Energy Storage Journal - issue 12 Spring by hamptonhalls

Issue 12: Spring 2016

Germany battles with policy reform New rules needed to push storage forward The CEO interview Why Gildemeister is anticipating better pay-backs, profits

Lead fights back New expander pastes from Hammond to reshape grid market

Residential delight Huge boost on the way for German renewables, storage

Neeww N1MW

Advanced Energy Technology Applications

• New over-current, under-current, · EV / HEV/ PHEV Pack Testing over-voltage and power to you! under-vol t age · Inverter, UPS, Generator & Expanding the FTF-HP protecti o n standard Flywheel Testing on all models · Microgrid Battery • Infinite number of program Conditioning steps when used in conjunction with · Drive Cycle Simulation VisuaLCN software · Bidirectional DC Power Supply • Remoteenergy Binary Protocolsolutions available for controltovia 3rdmeet party software Advanced your growing needs for testing, · Super and Ulconditioning, tra• Dischargesimulation power recycled to AC and line for coollifecycling. er, more energy Capacitor Testing efficient operation

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Expanding the FTF-HP • Up to 1MW with available option for parallel testing up to 2MW (up to 700V)

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w • Current Rise Time (10-90%) less than 4ms wiNthNzero eewWovershoot

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· Drive Cycle Simulation · Bidirectional DC Power Supply · Super and UltraCapacitor Testing

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CONTENTS COVER STORY: GERMANY

The next struggle as energy storage wrestles with policy reform in seeing way forward Germany, Europe’s leader by far in terms of incorporating renewable energy into its electricity grid, is having to deal with reconfiguring its own policy landscape as it seeks a new direction that incorporates energy storage. Who’s who in Germany’s rapidly emerging grid-scale energy storage sector Four of the best: projects to watch AEG PS launches battery plus power-to-heat system Energy storage demand ramps up in Germany’s residential PV market

32 35 36 37

EDITORIAL

FINANCE NEWS

Ever greater automation will eventually prove a leveller for global competition on price of labour

Total buys Saft Groupe for $1.1 billion • Engie buys Green Charge Networks • Aquion Energy attracts further $33 million

INSIDE TRACK: HAMMOND SPECIALITY CHEMICALS

Germany battles with policy reform 25

Grrr... lead bites back, about time too! 8

Grid level energy storage — at least for the past two years — has assumed that lead acid batteries, despite their affordability, are unfit for purpose when it comes to Partial-State-of-Charge (PSOC) cycling. Time to think again!

NEWS

Alevo announces first energy storage projects on US soil, anticipates ‘several hundred megawatts’ in coming years • Ultracaps to the fore as Maxwell chosen for Chinese wind project • UET/Rongke win world’s largest storage battery contract • Nissan and Eaton launch residential xStorage • Samsung SDI readies ‘assault’ on global ESS markets with Kepco • Flow batteries go residential: Redflow launches ZCell system • Smarter Grid Solutions pairs with South Korean LOTTE Chemical to test flow batteries • First commercial scale rail energy storage project gets go-ahead • Sunvault takes stakes in SDC for Canada’s self-sustainability first • Bushveld, UniEnergy team up for African flow battery business • Exergonix announces acquisition of CODA Energy • National Grid and RES launch UK’s first sub-second frequency response service using battery storage • Irish smart grid to expand • UniEnergy announces next • Italian project work with Terna • TEP gets approval to develop innovative energy storage

PRODUCT NEWS

AEG Power Solutions launches battery plus power-to-heat system • Gamesa inaugurates 2MW prototype wind, diesel, PV and energy storage system • Caterpillar launches microgrid technology suite for extra power

PEOPLE NEWS

THE CEO INTERVIEW: GILDEMEISTER

THE JOYS OF GRAPHENE

EVENT REVIEW: NAATBATT

EVENT PREVIEWS

EVENTS

THE LAST WORD

Bryan Urban heads up Leclanché’s new North American subsidiary

Energy Storage Journal speaks to Lars Möllenhoff, general manager for Gildemeister Energy Storage

Smarter Shows moves into Europe Intersolar straddles Europe and South America

A listing of the major energy storage and renewable events

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Nissan takes up challenge of residential storage 14

Leclanché’s Urban heads for North America 24

Gildemeister’s Möllenhoff: opportunities ahead 41

Practical but fun too: NAATBATT, event review 49

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 1

EDITORIAL Mike Halls, editor • mike@energystoragejournal.com

Automation, McDonald’s and thought leadership for energy storage Soundbite of the season comes from Ed Runsi, former chief executive of McDonald’s in the US. This May he told the world that he reckoned it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than to hire an inefficient employee earning $15 an hour to bag French fries.

English language in the early 2000s but unlike the management speak of a decade or so ago — remember that strange world of road warriors doing battle by picking the low hanging fruits from within the virtual office? — it didn’t develop much traction.

“If you can’t get people at a reasonable wage, you’re going to get machines to do the work. It’s just common sense,” he said. “It’s going to happen whether you like it or not.”

The main reason was the glut of cheap labour available — the 1990s and 2000s were decades of the exodus of Western manufacturing shifting to Asia.

Although Runsi was railing against talk of hiking the minimum wage, he was also making a far larger point.

Given the dark factory is the ultimate, or potentially so, in the delivery of a physical product perhaps its time has come.

Automation is the way forward. And, with a wall of money being thrown at it across the globe, it’s only going to get cheaper and cheaper.

The Romans long ago had a word for these things the “deus ex machina” — the god out of the machine — whereby something or some unexpected device solves an intractable problem.

Although the Tesla giga-factory is only partially on-stream, in the next generation of manufacturing, economies of scale will almost certainly be achieved through overwhelming advances in automation. Moreover, we may not like ordering our burger or battery from a robot but, as similar tests are now showing in both North America and Europe, it appears we easily get used to them. The immediate implication of the robotic arm — and pretty much anything else it can do — is that wage differentials between the developed and the developing world will eventually cease to matter.

And ever greater automation will solve the competitiveness differential between the West and the new battery giants from China and the emerging nations rapidly advancing across Asia. For a long time the West has stood in awe of the apparent cheapness that Asia can make batteries. The core worry was the cost of labour. How could they compete against this wall of a cheap workforce? But that’s changing, and not yet to make such a difference to battery manufacturing outside of Asia.

The first hints of the next wave of automation came almost a decade ago with the arrival of the socalled “dark factories” as a new business paradigm. (Though in a sense it was merely an extension of a business model that firms such as General Motors had tried unsuccessfully to adopt in the 1980s.)

That said, wage inflation is running at an extraordinary rate in China. Using today’s exchange rate the average annual salary has risen from roughly $3,200 a decade ago to $9,600 in June 2016. According to Trading Economics, this will top $12,000 by 2020.

In these dark manufacturing plants the only workers are robots toiling, night and day, in an environment of total automation. And given, there are only machines doing the work, why bother putting the lights on? Or the heating too?

The world of economists — the only thing more dangerous than an amateur economist is a professional one — is divided if the so-called Lewisian Turning Point has arrived.

The term ‘dark factory’ seems to have entered the

2 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

This is a pivotal moment, predicted by Nobel prize winning economist Arthur Lewis, when the population shift from a rural workforce to an www.energystoragejournal.com

EDITORIAL Mike Halls, editor • mike@energystoragejournal.com urban one reaches a tipping point. This inevitably generates huge wage inflation. The theory being that when the source of cheap rural labour starts to fail, urban labour costs shoot up. The IMF reckons that this turning point could be as little as five years away. In the past North America regarded China as a plentiful source of cheap labour for its own firms that could provide it with its low tech (and eventually high tech) goods. Meanwhile, over the past five years the same Chinese companies that made cheap goods for North America now reckon that cheaper labour can be found in other Asian countries. Vietnam, in particular, has become a favourite destination for so-called offshore Chinese manufacturing. The huge shift in manufacturing from the Western world to China and then on to other nations will, however, have to come to an end at some point. Or that’s if the economic case for automation that Runsi makes comes true.

Irrespective of any prospective tarriff barriers that might be imposed by a new US presidency, the most effective barrier will be the cost of the shipment.

The reason is simple. Once the world’s manufacturing offers the same products as everyone else, where do you find the price differential?

But we shouldn’t think that this is expelling the costs of being in business — cutting the labour bill — rather it’s a way of liberating the way that we work?

Hypothetically at least Chinese batteries exported into the US will not be competitive when the same style of automatic manufacture is being deployed nationally. For the Chinese battery firm the true cost of any price differential will move from the manufacturers to that of distribution.

The history of manufacturing for the last three centuries has been one of lifting human beings from one level of mostly monotonous duty, to another slightly less monotonous. From bending over the fields, to bending over the assembly line, to bending over the computer.

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Energy Storage Journal — Business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies Energy Storage Journal is a quarterly publication. Publisher: Karen Hampton karen@energystoragejournal.com +44 7792 852 337

Let cool heads prevail

Editor: Michaelstorage Halls,debate steps up a notch The lead-lithium mike@energystoragejournal.com +44 1 243 782 275 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

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Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 3

H MMOND THE CHANGE CATALYST

2016 Innovator of the year

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FINANCE NEWS

Total buys Saft Groupe for $1.1 billion Total, the French oil giant, agreed in May to buy French battery maker Saft Groupe for €950 million ($1.1 billion). Saft, which designs and makes nickel and lithium batteries for industries including transportation, civil and military electronics firms. The deal signals a further deepening of investments in clean energy by the world’s largest oil companies. Royal Dutch Shell and Norway’s Statoil have recently acquired wind farm investments, and France’s Engie Group bought solar developer Solairedirect last July. Total’s €36.50 a share offer represents a 38% premium to Saft’s closing price on May 6. Saft’s supervisory board unanimously approved the takeover bid. Total’s offer values Saft at nine times its 2015 report-

ed earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, representing “a significant control premium compared to recent valuation multiples in the battery industry,” according to a joint statement by the firms. Saft will become Total’s “spearhead in electricity storage,” said Patrick Pouyanne, chief executive officer of Total. The purchase allows Total to speed up its expansion in renewables, which began in 2011 when it bought solar-panel maker SunPower Corp. Total, which has pledged to invest $500 million a year in renewables, is among other European oil and gas majors injecting funds into the industry as countries seek to meet growing energy demand with cleaner electricity and fuels.

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“While not a transformational transaction for Total, this will likely surprise most investors who may question the premium in the context of mediumterm benefits to Total,” said Marc Kofler, an analyst at Jefferies International who was quoted in a Bloomberg announcement. “The acquisition clearly aligns with Total’s strategy to strengthen its position in the clean-energy and power sector, following on from the 2011 acquisition of SunPower,” said Logan Goldie-Scot, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “This will give the battery manufacturer much greater clout in energy-storage ten-

ders, where scale and size of balance sheet is becoming increasingly important.” Messier Maris & Associés is advising Total on the transaction and Goldman Sachs is working with Saft, Separately, Saft announced at the end of April it been awarded a megawatt-scale lithium-ion battery energy storage contract by Fortum, the Finnish energy company. A Saft Intensium Max containerised battery system, with a nominal output of 2MW and 1MWh of energy capacity, will be installed at Fortum’s Suomenoja power plant as part of the largest ever electricity storage pilot project in the Nordic countries.

Aquion Energy attracts further $33 million

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6 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

Aquion Energy has attracted a further $33 million of funding to support its saltwater batteries for long-duration storage, according to a filing with the SEC made in April. A press report says Aquion hopes to raise $60 million in all and that the latest round brings the company’s venture capital funding — which includes equity investments and venture loans — to $190

million. New and existing investors are in the new funding. Previous investors includes Bill Gates, Gentry Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Foundation Capital, Bright Capital, Advanced Technology Ventures, Trinity Capital Investment and CapX Partners, Yung’s Enterprise, and Nick and Joby Pritzker.

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FINANCE NEWS

Engie buys Green Charge Networks Engie, formerly known as GDF Suez the huge multinational French utility, has taken an 80% stake in Green Charge Networks, a US developer in behindthe-meter storage with a portfolio of 48MWh of battery storage projects deployed or under construction across 150 sites. This is one of the first big acquisitions in the behindthe-meter battery business segment, at least in the US. “With Green Charge, Engie immediately gains a strong position in the growing battery storage market in the US and further develops its offering of load management solutions at customer sites,” said Frank Demaille, president of the North American business unit of Engie. “The company’s standalone battery and solar + battery solutions complement our existing offer. In the US, Engie has developed a large customer base across all 50 states. “Together with Green Charge, we’re able to offer an even greater range of leading-edge solutions for commercial, industrial,

and public sector customers. This acquisition will also reinforce ENGIE’s strengths and skills in the activities of decentralized energy management, off-grid solutions, and power reliability, which are identified as areas for growth for the company around the world.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Green Charge raised $56 million from K Road DG in 2014, and an undisclosed amount from angel investors including ChargePoint founder Richard Lowenthal in its early days. Green Charge has also lined up $50 million in non-recourse debt financing for new projects, which will remain intact under Engie’s ownership, according to Green Charge chief executive Vic Shao. He said that the companies were introduced through Engie subsidiaries Ecova and OpTerra Energy Services, which provide different services to Green Charge but work with the same kind of commercial and industrial clients. As of 2015, Engie employs 154,950 people

AutoGrid raises $20 million AutoGrid Systems has raised $20 million in venture capital financing from a consortium led by investment fund Energy Impact Partners working with utility group that includes Southern Company, Xcel Energy, Oncor and National Grid, and Envision Ventures. The new funding will go toward expanding the Energy Internet suite of applications built on AutoGrid’s underlying software, as well as to expand sales and marketing in North America, Europe and Asia. The Silicon Valley-based AutoGrid was created last

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year by Chinese wind turbine maker and renewable energy developer Envision Energy, which also joined the new financing round,. The new round brings AutoGrid’s total funding to date to just over $40 million. Previous investors in AutoGrid also joined the recent investment round, including German utility E.ON, which led a $12.5 million investment in 2014, as well as Foundation Capital and Voyager Capital, which participated in a $9 million capital raising round in 2012.

worldwide with revenues of €69.9 billion. In July 2015 Engie announced the acquisition of solar parks developer Solairedirect, which makes it the largest solar power electricity producer in France. Green Charge competes against rival California start-up Stem, which has raised about $75 million from investors including Angeleno Group, Iberdrola

Nexeon raises £30 million for Liion silicon anode batteries

Nexeon announced in May it had completed a £30 million ($44 million) funding round. The company received funding from existing investors and a new investor, Woodford Investment Management. Nexeon will use the funds to acquire IP and complementary technology, to open a development lab in Asia near its key customers, and to begin work on the design of a larger manufacturing facility. The firm said: “These initiatives will further strengthen Nexeon’s ability to achieve worldleading levels of battery energy density, and to satisfy the demand for superior battery performance in a huge range of applications.”

Westpac-CEFC scheme to boost C&I in Australia Westpac Bank and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation launched a new loan facility in May specifically aimed at Australian businesses to encourage the uptake of renewables.

(Inversiones Financieras Perseo), GE Ventures, Constellation New Energy, and Total Energy Ventures, and has some $135 million in non-recourse debt project financing. It also competes against SolarCity and Tesla, which have deployed dozens of megawatts of behind-themeter storage projects in California, and which also have plans to deploy more this year. Using AS$200 million ($145 million) from the CEFC, the Westpac Energy Efficient Financing Program will offer finance leases, commercial loans and commercial hire purchase finance for qualifying renewable energy and energy efficient technologies. The finance, which is for up to 100% of the project cost, is available for terms of up to 10 years for individual projects starting at A$15,000.

Start-up Geli raises $7 million

Geli — Growing Energy Labs Inc — a start-up energy software firm based in San Francisco, announced mid-April that it had raised a $7 million series A round from an unnamed clean energy investment office and Shell Technology Ventures, the venture arm of Royal Dutch Shell. To date it has raised close to $11 million. Geli was formed in 2010. Geli has already supplied its on-site control hardware and cloud-based software to manage microgrid and electric vehicle-solarbattery integration projects in California and New York.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 7

INSIDE TRACK: HAMMOND SPECIALITY CHEMICALS Grid level energy storage — at least for the past two years — has assumed that lead acid batteries, despite their affordability, are unfit for purpose when it comes to PartialState-of-Charge (PSOC) cycling. Time to think again.

Lead bites back A

snapshot in time. A blazing Indiana summer and an 18-year-old student, Terry Murphy, is packing 50 pound bags of lead oxide to earn money for college tuition. It is 1975 and his father, Pete Murphy, is plant manager at speciality chemicals firm, Hammond. Dad wanted to teach his son the valuable lessons of hard work and to maliciously assure him that if he didn’t graduate from Purdue University, he would spend the rest of his life packing bags for eight hours a day. Needless to say, it was more than enough motivation for Terry to earn his degree in Astronautical Engineering and move to California where he realized his dream of working on the space programme. The idea that he would return four decades later and champion the

8 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

transformation of the Hammond Group was never close to consideration, but life is full of surprises. Fortunately, Terry never lost contact with family, colleagues and friends at Hammond. And, as an auto enthusiast and avid racing fan, he found his way back from California to Indiana each May for the Memorial Day running of the Indianapolis 500. It was during one of these trips, back in 1995, that Hammond’s chairman, Peter Wilke, asked Terry to evaluate a high heat flux technical issue that was plaguing a new furnace design. Murphy solved the problem by incorporating a centrifugal spun cast reactor which happened to be

fabricated by the same vendor who made similar castings for the space shuttle main engine combustion chamber! It was a touch of cross-fusion between scientific disciplines that continues to this day at Hammond. Murphy continued to stay in touch with Hammond, but his career was focused on space propulsion and

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INSIDE TRACK: HAMMOND SPECIALITY CHEMICALS

“We’ve discovered a whole new class of materials, but it wasn’t just our new material, or a particular carbon, it was the interaction and exact dosing of these new compounds that was central to this technical breakthrough … indicating there was a high likelihood that we could achieve a stepchange in electrochemical performance for lead batteries” — Terry Murphy

power systems for NASA, the US Air Force and other government agencies. He was also tasked with leveraging these core competencies from the space programme into clean and renewable energy systems. One of the more interesting projects was the Power Tower. This system pumped molten salt into a 10 storey heat exchanger on top of a 600-foot-

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tall tower which was surrounded by 1,000,000m2 of heliostats; mirrors that track and reflect the thermal energy of the sun. The system had the incredible potential to produce 500,000 MWh/year on demand. So, in 2007, after 27 years in aerospace, Murphy took a calculated risk on the solar market. He left his executive position as the division

director at Boeing Rocketdyne, subsequently United Technologies, and entered the world of venture capital. With initial finance from US Renewables Group (USRG) and the exclusive licence for the highly proprietary Rocketdyne Solar Thermal technology; he became the founding CEO of SolarReserve.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 9

INSIDE TRACK: HAMMOND SPECIALITY CHEMICALS SolarReserve to create ARTiCA Energy, an advisory company to firms seeking renewable energy investments. It wasn’t long after that Hammond’s Peter Wilke invited Murphy to join Hammond’s board of directors. Murphy, acutely aware of the potential in renewable energy storage, fully appreciated the untapped potential of lead-acid chemistry. This background proved crucial. The board’s appointment was both a return to his roots in lead oxide production and an opportunity to help Hammond move into the emerging markets of energy storage. To understand what happened next, Hammond’s business needs to be revisited for context. The firm, still privately held, was begun in 1930 as a specialty chemical manufacturer. Its primary focus was lead-based chemicals used extensively

SolarReserve’s system has the capacity to produce 500,000MWh a year on demand from just one plant.

SolarReserve proved an almost immediate success. Within a year they harnessed another $140 million of series B funding. SolarReserve went on to construct the Crescent Dunes project outside of Tonopah in

Nevada. This project was to become the first utility-scale facility in the world to feature the “Power Tower” energy storage capability and now has several ongoing projects worldwide. In 2010, Murphy moved on from

K2 — HOW LEAD CAN COMPETE WITH LITHIUM In the event the nub of the problem between lead and lithium is mostly a question of price and recyclability. For advanced energy storage — be they in the world of power generation or hybrid vehicles — lithium-ion batteries meet most of the technical requirements, but are too expensive K2 acceptance improvement K2charge Charge Acceptance Improvement HPPC Charge Power 40

Standard SLI 0 0

500

100

Micro Hybrid Test Cycling EOD Voltage Load Discharge

3211 2.20

2.10

K2 Expander

hundreds of cycles Typical PbA Battery 100

EOD Voltage

1594

Endurance

2.00

Conventional PbA batteries are designed for

Capacity

1000

K2 cycling improvement K2PSoC PSoC Cycling Improvement

1.90

1.80

Standard SLI

PSOC Cycles compared to Control

1500

Battery State of Charge

2500

2000

Enhanced SLI

3500

K2 Expanders have been proven to achieve thousands of cycles

Dramatic increase in Charge Acceptance over wide range of PSoC conditions

Simulated energy storage application Simulated Energy Storage Application 3000

K2 Expander

Power (Watts)

Dynamic charge acceptance — the way batteries can accept and rapidly store large influxes of energy — is the next big thing for the lead acid business. It opens up two worlds — that of micro hybrids in the automotive sector and the huge new areas of business opening up with grid scale storage. In laboratory testing and now in production batteries, Hammond has achieved an order-of-magnitude increase in dynamic charge acceptance while dramatically increasing cycle life. The innovation — generically known as K2 — does not require a change in other battery paste ingredients, grids, or plates making it immediately open to all lead battery manufacturers. No change in any other material component or process is needed. No new tooling, production technique, distribution, use, scrap characterization, or recycling. K2 represents a new expander family, with no safety concerns or known adverse effect Moreover, K2 is customizable according to the needs of the batteries being made and the operating conditions that they will run in.

