ESJ, Issue 18: Autumn 2017

Issue 18: Autumn 2017

Charging the future – special supplement on ees international exhibition series

The great recycling dilemma The new headache for lithium batteries A gigafactory too far First, there was one in Nevada ... now dozens are in the pipeline

Business as usual US energy storage to weather storms over end to Paris accord

Vanadium bites back Schmid shows how flow batteries offer an alternative to lithium

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CONTENTS COVER STORY

20

LITHIUM RECYCLING: BALANCING COST, VOLUMES AND NEEDS Recycling lithium ion batteries is still uneconomical — for most of the time the cost of recycling is greater than the value of the metals retrieved. Moreover dumping of the batteries is unviable. An economical way forward is possible but may take years to happen.

EDITORIAL

2

PEOPLE NEWS

3

NEWS

6

The wild new frontiers of energy storage — winners and losers in the last dash to cash in Change afoot as Redflow restructures management and moves production to Thailand • New senior appointments for Eos Energy Storage • Energy storage firm Tesvolt hires battery Porsche’s Schäfer

Inevitability: price volatility 20

Drax to replace coal-fired power with battery storage • California bill to streamline energy storage deployment advances • Duke plans 13MW of battery storage • Centrica completes Younicos-based battery storage system in UK • Real-world tests begin to explore benefits of VRFB on modernizing the US grid • Duo of renewables plus storage for Spain • NEC to supply Switzerland’s biggest primary reserve ESS • Lead-acid key element in India’s power network transformation • Korean battery manufacturers estimate investment by 2020 • Alevo files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy • US utility invests in battery storage instead of asset upgrade in rural Arizona • RES sells asset as renewables investor moves into storage market • Consortium receives government backing to build Australian lithium-ion manufacturing plant •Consortium plans to build Germany’s third Li-ion gigafactory • Major fundraising round starts for Sweden’s 32GWh factory • Materials demand to outstrip supply by 2020 • Megtec introduces a ‘GigaCoater’ for battery electrodes • EDF and Stornetic begin testing flywheels for grid • Innovate UK awards £1.5m for first of its kind liquid air energy storage • Mining firm explores ways to produce battery ready cobalt

ANALYSIS

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US ENERGY STORAGE AFTER PARIS

26

Gigafactories —how much of an advantage is there being the first mover in these unproven markets ...

The momentum behind the country’s adoption of renewables and energy storage remains intact. But why?

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT — EES INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION SERIES

Schäfer: time for Tesvolt

3

33-44

• The tipping point arrives, time to add the e-Mobility ingredient to renewables • US continues apace — focus, less on the White House, more on a thriving industry ...

• The accelerating pace of energy storage in India, creates opportunities, challenges • The ees viewpoint: Florian Wessendorf outlines the underlying thinking behind ees events

PROFILE: SCHMID GROUP

45

BACK TO BASICS: BATTERY VERIFICATION

48

CONFERENCE IN PRINT

51

ENERGY STORAGE PIONEERS: JUERGEN GARCHE

53

EVENTS

57

The joys of vanadium redox flow batteries shouldn’t detract from rivalries with other chemistries

Enabling fast formation lithium ion batteries

Our comprehensive listing of energy storage conferences and events

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Features writer: Jim Smith jim@energystoragejournal.com The lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch

Research editor: Jane Simpson jane@energystoragejournal.com

Let cool heads prevail The new titan of lead Ecoult’s UltraBattery, ready to take lithium on, head-to-head

The CEO interview Anil Srivastava and Leclanché’s bid for market dominance

www.energystoragejournal.com

US energy: beyond the storms 26

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Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 1

EDITORIAL Mike Halls • editor@energystoragejournal.com

The wild new frontiers of energy storage 50:50 hindsight. Yes, it’s always perfect. So, if you were to ask the market opinion of Alevo in 2014, the general thinking — based on an ignorant press that mistook huge investments in new technology as a measure of success — Alevo was the Next Big Thing in energy storage.

Alevo went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the middle of August. Those of us in the know had expected it earlier following a long list of projects that had been pulled or delayed.

Although Elon Musk at Tesla grabbed the better headlines, Alevo was always the next one to watch.

In a world of start-up announcements — remember the headlines as Tesla publicly tickled the media in a debate over where it would locate its gigafactory while it was already clearing its chosen site? — publicity is king.

Alevo didn’t do so badly either. In late 2014 the company announced it planned to spend $1 billion in converting an enormous former tobacco factory in North Carolina into a shiny, sparkling, brand new lithium battery manufacturing plant.

Using the momentum that created, it announced a busy work plan of projects, proposed job creation in the thousands and further details of how its proprietary inorganic electrolyte was going to change the fortunes of lithium iron phosphate batteries forever.

An uncritical press took statements by Alevo (and for that matter Tesla) mostly at face value.

But the fact is the whole energy storage industry is still — effectively for many parts of it at any rate — in the wild west. Frontier territory that is still waiting to be explored. Huge land grabs to be made. Fortunes to be won and lost in a new and developing technology.

With countries across the world pledging a shift away from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles — in the past three months China, the UK and France have all agreed a future ban on the sale of new petrol cars — we are entering a new world of energy storage, with ramifications that extend across the planet.

The three join a select group of countries that include India, Germany and the Netherlands and forsee ambitious dates for putting this ban into effect. The Netherlands wants to introduce this as early as 2025. (How?) At the moment these are statements of intent by politicians and should be looked at as just that. But there is an absurd logic to them similar to the great land rushes of the 1880s in the US. But the decision is, in effect, putting the fate of these countries’ economies on a technology that is unsubstantiated, unproven and uncosted. An ambitious proposal that again reminds one of the the early uncharted frontiers of the wild west.

2 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

Unsubstantiated in that there are still huge questions over the fitness of any chemistry — and here specifically lithium — to rethink how whole societies will be restructured.

The Samsung battery recall of its phones this year is estimated to have cost $4 billion; then Sony laptop fires, Dreamliners, exploding cars all come to mind.

And, as we aim for a greener, more recyclable economy, can lithium batteries be disposed of satisfactorily? Or in an economically useful way?

It’s also being set by a timetable that is arbitrary.

UK and French politicians seem to have chosen dates when they will be comfortably in retirement and only the Chinese have adopted a wait-and-see approach.

And let’s forget any idea of anyone at all saving the planet.

As you read this, more than 1,600 coal-fired power plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries. The new plants will expand the world’s coal-fired power capacity by 43% — and almost half will be built by Chinese firms!

The targets set are also based on assumptions that are unproven.

Will the public adoption of electric vehicles give the date the momentum it deserves? (And for that we still have the uncertainties of the premium that lithium batteries cost.) What if, as some are predicting, there is a global shortage of cobalt, needed for higher density lithium-ion batteries. Could the switch-over be successful if high quality cars cannot be made?

Moreover, how will the charging infrastructure be put in place? And paid for? How will the phase-in be handled? Will the government purse be required to fund this? And if so, how much?

And, as per the nail in the coffin for this muddleheadedness, we still haven’t calculated the entire cradle-to-grave cost of the battery chemistry!

We need to explore the wildness of this new frontier rather than listen to soundbites or heed the press.

To misquote an eminent US politician, the reality is this. The future ahead of us is not just a known unknown. Rather, it’s an unknown unknown.

And we — foolishly — seem to have a market expectation that billions of dollars thrown into gigafactories around the world will come up with a known, known.

We have a technology that is scalable, relatively easy to replicate and cost effective (almost). But that’s not to say that this brave new world will prove an easy one to conquer. Or as profitable as our dreams imagine. www.energystoragejournal.com

PEOPLE NEWS

Change afoot as Redflow restructures management and moves production to Thailand A series of high-level managerial changes were made at Australian flow battery maker Redflow on September 27 in a bid to grow the company’s sales of its zincbromine technology and oversee the transfer of its manufacturing base from Mexico to Thailand.

The company’s former chief operating officer, Richard Aird, becomes the CEO with a mandate to accelerate the company’s new strategic direction, announced in May, which included moving battery production and targeting new market applications. Aird has been with the company since 2009.

The move comes just 12 months after Redflow’s largest shareholder, Simon Hackett, was named CEO. Hackett will continue as a non-executive director with oversight for technologyrelated matters.

This includes external communications, public advocacy and guiding its continuing technical development and direction.

Hackett will be replaced as the company’s independent non-executive chairman by Brett Johnson.

Hackett, a well-known Australian technology entrepreneur, said: “My goal is to ensure that as we scale up production, our partners

find it easy to integrate Redflow batteries into energy storage systems.”

In the past year, Redflow has refocused on the leadacid replacement market in the telecommunications, commercial, industrial and off-grid residential sectors.

This month Redflow secured a $600,000 order for its ZBM2 zinc-bromine flow batteries from Auckland-based Hitech Solutions. Hitech is set to use the ZBM2 batteries to build advanced hybrid energy storage systems that will deliver power to multiple remote sites in a Pacific Island nation.

Hitech placed the order

through Redflow’s partner Vertiv (formerly Emerson Network Power), a Redflow system integrator that has previously deployed ZBM2 batteries for telco-related energy storage systems in New Zealand and Australia.

The company’s energy storage system has been deployed in South African business Bosco Printed Circuits, which installed 14 ZBM2s to keep its production line running through power cuts.

In August, Redflow confirmed it had established a company in Thailand to manage the production of its flow batteries in southeast Asia.

The move is being made to bring manufacturing closer to the company’s more lucrative markets in Australia, Oceania and southern Africa, and to reduce production costs.

New senior appointments for Eos Energy Storage Grid-scale storage firm Eos Energy Storage announced four senior management appointments from the storage, battery and semiconductor industry on September 5 as the US-based company aims to expand production and global deployment of its zinc-hybrid cathode systems.

The New Jersey company announced David Henry will be its new chief financial officer; Richard Hanna becomes vice president for manufacturing; Daniel Friberg a director of system engineering & integration; and Keith Powers is named director of field operations.

The company says it is looking to boost deployment of its Znyth technologybased Aurora DC utilityscale battery system, which uses a titanium current collector, aqueous electrolyte, and propriety electrolyte additives.

Henry was previously executive vice president, CFO and treasurer of American Superconductor Corporation.

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Hanna, the former executive director of battery operations for Apple, said: “The Znyth battery is completely different from the lithium batteries I’m used to.

“There are no clean rooms required and no complex deposition processes; we can manufacture these batteries in a machine shop-like environment and are now working to increase volume, yield,

and throughput through automation while expanding localized production lines in target international markets.”

Friberg, who has overseen the deployment of more than 200MW of ESS at ABB and Parker-Hannifin, will oversee engineering of the Eos Aurora DC battery and battery management system, and will support third party

integration and AC system design.

Powers will be responsible for project management from installation onwards.

In the past 19 years he has managed the construction of more than 1.5GW of utilityscale renewable energy systems, most recently at Iberdrola Renewables and its successor company Avangrid Renewables.

Energy storage firm Tesvolt hires battery Porsche’s Schäfer Victor Schäfer, energy storage expert and former electric mobility developer at Porsche, was named vice president of research and development of the German battery storage manufacturer Tesvolt on September 26.

Schäfer started in the newly created position on October 1 with the goal of optimizing and applying the quality assurance processes in the develop-

ment of new products at the Lutherstadt Wittenberg-based company that uses prismatic nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide cells from Samsung SDI. Schäfer worked on energy management for lithium-ion technology and spent five years in the development of electric mobility and improving the quality of the company in the electrical and electronics sector.

Victor Schäfer: Named as vice president of Research & Development Tesvolt

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 3

NEWS

Drax to replace coal-fired power with battery storage The UK power generation company Drax announced on September 13 it had drawn up plans to introduce 200MW of battery storage at its soon-to-be shuttered coal-fired Drax Power Station in Yorkshire.

The project aims to explore battery storage as one of the options available to the company as the UK government phases out coal-fired power generation, with the goal of closing the

last facility by 2025.

The company, which has operations in the UK and the US, says it is to consult on long-term plans that also include changing two coal units at the power station to gas.

The plans are being developed to increase Drax’s ability to provide the flexible generation and responsive grid support services the UK’s grid will need post 2025.

The development is, however, subject to investment decisions and would need to be underpinned by a 15year capacity market contract, said the company.

A Drax spokesman said: “We said some time ago we were interested in the potential for power storage systems. As coal and other large power stations come off the system and more intermittent renewables come on, batteries will become

California bill to streamline energy storage deployment advances A bill that would streamline and standardize the process for deploying energy storage systems in California passed the Assembly floor on concurrence on September 7, and now heads to be signed into law by Jerry Brown, state governor.

The main elements of Assembly Bill (AB) 546 is that it will allow the submission of a permit application and associated documentation online, encourage the Office of Planning and Research to develop energy storage guidance drawing from existing best practices, and establish fees for permitting and inspection.

The bill’s author, David Chiu, representing the 17th Assembly District of California, which includes the eastern half of San Francisco, hopes it will hasten and encourage the deployment of energy storage technology.

“Our future energy needs will require us to dramatically improve energy storage and increase the flexible management of electricity supply and demand,” said Assembly member Chiu.

“California should encourage simplicity and standardization with local

permits. When permitting conditions vary between cities, it can slow the industry down. Guidance that draws from best practices can help local governments standardize their processes so that the energy storage industry will grow quickly and safely.”

In 2015, Assembly member Chiu’s AB 1236 was signed into law by the gov-

ernor. The reforms established the uniformity and permit processing ease for electric vehicle charging stations, with the aim of lowering the cost of installations and expanding the infrastructure to accommodate EVs on California’s roads.

Chui says that local jurisdictions currently handling storage permitting created a

an increasingly important part of the UK’s energy mix, hence why we’re keeping options open.”

Andy Koss, CEO of Drax Power, said: “We are at the start of the planning process but if developed these options for gas and battery storage show how Drax could upgrade our existing infrastructure to provide capacity, stability and essential grid services, as we do with biomass.

Drax expects to begin consulting on these options with local communities and national stakeholders over the coming weeks. barrier to the cost-effectiveness of this technology and limited or slowed deployment. “As California becomes increasingly reliant on intermittent renewable energy resources, it will need options to allow it to manage fluctuations in electric supply and demand. Energy storage is a major part of that solution. Energy storage allows customers to use power when it is the cheapest and most plentiful and creates resource stability for grid operators.”

Duke plans 13MW of battery storage US utility Duke Energy unveiled plans on September 21 to build 13MW of lithium-ion energy storage systems at two locations in western North Carolina to help with reliability and provide energy grid support to its grid system.

The Charlotte-based company will install North Carolina’s two largest battery energy storage systems — one in Ashville and the other in Hot Springs, Madison County — as part of its $30 million Western Carolinas Modernization Plan.

The Asheville project will place a 9MW system at a substation in the Rock Hill community to provide

4 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

energy support to the electric system, including frequency regulation and further grid support services.

In Hot Springs, the 4MW system will help improve electric reliability for the town. The company is also considering a solar facility to work alongside this battery system.

Duke Energy has been working on developing ways to make the most of emerging technologies like energy storage with stakeholders, including members of the Energy Innovation Task Force, a collaborative effort with the city of Asheville and Buncombe

County.

EITF Technology Working Group co-chair Ned Ryan Doyle said: “These initial utility-scale energy storage projects represent an integral first step in upgrading and modernizing our grid infrastructure.

“Investments in energy storage are a key component to a more reliable and resilient grid. It provides a foundation for the expansion of true clean energy sources.”

Further details on the projects will be filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission in early 2018. Both projects are expected to be online in 2019.

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NEWS

Centrica completes Younicos-based battery storage system in UK UK utility Centrica’s distributed energy and power business announced on September 18 that it had completed the installation of a 3MW lithium-ion commercial battery storage system to ensure grid reliability for Gateshead’s power network.

The battery project, made up of six Younicos Y.Cube battery units, has been designed to respond to grid fluctuations.

The battery facility will have a minimum response time of 140 milliseconds, and absorb or discharge

power depending on local demand but typically grid frequency stabilization by the National Grid.

It will also manage peak power demand and store excess power for the Gateshead District Energy Network.

Once commissioned later this year, Centrica will manage the project under a 10year contract, and eventually utilize it to help meet peaks in local demand through a private wire to council-owned buildings and Tyneside buildings.

Real-world tests begin to explore benefits of VRFB on modernizing the US grid A pilot project to test the real world capability of vanadium redox flow batteries on the US grid began on September 22 as part of a wider research project by the Grid Modernization Lab Consortium — a partnership between the US Department of Energy and national laboratories.

Municipality-owned utility EPB activated the 100kW/400kWh Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB) — situated at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, community solar array — as part of GMLC’s programme of developing and testing new technologies that could enhance the flexibility and re-

siliency of the US’s national power grid.

The project will explore how a VRFB — supplied by US manufacturer UniEnergy Technologies — can be integrated with smart grid automation to ensure security of supply and provide gridscale services when integrated with renewable energy generation.

The GMLC programme is a partnership between the US’s DOE, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The site was chosen because Chattanooga’s power distribution infrastructure

combines a communitywide fibre-optics network with more than 1,200 automated power management devices and is seen as ideal for testing new technologies and developing best practices.

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker said: ”Through this partnership, we will be able to better understand energy storage and test new technologies in an effort to bring resilient and affordable electricity to Americans. An extensive and reliable grid is critical for a 21st century economy.”

EPB will use the battery system for a wide variety of applications including

solar integration, voltage regulation, back-up power, advanced microgrid operations and energy management.

Working with the national laboratories, EPB will hone the control strategies used to operate and maximize the value proposition for utilizing battery systems.

The utility and the laboratories will also collaborate to quantify and analyze the different benefits of the project to EPB’s customers.

The VRFB used in the project was developed at PNNL, with added support coming from the Department of the Environment’s Office of Electricity.

Duo of renewables plus storage for Spain Two renewables plus storage projects were announced in Spain in September, which if completed would add more than 20MW of storage to the country’s energy mix.

On September 13, ESS and microgrids firm Electro Power Systems announced it had signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract to deliver a turnkey, 20MW utility-scale storage system in Spain.

The France-headquartered company will design, build and commission the project for the Spanish utility Endesa at its thermoelectric plant Carboneras in Almeria.

The system will be the

largest in Spain and will consist of 24 inverters and 16 containers, half filled with power conversion systems and the rest with lithium-ion storage, with a total installed capacity of 20MW/11.7MWh. The project should become operational by June 2018.

Separately, renewable energy infrastructure conglomerate Acciona launched Spain’s first grid-connected wind farm.

Manu Ayerdi, vice-president for business development of the Government of Navarra, and Acciona Energía CEO Rafael Mateo put the project into service

6 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

in Barásoain in Navarra on September 21.

The Barásoain plant includes two Samsung SDI lithium-ion batteries located in separate containers: one fast-response battery of 1MW/0.39MWh (capable of maintaining 1MW of power for 20 minutes) and the other 700 kW/700 kWh (maintaining 0.7MW for one hour).

Other than ensuring a better-quality grid supply, the company will look at how storage can provide ancillary services such as frequency balancing and peak shifting.

The project has received

funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which manages the Centre for Industrial Technological Development in Spain (CDTI).

Fernhill announces patent application for hybrid energy storage systems A patent for a hybrid supercapacitor and lithium-ion battery was filed on September 18 by Fern Technology, a subsidiary of Fernhill Corporation, a US company focused on acquisitions and partnerships in energybased industry.

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NEWS

NEC to supply Switzerland’s biggest primary reserve ESS US distributed storage company NEC Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, announced on September 7 it is to supply an 18MW lithium-ion system to Swiss utility Elektrizitätswerke des Kantons Zürich.

The 7.5MWh project, which once completed early

next year will be the largest battery energy storage system in Switzerland, will be owned and operated by EKZ for primary reserve services.

The energy storage system will be built at an existing substation in Volketswil, near Zurich, and follows EKZ’s 1MW energy stor-

age project in Dietikon, which was Europe’s first battery ESS used for primary reserve control market without the backup of a conventional power plant when it was brought online in 2012.

“Battery storage will play a key role in tomorrow’s power networks,” said

Lead-acid key element in India’s power network transformation The Indian energy storage market is set to grow to 70GW in the next five years as the country integrates renewable energy sources and adopts electrified transport, according to a report for 2017-2022 by the India Energy Storage Alliance.

The country’s need to stabilize its grid power, growth in electric rickshaw (e-trike) sales, reduction in diesel gensets use and the integration of solar PV — from residential to micro-grid scale — will cause the jump from the current 4.4GW capacity, says the report.

IESA estimates that more than half of the demand capacity by 2022 will come from India’s emerging wind and solar integration, frequency regulation, peak management, transmission and distribution deferral, diesel usage optimization and electric vehicle markets.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently set a deployment target of 100GW of solar (from 13,650MW in July 2017) and 60GW of wind (up from 25,090MW in 2016) generated power in India by 2022.

India could attract investments in energy storage device manufacturing to the tune of $6 billion in the short term.

IESA compiled the new

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version of the report taking into consideration current opportunities as well as a detailed overview of various growth scenarios and key government initiatives, such as the government’s 175GW renewable target, National Electric Mobility Mission (FAME India Initiative), National Smart Grid Mission, ‘Make In India’, and India’s Smart Cities mission.

In India, the lead-acid market is around Rp27,000 crore ($4.2 billion), with stationary and motive applications accounting for Rp12,650 crore, the IESA India Lead Acid Battery Market Landscape Report (Stationary and Motive Applications) found.

The report forecasts that stationary and motive application segments will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14% until 2020 and the market will double to Rp25,000 crore.

Shri Raj Kumar Singh was appointed India’s new minister of state for the ministry of power and for the ministry of new and renewable energy on September 5.

On August 28 Singh’s predecessor, Shiri Goyal, oversaw a technical cooperation deal between the government and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit under the 2013 Indo-German Energy

Programme. Green Energy Corridor’s plan to improve

Marina González Vayá, project manager for EKZ. “With this first large-scale commercial battery storage project we’re taking an important step towards a reliable and sustainable energy future.”

NEC’s ESS will complement’s the country’s conventional power production assets such as pumped hydro storage and thermal generation resources in the primary reserve control market. the grid integration of renewable energy.

Germany has pledged almost €1.5 billion in loans to help India develop its infrastructure, training, and research and development,

Korean battery manufacturers estimate investment by 2020 South Korean firms LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation announced on September 8 they are planning to invest about 2.6 trillion won ($884.5 million) in the domestic secondary battery market by 2020.

Two trillion won will be used to expand production capacities to meet future electric vehicle and energy storage system markets, it was confirmed during a meeting between South Korea’s ministry of trade, industry and energy and the country’s secondary battery industry in Seoul.

Capacity will be expanded through increased production and the construction of new facilities in Ochang, (LG Chem), Ulsan (Samsung SDI) and Seosan (SK Innovation), the country’s news outlet Business Korea reported.

In the meeting, chaired

by Baek Woon-kyu, minister of trade, industry and energy, the three companies said they were planning to invest around 610 billion won in tech-

nological development, including the performance of secondary batteries for electric cars by 2020.

Business Korea reported that the companies attending the meeting had said they were having difficulties because of the Chinese government’s sanctions on Korean-made batteries for electric vehicles.

In 2016 the Chinese government announced it would only give state subsidies to EV battery makers who qualified for listing in a directory that came into play earlier this year, although the measures have been waived in the pilot, free-trade zones of Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian.

