Issue 21: Summer 2018
Charging the future – special supplement on ees international exhibition series
The next iteration of energy Virtual power plants move centre-stage Investor view: S&P Why energy storage is still the missing piece in the DER puzzle
It’s electromechanics! Battery power without the chemistry — a new force enters the grid
Supercaps resurgent Refining a high power ingredient for a new hybrid marketplace
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CONTENTS COVER STORY
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VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS: THE NEXT ITERATION OF ENERGY Huge strides made in advancing communication software now mean that vast networks of varied power resources — from energy from household solar panels to electric vehicles being charged to existing power infrastructure such as peaker plants — can be linked seamlessly. Add a control over how electricity is to be used, dropping, for example, the power to household units such as fridges and a virtual power plant has been created that can both generate power and regulate its use. Coming soon to a grid near you The next generation of electricity delivery — theoretically without the deployment of power stations is just around the corner.
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Artificial intelligence — the next weapon in the smart grid armoury Artificial intelligence looks set to be the major enabler for the development of yet more complex virtual power plant systems.
27 The next iteration of power
EDITORIAL
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2
Talk about the utility death spiral was fanciful five years ago, now it just seems ridiculous.
NEWS 4 A round-up of the latest and most compelling news in finance, business, technology and the life of the industry over the past quarter.
S&P VIEWPOINT
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ELECTROMECHANICAL ‘BATTERY’ TECHNOLOGIES
30
OPINION: INTERNATIONAL LEAD ASSOCIATION
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Battery storage is the missing piece in the evolving US grid.
Could the idea of electrochemical storage be one of the last fantasies of the 20th and early 21st centuries? Perhaps secondary batteries should be mechanical instead?
There is room for both lead and lithium to co-exist. It’s not an either/or situation.
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT — EES INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION SERIES
S&P, the investor viewpoint 17
Electromechanical batteries 30
35-46
• Monetizing storage as it moves from a green dream to business as usual. • Highlights to come: ees North America 2018. • First mover California leads US drive to low-carbon future. • South America’s untapped renewables could pave way for mass ESS adoption. • Taking an holistic approach to India’s evolving energy market.
SUPERCAPS
47
EVENT REVIEW, EVENTS
49
The supercapacitor is unique in that its potential begins when used with a battery. Now it’s time to apply this to grid storage.
Our comprehensive round-up of energy storage conferences, exhibitions, workshops and meetings for the six months ahead.
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 Editor: Michael Halls, mike@energystoragejournal.com +44 1 243 782 275 Asian editor Debbie Mason debbie@energystoragejournal.com
Let cool heads prevail
Events to be seen at… 47
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Working with
The lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch The new titan of lead The CEO interview
Ecoult’s UltraBattery, Anil Srivastava and www.energystoragejournal.com ready to take lithium Leclanché’s bid for on, head-to-head
market dominance
Next gen integrators Coming soon to a smart grid near you, the ideal middle man
Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 1
EDITORIAL Mike Halls • editor@energystoragejournal.com
The ever-changing face of La-La Land La-La Land. Merriam-Webster dictionary: a euphoric dreamlike mental state detached from the harsher realities of life.
We all forgot one thing. And it’s best neatly summed up in one of the economist jokes so popular at the end of the last century.
Oddly enough the first use of the phrase La-La Land comes from 1979 — it was a kind of slang for Los Angeles and some of the madness of California in the 1960s and 1970s.
“The First Law of Economists is a simple one. For every expert economist, there exists an equal and opposite expert economist.
For the past decade or so the world of renewable energy has been living in some form of La-La Land. We saw the solar panel boom at the end of the 2000 fizzle out as hype overtook reality — but only for a new wave of extravagant promises to wash over the renewable energy industry. The first indication of this new La-La Land was the torrents of investment money — mostly from governments but also from hapless investors — that poured into lithium ion battery companies. The promises were extravagant but so were the promises of the returns on offer. We saw equally extravagant predictions being made about the uptake of future electric vehicles. By 2020 a quarter of the developed world would have either bought an EV or would be thinking of doing so. Or so they predicted. Perhaps the most interesting facet of this La-La generation was the way that computer scientists and engineers reinvented themselves. Rather than being geeks and good at sums, or wandering round with oily rags and spanners they became Prophets (with a capital P) of the generation. They were saviours of the planet endlessly reminding us that the world was going to be a marvellous place when we no longer burned fossil fuels and when that pesky carbon dioxide was only fit for plants. In those happy La-La days, we even talked about green electrons — something that the electrons were totally unaware of (but would have been proud of, if they’d had the chance.) With the prophets came a wave of experts. And even expert experts, forecasting the future and in particular the business models for our new energy future. 2 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018
“And the Second Law of Economists? Both experts are, of course, equally wrong.” It’s been the same thing with the history of battery experts. The first law of battery pundits says for every expert battery pundit there exists … Perhaps the strangest view of our energy future came from the investment banks which, as a herd, decided in the perfect La-La world — their own and where they could grab the largest of media headlines — that electric utilities were dead. Kaput. But not within a generation, within a decade. Cheery stuff if you want to get your name in the papers. And the pronouncements were both serious as well as ponderous. Grave warnings were given that electric utilities would no longer be viable entities but governments around the world would have to prop them up. With equal horror of horrors, taxpayers’ money, said the banks, would prop the electrical system up. Here, below, a rough paraphrase of a longer report.