1.70

223

1.60

Enhanced SLI

Control

Control w/ High Std. Carbon

K2-Peak Capacity

K2-Peak Endurance

Significant Performance Increase over “Typical” Lead-Acid Battery

10 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

1.50 0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

Cycle Number

K2 Expander Meets Micro Hybrid Life Requirements

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INSIDE TRACK: HAMMOND SPECIALITY CHEMICALS in traditional glass, ceramics, colour, and plastic applications. Hammond itself had always been an adaptable firm ready to change or innovate to serve a changing marketplace. In 1971 Hammond set up its Halstab division which was to become a major US manufacturer of leadbased heat stabilizers for PVC plastic. When environmental standards changed, Hammond responded with the Plastistab line of heavy metal-free stabilizers. The Halstab division was a success, growing organically and through two major acquisitions. In 1972, Hammond responded to the need to replace red lead-based corrosion inhibitors by inventing and patenting a non-toxic, functional substitute, marketed as HALOX inhibitive pigments. The appointment of Murphy to Hammond’s board happened when the company was considering both management succession and a route to the next level. The question was what that next level would be? And it was all the more pressing as the lead battery business had been going through a difficult period. First had come the 2007 financial crisis. This, the greatest crash since the Depression, caused car sales to slump and this spilled over to damage the automotive battery business. And down the supply chain it went so that even successful firms such as Hammond, where the sale of lead oxide represented a good chunk of its earnings, found business difficult. Second, US president Barack Obama in February 2009 introduced the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This was a huge stimulus package affecting all areas of the US economy. As part of this, some $27 billion was put into energy efficiency and renewable energy research and investment. Unfortunately for the lead battery business, $2 billion of this was allocated to advanced car battery systems and another $400 million for electric vehicle technologies. “From the lead side of things we hardly got a look in,” one battery professional told this journalist at the time. “The ARRA definition of ‘advanced’ simply meant any chemistry but lead.” Many in the industry realised that the huge investment into what was essentially lithium batteries — which were already known to cycle well

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The mixing and bagging area for expander formulations. Expanders inhibit performance losses in negative plates otherwise caused by structural changes such as the build-up of an impermeable layer of lead sulphate on the negative active material.

at PSOC — would inevitably put pressure on lead to perform. Murphy saw this too and persuaded Hammond’s board that change was urgent and that it needed to refocus on its core business serving lead-acid battery chemistry. “While HALOX and Halstab were very good businesses — and they certainly demonstrated our ability to adapt — I didn’t think they were our future,” he told Energy Storage Journal. “I saw the need for efficient battery storage and pushed our board of directors for a strategic decision to concentrate on energy storage.” The board agreed. Both businesses were sold in 2012. HALOX went to Israel Chemicals Limited and Halstab to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. In October 2013 Murphy was elected Hammond’s president and CEO; and the capital released from the sales was deployed into the energy storage strategy. Some monies were focused on the recapitalization of the tetra-basic lead sulphate (TTBLS) production, a product that was developed 10 years earlier by Hammond’s technical chief, David Boden, along with Dan Loosemore, now operations manager at Hammond’s Expander facility. The result was SureCure® — the first industry-wide offering of TTBLS. Although the benefits of a tetra-basic plate structure were well known at the time (stronger plate and longer battery

“The upshot of this investment is that we can adjust the expander mix in a host of ways. We can adjust it so that batteries can operate at high rates of PSOC in a range of working climates and temperatures, we can extend PSOC cycle life by up to 30 times and more over traditional SLI expander formulations” — Gordon Beckley Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 11

INSIDE TRACK: HAMMOND SPECIALITY CHEMICALS “While HALOX and Halstab were very good businesses — and they certainly demonstrated our ability to adapt — I didn’t think they were our future…I saw the need for efficient battery storage and pushed our board of directors for a strategic decision to concentrate on energy storage.” life), few battery manufacturers implemented this improvement as the process was difficult to control; requiring high temperatures and long formation times. Hammond solved this problem by developing a one-micron seed crystal which is added to the positive paste. Conversion to a tetra-basic structure is now done effortlessly with a small addition of SureCure seed crystals into the paste mix. Today, tetrabasic positive plates are widely used by major battery manufacturers and SureCure adoption continues throughout the world. Another huge investment went into the investigation and the possible re-formulations of negative plate expanders, including the creation of what best can be described as an open-access laboratory known as (LAB)2 — Lead Acid Battery Lab. An extensive laboratory, plant, and warehouse formerly operated as Hammond’s Halstab division was repurposed and kitted out with top range investigative testing and cycling equipment. The lab which

fully opened last November is made available to Hammond clients for research “to enable lead-acid chemistry for advanced energy storage applications”, its stated purpose. “The practical purpose of this investment is to allow us to adjust and test screen expander mixes for a variety of critical attributes,” says Gordon Beckley, Hammond’s chief technology officer and VP. “We’ve developed expanders that allow lead batteries to operate at high rates of PSOC and over a range of working climates and temperatures. We have enabled extended cycle life and can further adjust for a variety of specific operating requirements.” What Hammond has been seeking to achieve over the past decade is to overcome one of the big flaws in lead chemistry. “The traditional lead acid battery suffers a critical — but certainly not unsolvable —technical deficiency,” says Murphy. “When subject to highamp, irregular re-charging intervals, such as when lead batteries are required to store energy on the grid

while both balancing and maintaining the higher functions of the grid — think load levelling, frequency regulation and the like — battery life may be seriously shortened. “These applications require a battery to perform well in high-rate partial state-of-charge (HRPSoC) operations, accepting a wide range of charging amps at various states of overall charge, and maintain this quality over a normal cycle life.” “As a specialty chemical business, I felt that Hammond had an enormous potential to address this deficiency, so we made the investment and the strategic commitment to address the PSoC requirement,” he says. This work started with Achim Luelsdorf, now president of R&D at Exide India and Maureen Murphy (no relation) who came to Hammond with over 20 years’ experience as a research scientist at East Penn Manufacturing; Maureen is now the (LAB)2 manager. Exploiting insights on material selection, material interaction, and duty-specific formulations, Hammond’s work culminated in its K2 family of negative plate expanders, available for a wide range of HRPSoC applications. “We’ve discovered a whole new class of materials, but it wasn’t just our new material, or a particular carbon, it was the interaction and exact dosing of these new compounds that was central to this technical breakthrough,” says Murphy. “Our new expander formulations

(LAB)² is a state-of-the-art research laboratory capable of analytical characterization of materials, cell manufacturing, cell testing, battery testing and failure mode analysis. Among the facilities are environmental chambers, water baths and discharge cycling equipment for up to 400 amps.

12 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

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INSIDE TRACK: HAMMOND SPECIALITY CHEMICALS indicated that there was a high likelihood that we could achieve a step-change in electrochemical performance for lead batteries.” Expanders are an essential component of lead acid batteries. They inhibit performance losses in negative plates otherwise caused by structural changes such as the build-up of an impermeable layer of lead sulphate on the negative active material. Expander formulations typically include several ingredients; barium sulphate which is a nuclei-forming agent for lead sulphate crystals, organic compounds which act as a surfactant to regulate the crystallization processes and carbon black to improve electric conductivity. “It was shocking that mixing the best performing organics and with the best performing carbons did not produce the optimum expander formulation,” says Beckley. “The interaction of these components is critical. It is a balancing act to ensure the expander formulation meets the application’s need and sometimes that means other ingredients are required.” At its simplest, Hammond’s new expander formulations work by introducing new mixtures of carbon black, graphite, and non-traditional materials to the mix. The result was that this reduced the amount of lead sulphate deposited during high-rate partial state of charge operations of the battery. Effectively this simultaneously increased the electrochemical efficiency and cycling of batteries without compromising reserve capacity, cold cranking performance and water loss of leadacid batteries. The first step was taken on the road to developing Hammond’s K2 Expander product — which seeks to put lead batteries on a more-or-less level playing field with lithium-ion performance.

“As a specialty chemical business, I felt that Hammond had an enormous potential to address this deficiency, so we made the investment and the strategic commitment to address the PSoC requirement” www.energystoragejournal.com

RENEWABLE? LEAD-YES, LITHIUM-NO

The classic dilemma — which is more important image or substance? — is at the heart of a debate that needs to be broadened to the distributed energy community. Environmentalists believe that the introduction of renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuels is a step in the right direction. The weight of world’s scientific opinion and worldwide legislation endorses their viewpoint that this shift will reduce CO2 emissions and slow climate change. Unfortunately, many of these same environmentalists believe — but this time wrongly — that lead in batteries is ecologically damaging and that lithium-ion, presumably by virtue of not being lead, is ecologically virtuous. Toxic releases such as that seen at Exide’s recycling plant in Vernon, California or the scandal of lead piping polluting the water supply in Flint, Michigan miss the point about the dangers of lead. These high-profile events are illegal violations of existing standards or the effect of longabandoned and dispersive uses of lead. The well documented reality is that almost 100% of all lead batteries are recycled and the recovery rate is virtually 100%. The simple reason is that lead, along with the plastic and acid in batteries are economically valuable. Their recovered value is greater than the cost of acquisition of so-called “virgin” materials. This economics have remained in-place since the start of leadacid battery production at the dawn of the age of automobiles. Because lead batteries can be continually recycled without loss of electrochemical properties, the reality is that the lead in your grandfather’s car battery remains

“There is a happy irony on the horizon — that in lead, one of earth’s most vilified elements, may be the single most important ingredient in reducing CO2 emissions.” in use in today’s car fleet. Yes, this is your grandfather’s battery! The same environmental success story emphatically does not apply to lithium. The cost of efficiently scrapping a battery is normally calculated as being around a tenth of the initial value — a $7,000 electric vehicle battery will cost $700 to dispose of. The scrap value of what is obtained, mostly small amounts of cobalt and manganese, are worth handfuls of dollars. Landfill is not an option for lithium batteries as they become poisonous and leach in groundwater. Despite the facts that lead is a sustainable technology and lithium is not, the perception of lithium continues — quite wrongly — to be that of a green and ecologically positive substance. And this appears to be tacitly endorsed by image-conscious corporations such as Apple and Amazon who say they don’t use lead batteries for energy storage. Murphy, however, reckons that lead will inevitably have to supply the energy storage need for more power. “The lead battery industry believes there is a happy irony on the horizon — that in lead, one of earth’s most vilified elements, may be the single most important ingredient in reducing CO2 emissions.”

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 13

NEWS

Alevo announces first energy storage projects on US soil, anticipates ‘several hundred megawatts’ in coming years US energy storage system provider Alevo announced in March its first two deals, in Delaware and in Texas. Their announcements in March, mark the North Carolina-headquartered company’s energy storage rollout, which it says will amount to “several hundred megawatts” in the next few years. The 8MW/4MWh battery storage plant in Delaware will be operational in the third quarter of 2016, while the 10MW facility in Georgetown, Texas, will be up and running by the end of the year. Both systems will use Alevo’s proprietary battery, which is made from an inorganic lithium chemistry which it says produce safe, non-flammable cells. Alevo will own and operate the Delaware battery plant, which is being built on the site of a retired oil-fired generator, once operated by the utility Lewes Board of Public Works. Alevo will sell ancillary services — frequency control — into the PJM Interconnection market, via its partner Customized Energy Solutions, an intermediary that will dispatch the signals. In 2015, Alevo struck an agreement with CES to provide 200MW of grid storage to the North American wholesale energy market. Delaware is the first project as part of that agreement. The operational lifetime of Alevo’s energy storage facilities are for at least 20 years, it says. Providing frequency regulation services for PJM Interconnection is the battery plant’s primary function, feeding in the lion’s share of its revenues. But, the Delaware plant will also generate revenues from the Lewes Board of Public Works by providing at least two services for the local utility; improved power quality and peak shaving. Alevo executive vice president Chris Christiansen says: “In future the plant will be able to provide other services, such as ramping. These are enabled by algorithms. The additional services are a regulatory issue as opposed to a technical problem. The system is equipped for mix and matching different power and energy ratios. Rather than 30 minutes’ storage it could be one hour of storage.”

14 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

Both Germany and the UK are potential markets — the UK because of the National Grid’s new fast frequency response market. The systems in Delaware and Texas will achieve payback somewhere between years two and seven is all Christiansen will say, when discussing the return on investment. The 10MW Rabbit Hill energy storage project in Georgetown will be jointly owned by Alevo and Ormat Technologies, a geothermal and recovered energy generation developer that is providing the balance of system equipment for the plant. Alevo will operate the system. Fast frequency response service to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) will be the main service provided by the plant. The system has been designed to be able to provide more services as market rules change and adapt during the plant’s operational lifetime. The way that the Delaware and Texas energy storage systems meet the signals of their respective markets differ considerably. The sizing of the system is impacted by the duration requirement and required power. A key driver for this is how much energy is required to follow the signal. “For the regulation D [PJM Interconnection] it is more of a fine-tuning, whereas the fast frequency response service is more aggressive as it is more of a high powered pulsing signal,” says Christiansen. Alevo is also looking at European opportunities. Christiansen says: “It is very likely we’ll be announcing a deal within the next 12 months.” Both Germany and the UK are potential markets — the UK because of the National Grid’s

new fast frequency response market. Germany offers several opportunities too. “The primary control market is limited but the pricing has to be right,” he says. “There is also the growing need for storage on the network to alleviate parts of the grid where renewables penetration is high, so for network upgrade deferral works, for example.” Alevo has kept a low profile over the last several years, while it has been developing its battery chemistry and technology. In October 2014 the company announced its presence with the opening of a production plant at an old cigarette factory in Concord, North Carolina, kitted out to make industrial-scale lithium batteries. The first line was completed in 2015 and can produce about 25 GridBank units a month at maximum output. Each GridBank is 1MWh. The factory can house up to 20 lines to achieve full capacity. In addition to supplying the batteries for its own systems, Alevo is also talking to potential customers in the form of turnkey energy storage system suppliers and integrators that are interested in sourcing the company’s batteries and are qualifying the technology within their own systems. Alevo is also working with potential partners and customers that span utilities, independent power producers, providers of grid services and commercial and industrial entities, where multiple applications make sense, worldwide.

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Maxwell Ultracapacitors. eND tHe power strUGGle. Meet Maxwell Technologies at : Intersolar/EES Europe Munich, 22 – 24 June The Battery Show Novi MI USA, 13 – 15 September Wind Energy Hamburg, Europe, 27 – 30 September 1 color Energy Storage North America CA USA, 4 – 6 October

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ride-through and firming solutions that can store one megawatt per minute, while delivering up to a million reliable cycles at 100% depth of discharge. Maxwell. Your fight for stable power is over. Reverse

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NEWS

Ultracaps to the fore as Maxwell chosen for Chinese wind project Beijing Huadian Tianren Electric Power Control Technology, a subsidiary of China Guodian Corporation, has selected Maxwell’s ultracapacitor technology as the core component of a wind farm energy storage demonstration project. China Guodian Corporation is one of the five largest power producers in the country, and the project is the first megawatt-scale, ultracapacitor-based wind farm energy storage system in the world. “Ultracapacitors’ long cycle life and fast response capabilities can smooth power output fluctuation, allowing large-scale wind farms to connect to the grid as a

more reliable power generation source,” said Yu Kang, the demonstration project leader at Beijing Huadian Tianren Electric Power Control Technology Co. “We recognize Maxwell’s successful experience in energy storage, as well as the company’s advanced and reliable products.” The demonstration project has deployed 1,152 Maxwell 56 volt, 130 farad ultracapacitor modules, which is the largest ultracapacitor system in wind farms across China. Compared with conventional batteries, ultracapacitors discharge and recharge power quicker, with a longer lifetime and better perfor-

mance in low temperatures. Maxwell says its ultracaps stabilize short-term power output fluctuation in wind farms and cabling in largescale deployments, ensuring reliable access to wind-generated power on the grid. “Maxwell’s ultracapacitors are a perfect fit for this wind farm energy storage demonstration project, and with growing demand, we see a great deal of opportunity to partner with more Chinese customers to expand ultracapacitor-based energy storage in more applications,” says Franz Fink, Maxwell’s president and chief executive officer. Maxwell Technologies’ 56V series of ultracapaci-

tor modules provides power during dips and sags in the main power source. In longer-term outages, the modules provide transition/bridge power to a longer-term backup source, such as a motor-generator or fuel cell. For industrial applications, ultracapacitor modules provide power for graceful shutdown of process equipment. The modules can last up to 15 years in backup, occasional-use applications. They are designed to fit in standard rack systems with up to 10kW (15 seconds) in 4U height. Two modules can fit in a 19-inch rack, while three can fit in a 23-inch rack. Maxwell ultracapacitor modules effectively replace batteries in these applications. They are maintenance-free for up to 14 years and non-toxic.

UET/Rongke win world’s largest storage battery contract Rongke Power has won a contract to deploy the world’s largest battery, rated at 800MWh which will provide peak-shaving and enhance grid stabilization on the Dalian peninsula in northern China. Rongke Power, an affiliate of UniEnergy Technologies, have worked together since 2012 in the development of a large-scale vanadium blow battery suitable, the firm says, “for grid modernization, renewable penetration, and resiliency”. The China National Energy Administration said it had approved the strategic application of Rongke’s VFB into the utility grid due to its competitive price and lack of emissions, as well as demonstrated longevity, operational flexibility, and class-leading performance. Collaboration between UET and Rongke Power was “memorialized” say the firms in a US-China EcoPartnership signing ceremony attended by US secretary of state John Kerry in

Beijing on June 7. The battery arrays approved by the China National Energy Administration consist of 10 20MW/80MWh VFB systems deployed on the Dalian peninsula, which during extreme weather events has caused stress on the electricity grid. After commissioning, the VFB battery will be able to peak-shave approximately

8% of Dalian’s expected load in 2020. The battery will form an additional load centre, which will enhance grid stabilization including se-

curing the power supply and providing black-start capabilities in the event of emergency. The VFB battery will be built at Rongke Power’s new factory to be opened later this year. The firm says it will have a phase one capacity of 300MW of VFB electrode stacks, a phase two capacity of 1GW, and a phase three capacity of 3GW.

Aquion Energy and Ideal Power partner on Californian winery Aquion Energy, a developer of aqueous hybrid ion batteries and energy storage systems, and Ideal Power, a developer of power conversion technologies, announced in April the installation of Aquion’s AHI batteries using Ideal Power’s Grid Resilient 30 kW Multi-port Power Conversion System as part of a microgrid at Stone Edge Farm, a 16-acre organic winery and farm in Sonoma, California.

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The microgrid project, developed by Wooster Engineering Specialties, a general engineering contractor, provides solar self-consumption, peak shaving and load shifting services to Stone Edge Farm for energy self-sufficiency. The microgrid is capable of islanding and operating autonomously, and is also generating sufficient energy for the farm to sell a substantial amount back

to local utility PG&E. Ideal Power and Aquion previously announced a technology partnership where they tested Ideal Power’s power conversion systems alongside Aquion’s AHI batteries to ensure interoperability and optimal performance. This project is the first commercial deployment of the two companies’ technologies alongside each another for an energy storage application.

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NEWS

Nissan and Eaton launch residential xStorage

Nissan, the car manufacturer working with power management firm Eaton, revealed details of a new residential energy storage unit known as xStorage. “This is designed to be the most affordable in the market today,” says Cyrille Brisson, vice president for marketing at Eaton Electrical EMEA. “Our system will be provided to end-users completely ready to use, with all required elements including cabling and installation by a certified professional, at a starting price of €4,000 ($4,400) for 4.2KWh nominal.” Nissan and Eaton say they expect to sell more than 100,000 xStorage units within the next five years as the consumer appetite for this type of technology continues to grow. It will be available to preorder from September. Connected to residential power supply or renewable energy sources such as solar panels, the unit can save customers money on their utility bills by charging up when renewable energy is available or energy is cheaper. This in itself is

Residential storage: the shape of things to come

hardly new given Tesla and Sonnen’s offerings in residential energy storage. However, the xStorage unit will be the first device of its kind in the market to provide a fully integrated energy storage solution for homeowners, say Eaton and Nissan. This means, unlike other storage devices, this factory made integrated unit ensures safety and performance when storing and

distributing power It will also have smartphone connectivity to allow consumers to flick between energy sources at the touch of a button. A statement by the firms said: “Providing a sustainable ‘second life’ for Nissan’s electric vehicle batteries after their first life in cars is over, the new unit is powered by 12 Nissan EV battery modules and has

the potential to revolutionize the way people manage energy usage in their own home, providing added flexibility and multiple cost savings. The new xStorage system marks the start of a longer term commitment by Nissan and Eaton to widen the portfolio of energy storage solutions available to both private and commercial customers.

Samsung SDI readies ‘assault’ on global ESS markets with Kepco Samsung SDI and Korea Electric Power Corporation — better known as KEPCO — signed a memorandum of understanding for business cooperation in the field of energy storage systems in April. “Effectively when Samsung SDI tenders bids for ESS projects solicited by major overseas power generating companies, it will cooperate with KEPCO as the partner for the project implementation,” said an official statement talking about a joint “assault on

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global ESS markets”. “In particular, the two companies will integrate their business capabilities for reciprocal support of related projects such as the smart home, farm, factory and town projects and the energy internet project and they also plan to make joint progress of the export projects for the overseas MV (medium voltage) ESSs in North America, southeast Asia and other areas, frequency regulation ESSs and the ESSs associated with renewable energy.”