However, China has excluded EVs with Korean batteries from receiving subsidies. Since last December this has accounted for around half of the car’s price.

China announced in September it would ban all fossil fuel cars in the near future, although no date has been announced.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 7

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NEWS

Alevo files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Energy storage system startup Alevo USA and Alevo Manufacturing cited the challenges of bringing a new product to market and poor “financial wherewithal” on its decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on August 18.

A Switzerland-headquartered company owns the two firms which operated from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Alevo completed its first, and only, commercial unit this January when it deployed a 2MW system in Hagerstown, Maryland for frequency regulation in the PJM system.

The company’s website has been changed to a simple statement that states that, through Bankruptcy

into the PJM. Since then, according to local press reports, the firm had been dogged by delays in manufacturing its lithium-ion batteries using a sulfur-based inorganic electrolyte that was the basis of its technology.

Heintzelman said the decision “was driven by the formidable challenges of bringing a new technology into commercial production and lacking the financial wherewithal to continue on through repeated manufacturing delays”.

“It is a sad day for our dedicated employees and partners, as well as for the promise of Alevo’s technology,” he said.

Alevo entered the US with a splash in 2014. Lo-

cal newspaper reports said it had invested more than $68 million in a 3.5 millionsquare-foot former tobacco factory outside Charlotte.

They also said the firm would hire up to 2,500 workers over three years, with a potential maximum workforce of 6,000 capable of turning out thousands of megawatts of electricity storage products annually.

According to a state filing, the company plans to lay off 290 employees.

The statement said that despite demonstrating the advantages of its groundbreaking battery technology, Alevo Manufacturing had significant production challenges and thus insufficient revenue to continue operations.

US utility invests in battery storage instead of asset upgrade in rural Arizona

APS plans to add 500MW of storage in the state by 2032 and is already using energy storage systems to store renewables for use in peakshifting and voltage support.

Scott Bordenkircher, APS’s director of transmission and distribution technology innovation and integration, said the project was a crucial step in the right direction for Arizona’s energy future. He said: “This project is indicative of the type of smart grid APS envisions for customers, one that enables people to have more technology in their own homes.

“Thoughtful implementation of battery storage is key to its future success. For a community like Punkin Center, a rural location, reduced implementation costs and added technological benefits make it the perfect candidate for this technology. ” The battery project will be scaled up to add capacity as the need arises over the next five to 10 years.

Last December, APS installed two AES battery storage units in the West Valley as part of the Solar Partner Program.

US electric utility Arizona Public Service announced on August 9 it is preparing to use lithium-ion batteries from AES Energy Storage to secure its power supply instead of rebuilding around 20 miles of transmission

Court supervision, Alevo USA and Alevo Manufacturing hope to achieve an orderly liquidation of their assets and maximize value to pay their creditors.

Peter Heintzelman, chief financial officer of the Alevo group, said: “The Chapter 11 filings are a very difficult, but necessary, decision.”

Heintzelman joined the firm in January with a remit to turn the company around.

In 2016 the company announced ambitious plans for deployments in Texas and Delaware. Alevo said at the time the Delaware project is “the first in a series of major commercial deployments the company has scheduled for 2016.”

The Lewes project involved the sale of ancillary services

and distribution poles and wires in Arizona.

The Phoenix utility will install two 4MWhr Advancion battery storage systems in rural Punkin Center, Arizona, in one of the first projects of its kind to use

battery technology for basic grid operation.

Construction on the project will begin shortly and the plant should be operational in early 2018 at a cost similar to that of completing the repairs.

RES sells asset as renewables investor moves into storage market Storage integrator Renewable Energy Systems has sold its second grid-scale project in the UK with the announcement that London-listed investment company The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) had bought its 20MW in Scotland on August 14.

The transaction marks the first move into the energy storage market for TRIG, and the second time RES — which sold its 35MW Port of Tyne asset to the Foresight Group in June, but still

operates it — has sold a project in the UK.RES, which has developed four projects in the UK, will continue to build and operate the Broxham, West Lothian project and broke ground this July with full commissioning due in early 2018.

RES has a global energy storage portfolio totalling more than 240 MW (275 MWh) providing multiple grid services.

TRIG has previously invested in a portfolio of 56 onshore wind and solar projects across the UK and

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Northern Europe, but this is its first move into energy storage.

The project will have an operational life of 15 years and will deliver services to the National Grid through a bespoke bilateral agreement to provide dynamic, two-way sub-second grid balancing services.

The Port of Tyne sale was the largest of the National Grid’s Enhanced Frequency Response battery storage projects to attract investment from an infrastructure investment manager in the UK.

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NEWS Alfen uses BMW batteries in energy storage system

Dutch company Alfen, which specializes in substations and charging stations, delivered a 3MW lithium-ion energy storage system using battery packs from BMW to stabilize the grid at Nuon’s Prinses Alexia Windpark in Zeewolde, Netherlands on June 28.

The system will be expanded to 12MW making it the largest storage project in the Netherlands.

This is Alfen’s second Dutch project connecting energy storage to a wind farm. The company completed a 1MW storage system in Giessenburg this May. Boudewijn Tjeertes, project manager at Nuon said: “This will enable us to make flexible use of renewable energy without wasting energy.”

This April, BMW Group and Vattenfall, the Swedish power company, signed a contract for the delivery of up to 1000, 33kWh, lithium-ion batteries usually used in the German vehicle OEM’s electric i3 model car.

Go Electric wins contract for grid-tied ESS at army depot US energy technology firm Go Electric won a contract on July 25 to supply a 1MW/1MWh grid-tied lithium-ion battery storage system that will provide a range of microgrid stabilization services at Tooele Army Depot in Utah.

The Indiana-based company was awarded the $1.7 million contract

by Perini Management Services to deliver the BESS to let the depot to manage multiple alternating current and direct current distributed energy sources.

Connected to the base’s existing 46kV line, and using Go Electric’s AutoLYNC microgrid controller, the system will help stabilize the facility’s microgrid.

Go Electric’s BESS product provides peak-shaving and black start capabilities, reactive and uninterruptible power supply, and utility voltage and frequency support.

This is Go Electric’s second military microgrid project.

The first was a 2MW, $2.99 million SPIDERS (Smart Power Infrastructure

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Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security) project, that was completed in January 2016.

SPIDERS is a joint effort between the US departments of defence, energy and homeland security to incorporate a cyber-secure microgrid to ensure a continuity of supply at a US military base.

Powin deal as Hawaii aggressively aims for 100% renewables Battery storage company Powin Energy announced on August 2 that it had been chosen by Adon Renewables to provide energy storage systems for a portfolio of seven solar plus storage projects in Hawaii to help the US state cope with its huge distributed energy resources.

With a combined 2.4MWh, the projects will use Powin’s site management software and its Battery Pack Operating System (bp-OS) to provide an array of services including frequency and voltage regulation, local capacity augmentation, emergency services, and load control.

The systems will use Powin’s

Stack140 modular — a purposebuilt 140kWh battery array that can be scaled up from 125kW to multiple megawatt applications — and be paired with solar PV panels.

The complete system will be run by Powin’s bp-OS software.

Hawaii is an important market for energy storage due to the state’s aggressive goal to run on 100% renewable energy by 2045.

Geoffrey Brown, president of Powin Energy, said: “The state has already installed a large amount of solar both residentially and commercially, but all of these distributed resources have created an urgent need for energy storage to maintain system frequency and voltage as well as energy shifting from daytime to peak periods in the evening when it is needed most.”

Each Powin Energy Stack140 storage system will be charged with excess energy from the solar panels during the day when loads are lightest and utility rates the lowest.

In June, Powin announced it was partnering with Hecate Energy to build, deliver, and install projects, using its Stack140 technology, with a total capacity of 12.8MW/52.8MWh at two sites in Ontario, Canada.

Has Tesla signalled plans to enter microgrid sector?

Among a host of building permit applications by Tesla for commercial contracting and remodelling work at its Reno gigafactory, a single application for a remodelling permit for a microgrid lab addendum caught the eye.

The application, listed on online remodelling marketplace Buildzoom, raises the question of whether Elon Musk’s company is progressing from electric vehicles and energy storage systems to research and development of microgrid technology.

However, valued at just $50,000 the application would suggest that this is either a cursory look at designing and testing the technology, or perhaps an attempt to introduce a microgrid to make the gigafactory self-sufficient.

Musk has said before that he wants to make the gigafactory selfsufficient using renewable energy, but to do this, in a factory with a

planned 35GW of manufacturing capacity in what will be one of the biggest buildings by footprint (10 million square feet/929,000 square meters) in the world when completed in 2020, would require vast solar and wind generation capabilities.

Computer generated images of the gigafactory show the roof covered by solar panels (an estimated 1kWh per square meter per day), but additional generation would be needed to meet the estimated 100MW of peak energy it would need to run — equivalent of around 80,000 homes per day.

Of course that would require battery storage, and perhaps the microgrid lab suggests that Tesla has more than a passing interest on the grid-scale storage market long term, after all it built a 20MW installation in California and is set to build a 100MW of capacity in Australia later this year.

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NEWS IPERC wins second DoD cybersecure microgrid contract Intelligent Power & Energy Research Corporation — IPERC — is set to roll out its cyber security controls product, GridMaster, to utility and municipality applications after announcing on July 26 that it had been authorized for military use.

The US Department of Defense issued a so-called ATO — Authorization to Operate — of the company’s microgrid control system for use at its Fort Carson Army base in Colorado.

The authorization followed testing and evaluation of the GridMaster’s security capabilities by the US Army

Corps of Engineers Research and Development Center.

The GridMaster is the only microgrid control system to have been granted such an authorization.

GridMaster also monitors real time status of the microgrid components using algorithms to make decisions — such as turning off unneeded generation — and issuing control signals to meet critical loads and minimize fuel consumption.

Brad Luyser, director of business development at IPERC, told Energy Storage Journal that when designing a system, you had to think about how the system was going to be used. “For the internet you have firewalls,” he said. “And they stop people coming in and out of the system; you blacklist

Palaszczuk government powers up an Australian energy and jobs bonanza A reverse auction for 100MW of energy storage was announced by the Queensland government on June 5 as part of the Australian state’s promise to provide revenue certainty as it attempts to reach a 50% renewable energy target by 2030.

The announcement was made by Queensland’s premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, as part of her government’s Powering Queensland Plan, which sets out a combined A$1.16 billion ($915 million) investment to ensure the state’s energy supply.

The auction is open for companies wishing to tender for up to 400MW of diversified renewable energy capacity, which includes the energy storage component that needs to be met by 2020.

Palaszczuk said: “We know that rising wholesale prices and energy security have emerged as key issues in Australia over the last six months.

This is driven by a lack of federal policy leadership undermining industry investment, retirement of ageing coal-fired power stations and unprecedented demand during recent summer heat waves.

“We have used our public ownership of electricity assets to bring more supply into the market to reduce volatility and put downward pressure on wholesale prices.”

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Queensland’s energy mix includes four coal-fired generators in the National Electricity Market, but the Queensland treasurer Curtis Pitt said there was still a need to ensure future energy security — such as during high demand periods over the upcoming summers — to avert the kind of power black-out that hit the state of South Australia last year.

The Powering Queensland plan includes commissioning the Energy Security Taskforce — which will guide the state’s energy security for both the short and long term. That includes the implementation of the recommendations set out by the Finkel Review — an independent study of the country’s energy market.

The taskforce will also lead work in developing transmission infrastructure in the region of North-West Queensland to support a clean energy hub, assess the need for expanded interconnection between Queensland and other states, and investigate new hydro-electric sites.

The Powering Queensland plan includes strategies to strengthen and diversify North Queensland’s energy and water supply, cover the cost of the Solar Bonus Scheme, a 385MW E gas-fired power station, and improve large-scale project facilitation, planning and network connections.

the person or IP address, but from the military point of view or microgrids perspective you whitelist, which means you only allow certain people in.

“You have to think about how not to allow intruders or intrusion, so it becomes both a physical and cyber process.”

“Utilities are thinking about cyber security in a retroactive rather than pro-active way. They are doing things like firewall systems, taking those precautions, but when looking at it, a lot of hacks come from within the system. Think, for example, of a disgruntled employee, who may be in the system for 18 months before the hacker does anything. Generally they will come in, have a play around for a while and figure out how it works, then decide to take action.

“So you have to protect the system from within. If, for example, there’s hackers from China you can prevent that, but from within is much more of a challenge.”

Darrell Massie, founder and CTO of IPERC, said his company was looking to transfer cybersecurity achievements to additional market segments, such as utilities and municipalities.

IPERC led the design of controls, communications and cybersecurity for this and other phases of the SPIDERS (Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security) program.

The latest authorization follows that of a microgrid control system at Marine Corps Base Camp Smith, Hawaii by IPERC in August 2015.

Belectric commissions Saxony’s largest battery storage system as state modernizes its grid Grid integration of storage in Germany moved forward on August 3 when a 16MWh system was commissioned in Chemnitz following funding from the state of Saxony with €1 million ($1.18 million) of subsidies from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

UK firm Belectric built and commissioned the facility as general contractor for German energy utility Eins (Energie in Sachsen).

The project, which cost around €10 million ($11 million), will provide 10MW of primary reserve to the

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NEWS power market.

Saxon state secretary of economics, labour and transport Stefan Brangs said: “Security of energy supplies is our main priority. Beside grid extension the storage of electricity from renewable energies is a key component.”

Roland Warner, CEO of Eins, said: “Conventional power plants often require several minutes for start-up or shut-down procedure.

Our battery storage can deliver full system power

in a few seconds. So the storage system is the perfect component to compensate fluctuations in the power grid.”

Frank Amend, managing director for Belectric’s storage business, said: “The battery responds to frequency changes within split seconds and either stores electricity from the grid or feeds energy into the grid, as required. It helps to stabilize the grid and guarantee reliable power supply in an efficient manner.”

FINANCE NEWS Battery start-up closes $30m funding round as it installs Los Angeles manufacturing hub California-based battery pack maker Romeo Power announced the completion of $30 million in seed financing on August 24 as the company looks to ramp up production of its lithium-ion packs for motive and stationary applications.

Launched in 2015 by engineers and designers from SpaceX, Tesla, Apple, Amazon and Samsung, Romeo Power is in the finishing stages of installing a fully automated 113,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Los Angeles. This is due for completion by the end of the year.

Aimed at the EV, forklift and stationary market, Romeo claims to be able to make its cylindrical lithiumion cell packs, which are scalable up to 1MW, 19% smaller and 27% lighter per KWh than rival packs through a redesign of the architecture.

Since Romeo Power began sales in 2017, the company says it has secured $65 million in initial orders that are scheduled for delivery in 2018 from, among others, US and European automakers and motorcycle and forklift OEMs. Michael Patterson, Romeo Power founder and CEO, said they are scaling up manufacturing as fast as they can to meet demand.

He said: “There’s a massive market opportunity for energy storage technologies. The EV market alone is expected to reach $32 billion by 2020. And recent government mandates around the world to eliminate gas cars are accelerating demand for advanced lithium-ion battery packs that can deliver more energy, range, faster charge times, smaller footprints and exceed current safety standards.”

The​ ​Romeo​ ​Power​ ​Technology​ ​Platform team of engineers is led by company co-founder and chief technology officer Porter Harris, who developed the battery technology powering SpaceX’s F9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.

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Minnesota utility in talks to build state’s biggest ESS Retail electric cooperative Connexus Energy is in talks with vendors to create Minnesota’s biggest storage-plus-solar project as the US state drives toward its goal of cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.

If the talks are successful the 20MW/40MWh project will see the energy storage system built next to three solar installations, with a combined output of 10MW, that Connexus proposes to build in the summer of 2018.

However, an announcement of the details of the project, including the names of the vendors, has yet to be released.

A Connexus spokesperson told Energy Storage Journal that the company

was still in the selection process.

In a pre-prepared statement, Brian Burandt, vice president of power supply and business development at Connexus, said he believed the project would be the largest of its kind being contemplated in the state. He said. “There are larger projects in the US at this time but this is the largest we know about in Minnesota.”

Storage is seen as an affordable and proven method for managing the variable supply of renewable energy produced by solar panels onto the grid.

Speaking about the state’s de-carbonization goals, Ellen Anderson, executive director of the University of Minnesota, told Energy Storage Journal that the state had a goal of 80% reduction of carbon across the economy by 2050, with some having more aggressive targets than that.

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Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 13

NEWS

Consortium receives government backing to build first Australian lithium-ion manufacturing facility Plans for a lithium-ion gigafactory in Australia were given a boost on August 28 when the premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, publically supported the Townsville project following the submission of a scoping study that demonstrated its positive economic impact.

A consortium — that includes Boston Energy and Innovation, materials firm Magnis Resources and US companies Eastman Kodak, lithium-ion research company C4V and electronics manufacturer C&D Assembly — is planning to build a A$1.6 billion ($900 million) 15GWh lithium-ion factory in Townsville, Queensland.

Chairman of Magnis Resources Frank Poullas said the consortium was: “Making strong progress across a

number of fronts in advancing this major project, both in terms of securing funding and technical development.

This work is crucial in laying the foundations for the Townsville Lithium-ion gigafactory.

“And the successful completion of the plant would help secure Townsville as a leading international hub for technology and innovation.

Townsville City Council approved the offering of the 400-hectare site in June in exchange for equity in the project.

The outcome of a scoping study, initiated by Magnis and C4V, was instrumental in bringing all consortium members together to fast track the plant.

Pilot testing of manufacturing processes and production of prototype battery

products has begun.

The work is part of a process package being developed for the next phase of the feasibility study.

The latest development comes as Palaszczuk’s Powering Queensland plan, which set out a combined A$1.16 billion ($900 million) investment, aims to ensure the state’s energy supply reaches its 50% renewable energy target by 2030.

The plan also included the announcement of a reverse auction for 100MW of energy storage by the Queensland government this June.

The consortium is also planning to build a gigafactory in New York state, with the group having already signed a contract with leading officials from the Huron Campus technology facility-

back in May of this year.

The Queensland plant is the second lithium-ion gigafactory planned for Australia.

Start-up company Energy Renaissance announced on August 10 that a memorandum of understanding had been secured from Darwin’s government to build its 1GW Renaissance 1 battery facility in the state.

Energy Renaissance aims to start production at the A$100 million ($78 million) factory in late 2018, following two years of exploration of a number of potential sites within Australia.

Support from the Northern Territory government comes as the state heads towards its goal of seeing 50% renewable energy in the Northern Territory by 2030.

TerraE Holding announces plans for Germany’s third Li-ion gigafactory Raw materials firm Magnis Resources announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding on August 28 with TerraE-Holdings, the consortium established to build a 34GWh factory in the country by 2028.

The consortium of 18 companies and research institutes from throughout the supply chain plan to construct the large-scale lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing plant in Germany.

TerraE Holding was founded in May, after six member companies in the Kompetenznetzwerk Lithium Ionen Batterien — Lithium ion battery competence network — formed an initiative to establish large-scale series manufacturing.

Holger Gritzka, CEO of TerraE Holding, told ESJ: “The number of cells will depend on the type of cells, and this will depend on customer demand.”

Gritzka also confirmed that the consortium had “nothing to do with Tesla” and a decision had yet to be made on the location, although there is speculation it will be built on two of five sites earmarked within the country.

The factories will be operated as “foundries,” to allow TerraE Holding, which will build and operate the factories, to manufacture bespoke lithium-ion cells to customers’ specifications.

The project, which has already secured €5.2 million ($6.2 million) in subsidies

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Holger Gritzka, CEO of TerraE Holding

from Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research, should cost around €1 billion to complete.

TerraE Holding GmbH is in negotiations with partners inside and outside the consortium to secure a long-term technological advantage, and is beginning discussions with potential customers and investors,

in particular from industrial sectors (forklift trucks, landscaping equipment, cordless tools), energy storage and electromobility (city buses, passenger cars and trucks).

The latest gigafactory announcement comes after Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, broke ground at another €500 million plant that was built for assembling lithium-ion energy-storage units for carmaker Daimler in May. Eighteen months ago, ground was broken on Germany’s first gigafactory, the 5GW, Batterien-MontageZentrums (BMZ) factory in Karlstein-Großwelzheim (Karlstein), Germany, that is scheduled to be completed some time in 2020.

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NEWS

Major fundraising round starts for Sweden’s 32GWh factory Battery plant developer Northvolt is targeting potential customers in the automotive and energy storage sectors, opening its first major round of fundraising in August. It plans to build a 32GWh lithiumion gigafactory in Sweden by 2020.

The company, run in part by two former Tesla employees — ex-supply chain head Peter Carlsson, who founded the company, and Tesla executive Paolo Cerruti as its chief operat-

ing officer — aims to raise around €4 billion ($4.2 billion) for the project.

The “partnership round” of funding, which closes this autumn, aims to raise around €100 million from customers such as carmakers, energy storage firms and industrial concerns, with the aim to begin work in the second half of 2018.

Northvolt has previously raised about $14 million, with investors including Sweden’s largest utility Vattenfall, which added Skr5

million ($610,000) to the project. In March, investment firm InnoEnergy announced a €3.5 million investment.

Northvolt, which is based in the Swedish capital Stockholm, announced on July 4 that public consultations would be held this autumn in the two Swedish municipalities Skellefteå and Västerås after discussions with eight Swedish and two Finnish municipalities this spring.

A Northvolt statement at

Materials demand to outstrip supply by 2020 A materials shortage is around the corner as the global lithium-ion market attempts to match demand from the energy storage, EV and consumer markets with supply, according to analyst firm Benchmark Minerals.

By 2020, benchmark analyst Casper Rawles forecasts, demand from the lithium-ion battery sector for all uses will cause a tipping point where demand from the market will have grown to the point where supply will struggle to keep up.

The materials that are more susceptible to deficits are the critical minerals transitioning from small markets, with privately traded contracts and undeveloped supply chains, to much larger volume and developed markets.

“This is certainly the case for cobalt, but lithium is another industry where we foresee a problem with supply meeting demand in the future,” said Rawles.

“At the moment Australian Spodumene projects have been able to help fill the gap between supply and demand enough to keep up with demand, and are typically higher cost. Brine sources take longer to bring online than hard rock and even then, production problems can persist. Once getting into production

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it’s another challenge to produce the battery grade material — an additional, specialized processing step.

“This is why we have seen more than a tripling of prices in both markets. Lithium experienced its price increase slightly before cobalt, but both markets have experienced similar rises. We track the prices of battery grade chemicals for both lithium and cobalt and importantly we forecast that the higher prices will remain in both markets for some time.”

The market for lithium-ion is only set to grow; California, as the US’s biggest energy storage mover, could see the state’s three investor-owned utilities procuring 1.325GW by 2020 under proposals by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2014.

Other states have their own targets, of which Hawaii’s is the most disruptive, with plans to be free of fossil-fuel power by 2040.

Not-for-profit power consultants Smart Electric Power Alliance’s recent National Energy Storage Market report found that 622MW of storage had been deployed in the US this year to date — with the market research firm IHS claiming that there will be 6GW of installed global capacity by the end of the year.

Add to that the number of cheaper

the time stated: “The decision to proceed with two municipalities contemporaneously is due to the ambitious schedule, where the necessity of receiving an environmental permit quickly is essential to keeping the timetable.