“Utilities may have dominated the electrical landscape for the last century but the age of distributed energy resources will unshackle both home and the factory from the cumbersome electric utilities of the past. This will burden the few that have no option to leave the grid with ever-rising and eventually unsustainable pricing from their utilities.” Perhaps the best known of these forecasts came from the Edison Electric Institute an association that represents all US investor owned electric companies. The institute, five years ago, spoke convincingly of the ‘utility death spiral’. The phrase was picked up and used around the world. The idea behind it was quite a simple one. As one commentator described it at the time … www.energystoragejournal.com
EDITORIAL “As grid maintenance costs go up and the capital cost of renewable energy moves down, more customers will be encouraged to leave the grid. In turn, that pushes grid costs even higher for the remainder of customers, who then have even more incentive to become selfsufficient. Meanwhile, utilities are stuck with a growing pile of stranded assets.” The logic of them isn’t wrong as such. Merely flawed in that it’s looking only at the possible implications of one problem, rather than a variety of possible solutions. It’s not unreasonable to imagine that if the world moved to distributed energy, utilities would be forced to price themselves out of existence to serve those without renewables. Neither is it unreasonable to think that the cost of serving the few would be so high — think the maintenance of nuclear plants and large scale power plants — that electricity supply would struggle economically to survive. But what if a different paradigm were to happen? Could it work, for example, if a smaller version of utilities would emerge, serving small communities without the heavyweight infrastructure? Or better still, what if the utility instead of generating the power became the coordinator of power as well? And this this is exactly what our cover story this issue is highlighting as possible. This new business model fits into a web-based operation where the customer is able to coordinate their own assets through an outside party — think, Uber, the taxi firm with no taxis, Or Airbnb, the hotel with no beds; or eBay, the retailer with no shops. Or the electric utility that didn’t generate electricity. Let’s call it a virtual power plant. As our cover story shows, the underlying idea is simple. And that’s to let every possible element of storage that interacts with the grid be either a taker or a giver. The result: a stable, cost-effective situation where demand on, say, a nuclear plant could be even be regulated by household solar.+storage. www.energystoragejournal.com
The difficulty is going to lie in the execution. So how to do it? If the role of the virtual power plant is to stabilize the grid by, for example, turning generating assets up or down, on or off and demand likewise, the technology has to be extraordinary. Controlling the supply of say 50,000 solar arrays will be one challenge. But imagine the complexity of reducing demand. The ability to lower, just marginally, the power to, say, 100,000 electric kettles and as many fridges or recharging EVs in real time for a few seconds? One aggregator reckons that VPPs will need to process about 90 times more data than Facebook to be efficient — and that’s about 500 terabytes a day. Interestingly enough the first legal cases have started in a pilot study that we are not allowed to name. In this instance the superb ability to balance the grid resulted in the turning down — by too much — of an air conditioner linked to a virtual power plant. Apparently, he condition of a child with a fever worsened when the room became warmer. This wasn’t as serious as the health of the child — but the cost of the medical care is now being disputed. Lawyers around the world rejoice! Virtual power plants offer an exciting glimpse of a possible future. But that’s not to say that La-La Land won’t ever claim this as yet another scalp to add to its collection. Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 3
NEWS
World’s first large-scale LAES plant to test grid-scale abilities in the UK London firm Highview Power switched on the world’s first grid-scale liquid air energy storage system on June 5 at a plant at the Pilsworth landfill gas site in Bury, England. The 5MW/15MWh plant is the first operational demonstration of LAES technology at grid scale, and will be used to demonstrate how the technology can provide a number of reserve, grid balancing and regulation services. The system, which has a life span estimated at 30 to 40 years, was designed and built by Highview in partnership with renewable energy company Viridor and
enabled in part by more than £8 million ($11 million) in funding from the UK government. Demand response aggregator KiWi Power will draw energy from the plant to power around 5,000 homes for around three hours. Gareth Brett, CEO at Highview Power, said utilities from around the world had been assessing the technology and were now using the operating data to assess its grid-scale abilities. He said: “The adoption of LAES technology is now under way, and discussions are progressing with utilities around the world who
see the opportunity for LAES to support the transition to a low-carbon world. “We are therefore already in detailed negotiations to build plants 10 times the size of this one for utility customers of several nationalities and for various different applications.” The technology has the potential to be scaled up to hundreds of megawatts, with Highview claiming it could store enough power from wind farms to power around 100,000 homes for many days. The system works by cooling air down to -196°C (-320˚F) until it turns to liquid, where it is stored in
insulated, low-pressure vessels. To access the power, the liquid is exposed to ambient temperatures that cause its rapid re-gasification and the energy from the 700fold expansion in volume is used to drive a turbine and create power. Yoav Zingher, CEO at KiWi Power, said: “By drawing energy from a diverse range of low-carbon storage assets, companies can not only balance the grid but they can also help to meet rising energy demand and respond to changing patterns of consumption on a local and national level.”