Samsung SDI has already worked on various domestic and overseas ESS projects in partnership. In March 2015, Samsung SDI executed the MoU for the joint development and sales of the ESS solutions for micro-grids (independent power generating network on a smaller scale) with ABB from Switzerland. Last July it executed a contract for the supply of ESSs with Duke Energy, the largest power generation company in North America. It has also worked with KEPCO

last summer on a frequency regulation ESS which went live in Shinyongin Substation in South Korea. Samsung said that various ESSs for micro-grids had also been established across Korea were the result of cooperation between Samsung SDI and KEPCO. “The experience of successful implementation of these projects to date is expected to serve as the fertile ground for the cooperation between Samsung SDI and KEPCO in the coming years,” said the official.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 17

NEWS

Flow batteries go residential: Redflow launches ZCell system Australian battery firm Redflow launched at the end of March its first residential energy storage product, ZCell, a system that includes a flow battery. ZCell can store 10kWh of energy, allowing people to time shift solar power from day to night, store off-peak power for peak demand periods and support off-grid systems. Australian residential installations are scheduled to start mid-year, kicked off what the firm calls an introductory rebate offer for eli-

gible Redflow shareholders. Redflow executive chairman Simon Hackett said ZCell was a breakthrough system. “ZCell breaks many of the rules that apply to legacy batteries, making it ideal for the home market,” he said. “ZCell lets you discharge 100% of its total stored energy every day, whereas other battery types can require a significant amount of their underlying storage capacity to be locked out to prevent battery damage and to extend battery life. ZCell

is a unique flow battery that loves to be fully charged and discharged daily. “ZCell is warranted to deliver its full 10kWh of stored energy each day for as long as 10 years. During that period, lead acid and

lithium batteries can lose a significant portion of their storage capacity.” The core of ZCell is a Redflow ZBM2 flow battery, a product developed by Redflow that is operating at sites worldwide, including Australia, Africa, Asia, America and Europe. ZCell uses the Redflow ZBM2 in a custom-designed outdoor-rated enclosure that sits on the ground, connecting to a battery inverter/charger unit that delivers stored energy to your home.

Smarter Grid Solutions pairs with South Korean LOTTE Chemical to test flow batteries Smarter Grid Solutions announced in April it is working with LOTTE Chemical to test and demonstrate LOTTE’s Flow Battery Technology in the UK market. The two year project will demonstrate the controllability of a battery when it is paired with other technologies, such as renewables, to provide evidence of the types of ancillary services the pairing of these technologies could offer.

The project is funded by the South Korean government and overseen by the Korea Battery Industry Association. The UK government recently assigned a £50 million ($72 million) budget to encourage innovation in energy storage, demand-side response, and other smart technologies. LOTTE Chemical is working on testing a small-scale flow battery at the Power Network Demonstration

Centre, based in the UK. Smarter Grid Solutions will work with LOTTE to demonstrate the use of a flow battery within an Smarter Grid Solutions scheme. Energy storage is not a new concept to Smarter Grid Solutions. The company’s technology is used to manage and control different energy storage technologies, such as lead acid and lithium ion grid scale storage, and gridto-gas electrolysers.

Infrastructure deferral project to be trialled for feasibility in Australia SA Power Networks, the Australian utility, has launched an energy storage test project of 100 heavily subsidized battery systems combined with solar power in Adelaide. The Tesla Powerwall and an energy storage product from Samsung will be used in the trial. “We want to work with customers to avoid the need to invest in new poles and wires. Instead of building a new power line, we would

like to see whether we can defer or avoid that by tapping into local solar PV generation and combining

this with energy storage,” said Paul Roberts, manager of stakeholder relations for SP Power Networks.

Smarter Grid Solutions will later be involved in a live system trial at another test site in Scotland to manage local generation and the flow battery, with the goal of reducing generator curtailment and assessing the potential for other ancillary services. Next year, the consortium plans to deploy a larger flow battery as part of a community energy project in Scotland. SA Power Networks is the electricity distributor for South Australia and is the fifth largest for all of Australia, with its headquarters in Adelaide. It provides electricity to over 800,000 customers.

Australian Vanadium partners Gildemeister Australian Vanadium has signed a deal with German battery maker Gildemeister Energy Storage to sell the CellCube range of vanadium redox flow batteries in Australia, as part of

18 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

the company’s plans to take on the large-scale solar and energy storage market. (See cover story feature.) The deal, alongside another February agreement with local

commercial solar installer Sun Connect, will allow Australian Vanadium to ramp up its activity in Australia’s commercial and utility-scale battery markets.

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NEWS

First commercial scale rail energy storage project gets go-ahead Advanced Rail Energy Storage announced in March that its proposed commercial-scale gravity-based rail energy storage project has been granted a right-of-way lease by the Bureau of Land Management. Once operational, the 50MW project will take up 106 acres of public land in southern Nevada, and help stabilize the electric grid. Working on a similar principle as pumped hydro and using gravity, ARES Nevada will store energy and release it for dispatch when needed. Using a single railroad track sited on a gentle grade, multiple electric locomotive cars can move up the track as they receive excess power from solar and wind power plants during sunny and windy days. The train cars will remain available and, when needed, be dispatched slowly downhill, using their motor-generators to

return power to the electricity grid. ARES Nevada will provide a wide range of ancillary services, enabling the grid to adjust to momentary changes in demand and help stabilize grid voltage and frequency. “ARES Nevada will be a world-class facility and a point of pride for Nevada” said Jim Kelly, ARES CEO. “The power production is clean and renewable — operation of the project requires no water or fossil fuel, and creates no hazardous waste or emissions.” Greg Helseth, a manager for BLM Southern Nevada Renewable Energy Coordination Office said: “After a robust environmental assessment and biological opinion concluded a Finding of No Significant Impact, BLM wrote a decision and granted the project. “We look forward to ARES’ next steps and a Notice to Proceed that will

enable construction to begin. Scheduled to be underway once permitting and environmental compliance process are complete, the ARES Nevada project will provide approximately 100 to 125 full-time local jobs during an eight month construction phase, and anticipates 16 full-time positions once in operation.

Irish smart grid to expand An energy storage pilot run by Ireland’s MEGA — Micro Electricity Generation Association — recently announced further expansion plans. By 2017, MEGA wants to install another 5MW of energy storage capacity for grid stabilizing as part of the Tallaght Smart Grid test-bed in Ireland. Ireland is changing its grid rules, under the DS3 system services market. The EU has set Ireland a target of 40% of renewables in its electricity mix by 2020. However, as renewables penetration increases, more grid balancing and stabilizing services will be needed, which the DS3 sys-

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tem services market will contract for. By 2017, the first longterm contracts for providing these services should be signed. The Tallaght Smart Grid Testbed, run by MEGA, with South Dublin County Council, has been set up to demonstrate how energy storage combined with smart power electronics can minimize electricity distribution issues and grid instability in a microgrid. In March 2015, German company Freqcon supplied an energy storage system, using its power conversion system with supercapacitors, from Maxwell as the first stage of the pilot.

Then, last September Freqcon chose Ecoult’s lead carbon battery, designed for demanding high cycling applications to add to the Tallaght Smart Grid test bed. Ecoult’s 40kW/70kWh UltraBattery system, combined with Freqcon’s power converters, will demonstrate that energy storage can provide “synthetic inertia”, says the firm, competing with and outperforming existing fossil fuel balancing resources and its suitability for delivering system services in accordance with Ireland’s DS3 grid standard. Within the Tallaght smart grid, the Ecoult battery is used for peak shift-

The project’s life is expected to span 40 years or more with only routine maintenance. “Creative solutions like ARES Nevada provide a more reliable and modern electric grid and help create an even cleaner energy future for our citizens” said Angie Dykema, director of the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy. ing of solar energy. The DS3 system services market is technology-neutral. It is based on definitions of grid services that the operator needs. However, energy storage systems that are flexible resources able to provide a range of grid services could be deployed. Investors in such projects could include wind power developers and operators, as this type of renewable energy resource is widely deployed in Ireland, compared with solar PV. According to Klaus Harder, business development manager at Freqcon, “The Irish market won’t really see any serious investment before 2018, but it will pick up and could lead to demand for energy storage.”

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NEWS

Bushveld, UniEnergy team up for African flow battery business Bushveld Energy, a subsidiary of Bushveld Minerals, signed a memorandum of understanding in April with US-based UniEnergy Technologies for a framework of cooperation to develop market opportunities for vanadium-redox flow batteries in Africa, according to a London Stock Exchange statement. The MoU provides a framework of cooperation between the two companies in the development of market opportunities for vanadium-redox flow batteries and has two broad objectives. The first is to “use synergies between the two companies to identify and develop immediate business opportunities in Africa for large and medium sized VRFB installations. The focus is on large commercial customers, as well as industrial and utility applications, where energy storage

either reduces energy costs (for example, in off-grid locations) or adds additional value for the energy user. The second is to develop a strategy” to create a vanadium value chain in South Africa that includes vanadium electrolyte manufacturing, VRFB manufacturing and local component sourcing in the medium term. Both companies see South Africa as “having favourable competitive advantages to become an additional base for VRFB manufacturing to meet the forecasted growth in energy storage adoption.” While most of the focus of energy storage to date has been in North America, Europe and Asia, Africa may offer an unexplored opportunity. Grid penetration is below 50% in most of the contient, leading to significant off-grid opportunities, where diesel is the primary source of energy

In addition, the recent USA Power Act and the previous Power Africa initiative will likely open up more opportunities in supporting energy generation in Africa. Fortune Mojapelo, CEO of Bushveld Minerals, said, “This is just the first step in Bushveld Energy’s efforts to promote the role of vanadium in the growing energy storage market through smart partnerships and innovative business models. “Partnerships are key to our business model. We look forward to developing this relationship further to reach our aspiration to assemble and eventually manufacture VRFB systems in South Africa, which will go a long way in further reducing costs of the VRFB systems while maximizing the beneficiation dividend of locally mined and produced vanadium.”

John DeBoever, a sales vice president of UniEnergy Technologies, said, ”The MoU with Bushveld Energy is a positive step toward securing UET’s position to deliver to the African continent UET’s energy storage systems, filling critical needs and in establishing reliable grid-tied and off-grid energy systems. ”The rapidly growing interest and market opportunities in Africa for UET’s medium- and largescale advanced vanadium redox flow batteries, combined with Bushveld Energy’s South African local presence, and an extensive knowledge of, and network within, the African energy market, offer unique synergies,” he said. “This is between our respective operations to provide long-term solutions to address today challenges and tomorrow future ambitions of the African continent’s electric grids.”

Exergonix announces acquisition of CODA Energy Exergonix, a developer of energy storage technology and a supplier of integrated energy storage systems, announced in May it had acquired substantially all of the assets of CODA Energy, a California manufacturer of energy storage products. This is the third time CODA has run into financial difficulties and has been bought out. “The purchased assets included a very deep intellectual property portfolio and production capacity to assemble behind-the-meter energy storage systems,” says Exergonix. “These range from a few kilowatt-hours to multiple megawatt hours and satisfy the requirements of the California Self Generation Incentive Program, better known as SGIP. Exergo-

nix has agreed to assume management and operation of all the installed-base CODA customer systems in place and operating in California.” Exergonix was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Missouri. Exergonix chief executive, Don Nissanka, said: “Exergonix has been evolving its global strategy in the renewable space for several years. The CODA IP and experience with installed systems is highly synergistic to our future expansion plans, and the ability to have a physical presence and to hire trained and experienced personnel in California, where there is burgeoning demand for energy storage, is a big win for us. “Combining our existing technology portfolio with

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the acquired assets and manufacturing processes will allow Exergonix to deliver a total turnkey solution for the energy storage market. It also enhances our ability to support our customers better with a more diversified product line.” The acquired product line compliments the overall system portfolio and gives Exergonix, says the firm, immediate access to a broader segment of the electricity storage market, extending the firm’s capabilities to residential and industrial applications. Exergonix has also partnered with Neighborhood Power Corporation on solar installations and is deploying storage for projects where ramp control and load shifting is becoming an essential need. Additionally, the com-

pany is working with wind, hydro, biomass and other renewable providers who can utilize its advanced energy storage technology to maximize revenues from long-term power purchase agreements and support micro utility applications. Pete Nortman, CODA’s founder and chief technology officer will join the management team at Exergonix and will help transition existing SGIP programmes to Exergonix. The asset acquisition was facilitated by Draker Corp, the monitoring, data management and controls unit of BlueNRGY Group. The collaboration was the first phase of a strategic alliance intended to provide Exergonix with a data management system for overseeing and maintaining site assets.

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NEWS

National Grid and RES launch UK’s first sub-second frequency response service using battery storage National Grid and Renewable Energy Systems are working on the first battery energy storage systems to provide a dynamic frequency response service in sub-second timescales in the UK. The parties have signed a four year contract where RES will provide 20MW of frequency response from battery storage. This is a new service that will help National Grid in performing its system balancing role, which increasingly requires the use of new technologies. RES’ says its battery storage systems will provide frequency response to the grid within one second of the detection of a frequency deviation.

The battery storage systems will be fully operational within 18 months. RES and National Grid have been working together to design this service since 2014. This was a forerunner to National Grid’s upcoming tender for 200MW of Enhanced Frequency Response. As the price of battery energy storage has fallen in line with gigawatt scale deployment in the stationary energy storage and electric vehicle fields, such services are reducing electricity costs for consumers across global markets. RES has already commissioned six similar projects in North America. Adam Sims, senior account manager at National

Grid said: “This service and the forthcoming Enhanced Frequency Response service will support the network as we transition to a generation mix with greater levels of low cost renewable energy.” John Prendergast, energy storage manager at RES, said: “RES has previously pioneered the delivery of very fast frequency services in Canada and is one of the largest providers of such services in the US. Now, developing this innovative service with National Grid is a major step in the development of RES’ UK energy storage business.” The progress of this project is important as it signals a possible new direction for energy storage in

the UK. This March the National Infrastructure Commission released a report called Smart Power. The central finding was that smart power — principally built around three innovations, interconnection, storage, and demand flexibility — could save consumers up to £8 billion ($11.5 billion) a year by 2030, help the UK meet its 2050 carbon targets, and secure the UK’s energy supply for generations. “This contract will play an important role in encouraging policy makers and regulators to accelerate the removal of barriers to wider deployment of energy storage in the UK,” says Prendergast.

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Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 21

NEWS

UniEnergy announces next Italian project work with Terna UniEnergy Technologies, the flow battery firm, announced in April it will provide a 450kW/1440kWh utility-scale energy storage system for a Terna utility substation in Ciminna, Italy on the island of Sicily. Terna, the owner of the Italian High Voltage National Transmission Grid, is the largest independent transmission system operator in Europe and the sixth in size in the world. The UET solution deployed by Terna will be a

Uni.System, also deployed in the US. UET’s partners in the project are SAET for system integration, Rongke Power for flow battery systems, and Vanadis Power for sales and service in Europe. The project awarded by Terna to UET and its partners is part of Terna’s Storage Lab programme, which in phase 1 consists of 16MW of energy storage systems at two sites in Sicily and Sardinia. Based on the results of phase 1 including

feedback from the Uni.System, an additional 24MW of energy storage systems will be installed as a Phase 2 by Terna. UET’s core technology is a vanadium flow battery, with a new generation electrolyte first developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with the support of the US Department of Energy, Office of Electricity. UET says it has improved the electrolyte further and patented those improve-

ments in addition to innovations in system integration and other technology. The firm says “globally, only UET has megawattscale fully containerized flow battery systems deployed and operating in the field. UET has almost 10MW/40MWh of energy storage systems deployed or ordered by customers, including for utility, independent power producer, microgrid, and commercial and industrial applications.”

TEP gets approval to develop innovative energy storage Tucson Electric Power announced in May that it will enter into long term agreements with E.ON Climate & Renewables and NextEra Energy Resources for the construction of two large, innovative energy storage systems. The projects, approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission, will be used to improve service reliability and study how such systems can support the expansion of solar power resources and other renewable energy technologies. Both projects will be developed under 10 year con-

tracts with performance agreements to protect customers and the company from financial risks associated with investing in new technologies. The projects include: • A 10-MW lithium nickel-manganese-cobalt facility at a TEP substation near Interstate 10 and West Grant Road. The system will be built by NextEra Energy Resources, based in Juno Beach, Florida, and is expected to be in operation later this year. • A 10-MW lithium titanate oxide storage facility and accompanying 2MW solar

array located at the University of Arizona Science and Technology Park southeast of Tucson. The facility will be built by Chicago-based E.ON Climate & Renewables and should be completed in the first quarter of 2017. TEP is working to deliver at least 30% of its power from renewable resources by 2030, doubling the state’s 2025 goal. Use of these energy storage systems will help TEP avoid using more expensive generating resources for system disturbances. They also will allow the company to defer

Panasonic, AES announce India’s first battery-based energy storage project Panasonic India and USbased energy provider AES India announced in April an agreement to construct a 10MW energy storage array at Panasonic’s Techno park manufacturing facility in Jhajjar, Haryana. This joint venture is the first largescale battery-based energy storage project in India. The storage will provide daily reliability and backup to the manufacturing facility, while demonstrating grid stability and renewable

integration services in the region. It is a first for AES too. While AES operates 116MW of energy storage projects around the globe, this project is AES’ entry into the commercial and industrial energy storage market. The Indian power market is expected to grow up to 350GW by 2022, from a current installed capacity of 288GW. In addition, there is a target to install 160GW of solar and wind genera-

22 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

tion. The rapid growth in renewables will strain the system, as the current infrastructure is not designed to meet these modern demands. Separately, Canadian renewable energy company SkyPower agreed a formal partnership with Chinese firm BYD in May to jointly submit bids in the tenders for the development of 750MW of solar projects and energy storage capacity in India.

costly investments in other system infrastructure. TEP says it will continue investing in large solar arrays and other community scale renewable resources that add cost-effective capacity to its renewable energy portfolio. TEP anticipates an additional 800MW of new renewable capacity by the end of 2030, boosting its total renewable energy portfolio to approximately 1,200MW. TEP provides 417,000 customers in Southern Arizona with electricity TEP and its parent company, UNS Energy, are subsidiaries of Fortis, which owns utilities and has more than 3 million customers across Canada, the US and the Caribbean. Samsung start PV paste production in June

Samsung SDI starts operating a photovoltaic paste production line in its Wuxi Plant located in Jiangsu Province, China later this month (June). In Samsung SDI’s Wuxi Plant, installation of a polarized film production line and a paste production line started last September.

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PRODUCT NEWS

AEG Power Solutions launches battery plus power-to-heat system AEG PS, a supplier of grid equipment andUPS systems has developed a new platform that combines battery storage with power-to-heat technology to reduce the cost of energy storage. Reducing the size of the battery is the most effective way to bring down the cost of storage. AEG PS says the combined system can be deployed by any entity that uses thermal processes in its facilities, including local heat networks in combination with electrical distribution networks. The company is also targeting the commercial and industrial segment, where some companies and manufacturers have demand for electricity and processing heat. The battery can generate revenues by providing frequency control services as

well as other benefits, such as back-up. Stefan Kempen, market manager for grid and storage at AEG PS, says: “There is no support or grants for energy storage —we’ll see healthy, stable growth, rather than the boom and bust cycles of the solar PV market. “Battery costs have come down considerably and will continue to do so. However, we found we had to do something to bring down the cost to help bridge that gap.” For a standalone battery storage system to provide grid frequency regulation, the battery has to maintain a state-of-charge of 50%, to both absorb and inject energy into the grid. By combining energy storage with a power-to-heat system the battery can operate at 100% state-of-charge, using all

available capacity. Any electricity the system absorbs from the grid goes straight to powering the heating/thermal system, as opposed to charging the battery. As the battery is about 70% of the whole system’s capital expenditure, when the battery size is halved, the overall energy storage system cost comes down significantly. AEG PS has developed a dedicated battery storage plus power-to-heat platform, where the battery’s power control system, including the medium voltage connection, can also control the power of the heater. “So far, we are the only company that has come up with something like this,” says Kempen. The platform covers aspects such as how the components, including the

battery storage, the powerto-heat and power conversion hardware are all connected up, as well as the software controls required to operate the system. The key components include the energy management system — the brains of the platform — the power electronics, the medium voltage connection equipment, including transformer and switchgear, communications, the battery system and the power-to-heat system. This last piece of equipment is supplied by German company Schniewindt. “Utilities can install the system on their existing power plant sites, or on those that they are retiring, where there is everything they need to integrate and connect the system into the grid,” Kempen says.

Gamesa inaugurates 2MW prototype wind, diesel, PV and energy storage system Spain’s Gamesa Corporación inaugurated midMay a prototype of its offgrid system for the supply of power to remote areas without access to the grid. The system in La Muela, in the Spanish province of Aragón, bundles energy, solar power, diesel-powered generation and energy storage into a product with an installed capacity of over 2MW. Specifically, the prototype combines a G52-850kW wind turbine with 816 solar photovoltaic modules (245kWp) and three 222kW diesel generators (666 kW). The plan is to add a battery capable of storing 500 kWh/500 kW by the summer. The prototype also includes control software custom-developed by Gamesa to facilitate integration of the four technologies. The prototype will gener-

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ate enough power to meet the needs of 400 families. Ignacio Martín, Gamesa chairman, said: “Gamesa’s entry into the offgrid sector represents a fresh techno-

logical challenge and a new niche opportunity: development of this class of technology is expected to reach 1,200MW in the coming years. The advantage of our

system is based on its flexibility: it can be tailored for customer needs by increasing, reducing or eliminating capacity in any of the technologies used.”