“Both Skellefteå and Västerås have excellent abilities to meet the requirements that are fundamental to the establishment, such as access to land, energy and infrastructure.”

Northvolt’s planned construction requires a specialized permit, and the planned operations require an environmental assessment.

EVs — the Tesla model 3, the Chevrolet Bolt and the new Nissan Leaf, to name but three — all with 60kWh packs coming to the market (never mind the demand for lithiumion cells from the consumer markets), and according to Benchmark the lithium-ion industry will grow to 170GWh in the next three years, up from 70GWh in 2016.

To meet demand a slew of cellmaking projects are being built or are planned in Europe, North America and Asia.

Benchmark began actively tracking the wave of new or expanding battery megafactories — plants with a 1GW or greater capacity — three years ago.

At the time there were just two of these plants planned, but now it is tracking 17 that are due to be in production by 2020, representing a rise of nearly 250GWh in capacity.

Rawles said: “We are not suggesting the plants will be operating at full capacity, but it highlights the shift the industry is going through.

“Whether these plants get built or not, the shortage of critical minerals in the lithium-ion battery supply chain is driven by real demand.

“At Benchmark, 12-18months ago one of the questions we were regularly asked was ‘are electric vehicles the future of transportation?’”

“That is no longer the case. We are now asked how quickly electrification will happen.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 15

PRODUCT NEWS

Megtec introduces a ‘GigaCoater’ for lithium ion battery electrodes

Innovate UK awards £1.5m for first of its kind liquid air energy storage

Megtec, a subsidiary of Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises, launched this September the GigaCoater wide-web coating line for lithium-ion battery electrodes.

The firm says they have been developed to provide high-volume production of battery electrodes. “Each

Highview Power Storage announced on August 1 that it had received a £1.5 million ($1.85 million) grant from the UK government to test the grid-scale frequency response services’ capability of a 5MW hybrid liquid air energy storage system.

The funding was awarded for frequency response from a facility using liquid air energy storage — LAES. This is part of a competition called ‘First of a Kind Deployment of Innovation’ run by Innovate UK, the development agency.

The system will use the LAES technology alongside supercapacitors and flywheels at the UK company’s 5MW/15MWh precommercial demonstrator facility at project partner Viridor’s Pilsworth landfill gas plant in Bury, Greater Manchester.

The aim is to test the system’s performance and economics ahead of business-as-usual operation by summer 2018.

A typical LAES system will take up to 30 seconds to respond and provide standard frequency response services, but in its hybrid configuration, with the flywheel kicking in first, the system will

GigaCoater can produce up to 3GWhr of electrode per year on average. Our dualcoating method, in combination with coating rheology and GigaCoater machine properties, maximizes production time and delivers in-line quality control,” said a company official.

EDF and Stornetic begin testing flywheels for grid The performance capabilities of German firm Stornetic’s flywheel technology for short term energy storage services will be tested by French utility EDF’s facility Concept Grid site in Moret-sur-Loing near Paris in September.

The joint-project, announced last November using Stornetic’s DuraStor technology, will assess the performance of flywheels in meeting the demands of a modern grid environment and customer requirements.

Although only 160Kwh in size the test project will give researchers a better understanding of flywheel stability to handle frequency regulation, firming and voltage control services on grid-scale applications.

The testing is set to last around three months, with

the possibility of a six-month extension. Thilo Engleman, a project manager at Stornetic, said the earliest he would expect a MW-scale project involving flywheels would be early 2019.

The Concept Grid laboratory helps manufacturers, start-ups and academics better understand the realworld challenges of delivering storage with the aim of reducing the time it takes to bring new smart grid technologies to market.

The facility reproduces real distribution networks and will enable the testing of DuraStor in controllable conditions of operation and thus demonstrate the technology in the future smart grids, said Etienne Brière, renewables and storage program director at EDF’s R&D..

Mining firm explores ways to produce battery-ready cobalt UK-based metal mining firm Vedanta Resources is to study how to produce cobalt as a battery-ready product for EV use.

Vedanta is well placed because 98% of cobalt comes as a by-product of copper and nickel mining — and Vedanta’s finished copper production in 2015-2016 was 123kt of a total mined production of 182kt.

The company has cop-

per smelting and mining operations in India and Australia as well as Zambia, where its Konkola Copper Mines are some of Africa’s largest integrated copper producers.

Vedanta Resources’ chairman, Anil Agrawal, says he wants the Konkola mines to be the largest integrated copper producer in Africa and Vedanta’s hub for copper and cobalt production in the continent.

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Vedanta announced in July that it produces around 1,000 tonnes of cobalt-copper alloy per year and aims to boost that to 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of pure cobalt.

“We are looking to determine the right engineering to produce cobalt for batteries rather than a copper-cobalt alloy,” said Tom Albanese, the retiring CEO of Vedanta.

take even less than a second.

With response times in the sub-second range, the technology is comparable with lithium-ion, as well as being scalable up to 100MW, making it comparable to CAES (compressed air systems) and pumped hydro in capacity, although LAES can be deployed regardless of the geographical constraints.

The project will cover an area of 375 square meters — the footprint for a 20MW/80MWh system is around 1500 square metres.

An HPS spokesperson told Energy Storage Journal: “The two systems are complementary and will enable the Hybrid LAES plant to provide standard and fast frequency control services.

“The sub-second response required for fast frequency control services will be provided by flywheels and is characterized by a low energy capacity. LAES will supplement the response of these as required.”

It will be the first time the technology has been deployed for grid frequency services, such as Firm Frequency Response, and tested against the requirements of the National Grid’s new Enhanced Frequency Response service to maintain the UK grid frequency within the ± 1% of 50Hz. The funding comes after Highview built the world’s first LAES pilot plant (350kW/2.5MWh) connected to the grid at UK network firm Scottish and Southern Energy’s biomass plant in Slough, which ran from 2011 until 2014.

The system works by taking electricity off the grid and using it to cool air to -194°C until it becomes a liquid, where it is stored in tanks at low pressure above the ground. www.energystoragejournal.com

ANALYSIS The laws of supply and demand don’t make much sense when a huge market suddenly comes into being. Think back to the early days of the internet, when usage was growing by 2,000% a year — the spectacular booms and busts that followed were seemingly unpredictable. Is the energy storage industry poised to go the same way? Jim Smith reports.

Gigafactories and the first-mover advantage It’s 1994 and a young Jeff Bezos had had a great idea to create a new business on the then-booming internet.

Why not, he thought, use a new ruling — where you could avoid paying US state sales taxes if you didn’t have a physical presence in the state — and sell goods more cheaply in the new mall known as the internet?

The rest is history. He called his web start-up Amazon.com. And some 23 years later, Bezos is worth around $83 billion; in fact depending on the markets on a particular day, he is the richest man in the world.

In business vernacular, Amazon was an excellent example of a first mover.

The company gained a market advantage early that allowed it to buy up rival firms and become the go-to online shopping platform.

If we take the first mover ideology into the battery world, Asia, and particularly China, is the Amazon of the lithium-ion battery industry. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, if Chinese battery companies deliver on their targets they will have the capacity to produce 121 GWh of batteries by 2020. By 2021, global battery-making capacity is forecast to reach 273GWh, up from about 103GWh today.

And the rest of the world is now fighting to catch up.

There are four lithium-ion gigafactories being built outside Asia — one in Karlstein, Germany (15GWH rising to 30GWh by 2020) by the BMZ group; Daimler AG’s wholly-owned subsidiary Accumotive’s $500 million factory in Kamenz (due on-line by mid-2018); one in Nevada, US (35GWh by 2020),

by Tesla; and Korea’s LG Chem’s electric vehicle battery plant in Wrocław, Poland, which aims to start production of 100,000 batteries a year from the second half of this year.

Both BMZ and Tesla have begun cell

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production, but neither is close to full capacity to date.

That leaves a lot of capacity unaccounted for, which is where three more companies have stepped into the global lithium-ion battery manufacturing arena.

Plans are under way for two more gigafactories in Europe. First, battery plant developer Northvolt plans to build a 32GWh lithium-ion gigafactory in Sweden by 2020. The company opened its first major round of fundraising targeting potential customers in the automotive and energy storage sectors in August.

The company, run in part by two former Tesla employees — ex-supply chain head Peter Carlsson, who founded the company, and Tesla executive Paolo Cerruti as its chief operating officer — aims to raise around €4 billion ($4.2 billion) for the project.

The partnership round of funding, which closes this autumn, aims to raise around €100 million from potential customers such as carmakers, energy storage firms and industrial concerns, with the aim of beginning work in H2 2018.

Northvolt has previously raised about $14 million, with investors, including Sweden’s largest utility Vattenfall, which added Skr5 million ($610,000) to the project. In March, investment firm InnoEnergy announced a €3.5 million investment.

Northvolt announced on July 4 that public consultations would be held this autumn in the two Swedish municipalities Skellefteå and Västerås after discussions with eight Swedish and two Finnish municipalities this spring.

A Northvolt statement at the time said: “The decision to proceed with two municipalities contemporaneously is due to the ambitious schedule, where the necessity of receiving an environ-

mental permit quickly is essential to keep the timetable.

“Both Skellefteå and Västerås have excellent abilities to meet the requirements that are fundamental to the establishment, such as access to land, energy, and infrastructure.”

Elsewhere in Europe, TerraE Holding, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has put together a consortium of 17 companies and research institutes to build a large-scale production facility for lithium-ion cells.

TerraE Holding was founded this May, after six member companies in the KLIB (Kompetenznetzwerk Lithium Ionen Batterien — Lithium-ion battery competence network) formed an initiative to establish large-scale series manufacturing following an initial meeting to establish the consortium on July 18 in Hanau.

Its founding partners are BMZ Holding, the former CEO of Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché Ulrich Ehmes, and Holger Gritzka, a former manager of system builder Thyssenkrupp System Engineering, who will also take over the management.

TerraE aims to reach up to 34 GWh a year by 2028, using a foundry business similar to that seen in the semiconductor industry, which effectively means TerraE Holding will build and operate the factories and customers can have lithium-ion cells produced to their own specifications. Gritzka, CEO of TerraE Holding, told Energy Storage Journal: “The number of cells will depend on the type of cells, and this will depend on customer demand.”

The consortium includes companies from throughout the supply chain, such as infrastructure manufacturing planners, material producers, machine engineering companies, cell manufacturers and industrial consumers. Aus-

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 17

ANALYSIS “Based on current mining production we may see a short-term squeeze in lithium supply/demand which is likely to ease off in the early 2020s, but we could face another squeeze in the second half of the next decade.” tralian-listed raw materials firm Magnis Resources announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding on August 28 with TerraE-Holdings.

Financing is still undecided, with discussions under way with industrial partners, financial investors and other parties in European countries. It has, to date, secured €5.2 million in subsidies from Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research. The gigafactory should cost around €1 billion to complete.

Meanwhile there is continued talk that Tesla’s planned “Gigafactory Europe” — initially referred to as Gigafactory 2 but now probably to be called Gigafactory 3 or 4 — will be located in the Czech Republic or Germany, where negotiations have been held with the government. Tesla, being Tesla, may eventually plump for an outsider. Tesla’s so-called “Gigafactory 2” is now, following the takeover, the SolarCity Gigafactory in Buffalo, New York state.

18 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

Australia aggressive ESS adoption

Australia has been pushing the use of energy storage from residential-scale systems after the announcement on July 6 that Tesla had secured the contract to build a 100MW lithium-ion system in South Australia.

In recent months that push has also included plans for two gigafactories, which would add a combined 16GWh to the global output.

Start-up Energy Renaissance announced on August 10 that it had secured a memorandum of understanding from Darwin’s government to build its 1GW lithium-ion Renaissance 1 battery facility in the state.

Energy Renaissance aims to start production at the A$100 million ($79.5 million) factory in late 2018, following two years of exploration of a number of potential sites within Australia.

Support from the Northern Terri-

tory government comes as the state heads toward their goal of seeing its energy mix rising to 50% renewables by 2030.

Michael Gunner, chief minister of the Northern Territory, said: “Battery storage will be an important element in future renewable energy propositions and it is exciting that Energy Renaissance has identified Darwin as its preferred site.”

The company plans to produce cells, industrial-scale containerized energy storage systems, EV packs and custom solutions.

Meanwhile, there is a second player in the race to be first mover in Australia’s gigafactory industry.

A consortium-led project is planning to build a $1.6 billion, 15GWh lithium-ion factory in Townsville, Queensland. The local council approved the offering of the land in June in exchange for equity in the project.

The consortium includes Boston Energy and Innovation, Magnis Resources and US companies Eastman Kodak, Nasdaq-listed C4V and electronics manufacturer C&D Assembly.

If those names look familiar it’s because they are also planning a gigafactory in New York State, US. The group announced on May 22 it had signed a contract with officials

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ANALYSIS from the Huron Campus. The outcome of a scoping study, initiated by Magnis and C4V, were instrumental in bringing all consortium members together to fast track the 15GWh plant.

Pilot testing of manufacturing processes and production of prototype battery products for potential customers has begun. The work is part of a process package being developed for the next phase of the feasibility study.

In late August, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk came out to publicly support the Townsville project following the submission of a scoping study that demonstrated the project’s positive economic impact.

Chairman of Magnis Resources Frank Poullas said the consortium was: “Making very strong progress across a number of fronts in advancing this major project, both in terms of securing funding and technical development.”

He believes the successful completion of the plant would help secure Townsville as a leading international hub for technology and innovation.

It comes as Palaszczuk’s Powering Queensland Plan, which set out a combined A$1.16 billion investment, aims to ensure the state’s energy supply reaches its 50% renewable energy target by 2030. The plan, announced Tesla’s planned final look for its gigafactory in Nevada, The firm broke ground on the plant in June 2014. Its planned annual battery production capacity is 35 gigawatt hours. Tesla says this is nearly as much as the entire world’s current battery production combined.

Source: Tesla

“The first-mover advantage only holds true if supply meets demand in the early phases of a market’s development. There are still too many variables about the quality and quantity of the demand side to have any confidence about the future.” in June, also included the announcement of a reverse auction for 100MW of energy storage by the Queensland government.

Shortage of supply

Electric vehicle sales passed the two million mark last year — with 90% of sales in China, US and Europe. This is set to increase as a number of European countries plan to ban sales of fossil-fuel powered cars in the coming decades. The first ban happens in the Netherlands in 2025.

Countries are also pushing for a larger portion of their energy mix to come from renewables, which in turn will drive the MW-scale energy storage markets and increase the adoption of behind-the-metre storage.

This is good news for the green energy markets, but a question mark hangs over the materials industry’s ability to meet demand.

The cobalt (the smallest market of the three lithium-ion critical materials) supply is precarious, and stood at 93,000 tonnes in 2016. Lithium, the second of the three materials (the other graphite), production stood at 160,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent per year in 2015.

But according to a Goldman Sachs estimate that year, a 1% increase in battery EV penetration would increase lithium demand by 70,000 tonnes of LCE a year — or roughly half of 2015’s global demand.

Lithium, cobalt and flake graphite are certainly more susceptible to supply squeezes than say nickel, because current production of these materials is relatively low, so there will need to be an increase in mining, says James Frith, energy storage analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

But he doesn’t believe the construction of more gigafactories should has-

ten any materials shortages as they would be responding to demand from the automotive sector — which wasn’t likely to increase due to higher production capacity.

“It is therefore likely that many of these factories will be running below full capacity when they are first commissioned,” he says.

“Based on current mining production we may see a short term squeeze in lithium supply/demand which is likely to ease of in the early 2020s, but we could face another squeeze in the second half of the next decade.

“Cobalt has faced a squeeze in the last year but this has been exacerbated in part by funds such as Pala investments and Cobalt 27 stockpiling the metal. As things stand, and assuming stockpiling doesn’t continue, cobalt supply is likely to be sufficient for the next half a decade.”

If the materials supply is in place to support the gigafactories of the future, the only question remaining is whether the demand for lithium-ion batteries will be in place in such volumes.

The gigafactory race is lurching forward. But the challenge facing the industry is whether supply will become oversupply. Will countries and companies, as one industry commentator points out, suffer the fate that overtook the hugely successful Japanese semi-conductor industry that dominated the world in the 1990s?

“There are too many ifs in the equation to figure out who will be the winners and losers in this race to be market leader,” he says.

“The first-mover advantage only holds true if supply meets demand in the early phases of a market’s development. There are still too many variables about the quality and quantity of the demand side to have any confidence about the future.”

There are four lithium-ion gigafactories under construction outside Asia — one in Karlstein, Germany; another in Kamenz, also Germany; another in Nevada, US; and, the fourth in Wrocław, Poland. www.energystoragejournal.com

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 19

COVER STORY: LITHIUM RECYCLING

A question of balance: how greater volumes will cut recycling costs

Recycling lithium ion batteries is still uneconomical — for most of the time the cost of recycling is greater than the value of the metals retrieved.

Moreover, dumping of the batteries is unacceptable for safety and pollution reasons. Until prices go down, this will continue to be a handicap to the development of the EV and large-scale grid storage markets.

There’s a rough rule of thumb that’s been used about recycling large format lithium batteries for the past few years. The cost of recycling is roughly a tenth of the cost of the new battery. So, a $7,000 EV battery will cost around $700 to dispose of.

As a rough rule of thumb it’s useful, but all lithium batteries aren’t created

20 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

equal. There are six basic chemistry types and three of these contain cobalt, a metal for which there is high demand and, over the past year, ever-rising prices. LCO, lithium cobalt oxide, contains around 60% cobalt; NMC, lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, contains between 10%-20% cobalt; and NCA, lithium nickel cobalt aluminium

oxide, has about 9% of cobalt.

LCO is used in high power devices such as the iPhone; NMC is used in Tesla’s Powerwall; and NCA is used in high power, long range cars such as Tesla’s Model S. Given the size of, for example, EV battery packs, recycling of some chemistries can be seen as border line eco-

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COVER STORY: LITHIUM RECYCLING nomical but, for the most part, LFP, lithium iron phosphate, the commonest chemistry used in grid storage or electric vehicles, has little value. And a lot of expense to tap that little value.

While materials make up the largest part of the cost of the battery and the cathode accounts for the majority of materials cost, the part of this attributable to lithium is relatively small.

Primary production of lithium is not energy intensive, particularly for lithium production from brines, where solar evaporation is used to extract the mineral from salt flats. As a result, the expense of separating out a small quantity of lithium from recycled batteries, while possible, is not justified by the value of what can be gained.

“The price of lithium would have to go way up before it seriously hurt the cost of the battery,” says Linda Gaines, transportation system analyst at the US Argonne National Laboratory.

Moreover, the more diverse the number of battery materials found in the battery, the more complex is the recycling process. In a lithium ion battery, other elements are there such as nickel, aluminium, manganese, carbon in the form of graphite and not forgetting the lithium itself and the casing.

The point of all this is to suggest that any discussion of lithium recycling tends to talk in the generality and fall down in the specifics.

And in the generality — with anecdotal evidence that lithium batteries are being discharged and stored in warehouses — recycling is difficult to justify economically.

One lead smelting veteran put it simply: “For the dollars of smelting you have to put in, you only retrieve a few cents of metal that have any value from recycling lithium batteries. That’s the difference with lead recycling — the lead is worth something and justifies the cost of processing it.”

Maarten Quix, who heads up the recycling business unit of metals refining and recycling specialist Umicore, says: “In comparison with lead acid batteries, which consist of lead, acid and plastic, the complexity of rechargeable lithium ion batteries is much greater, with a variety of cell formats, and metals used to make these batteries for the portable electronics, automotive and stationary storage markets.

Umicore, located near Antwerp in Belgium, is a global materials technology and recycling group with around 10,000 employees and a turnover of more than €10.4 billion ($12 billion).

It produces catalysts for vehicles to re-

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Analyzing the health of an EV battery at Spiers New Technologies

duce atmospheric emissions from en- a symptom of the relative immaturity gine exhausts as well as materials for of the market. Standardization enables making rechargeable batteries, includ- economies of scale throughout the life ing cathode materials. cycle of a battery.

In 2016 and also earlier this year, And it is this lack of economies of Umicore announced investments in the scale that will continue to hinder lithiexpansion of facilities, which are lo- um recycling. Umicore’s pilot plant can cated in China and in South Korea, for be scaled up relatively easily, so the firm the production of cathode materials for says, from processing 7,000 tonnes of producing lithium ion batteries. metal a year to 400,000 when supplies The company’s third business, recy- increase. cling, links the recovery of materials But the question is when will supplies from different metal-containing waste increase? streams, including catalysts and reThe International Energy Agency rechargeable batteries, so that these products at Cost components of a lithium-ion battery the end of life can be recovered, processed $ / kWh and the materials used 250 in closed loop processes, by refineries within Umicore.

The main challenge for recyclers has been Profit margin designing operations 200 to be flexible enough to process the different Manufacturing overhead batteries it receives as Overhead & profit there is such variation 35% across different lithium 150 ion batteries.

“For incoming batterLabor ies recycling plants need to maximize the metal Other materials recovery value versus the process to do so,” 100 says Brittany Westlake, Separator an engineer scientist at Material EPRI, acknowledging Electrolyte costs that the challenge with 65% stationary storage is Anode 50 that no cell design or chemistry has emerged as the standardized forCathode mat. “That may take years to occur,” she says.

0 In a sense this lack of standardization is

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017• 21

COVER STORY: LITHIUM RECYCLING ports that the world stock of electric vehicles reached 2 million at the end of 2016 — roughly 0.2% of passenger light duty vehicles in the world.

But moving back into the world of generalities, this figure includes hybrid vehicles, with a less demanding range requirement for its batteries, and the figure for pure electric vehicles is around 1.2 million. And projected figures for deployment by the IEA give scenarios ranging from 200 million electric vehicles down to 60 million by 2030. Near term the IEA reckons electric car stock will range between 9 million and 20 milling by 2020.

The spread of this forecast is unlikely to give recyclers comfort when looking to invest and obtain these economies of scale.

Moreover, economies of scale in terms of recycling volumes will be hampered by geographical dispersity — will, for example, all the spent EV batteries in Norway or Spain have to be shipped several hundred kilometres to be disassembled in Germany before being processed in Belgium? The same, of course, will apply to spent batteries used in large scale utility-style storage.

Next, the effective life of these batteries is still relatively unknown. Earlier iterations of EV batteries, for example, assumed a working life of around seven years. (A working life being presumed to be until the battery can only recharge to 80% of capacity.)

Nowadays this is gradually extending out and talk is that EV batteries will have an operational life of at least 10 and even up to 15 years. This means that if mass adoption of EVs were to take place in 2020, meaningful volumes of recyclable batteries would start appearing by the 2030s.

“But this would be a ridiculous situation were it to occur,” says Dirk Spiers, the founder of Spiers New Technologies. “Once EV batteries have reached the 80% capacity level, they are still a valuable energy storage asset, they need to be repurposed not recycled.

“There could easily be a further 10 to 15 years of useful working life in them.”

Spiers, arguably the founding father and prime mover of the so-called ‘second-life’ market that looks at repairing and servicing used lithium batteries (among other chemistries), has spent the past six years developing a diagnostics ability and huge database to gauge the health and worth of these batteries.