UK first as hydro paired with BESS for grid services Hydropower company Barn Energy announced in March that it had commissioned two projects in the UK that combine hydroelectric and lithium ion battery storage to perform grid-scale services. The firm worked with its sister company Eelpower to deliver the two schemes, each with a capacity of more than 1.2MWh, using batteries supplied by China’s BYD and installed by UK cleantech firm Anesco. The batteries will be remotely controlled using UK company Limejump’s virtual power plant technology. The projects are already delivering on a two-year, Firm Frequency Response service contract with UK transmission firm National Grid. The systems could also potentially relieve costs during TRIAD days — part of a charge-setting process that takes readings from the three half-hours of highest demand on Great Britain’s electricity transmission system between November and February.
When performing gridbalancing services, 60-70% of the battery’s consumption will be provided by hydropower with the rest coming from the grid. The low-head river hydro projects have been deployed at: Thrybergh, on the Rover Don near Rotherham, and at Knottingley, on the River Aire near Wakefield. Barn Energy plans to istall
a third battery storage unit at its 500kW Kirkthorpe hydro scheme on the River Calder. When not performing FFR or TRIAD services, the batteries will be used for load shifting and for trading to maximize the revenues at each site. Mark Simon, chief executive of Barn Energy and Eelpower, told Energy Stor-
age Journal: “We have deployed the system because we have a lot of experience with battery installations on a solar farm and have seen that they make a significant impression on one’s ability to export energy. “The only difference with a hydro plant is it is more expensive to build and so the returns are more modest.”
EDF Group sets 10GW storage goal by 2035 Energy distribution firm EDF Energy, a wholly owned company of French state-owned Électricité de France, announced at the end of March it planned to invest €8 billion ($10 billion) in deploying 10GW of storage globally by 2035. This is on top of the 5GW of storage already operated by the group, which has interests in storage technology applications including batteries and pumped-storage
4 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018
hydroelectricity. The EDF Group is also doubling investment in research and development into storage for the power system to €70 million ($82m) up to 2020. The group also announced Nouveaux Business — the innovation and competition services company it created last September — will be allocating a third of its investments, around €15 million ($1.75m), in the next two years to
projects and start-ups linked to electricity storage and flexibility. The group aims to become the leader in the residential storage sector in France and Europe with a range of self-consumption power services incorporating batteries. It is also prioritizing Africa, with the goal of developing a portfolio of 1.2 million off-grid customers by 2035 through local partnerships.
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NEWS
Ørsted to develop 800MW wind farm and 55MW/110MWh storage Danish power company Ørsted (formally known as Dong Energy) and US transmission company Eversource Energy — who formed the Bay State Wind initiative in December 2016 — announced in March they had entered into a Letter of Intent to develop a 800MW wind and 55MW/110MWh energy storage project. The pair will work with
Massachusetts, US-based NEC Energy Solutions — the business division created by Japanese firm NEC after it bought lithium ion ESS maker A123 Systems Solutions for $100 million in 2014 — to develop an energy storage solution for the Bay State Wind project. When completed the project in the South Coast region of Massachusetts will be the world’s biggest
wind-paired ESS developed for commercial-scale energy management. Taiwan is set to deploy its first energy storage system after Ørsted announced plans in February to invest in a 1MW lithium ion pilot project on the island to test how an ESS can support the grid, and in turn how it could support the country’s renewable energy transition.