Caterpillar launches microgrid technology suite for extra power Caterpillar has launched Cat Microgrid technology, a suite of power systems that adds solar panels, energy storage, and monitoring and control systems to Caterpillar’s traditional line of power generation equipment, including Cat generator sets, switchgear, uninterruptible power supplies and automatic transfer switches. The products are available worldwide through the Cat Dealer network

this summer and Cat Microgrid technologies can be bought as turnkey installations or design-toorder products. Ranging from 10kW to 100MW, units can be added in a modular fashion to create systems customized for a variety of power needs. Caterpillar says it “has proven the real-world value of its microgrid technology by commissioning a system at the company’s Tucson Proving Ground

in Arizona”. In March, facility managers installed 500kW of photovoltaic solar power along with 500kW of short-term energy storage in the form of batteries and ultracapacitors to supplement power that previously had been supplied solely by three C15 410-kW diesel generator sets. The integrated system is projected by Caterpillar to reduce fuel consumption by a third.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 23

PEOPLE NEWS

Bryan Urban to head up Leclanché’s new North American subsidiary Leclanché, the battery and energy storage producer, appointed Bryan Urban in April as the head of its North American team. It also opened its regional headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Urban has stepped down as a board member at the Switzerland-headquartered firm, to take a more active and hands-on role. Urban joined the board in 2013. Urban, an energy industry executive with more than 25 years of experience in the power generation and energy infrastructure sectors, was previously managing director of Silveron Capital Partners, a Dallasbased boutique investment banking and advisory firm he set up in 2006. Urban says that following the appointment of Anil Srivastava as chief executive in June 2014 the firm has been transformed from a relatively quiet, Europeanbased manufacturer of highperformance batteries to a fully integrated, energy storage systems turnkey provider — on a global scale. “The North American market has now become a primary focus for our company,” he says. In December 2013 Urban was elected to the board of members of solid state battery developer Oakridge Global Energy Solutions (previously Oakridge Energy Technologies), when it received a strategic $2.5 million investment from Precept Fund Management. Oakridge acquired a majority interest in Leclanché in mid-2015 when it bought shares held by Precept. Leclanché recently received a $28.9 million purchase order to provide one of the world’s largest stationary storage systems to Independent Electricity

Urban: new head of the North American team

System Operator (IESO) in Ontario, Canada. The order, covering the battery storage system and power conversion equipment for the project, is part of a $45 million project construction scope that will be managed by Leclanché. “Leclanché decided to enter the North American market in 2015,” Urban tells Energy Storage Journal. “And I assisted, due to my relationship on the board. As developments progressed and Leclanché was successful in some projects, most notably the Ontario project, it became a strong interest of Leclanché’s, and mine, for me to lead the North American business and capitalize on the rapidly expanding storage market. “The North American market seems to be expanding very rapidly with multiple uses of storage. From a regulatory/policy perspective, it has the most advanced market developing for battery storage is in the PJM region,” he says. “The market rules have been established to more accurately compensate the storage providers for high

24 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

performance qualities of the various battery systems, especially the rapid response of lithium-ion batteries.” Providers of fast frequency response ancillary services are paid more, the better they perform in terms of matching signals. Battery systems have the highest rating, especially in frequency response markets which can significantly improve grid efficiency. “Many other markets in North America and globally are looking at PJM as a quality example of how to establish a vibrant market for battery storage,” Urban says. PJM is deregulated so it has the advantage of an existing liquid wholesale power market as the basis for quick market development. “Other deregulated markets could have the same approach and more regulated environments could take a more bilateral contract approach,” says Urban. Leclanché also has an engineering and technology centre in Anderson, Indiana. Three other senior figures have moved to the North

American team. This include Thom Reddington, senior vice president operations, in Anderson, Indiana; Mark Albert, director of business development, in Dallas; and Jim Lowe, senior project manager, also in Anderson. More staff will be recruited in the coming months. Reddington is a senior manager and engineer with nearly 40 years of global experience in the automotive and electric vehicle battery markets. He joins Leclanché after two years as general manager and chief operating officer of Altair Nanotechnologies. Previously, he worked as VP of operations and engineering at Light Engineering; president of Redcon, a programme management consulting firm; manager, continuous process improvement, Ener 1; and global director of ignition product line, Delphi Automotive Systems. Reddington is also an adjunct professor for international business at Marian University/Anderson University. Albert is a strategic and financial executive with more than 20 years of renewable energy marketing and development experience. Before joining Leclanché, he was both consultant and owner of MHA Energy Development Group, focusing on solar project development and transmission system expansion. Before that he was vice president, development for geothermal power development firm Gradient Resources. Other experience includes Patua Geothermal Project as project manager; Aurora Geothermal Project as project manager; and Northern States Power Company (now Xcel Energy) as system designer.

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COVER STORY: GERMANY

Germany, Europe’s leader by far in terms of incorporating renewable energy into its electricity grid, is having to deal with reconfiguring its own policy directions as it seeks a new direction that incorporates energy storage. Sara Verbruggen reports.

The next struggle as energy storage wrestles with policy reform in seeing way forward The mix of renewables in Germany’s grid, both wind and solar PV, is one of the highest in the world. However, the Energiewende — Germany’s famous policy on energy transformation — has lost its momentum. Having reached a point where renewables plugged into Germany’s grid have surpassed 30% of supply, policymakers have cooled off. Before 2015, the rate of new renew-

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ables capacity being added in Germany — plotted on a straightline chart — would have meant that within two decades the country would have had enough capacity to generate all of its electricity from renewables by 2035. That of course is too simplistic an interpretation. No large industrialized country can hope to be 100% dependent on renewables without making its existing centralized ther-

mal power generation network and plant obsolete. The trouble is that the options available are limited. Continue adding more renewables while investing in more traditional power plants, to manage the effects on the grid and the supply of power — means that in effect the government is financing two different power systems. And at a huge expense to taxpayers.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 25

COVER STORY: GERMANY

“At present a major concern is the role of the battery and how it will be defined, especially as it grows in importance and receives more regulatory scrutiny. Is it an energy provider itself? Is it classified according to the source of energy it draws from? When these questions are answered, we will see more systems optimized around the incentives and disincentives built into the regulatory framework”. — Martin Sinz, Exide Technologies Another option is to curb the rate of renewable energy build out, it’s an interim solution that doesn’t deal with the nub of the problem. But the solution, as Germany pushes towards a way forward is at the same time to facilitate a market where flexible resources designed to support more decentralized generation — based on renewables — can play. This requires changes to policy and market regulations that are more energy storagecentric. It also means creating a level playing field for all, including incumbents as well as other investors in energy storage, such as independent power producers, as well as developers of energy storage themselves. Germany seems to be embarking on this last option, setting a target of no more than

26 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

40%-45% of electricity supply coming from renewables by 2025. Switching the contracting of onshore wind and ground-mount (largescale) solar PV to an auction process sets limits on the amounts of new capacity that will be installed. It will also dissuade smaller players, such as community wind and solar farm owners who have driven the market so far, from bidding because they cannot afford to fail. This leaves large players such as investor-owned power companies as the ones most likely to dominate new build out in future. The more cynical might also see this approach as allowing power companies time to get their house in order to remain relevant and profit from the transition away from centralized fossil fuel power generation to decentralized one.

The great divide

Germany’s biggest power companies, Eon and RWE, have both split off their underperforming traditional power generation businesses, reducing these liabilities as they pursue renewables and related areas such as energy efficiency technologies and storage. The problem for energy storage developers is that the market is still heavily slanted in the incumbents’ favour and, understandably, they are frustrated. “In the US the market is taking a much more rational approach to energy storage. They look at storage and say, ‘If it is cheaper, let’s do it’. In Germany we are seeing the remnants of an ideological battle, between the conventional power system and one where fossil fuels are becoming obsolete,” says Philip Hiersemenzel, a spokesperson at Berlin-headquartered energy storage provider Younicos. “Increasingly the market is starting to embrace the rationale that storage works, but the framework doesn’t reflect this at present,” Unlike the US, in the wholesale power market operated by PJM Interconnection, energy storage is remunerated favourably, reflecting its ability to respond to grid signals rapidly, within seconds, bringing about better efficiencies in the overall power system. The UK’s new enhanced frequency response market, overseen by grid operator National Grid, though technology agnostic, will benefit from energy storage’s ability to respond rapidly to grid signals. The addition to the Na-

tional Grid’s ancillary services market is attracting a mix of businesses, from utilities to independent power producers, which have bid for contracts, many of which propose the use of battery storage. “The UK has learned lessons from other markets. It would be good to see the rules change in Germany because currently energy storage is disadvantaged — even though it is a more precise and efficient means to provide some of these ancillary services. But there is no reward for speed or precision,” says Hiersemenzel.

Investment direction

Where power and generation companies are investing in the benefits of battery storage it is to improve either their own grid cost position or enhance the lifetime of over-aged fossil fuel power plants which in return does not help to transform to smart grids, he believes. “That’s why, unfortunately, the market for ancillary services in Germany will not grow as quickly as it could and should, resulting in much unnecessary cost, which will be borne by the taxpayer,” says Hiersemenzel. Lars Möllenhoff, managing director of Gildemeister Energy Storage, says: “Germany is a high-potential market for us but it is still facing legal restrictions for energy storage systems. So, although the German energy market has experienced a solid boom in recent years — Energiewende — demand is only increasing slowly. “That said, we expect further changes in legislation that will open up new application possibilities and boost demand.” Uncertainty around the regulatory framework, adds a dimension of risk for investors who must take into account how future legislation could affect returns, making it harder to provide the firm predictions that could lead to more capital being deployed. “With predictability, lenders will also offer higher levels of leverage, making equity returns more lucrative for investors. At present a major concern is the role of the battery and how it will be defined, especially as it grows in importance and receives more regulatory scrutiny,” says Martin Sinz, product director, advanced applications and renewables at Exide Technologies. “So is it an energy provider itself? Is it classified according to the source of energy it draws from? When these questions are answered, we will see

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COVER STORY: GERMANY more systems optimized around the incentives and disincentives built into the regulatory framework.” Energy storage has the potential to be a great addition to the tool box of infrastructure assets that distributed network operators (DNOs) — the utilities that own and operate the distribution network of towers and cables that bring electricity from the transmission system to the consumer. “However, the German regulator, the Bundesnetzagentur, takes the view that grid-supporting energy storage is a producer/consumer of electricity. We think that’s wrong. Storage is part of the transmission and distribution (T&D) network, like power cables and transformers,” says Hiersemenzel. DNOs operate under strict rules. Even if a DNO has onsite PV generation, for its own consumption, and some do, not one drop of the electricity generated can be supplied to the grid. Storage makes the grid more flexible as it can accommodate growth in intermittent renewables on parts of the network. It would also allow for a speedier and less controversial grid upgrade. Younicos has built 100MW of its global storage capacity in under a year, often in a matter of months. “The installations receive as much NIMBY (not in my back yard) opposition as substations, which is to say practically none, whereas large groups are active all over Germany to oppose the massive construction of power lines,” says Hiersemenzel.

Strict rules

If DNOs were able to either directly invest in, or contract, storage services they could add the cost to their grid charges as they do with the costs of power lines or substations. “Unfortunately, a very German reading of EU rules is preventing that,” he says. Projects are happening though. Last year Parker Hannifin supplied Westnetz, the largest distribution system operator in Germany and a subsidiary of RWE International, with a 250kW/1MWh lithium ion battery storage system. The grids in rural areas in Germany are under strain due to increasing levels of solar PV generation on the network, especially in the summer when output is highest. Reinforcing the network infrastructure with new distribution lines and transformers would have been far from cheap in terms of time and labour. The containerized storage system provided by Parker Hannifin, using

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its grid-tie inverter paired with LG Chem’s batteries, has enough capacity to support the local grid at peak times, storing excess energy generated during sunny periods and releasing it into the grid according to demand.

Infrastructure deferral

Parker Hannifin is installing another energy storage system for Westnetz. Though smaller, at 25kW/55kWh, the capacity is enough to defer more costly grid infrastructure upgrades on the local network. The two storage projects with Westnetz should be able to show DNOs how batteries can be installed on strategic points of the grid network to alleviate problems created by high levels of renewables penetration, via peak shaving and works deferral. Most energy storage activity in Germany, however, is for frequency control applications. Recently German solar PV plant developer Belectric started serial manufacturing of its latest energy storage system. Belectric will, this year, install the containerized systems on the German transmission network for frequency regulation. The company’s first installation was qualified for frequency response by the transmission network operator in 2015 with the first system installed in the German network at a solar power plant in Alt Daber in Brandenburg which offers services on the primary frequency response market on a weekly basis. “Through its 10 months of operation, the battery system at Alt Daber has proven its excellent ability to improve the stability of the transmission network operation through fast response to frequency fluctuations caused by generators or interconnection trips,” says Bernhard Beck, executive chairman of Belectric. Belectric’s system uses lead acid batteries designed for a long service life, low cycle costs, high performance and suitability of any climate conditions. For the system in the Alt Daber installation Exide provided the battery. (However the company is unable to confirm if it is supplying the batteries for Belectric’s wider rollout and Belectric declined to comment.) The primary frequency control market is a finite opportunity though. Last year German utility Steag announced plans to roll out 90MW of battery energy storage across several of its existing power plant sites. The battery plants will provide frequency control services into the primary con-

“If DNOs were able to either directly invest in, or contract, storage services they could add the cost to their grid charges as they do with the costs of power lines or substations. Unfortunately, a very German reading of EU rules is preventing that”. Philip Hiersemenzel, Younicos trol market. At current prices providers can earn about €3,000/MW/week, sufficient to justify the investment by the power producer. However, the primary control market is limited — 600MW in total — and as more resources are commissioned, the prices per MW will come down. This makes it challenging to raise financing for an energy storage system for this application alone. “Banks will raise questions because the prices being paid out today may not be guaranteed in one, two or three years from now,” says Klaus Harder business development manager at Freqcon. “Large power producers will likely be the main ones to build storage to provide frequency control services in the primary control market as they can finance these assets off their own balance sheet.” Other opportunities are starting to emerge for Germany’s energy storage players. “More immediately we expect the disruptive potential of falling renewables and large-scale battery costs to play out, both in before and behind the meter applications, as Germany’s hidden

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 27

COVER STORY: GERMANY “Banks will raise questions because the prices being paid out today may not be guaranteed in one, two or three years from now. Large power producers will likely be the main ones to build storage to provide frequency control services in the primary control market as they can finance these assets off of their own balance sheet”. — Klaus Harder, Freqcon. champions — manufacturers of goods and industrial components often supplying domestic and global demand — move in to capitalize on the efficiency gains and possible revenue streams enabled by intelligent C&I storage products and services,” says Hiersemenzel. To meet the needs of this market, Younicos has developed a more offthe-shelf energy storage product, called the Y-Cube. The customer can choose the battery technology or chemistry most suited to how the system is going to be used but the platform is programmed with a few key functions designed for the C&I market.

Comfort in guarantees

Payback is within seven years. SMEs tend to expect payback within three and a half years. However, Younicos can guarantee its batteries for 10 years, which can give companies comfort that the system will work long enough for it to make back its initial outlay at least. Each case is different. The system can pay for itself by a combination of saving the company costs as well as generating revenues. And, as more projects have been developed, installed and operated with success, crucially financiers are getting increasingly comfortable with energy storage technology. “Bankability has improved dramatically, but regulatory uncertainty can still hurt. However, with the market shifting towards C&I applications bankability is increasingly connected to the customer’s credit rating — which in the case of German industry tends to be good,” says Hiersemenzel. Uncertainty around the regulatory framework adds a dimension of risk. Investors must take account of how future legislation could impact returns, making it harder to provide the firm predictions that could lead to more capital being deployed. Even in Germany, a country that boasts one of the most resilient grids

28 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

in Europe — if not the world— the spectre of power outages has begun to enter the minds of manufacturers and other small to mid-sized enterprises (SMEs). Even power losses that last under a minute in length can be savagely damaging to the operations of a company or a producer. Installing energy storage on-site can help Germany’s SMEs in three ways; by peak shaving, optimizing self-consumption of any electricity generated by the company, such as solar PV, and by providing back-up power in case of power shortages and failures. A few years ago, as part of a research project with the University of Paderborn, AEG Power Solutions installed an industrial microgrid on its site in Warstein-Belecke. Consisting of an 250kW/250kWh energy storage system using a lead acid battery, a 250kW car port PV plant and a 450kW combined heat and power plant, as well as power conversion electronics, the microgrid has reduced the site’s peak load from 2MW down to 1.6MW, with the potential to reduce this further, to 1.4MW, with additional refinements to the system.

Standardization

The project, which was finished a few months ago, has enabled AEG PS to develop a standardized portfolio of products that the company can offer to SMEs to reduce their energy expenditure and insure themselves against grid outages. At the time, lead acid was chosen because lithium ion batteries were deemed too expensive. “Over the last 18 months to two years, which was when we published initial results from the project only in German, the economics have improved,” says Stefan Kempen, vertical market manager, grid and storage, at AEG PS. “Mainly this is through reductions in battery prices, especially lithium ion, which are about 30% less today than they

were two years ago. The other factor is the cost of electricity, which has gone up, by about 20% for SMEs.” A company’s actual annual electricity expenditure can be tricky to assume, since it depends on how much electricity is consumed, measured in kWh, but also when this electricity is consumed, measured in kW. The base load over a year might be relatively low, but if the consumption has lots of peaks then this can incur the same expenditure as running continuous loads 24/7. The electricity consumption is monitored throughout the year, by meter readings every 15 minutes. The highest occurring peak in consumption determines this component of the pricing, which is in €/kW. Additionally, contracts with energy suppliers are structured around a maximum threshold based on the company’s projected demand. So, if a company, for instance agrees a threshold of, for example, 1.5MW with the supplier, but may have to exceed it, say by ramping productivity to meet an order, then it can end up paying significant sums, in the region of tens of thousands of euros on top of its projected annual electricity bill expenditure. In principle this type of billing of commercial and industrial users — which tend to be large users of electricity — compared with other customers, like residential, is similar to the US, where C&I customers are faced with high peak demand charges to steer them away from using electricity during times of highest demand. Kempen says: “Depending on the individual customer, it is about balancing those three criteria — peak shaving, increased self-consumption and back-up. From this you are able to determine how much energy storage that you need.” Reasonable payback is definitely achievable. “These businesses tend to be family-owned. They tend not to think long-term about energy, so they

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COVER STORY: GERMANY want to buy something and expect it to pay for itself, within three to three and half years. It is already possible in several cases,” says Kempen. Since AEG PS has been talking to businesses, back-up has emerged as an important feature to have. “Statistics tell us that we have a very stable and reliable grid here in Germany,” says Kempen. “But companies increasingly that are thinking about investing in energy storage, see backup as an important benefit to provide insurance against possible increases in frequency but the duration of grid outages.” He gives the example of one company that experienced an outage of just three minutes. “They lost a week of productivity due to those few minutes without power. Their IT systems were fine because they had UPS. But the production itself was significantly impacted, because it is a sensitive process.” Investing in a large UPS system is not economical. The industrial microgrid platform is, because it achieves its payback by peak shaving, while also acting as back-up when necessary.

“The discussions we were having are more serious. People we talked to are more knowledgeable about the economics of storage, they have done their calculations. On the policy front it is more promising. In the past Germany has said it has not needed storage”. — Chris Christiansen, Alevo Beyond Germany, there is the potential for the system in the US, where grid reliability is a big concern for businesses, especially up and down the east coast. To develop projects, AEG PS works with the customer like a technical consultant. “We ask them for their load profile for the current year, and

EnErgy StoragE

nEw SolutionS nEEdEd

up to the two previous years if necessary,” says Kempen. “We analyze the load profile, including any on-site renewable generators for residual load profiles. This gives us a clear sense of what the company’s power needs are and what capacity the storage system should have.” By peak shaving the system is able to

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COVER STORY: GERMANY

“Energy trading is an exciting area, with stored energy captured and then released when pricing reaches attractive levels. Negative electricity prices hold the key to unlocking the full potential in this market, creating more lucrative arbitrage opportunities and allowing energy storage solutions to absorb excess supply.” pay for itself, but by optimizing selfconsumption the payback timeframe is improved further since the company’s requirement for grid electricity to meet its base load demand is reduced. In addition the company can receive revenues from the storage system’s ability to compensate reactive power on the grid, which goes towards paying off the cost of the system. AEG PS provides various hardware and other key components, including power conversion equipment and energy management software controls, but it prefers to work with engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms that can be contracted to build the project. “We prefer not to be a turnkey supplier. We focus more providing a technical solution, which uses our technology,” says Kempen. “Due to our long-term experience with batteries from our UPS business we have a good relationship to many battery partners that we can choose from and can recommend. We are able to select and propose the battery technology that brings the greatest technical and economic benefits to the customer-specific application.” Since the battery is the most expensive component, AEG PS avoids supplying the battery as it has to build in a margin. “But some companies want a single interface or system integrator, so we can be that if that is what they prefer,” he says. Freqcon is supplying an energy stor-

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age system for an industrial client in the food processing industry in Germany. The 300kW system, which uses lithium ion batteries from China Aviation Lithium Battery Company (CALB), should be ready to go live in mid-2016. The system combines several functions. It is sized to reduce the manufacturing customer’s peak demand, which saves the company about €30,000/ MW a year.