“In our experience it is rare that we can’t repair or repurpose the batteries that we receive — his firm is already partnered with three leading car man-

22 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

be reasonable. (Here the working life would end with replacement at 70% of capacity.) It is common to find project guarantees of up to 20 years for integrated storage and conversion systems.

Projections of the size of the energy storage system market vary considerably from forecaster to forecaster — it is relatively easy to find growth rates to 2025 that vary from 30% CAGR to 70% — but increases to around 25GW by 2020 and then on suggests that large volumes of lithium batteries will be entering into recycling only in the 2030s.

“Once EV batteries have reached the 80% capacity level, they are still a valuable energy storage asset, they need to be repurposed not recycled. There could easily be a further 10 to 15 years of useful working life in them.”

— Dirk Spiers, SNT ufacturers — sending batteries to be recycled is the last option. It’s also the rarest.”

Second life deployments of lithium ion batteries repurposed from cars for stationary storage applications being promoted by some car makers, including Mercedes Benz and Nissan, have now become a fast growing market — especially for domestic installations.

Excess manufacturing capacity is being integrated into existing repurposed batteries.

The result of this is — as one commentator calls it — “we are just about to kick the lithium recycling can yet further down the road”. The kind of volumes that will make recycling practical in terms of scale economies might, he reckoned, not be happening till the late 2030s, if not later.

This — and we move to generalities again — is different for grid storage batteries as this depends on what their function and usage will be. Much of our present knowledge is still up in the air in terms of lifetime expectations but research has proven (unsurprisingly!) that capacity for LMO batteries, for example, varies with the number of cycles and the depth of discharge.

One NREL study in 2015 suggested that were full cycling to occur once a day then a 15 year life span would

Cost reduction

A third of total system disposal comes from the recycling process but there is the scope to reduce costs involved in dismantling and transportation. In future, as volumes grow, localized dismantling in other global locations will help to reduce recycling costs by reducing transportation costs.

In the automotive industry an established reverse logistics supply chain is in place, where vehicles are taken apart and components are refurbished or sent to scrap metal or to recycling centres, so the collection and take-back infrastructure is well established for cars and vehicles at least. “Through its links with the automotive industry Umicore can gather information on volumes of different types of cars that are ready for recycling,” says Quix.

In the lead acid battery industry in the US recycling is above 96%, the highest anywhere in the world for the industry.

But the industry has had a hundred years to get to this point.

Regulation has been an important driver and economies of scale has helped to reduce cost and get the infrastructure in place, like logistics and transport. “In some ways, the large format lithium ion battery industry cannot compete as it is not at that scale yet,” Westlake says.

And, until there is more convergence within lithium ion, not just in terms of metal combinations, but also in terms of formats and even types of plastics used in the separators, cost-effective recycling will be a challenge.

Quix points out that recycling costs can be reduced if lithium ion batteries can exploit existing collection and transportation infrastructure already in place for other waste streams. If it requires an entire new logistics infrastructure it will be costly.

Three major global markets for electric vehicles are emerging: North America, Europe and Asia, led by China.

As it becomes more clearly under-

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COVER STORY: LITHIUM RECYCLING stood where high volumes of lithium ion batteries are emerging, from electric vehicles, Umicore reckons it will be able to localize its operations, building further recycling plants to serve specific regional markets.

Umicore has a set-up of drop-off points in different global locations. In the US there are four. In some regional markets, such as south east Asia, Umicore will also take care of the paperwork required for trans-boundary and international shipping.

Any large format batteries that Umicore collects are taken to Hanau am Main in Germany, where the packs are dismantled for being sent 340 kilometers to its UHT furnace in southern Antwerp. Dismantling the power packs is still a largely manual procedure.

Cathode-to-cathode process on hold

US-based battery recycling company

Retriev (formerly Toxco) does recover lithium from batteries in the form of lithium carbonate, but the process is used for primary (non-rechargeable) batteries only. The process occurs at the company’s battery recycling operation in Trail, in British Columbia, in Canada.

In 2013 Retriev won a patent for the separation and recovery of the metal components of the lithium cathode materials from discarded lithium batteries.

The patent also provides for regeneration and use of the cathode material in the lithium ion battery cells for use in new lithium batteries.

This “cathode-to-cathode” process was developed to provide materials that could be fed back into battery manufacturing in a closed loop process.

According to Todd Coy, executive vice president, at Kinsbursky Brothers, which owns Retriev, cathode-tocathode recovery and reuse potentially

provides a lower cost material to the manufacturer. It does this by conserving and reusing materials that are otherwise mined or produced through other industrial processes and potentially lowers the cost of recycling batteries through added value of materials.

In 2009 the US Department of Energy awarded Retriev $9.5 million to build a plant — finished in September 2015 — to manage end of life lithium ion batteries from EVs. Originally, the facility was intended to integrate cathode regeneration to return materials to battery producers.

Because of the slow growth of EV sales, coupled with rapid changes in battery chemistries, and the development of potential second use or repurposing of lithium ion batteries, Retriev put the project on hold. A a business case cannot be made for cathode-tocathode recycling today, according to Coy.

Umicore’s process for recycling lithium and nickel batteries In 2004 Umicore began R&D into an ultra-high temperature process for recycling lithium ion, lithium polymer and NiMH rechargeable batteries. The company commercialized the process in 2011.

Spent battery packs are collected and shipped to the company’s site in Hanau, Germany where they are dismantled.

The modules or stacks of batteries are then sent 340km to the company’s recycling plant in Hoboken, a suburb of Antwerp in Belgium.

The trial plant has an installed capacity of 7,000 tonnes a year — this is roughly the equivalent of being able to process around 35,000 EV batteries, but expressed at around 20 tonnes a day is a negligible size for an industrial recycling process.

The modules, about the size of shoeboxes, are melted down in the UHT furnace. The process contains particulates, since no cell separation or shredding takes place.

The component metals and materials are then separated into an alloy, containing copper, cobalt and nickel, which are valuable, and into a slag fraction. The copper, cobalt and nickel are sent to refineries, which then process them so they are ready to be processed

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UHT furnaces: More a concentrated capsule of intense heat than any conventional oven

as new cathode materials.

The slag fraction from nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries, used in Toyota’s Prius — the most widely commercialized plug-in hybrid car — contains rare earth metals that are further processed through a partnership Umicore has with chemicals company Solvay.

Umicore says that it is possible to refine the slag further and recover the lithium. So far the commercial logic for this is not there — the main cost of creating lithium batteries is reaching the purity required.

The slag can be used in construction.

However, Umicore has developed a

process for extracting the lithium for reprocessing into lithium carbonate so it can be re-used in lithium ion battery production.

The process for refining lithium could be ramped up in future when demand for lithium ion batteries grows. Current end-of-life volumes that are recycled amount to a few thousand tonnes annually. However between 2020 and 2030 this annual figure could increase to more than 100,000 tonnes.

The plastic and other organic materials, including solvents and electrolytes, are burned as a fuel to produce heat for the process. The exhaust gas is cleaned so there are no emissions. The small amount of fluoride found in batteries is also collected and solidified for controlled landfill deposit.

Maarten Quix, who heads up the recycling business unit of Umicore says: “From an environmental and market point of view, a closed loop of recycling lithium — so the metal ends up back in battery production, much like most lead from lead acid batteries today — will become more important and valuable in future.

“We will increase overall processing capacity when the market for end-oflife lithium ion batteries demands it.”

Energy Storage www.energystoragejournal.com Journal • Autumn 2017• 23

COVER STORY: LITHIUM RECYCLING

A recent study by the Electric Power Research Institute has started to analyZe the numbers for the total costs of recycling, including factors such as collection and shipping. By Sara Verbruggen

Getting the bigger cost picture Lithium ion batteries will start to emerge from their commercial deployments, EVs in volume before they reach end-of-life in stationary storage applications.

However, the Electric Power Research Institute in the US has produced a study to examine all aspects to do with recycling large grid batteries.

Compared with Europe, where regulations focus primarily on companies involved in the production or supply of batteries, the onus is on end-users of batteries to undertake measures for their proper disposal. However this should not deter suppliers from taking an interest in end-of-life issues.

Brittany Westlake, an engineer scientist at EPRI who has been working on the project, says: “It started about a couple of years ago, when a large Californian utility approached us wanting to know the costs, steps and challenges involved in dismantling and recycling the components from a ‘theoretical’ 1MWh grid battery following decommissioning.”

EPRI is in the final stages of producing a report on its findings.

24 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

Westlake says: “No one in the US market had undertaken a step-by-step analysis before of what exactly is involved. For instance, there are just a few locations where these batteries can be transported to for recycling, by Retriev and Umicore, in which case the batteries are shipped from Europe for recycling.

“So for a start we had to factor in the transportation costs to collection points, which were more than several hundred miles.”

Issues the study seeks to address also

explore regulations and guidelines and responsibilities between the vendor and the end-user as well as third parties.

Westlake presented EPRI’s findings at a NAATBatt conference in late 2016. “Our presentation at NAATBatt was unusual as the programme was mainly centred on transportation batteries. But afterwards suppliers came and spoke with us,” she said.

“Our advice would be to design batteries with their 10 year operational lifetime in mind but also in terms of

Module removal cost – (draft calculations)

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COVER STORY: LITHIUM RECYCLING COST ANALYSIS: DECOMMISSIONING A 1MW ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM

“So for a start we had to factor in the transportation costs to collection points, which were over several hundred miles” — Brittany Westlake, EPRI their disposal at the end. For example, how do you maximize lifetime but make sure that the battery at the end of life can be dismantled without minimal complexity in order to access the cells?”

The ramifications impact the whole supply chain for producing grid battery storage systems. From the study’s findings, EPRI advises systems to be designed that both easy to install and also decommission but also to design modules with disassembly in mind.

EPRI’s report will be of interest to utilities and third party integrators since it can provide them with data to help factor in the cost of decommissioning and recycling, as part of the total cost of ownership of grid storage systems, into upfront contracts and bids.

EPRI’s report is due for publication in 2017. Westlake says discussions continue about whether to make it public.

Arguably, for the benefit of the industry as a whole the report ought to be made public because it will shed light on a topic that the stationary storage industry needs to address today.

Anecdotally, the interest in recycling of lithium ion batteries is rising up the agenda at key events such as those organized by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, compared with a few years ago, when topics regarding the recycling of EV batteries were largely ignored.

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For a 1MWh lithium ion battery energy storage system, the total calculated weight was 58,000 lb in total weight, with the majority of this weight belonging to the batteries, as well as scrap metal, followed by power conversion and electronics components, then components from any cooling and air conditioning equipment and the smallest portion belonging to computing and electronics components making up the communication and system controls.

For costing purposes the process was broken down into three main stages; onsite dismantling, shipping and equipment disposal.

Onsite dismantling involves labour, shipping material and packaging and EPRI’s study estimated this to cost in the region of $38,300 for a 1MWh battery storage system. Then they had to factor in the transportation of hazardous material over many hundreds of miles, with any remaining material going to local recyclers. The estimated cost was $28,000.

The equipment disposal took into consideration the vendor battery disposal cost and also the scrap metal value, and came to around $24,200.

The total cost for recycling a 1MWh battery was calculated at $90,500.

The majority of this cost – over $70,000 – is the cost associated with the lithium ion battery modules, which used LG Chem’s nickel metal cobalt cell chemistry for the study.

The study then goes on to calculate the costs using the various lithium ion battery makes and chemistries on the market today, comparing number of modules to battery weight, which can have an impact on both removal and packaging costs as well as transportation costs. These costs were calculated using the same labour cost of $175/ hour. Costs ranged from $1.00/lb to $2.50/lb.

The most expensive batteries to recycle are Samsung’s lithium manganese oxide batteries, which came in at around $151,600 for a 1MWh battery storage system, followed by NEC’s lithium iron phosphate batteries and Toshiba’s lithium titanate batteries, which both cost around $137,000 for a 1MWh system.

The cheapest are Kokum’s NMC batteries, at just over $52,000 for a 1MWh system, then Samsung’s NMC batteries at around $56,000 for the same sized system.

Interestingly, the onsite dismantling, transportation and equipment disposal costs are fairly evenly spread for the batteries that are cheapest to recycle, but for the batteries that are the most expensive, the equipment disposal costs become more significant. For Samsung LMO batteries, for instance, the equipment disposal cost is $85,000 with $30,000 calculated for transportation and $36,600 for dismantling.

Calculation assumptions (source EPRI presentation) Recycling cost estimates by chemistry (2015) NCA – Lithium Nickel Cobalt Aluminium Oxide NMC – Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide LMO – Lithium Managanese Oxide LFP – Lithium Iron Phosphate LTO – Lithium Titanate Total battery module weight range 15,000 – 25,000 pounds 25,001 – 40,000 pounds 40,001 – 60,000 pounds Module weight range 22 – 66 pounds 67 – 110 pounds 111 – 165 pounds 166 – 220 pounds Labour rate

Cost per pound $1.00 $1.00 $2.50 $2.50 $1.00 Estimated shipping costs $20,000 $30,000 $40,000 Estimated time for removal and packaging 15 mins 25 mins 35 mins 45 mins $175 / hour

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017• 25

US WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS ACCORD

Business as usual: US president Trump may have pulled the country out of the Paris Agreement but it looks as if the momentum behind the country’s adoption of renewables and energy storage remains intact. Jim Smith reports.

Global warming. It’s the debate that never seems to go away. The recent hurricanes wreaking havoc across the US — the cost of the Texas storms is now $100 billion and rising — have reactivated the same tired arguments both for and against.

In the leadership race for the 2016 US presidential election, Donald Trump famously said climate change was a hoax, concocted by China, and the Paris Agreement was detrimental to US jobs. And in the end, the fossil fuel giants backed Trump’s presiden-

tial campaign and pumped huge sums of money — $1 in every $10 raised — for his presidency.

So it was more or less inevitable at the July G20 summit that Trump would ignore his 19 other partner countries and say: “In order to fulfil my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw [from the Paris Agreement].”

Immediately the climate change debate returned to the headlines.

European leaders, prime ministers

and even former president Barack Obama hung their heads in disbelief that the US, as the world’s second biggest greenhouse gas emitter behind China, had, in the words of French president Emmanuel Macron, “turned its back on the world”.

But for all the histrionics, will US withdrawal have an impact on its decarbonization goals?

After all, individual states, cities and utilities are already invested, the ball is rolling and many places, such as California, Minnesota and Hawaii,

“In order to fulfil my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw [from the Paris Agreement].” — Donald Trump

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US WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS ACCORD

US energy storage to weather storms over end to climate pact are reaching a tipping point in their renewables goals. Indeed, time and money and the drive to be first mover in their geographical areas are prioritized more than creating or restoring coal, gas and nuclear plants.

The other argument by Trump, that he wanted to bring back the jobs in coal, is a moot point; for every coal job that would be created, another could be created in the PV, battery and microgrid industry. Already there are more workers involved in the PV industry than in coal mining.

So why is the Agreement so important? It is agreed that global temperatures will rise by as much as 2.7°C by 2100, and the Paris Agreement wants to limit this to below 2.0°C above pre-industrial times, with some setting stricter goals of 1.5°C. In Europe that commitment has seen governments declare — with the zeal of a bornagain tree hugger — that they want to ban the sale of ICE engines; in Norway and the Netherlands that will be by 2025, in Germany by 2030, and in France and the UK by 2040.

Scientists point out the Paris Agreement must be stepped up if it is to have any chance of curbing climate change.

To this end, each country will review its contribution to achieving the goals every five years, with rich countries — like the US — committed to helping poorer nations by providing climate finance to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy.

But what is all the fuss about? This isn’t the first time the US has pulled out of an agreement. In 1997 the US pulled out, and others failed to com-

European leaders, prime ministers and even former president Barack Obama hung their heads in disbelief that the US, as the world’s second biggest greenhouse gas emitter behind China, had, in the words of French president Emmanuel Macron, “turned its back on the world”. www.energystoragejournal.com

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US WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS ACCORD jobs. Innovation in the renewable energy sector and the economics of falling prices will only bring more jobs into the market. The solar industry has demonstrated this quite nicely,” says Lohr.

Moving towards a tipping point

“Hundreds of mayors and companies have pledged to abide with agreements and they will meet those obligations. I even know of a former Exxon CEO that supports the Paris Agreement.”

— Ellen Anderson, University of Minnesota ply with the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to tackle climate change.

What makes the Paris Agreement different, and even historic, is that it ties the world’s nations together in a single agreement following a consensus among nearly 200 countries that there is a need to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

And aside from the media attention, Olaf Lohr, director of business development for German energy storage firm Sonnen, which has an office in Los Angeles, says: “We don’t believe Trump’s push for fossil fuels will have a significant impact on the continuing adoption of US energy storage.”

He cites growing customer awareness, increasing innovation of costefficient technologies and increasing adoption of storage as contributing reasons why the industry will continue as business as usual.

“The president’s focus is more on

The big question is whether the withdrawal will affect US businesses and derail the country’s decarbonization objective.

Ellen Anderson, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Energy Transition Lab, doesn’t believe it will. “The US, by and large, does not support this decision,” she says. “The Paris Agreement matters because it demonstrated there is a consensus, with a sense of urgency, to take action.

“I think the president has little support for these actions and there is only a small pool of the populace that agrees with his decision.”

Anderson is better qualified than most to talk about the politics of decarbonization. She is a former member of the Minnesota Senate and chaired a number of energy committees in her eight years. She was chair of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, and also spent two years as a senior adviser on the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board on energy and environmental issues. She is a passionate advocate of decarbonization.

She is just one of many high-ranking politicians and business elites to put their time and effort into climate activities.

Former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg — who happens to have a book titled Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet — and who is the United Nations special envoy for cities and climate change, has said that work to reduce emissions will continue despite Trump’s statement.

Mostly that’s because a lot of activity from cities, states and companies is already under way and many are ramping up their efforts in response to individual decarbonization goals.

Anderson says: “Hundreds of mayors and companies have pledged to abide with agreements and they will meet those obligations. I even know

of a former Exxon CEO that supports the Paris Agreement.

“Utilities are in support of it and are genuine in their efforts to decarbonize.

In Minnesota we have Xcel Energy — it’s a fairly large utility crossing eight states — and in the last 15 years they have embraced carbon reduction and become the number one wind utility.”

Matt Roberts, vice-president at the Energy Storage Association, says he believes state governments are continuing to tell people they are committed to introducing renewables to the energy mix, and states and cities still believe it is important to forward with their plans.

The need for progressive regulation

In the US the utilities and what happens in their territory is run by the state. However, when it crosses borders it becomes a federal issue, and if it goes across a further state it become the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — the agency that handles interstate energy commerce and multi-state transmission planning. Roberts says: “To their credit they are open to new technologies such as storage, demand response and renewables.”

In reality everything in the US related to energy had been partly driven by states setting standards, federal policies having a significant impact on grid modernization, infrastructure investment, and other drivers that are opening opportunities for innovative solutions like storage.

Roberts said: “The federal government has done things to advance green energy but it’s the individual states that have the laboratories and are moving those things forward.”

The first major energy storage law was passed in 1978 with PURPA (Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act). The policy was championed by president Jimmy Carter in response to the energy crisis of the early 1970s.

This stated that a utility should buy renewable energy if it was developed at a cost equal to or below what a utility would have to pay for a traditional power plant. From the late 1970s through to the past few years,

“While new economic models continue to evolve and emerge, policy changes, growing consumer awareness and requirements for net-zero energy housing continue to drive the industry forward and we believe the tipping point is in the not-too-distant future.”

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US WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS ACCORD LOSING THE RENEWABLES CROWN As the renewables and storage sector matures, a key element of being a prime mover in the industry is that you become a hub and own core parts of the industry such as R&D and manufacturing.

California, for example, put in place procurement targets in 2013 and 2014 and has subsequently become a hub for renewable energy storage.

In New England, Massachusetts is angling itself to be the area’s first mover, and “Right now there’s a similar race in Maryland, which is giving tax incentives because they want to lead in their region,” says Roberts.

But what Roberts fears is that the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement will have wider implications than simply upsetting state goals.

“The downside to the withdrawal is one of global leadership and making sure the US is at the forefront of this,” he says. “Many people agree that the US is in the lead of this technology and now it’s open for others to do that. China, for example, is ideally positioned to pick this up and dampen the US’s potential to claim that crown.”

China’s officials are on the record as saying that by and large they will proceed with or without the US as part of the Paris Agreement. “Europe is committed and many others are also committed to the Paris Agreement. China has even indicated it will fill in the vacuum of power caused by the US,” says Anderson.

Following the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, individual states within the US will continue to actively

solar and wind energy have been so expensive that no utility had to worry about them matching or beating their avoided cost.

So in practice, PURPA meant it was in favour of traditional energy generation.

But as renewables and energy storage costs continue to fall, PURPA is pushing states such as Utah, Idaho and Montana, which have been slow on the uptake in adopting utility-scale projects.

The result in many circumstances has been contentious — utilities and developers are arguing over rates, contract lengths and terms of agreements, as evidenced by the recent squabbles

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pursue their renewable energy goals. Whether that is because they want to reinvigorate their energy mix, defer the costs of upgrading aging power generators or because they want to position themselves as an industry leader in the decarbonization of power.

The reality is that it’s business as usual for many states, despite the withdrawal.

The real test of the withdrawal will be the wider impact, as Europe, China, Australia and a host of other countries speed towards a cleaner, greener energy mix. These countries will want to become industry hubs, controlling research, development and manufacturing of technology from battery cells to PV panels and from invertors to energy storage system controllers.

So, paradoxically, Trump’s desire to bring back the jobs in coal could potentially mean that many other jobs are not created as the US tumbles down the renewable energy pecking order.

Jim Greenberger, head of NAATBatt, recalls being in a restaurant at a conference at the day after the US withdrew from the Paris climate accord. He says at the next table sat a group of 10-12 Europeans and Chinese, who had also been attending the conference: “When they heard the news of Trump’s announcement, one of them stood and offered a toast to his table. ‘This is good news,’ he said. ‘We all stand to gain market share.’

“As an American, that toast poured salt on a wound that was already

in Montana, where FERC has argued that the local utility has acted illegally but has not been willing to intervene, suggesting that other considerations — namely the next steps after PURPA — are in play.

Almost three decades after PURPA, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 was passed in July that year by the US Congress. It aimed to combat growing energy problems by providing tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production of various types. Two years later the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (originally named the Clean Energy Act of 2007) aimed, among other things, to promote research into and deployment

raw. President Trump said in his announcement that his action was going to stop nations laughing at us. I do not know whether or not that is true. But I do know first-hand that other nations are now toasting America’s apparent withdrawal as a competitor in the increasingly important and increasingly lucrative business of renewable energy.

“Renewable energy is the future. How we provide power to an increasingly electronic world without choking ourselves on the by-products is one of the great challenges of this century. It will also be one of the great business opportunities.

“No one succeeds in business by running away from opportunities.

The same can be said of nations.

President Trump’s effort to turn America away from the future will not succeed. The pursuit of opportunity, and the optimism that drives it, are hard-wired into the American character.”

So in a strange way, although China may be ideally positioned to take the baton from America and run with it into a lucrative future, US business savvy may simply ignore the politicking of its leader and continue to take the lead.

of greenhouse gas capture and storage options.

Then in 2011, the FERC ruling, Order 755, increased the payment structure that utilities had to pay for fastresponding sources including batteries and flywheels in the frequency regulation service markets.