GE re-enters ESS market with launch of 4MWh scalable ESS US conglomerate General Electric announced in March it was rejoining the battery storage industry with the launch of its modular AC and DC-coupled lithium ion Reservoir ESS. The system is designed for use along the power chain, from renewables generation to distribution in centralized grid systems, by offering services including frequency regulation, peak shifting and black start, as well microgrid capabilities for remote appli-
cations. The first reservoir platform is a 1.2MW/4MWh unit, with the company stating it has already secured a 20MW/80MWh pre-launch commitment. Russell Stokes, president and chief executive officer of GE Power, said: “The energy landscape is undergoing an unprecedented paradigm shift as the growth of renewables, decentralization of power and digitization create new challenges and opportuni-
New Jersey seeks 2GW by 2030 Energy storage is at the heart of a bill passed by the New Jersey House and Senate on April 12 that will require utilities in the US state to generate at least half of its power from renewables by 2030. The bill A3723 compels the state to investigate how energy storage will affect the power supply and end users, the type of technologies being implemented in the state, and determine the amount of energy storage required. The bill also requires the Board of Public Utilities to implement a plan to introduce 600MW of energy storage by 2021 and 2GW
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of energy storage by 2030. Energy storage will allow utilities to manage the fluctuation of renewable generated power onto its grid as it aims to meet its energy target, one of the US’ most aggressive — only Hawaii’s 100% renewable energy mix by 2045 and Vermont’s 75% by 2032 are higher, and matches targets set by California and New York. The bill also compels power utilities in the state to implement measures to reduce electricity or natural gas usage by 2% of the previous three years’ average energy usage within five years of the start of the programme.
ties in how power is generated, transmitted and distributed.” Utility-scale energy storage is a market that one of GE’s main competitors, Siemens, is also pursuing. Last year, Siemens joined with AES to create a global energy storage technology and services company called Fluence. In February, energy storage start-up Arenko announced it had chosen General Electric to deliver a 41MW lithium ion energy storage system to ensure security of supply to 100,000 UK homes
Enel JV to enter German ESS market with 22MW project Enel announced on February 20 it would build and manage a 22MW lithiumion battery storage plant in Germany in a joint venture with the country’s wind energy company Enertrag and Swiss energy storage firm Leclanché. Situated in the German state of Brandenburg, the project will cost around €17 million ($21 million). It will be the first energy storage system Enel, through its renewables subsidiary Enel Green Power Germany, has delivered in the country. The first 2MW section of the Cremzow plant began providing primary frequency services to the country’s Primary Control Reserve market this spring. The entire plant is scheduled to come online at the end of this year, to eventually be integrated with Enertrag’s wind farms. Antonio Cammisecra, head of Enel’s Global Renewable Energies division, said the project was an important milestone for the company after the success of similar projects in Italy and Chile.
166MW ESS plan in California after emergency concerns Californian utility San Diego Gas & Electric announced plans on February 28 to add 166MW of storage in San Diego County to ensure the region’s power supply is secure in the case of a major emergency. The seven proposed projects will ensure security of supply to publicsector facilities including fire and police stations, emergency operation centres and emergency
evacuation sites in the rural and urban areas of the county. If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, the projects would be added in phases with all ready for operation by 2024. The company expects to develop or interconnect more than 330MW of energy storage by 2030 as it targets 43% renewable power generation in the future.
Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 5
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NEWS
Nevada utility announces biggest deployment of ESSs to date Nevada utility NV Energy, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, filed a resource plan with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada on June 1 to buy 1,000MW of solar energy and build 100MW/400MWh of energy storage systems. If the commission approves the 25-year electricity purchase contracts
the utility will build three energy storage systems to balance supply and demand from six solar projects — three in northern Nevada and three in southern Nevada. The projects include 25MW ESS at Battle Mountain Solar Project, which includes 101MW solar photovoltaic located near Battle Mountain, Nevada.
There will also be a 50MW ESS at the Dodge Flat Solar Energy Center, a 200MW solar photovoltaic project east of Reno. The Fish Springs Ranch Solar Energy Center will integrate 25MW of storage with 100MW PV north of Reno. All projects should be operational by the end of 2021.