Shorter payback returns

However, that alone would not be a sufficient reason to install the system. SMEs are looking for a payback/return within three years and this would take longer. But, the customer has been suffering from blips in the quality of its electricity supply. Though small, these tend to trip out the controllers running the processing line, which can incur costs of several thousand euros for every incident. The battery system’s other function is to provide stability and power quality, with back-up, if necessary, where the system acts in island mode. Combining these functions with peak shaving has justified the cost of the investment in the battery system. Harder says such cases among commercial/industrial end-users are quite unusual, however. “Reducing peak demand is not a sufficient singular application for investing in an energy storage system, with the current cost of energy storage technology. There

are companies and SMEs with serious power quality issues, but they are not that many.” Where Harder does see potential in the next 18 months or so is in the solar and wind sectors, where independent power producers (IPPs) are trading power in the day ahead market. “These days weather forecasting and technologies such as supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems for wind and solar PV plants are good at providing 90% accuracy for operators to know what their output is going to be the next day. Energy storage will firm up that remaining 10%,” says Harder. Doing this does not require a huge outlay in batteries. A 20MW solar PV or wind power plant might only need a 2MW/2MWh energy storage system to provide this remaining 10% of accuracy for the day-ahead power trading market. “We definitely see utility scale solar and wind plants plus storage quickly emerging as a growth market both in the C&I as well as in the IPP segment,” says Hiersemenzel. “The challenge with renewables is not that the sun sometimes doesn’t shine or that sometimes we have no wind — we have a very good idea of the forecast for the days ahead — but that we cannot predict exactly when a cloud or a gust of wind will impact generation. Storage can take that uncertainty away.’ But not all are convinced large-scale solar PV market is quite ready yet. One large European developer of large ground-mounted solar PV farms has installed a 1MW battery on an 80MW solar PV farm, for experimental purposes. “We are using it purely for R&D, playing with it to do some trading,” says an official for the company. “But it is not a commercial project. Maybe in two years’ time though we will look at rolling out storage, when the cost of batteries have come down.” Industrial battery supplier Exide is working on several different energy storage projects in the German market, including collaborations with grid operators, large-scale deployments for solar and wind parks, and projects in the manufacturing industry, where energy costs are often a big operating expense. Talking in demand terms, as opposed to specific end-user groups, Sinz says: “There is demand for primary control energy projects, black start capabilities, peak shaving/time-shifting and a range of other applications. Interest-

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COVER STORY: GERMANY ingly, we are seeing businesses become increasingly sophisticated in how they combine applications, allowing capital expenditure to be apportioned accordingly.” In Germany, Parker is speaking to power producers, which are looking to build energy storage plants at their existing power plant sites or sites of retired power plants to provide frequency control services in the primary frequency control market in Germany.

Frequency control

Pockets of demand for energy storage are emerging here and there. At present, the best bet looks to be providing frequency control services into the primary control market, with providers and suppliers of energy storage finding growing interest for energy storage within the C&I segment. As storage prices continue to fall providers have their eye on emerging applications. Arbitrage in the power trading markets is one of these, according to Sinz. “Energy trading is an exciting area, with stored energy captured and then released when pricing reaches attractive levels. Negative electricity prices hold the key to unlocking the full potential in this market, creating more lucrative arbitrage opportunities and allowing energy storage solutions to absorb excess supply.” Germany has had negative electricity pricing for intraday market and the day-ahead market for several years. Not all markets in Europe do. Germany also has key conditions creating an increase in negative pricing occurrences: a large inflexible renewable generation capacity and periods of low demand, which displace conventional capacity. The increasing share of renewable energy is forcing the market to be more responsive to power demand. Loadfollowing operations face challenges in providing this role, with more stress being placed on infrastructure, and operating constraints that lead to less energy efficiency. Effectively, using conventional generation plants to ramp up and down has the same effect as driving a car badly, affecting overall operation, potentially meaning they don’t last as long as they have been built to. “Energy storage can help optimize the operational lifetime. This is creating compelling opportunities for the technology, with batteries able to recharge when demand is low and discharge when demand is high,” says Sinz.

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However, energy storage shoring up the existing power system could be seen as symptomatic of a market that is hanging on to its existing power system, based around fossil fuels, for as long as it can. However, the tide is turning. Solar PV prices are continuing to fall. In Germany’s fourth round of PV auctions, prices fell as low as €0.074/kWh. So too are the prices of batteries for energy storage where reductions have been in the region of 23%-30% in the last three years, according to various analysts. And, of course as a price trend, this is irreversible, Energy storage providers’ estimates regarding payback times are also converging, which is good news for the C&I segment. Younicos claims payback within seven years, or fewer, plus a long guarantee on its batteries, compared with other available options. “Payback depends on the installation, since projects vary widely,” says Sinz. “The regulatory framework is still maturing, market norms are in their infancy, but the trajectory looks promising. At current prices, existing projects often see a payback period of five to 10 years. “Faster payback can be achieved by combining the system with additional applications such as peak shaving and uninterruptible power supply.”

Bright prospects

US energy storage provider Alevo says it sees Germany as looking more promising. Having attended the Energy Storage show in Germany for two years running now, executive vice president Christopher Christiansen says this year was much more interesting. “The exhibition wasn’t necessarily bigger, but the discussions we were having are more serious. “People we talked to are more knowledgeable about the economics of storage, they have done their calculations. On the policy front it is more promising. In the past Germany has said it has not needed storage.” But, he says, this is changing, “T&D deferral, ramp supporting, peak shaving, these are all services that Germany’s grid will need increasingly and they are services that energy storage can provide.” And, unlike a few years ago, the energy storage industry has also amassed a wealth of experience from their operational energy storage installations, providing greater proof that the technology works, improving investors’

These days weather forecasting and technologies are good at providing 90% accuracy for operators to know what their output is going to be the next day. Energy storage will firm up that remaining 10%. Doing this does not require a huge outlay in batteries. A 20MW solar PV or wind power plant might only need a 2MW/2MWh energy storage system to provide this remaining 10% of accuracy for the day-ahead power trading market.

confidence. Germany, the country that has pioneered the production of energy from sun and wind is a mass of contradictions. The success story has been the take up of energy storage by consumers. This year the market for new residential PV and storage installations is expected to double in size, according to industry association BSW Solar and leading energy storage system providers. Together the installed capacity of home storage systems far exceeds the connected grid-scale storage capacity in Germany. Based on the regulatory framework in place today energy storage might be disadvantaged but there the willingness to deploy the technology is growing now that the economics are starting to be pencilled out, which will continue to unlock demand.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 31

COVER STORY: GERMANY

Who’s who in Germany’s rapidly emerging grid-scale energy storage sector The huge boom in renewables in Germany is now being followed by the arrival of energy storage in scale. Defining the key players for an energy storage provider is tricky — and not just because this is a landscape that is changing fast. But also Germany has a growing number of domestic players that are also looking for scale in their international ambitions. Most of Germany’s home-grown energy storage providers are pureplay companies, set up precisely to commercialize energy storage. The majority of them are active in Germany’s fast-growing residential energy storage market, the largest in the

world by installed capacity. Start-up Younicos is unique as the company is focused purely on largescale energy storage markets, mainly working with utilities, power companies, independent power producers and companies in the C&I segment. The company differentiates its commercial offering with a sophisticated software controls platform, which can handle a dozens of grid signals and applications — revenue stacking is what Younicos’ technology likes to sink its teeth into. The firm has spent several years integrating and optimizing its software controls to work with batteries and

Old and new together. Aerial view of Stadtkraft’s run-of-river hydropower plant Dörverden in Lower Saxony. It was commissioned in 1914 and has an installed capacity of 4.2MW. Note the three 1MW battery containers. Inset: close up of the three Ads-tec containers providing network services.

32 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

battery management systems from leading suppliers of lithium ion cells, including Samsung and Leclanché. Younicos has condensed much of its know-how and learning into the Y Cube, a plug-and-play storage product that can be used with different battery technologies and makes, maximizing flexibility, while minimizing cost by using a standardized, easily to install and deploy system. Belectric is a solar PV plant developer and provides services such as engineering procurement and construction and operations and maintenance to the European and global solar PV industry, having built over 1.5GW of operational PV capacity. Belectric’s portfolio includes renewable energy plants designed to be grid-friendly, with all components sourced from Belectric. The company’s PV plants include power conditioning inverters to stabilize the grid. The company also supplies and installs hybrid versions, using PV, batteries and diesel generation, to reduce fuel costs. While other solar PV developers and EPCs deliberate expanding their portfolios to include energy storage, Belectric is aggressively targeting energy storage opportunities, at home and abroad. The company has developed and qualified, in 2015, an energy storage system, called the Energy Buffer Unit. The EBU, installed at a solar plant in Alt Daber, Brandenburg, provided 1.3MW frequency response in Germany’s primary frequency control market by transmission network operator, 50Hertz. The Energy Buffer Unit is thus officially approved for the provision of the most important ancillary service for grid operation: frequency response. The EBU in the project uses advanced lead acid batteries, supplied by Exide and includes inverters. The storage capacity is 948kWh and is available starting at half a million euros. Belectric has started rolling out the EBU on the transmission grid in Germany.

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CONTAINERIZED ENERGY STORAGE SOLUTIONS

The growing integration of renewable energy into the electrical grid creates new challenges to grid operators as well as producers and consumers of electrical energy. Renewable energy sources are highly volatile, and the power generation from wind or sun is not always in line with the consumption. Battery energy storage solutions play a major role in compensating this imbalance and its related costs. Energy storage solutions are also becoming increasingly viable for off-grid and micro-grid solar applications. A great example are rural areas in emerging markets, where, until now, diesel generators have been used at night or when the sun is behind the clouds. Often it is far more cost-effective to rely on battery storage, thus avoiding the expensive transport of diesel to remote locations. GNB has worked on major deployments of this nature, where batteries are either used alone or as part of a hybrid solution. To meet this demands GNB® Industrial Power has developed Restore 500, a modular „Plug & Store“ energy storage system that helps to control energy from renewables and stabilizes the power generation and consumption. Enhanced grid stabilization and power quality

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COVER STORY: GERMANY Wind storage too

Even wind power industry players are getting involved in energy storage. Wind farm developer Energiequelle has teamed up with Enercon, one of Germany’s onshore wind turbine manufacturers, to install a 10MW lithium ion battery storage system for providing frequency regulation and other services. Freqcon, which originally supplied power converters for wind turbines, also builds energy storage systems and has worked on projects in Ireland.

Industrial giants

The energy storage market has also attracted large-scale industrial firms, providing grid infrastructure and power generation equipment and uninterruptible power supply systems as well as industrial batteries. AEG Power Solutions, which supplies AC and DC power supplies, solar PV inverters as well as uninterruptible power supply systems is also active in Germany’s utility and C&I energy storage markets. The company is working with partners to put together cost-effective offerings that deploy battery-based energy storage. As the battery is the most expensive block in an energy storage system, reducing battery size is the most effective way to reduce the overall cost of the storage system. AEG PS has done this by combining a battery based energy storage system with a power-toheat system. The company is targeting the platform at various entities that use ther-

mal processes in their facilities, such as local heat networks in combination with electrical distribution networks, as well as SMEs with demand for power and processing heat, which could also provide frequency control services. By combining energy storage with a power-to-heat system the battery can operate at 100% state-of-charge, using all available capacity, so the amount of battery capacity can be reduced. Any electricity the system absorbs from the grid goes straight to powering the heating/thermal system. Exide Technologies is a global lead acid battery manufacturer supplying batteries for a range of transportation and stationary storage markets. The company has operations in more than 80 countries, and through this network has supplied large-scale renewable installations in regions as varied as the Middle East as well as rural electrification projects in Africa. In Germany, Exide is working on projects across the country. The company is a participant in the Modular Multi-megawatt, Multitechnology Medium-Voltage Battery Storage System (M5BAT) project, located at RWTH Aachen University, and supported with funding from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. In the energy storage industry, Exide classes itself as a battery provider, however, as project developers tend to prefer one provider that is accountable for the whole energy storage system, Exide is investigating expanding its role to systems integrator.

Seven decades of air pollution. The market in California today reflects the first-hand effects of exhaust emissions— even in the 1940s (top pictured) as a result of Los Angeles undergoing rapid population growth and industrialization, which also coincided with the automotive boom.

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The EBU in the project uses advanced lead acid batteries, supplied by Exide and includes inverters. The storage capacity is 948kWh and is available starting at half a million euros. The installation uses lithium ion and lead acid batteries. Exide supplied its VRLA gel and CSM copper plate technology, optimized for highcyclic application capacity and highcurrent discharge. Industrial engineering firms Siemens and Bosch have also developed energy storage systems and have carried out projects in Germany. Siemens has been dabbling in energy storage for the past few years, including piloting containerized battery offerings. The company’s Siestorage system is used by industrial customers in Germany. Last year, Siemens teamed up with Ads-tec, a German manufacturer and supplier of industrial IT systems and battery-based storage, to commercialize a modular large-scale battery storage system, called StoRent, enabling utilities and other customers to rent energy storage services. The platform emerged from the two companies’ participation in the Storegio association in the Metropolitan Rhein-Neckar region of Germany. The StoRent system uses the same technology as Siemens’ Siestorage offering but has been developed for multiple use cases, which can provide benefits for different stakeholders. Ads-tec also has its own portfolio of energy storage systems, under the Storaxe brand, spanning home storage up to grid storage systems. The company builds batteries from third party cells, including Leclanché’s and SK. In March 2016 the company announced that its battery storage system has been deployed to provide primary balancing power to stabilize grid frequency. The facility is located at a 100-year old hydro power plant in Dörverden, operated by Stadtkraft. The 3MW lithium ion battery system provides network services for the local connection, regulating fluctuations in grid frequency, which is rated at 50Hz.

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COVER STORY: GERMANY Some of Germany’s biggest grid battery projects to date.

Four of the best Wemag Younicos battery plant Owner/operator: Utility owned Total capacity: 5MW Technology: lithium ion battery Energy storage provider/contractor: Younicos Description: Europe’s first commercial battery park, which became operational in 2014 provides frequency services in the primary frequency regulation market. Additional revenues are possible through voltage support. Wemag, a utility in Schwerin, Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania, owns the plant developed by Younicos, which uses lithium ion cells from Samsung SDI. Younicos is upgrading the Schwerin battery plant with black-start capability which will allow it to power up the city much more quickly in the event of a blackout.

MBAT5 Owner/operator: third-party owned Total capacity: 5MW Technology: Hybrid, including lead acid and lithium ion batteries Description: The Modular Multi-Megawatt MultiTechnology Medium-Voltage Battery Storage (M5BAT) supported with €6.5 billion in funding from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is a hybrid battery system. The project went live at the end of 2015. The facility uses high output lithium ion batteries for short-duration discharge, high temperature batteries for medium-duration discharge and lead acid batteries for short- and medium-duration discharge. Applications include renewables integration, testing of distributed regulating energy provision to promote grid stability, and power-price arbitrage.

Steag’s battery storage rollout Owner/operator: Utility-owned Total capacity: 90MW/140MWh Technology: lithium ion batteries Cost: €100 million Energy storage provider/main contractor: Nidec Ansaldo Industrial Systems (ASI) and LG Chem. Description: During 2016 and 2017 six 15MW lithiumion battery storage units will be put into service at Steag power plants in Germany. The facilities will be used by Steag to generate primary balancing power; frequency

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regulation. STEAG has already successfully put a largescale battery (1 MW) on the market for control power in the form of the LESSY system at the Völklingen-Fenne power plant, The systems will be installed at power stations at Herne, Lünen, Duisburg-Walsum, Bexbach, Fenne, and Weiher. Nidec ASI will install and commission the plants. Over the past two years, Nidec ASI has installed energy storage systems worldwide, including the French islands of La Réunion, Corsica, and French Guiana, as well as supplied projects in Italy for Terna and for Italian utility Enel Green Power overseas, including Chile.

Feldheim Regional Regulating Power Station Owner/operator: Third party owned Total capacity: 10MW Technology: lithium ion battery Cost: €12.8 million Energy storage provider/contractor: Joint project implemented by Energiequelle and Enercon. Description: The 10MW lithium ion battery storage system, using LG Chem cells went live in 2015. The facility is a joint project by German wind farm developer Energiequelle and Enercon, which has supplied the power electronics. The battery will provide frequency regulation for the transmission grid. Other services and benefits include renewables capacity firming and deferral of transmission upgrades due to wind. The project has been supported by Brandenburg regional government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

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COVER STORY: GERMANY

AEG PS launches battery plus power-to-heat system AEG Power Solutions, a supplier of grid equipment and uninterruptible power supply systems, has developed a new platform to reduce the cost of battery-based energy storage. Because the battery is the most expensive component in an energy storage system, reducing the size of the battery remains the most effective way to bring down the cost. AEG PS, headquartered in the Netherlands but with operations in Germany, has developed a platform that combines battery storage with powerto-heat technology. The combined system can be deployed by any entity that uses thermal processes in its facilities, including local heat networks in combination with electrical distribution networks. The company is also targeting the commercial and industrial segment, where some companies and manufacturers have demand for electricity and processing heat. The battery can generate revenues by provide frequency control services as well as provide other benefits, such as back-up. Stefan Kempen, who is product manager for grid and storage at AEG PS, says: “There is no support or grants for energy storage, which I am fine with, as it means we will see healthy, stable growth, rather than the boom and bust cycles of the solar PV market. “Since we first entered the energy storage industry a few years ago, battery costs have come down considerably and will continue to do so. However, we found we had to do something to bring down the cost to help bridge that gap.” For a stand-alone battery storage system to provide grid frequency regulation, the battery has to maintain a state-of-charge of 50%, to both absorb and inject energy into the grid. By combining energy storage with a power-to-heat system the battery can operate at 100% state-of-charge, using all available capacity. Any electricity the system absorbs from the grid goes straight to powering the heating/thermal system, as opposed to charging the battery. As the battery is about 70% of the whole system’s capital expenditure, when the battery size is halved, the

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“There is no support or grants for energy storage, which I am fine with, as it means we will see healthy, stable growth, rather than the boom and bust cycles of the solar PV market”— Stefan Kempen, AEG PS overall energy storage system cost comes down significantly. AEG PS has developed a dedicated battery storage plus power-to-heat platform, where the battery’s power control system (PCS), including the medium voltage connection, can also control the power of the heater. “So far, we are the only company that has come up with something like this,” says Kempen. The platform covers aspects such as the how the components, including the battery storage, the power-to-heat and power conversion hardware is all connected up, as well as the software controls required to operate the system. The key components include the energy management system — the brains

of the platform — the power electronics, the medium voltage connection equipment, including transformer and switchgear, communications, the battery system and the power-toheat system. This last piece of equipment is supplied by German company Schniewindt. Though AEG PS has only recently finalized the development of the system and begun promoting it, there are already customers showing strong interest in the offering. “For utilities, they can install the system on their existing power plant sites, or on those that they are retiring, where there is everything they need to integrate and connect the system into the grid,” Kempen says.

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COVER STORY: GERMANY With the storage subsidy now reinstated, Germany’s residential solar PV plus storage market looks set to take off this year, drawing more commitment from the utility sector. Sara Verbruggen reports.

Energy storage demand ramps up in Germany’s residential PV market

One of the biggest stories in Germany’s solar photovoltaic industry this year has been the government’s decision to reinstate a subsidy for smallscale energy storage systems. For the German solar PV industry, which is one of the largest in the world, reflecting the 40GW of installed capacity (surpassed only by China’s), the storage subsidy has injected new life into the business. The sector has been hurt by the scaling back of solar PV subsidies, the loss of PV module manufacturing to China and a subsequent EU-Sino trade war. The solar PV industry is pinning a lot of hope on the storage subsidy, despite this expenditure amounting to little compared with the subsidies for solar, wind and other renewables, which surpassed €100 billion ($113

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billion) by 2015. The budget for the storage incentive reinstated in late February, which is set to expire in 2018, is a mere €30 million. According to industry association BSW Solar, every fourth small-scale solar PV system (under 10kW) installed in Germany is equipped with a battery storage system. The figure varies from company to company. To date about 35,000 systems have been installed, comprising units supported with the incentive paid by the state-controlled KfW bank, as well as those systems installed without support. Together it is the equivalent to roughly 192MWh of energy storage capacity on the grid. Just under two thirds of every PV coupled storage system installed is subsidized.

According to BSW Solar, with the support reinstated, a further 20,000 systems could be installed by the end of this year. Sonnen, one of the market leaders in Germany’s distributed behind-themeter storage market, says that its certified partners install almost no standalone solar PVs in the residential market. “Most PV — about 95% — is installed with an energy storage system,” says Mathias Bloch, a spokesperson for the company. In 2015 Sonnen sold about 4,000 storage systems in Germany. “Our goal is to double this at least in 2016,” he says. The company supplies at least one third of demand for energy storage systems in Germany. The market has enticed major energy players to dip a toe in the water, and there is none bigger than German utility E.on, which supplies over six million customers in the country. The utility is in the final stages of unburdening itself of conventional power generation assets, including gas and coal-fired power stations, to focus on renewables and downstream services aimed at customers wanting more control in terms of where their energy comes from and how they use it. In April E.on announced it was introducing an energy storage system, branded Aura, complete with an app for showing a household’s energy consumption and a 100% green power electricity tariff devised by E.on and solar panels if the customer wants one provider for their entire PV and storage installation. The utility’s energy storage partner is Solarwatt. E.on’s Aura energy storage system is based on the same technology, including battery modules and the energy management system, used in Solarwatt’s MyReserve energy storage product.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 37

COVER STORY: GERMANY THE NEW COMMUNITY OF SHARING

Sonnen Community lets members that generate their own power store it and share surpluses online with other members. It consists of producers, consumers and storage operators that can supply each other with self-generated electricity and gives them independence from the established electricity providers. Members don’t have to have a PV and storage system installed but can obtain electricity from the community and benefit from lower energy costs because self-supply of electricity is decentralized. For Sonnen the approach is selfsustaining. The more consumers that join the platform helps to promote interest in the company’s

battery storage system, where the ability to self-generate electricity and benefit from further savings through trading electricity more efficiently, payback times can be enhanced. Getting into the market for behind the meter distributed energy storage requires a strategy. In Germany where consumers want to be more independent of the grid and become more reliant on renewable energy for their electricity needs, new markets are evolving that circumvent the traditional way of utilities controlling energy supply. Utilities are trying to grasp this but it remains to be seen whether they are doing it quickly enough.