The push towards renewable integration of the energy mix was later expanded by Order 784, which put fast response solutions against traditional gas or coal-fired plants in the ancillary services market. The accounting and reporting rules introduced in Order 784 aimed to help utilities achieve rate recovery for energy storage equipment.

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US WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS ACCORD “We don’t believe Trump’s push for fossil fuels will have a significant impact on the continuing adoption of US energy storage.

Innovation in the renewable energy sector and the economics of falling prices will only bring more jobs into the market. The solar industry has demonstrated this.”

— Olaf Lohr, Sonnen In January 2016 the US Supreme Court ruled that demand response be allowed in wholesale markets, as FERC had previously implemented.

Roberts said: “This also is a big gateway for storage (and of course, storage performing demand response, as well as other applications). Energy markets are definitely open to renewables, as it is a least-cost market, so if the price fits they are allowed.”

THE PARIS AGREEMENT

Risk adverse in changing market

The Paris Agreement went in force on November 4, 2016, and so far 160 countries have ratified the document ito try and keep the global temperature from rising 2oC above pre-industrial levels by 2100, and to go a step beyond that and limit the increase to 1.5oC. To do this each country has promised to limit its greenhouse gas emissions, and to review those emissions every five years.

As part of the agreement, each country will give nationally determined contributions — monies put forward to help achieve the targets — with enhanced support to assist developing countries in meeting their targets.

Additionally, the agreement aims

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to strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change with a new technology framework and an enhanced capacity building framework.

Its critics, on either end of the spectrum, claim the targets are too high and as such unobtainable, or too low and as such will be ineffectual even if reached.

Another criticism is that the majority of the agreement’s stipulations are voluntary, and do not legally oblige any country to adhere to the goals — the US almost derailed the agreement over the word ‘shall’, which it had changed to ‘should’, on Article 4.4 on page 21 of the 31-page document.

So the drive towards a decarbonized future in the US is being determined by customers and grid-scale suppliers. Both will be heavily influenced by price. Lithium-ion, arguably the most popular choice of chemistry for the residential to grid-scale energy storage world, is seeing costs fall due to economy of scale. This is due in large part because of gigafactories such as Tesla’s in the US, and the host of others planned for Sweden, Hungary, Germany and Australia as capacity is forecast to reach 278GWh by 2021.

But the US’s decarbonization goals rely on more than cheap batteries.

“The way utilities operate is they are very risk averse and focused on longterm planning. However, nowadays they see the writing on the wall,” says Anderson. “Most see coal as becoming the dinosaur in our energy system because our market place has access to cheaper natural gas and renewables.”

In 2001 the US Environment Protection Agency launched the Green Power Partnership program to increase the use of renewable electricity. The GPP set out the process to reduce emissions

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US WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS ACCORD so that utilities, at least in the regulated states, were able to see what the energy resource mix would, or at least should, be in the next 15 years.

“In states not as politically supportive of coal energy, such as Minnesota, which can see where the future is heading, they will have to make significant investments to upgrade their coal plants,” says Anderson.

“In our state we have a goal of 80% reduction of carbon across the economy by 2050, and that’s parallel with other states’ goals and some are more aggressive than that.”

One of the most progressive states is California, whose governor, Jerry Brown, wants the state to be reliant on 50% renewable energy by 2030.

Its transition to a renewable energy future is highlighted by two events.

The first happened on July 12, 2016, when the state generated a record 8GW of utility-scale solar and 4GW of behind-the-meter (residential or commercial) solar.

The second happened earlier this year, when 77.5MW of storage was speedily added to the state’s grid — in systems delivered by the Tesla-Edison project, San Diego Gas & Electric with AES Energy Storage and Greensmith Energy Partners with AltaGas — following a California Public Utilities Commission mandated procurement order.

This was after a rupture in the Aliso Canyon natural gas reservoir caused 197,000 tonnes of methane to spill into the atmosphere in October 2016.

Lohr said that with strong renewable energy goals and state incentives for clean energy products, California is on a trajectory to dominate the clean energy adoption race. “Based on declarations from California and several other states, we think state leaders have made it quite clear to both state residents and innovative, energyfocused businesses like Sonnen that these commitments will not waiver despite the national Paris Agreement withdrawal.”

So it seems the US is getting close to a tipping point where de-carbonization is not going to be preventable. “I think it’s not stoppable,” says Anderson. “But the big question is how fast, who will lead on this and who will lag behind?”

wards integrating renewables in the energy mix is a given in many states.

“What we are looking at is a question of knowing coal use is already cut in half and then it’s a question of, ‘will that be replaced with a renewables infrastructure?’ That could be the tipping point, if markets and policy framework push against the use of fossil fuels,” says Anderson.

Even states such as New Mexico, which has a relatively small goal of reaching 20% renewables produced in the state by 2020, as set out in its Renewable Portfolio Standard, are pushing forward with regulation.

In 2007 the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission adopted an

Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) for electric utilities to implement the 2005 Efficient Use of Energy Act. The rule stated that investor owned electric and natural gas utilities must evaluate all supply and demand side resources.

This August the NMPRC amended a commission rule that moved the state towards advanced technology for the storing of renewable energy. Despite this, Carlos Padilla, a commission official, says the state has yet to have a standard in place for energy storage.

“The focus was on the potential and the economics of the storage of renewable energy rather than decarbonization, which is an aspect that is regularly covered by intervening parties in

“Solar prices are coming down; wind power prices are coming down; battery prices are coming down because demand is high. Renewables is one of the key elements of what is happening on the grid. The trend demands a better greenhouse system, and it makes sense to use solar PV and storage in a hybrid system” — Brad Luyster, IPERC

Tipping point within reach for energy industry

How much and how fast the transition to a fossil-fuel free future will happen is debatable, but the drive to-

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US WITHDRAWAL FROM PARIS ACCORD utility cases,” says Padilla.

“The IRP ruling made by the commission provides for explicit consideration by utilities operating in New Mexico of energy storage resources in the development of their Integrated Resource Plans.

“The ruling adds a new storage element to the supply side. It is too soon

to know the implications at this point, in regard to economics, and the extent to which there could be additional renewable sources is still unknown.”

Lohr, however, believes the tipping point for residential energy storage has not quite been reached due to a slower development of rates.

“While new economic models con-

Sorry Mr President. Former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg, who is the United Nations special envoy for cities and climate change, has said work to reduce emissions will continue despite Trump’s statement.

Top 10 countries based on total PV installed capacity (MW)

Top 10 countries based on added PV capacity in 2016 (MW)

Source: International Energy Agency, 2017

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tinue to evolve and emerge, policy changes, growing consumer awareness and requirements for net-zero energy housing continue to drive the industry forward and we believe the tipping point is in the not-too-distant future,” he says.

“Moreover, the withdrawal has triggered some states, cities and other entities to set aggressive climate goals.

If 50% or more of the sourced energy needs to come from renewables, you need to plan for a wide adoption of energy storage.”

Some in the industry believe it is simply a case of markets dictating which direction the industry goes. “I believe in the markets and capitalism; let the market decide where it is going,” says Brad Luyster, director of business development at intelligent microgrid company Intelligent Power and Energy Research Corporation (IPERC).

“So much is already going on — I don’t think the Paris Accord is going to be detrimental to what is happening in the US because the markets are already moving in that direction.”

In a power system that was centralized in the 1970s, but which like many others is prone to defects and outages, the end user ultimately wants 100% power supply because people are sensitive to outages, says Luyster.

“On commercial businesses, hospitals and data centres, where sensitivity is heightened, it has become a business driver rather than just something different or more efficient,” he says.

“Solar prices and wind power prices are coming down; battery prices are coming down because demand is high.

Renewables is one of the key elements of what is happening on the grid. The trend demands a better greenhouse system, and it makes sense to use solar PV and storage in a hybrid system.

“Amazon has changed the retail world, and in the same way microgrids are changing the energy world.

My big thing is to have an automated system because once you put supply and demand together you are able to get more services, which in turn creates new markets.

“In the next five to 10 years, when a homeowner has solar on their roof, if they have excess energy or want to buy energy from a neighbour they can buy or sell their solar energy, and that will open up new markets.

“The long-term trend will be a world of real-time energy. I’m optimistic that energy will be bought, sold and used by the end-user using distributed energy resources.”

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International InternationalExhibition ExhibitionSeries Series for for Batteries and Energy Storage Systems Batteries and Energy Storage Systems

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DECEMBER 5–7, 2017, MUMBAI, INDIA INDIA’S LARGEST SOLAR EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS ENERGY STORAGE INNOVATIONS

EES GLOBAL

THE TIPPING POINT ARRIVES SOME ANALYSTS ARE ALREADY CALLING 2017, THE ‘BREAK-OUT YEAR’, THE MOMENT WHEN ENERGY STORAGE WORLDWIDE MOVES FROM AN ACCESSORY TO RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION TO ITS LYNCHPIN. JIM SMITH REPORTS.

Analysts such as Frost and Sullivan believe that 2017 is a breakout year for distributed energy, largely driven by the battery energy storage market.

When future generations look back and wonder how their parents managed without renewable energy, electric vehicles and storage systems, 2017 could be seen as year zero for the technologies.

Led in some small part by announcements from European governments to ban fossil-fuel powered cars, utilities are expanding their exploration of new markets for grid-connected systems and projects to replace ageing or inefficient traditional power generation.

Energy storage in its many guises is reaching a tipping point as countries drive towards a decarbonized future to meet their Paris agreement commitments (US aside), which include curbing fossil fuels in their energy mix. A series of planned gigafactories, if brought to fruition, will make batteries cheaper.

And in a world where supply and demand economics are key, recent deals such as the buy-out of Younicos by UK firm Agreko, or the creation of a global technology and services joint

venture under the name Fluence by AES’ Advancion and Siemen’s Siestorage, can only hasten that transition.

Fluence will deliver the US and German firms’ lithium-ion energy storage platforms as well as develop new storage solutions and services across the globe to meet demand for grid-scale services such as peak shaving, black-start and frequency regulation as increasing amounts of renewable energy come on stream.

As the technology moves from testing and niche applications we will see the energy storage market, which steadily grew from just 340MW installed in 2012 to around 8.1GW this year, grow even further. Analysts are already talking about an annual installation of more than 40GW by 2022.

Analysts such as Frost and Sullivan believe that 2017 is a break-out year for distributed energy, largely driven by the battery energy storage market, and by continued price declines in battery systems, participation in open balancing markets and continued financing support from governments for storage and micro-grid project piloting.

Consultant firm Mercom Capital Group confirms the picture. In its latest July M&A report it says venture capitalist investment in the energy storage industry jumped 627% in the second quarter of 2017 compared to Q1.

Investment rose to $422 million in 10 deals, compared to $58 million from eight deals in the first quarter.

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As the technology moves from testing and niche applications we will see the energy storage market, which steadily grew from just 340MW installed in 2012 to around 8.1GW this year, grow even further. Analysts are already talking about an annual installation of more than 40GW by 2022.

Adoption of storage in Europe Although initially slow compared to its fellow Europeans, the UK is starting to ramp up its adoption of energy storage. Last year’s National Grid enhanced frequency tendering auction saw 201MW (of mainly lithium-ion batteries) scheduled for deployment, and a planned, triple figure megawatt deployment of CAES (compressed air) technology shows the industry is moving from the testing phase to maturity.

The growth will require big policy changes, including the halting of its double charging and an agreement on how to define storage.

But the UK government is committed to decarbonization.

On July 24 the first phase of a £246 million ($320 million) battery technology plan was launched. The initial, £45 million, phase will include a Battery Institute to research and develop affordable batteries to ensure they are ‘more accessible’ for residential and business applications.

The four-year plan — known as the Faraday Challenge, which is split into research, innovation and scale-up segments – was set out in the report Upgrading Our Energy System.

Launching the first phase, the country’s business and energy secretary Greg Clark said upgrading the country’s energy system to make sure it was fit for the future was a key part of the government’s industrial strategy.

In line with that strategy was Highview Power Storage’s announcement on August 1 that it was going to use a £1.5 million ($1.85 million) grant, part of a competition called ‘First of a Kind Deployment of Innovation’, run by Innovate UK, the development agency, to test the grid-scale frequency response services capability of a 5MW hybrid liquid air energy storage system.

The system will use LAES (liquid air) technology alongside supercapacitors and flywheels at the UK company’s 5MW/15MWh pre-commercial demonstrator plant at project partner Viridor’s Pilsworth landfill gas plant in Bury, Greater Manchester.

In Europe, the big news for energy storage is that a number of gigafactories have been either upgraded or are in the planning stage. The subsequent economy of scale can only bring European ESS costs down.

The second phase of operations at Europe’s first commercial battery park began in July after energy storage firm Younicos’ YQ control software enabled North German regional energy supplier WEMAG to triple capacity to 15MWh as the utility

MICROGRIDS AND THE POWER OF ISLANDING A report from consultancy Research and Markets shows that rapid advances in technology should lead the global energy storage market for microgrids to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.72% up to 2021.

The report noted that the market is experiencing a radical change as microgrids are installed to meet power demands not covered by the central grid, with governments now increasing their support, in part to ensure security of supply in the face of natural events like hurricanes and earthquakes.

But, found market researchers Technavio, the industry is highly fragmented, and depends on various vendors providing systems for specific project requirements such as US energy technology firm Go Electric, which won a contract on July 25 to supply a 1MW/1MWh grid-tied lithium-ion system that will provide a range of microgrid stabilization services at Tooele Army Depot in Utah.

The Indiana-based company was awarded the $1.7 million contract

by Perini Management Services to deliver the BESS to allow the depot to manage multiple AC and DC distributed energy sources. Connected to the base’s existing 46kV line, and using Go Electric’s AutoLYNC microgrid controller, the system will help stabilize the facility’s microgrid.

But despite the many vendors and applications Technavio found there are five leading vendors — and 39 more prominent companies.

In its Global Energy Storage Market for Microgrids 2017-2021 report it highlighted NEC Energy Solutions, NRG Energy, Saft, Samsung SDI and UniEnergy Technologies as key vendors within the industry.

Thanikachalam Chandrasekaran, a lead analyst at Technavio, said: “The global energy storage market for microgrids is expected to witness a steady growth in the future because of an increased need to strengthen the energy security of a country.

This, in turn, is expected to drive the competition in the global energy storage market for microgrids.”

looked to move into the primary frequency control market three years after phase one began operation in 2014.

The storage facility is Europe’s largest hybrid network, comprising 53,444 lithium-ion batteries in 215 battery cabinets, 18 inverters, nine transformers and a mediumvoltage system.

Grid integration of storage in Germany continued on August 3, when a 16MWh system was commissioned in Chemnitz following funding from the state of Saxony with €1 million ($1.18 million) of subsidies from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

German firm Belectric built and commissioned the facility as general contractor for German energy utility Eins (Energie in Sachsen). The project, which costs around €10 million, will provide 10MW of primary reserve to the power market.

Stefan Brangs, Saxon state secretary of economics, labour and transport, said: “Security of energy supplies is our main priority.

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The blurring of lines between electric vehicles and energy storage continues.

This June, BMW’s batteries were being used for a 3MW lithium-ion energy storage system in the Netherlands.

Besides grid extension the storage of electricity from renewable energies is a key component.”

The blurring of lines between electric vehicles and energy storage continues. This June, automotive OEM BMW’s batteries were being used by Dutch company Alfen, which specializes in substations and charging stations, for a 3MW lithium-ion energy storage system to stabilize the grid at Nuon’s Prinses Alexia Windpark in Zeewolde, Netherlands. The system will eventually be expanded to 12MW, making it the largest storage project in the Netherlands.

Eighteen months after ground was broken on Germany’s first gigafactory — the Batterien-Montage-Zentrums facility in Karlstein — a German consortium that includes machine engineering firms, cell manufacturers and material producers and led by TerraE Holding, is preparing to set up a lithiumion 34GW factory in the country to meet demand from the

transport and industrial sectors.

Details are being kept in house at the moment, but TerraE’s CEO Holger Gritzka has confirmed the project will not involve Tesla in some shape or form — perhaps one of the few that doesn’t these days.

The company’s DNA is even in NorthVolt, the Swedish battery factory developer, which is planning to close its first major fundraising around this autumn, potentially drawing in €100 million ($118 million).

Founded by a former Tesla executive, the company has previously raised about $14 million. Its investors include Sweden’s largest utility Vattenfall AB, which contributed Skr5 million ($610,000). During the coming months, public consultations will be undertaken in the Swedish municipalities Skellefteå and Västerås — the areas where the gigafactory is proposed to be built.

US CONTINUES APACE — DESPITE TRUMP The US became the first of the big energy-using nations to withdraw from the Paris Agreement when Donald Trump, the president, claimed to be fulfilling his duty to protect America and its citizens. Many within the country, however, believe the decision will not disrupt the country’s decarbonization goals.

Ellen Anderson, executive director of the University of Minnesota’s Energy Transition Lab, said the effect of the withdrawal could be slight. “It’s a shame if, by coming out of the agreement, that changes the situation in the US, but I don’t think it will,” she said.

And with the annual US energy storage market projected to reach 1.7GW by 2020 — with a value of $2.5 billion, the country’s adoption of energy storage is set to march ahead unhindered. And with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approving a target requiring the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities, aggregators and other energy service providers to procure 1.3GW of energy storage by 2020 it is hard to see Trump’s decision having a huge impact on the industry.

The disruption to the US’s storage industry is even harder to predict because states such as Hawaii already have in place an aggressive goal of running on 100% renewable energy by 2045.

Among the plethora of projects in the state, battery storage company Powin Energy announced on August 2 that it had been chosen

by Adon Renewables to provide energy storage systems for a portfolio of seven solar-plusstorage projects in Hawaii to help the US state

cope with its huge distributed energy resources.

With a combined 2.4MWh, the projects will provide an array of services including frequency and voltage regulation, local capacity augmentation, emergency services and load control.

Geoffrey Brown, president of Powin Energy, said distributed resources had created an urgent need for energy storage to maintain system frequency and voltage as well as energy shifting from daytime to peak periods in the evening in Hawaii.

Another state pushing towards a goal of cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 is Minnesota. One of the latest projects in the state was retail electric cooperative Connexus Energy, confirming it is in talks with vendors to create Minnesota’s biggest storage-plus-solar project.

If the talks are successful, the 20MW/40MWh project will see the ESS built next to three solar installations, with a combined output of 10MW, that Connexus proposes to build in the summer of 2018.

However, an announcement of the details of the project, including the names of the vendors, has yet to be released, with a Connexus spokesperson saying the company was still in the selection process.

Gulf Power, through its parent company Southern Company, will conduct a two-year research project at McCrary Battery Energy Storage Demonstration to determine the capabilities and requirements of an energy storage system.

The research project will allow Gulf Power to evaluate a 250 kW/1MW/h Tesla Powerpack lithium-ion industrial energy storage system.

The company confirmed on July 12 that the project will be based in Pensacola, Florida, and will investigate the patterns of use of industrial and commercial customers.

Findings from the project will then be used to accelerate Southern Company’s understanding of the siting, installation and operational requirements of commercial- and industrial-scale ESSs and provide information on services including peak shaving, demand management and back-up power.

Batteries’ role in helping the modernization of the US grid was outlined in a white paper published on July 18 by Gridwise Alliance, a company representing stakeholders that design, build and operate the electric grid.

Much like the UK, the paper found clarification in policy, services and asset classification is needed to ensure energy storage systems are fully utilized in North America’s transition to a de-carbonized future.

The white paper, titled Advancing Batteries to Enhance the Electric Grid Chapter One: Front-of-Meter Applications, concluded that batteries were uniquely versatile grid modernization assets, which could help advance a reliable, resilient, affordable and sustainable electric system as increasing amounts of renewables, whether wind or solar, come on-stream.

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EES SOUTH AMERICA

EES LAUNCHES IN BRAZIL SOLAR IS BOOMING IN SOUTH AMERICA. AND WITH IT TOO, IT’S COROLLARY — LARGE SCALE ENERGY STORAGE. Solar prices have fallen drastically in South American auctions.

Distributed generation is starting to gain a larger share of Latin America’s solar market, particularly in Mexico and Brazil, where net metering and other incentives are in place.

Many countries are at the global frontier for unsubsidized solar markets.

With the highest irradiation levels and fast growing demand, the continent is positioned to be one of the most attractive regions for solar development — making energy storage a huge growth area whose potential is only now starting to be come realised.

Of the 220 exhibitors at the 5th Intersolar South America exhibition and conference, almost a fifth — 40 of them — showed electrical energy storage products as part of their portfolio.

“The high penetration of renewables in South SAVE THE DATES! America’s future power systems will increase the need for flexible operational measures, ees South America 2018 innovative energy storage solutions are getting August 28-30, 2018 more and more into the focus,” says the São Paulo, Brazil conference organizers. “For that reason we’ve

With the highest irradiation levels and fast growing demand, the continent is positioned to be one of the most attractive regions for solar development

➔

added a special exhibition area of focus — ees South America.

“We’re already seeing unprecedented demand for exhibitors to participate in this area in 2018.”

EES INDIA

THE ACCELERATING PACE OF ENERGY STORAGE ELECTRIC MOBILITY, LARGE-SCALE BESS, GRID-SCALE INTEGRATION OF RENEWABLES — ALL MAJOR THEMES FOR THE COMING YEARS IN INDIA. AND ALL TO BE DISCUSSED AT THIS YEAR’S COMBINED INTERSOLAR, EES AND POWER2DRIVE EXHIBITION IN MUMBAI THIS DECEMBER.

The strategy would require that more than 10 million electric vehicles be sold in India in 2030.

This is roughly the equivalent of eight times the global stock of EVs today.

Energy storage in India is on a roll.

The government has set out ambitious plans to revolutionize its electricity sector through a massive roll-out of renewable sources of power.

The integration of energy storage — at all levels, from large-scale BESS, to units in the home and even an eventually compulsory deployment in electrical vehicles — is part and parcel of this revolution.

Some of the goals that have been outlined are extraordinarily ambitious.

Perhaps the most challenging is in the automotive sector.

The National Institution for Transforming India, a government policy think-tank setup in 2015 by Narendra Modi, the incoming prime minister, has been at the cutting edge of strategy and policy formulation.

NITI has calculated that the accelerated adoption of electric and shared vehicles could save $60 billion in diesel and petrol costs by 2030. This would also cut carbon emissions in the country by one gigatonne (109 tonnes).

The result of NITI analysis emerged as policy this spring when Piyush Goyal, the power minister, said the country would ban the sale of petrol or diesel cars by 2030. (France and the UK have since followed suit, with the ban being introduced in 2040.)

The transition to this will be complex.

The strategy would require that more than 10 million electric vehicles be sold in India in 2030. This is roughly the equivalent of eight times the global stock of EVs today. India had just 5,000 electric vehicles on the road at the end of last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

The cost of electric vehicles would need to come down drastically and an extensive infrastructure of charging stations would need to be established across the country.

Debate about the mechanics of this transition has been fast and furious.

This theme will be investigated and discussed in full in this year’s Power2Drive conference and exhibition held in Mumbai in December. “The aim is to showcase the best electric mobility technology solutions at this critical point in India’s energy future,” says Florian Wessendorf, managing director for Power2Drive India.

