a solar thermal energy demonstration plant in Spain that is based on a new type of molten salt storage technology.

The Germany-based Novatec Solar says the new plant uses a process called direct molten salt or DMS technology – where inorganic salts are used as a heat transfer fluid rather than oils.

This means that the plant can operate at temperatures well above 500°C, resulting in a significant increase in power yield. This means that costs are lowered significantly and the solar plants can act as baseload generators if required.

Andreas Wittke, CEO of Novatec Solar, which is 85 per cent owned by Australia’s Transfield Holdings, says this means that the technology will be able to operate on a “commercial” basis.

“The successful commissioning and the initial results of the DMS demo plant have confirmed our expectations of the technology,” he said in a statement.

“We are delighted that we can now offer solar thermal power plants with molten salt technology and thermal storage on a commercial basis.”

[Graeme]

Stem Banks $100M to Finance No-Money-Down Energy Storage

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')tem, a behind-the-meter energy storage startup, just closed on a $100 million fund to finance distributed energy storage at commercial and industrial customers. The fund is provided by B Asset Manager, a New York City-based investment adviser in the insurance industry, according to a release. Stem has also received venture funding from Angeleno Group, Iberdrola and GE Ventures.

As the energy storage industry matures, the need to scale up requires increased amounts of capital. The market environment has parallels to the residential solar industry of eight years ago, when companies such as SolarCity and Sunrun were starting to raise capital for leased solar systems. That leasing model initiated a furious amount of growth that continues to this day in the residential solar space.

Is leasing the direction for behind-the-meter energy storage?

"This is a very big vehicle, and it will enable us to have as much as we would need over the next...twenty-four months. As we expand into more markets, we're going to need more of that financing. We're in Hawaii, New York, and we're winning in California," John Carrington, CEO of Stem, told GTM on Monday.

[careinke]

Underwater compressed air storage should work.

Another way to achieve compressed air and storage for basically free (after construction) is a Trompe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')rompes are very simple devices. A vertical pipe or shaft goes down to a separation chamber, a pipe coming away from that chamber allows the water to exit at a lower level, and another pipe coming from the chamber allows the compressed air to exit as needed.

Water rushing down the vertical pipe falls through a constriction. The constriction produces a lower pressure because of the venturi effect, and an external port allows air to be sucked in. The air forms bubbles in the pipe. As the bubbles go down the pipe they are pressurized proportionally to the hydraulic head, which is the height of the column of water in the pipe. The compressed air rises to the top of the separation chamber. The separation chamber has a compressed-air takeoff pipe, and the compressed air can be used as a power source.

The energy of the falling water entrains the air into the water, but that is not the energy that pressurizes the air, as is often incorrectly claimed. That energy is solely a derivative of the hydraulic head.

Large trompes were often situated at high waterfalls so that plenty of power was available. The Ragged Chute plant on the Montreal River near the town of Cobalt, Ontario, is a trompe and tourist attraction. It is now owned by Canadian Hydro and exists beside a modern hydroelectric plant.[4]

Compressed air from a trompe is at the temperature of the water, and its partial pressure of water vapor is that of the dewpoint of the water's temperature. If the water is cool, the compressed air can be made very dry by passing it through pipes that are warmer than the water. Often, ordinary outside air can warm the pipes enough to produce very dry, cool compressed air.

Today, trompes constructed of plastic pipe are being used to provide aeration for mine drainage treatment. In this application, mine water is used to drive the trompe and the compressed air that is generated is used to oxygenate the mine water and to drive off excess dissolved carbon dioxide that may be present thus raising the pH of the water being treated.[5]

[Graeme]

MIT team improves liquid metal batteries for grid-scale storage; lower operating temperature, cost

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')esearchers at MIT have improved a proposed liquid battery system that could enable renewable energy sources to compete with conventional power plants. Professor Donald Sadoway and colleagues have already started a company, Ambri (initially Liquid Metal Battery Corporation), to produce electrical-grid-scale liquid batteries, which comprise layers of molten material which automatically separate due to their differing densities. (Earlier post.)

In a paper published in the journal Nature, they describe a lithium–antimony–lead liquid metal battery comprising a liquid lithium negative electrode, a molten salt electrolyte, and a liquid antimony–lead alloy positive electrode, which self-segregate by density into three distinct layers owing to the immiscibility of the contiguous salt and metal phases.

The new composition substitutes different metals for the molten layers used in a battery previously developed by the team; the new formula allows the battery to work at a temperature more than 200 degrees Celsius lower than the previous formulation.