“It’s up to energy storage system providers to make it economically attractive, whether there are incentives or not”— Mathias Bloch, Sonnen 38 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

“Our partnership with the company extends to more than just white labelling and reselling their energy storage system,” says Johannes von Clary, head of PV innovation at E.on Energie Deutschland. “We were looking for a partner that not only supplied a high quality system, ideally where the components are made in Germany but the strategic fit was important too.” Later on E.on wants to develop versions of the energy storage system that come with features gleaned from feedback from its customers. “We wanted a partner that has the flexibility and willingness to work with us to deliver a system based on our requirements as they might change or develop in future,” von Clary says. “As we move forward with our cooperation with E.on, we foresee that the Aura storage system will follow its own roadmap to leverage the specific grid capabilities of E.on,” says Detlef Neuhaus, Solarwatt’s managing director. Solarwatt is a fast-mover in the solar PV industry. It began selling energy storage systems three years ago when the storage subsidy was first introduced. Until 2014 the company had sourced its battery systems from market leader Sonnen. “We started off with a cooperation with Sonnen (which was named Prosol at the time) but then realized that this was not what we were aiming for. This gave us the push to start our own development which then culminated in the MyReserve energy storage system,” says Neuhaus. This year Solarwatt acquired EWolf, its supplier of battery storage systems since 2014. E-Wolf was set up by the battery technology group at the Toyota Racing Formula 1 team. The technicians had developed the control and battery management technology, called Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). The know-how that went into the charging and discharging algorithms in the BMS is the basis of those used in the MyReserve system. With E-Wolf now a subsidiary, Neuhaus says: “Using a modular construction principle, MyReserve will be developed further to store larger quantities of electricity and to deliver higher currents. A key focus is to bring the cost down while upholding our high safety standards. Cost and the economic case will be critical in succeeding with a mass-market product,” says Neuhaus.

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COVER STORY: GERMANY E.on won’t provide projections about how many systems it expects to sell in Germany over the next year to 18 months. However, the tie-up could boost sales of PV plus storage in Germany, due to E.on’s large customer base and national distribution network. In 2015 the utility announced a new maintenance service for customers with PV panels installed and the utility is now working with a number of independent and third party companies, including solar installers and electricians, to bring them up to speed on its system and qualify them to install it. “It is clear that the utilities have to find new business models,” says Jörg Mayer, managing director of BSW Solar. “This process is still going on. As PV plus storage will be one of the most important components of the future electricity system it is a big opportunity for the utilities. Their advantage is their large customer base.” E.on’s launch is well timed. It follows electric car maker Tesla’s announcement that it was entering the home storage market with its Powerwall battery in early 2015, energy storage has emerged as the next musthave gadget — even when the payback timeframes are in excess of a decade. “We welcome any new competitors on the market like E.on who are helping to increase the public’s interest in energy storage systems,” says Bloch. Sonnen’s OEM partners include rival German utility RWE, which has been white-labelling Sonnen’s battery storage systems and selling them since 2012. RWE’s annual sales are in the region of several hundred, while the majority of Sonnen’s energy storage system sales are through its network of solar PV installers. “We’ll continue to see more competition in the market as energy storage becomes more financially attractive,” says Bloch. In Germany energy storage system prices have fallen by 25% since 2013, a major factor being reductions in lithium ion battery prices, which have come down by a third since the first quarter of 2013, according to Aachen University. Sonnen’s first generation offering, launched in 2011, cost about €20,000 for a 4kWh system. This fell to about €10,000 for the same capacity in 2013. Today a 4kWh system from the company costs about €5,000. Such price drops are a clear result of the storage programme, having up

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“A self-consumption level of up to 70% is possible with Aura in the basic version. Consumers don’t have to pay for electricity they produce and use themselves”— Johannes von Clary, Eon GERMANY’S PV PLUS STORAGE MARKET

According to the research institute ISEA at Aachen University PV plus storage hotspots in Germany are Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg. With subsidy support now reintroduced in 2016, the BSW Solar association estimates that by the end of the year a further 20,000 new energy storage systems will be installed in Germany. By December 2015 approximately 19,000 new KfW-subsidized storage systems had been fulfilled since May 2013, with each one on average having a capacity of 5kWh-6kWh. Lithium ion systems dominate with 90% of the market, with lead acid batteries accounting for the rest.

In 2014 the demand for lithium ion based systems doubled and then doubled again in 2015. The leading energy storage system makes and models supplied in Germany include products from Sonnen, Senec, SMA, IBC Solar, Solarwatt and Varta. Tesla has also launched its Powerwall in Germany. Sonnen, one of the first entrants, is the market leader by market share of systems sold. Lithium ion battery prices have dropped by 23% since the first quarter of 2013 (BSW-Preismonitor). Market research by RWTH Aachen estimates prices to have reduced by one third since Germany began subsidizing energy storage systems in 2013.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 39

COVER STORY: GERMANY TRACKING ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM PRICES IN GERMANY

“A key focus is to bring the cost down while upholding our high safety standards. Cost and the economic case will be critical in succeeding with a mass market product”— Detlef Newhaus, Solarwatt

“It is clear that the utilities have to find new business models. This process is still going on. As PV plus storage will be one of the most important components of the future electricity system it is a big opportunity for the utilities. Their advantage is their large customer base” — Jörg Mayer, BSW Solar 40 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

scaled the market, says Mayer. Still, despite these positive signs that energy storage systems are becoming more affordable, payback inside the lifetime of the system is not possible without the subsidy. “The payback timeframe is still a long one if you assume the retail electricity price remains stable during the next few years. Storage prices should fall another 20-30% to reach grid parity safely (meaning payback during storage lifetime). “However, profitability is not the key business driver. Storage systems are increasing the energy independence of households and they are hedging households against rising retail prices,” says Mayer. Von Clary agrees that the main driver for customers in Germany is the ability for PV coupled with energy storage to increase energy independence. “A self-consumption level of up to 70% is possible with Aura in the basic version. Consumers don’t have to pay for electricity they produce and use themselves,” says Von Clary. “Nevertheless, we launched our energy storage system with a very competitive price. It’s eligible for the actual KfW programme and is therefore subsidized, but it also worth it without such a grant — especially when it is sold as a component in our all-in-one package including PV panels, the app and the tariff.” To ensure its systems remained af-

Research by RWTH Aachen and German trade association BSW Solar has been tracking falling costs in lithium ion batteries against lead acid batteries in the residential energy storage market in Germany. Both studies show that both battery technology costs have come down since 2013, when Germany introduced an incentive on PV and storage systems. According to RWTH Aachen’s research, energy storage systems using lead acid batteries cost roughly €1,500/kWh of usable capacity in the first half 2013 dropping to between €1,2501,300/kWh of usable capacity by the second half of 2015. For prices for lithium ion, a much newer battery technology, cost reductions are more dramatic as the technology is starting from a much higher price level. According to RWTH Aachen’s study, in the first half of 2013, lithium ion battery based storage systems cost roughly €3,100/kWh of usable capacity, falling steadily to about €1,900/kWh of usable capacity by the second half of 2015. fordable when there had been no incentive in place earlier this year, Sonnen offered consumers a discount on the price of its energy storage system if they also join its Sonnen Community platform which the company launched late last year. The discount is still in place, even now that the incentive has been introduced. “It’s up to energy storage system providers to make it economically attractive, whether there are incentives or not,” says Bloch.

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GILDEMEISTER: THE CEO INTERVIEW

Driving forward the economics of energy storage Energy Storage Journal spoke to Lars Möllenhoff, general manager for Gildemeister Energy Storage, about the opportunities in Germany and what returns on investment are likely to be.

Lars Möllenhoff has been on the management board of the Austrian company Gildemeister Energy Storage, since 2010 a 100% subsidiary of DMG Mori Seiki. He became general manager in 2012.

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What are the key drivers in 2016 that are helping to accelerate the demand for energy storage in Germany, particularly for utilityled and large-scale grid storage applications? Germany is a high-potential market for us but it is still facing legal restrictions for energy storage systems. So, though the German energy market has experienced a solid boom in recent years due the announcement of the energy transition — Energiewende — demand is only increasing slowly. The energy transition is an ambitious one and we are expecting further changes in the legislation that will open up new application possibilities and boost demand. Increasing demand for electric vehicles in Germany could become a big driver. The German government has recently announced that electric cars should make up 500,000 of total domestic car registrations by the year 2020. However, the current grid will not be able to support this energy demand. The trend will also help make the economic feasibility case for energy storage more straightforward, for energy storage providers like Gildemeister Energy Storage. Instead of extending the grid at very high cost, especially at remote locations like interstate service areas, batteries will be a much more efficient and cost-effective alternative. In general, demand for cars with electric drive is steadily increasing. In Germany while only 1,436 electric cars were recorded up to 2008, registrations skyrocketed to 25,502 by January 1 this year. But still, further development remains an issue of legal incentives. China is a good example of the impact that legal frameworks, designed to facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles, can have. Germany is beginning to understand the impact that legislation can have. In April 2016 Germany’s finance min-

Instead of extending the grid at very high cost, especially at remote locations like interstate service areas, batteries will be a much more efficient and costeffective alternative. Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 41

GILDEMEISTER: THE CEO INTERVIEW Looking at the average of more than 130 realized projects we would probably say that these installations amortize in under 10 years. With decreasing storage cost and increase energy cost this number will be even smaller in the future. ister Wolfgang Schäuble and Sigmar Gabriel, the minister for economic affairs, announced a €4,000 premium on electric car purchases. The cost will be shared 50:50 between government and manufacturers. Daimler, VW and BMW are already on board. Other countries are further ahead. Norway has already recorded almost one quarter of all new cars as electric drive vehicles. Buyers can use free parking, recharge free of cost and pay no toll for tunnels or ferries. The Netherlands also co-funds the purchase of electric cars and so does part of Belgium. Also Austria is considering a total ban of conventional drive cars by 2020. This global development will create a large number of new opportunities for us. This is because the grid will require more reinforcements using battery storage, as demand for electricity for charging electric cars increases and also because installing

and running an energy storage unit is often more cost-effective than expanding the grid in remote locations. You can also use the facility to provide additional grid services. What are the opportunities for large-scale energy storage in the commercial sector in Germany? Electricity prices still dominate the discussion as do decisions regarding specific storage solutions. This will change in future due to two reasons. First, system prices will fall as mass production and automated processes become more widespread in battery and storage system manufacturing. This will cut cost and decrease prices. Second, the vanadium redox flow storage system we have developed differentiates itself from other technologies such as lead acid or lithium batteries when the total cost of ownership is considered.

When large commercial and industrial companies use a storage system like ours they will see that this medium and long term investment is highly profitable due to the extremely long life of the battery and its virtual infinite cycles. Other advantages of vanadium redox flow are the technology’s cycling stability, short-term high performance and its insensitivity regarding deep discharging. In Germany, in particular, market awareness for green energy is already at a high level, so companies are gradually shifting from traditional to greener energy sources. At the moment high demand is coming from operators that already have solar or other renewable energy technologies in use and want to expand their energy autarky. What are realistic timeframes for achieving payback for energy storage in Germany in your view? The return on investment largely depends on the amount of energy you are demanding. The more energy an operator is consuming, the higher their buying power and the lower price that they have to pay. Different end users have different energy requirements so a case-by-case comparison is difficult. At Gildemeister Energy Storage we employ specialized energy consultants

GILDEMEISTER ENERGY STORAGE: THE TECHNOLOGY

Gildemeister Energy Storage, based in Wiener Neudorf, in Austria, is at the forefront of efforts to commercialize vanadium redox flow energy storage systems. The company’s product, the CellCube, has taken more than 15 years to develop, include a decades-worth of

42 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

practical application. The vanadium redox flow battery only uses liquid energy sources with dissolved vanadium salts. Flow batteries do not experience wear and tear through loss of reactive materials, so they can offer practically unlimited cycles

of charging and discharging with up to 80% efficiency and a deep discharge capability of 100%. Vanadium storage systems have liquid energy sources that are safer (neither flammable nor explosive and do not contain any elements harmful to the environment such as lead, cadmium or mercury). The CellCube is modular and independently scalable in power and storage capacity. The CellCube storage system has been installed in over 130 projects, across different application areas, including providing stable and costefficient electricity supply. In combination with solar PV systems, wind power plants, diesel and biogas generators, or operated in parallel to the public grid, the storage system enables a stable power supply for microgrid applications as well as for the energy sector.

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GILDEMEISTER: THE CEO INTERVIEW that calculate the energy demand for each customer independently and recommend a tailor-made storage solution. Looking at the average of more than 130 realized projects — and if you want me to give a tangible figure — we would probably say that these installations amortize in under 10 years. With decreasing storage cost and increase energy cost this number will be even smaller in the future. At current energy storage prices (particularly for batteries), is it only utilities that can make a business case for deploying this technology in Germany, for providing services in the primary control market, for example? What other models exist where ROI prospects are in-line with investors’ requirements? Primary and secondary control is originally not designed for batteries but rather a power application, whereas flow storage solutions are capacity-oriented. From a cost point of view batteries make sense for condominium complexes, large real estate and industrial buildings as electricity prices are very high. A combination with own production of renewable energy is feasible. What hinders this development, however, are German regulations like “Netzentgeld” and “EEG Umlage” which include fees that have to be paid even if you produce your own energy independently. In addition to that we see a growing demand in the grid applications for four hours plus applications such as in Italy with its high levels of renewables penetration in the south, especially wind. This has led the operator Terna

The German government has recently announced that electric cars should make up 500,000 of total domestic car registrations by the year 2020. However, the current grid will not be able to support this energy demand … The trend will also help make the economic feasibility case for energy storage more straightforward to invest in storage with the goal to reduce curtailment. Other countries such as the US and Canada are innovators in the energy sector and are investing not only in frequency regulation but also in energy-centric installations. Germany, however, risks missing this new development as everybody is focusing on frequency regulations right now. But with more and more renewables on the grid we will also need longer duration energy storage systems. What sort of new energy storage/ microgrid projects is Gildemeister working on in Germany — what types of companies/industries are you involved with? We are working with real estate companies and investigating applications where electricity prices are an issue and we can offer a cheaper long term solution with our CellCube platform. CellCube and similar systems will become more and more attractive at a district level as only one device is needed instead of many micro-storage devices and smart meters for each and every housing unit. These projects are all over Germany.

What is the company’s role in the energy storage projects it is working on — as turnkey system provider, lead developer or other, in Germany/Europe? Our main role is to deliver turnkey energy storage systems. We do not develop projects on our own but we do position ourselves as engineering consultants for developers and clients as storage is still new. What challenges remain when it comes to improving the bankability of energy storage projects in Germany? How can these be overcome? From a suppliers’ point of view: financial strength for guarantees, experience and track records, a secondary market for the financial institutes. We bring all these to the table. From a financiers’ point of view: steady and guaranteed cashflows would help. I don’t see these in Germany in the near future but we do have markets like Canada or the US where projects are partly third party financed. Depending on the size of the project the lead developer is typically a project developer or EPC, mainly in the renewables sphere.

GILDEMEISTER PROJECT WORK Gildemeister has completed the majority of installations of its vanadium redox flow battery system in Germany. These include self-consumption optimization on Pellworm Island in the North Sea. The CellCube installation delivers the base load supply for 150 households and grid support. In another self-consumption project, the battery system is installed at a school in Neumarkt, which uses the CellCube as part of a project to show how the system can produce more energy than it consumes over one year. One of the company’s systems is also installed as a distributed storage system for grid use in Darmstadt (pictured).

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Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 43

MARKET VIEW: GRAPHENE Graphene’s function as a component of advanced batteries for energy storage will become increasingly important in coming years. Energy Storage Journal spoke to IDTechEx’s Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, author of the consultancy’s latest report.

Graphene sales to top 3,800 t/y by 2026 with energy storage to account for 40% of the market The latest research from consultancy IDTechEx projects that the graphene market will grow to $220 million in 2026. Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, author of the report — Graphene, 2D Materials and Carbon Nanotubes: Markets, Technologies and Opportunities 2016-2026 — predicts that average sales prices will decline although revenues will grow. Ghaffarzadeh reckons that volume sales will reach nearly 3,800 tonnes a year in 2026. “This forecast is at the material level and does not count the value of graphene-enabled products,” he says. He reckons that the industry will remain in a state of over-capacity until

2021 after which new capacity will need to be installed. He forecasts that nearly 90% of the market value will go to graphene platelets as opposed to sheets by 2026. Energy storage will emerge as a key area for graphene — and nearly $100 million of graphene will be sold into the energy storage sector in 2026. Graphene as an additive in lithium ion electrodes is the main near-term game in play. There are already products on the market and many battery manufacturers, in Asia and elsewhere, are in the later stages of their qualification periods. Carbon nano-technology in particular is offering large increases in lithium ion battery power.

Here too, graphene will play the role of an additive to improve the performance of carbon-based lithium ion electrodes. “There will also be no winning graphene morphology or type: the winner may vary from one battery manufacturer to another, and will depend on the exact formulations used in each battery,” says Ghaffarzadeh. “Note also that battery electrodes are often coated using slurries or pastes. Silicon anode and lithium sulphur batteries also represent long term opportunities.” Other IDTechEx Research forecasts that silicon anode batteries will become a $4.3 billion market by 2026 and $1.2 billion for lithium sulfur. Other Tires Water filtration Anti corrosion coatings Transistors RFID antenna Permeation protection composites

Graphene platellet

Graphene sheet

Thermal composites Conductive composites Sensors Research Li ion batteries Silicon anode batteries Li sulphur batteries Supercapacitors Functional inks and paints High strength composites

2016

2020

2025

Transparent conducting films

Bar chart: Ten-year market projections split by application. Inset pie chart: market share of graphene platelets versus sheets in 2026 by value.

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MARKET VIEW: GRAPHENE Graphene may enable this by helping alleviate a key shortcoming: limited cycle life. Early results show that it can do so in silicon anode batteries by absorbing some of volumetric changes experienced by the Si anodes, and in lithium sulfur batteries by entrapping the LiS particles to prevent the polyshuttle process. The market will be segmented across many applications, reflecting the diverse properties of graphene. Initially the research expect functional inks and coatings to make up a large chunk of demand — about 21% of the market by 2018. Ultimately however, the largest sectors will be energy storage, accounting for around 40%, and composites, 25%, of the market by 2026. The graphene industry market is in a state of flux. The latest filings and company statements show that most companies are still operating at substantial losses. The valuations have also tended to decline. This in turn has put some firms off floating on public markets to raise money. However, the industry is experiencing revenue growth across the board. The research suggests that the industry expects to generate $30 million in 2016. Of this research grants make up at least 50% of the overall revenue. “This demonstrates the vital role that funding bodies are playing in sustaining an early stage industry,” says Ghaffarzadeh. The revenue growth will help graphene companies survive the initial commercialization difficulties and outlive the often prolonged qualification periods. The downside however is that the business landscape is populated with too many weakly capitalized and poorly differentiated players that each generate small revenues.

The graphene industry market is in a state of flux. The latest filings and company statements show that most companies are still operating at substantial losses. The valuations have also tended to decline. This in turn has put some firms off floating on public markets to raise money. www.energystoragejournal.com

In 2002, University of Manchester researcher Andre Geim became interested in graphene and challenged a PhD student to polish a hunk of graphite to as few layers as possible. The student was able to reach 1,000 layers, but could not hit Geim’s goal of 10 to 100 layers. Geim tried a different approach: tape. He applied it to graphite and peeled it away to create flakes of layered graphene. More tape peels created thinner and thinner layers, until he had a piece of graphene 10 layers thick. Geim’s team worked at refining their technique and eventually produced a single layer of carbon atoms. They published their findings in October 2004. Pictured here: graphite, a graphene transistor and a tape dispenser. These were donated to the Nobel Museum in Stockholm by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov in 2010.