The exhibition will run in parallel with India’s largest solar exhibition, Intersolar. It will also run in tandem with ees India — an exhibition highlighting the growing urgency for energy storage.

“Manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, from the battery, automotive and transport industries, will display their latest developments and innovations at the exhibition,” says Wessendorf.

“2017 is a pivotal year for India’s energy and mobility sectors.”

India is in the middle of going through a complete change around in its energy policy. The pivotal year for change was 2010, when the National Solar Policy was formulated. The country, at that time, had a bare 12MW of grid-connected solar installed capacity.

In March this year, this had leapt a thousand-fold to 12GW. A year later this is reckoned to double to 25GW and the forecast is that by 2022 some 100GW will be installed.

38 | 39

In recent years BESS — battery energy storage systems — have moved mainstream. For the Indian power environment various of their key features have become attractive. They will all be discussed at the ees conference in Mumbai.

• Harvesting clipped energy. With module prices falling, it has become attractive to increase the inverter load ratio to generate more energy. The higher ratio also increases the occurrence of power clipping by the inverter during high levels of sunshine. With BESS, the energy that would otherwise have got clipped could be saved.

• Energy time-shifting BESS help store excess energy generated by solar during the day, shifting its use or selling it during the peak evening tariff period. It is also possible to use the system to store energy from the grid during low tariff periods. BESS also help in peak load shaving, which helps utilities reduce the cost of generating power during peak periods.

• Meeting local load needs and saving energy guring grid disruptions. Any grid outage results in the inverter disconnecting itself from the grid, resulting in wasted solar energy generation. With BESS, the generated energy could be used to power local loads or saved for later use.

• Capacity firming. Maintaining committed levels of power generation is a major issue, with large renewable power integrated to the grid.

• Capturing power during curtailment and supplying power during ramp up. As the number of solar systems tied to the grid increase continuously, the net connected load to the grid falls sharply during peak sunshine in mid-day.

With a steady fall in the net load at midday, it would become necessary to shut down peaking, intermediate and in extreme cases even base load generation (as warranted in Hawaii in 2013). As the day advances, the situation reverses.

• Improving power quality. Intermittent power generation from renewable sources and the changing net load connected to the grid causes voltage sags and spikes and also frequency deviations.

• Harvesting at low voltages. During early morning and late evening and during heavy cloud cover, the system voltage

The aim is to showcase the best electric mobility, energy storage and renewable power generation technology solutions at this critical point in India’s energy future.

will be lower than the minimum “wake up” voltage of the inverter and in a large multi megawatt system, substantial energy can be lost. Batteries with DC-DC converters can capture this energy.

So far, most storage initiatives have been financed through government or state-sponsored funding. But the private sector is now moving into what they see as a sector that is set to become a highly profitable one. In January, AES Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation announced a partnership to deliver India’s first grid-scale (10MW) energy storage solution to Tata Power Delhi distribution solution.

➔ EES , POWER2DRIVE AND INTERSOLAR INDIA: QUICK FACTS Some 500 delegates, 260 exhibitors and more than 12,000 visitors will attend the combined Intersolar India, ees India and Power2Drive.

December 5–7, 2017, Exhibition & Conference, Mumbai.

VIEW FROM THE EES

THE EES VIEWPOINT ENERGY STORAGE JOURNAL CAUGHT UP IN SAN FRANCISCO AT THIS YEAR’S INTERSOLAR/EES EXHIBITION AND CONFERENCE WITH FLORIAN WESSENDORF, THE MASTERMIND BEHIND THE SERIES OF SHOWS, TO GET HIS PERSPECTIVE OF THE FLAVOUR OF THE US CONFERENCE. What are the major differences and similarities between the conferences you hold in North America and Europe?

What we tend to focus on in all our conferences are the hot topics of the region. What are the latest trends, who are the new players coming onto the scene, how are the regulatory environments changing — these kinds of issues.

So in one sense, the underpinning structures of the markets are roughly the same — the issue is the match of solar with storage.

This means that important drivers of adoption, for example the continuing falls in both the prices of solar panels and storage, run across both, if not all, regions. The rapidity of technology and the pace of globalization is such that it’s short-lived to see any new product that’s particular to that continent.

There’s another similarity in that there’s a patchwork element to both markets — in Europe, the leaders in dispatchable distributed energy resources are probably Germany, the Netherlands and behind that, France. The rest of Europe are at different points on the adoption curve.

In the US, it’s the same picture with states, with California, New York and Vermont being the frontrunners.

California’s solar-plus-storage market is a case in point — this year the market is going to quadruple in size from last year — to around 38MW of annual deployments. By 2022, California will account for almost half of the US solar-plus-storage market.

Roughly 31% of behind-the-meter solar and 23% of utility-scale solar will be paired with storage.

And the differences?

Two particular things stand out.

In Europe our conference and exhibition has a larger focus on electric vehicles. This reflects, for the moment, a different policy mix than that seen in the States.

Countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Norway are imposing bans on the sale of new petrol and diesel-driven vehicles in a regulatory push to create a more developed EV market. [Subsequent to the interview both France and the UK also introduced bans for ICE sales after 2040.]

This means that our European conference has a greater focus on electric vehicles — though we have no wish to be an EV conference — looking at the batteries that drive them. This leads on to how they can be integrated with the grid, including their new demands on the grid, and issues such as charging technologies. These are factors that will drive the sector forward.

This will be a major topic on both sides of the Atlantic next year — and we expect more exhibitors and delegates will want to attend and find out more about this burgeoning sector.

And the second?

This is where we see the growing participation of utilities in adopting solar-plus-storage into their grids. It’s hard to make any direct comparison between the two continents — choosing the right metrics is a very difficult proposition — but it is clear that the role of utilities is a huge one in the US solar-plus-storage sector.

We reckon the grid-tied solar-paired-storage market should reach 137MW in 2017, compared with 47MW last year. The compound annual growth rate will be huge — we envisage a 92% CAGR over the next five years, surpassing the 1GW mark in 2021.

U.S. Annual Solar-Paired-Storage Deployments, 2011-2022E (MW). Source: GTM Research

40 | 41

DERs offer value on all grid levels, providing value streams for end customers (think power quality, reliability, demand charge management), the distribution grid (think voltage support, resource adequacy, distribution system investment deferral), and the wholesale market (think grid management services such as frequency regulation, voltage support, spinning/non-spinning reserves).

In five years’ time 15% of annually deployed behind-the-meter solar is expected to be paired with storage, compared with 0.5% in 2016.

By the same date, 15% of utility-scale solar will be paired with storage, compared to only 1.9% in 2016. The market will reach $4.4 billion in annual value by then — more than 11 times the size of the 2016 market.

Most particularly we believe dispatchable Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) offer value on all grid levels, providing value streams for end customers (think: power quality, reliability, demand charge management), the distribution grid (think: voltage support, resource adequacy, distribution system investment deferral), and the wholesale market (here, think grid management services such as frequency regulation, voltage support, spinning/non-spinning reserves).

Solar-plus-storage can thus offer value across a range of use cases, and when properly designed can act as a dispatchable resource.

programmes and working to illustrate the value the technology can provide to both retail electricity customers and the grid.

Some solar-plus-storage systems are already deployed and will provide lessons to help future market design.

Within the past year, a number of grid service pilots, storage procurement mandates and incentive bills have moved forward, opening the door for solar-plus-storage.

For example, Maryland passed a storage incentive bill this May; Massachusetts set a storage target in June and is working to add a storage incentive to its SMART solar programme; Nevada moved forward storage procurement and incentive bills in June; and Vermont initiated the next phase of its Powerwall offerings and proposed a large-scale solar-plus-storage project.

The new federal government seems to offer little support for renewables. What do you think about this?

My general impression is that the federal government has lost both coherence and direction. It seems to have no solar and storage ambitions and one day policy will be looking at, say, increasing coal mining for electricity generation — talk that renewables have killed the mining business aren’t true, cheap natural gas has done that — the next it will be looking at something else.

A couple of things at a federal level are clear, however — the government is cutting research and investment tax credits (ITCs) are being rolled back.

How will this affect the future?

Effectively, the individual US states and private enterprises are taking up the slack from central government. States across the US are advancing policies to build storage markets. These include procurement targets, incentives and pilot programmes.

These types of market mechanisms are integral for kick-starting the states’ solar-plus-storage markets by providing improved economics and opportunities to showcase the value these systems can provide to grid and retail customers.

And which states are leading the way?

Several spring to mind: California, New York and Hawaii are all leaders in various ways in advancing storage through pilot

Florian Wessendorf, managing director of Intersolar and ees North America, and Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of CALSEIA, present the 2017 Intersolar Champion of Change AWARD to Richard Kauffman, chairman of Energy and Finance for New York.

➔ FLORIAN WESSENDORF: THE CV After completing his doctorate in chemistry, molecular and material science in 2010, Wessendorf then worked for the VDMA, the German Engineering Foundation, initially as project manager for photovoltaic equipment and productronics and later as managing director of the department. In January 2016 he joined Solar Promotion International as its managing director working on the company’s Intersolar and ees programmes.

EES EUROPE

HIGHLIGHTS TO COME: EES EUROPE 2018 IN 2017, EES EUROPE COVERED A WIDER SPECTRUM OF TOPICS THAN EVER BEFORE. BESIDES LARGE-SCALE STORAGE SYSTEMS, GRID INTEGRATION AND E-MOBILITY, THE CONVERSATIONS IN THE EXHIBITION HALLS AND DURING THE SIDE EVENTS ALSO CENTRED ON HOW TO OPTIMIZE ON-SITE CONSUMPTION IN PRIVATE HOMES AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES. In total 251 companies from around the world presented their products, services and solutions over an exhibition area of 17,500 square meters.

Taking into account the participants at the parallel event Intersolar Europe, the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry and its partners, 442 of the over 1,100 exhibitors presented innovative energy storage solutions.

In total, around 40,000 visitors flocked to Munich for ees and Intersolar Europe.

POWER2DRIVE … AND MORE

With 94% of exhibitors rating ees Europe 2017 as “good” to “excellent”, it was not only the visitors who were satisfied — some 97% of exhibitors said they would participate in ees Europe again in 2018.

E-mobility, large-scale storage systems and grid integration remain hot topics for 2018.

Energy storage technology is indispensable for the energy transition and is set to become increasingly attractive thanks to lower prices for consumers. Special attention was paid to e-mobility in 2017.

The E-Mobility special exhibit saw ees Europe focus more closely on the topic and present new developments in the areas of battery-based storage systems and charging technology.

With the new Power2Drive Europe exhibition, the organizers will be concentrating on the field of e-mobility more intensively than ever before from 2018.

At Power2Drive, the spotlight will be on traction batteries and charging infrastructure for e-mobility. Attendees will have the chance to engage in detailed discussions about sector coupling, which is a key component of the new energy world.

The energy transition is also playing an increasingly significant role in the commercial and industrial sector, with the topic of large-scale storage systems in particular gaining in importance.

With 94% of exhibitors rating ees Europe 2017 as “good” to “excellent”, it was not only the visitors who were satisfied.

What’s more, 97% of exhibitors said that they would participate in ees Europe again in 2018.

Just six weeks after the exhibition closed its doors, more than 60% of the exhibition space had been booked for the 2018 event.

The companies that have already signed up include leading battery and energy storage system manufacturers such as adstec, BYD, BMZ, senec, E3/DC, FIAMM, HOPPECKE Batterien, LG Chem, sonnen, SOLARWATT, Samsung SDI, Tesla, TESVOLT and VARTA Storage.

POWER-TO GAS — INDISPENSABLE FOR THE ENERGY TRANSITION Thanks to their ability to absorb excess renewable energy and make it available again as required, energy storage solutions are among the cornerstones of the energy transition.

Particular attention is being paid to innovative storage technologies such as power-to-gas. This technology converts excess power produced by renewable sources of energy into hydrogen or methane, which is temporarily stored. The gas can then be reconverted into electricity or heat as necessary.

Suitable storage options include the existing natural gas grid.

Fuel cells can use the stored gas to produce power and can be employed in both stationary systems to generate heat and electricity as well as in environmentally friendly solutions for the transport sector.

Power-to-gas therefore has a role to play in the future of e-mobility and is a key component of sector coupling. These reasons alone are more than enough for ees Europe to shine a spotlight on this technology.

At the 2017 exhibition, exhibitors such as GP JOULE, HPS Home Power Solutions and Viessmann showed how power-to-gas and fuel cell technology can be integrated into the energy grid of the future. The Smart Renewable Energy Forum even devoted an entire presentation series to the topic. In addition, the Helmholtz Association presented the Energy Lab 2.0 simulation platform in cooperation with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and other partners.

2018 marks the first year in which ees Europe will have its own dedicated exhibition segment for power-to-gas, hydrogen technology and fuel cells in hall B1. Here, visitors can discuss the latest technological trends in these fields with various suppliers.

42 | 43

POWER2DRIVE: DISCOVER THE POTENTIAL OF E-MOBILITY As a means of green transportation, electric vehicles are becoming increasingly competitive. If they are charged using renewable energy, they can serve to mitigate climate change and reduce environmentally harmful emissions.

The most important challenges involve reducing the cost of battery packs, improving energy density and expanding charging infrastructure. As battery costs continue to fall, electric vehicles will become more and more economical, making environmentally friendly mobility affordable for an increasing number of users.

According to IRENA, the number of electric vehicles around the globe exceeded two million in 2016.

This rapid rise was driven by China, the US, Japan and several European countries. In its Roadmap for a Renewable Energy Future 2016, IRENA predicts that the total number of electric vehicles will reach 50 million by 2030. If this comes to pass, batteries with a total capacity of 8,000 GWh could be in use in light commercial vehicles alone by 2030.

According to a report by Grand View Research, the global market for electric charging infrastructure is expected to reach 45.59 billion US dollars by 2025.

With the potential for electric vehicle components, charging infrastructure and services continuing its swift growth, Power2Drive Europe offers an ideal point of entry to this exciting market.

NEW BUSINESS MODELS FOR A SELF-SUFFICIENT ENERGY SUPPLY The market for electrical storage systems is growing. The German Solar Association (BSW-Solar) predicts that more than 20,000 new solar storage systems will be installed in Germany in 2017 — compared with 17,000 in the previous year.

Industry experts expect the market to become increasingly dynamic in the years to come. For example, market researchers at EuPD Research estimate that the European market for PV storage systems in private households will amount to €552 million in 2020.

To cope with the energy transition, many utility companies are developing new business models. A survey of managerial staff working at municipal utilities and energy suppliers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland conducted by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) revealed that products that facilitate a self-sufficient energy supply are especially popular.

Energy self-sufficiency involves consumers

generating at least some of their electricity themselves, turning them into “prosumers”.

Almost a quarter of those questioned by BDEW believe that solutions promoting selfsufficiency will replace centralized supply structures in the long run. According to a survey by AXXCON, 27% of consumers are interested in producing their own wind and solar energy, while two-thirds of respondents could envisage obtaining their power from a neighbourhood association.

The majority of utility companies have firm plans to provide by 2018 ways of helping domestic customers to become more selfsufficient. Above all, this trend gives energy suppliers the chance to use new business models to gain a more prominent position in the market. ees Europe and its partner events under the umbrella of The Smarter E Europe will showcase plenty of solutions! www.TheSmarterE.de

➔ THE EES AWARD: INNOVATING ENERGY STORAGE!

IRENA predicts that the total number of electric vehicles will reach 50 million by 2030. If this comes to pass, batteries with a total capacity of 8,000 GWh could be in use in light commercial vehicles alone by 2030

In 2018, the panel of judges will present the prestigious ees AWARD to the most innovative concepts and solutions from the energy storage industry for the fifth time.

The ees AWARD is dedicated to the electrical energy storage solutions behind the clean energy of tomorrow. The AWARD creates a professional platform for the energy storage industry to showcase companies’ achievements and innovations – very helpful to gain a decisive market edge for your new products!

When choosing which innovations to honour,

the panel places particular emphasis on efficiency, durability and flexibility.

In addition, the award entries submitted are evaluated in terms of their degree of technological innovation, the benefit for industry, impact on the environment and society as well as their economic viability.

Register for the ees AWARD 2018!

The submission period for the ees AWARD ends on March 23, 2018. www.ees-events.com/award

International Exhibition Series for Batteries and Energy Storage Systems

2017–2018

www.ees-events.com

DECEMBER 5–7, 2017, MUMBAI, INDIA INDIA’S LARGEST SOLAR EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS ENERGY STORAGE INNOVATIONS www.ees-india.in

JUNE 20–22, 2018, MUNICH, GERMANY EUROPE’S LARGEST EXHIBITION FOR BATTERIES AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS www.ees-europe.com

JULY 10–12, 2018, SAN FRANCISCO, USA NORTH AMERICA‘S ULTIMATE HOT SPOT FOR ENERGY STORAGE SOLUTIONS www.ees-northamerica.com

AUGUST 28–30, 2018, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL THE MAJOR PLATFORM FOR STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES RESHAPING LATAM’S ENERGY SECTOR www.ees-southamerica.com

FOLLOW US

FLOW BATTERY PROFILE: SCHMID GROUP In the first of a series of profiles of companies offering flow batteries we look at how Germany’s Schmid Group is finding high volume deployments for its energy storage systems based on vanadium redox flow chemistry.

Squaring up to the lithium challenge Vanadium redox flow batteries are well suited to grid-connected and off-grid energy storage applications, especially for longer duration applications, requiring energy to be stored over periods of six, or eight hours, or even longer.

Schmid Group, a production equipment supplier to the photovoltaic, flat panel display and electronics industries, has been refining the technology since 2009, more recently launching a line of products.

One of the company’s earliest pilots of its energy storage system based

on vanadium redox flow batteries was with Stadtwerke Freudenstadt, a local utility in Germany, which installed a container in early 2014, to allow the partners to monitor how reliably the system works on the grid.

Schmid has also been producing, in limited volumes, a compact flow battery energy storage system for homes and small commercial installations for Germany’s growing solar PV selfconsumption market, which is supported with government subsidy.

However, due to the falling prices of lithium ion-based energy storage systems available to consumers, this has become a highly competitive market, according to Henrik Buschmann, vice president, business unit energy systems at Schmid Group.

Nevertheless, the system installations will provide Schmid with data on the performance of its compact VRFB energy storage system in reallife deployments for solar self-consumption.

Targeting telecoms

Schmid has also modified the compact system for the telecoms market.

Buschmann says: “We see lots of potential for telecoms, because the batteries have long operational lifetimes, as their degradation from cycling is minimal compared with lithium ion and other batteries. This is especially the case in hot climates.

“Another advantage, over lead acid batteries in telecoms, is that they are hard to steal because they are one large unit and there is no street value attached to this type of battery, un-

Falling prices of lithium ion-based systems has heightened competition between flow batteries and other energy storage products www.energystoragejournal.com

like lead acid, where the lead can be sold as scrap metal.”

To enter this market, Schmid has begun working with a reseller that supplies telecom batteries into South Africa. The batteries are undergoing technical testing at Schmid and the negotiations with the reseller are underway.

Once concluded, pilots will be arranged at telecoms installations in South Africa.

The challenge for the flow battery industry is that the stacks are expensive to produce, so long duration, energy-intensive storage applications need to be identified. A higher energy capacity simply requires the installation of larger tanks with more electrolyte, made from vanadium — the storage medium. For more power, additional stacks are installed that convert the current and store it in the electrolyte.

Flow batteries can also cost less to operate compared with other types of batteries used to provide power for telecoms sites, because they are more impervious to the effects of degradation that impact other batteries and their operational lifetimes, like heavy cycling and high temperatures.

The other challenge is finding markets to sell volumes of batteries into, so that production capacities can be scaled up to produce larger volumes and achieve economies of scale to start pushing down prices.

Telecoms is a promising opportunity as it could demand high numbers of flow batteries, in markets where telecom towers are being built where there is poor or no grid infrastructure, such as in many parts of Africa and the Indian sub-continent.

UK firm REDT, which is also commercializing energy storage systems based on vanadium redox technolo-

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 45

POWERING THE SMART GRID www.energystoragejournal.com

Meet the team Issue 8: Spring 2015

Let cool heads prevail The lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch The new titan of lead Ecoult’s UltraBattery, ready to take lithium on, head-to-head

The CEO interview Anil Srivastava and Leclanché’s bid for market dominance

Next gen integrators Coming soon to a smart grid near you, the ideal middle man

Mike Halls, editor Mike, a former journalist with the UK newspaper the Financial Times, has been involved in journalism, publishing and print for three decades.

“I’m particularly fond of writing about the energy storage industry,” he says. “It’s an unusual mixture of being fast-paced but slow to change — and friendly too. There’s always something more to learn.”

Claire Ronnie, office manager and subscriptions Claire’s our unflappable person — she’s the go-to girl for subscriptions or account enquiries.

Go ahead and challenge her!

Karen Hampton, publisher In her recent years of working within the energy storage business Karen has become a well known figure at conferences — not least as our social butterfly. “My job,” she says, “is to get the maximum benefit for our advertisers to make sure their name and brand is out there, while maintaining the integrity, fairness and excellence our publications are renowned for.”

Antony Parselle, page designer Better known in the office as ‘Ant’ he’s been working in magazine design and layout since the early 1990s. Not so good on showing his best side however!

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June Moutrie, business development manager She’s our accounting Wunderkind who deals with all things financial — a kind of mini Warren Buffett.

But more fun!

Jade Beevor, Advertising Manager Jade, who joined the team in early 2015, is already getting a feel for the industry.

“This is an incredible business we’re in,” she says. “These people are literally changing the future of our lives — and the planet too!”

Jan Darasz, cartoonist Jan has won international fame as a cartoonist able to making anything — including an electrolyte! — funny. And as for LiCFePO4 ...

EDITORIAL Mike Halls +44 (0) 7977 016 918 editor@energystoragejournal.com

Wyn Jenkins, Supplements Editor Don’t let his boyish charm deceive, Wyn’s been a journalist and respected editor on major financial titles for some 20 years. When not heading his own publications firm, Seren Global Media, he looks after our supplements.

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FLOW BATTERY PROFILE: SCHMID GROUP gy, is targeting telecoms applications too. The company says its storage systems can either be used as part of a micro-grid, alongside sufficient PV to provide firm, stable power to the telecom tower, reducing the requirement for a diesel genset to be run.

Alternatively, the genset can be at a higher loading to charge the flow battery, instead of running for much longer periods of time at inefficient load levels to power the tower directly.

But flow battery technology also faces a bankability challenge.

While lithium ion is far from suitable for every type of use case demanding storage, especially for longer duration deployments, it is proven and the largest producers of lithium ion batteries are able to offer performance warranties for up to 10 years.

Investors and lenders need to see this warranty, especially when they are financing installations developed by start-ups lacking longevity. Similarly, in the telecoms market VRFBs will be going up against lead acid technology, which has been around for many decades.

There is no solution to the bankability challenge except to be able to refer to the performance results of systems that have been running for a long time, in real-world deployments, to fully understand the operational costs. Investors in projects and their lenders need to be convinced the technology is reliable. This comes from having greater numbers of deployments.

In Germany Schmid has also recently secured deals to supply its larger containerized energy storage systems for projects, which will generate important information on how the technology performs. One is with the Technical University of Dortmund, where the flow battery storage system is integrated into an AC test network for smart grid applications.