GRAPHENE: A STUDY IN SUPERLATIVES Graphene is often called a disruptive technology in that it has an as-yet untapped potential in a huge variety of industries. It a thin layer of pure carbon that is one atom thick and exists as a single, tightly packed layer of carbon atoms bonded in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. It has various superlatives to its properties. • It is the thinnest compound known to man — so thin it is often called the first 2D material and is one million times smaller than a sheet of paper. • It is the lightest material known (with 1m2 weight just 0.77 milligrams. • It is the strongest compound discovered. It is between 100-300 times stronger than steel and has a tensile stiffness of 150,000,000 psi. • It is the best conductor of heat at room • It is the best conductor of electricity yet known (studies have shown electron mobility at values of more than 15,000 cm2·V−1·s−1). • It also has unique levels of light absorption at πα ≈ 2.3% of white light, Graphene is the only form of carbon (or solid material) in which every atom is available for chemical reaction from two sides (due to the 2D structure). Atoms at the edges of a graphene

sheet have special chemical reactivity. Although graphene has been known about for some time creating it has been next to impossible at any commercial price. Graphene was first studied theoretically in the 1940s. At the time, scientists thought it was physically impossible for a two dimensional material to exist, so they did not pursue isolating graphene. Two University of Manchester academics Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov found a way to isolate single layers of graphene in 2004 (they received the Nobel Prize in physics in 2010 for their work). Since then graphene production has improved at a rapid pace. In 2009, researchers were able to create a film of graphene that measured 30 inches across. Recently, several techniques have been developed to prepare nanostructured graphene. These techniques mainly include electron beam lithography, chemical synthesis, electrochemical preparation, graphene oxide reduction, C60 catalytic transformation, the microwave assisted hydrothermal method, the Soft-Template method, the hydrothermal method and the ultrasonic exfoliation method. — ESJ staff writers

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 45

MARKET VIEW: GRAPHENE “The scene is now ripe for a consolidation since the actual market demand will not sustain all the players,” says Ghaffarzadeh. “This will benefit the whole industry since it will reduce the market fragmentation and creates larger and better consolidated entities able to stand on their own feet.” Graphene commercialization follows a substitution strategy. This creates a long term and severe downward price pressure. This is because even the price of the most expensive carbon that it seeks to replace (carbon nanotubes) is rapidly falling (less than $50/kg for multi-walled carbon nanotubes). Price drops are already happening: some suppliers have already starting quoting prices of below $100/kg for certain types of graphene. “The low single-digit capacity utilization prevents many from depreciating CapEx and reducing prices further, while many in the industry fear that this approach will lead to a premature commoditization of the industry and a further fall in valuations across the board,” says Ghaffarzadeh. These factors, together with the multiplicity of production methods, mean that prices vary by several orders of magnitude in today’s market.

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THE SUPERCAP OPPORTUNITY Due to graphene’s high surface area to mass ratio, one potential application is in the conductive plates of supercapacitors. The pace of development has been rapid powered in particular by dedicated university research teams in the US. In February 2013 UCLA researchers announced a new technique to produce graphene supercapacitors. The following year a start-up BlueVine Graphene Industries, a spin-off from Purdue University claimed it could achieve energy density comparable to current lithium-ion batteries. In 2015 the technique was adapted by Rice University researched to produce stacked, 3-D supercapacitors. Laserinduced graphene was produced on both sides of a polymer sheet. The sections were then stacked, separated by solid electrolytes, making multiple microsupercapacitors. The stacked configuration increased the energy density substantially.

The researchers charged and discharged the devices for thousands of cycles with almost no loss of capacitance. The resulting devices were mechanically flexible, surviving 8,000 bending cycles. Also in early 2015 UCLA researchers announced a micro-supercapacitor that is small enough to fit in wearable or implantable devices. The design employed laser-scribed graphene with manganese dioxide and with a capacity six times that of commercially available supercapacitors. In May 2015 Rice University researchers said a boric acidinfused, laser-induced graphene supercapacitor tripled its energy density and increased its volumetric .energy density about eight fold. The new devices proved stable over 12,000 chargedischarge cycles, retaining 90% of their capacitance. In stress tests, they survived 8,000 bending cycles. — ESJ staff writers

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Linking the Solar Power Generation and Energy Storage Technology Value Chain Are you ready to be connected?

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SOLARUNITED MEMBER NEWS

Greater than a sum of its parts Gaining momentum: SOLARUNITED’s PV Quality Committee, a synopsis of the latest initiative. The SOLARUNITED committee on PV quality has been working with new initiatives with Belgium’s Becquerel Institute. The results of its first workshop will be presented during the PV Production Forum at EUPVSEC in Munich, Germany on June 22. The initiative was established to implement uniform standards across the PV industry regarding quality across all sectors of the global solar value chain. EVASA senior vice president Laura Azpilicueta, PV quality initiative committee co-chair with Nabih Cherradi of Desert Technologies talked about what the working group has learned thus far. A synopsis of a larger discussion on SOLARUNITED’s websites.

easier to turn a blind eye and continue to do business as usual. It is easier to hide all the problems that have existed with installations and simply replace the modules that don’t work. Until recently, it seemed like the only ones willing to talk about quality were technical sales people; to use that as a pitch to outsell competitors at higher prices.

What are the PV Quality Committee’s objectives?

We can only unite if we can defend each and everyone’s product. Otherwise we lose credibility and in the end the project will most likely die because we couldn’t reach a consensus that works out individual faults or weaknesses. This has to be a project with a future and a common goal that sets in motion across the board standards. The resulting specs must ensure panels will last the 25 promised years without problems and issues.

The objective is to analyze and improve processes and installations. Unfortunately, the pressure to lower prices and reduce costs has led the industry to accept materials that do not meet requirements needed for installations to perform optimally for the full 25-year lifespan. If we do not put a stop to this, the end customer or consumer of solar energy will lose faith in the technology as a viable alternative energy resource.

Isn’t quality versus cost efficiency a tough balancing act for any organisation? So many times this blind pursuit of saving money and instant cost reductions has made it difficult to understand that true savings comes with an installation that works well for its 25 years lifespan. The difference in price, between one material and another, is not that significant and cannot have a huge impact on installation’s ultimate price if it fails to meet expectations. The organization’s reputation suffers, as does the PV industry at large.

What is the committee specifically studying? We are researching the materials needed for each specific climate and the present conditions where the module will be installed. Working on quality in an industry that has been so punished by cost reduction strategies is knowing what product and material is good enough to meet all the requirements necessary to achieve the best user results in each given situation. It’s not a matter of paying more, rather a question of paying for what you actually need.

And cooperation to cover the entire value chain? Getting everyone to cooperate is no easy feat. It’d be 48 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

Doesn’t such a strategy required SOLARUNITED members to check their individual egos at the door, so to speak? Wasn’t Aristotle correct in his analysis, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts?

How diverse are the participants in the project, who do they work for? We are a group with representatives from all areas of the chain: polysilicon suppliers, EPC, developers, backsheet producers, EVA producers, cells producers, glass producers, module producers, inverters and mounting systems, and trackers. We also count on R&D and experts from many prestigious laboratories. Every component and function has representation. We must also work together. All of the participants work for renowned enterprises and companies within the market and industry. Their experience is well respected and known in the industry. It was necessary to have people on board whose profile truly believe in the project’s value and mission. They have provided their experience, knowledge and time.

How does the research actually play out regarding the quality work stream among SOLARUNITED’s members? Our aim is twofold. The first is to collect data and information from the field about component failures and performance losses, and define standardized methods to identify failures in the field. The second is to identify areas of technical improvement through working groups by defining and communicating best practices to downstream players. www.energystoragejournal.com

EVENT REVIEW: NAATBATT 2016 NAATBatt 2016 Annual Meeting & Conference February 29-March 3, Hyatt Regency Indian Wells, California, USA

‘An industry on the move’ The annual NAATBatt conference has always been the hardest of conferences to nail down. At one level, the focus — as per its remit at the beginning — was North America. But the interest in the organization has always been international. Likewise it gives the impression of being laid back. And it is. Think fine golf courses, great locations and easily the best dining at a conference. But the logic behind it is remorseless — how to get top tier battery management to network in an uncomplicated way. These seeming contradictions are part of its appeal. And particularly so given there’s nothing quite like it in a conference circuit which, in general, is more attuned to seeking volume rather than quality. It’s also managed without show or fuss to have moved with the times. NAATBatt was founded in 2007 as a manufacturing cooperative at the suggestion of then-US senator Barrack Obama. NAATBatt’s original mission was to ensure that the lithium-ion batteries that would one day power electric vehicles would be made in the United States. The concept was based on Sematech, a successful public-private effort in the 1980s that helped US headquartered firms dominate the international semiconductor market. By 2009, however, the US government’s view on how to promote vehicle electrification had changed. In response to this, NAATBatt reorganized itself as a not-for-profit trade association and added the word “International” to its name. Today, NAATBatt International’s mission is to promote the commercial interests of its members without prejudice as to national origin and to encourage the commercialization of advanced battery technology in the US and around the world. NAATBatt has an international membership of about 90 corporate members. NAATBatt has also expanded its focus beyond its original focus on automotive traction batteries. NAATBatt programmes focus on a variety of business applications enabled by new battery technologies, including stationary energy storage, high energy weapons,

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consumer electronics, medical devices, robotics, maritime power hybridization, and powering the “Internet of Things”. NAATBatt’s focus today also extends well beyond lithium-ion technology. NAATBatt’s board of directors includes two solid firms embedded in the lead battery industry. Members include firms working in super capacitors, flow battery technologies, and a variety of other battery chemistries.

Chemistry agnostic

This is hugely positive for the whole of the energy storage industry which so often seems over-dismissive of any battery technology that isn’t its own. So from the lead side of the business NAATBatt International’s board includes Jaime Navarrete from Crown Battery and Steve Clarke from Aqua Metals. The board also includes people such as Steve Vechy from EnerSys, a firm happy to work in almost all chemistries, as well as Pierre-Jean Anvers from Digatron which is also chemistry agnostic with its testing equipment. One indication of this greater welcome to the world of lead was the unusual awards ceremony where two senior figures were honoured. The first was professor Detchko Pavlov — now in his 85th year and who is rightfully acclaimed as perhaps the greatest expert alive on the lead acid battery. Some of his recent research on carbon additives continues to prove a fertile ground for better batteries. The second person honoured was Imre Gyuk whose full title as energy storage program manager at the office of electricity delivery and energy reliability, hides the enormous influence of the man at the cutting edge of the development of energy storage in the US. He is rightfully credited with being the prime mover behind the US Department of Energy’s initiatives into advanced battery deployment and associated research, particularly at the grid level. The combination of awards for Pavlov and Gyuk was a clear signal that NAATBatt didn’t see itself as beholden to the needs of any one particular chemistry, geography or market segment. This year’s conference showed again this flexibility of approach as the focus

of the meetings continues to shift towards energy storage at the grid level. This is where the advanced battery markets are starting to get truly excited and the sessions and related conversations over coffee admirably captured the mood, that this rapidly growing sector will offer. There were two particular sessions in this year’s meetings — both expanded from the last event — that were particularly interesting. The first was the member update presentations which started on the Tuesday and continued for the next two days. The format was simple — each member had about 10 minutes to say what was new in their organization. “This feels like an industry on the move,” one delegate told Energy Storage Journal. “As an industry we tend to work in isolation of our competition and even our collaborators, this is always encouraging.” Also of great interest was the Energy Storage Innovation Summit held on the second day of the conference. The purpose of the summit was to provide NAATBatt members with what Greenberger called a “first look” at new technology that had the potential to be relevant to their businesses and that could be bought or licensed, there and then. The diversity of innovation was huge again signalling the rapid pace of change going on within the industry. At least eight of the 20 presentations signalled huge potential avenues of business that delegates either needed to be aware of — or should be acting on.

The NAATBatt business

As part of the business programme which coincides with the meetings, Bob Galyen, was elected as president for the year ahead. Digatron’s Pierre-Jean Anvers was elected as the president-elect. Typically the president-elect succeeds the president in the following year. Galyen, a well known figure in the industry has an extensive background in the automotive business. Pierre-Jean Anvers said that he hoped in the following year that Digatron’s extensive European connections would also prove helpful in consolidating NAATBatt’s connections in the continent.

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EVENT PREVIEW: THE BATTERY SHOW The Battery Show, probably the biggest event of its kind in North America, is coming to Germany next spring. It could become the next major European show. Philip Moorcroft reports.

The Battery Show moves to Europe for spring 2017 Smarter Shows — the conference organizers that built the annual Battery Show to be one of the largest events of its kind in the US — is preparing to launch a European version of the show from April 4-6 next year. Known only as The Battery Show Europe, the event will be held at the Sindelfingen Conference Centre, about 15 minutes from Stuttgart in central Germany. The choice of venue was an interesting one given the whole of Europe was open to the organizers. “Part of the success of its US counterpart was that we positioned ourselves near the automotive hub of America where much of the pioneering energy storage work was going on,” says Steve Bryan, who is in charge of organizing both events. “Given the proximity of so many automotive development centers and production facilities including Daimler, Porsche, Bosch and Audi, we feel we are well positioned to experience significant numbers attending from within a few minutes’ drive of the venue.”

50 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

The choice of Germany is fortunate given the storage boom that is riding the back of the government’s decision to scrap its nuclear plants in May 2011 (with the aim of them all being out of service by 2022) and embark on using renewables for the country’s power supply. With the North American event achieving continuous growth since its launch in 2010, expanding the portfolio into Europe — also co-located with Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo — was the next logical step, says Bryan. “We started in 2013 and 2014 mulling the idea about doing the show but the timing never seemed right. But with the two events now established brands, and growing demand from our existing exhibitors to expand into the European market, we are in a strong position to deliver a successful first show.” Launching a conference into a market that is already full with such meetings is a difficult one given the competition already in place.

“It’s a question of what the exhibition and conference can offer,” says Bryan. “Our approach in the US has always been to position the show as close to the visitor community as possible. We’ve looked at the practical issues of what people want to see and know — and that’s what we aim to deliver.” The Smarter Show business model is worth inspection in that it sees its revenue streams coming from its ability to showcase what the industry want to learn about from its exhibitors — entrance is free to visitors — and only part of the event is charged to those attendees that want to listen to the speakers. In the US conference, which is held in a suburb of Detroit, the exhibition hall is packed while normally about 600 delegates pay the more typical conference rate to listen to the speakers in a separate area. Given that many of the visitors will be interested in the content of some of the exhibitors, space in the main hall is given to free short presentations. The timing for the move, in any

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EVENT PREVIEW: THE BATTERY SHOW event, is probably right. The Battery Show in the US has grown steadily through tumultuous times for a sector which has seen the arrival and wipeout of large, emerging players. In Europe, however, the market has reached a size and maturity where an event like this can be successfully hosted. Bryan says the plans are to hit the road running and anticipates that some 3,000 people will attend with some 300 exhibitors. Some of the major US players such as East Penn, the UltraBattery manufacturer — and one of the more interesting lead acid battery players — as well as Arbin, the US testing firm have already committed themselves as has Maccor, another long-term supporter of the US event. When these pages for Energy Storage Journal were written in May — and a year ahead of the event, the following firms were committed as exhibitors: Aradex, Arbin Instruments, ATS Automation, Autoliv, AVL List, the Baumann Group, Bühler, Current Ways, DEWESoft, East Penn Manufacturing, Exponent, Fiamm, Grenzebach Maschinenbau, HBM, Jonas & Redmann Automation Company, Johnson Matthey Battery Systems, Kienle + Spiess, Kolektor, Lord Corporation, Maccor, Materion Technical Materials, Outlast Technologies, Nilar, Paraclete Energy, PPG, Scherdel, Shmuel De-Leon Energy, Sovema, Telsonic, Thermal Hazard Technology, Transfluid, Wildcat Discovery Technologies, and Zes Zimmer Electronic Systems, Many of the firms such as Paraclete Energy, which is the lead sponsor of the event, see the show as a natural platform to display its products. Paraclete, for example, produces an additive which increases energy density in lithium cells by up to 400%. “This is good news for the industry,” said the firm. “And the show will be a natural place for us to showcase the fact.” The move of the show to Europe also signals further changes to the industry sector. “The battery market has always been an international market but what we’re seeing now is the way that key players are drilling down to establish themselves deeper in regions around the world,” said one industry commentator. “Events like these fit the profile of the firms that they serve, Texas-based Arbin, for example is in the process of setting up operations in Munich.” The choice of April for the launch of The Battery Show Europe was made for a couple of reasons. The first was that there was no clear clash between

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the event and others at around that time. It was also, said Bryan, sufficiently distant from the mid-September US meetings to have clear water between the two of them. Although the first meetings of the Battery Show, had a pronounced lithium-only bias, over time a more balanced approach has prevailed. “This is

very important to us,” says Bryan. “We are chemistry neutral, our purpose is to showcase what’s happening in the battery sector not to pick and choose technologies or chemistries.” The Battery Show Europe, April 4-6, 2017, at Messe Sindelfingen, Stuttgart, Germany.

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 51

Conference Preview

#9#4&

ees Europe ees Europe is sending the market positive signals: Two months before the exhibition opens, the exhibition space at ees Europe, Europe’s largest exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems has been fully booked. And the same is true for the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry and its partners. Exhibitors from all over the world are set to present their innovations over 66,000 sqm of exhibition space from June 22–24, 2016. ees and Intersolar Europe are expecting 40,000 visitors from 165 countries this year. The event organizers recognized the particular importance of energy storage and established ees Europe two years ago. Taking place parallel to Intersolar, ees Europe has created a prominent and successful international platform for batteries and innovative energy storage systems. This year, 363 out of a total of more than 1000 exhibitors will be displaying their products, services and solutions in this area – 208 of these at ees Europe alone. The event has thus established itself as a leading exhibition with strong international participation in a remarkably short period of time. Even after the great success of last year, ees Europe is recording substantial growth again this year, reflected by the exhibition space, which has expanded by more than 40% to over 12,000 sqm. Smart renewable energy: The modern energy supply Safe, clean and above all smart – this is what the energy supply and mobility of the future should look like. Electricity storage systems are a key component of this vision. For example, as part of the smart grid, PV home storage systems optimize system and supply reliability by ensuring a balance between power production and consumption, thereby reducing the need for grid expansion. The market for PV storage systems is booming. In this context, e-mobility is also becoming increasingly important, because as mobile storage devices, electric vehicles have an important role to play in the power supply of the future. ees Forum – Experts under the spotlight Presentations and panel discussions will fuel conversations among experts at the ees Forum, which focuses on ees exhibitor innovations, combining renewable energy and e-mobility as well as the topic of safe installation. The program also features a session exploring second life batteries. One of the highlights on June 22, 2016 is the presentation of the ees AWARD finalists beginning at 10:30am. Each year, the organizers present the ees AWARD in recognition of outstanding innovations in energy storage technology. Finalists and winners take advantage of the impressive national and international media response –nearly 800 accredited journalists reported on the 2015 awards Special exhibit E-Mobility & Renewable Energy – Highlighting smart solutions There are many potential synergies between renewable energy and e-mobility – such as using electric cars as storage devices for solar power. This and other clever solutions will be presented at the special exhibit E-Mobility & Renewable Energy. Participants will showcase new vehicle concepts and innovative charging technologies. ees Europe Conference – Hot topics in the industry Before ees Europe gets underway, the accompanying conference kicks off at the International Congress Centre München. From June 21–22, experts, project developers and industry insiders will gather at the ees Europe Conference to discuss current developments in innovative storage technologies. The program comprises eight sessions, which explore the latest innovations and challenges in the industry, ranging from political conditions and financing to new technical accomplishments. The cross-industry discussions at the conference consolidate the topics covered at the ees Europe and Intersolar Europe exhibitions.

www.ees-europe.com

52 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

22-24th June Messe München, Hall B1, Munich, Germany www.energystoragejournal.com

esNA2016_PES_Visitor_210x297.qxp_Layout 1 26.02.16 12:09 Seite 1

Conference Preview

ees North America Be part of the first major U.S. solar and energy storage events for 2016. On display in July at Intersolar and ees North America are the technologies and innovations driving the market growth -- photovoltaics, energy storage, smart renewable energy and solar heating & cooling. ees North America is now fully its own event, and co-located with Intersolar, this event covers the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies. Join 18,000 peers, visit 550 exhibitors and choose to attend any of the 60 sessions & workshops ees has to offer! Your Exhibition Ticket grants you access to Intersolar and ees North America (West Hall), as well as to the co-located SEMICON West (North/South Halls). California is the heart of the energy storage industry. The U.S. is expected to be the world’s largest storage market, and California leads the United States in terms of energy storage technology development and innovative policies. ees North America puts you in the heart of the world’s biggest and most exciting market—the perfect location for businesses from start-ups to market leaders and presents you with the opportunity to meet, network and grow your business.

CHARGING THE FUTURE Energy storage and solar are the perfect match. Solar and storage go hand in hand. The solar industry is growing at a remarkable pace and energy storage is vital to its continued expansion. With storage, utilities can maintain stableRegister and reliable gridthis as we push toward Hear it hereaﬁrst! now for year’s ﬁrst major100 – percent renewable energy. The annual U.S. solar-plus-storage market will reach 769 megawatts (MW) by 2020, and most-attended – U.S. solar-plus-storage event. with a $3.1 billion valuation, and the consumer market for behind-the-meter storage Join at percent ees®, co-located will18,000 accountpeers for 50 of the totalwith U.S. energy storage market by 2017. ees North Intersolar and SEMICON West. AmericaNorth gives America you the perfect opportunity to make valuable business contacts in the U.S. up market beyond. Meet withand today’s most innovative companies, attend ees® Conference

and workshops to see where the solar-plus-storage-market is heading. Intersolar’s legacy in solar-plus-storage event brings unparalleled content. Energy storage and solar – the perfect match! ees North America builds on the success of ees Europe, now the continent’s largest and most attended exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems with nearly 160 exhibitors and 38,000 visitors. With ees North America in San Francisco, ees Europe in Munich, and ees India in Mumbai, the ees conference and exhibition series is truly a global series. These events take place alongside Intersolar exhibitions, the leading exhibition series for the solar industry, and the combination provides unparalleled value to exhibitors and attendees.