The university’s researchers have designed a smart grid infrastructure applicable to low-voltage grids in future, connected up to electric vehicles, solar PV systems and a controllable local power transformer, as well as energy storage. The 30kW/100kWh system is configured to work both within the grid and in a stand-alone mode.

One advantage of vanadium redox technology for this type of smart grid deployment is that its energy capacity can be scaled independently of power.

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While lithium ion is far from suitable for every type of use case demanding storage, especially for longer duration deployments, it is proven and the largest producers of lithium ion batteries are able to offer performance warranties for up to 10 years.

VANADIUM — LOCKING IN PRICES Talk of eventual shortages of vanadium in the future are almost certainly over-hyped. Australian Vanadium is developing a site in Western Australia with the potential to mine the metal. The mine will not begin production until 2019.

The Gabanintha project, measuring 91.4 million tonnes at 0.82% vanadium, has the potential to produce high-grade vanadium, which is needed for low cost production.

Today Largo Resources, through its Maracás Menchen mine in Brazil, produces the highest grade, lowest cost vanadium, producing a record 800 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide in September 2016, much of its output supplying the steel industry.

Even though rebar steel production is seeing little growth, new steel

applications continue to drive demand.

Australian Vanadium has also acquired a pilot line for making electrolyte from British company C-Tech Innovation. It aims to be producing commercial quantities of electrolyte by this summer, buying in vanadium from third party sources until its own mine comes on-stream.

By having total control over key stages of the vanadium battery supply chain, Australian Vanadium will be able to reduce the cost of VRFB production.

Enhancements to vanadium processing across the supply chain, starting with the mineral itself, to electrolyte synthesis, to stack design, will all lead to reductions in production costs.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 47

BACK TO BASICS From basic voltage to electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, Isidor Buchmann, founder of Cadex Electronics discusses basic lithium ion test methods.

Battery verification: testing is the key to firming industry gains Our growing dependency on batteries requires advancements in diagnostics to observe capacity loss to maintain reliability as the capacity declines.

It also means the ability to identify anomalies to prevent catastrophic failures, and predict the end of battery life when the battery fades to a set capacity threshold.

A battery cannot be measured, only estimated to a varied degree of accuracy based on available symptoms.

This is similar to a doctor examining a patient by taking multiple tests and applying the law of elimination.

Rapid-test methods for batteries have been lagging behind other technologies; complexity and uncertain results when testing outliers are the reasons for the delay.

Cadex realizes the importance of battery diagnostics and has made notable advancements in rapid-test technologies.

These developments form the building blocks for diagnostic battery management, a new direction innovative companies are pursuing in the care and maintenance of batteries.

Rather than inventing another new super battery, diagnostic battery management is vital to assure reliability of current battery systems by monitoring capacity, the leading health indicator, along with other parameters.

Capacity represents energy storage, internal resistance relates to current delivery, and self-discharge reflects mechanical integrity.

All three properties must be met to qualify a battery. In addition to these static characteristics, a battery has different of state-of-charge (SoC), dynamic characteristics that effect battery performance and complicate rapid-testing.

Well developed battery test technologies must recognize all battery conditions and provide reliable results, even if the charge is low. This is a demanding request as a good battery that is only partially charged behaves in a similar way to a faded pack that is fully charged.

Test methods range from taking a voltage reading, to measuring the internal resistance by a pulse or AC impedance method, to coulomb counting, and to taking a snapshot of the chemical battery with electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

Capacity estimations by deciphering the chemical battery are more complex than digital monitoring by coulomb counting. Digging into the chemical battery involves proprietary algorithms and matrices that function as lookup tables similar to letter or face recognition.

Voltage and internal resistance do not correlate with capacity and fail to predict the end of battery life effectively, especially with Li-ion and lead acid systems.

The truth lies in the chemical battery.

A digital measurement alone is subject to failure because the chemical symptoms are not represented.

Here are the most common battery test methods: • Voltage Battery voltage reflects state-ofcharge in an open circuit condition when rested. Voltage alone cannot estimate battery state-of-health (SoH).

• Ohmic test Measuring internal resistance identifies corrosion and mechanical defects when high. Although these anomalies indicate the end of battery life, they often do not correlate with low capacity. The ohmic test is also known as impedance test.

• Full cycle A full cycle consists of charge/discharge/charge to read the capacity of the chemical battery. This provides the most accurate readings and calibrates the smart battery to correct tracking errors, but the service is time consuming and causes stress.

• Rapid-test Common test methods include time domain by activating the battery with pulses to observe ion-flow in Li-ion, and frequency domain by scanning a battery with multiple frequencies. Advanced rapid-test technologies require complex software with battery-specific parameters and matrices serving as lookup tables.

Capacity estimations by deciphering the chemical battery are more complex than digital monitoring by coulomb counting. Digging into the chemical battery involves proprietary algorithms and matrices that function as lookup tables similar to letter or face recognition.

48 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

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BACK TO BASICS • BMS Most Battery Management Systems estimate SoC by monitoring voltage, current and temperature. BMS for Li-ion also counts coulombs.

• Coulomb counting The full charge capacity of a smart battery provides coulomb count that relates to SoH. FCC readout is instant but the data gets inaccurate with use and the battery requires calibration with a full cycle.

• Read-and-charge A charger featuring RAC technology reads battery SoC with a proprietary filtering algorithm and then counts the coulombs to fill the battery. RAC requires a on-time calibration for each battery model; cycling a good pack provides this parameter that is stored in the battery adapters. RAC technology is a Cadex development.

DIGITAL BATTERY ESTIMATION At a charge efficiency of 99%, Li-ion is best suited for digital battery estimation. This helps in the BMS design by enabling capacity estimation with coulomb counting.

While the readings are instant, occasional calibration is needed to correct the tracking error that occurs with random battery usage.

In comparison, nickel-based batteries have low charge efficiency and high self-discharge, deficiencies that skew digital tracking. Under the right conditions and moderate

• SOLI The state-of-life-indicator estimates battery life by counting the total coulombs a battery can deliver in its life. A new battery starts at 100%; delivered coulombs decrease the number until the allotment is spent and a battery replacement is imminent. The full scale is set by calculat-

ing the coulomb count of one cycle based on the manufacturer’s specifications (V, Ah) and then by multiplying the number with the given cycle count.

SOLI can be used in wheelchairs, medical devices, traction and UPS, installed when new or added as retrofit. Wireless connectivity provides fleet management.

Reliable results are only possible when robust symptoms are present.

This is not always possible, especially with unformatted lead acid batteries or packs that had been in storage. A good battery pulled

temperature, lead acid batteries are reasonably efficient but not quite suitable for dependable coulomb counting.

Cold temperature reduces the efficiency of all batteries and this also affects rapid-testing. Although a battery may function below freezing, charge acceptance is reduced and charge times must be prolonged by lowering the current. Some chargers do this automatically; if not certain, do not charge Li-ion batteries below freezing. form service generally provides solid symptoms with good accuracy; readings from a weak battery can be muddled with inconsistent results.

Reliable measurements are impossible if the symptoms are vague or not present, which is the case if the battery has turned into a potato.

This fools the system and the battery becomes an outlier.

Well developed rapid-test methods should correctly predict nine batteries out of 10. EIS has the potential to advance further and surpass other technologies.

TEST PROCEDURES Table 1 summarizes test procedures with the most common battery systems. Lead acid and Li-ion share communalities in keeping low resistance under normal condition.

Exceptions are heat fail and mechanical faults that raise the internal resistance and a battery replacement ahead of time. Nickel-cadmium and nickel-metalhydride, and in part also the primary battery, reveal the end-of-life by elevated resistancenickelbased and primary batteries reveal end-oflife by elevated internal resistance.

Test Method

A N A L O G

D I G I T A L

Lead acid

Nickel-based

Li-ion

Primary battery

Voltage

Estimates SoC in open circuit condition. Temperature and active materials within a battery system may cause slight voltage variations. Performance evaluation is not possible.

Ohmic Test

Identifies heat fail and other defects; cannot do capacity estimation

Correlation exists between resistance and capacity

Full Cycle

Use sparingly on large batteries

Recommended for small batteries

N/A

Rapid-test

Time domain checks resistance, ion flow; Frequency domain reads capacity

Internal resistance correlates in part with SoH.

High efficiency enables time and frequency domain

Resistance check with lookup table for diverse batteries possible

BMS

Voltage, current and temperature sense to monitor battery

Not practical due to inefficiencies

High efficiency enables coulomb counting

SoC by voltage

Coulomb counting

Low charge and discharge efficiency makes this impractical

Not suitable due to low efficiency and high self-discharge

Good for most Liion. LiFePO has high self-discharge

Used for critical applications with good results

Read-andcharge (RAC)

Not practical because of low charge and discharge efficiency, high self-discharge

Enabled by high efficiency

N/A

SOLI (Stateof-lifeindicator)

Estimates battery life based on delivered energy. A new battery starts at 100%. Drawing energy consumes the coulomb allotment, prompting battery replacement when zero.

Can be applied to all batteries.

Low capacity may not affect resistance

Resistance relates to SoC; unique for each battery type

Table 1: Battery test methods for common battery chemistries. Lead acid and Li-ion share communalities by keeping low resistance under normal condition; nickel-based and primary batteries reveal end-of-life by elevated internal resistance.

Table 1: Battery test methods for common battery chemistries. Lead acid and Li-ion www.energystoragejournal.com share 50 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 communalities by keeping low resistance under

CONFERENCE IN PRINT

Welcome to a special section of our magazine, called Conference in Print.

Our aim is a simple one. We want to offer you the readers a section where you can highlight your products, technology and skills to our broader audience — rather like going to a conference or an exhibition without the inconvenience of all the travel!

We’re putting no restrictions on what you’d like to showcase — this is your section not ours — but hope that this will prove an invaluable and cost-effective way to reach our audience of subscribers and readers.

CONFERENCE IN PRINT Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s research has developed a new method of forming passivation layers on electrodes that reduces the formation time for lithium batteries from weeks to a day. It also increases cell capacity retention, which significantly increases production throughput and extends cycle life.

Enabling fast formation lithium ion batteries

The top graph portrays the baseline and new formation method illustrated as voltage profiles, showing ten times faster formation time at the new method. The bottom graph exhibits capacity after the new formation retained more than one after the baseline. Error bars correspond to 90% confidence intervals

52 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

Electrolyte wetting and anode passivation film (called solid electrolyte interphase (SEI)) formation steps are the most expensive processes ($2.2/kWh for electrode processing and $7.5/kWh for wetting/formation cycling) due to the lengthy wetting and cycle period (for example 3-5 cycles at C/20 and 3-5 cycles at higher C-rate at a elevated temperature).

This process may take up to two to three weeks, depending on the cell manufacturer, requiring a tremendous number of charge/discharge cyclers for mass production of lithium-ion batteries, large footprint, and intense energy consumption for the cyclers and environmental chambers.

These processes are a major production bottleneck and therefore, it is important to reduce wetting and formation time without sacrificing cell performance for cost and production rate benefits.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a new fast formation method to generate the SEI in lithium-ion batteries consisting of graphite and LiNi0.5Mn0.3Co0.2O2 as the anode and cathode, respectively.

The new formation method is shown in Figure 1 (top, orange line) and compared with a baseline method (top, blue line).

The baseline method consists of a series of full

charge and discharge cycles at a constant C-rate without any interruption between the lower and upper cut-off voltages (2.5V-4.2V).

Compared to the baseline, the new method reduced formation time from more than nine days to less than a day.

The new method, however, involves repeated cycling within a high state-of-charge region (4.2V-3.9V) after the first charge until the last cycle where a full discharge takes place. Compared to the baseline, the new method reduced formation time from more than nine days to less than a day.

The new method at ORNL resulted in higher capacity retention than the baseline (Figure 1, bottom) because of substantially lower SEI film resistance for the cells with the new method than the baseline.

Thus, the new method not only reduced the formation time by a great deal, but also increased cell capacity retention, which significantly increases production throughput and extends cycle life. This new SEI formation method will also result in substantial capital equipment savings for new battery plants.

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ENERGY STORAGE PIONEERS Kevin Desmond tells the story of Jürgen Garche, who became one of the driving forces behind advances in fuel cells and batteries.

Chasing an electrochemical dream world Jürgen Werner Garche was born in Cottbus, a university town about 125km south east of Berlin, in February 1944. He was born at a time of great change: the Second World War was coming to a close — and when it did Cottbus fell into the Russian sector and so became part of the German Democratic Republic.

By the time Garche was eight, the

GDR was detached from Western Europe, with consequences that affected much of the middle years of his future career.

In 1962 Garche left home and started his professional training as a laboratory chemist at the huge Lützkendorf mineral oil plant, near Leuna — then about a three-hour drive from Cottbus. The following

. In 1970 Garche submitted his doctoral thesis on “The Thermodynamics of Concentrated Electrolytes”, so helping to extend the validity of the DebyeHückel equation to higher salt concentrations.

Forklift driven by a 3 kW hydrazine-air fuel cell (1966)

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year — becoming the first university student in his family — he started reading chemistry at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden).

His particular interest in electrochemistry brought him to the attention of Kurt Schwabe, rector of the TUD. He was also director of the TUD Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry which was founded in 1900 as Germany’s first electrochemical institute.

From Schwabe’s invitation in 1966, the 24-year-old made his first contact with an applied electrochemical project, an industrial 3kW fuel cell forklift truck developed by BAE Berlin and TU Dresden. This project was directed by electrochemists; the main challenge was developing the hydrazine anode with a relatively low activity.

Although Garche’s interest was related to applied electrochemistry, Schwabe persuaded him to do his PhD work in theoretical electrochemistry.

In 1970 he submitted his doctoral thesis on “The Thermodynamics

Garche in the lab during as PhD student at TU Dresden (1969)

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 53

ENERGY STORAGE PIONEERS

Jürgen Garche in front of a ZSW 2 kW PEMFC test rig

After German reunification in 1990, Garche moved to Ulm in southern Germany to join the recently founded Electrochemical Energy Storage and Energy Conversion Division of the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research a not-for profit R&D institute established by Wolfgang Witschel. of Concentrated Electrolytes”, so helping to extend the validity of the Debye-Hückel equation to higher salt concentrations.

During this period, Garche was a keen athlete, both as a middledistance runner and in basketball; he represented the TU Dresden basketball team. He also worked as a life guard on the cold Baltic Sea, near Warnemünde, where he spent his summer breaks to make money for his study.

In 1975, he married Ursula Weiss, an orthopaedic doctor. They were later to have a son, Stefan, who in a sense has followed his father’s footsteps. He is a lawyer at the North Rhine-Westphalian Energy Agency responsible for the legal aspects of national and international fuel cell and battery projects.

As was common in East Germany at that time, Garche continued to work at his alma mater where he was promoted to assistant lecturer, eventually supervising Klaus Wiesener’s applied electrochemistry R&D group, which looked at Galvanic Elements and specialized in batteries and fuel cells.

Garche’s special interest was the interface reactions between the Pb-grid and the PbO2 active mass in the positive lead-acid battery

54 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

electrode. This positive electrode is thermodynamically unstable and in fact already a lead-acid battery system.

“At that time, the main measurement techniques were potentio-dynamic and impedance methods,” Garche says. “Of course, sophisticated and expensive equipment now available has been partially helpful to get deeper insights in electronic and chemical structures. For most investigations even today classical electrochemical methods are mostly sufficient.”

In his Habilitation qualification in 1982 at TU Dresden, Garche described a model of the dynamic stability of PbO2 electrodes in lead acid batteries. This would later be republished in The Journal of Power Sources.

This model explains the passivation and self-discharge behaviour of PbO2 electrodes. Furthermore Garche established a model of Pb corrosion that explained the influence of

the active mass and polarization conditions.

After German reunification in 1990, Garche moved to Ulm in southern Germany to join the recently founded Electrochemical Energy Storage and Energy Conversion Division of the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) a notfor profit R&D institute established

by Wolfgang Witschel. The main challenges at that time were to form an electrochemical team of scientists coming from other disciplines.

In 1991 he was appointed privatdozent (external lecturer) for electrochemistry at Ulm University. Two years later he was made extraordinary professor for electrochemistry at the university.

Four years later Garche took over from Witschel, expanding the ZSW into an internationally wellknown institute, employing nearly 100 co-workers and supported by a 15% basic institutional financing through the federal state of BadenWuerttemberg. The management tasks, as development of the new division and fundraising of a high number of projects, was very time demanding, shortening the research time. But as Garche says, “Managers of R&D institutes should still reserve time to undertake their own research!”

This period saw the development of a high-rate, long-life and safe polymer 2V lithium ion battery, which could be used to replace the lead-acid cell; basic work in catalysts and membranes field long-life direct methanol fuel cells; and especially R&D in the field of the proton exchange membrane for fuel cells.

The latter started with basic research working with Ulm University, going via cell and stack development all the way to proton exchange membrane for fuel cells system integration — at first for stationary residential house energy supply and later also for EVs. As a consequence, in 2004 Garche, with the Ulm Public Utility, set up a spin-off company, Ulmer Brennstoffzellen-Manufaktur. This designs, manufactures and sells mainly complete proton exchange

In 1991 he was appointed as privatdozent (external lecturer) for electrochemistry at Ulm University. Two years later he was made extraordinary professor for electrochemistry at the university. www.energystoragejournal.com

ENERGY STORAGE PIONEERS He was a cofounder of the first biannual JapaneseGerman workshop of electrochemists, then later the Italian-German workshop and later still the Japanese-ItalianGermany workshop. The 8th Japanese-ItalianGerman workshop took place last December in Japan.

Jürgen Garche speaking at the 14the Ulm ElectroChemical Talks

Participants of the 6th Higher Educational Round in May 2015 at China’s Wuhan University of Technology

membrane for fuel cells systems up to 2kW. Another ZSW spin-off is BaSyTec, which has become a well-established worldwide producer of battery testing systems.

In Ulm today about 350 people have formed an informal R&D centre for fuel cells and batteries, and Ulm now has an international reputation. As well as the ZSW, also in Ulm are the Helmholtz Institute for Electrochemical Energy Storage (HIU), the University of Ulm and the

Daimler R&D Center Ulm. In 2001, Garche was appointed guest professor at Shandong University in Jinan in China. In 2012, he was appointed visiting professor at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics and at the Sapienza University Rome in 2009, 2012, and 2016.

In 2014 Garche was listed as “one of the world’s most influential scientific minds” by Thomson Reuters, as a reflection of his scientific contribution in peer-rated research

“The twice higher electrical efficiency of lithium-ion battery systems is a strong argument for EVs as are fuel cells in a future renewable energy-shaped society.” www.energystoragejournal.com

papers. Garche is more reticent about this: “In this case ‘influential’ means probably ‘often read’ and is therefore not quite the same!”

In 2015, after his retirement from the ZSW, he was appointed senior professor at the University of Ulm and he is still directing diploma and doctoral theses. In his academic carrier he supervised more than 60 PhD theses. One of his students, Dirk Uwe Sauer, has become a well-known and highly respected academic and international speaker.

Despite spending most of his later career on advanced batteries and fuel cells Garche has always been interested in lead-acid batteries, regularly participating in lead-acid battery conferences.

This interest has grown in the last five years with the introduction of lead acid batteries as an energy source for micro hybrid cars, where R&D continues to be a rich source area for finding new ways of increasing dynamic charge acceptance.

This topic is discussed in detail in the new book Lead-Acid Batteries for Future Automobiles edited by himself, Eric Karden, Pat Moseley and David Rand.

He was a co-founder of the first biannual Japanese-German workshop of electrochemists, then later the Italian-German workshop and later still the Japanese-ItalianGerman workshop. The 8th JapaneseItalian-German workshop took place last December in Japan.

An area of special concern for Jürgen Garche has always been education and training, particularly in fuel cells, which as a young technology needs well-trained specialists and not only

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 55

ENERGY STORAGE PIONEERS

Garche is as much home in the lead battery community as with those working on fuel cells. Here at the 4th ELBC meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, 1994.

Left to right: Ian Beecroft (Journal for Power Sources), Jürgen Garche, David Rand (CSIRO), Kathryn Bullock (AT&T Bell Labs; president of Electrochemical Society 1995-1996) and Eberhard Meissner (VARTA)

Lead Acid Batteries for Future Automobiles, co-edited by Jürgen Garche, Eckhard Karden, Pat Moseley and David Rand.

academics. In 2003 he founded the Fuel Cell Education and Training Centre in Ulm with large seminar rooms and laboratories for practical experiments.

As a member of the executive board of the advisory council of the European Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform (HFP), Garche has made a powerful impact on the development of fuel cell and H2 technology in Europe, especially in the field of education and training. He has also been the chairman of other organizations acting in the field.

For almost 20 years, Garche has been a key figure in the formation of an informal fuel cell and hydrogen alliance which was the precursor of the German National Organisation H2 and Fuel Cell Technology. He was the deputy chairman of the advisory board until 2015.

Garche has published several books and 300 papers on electrochemical energy conversion, mainly on batteries, fuel cells and electrochemical capacitors. For the standard book Encyclopaedia of Electrochemical

Rand and Ernst Voss in 1989.

Since his retirement from ZSW in 2004, Garche has remained active as a consultant for his own firm, FCBAT Ulm, with clients ranging from international industry and research institutes to Germany’s transport and digital infrastructure ministry.

Although he says he relaxes by reading, listening to classical baroque music such as Bach and Heinichen (this goes back to his time in Dresden which once was the capital of baroque music), biking and trekking — his main hobby remains, to this day, electrochemistry.

After nearly 50 years of work in the battery and fuel cell field, Garche has firm opinions on the future technology for electric vehicles.

“The twice higher electrical efficiency of lithium-ion battery systems is a strong argument for electric vehicles, as are fuel cells in a future renewable energy-shaped society (hydrogen is produced via electrolyser from renewables),” he says.

“But in today’s more fossil energybased society the well-to-wheel efficiency of fuel cell driven cars is about 1.3 times higher than lithiumion powered EVs. Furthermore a range increase is much easier with FCEVs, because only the hydrogen storage capacity has to be increased.”

Garche reckons that in the future both technologies will be deployed — fuel cells for longer range EVs and lithium batteries for short to middle range cars.

Power Sources published in 2009 (5 volumes with 350 chapters) he was the editor-in-chief.

He is the inventor, or co-inventor, of 10 patents and has worked on the editorial boards of The Journal of Power Sources, Fuel Cells – From Fundamentals to Systems and The International Journal of Hydrogen Economy.

Garche has been awarded honours for his contributions to electrochemical energy conversion: the First Prize of the Academy of Science of Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic for work on the oxygen electrode in 1985; the German Gas Industry’s Award for residential fuel cells in 2000; the ChristianFriedrich-Schönbein Gold Medal of the European Fuel Cell Forum for his work on PEMFCs in 2003; and the UECT award in 2006 for establishing an international forum for communication between industry and science on batteries and fuel cells.

In 2016 he was appointed the Grand Master of the α/ß Society — an informal club of distinguished electrochemists established by David

This period saw the development of a high-rate, longlife and safe polymer 2V lithium ion battery), which could be used to replace the lead-acid cell; basic work in catalysts and membranes field long-life direct methanol fuel cells; and especially R&D in the field of the proton exchange membrane for fuel cells.