JULY 12–14, 2016 SAN FRANCISCO, USA July 12-14th

Moscone Center West Hall, San Francisco, CA 94103 ENERGY STORAGE MEETS NORTH AMERICA'S MOST-ATTENDED SOLAR Conference: Monday JulyEVENT! 11 - Wednesday July 13. Exhibition: Tuesday July 12 - Thursday July 14. Co-located with:

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Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 53

September 13-15, 2016

Novi, Michigan, USA

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4 – 6 April, 2017

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 2016 International Flow Battery Forum

ACI 3rd National Capitalizing on Grid-scale Energy Storage.

Karlsruhe, Germany • June 7-9 We invite you to join us at the seventh International Flow Battery Forum at Karlsruhe, Germany, bringing together all those interested in research, development, commercialisation and deployment of flow batteries. The 2016 meeting will also include an industry day for manufacturers, developers, users and investors to address the specific issues relating to the market opportunities for flow batteries in the increasingly competitive energy storage market place, and an industry visit. There will be an exhibitor area, inside and outside the conference area for suppliers, manufacturers and developers to display their products and services. Our introductory session will be of interest to newcomers to the industry. We welcome exhibitors and sponsors. Working together in partnership not only allows us to achieve a successful conference, but allows us all to achieve greater visibility within market place, and create new busi-

ness opportunities and ventures. We are delighted to announce that our host for 2016 will be Fraunhofer ICT and we will visit their flow battery installation on the hills at the edge of the Black Forest during IFBF. Schedule June 6 (optional introductory seminar on flow battery essentials). June 7: Industry day commercialization, marketing, financing and operational experience for flow battery? evelopment with invited presentations and discussion sessions, with evening reception and visit to the new flow battery installation at Fraunhofer ICT. June 8 and 9: Scientific, technical and commercial papers on flow battery research, development, demonstration and deployment Contact Aud Heyden Email: aud@flowbatteryforum.com

San Francisco, California June 8-10 Attend ACI’s 3rd National Capitalizing on Grid-Scale Energy Storage: Energy Storage as a Practical Reality – Working toward Maturity and Building Value in a Developing Market Systems, to discover the significant market opportunities for energy storage, including government policy and regulatory initiatives, new requirements for transmission and distribution of power in electric markets, increased utilization of distributed energy systems and the integration of storage into smart grid platforms. This three-day conference will cover all aspects of the implementation of energy storage technologies as a key enabler of grid modernization, addressing the electric grid’s most pressing needs by improving its stability and resiliency. Investment in energy storage is essential for keeping pace with the soaring demand for electricity. Contact Tel: +1 (312) 780 0700 Fax: +1 (312) 780 0600 Email: seck@acius.net

EUROBAT AGM & Forum 2016 Energy Storage Update USA 2016

Berlin, Germany • June 16, 17

San Diego, California June 15-16

The great and the good of the European battery and energy storage scene meet for the annual general meeting, networking dinner and forum.

56 • Batteries International • Spring 2016

Contact Rene Schroeder, EU Affairs Manager Tel: +32 2 761 16 53 Email: eurobat@eurobat.org

The Energy Storage Update event is the only event in the United States that is focused exclusively on energy storage commercialization. With 250+ executives from leading utilities, financiers and developers that will discuss, debate and develop solutions to achieving successful energy storage projects commercialization – this is the must attend event of the year. Contact Iulia-Lorena Rus Tel: +44 207 375 7564 Email: iulia@energystorageupdate.com

www.batteriesinternational.com

EUROPE’S LARGEST ENERGY STORAGE EVENT CONNECTS WITH THE WORLD’S LEADING SOLAR EVENT IN MUNICH! 380 ENERGY STORAGE EXHIBITORS | 40,000 VISITORS | 165 NATIONS EUROPE'S LARGEST EXHIBITION FOR BATTERIES AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS

JUNE 22–24, 2016 MESSE MÜNCHEN GERMANY

EXCERPT OF THE EXHIBITOR LIST STATUS MARCH 11, 2016.

MEET THE LEADING ENERGY STORAGE COMPANIES

Supporters

Organizers

www.ees-europe.com

FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 • Monitoring, control and validation systems • Manufacturing and formation techniques • Primary and rechargeable Li cells • Industrial production and development for HEVs, PHEVs, and EVs • Latest developments in Li battery technology

EES Europe

Contact The Electrochemical Society Tel: +1 609 737 1902 ext 121 Email: imlb@electrochem.org

6th Annual New Energy Forum

Munich, Germany Exhibition: June 22–24 • Conference: June 21–22 This is the most-attended of all the renewable energy events in Europe. Over 40,000 visitors are expected to see EES Europe and Intersolar Europe. The areas of focus are rechargeable batteries, energy storage systems, charging technologies and battery production equipment and related materials as well as battery production equipment and materials The visitor profile consists of: manufacturers and systems providers of the batteries and energy storage sector; manufacturers and systems providers of the renewable energies sector ; systems integrators for batteries, energy storage systems and E-mobility; utility companies; grid operators; municipalities and pub-

Advanced Automotive 18th International meeting on lithium batteries Chicago, USA June 19-24 IMLB 2016 is the premier international conference on the state of lithium battery science and technology, as well as current and future applications in transportation, commercial, aerospace, biomedical, and other promising sectors. Convening in the heart of downtown Chicago, the conference is expected to draw 2,000 experts, researchers, and company representatives involved in the lithium battery field.

58 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

lic Institutions; energy trading firms; RE power plants operators; planners and installers; equipment and materials manufacturers; planners and operators of UPS and back-up power systems; manufacturers of specialpurpose vehicles; OEMs in the automotive industry, and researchers The exhibitor profile consists of manufacturers; suppliers; distributors; service providers; project developers/EPCs; system integrators; research institutes; and, battery production equipment and materials professionals Contact Solar Promotion Tel: +49 7231 58598-0 Fax: +49 7231 58598-28 On behalf of the International Organizing Committee, we invite you to participate in IMLB 2016. This international meeting will provide an exciting forum to discuss recent progress in advanced lithium batteries for energy storage and conversion. The meeting will focus on both basic and applied research findings that have led to improved Li battery materials, and to the understanding of the fundamental processes that determine and control electrochemical performance. The meeting will cover a wide range of topics relating to lithium battery science and technology including, but not limited to: • General and national projects • Anodes and cathodes • Nanostructured materials for lithium batteries • Liquid electrolytes and ionic liquids • Polymer, gel, and solid electrolytes • Issues related to sources and availability of materials for Li batteries • Li battery recycling • Electrode/electrolyte interface phenomena • Safety, reliability, cell design and engineering

Kintex, Goyang-si, South Korea June 30-July 3 With the reduction of traditional fossil fuels and increasingly serious global environmental degradation and health dangers, we are ready to meet a new age of energy production. While human demands for energy will not decrease, the largest shifts are the increase in the renewable energy share and the decline in the traditional energy share. New energy occupies an increasingly important position in the whole energy system. New sources of energy, aided by improved technology and productivity, underpinned by large-scale investments make a significant contribution to supply growth. Entering its 6th year, New Energy Forum has been grown substantially, NEF-2016 will provide a perfect opportunity to researchers from academia and professionals from industry, as well as government regulators to tackle energy challenges, and exchange best practices about improved new energy technology and cooperation. The forum has been successfully held in the past five years. This year we have selected the best programme yet which involves six professional parallel forums. We believe it will set off a new upsurge of cleanness and sustainability energy again. Contact Ms Lynn (BIT Group Global) Tel: +86 411 8479 9609-801 Fax: +86 411-8479 6897 Email: linhui@bitlifesciences.com

Intersolar North America 2016 San Francisco July 11-13 conference July 12-14 exhibition Since its establishment in 2008, Intersolar North America has become the most attended solar event and the premier networking platform for the North American solar industry. Colocated with SEMICON West, it takes place annually at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, the United

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POWERING THE SMART GRID www.energystoragejournal.com

Meet the team Issue 8: Spring 2015

Sara Verbruggen, Associate Editor Sara, one of the founding figures of Energy Storage Journal, has since relocated to Madrid, and now works as our in-house adviser as well as a respected contributor to sister magazine, Batteries International.

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!

ADVERTISING Jade Beevor +44 (0) 1243 792 467 jade@energystoragejournal.com

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.

Kevin Desmond, Historian More than just a historian on energy storage and batteries as he’s written about many things. He’s the inspiration behind our Heroes of the Grid section.

YEARBOOKS, PUBLISHING & EVENT GUIDES All enquiries +44 (0) 7792 852 337 publisher@energystoragejournal.com

Reception: +44 (0) 1243 78 22 75 • www.energystoragejournal.com • Fax +44 1 787 329 730 Hampton Halls Associates Ltd, 10 Temple Bar Business Park, Strettington PO18 0TU, UK • Registered in England and Wales 09123491

18–20 OCTOBER 2016 • NEC • BIRMINGHAM

See 100+ energy products including energy storage & solar solutions

Get the latest on government targets & low carbon developments

Meet and network with your peers and stimulate new ideas

energyliveshow.co.uk

SHOWS

CONNECTING THE ENERGY INDUSTRY Includes:

FREE access to 9 shows during UKCW

PART OF

FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 States’ pioneering solar market. The event’s exhibition and conference both focus on the areas of photovoltaics, PV production technologies, energy storage systems and solar thermal technologies. Since being founded, Intersolar has become the most important industry platform for manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, service providers and partners in the global solar industry. A total of 530 exhibitors and 17,473 trade visitors participated in Intersolar North America in 2014. Contact Susanne Bregazzi Tel: +49 7231-58598-0 Fax: +49 7231-58598-28 Website: www.intersolar.us

The Battery Show Novi, Michigan, US September 13-15 The Battery Show is America’s biggest free-to-attend exhibition for advanced batteries. The very latest battery technology will be on display for a number of applications, from EV’s to Utility storage, through to bespoke mobile power applications, personal electronics and healthcare. If advanced battery technology is key to your products and services, The Battery Show will help your company stay ahead. The Battery Show is also a supply chain event, where the latest solutions from raw material and equipment suppliers, to materials and testing and recycling services. If it happens through the life of a battery, the services to support this will be on display. A must attend event for battery manufacturers, from junior engineer to CEO level, The Battery Show will enable you to attain better battery performance, safety and cost. Visitors to The Battery Show 2016 will also have free access to Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo, the premier showcase for electric and hybrid vehicle technology and innovation, as well as Critical Power Expo, showcasing the latest backup power solutions. Keep your finger on the pulse of the energy storage industry at The Battery Show Conference 2016. Early-bird registration is now open, so don’t delay! Discover what’s driving demand, what’s shaping novel technologies, what’s at the cutting edge. Join the hundreds of industry delegates and be part of the whole picture at this invaluable knowledge sharing and networking experience. Our panel of expert voices will again shine a light on all the pressing issues of the day, offering commercial, regulatory, safety, technological, stationary energy storage and next-generation battery R&D perspectives.

www.energystoragejournal.com

Intersolar South America

São Paulo, Brazil • August 23-25 The South American solar market is one of the most promising in the world. As energy consumption shoots up, businesses, governments and consumers are looking for ways to make power and heat generation more affordable. Decision-makers at all levels are prepared to start working with more future-ready solutions to quench the region’s new thirst for energy. The Brazilian solar market shows enormous potential, being globally ranked as one of the most promising future markets within the solar industry. Brazil’s government plans to add photovoltaic systems delivering a total 3.5GW, to the country’s electricity supply by 2023. With 9,000 visitors from 34 countries and over 800 conference attendees, Intersolar South America 2015 attracted more than double its expected attendance, making it South America’s largest solar exhibition and This well-respected conference offers you multiple benefits, including broadening your knowledge base, growing your professional network, becoming part of an unrivaled expert pool, and the opportunity to expand your resource platform. In addition to our established parallel three-track format, this year there will be a further track on the first two days. Newly introduced features include three interactive tutorials (thermal management; functional safety and risk; and fast charging), two special sessions dedicated to improving manufacturing and a workshop on evaluating different hybrid architectures. Contact Steve Bryan steve.bryan@smartershows.com Europe: +44 1273 916300 US toll free: +1 855 436 8683 Fax: +44 1273 774341

conference. Some 115 exhibitors from 11 countries showcased their products in 2015 – an increase of 60% over 2014 – and gave highly positive feedback in their testimonials. Combining local and international expertise, Intersolar South America brings together the PV sector to discuss the current status and trends strategic to South American PV markets, as well as technology innovations and new business opportunities. The event is an important meeting ground for professionals along the entire PV value chain, and is all the more relevant given the recent strong growth in the Brazilian and other South American PV markets. Contact Susanne Bregazzi Tel: +49 7231-58598-0 Fax: +49 7231-58598-28 www.intersolar.net.br

10th Energy Storage World Forum Melbourne, Australia September 12-16 Dufresne, the event management groups, started researching this event in 2009 and The Energy Storage World Forum was the first three day dedicated conference on stationary storage to take place in Europe and in Asia since 2010. Over 2000 delegates (in total) and a total of 340 speakers, including more than 80 different utilities/TSOs/DSOs/DNOs from 28 countries have attended our past seven Energy Storage World Forums. These events took place in Beijing, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona, Rome and London bringing together an international array of speakers combined with local knowledge. Contact Tel: +44 208 09 016 13 www.energystorageforum.com/asia

Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 61

FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 Intersolar India 2016 Mumbai, India October 19-21 Intersolar India is the country’s largest exhibition and conference for the solar industry. It takes place annually at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai. The event’s exhibition and conference both focus on the areas of photovoltaics, PV production technologies, energy storage and solar thermal technologies. In 2015, 200 international exhibitors and around 11,000 visitors attended Intersolar India. Some 100 speakers and about 680 attendees discussed current industry topics and shed light on the conditions surrounding technological, market and political developments at the accompanying conference. Contact Susanne Bregazzi Tel: +49 7231-58598-0 Fax: +49 7231-58598-28 www.intersolar.in

Solar Power International 2016

Solar Asset Management Europe 2016

Las Vegas • September 12-15 Solar Power International (SPI) generates success for solar energy professionals and the global solar industry. SPI is ranked #109 in the Top 250 Largest Trade Shows (by Trade Show News Network), making SPI the largest solar show in North America. In addition, SPI is a Gold 100 trade show (as ranked by Trade Show Executive), making it the only solar show to make both lists. • SPI is North America’s premier business-to-business event for professionals in the solar energy and related fields. • More than 15,000 solar energy industry professionals from 75+ countries attend. • More than 600 leading manufacturers, service providers, and vendors on the exhibition floor.

Intersolar Middle East 2016 Dubai, United Arab Emirates September 19-21 The MENA region is predestined as a location for solar energy production. With some of the highest solar irradiance levels in the world, large open spaces and an increasing demand for energy, experts verify the high growth potential of the region’s solar industry. The organizers of Intersolar, the world’s leading exhibition and conference for the solar industry, have been active in the Gulf region for the past three years. In 2016 the organizers are teaming up with DMG events Middle East and Asia to organize Intersolar Middle East in conjunction with GulfSol. With Dubai, Intersolar Middle East has secured the ideal venue to reach all

62 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

SPI brings the full range of industry ideas, experts, professionals, and information together in one comprehensive event that delivers: • Peer-led educational programming designed to exchange ideas, share lessons learned, and provide solutions for your business. • Unique networking opportunities that allow you to solidify your current relationships and build new ones. • Connections with industry vendors and professionals from the US and around the world as they showcase their newest products and services. Contact www.solarpowerinternational.com/

of the Gulf States as well as emerging solar markets such as Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. The event’s exhibition and conference both focus on the areas of photovoltaics, PV production technologies, energy storage and solar thermal technologies. Intersolar Middle East offers you the best possibilities to network with policy makers and government officials from the MENA region. Increase your profits at one of the most lucrative emerging solar markets and benefit from direct access to key buyers from across the Middle East and Northern Africa!

Milan, Italy November 9-10 Solar Asset Management is Solarplaza’s flagship event and widely considered as Europe’s leading conference dedicated to optimization of the operational phase of PV plants and portfolios For the third year in a row, Solar Asset Management Europe will bring together the leading investors, owners and service providers in the European PV industry. The event provides an unparalleled networking opportunity, as well as the best way to learn about innovations and best practices for optimizing performance, management and financial returns of PV assets. This must-attend event is fully dedicated to the operational phase of PV assets. It will contain: • 400+ attendees, representing the value chain from service provider to asset manager and investors • 50+ leading experts on stage sharing their vision, expertise and experience • 30+ sponsors and exhibitors profiling themselves and their leading products/services Contact Stefano Cruccu Email: stefano@solarplaza.com Shushan Khachatryan Email: shushan@solarplaza.com

Contact Susanne Bregazzi Tel: +49 7231-58598-0 Fax: +49 7231-58598-28 www.intersolar.ae

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 Energy 2016 Birmingham, UK October 18-20 Energy 2016 is back for its second year at the Birmingham NEC as part of UK Construction Week. Already backed by leading industry bodies such as the REA (Renewable Energy Association), the STA (Solar Trade Association), BPVA (British Photovoltaic Association), the EMA (Energy Managers Association), the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) and many more, Energy 2016 will unite key business players in renewables, innovation and power generation. Bringing together engineers, project and energy managers, developers, architects and academics, the show will be the perfect platform to showcase new solutions, meet new contacts and learn new skills. Energy 2016 supporter, REA will shape the majority of the show’s educational content and host three halfday conferences in a purpose built seminar theatre. The talks will uncover recent developments within energy storage and focus the other half day on renewable energy for the built environment. As the organization that has promoted sustainable energy usage and highlighted key improvements to the capacity market, the REA is a leading voice in the renewables conversation. The conferences will provide essential information to help the sector work together and pre-empt future difficulties. Energy 2016 will now span two halls of the NEC and play host to several feature areas. Central to the space will be the Energy Hub, a dynamic platform for the show’s comprehensive seminar content. Incorporating a mix of live debates, CPD seminars, keynote speeches and workshops, the Energy Hub content will address the core issues in the industry today as well as give insight into the latest regulations, policies and technologies. Another area that is certain to gar-

ner attention will be the central bar, which will be lit up by Pavegen’s innovative solar flooring. This technology converts energy from footsteps into renewable electricity and is integrated into the tiles discreetly. Energy 2016 will also host a VIP lounge bringing a string of high profile buyers and visitors to the show. The Energy 2016 VIP section will be located within the show’s footprint offering exhibitors the unique opportunity to interact with some of the biggest players in the industry. Nathan Garnett, events director at Media 10 – the organisers of Energy 2016 and UK Construction Week, said: “The energy sector is one of the most important and dynamic industries in the UK. Especially with REA’s involvement this year with three workshops on energy storage, this show can

play a key role in the development of a greener, smarter and more efficient Britain.” Some of the exhibitors already signed up to the show include utility provider Scottish Power, global renewable energy provider RES Ltd, energy storage pioneers Cumulus Energy Storage and smart flooring experts Pavegen. Energy 2016 is free to attend and is part of UK Construction Week.. UKCW consists of nine shows under one roof, Timber Expo, Build Show, Civils Expo, Plant & Machinery Live, Energy 2016, Smart Buildings 2016, Surface & Materials Show, HVAC 2016 and Grand Designs Live. Contact Marlon Cera-Marle Tel: +44 203 225 5299 Email: marlon.marle@smedia-ten.com

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Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016 • 63

d r o w t s a l e Th ‘Lead ain’t good enough’ Power steering is for wimps, but lithium’s the real deal. That’s what Bill Ellis, proud owner of a 1977 Bedford Van tells Energy Storage Journal. The highly collectible van, one of only 10 still driving the UK roads, comes with every mod con, electric powered headlights, indicators (for turning both right and left) and cigarette lighter.

And underneath the hood, one bright yellow lithium 12V battery, “lead ain’t good enough for this baby” says Bill. “This’ll keep my 1300cc beast going for years to come.’

Standing room only, please The 200 metre exclusion zone — now an integral part of the most fashionable energy storage events in the US — has arrived in Europe. Both this winter’s meetings for EES in Dusseldorf and ABC in Mainz proved seating-free zones inside and outside the exhibition hall. “All the best conferences have removed the chairs,” said one veteran exhibitor. “The craze started in the US — in California of course — and spread to Europe. In the States we hear that they’re wanting to take them out of the main hall. It’d keep delegates on their

toes and stop ’em falling asleep during the presentations.” But why? “If you can’t give them golf, they’ve got to get some kind of exercise anyway,“ says one US organizer. “It’s for their own good — and what could be nicer than visiting all my lovely paid-for exhibitor booths rather than trudging all over the place and doing themselves a mischief in the heat?”

Silence please, exhibitors exhibiting If some conferences are now removing their seating (see above), another set are worrying if those pesky delegates — those who come to hear the speakers — could be tidied up a little bit better. “As sales targets (bless ‘em) they need to be by our booths, otherwise they’ll probably wander off and get themselves hurt and things,” says one exhibitor.

64 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2016

“We think it best that we keep them safe and herded together with us in the main hall. Then they can buy things too.” The organizers of the recent blowout All Energy conference held in Glasgow this May clearly thought integration of the two was a good thing: the main delegates area became part of the exhibition arena. “Kitting them out with earphones

and the like was a little over the top, but these delegates just love to yak,” said one exhibitor. “They want to ask questions, they want to clap at the end of the talks. “Really they want to be with me — little do these lambs know it — thinking about my solar and PV gear. and not distracting my customers. with all that energy storage nonsense!”

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