56 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2017 EVS30: 30th International Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exhibition Stuttgart, Germany October 9 - October 11 EVS30 — Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exhibition, is the industry meeting point for the entire electric mobility industry. Manufacturers, users and decision-makers can get the latest picture of all forms of electric mobility in Stuttgart and discuss new trends and possible uses of electric power transmission.

Every 12 to 18 months, researchers, government representatives and industry experts from around the world gather for the latest update on all aspects of electric mobility. They discuss its technologies and components, such as battery and fuel cell drives as well as new trends. The event rotates between North America, Europe and Asia.

Contact www.messe-stuttgart.de/en/evs30/

Energy 2017

Birmingham, UK October 10 - October 12 Energy 2017 is the industry trade event dedicated to renewables, innovation and power solutions.

Birmingham hosts Energy 2017 in October

Uniting all the key business players in the industry such as architects, project/ energy managers, engineers and developers, this event provides the perfect platform to unite the energy sector and the wider interconnected industries.

Brazil International Renewable Energy Congress — BIREC Rio de Janeiro, Brazil October 23 - October 25 Brazil International Renewable Energy Congress (BIREC) returns for its second year as Brazil’s leading strategy and investment renewable

energy event. The content rich agenda provides the latest updates and in-depth insights into Brazil’s energy sector.

The only gathering of its kind, BIREC is the place Brazil’s renewable energy leaders come to do business and secure investment. The annual congress unites international and local stakeholders from government and policy to finance and solutions providers, bringing together all stages of the value chain to drive the country’s renewable energy industry.

Contact www.bireccongress.com

Intelec 2017

Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia • October 22-26 Intelec has a long-held reputation as the premium international forum where emerging trends and key issues about powering communications resources are canvassed among academia, industry and infrastructure operators. ICT networks are no longer quarantined to traditional telecom carriers or data centres. Increasingly, large scale critical digital networks are designed and operated by a range of industries including oil & gas, mining, rail and aviation.

Our theme, Driving Innovation in ICT Energy Infrastructure reflects the

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international reality that as research and technology developments continue to deliver never-ending convergence opportunities, innovation is the vital element for the delivery of reliable and resilient communications energy systems.

Intelec 2017 will boast an exciting conference program of knowledge tutorials, presentations of research and developments, workshops and keynote addresses, to encourage engagement, dialogue, networking, and the sharing of ideas. And the techni-

cal program will be emphasized and reinforced with an Industry Exhibition showcasing the latest in power conversion equipment, energy storage options, and infrastructure integration design. Industry sectors facing the challenges of powering high-value ICT infrastructure will find INTELEC 2017 a rich and valuable source of technical know-how and product information.

Contact http://www.intelec2017.org

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 57

FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2017 2nd Industrial On-Site Lithium-Ion Cell Production Technology Seminar Itzehoe, Germany October 23 - October 24 This seminar focuses on the industrial preparation of lithium ion pouch cells.

In practical modules, the cell assembly will be performed hands on by starting with the raw material and going up to the final cell and characterization.

The corresponding lecture program gives insights in the latest pouch cells technology trends on the material and on machinery as well as on processing side.

The battery training takes place on site at Custom Cells production facility and the Fraunhofer ISIT as Custom Cells R&D partner in north Germany.

Contact www.sdle.co.il

Lithium Battery Materials & Chemistries 2017 Hyatt Centric, Arlington, VA, USA October 31 - November 1 This conference will provide in-depth coverage on the chemistries, both current and next-generation, that are shaping the future of energy storage.

From novel electrode/electrolyte materials to higher-capacity cathode/anode structures, this conference will explore how to economically increase battery energy density.

Topics will include, but are not limited to: • Current & future lithium battery market overview • Most recent advancements in lithium-ion technology • Breakthroughs in next-generation lithium technologies • Improved battery materials • Nickel manganese cobalt cathodes • Silicon anodes • Novel electrolytes • Solid-state batteries • Commercialization

Itzehoe, Germany hosts the 2nd Industrial On-Site Lithium-Ion Cell Production Technology Seminar in October

Tokyo, Japan November 7 -8

It is an energy-business platform where a summit and an exhibition take place for two days in Tokyo.

We highly value the rising demand of energy storage from the standpoint of sustainable society.

The event was designed to match all manner of seekers and providers of “energy storage, power infrastructure, and deep insights into the relevant economic climate”. C-suite executives from around the world account for about 60% of the total participants, hence great opportunities to have business meetings efficiently.

More to the point, speakers invited from world-renowned institutions share their exclusive insights into energy storage and its future trends, thereby raising awareness of sustainable society sure-footedly. ESSJ is going to be the one-and-only event that helps you make headway in your business, project finance, distributed generation, FEMS, CEMS, DESS, CSR, BCP, etc.

ESSJ – Energy Storage Summit Japan – is an annual international event organized by Messe Dusseldorf Japan.

Contact www.essj.messe-dus.co.jp/en/energy_storage_summit_japan/

the complex electrochemical, thermal and mechanical behavior of LIBs while forensic investigations and regulations are required for safe transport.

The Battery Safety 2017 conference continues this vital dialogue to integrate and implement LIB safety to meet ever-increasing energy demands.

We invite battery safety specialists, regulators, forensic scientists, manufacturers, BMS experts, pack designers, chemists and electrical engineers who are improving battery safety to submit a proposal for consideration of a podium or poster presentation.

Contact www.cambridgeenertech.com/batterysafety/

Energy Storage Summit Japan

Contact www.cambridgeenertech.com/lithiumbattery-materials-chemistries

Battery Safety 2017 Arlington, Virginia, USA November 2 - November 3 Higher energy and higher use lead to higher risk. While research continues to boost the energy storage capability of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and leads to expanding applications and consumer use, the task of implementing effective safety strategies falls on regulatory authorities, cell manufacturers, R&D engineers and forensic scientists. Accurate tests and models are critical for predicting and controlling

58 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

Tokyo, Japan hosts the Energy Storage Summit in November

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2017 Energy Storage Studio Conference

2nd Annual ASEAN Solar+ Energy Storage Congress & Expo 2017

Cleveland, Ohio, USA November 14-15

Manila, Philippines November 14 - November 15

Solar & Off Grid Renewables Southeast Asia Bangkok, Thailand November 20-21

2nd Annual ASEAN Solar+ Energy Storage Congress & Expo 2017 is the largest congress focusing on solar and energy storage market in ASEAN. Investors over the world are gradually realizing the potentials of energy storage market in ASEAN, especially Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

Participants from governments, utilities, independent energy producers, energy storage products manufacturers, consulting companies, associate as well as other related sectors are invited to together discuss applications, opportunities and challenges for solar and energy storage development in ASEAN market.

STUDIO: Storage Technology, Uses, Deployment, Integration, and Operations.

The Energy Storage Association’s (ESA) Energy Storage STUDIO Conference covers the advancement and integration of technology to support electric service. Unlike other conferences, STUDIO brings together utilities, technology developers, and other stakeholders for …

• expert technical study, • peer-to-peer education, • an exchange of real world solutions, • objective-minded learning, • and an intimate, non-sales pressure environment As an attendee, you will convene with technology leaders and come away with the knowledge necessary to accelerate energy storage solutions that support a clean, resilient, safe, and affordable grid.

As the demand for solar energy and investment continues to steadily grow, Solar Media are back with the 5th annual Solar and Off Grid Renewables: South East Asia your definitive guide to building successful solar, storage and microgrid businesses in the ASEAN region.

Learn from 50+ speakers and network with 200+ attendees with talks from government, asset owners, IPPs, investors, lenders, developers and advisors active in the ASEAN energy market.

Contact www.aseanenergystorage.com

Contact www.studio.energystorage-events.org

Contact www.seasia.solarenergyevents.com

The Future of Energy Storage London, UK • November 15

There are few areas of the energy and utilities industries that storage doesn’t promise to upend. What impact will energy storage have on your business?

How are utilities responding to the next great energy transformation? Find out at our Future of Energy Storage event.

100+ energy storage leaders from the

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likes of National Grid, Ofgem and SP Energy Networks, will come together to explore the investment climate, policy and regulatory developments, network connections, the impact of EVs and much more. Featuring several hours of networking opportunities with networks, generators, suppliers,

regulators and more, this energy storage conference provides exclusive access to the people, ideas and technology driving the sector forward.

Contact www.marketforce.eu.com/events/utilitiesenergy/energy-storage

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2017 Battery and Energy Storage 2017

ees India

Birmingham, UK November 28 - November 29 Decarbonization, decentralization and vehicle electrification are the pillars of a low carbon future. But in a society powered by storage, how do you differentiate between a multitude of storage technologies whilst building the business case for investment?

How do you traverse new and existing regulations, differentiate your offering in an increasingly homogenous market, and forge profitable partnerships?

Join us at Battery and Energy Storage 2017 — the UK’s leading event exploring the business case for battery and energy storage technologies for Electric Vehicles (EV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) and stationary storage applications.

The Battery and Energy Storage event will address the challenges of creating profitable and tangible business models, deciphering the regulatory landscape and understanding how to unlock new revenue streams.

Featuring a combination of industry best practice, interactive discussions, tailored content and networking opportunities, this two-day event will unite stakeholders from the automotive and energy industries in promoting both a more sustainable future, with clear roadmaps to successful outcomes.

Contact www.internetofbusiness.com/events/bess/

Australia Solar + Energy Storage Congress & Expo 2017 Brisbane, Australia December 5-6 Australia Solar + Energy Storage Congress & Expo 2017 is the largest congress focusing on solar and energy storage market in Australia.

Participants from governments, policy makers, investors, financers, utilities, developers, network providers, solar & energy storage products manufacturers, consulting companies, associate as well as other related sectors are invited to together discuss applications, opportunities and challenges for solar and energy storage development in Australian market.

Contact www.australiaenergystorage.com

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Mumbai, India • December 5 - December 7 ees India (electrical energy storage) is the major platform for storage technologies reshaping India’s energy sector and enhancing grid reliability ees is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and users of stationary and mobile electrical energy storage solutions.

Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies — from components and production to specific user application — ees™, a special exhibition at Intersolar India, is the ideal platform for all stakeholders in the rapidly growing energy storage market.

Intersolar India will be hosting and highlighting the special exhibition „ees India“ to extend and round up electrical energy storage innovations and programs. ees India is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and users of stationary and mobile electrical energy storage solutions. Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies

— from components and production to specific user application — is the ideal platform for all stakeholders in the rapidly growing energy storage market. The focus at ees is on energy storage solutions suited to energy systems with increasing amounts of renewable energy sources attracting investors, utilities, installers, manufacturers and project developers from all over the world.

The huge economic growth in India and the strong engagement of the Indian government for energy security and renewable energy, the potential market for electrical energy storage in India is expected to be tremendous in the future.

With the exclusive location of the exhibition and conference in Mumbai, the financial and commercial capital of India, ees India will globally attract powerful buying power for electrical energy storage innovations.

Contact www.intersolar.in/en/home.html

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2018 World Future Energy Summit Abu Dhabi, UAE January 15-18, 2018 The World Future Energy Summit, part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2017. Already the world’s most influential event dedicated to advancing the use of renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean technology, to mark this milestone, exciting changes are being made to the exhibition and conference that will make it the most interactive and inspirational to date.

Within the exhibition, dedicated country pavilions will enable attendees to meet with influential industry and government figures. In 2017, the exhibition at the World Future Energy Summit brought together 600 companies from 32 countries and more than 33,000 attendees from 175 countries, making it an essential place to network and seek new business opportunities.

Contact www.worldfutureenergysummit.com

Energy Storage & Connected Systems London, UK February 6-7, 2018 “Energy Storage & Connected Systems will bring together key industry figures to focus on the future of energy in the UK; covering practical examples of storage that are currently being de-

ployed and how they integrate into a broader network of connected systems including smart buildings, grids and electric vehicle infrastructure.

After an opening plenary attended by all, the conference will split into two tracks covering both grid-scale storage and behind the metre, localised energy storage. In both cases, the content will also look at how we establish a policy framework for energy storage in the UK, including developing common technical standards and good practice.

The event will take place at the Olympia Conference Centre, London on 6 – 7 February 2018.

sights to fuel your business for months.

Organized by Solarplaza and FMO, and widely supported by over 20 of the world’s largest industry players and finance institutions, this event is not to be missed by anyone involved in solar project development in Asia, Africa or Latin America.

Contact www.escsevent.co.uk

San Diego, California, USA February 20-22, 2018

Making Solar Bankable 2018 Amsterdam, Netherlands February 15-16, 2018 Making Solar Bankable is not your average gathering.

Markets are moving, new business models are arising and solar is becoming a serious part of the energy mix in emerging markets, making the need for bankable projects and well-structured finance solutions more relevant than ever.

500+ project development & finance executives from 40+ different countries will come together again in Amsterdam. Through unique network facilitation and focused sessions per segment you’re sure to get enough leads and in-

Contact www.makingsolarbankable.com

SAE 2018 Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Technologies Symposium

SAE organizes and/or administers more than 25 international meetings and exhibitions each year covering all aspects of technology related to design, manufacture, and service life cycle for the automotive, aerospace, offhighway and other related mobility industries.

Meticulously planned by a key group of organizers representing leading companies within the industry, this symposium features technical sessions that will be presented on the following topics: “HV-Policy and Market,” “Autonomous Electrified Vehicles,” “Electrification Infrastructure,” “HEV’s and PHEV’s,” “Non-Passenger Car Applications,” and more.

Contact www.sae.org/events

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference Europe (AABC) Mainz, Germany • January 29-February 1, 2018 The 7th International AABC Europe, held in January 2017 in Mainz, Germany, drew record attendance this year, with more than 700 attendees from 35 countries taking part in interactive discussions on the development and future market trends for vehicle electrification.

In-depth sessions spanning battery chemistry, engineering, raw materials, lead acid, and supercapacitors, as well as high-volume xEV and specialty automotive applications highlighted needs and advances from OEMs and across the value chain. Formal papers and panel discussions were complimented by 75+ poster presentations and, new this year, networking roundtables facilitated by our speaking faculty.

Work has already begun on an expanded technical program for 2018.

Contact www.advancedautobat.com/europe

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Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 61

FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2018 Energy Storage Europe Dusseldorf, Germany • March 13-15, 2018 Energy Storage Europe 2018 is the trade fair with the world’s largest conference programme on energy storage.

Setting the dates for the next few years and moving to a new hall offer the growing number of exhibitors even better planning and presentation options.

Contact www.energy-storage-online.com

EUEC 2018 San Diego, California, USA March 5-7, 2018 EUEC facilitates information exchange and fosters cooperation between industry, government, and regulatory stakeholders for the protection of our environment and energy security.

Now accepting Reservations to Exhibit and Abstracts to Speak at EUEC 2018 • Over 1,700 attendees network at 8 lunches, receptions and breaks held in the 150 company exhibit area • Over 400 presentations are made by experts in 10 track Contact www.euec.com

India Smart Grid Week Battery Japan

Energy Storage Summit

Tokyo, Japan February 28-March 2, 2018

London, UKS February 27-28, 2018

World’s Largest-scale international exhibition showcasing various components, materials, devices, finished rechargeable batteries for rechargeable battery R&D and manufacturing.

Attracting industry professionals of great quality to the show is essential in satisfying our exhibitors. We strongly believe it is the essence for a successful trade show.

Founded in 1986, Reed Exhibitions Japan has been focusing on gathering a large number of quality visitors to the shows from all around the world. As a result, we have established a reputation in attracting huge number of high quality professionals for serious business meetings.

Energy Storage Summit returns to London in February, and with interest building around the potential of the UK storage sector, the event expands across two days in 2018 to reflect the upward trajectory of this exciting market.

• DNO, Regulators, National Grid • PPA Providers: Utilities, ESCOS, Traders, aggregators • Finance community: Banks, boutique mezzanine providers, renewable asset owners, private equity • End users: Housing Associations, Local Authorities, Installers, Large energy users • Developers from all backgrounds entering the market and targeting a wide range of segments • Energy storage companies and their supply chain

Contact www.batteryjapan.jp/en/ Tokyo, Japan hosts Battery Japan in February 2018

Contact www.storage.solarenergyevents.com

New Delhi, India March 5-9, 2018 ISGW 2018 will bring together India’s leading Electricity Utilities, Policy Makers, Regulators, Investors and world’s top-notch Smart Grid Experts and Researchers to discuss trends, share best practices and showcase next generation technologies and products in smart grid and smart cities domain.

ISGW 2018 will include plenaries, interactive workshops, panels, keynotes, and technical sessions.

Contact www.isgw.in

Middle East Electricity Dubai, UAE March 6-8, 2018 Middle East Electricity is pleased to announce the newest product sector on the show floor – Energy Storage and Management Solutions (ESMS).

Located alongside the region’s busiest trade focused solar industry event, Solar at MEE (formally Solar Middle East), ESMS will draw buyers from across the MEA region looking to source products and services for renewable energy generation projects.

MEE is the region’s leading international trade event for the power industry, with dedicated product sectors for power generation, transmission & distribution, lighting, solar and brand new in 2018 – Energy Storage & Management Solutions.

Contact www.middleeastelectricity.com

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2018 Battery Tech Expo UK Telford, UK March 15, 2018 The battery industry is on the cusp of a power revolution with big technology companies investing heavily in the next generation of battery development and energy storage.

Telford in the West Midlands is a major UK hub of the high tech industrial sector and will bring together professionals from across the advanced battery technology industry. The event will provide a unique opportunity to showcase the latest products, technologies and services covering the Battery Management Systems, EV Battery, Battery Storage, Battery Development/ Discovery, Commercial and Mobile Power Device sectors.

Operated by 10four Media, the Battery Tech Expo will provide a unique and additional opportunity for companies within this industry to network with a high quality audience and do business.

Running alongside this event is Power Electronics Expo UK. Contact Tel: +44 1283 3 37291 Email: david.reeks@10fourmedia.co.uk www.batterytechexpo.co.uk

Energy Storage China Beijing, China March 26-28, 2018 Energy storage is profoundly changing the world of energy across the world.

The World of Energy Storage by Messe Düsseldorf, in partnership with leading partner organizations, has been growing since 2010 with the launch of Energy Storage Europe in Germany.

Messe Düsseldorf offers five different events in every relevant region of the world: China, Europe, America, India and Japan.

Products and sectors covered: Energy storage, Renewable energies, Marketfeasible applications, Transformation of the energy system, Overall context of the energy supply industry, Industrial energy storage solutions, European grid integration, Electro-chemical storage, Mechanical storage technologies, Thermal storage technologies, Future energy storage Contact www.escexpo.cn

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35th Annual International Battery Seminar & Exhibit Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA • March 26-29, 2018

As the longest-running annual battery event in the world, this conference continues to be the preferred venue to announce significant new developments in advanced battery technology. This meeting provides not only broad perspectives, but also informed insights into significant advances in materials, product development and novel applications for all battery systems and enabling technologies.

Make plans now to participate in the 2018 International Battery Seminar & Exhibit which will return to Fort Lauderdale from March 26-29, 2018. Nearly 850 attendees from more than 500

organizations representing 26 countries participated in the 2017 event.

The entire advanced battery ecosystem was well-represented in Florida, including leading OEMs, top battery manufacturers, developers of advanced materials and components, plus national labs and universities from around the world. Attendance grew by more than 30% for the second year in a row, and has more than doubled since joining Cambridge EnerTech in 2015.

Contact www.internationalbatteryseminar.com

Solar Pakistan: The 7th International Renewable Energy Exhibition & Conference Lahore, Pakistan • March 29-31, 2018

The main focus of this exhibition is to highlight the importance of the most practical and readily available non-conventional renewable resource i.e. Solar Energy. Studies suggest that the reliance of solar energy can be effective in combating the current power crisis in the country. Many developed economies have already started utilizing clean and renewable energy solutions due to which their installation cost has decreased globally. This is high time that Pakistan began to adopt this trend

so that it can get over the energy deficit and speed up the rate of its growth.

Solar Pakistan will be the biggest energy event in Pakistan to bring together the decision makers, stake holders and concerned authorizes on one platform where they can discuss a way forward on how to move ahead with a plan to control the ever increasing energy deficit in Pakistan.

Contact www.solarfairpakistan.com

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017 • 63

FORTHCOMING EVENTS – 2018 Energy Storage Innovations Berlin, Germany April 11, 2018 - April 12, 2018

Join us for the annual IDTechEx event focusing on future energy storage solutions, including advanced- and postLithium-ion technologies, new form factors and emerging applications. The event brings together different players in the value chain, from material & technology developers to integrators to end-users, providing insight on forthcoming technologies, material selection, market trends and latest products.

Energy Storage Innovations Europe is co-located alongside a series of synergistic events on wearable, sensors, 3D Printing, Graphene and 2D materials and printed electronics.

The free-to-attend annual conference and exhibition brings together the UK’s largest group of buyers from the bioenergy, solar, offshore and onshore wind, hydropower and wave & tidal sectors, as well as those involved in energy storage, heat, low carbon transport and sustainable cities solutions.

Since its launch in 2001, All-Energy has provided the industry suppliers,

Contact www.idtechex.com/energy-storage-europe/ show/en/ Organizer: IDTechEx

All Energy 2018 Glasgow, UK May 2-3, 2018 All-Energy, the UK’s largest renewable energy event allows the entire spectrum of the renewables industry to showcase their energy solutions.

experts and thought-leaders from the renewable energy supply chain the opportunity to connect with new customers, increase their sales opportunities and expand business networks in this fast-changing marketplace.

Contact www.all-energy.co.uk Tel: +44 208 439 5560 Email: all-energy@reedexpo.co.uk

The Battery Show Europe Hanover, Germany • May 15-17, 2018 Taking place 15-17 May 2017, in Hanover, Germany, the exhibition will highlight the latest manufacturing solutions along the supply chain, including battery materials, components and manufacturing equipment, across a range of industries including automotive, electronics, power tools and utilities.

The co-joining conference offers insights from 70+ expert speakers including automotive OEMs, tier 1s, academic and research organisations.

Contact www.thebatteryshow.eu

Battcon Florida, USA • April 22-25, 2018 Battcon is a high-energy mix of industry specific presentations, panels, seminars and workshops, plus a trade show. More than 600 storage battery users meet at Battcon for three days of professional development and networking focused on the design, selection, application and maintenance of stationary battery systems. It’s a forum where those in the data center, nuclear, telecom and utility industries can learn from and network with industry experts.

Battcon is an educational venue where users, engineers and manufacturers stay up-to-date by learning of the latest industry trends and how to apply best practices to the manufacturing, safety, selection, installation, and use of stationary batteries. The core conference provides an intense learning experience unavailable from any other industry source. Presentations include cutting edge topics delivered by leading authorities. Open discussion panels and breakout workshops geared to the utility, datacenter and telecom segments are also included in the conference. Data center, nuclear, telecom or utility industry professionals who are working in mission critical facilities or are involved in the development of stationary batteries and related equipment will find the Battcon experience is second to none.

Every year, more end users are discovering Battcon, the conference geared for industry novices and seasoned battery professionals alike.

Contact www.battcon.com

64 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2017

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The Battery and Energy Storage

CONFERENCE WATCH MONTHLY The definitive guide to battery energy storage conferences and meetings for the year ahead

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Inform yourself! www.solarwatt.com