California ratifies SDGE plans for 88MW US utility San Diego Gas & Electric announced on June 4 it has five lithium ion energy storage projects totalling more than 80MW, and one demand response program equalling 4.5MW, approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. The six projects will improve grid reliability and integrate more renewables in the San Diego and south
Orange counties of California. The largest will be built by Fluence in Fallbrook. The 40MW/160MWh battery facility is due to be completed by March 2021. The second largest will be a 30MW/120MWh storage facility in San Diego by Renewable Energy Systems. The project should be online by December 2019. The other projects are: a 4MW/16MWh system
Lithium Werks acquires China manufacturing plants from A123 Lithium Werks, the Dutch battery and energy group, announced on March 27 it had acquired the manufacturing plants of A123 Systems. The transaction, financed through the working capital of Lithium Werks, positions the company as one of the leading lithium iron phosphate cell, module and system firms in the world. A123 Systems, a subsidiary of Chinese Wanxiang Group, manufactured the first cylindrical nanophosphate cells in Changzhou. Marc Kohler, Lithium Werks’ commercial director, told Energy Storage Journal: “Wanxiang Group still owns A123 Systems, focusing on prismatic cell production for the automotive sector.
“Lithium Werks now owns the cylindrical cell factory and will focus on industrial markets.” The merger includes Lithium Werks taking over the US-headquartered company’s Chinese, European and US customers as well as the operations, staff and product designs associated with the plants. The deal allows A123 to focus on automotive applications ranging from mild-hybrids to fully electric vehicles, said Jeff Kessen, A123 Systems’ VP of corporate strategy. In February Lithium Werks announced it had acquired substantially all the assets of Valence Technology, including the proprietary LiFePO4 intellectual property, trademarks, and inventory.
8 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018
in San Juan Capistrano by Advanced Microgrid Solutions to be completed by December 2019 and Powin Energy’s 6.5MW/26MWh facility in Escondido by June 2021. The only non-US firm to be contracted in the projects is Italy’s Enel Green Power, which will build a 3MW/12MWh facility in Poway by December 2021. OhmConnect is providing the demand response programme, which requires customers to conserve energy during heavy peak periods to limit demand on the grid. By 2030, the utility expects to develop or interconnect more than 330MW of energy storage.
Viridity signs deal for 40MW ESS
Two energy storage projects totalling 40MW/40MWh are to be installed in New Jersey, US, after a master supplier agreement was signed between energy storage firm Dynapower and Viridity Energy Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of geothermal firm Ormat Technologies, both companies announced mid-April. Viridity, a battery storage and energy management firm, will design, finance, build, own and operate the two 20MW/20MWh infront-of-the-meter ESSs in Plumsted Township and Alpha. Dynapower will supply its CPS-2200 inverters and fully integrated IPS-2200 ESSs for projects, which should be operational in the last quarter of this year. LG Chem will supply the lithium ion battery modules. Viridity will use its VPower software to provide the optimization, economic value stacking and automated control. The ESSs will generate around an estimated $8 million in 2019 mainly through ancillary services to assist transmission organization PJM Interconnection in balancing the grid, as well as being available as a capacity asset.
Hawaiian Electric plans 120MW of storage to secure power supply US utility Hawaiian Electric announced on May 2 it is planning to build 120MW of lithium ion grid-scale energy storage. If approved by the Public Utilities Commission, the projects will be operated by the utility. The first project will include a 100MW/100MWh system at Hawaiian Electric’s Campbell Industrial Park Generating Station. It is due to begin provid-
ing services by October 2020 at an estimated cost of $104 million. The second project, a 20MW/80MWh, $43 million system, will support the 20MW West Loch Solar system under construction at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, West Loch Annex. If agreed, the company hopes to start construction by October 2019 with the system in service by February 2020.
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NEWS
Flood of energy storage projects as Australia takes world leader position A flood of actual and planned energy storage projects has emerged from Australia this past year. Perhaps the largest headline project was the one announced in March, when the state of South Australia unveiled plans to support the world’s biggest Li ion ESS — again. And this one is 20MW bigger than last year’s recordbreaking Tesla project. South Australia said it would assist in building a 120MW/140MWh energy storage project by Simec Zen Energy with a loan of A$10 million ($8 million) from the state’s Renewable Technology Fund. Construction starts this year at Port Augusta, and will support a 200MW solar farm installed for the Whyalla Steelworks. Last year South Australia made headlines across the globe, when Tesla delivered the biggest lithium ion ESS in the world with the Hornsdale Power Reserve’s 100MW/129MWh system, the first project to be delivered under South Australia’s Renewable Technology Fund. Simec Zen Energy was formed last year after international business group GFG Alliance took a majority stake in Australia-based ZEN Energy. Simec Zen Energy is a result of a joint venture between GFG’s energy division Simec Energy and Zen. Elsewhere in South Australia, the local utility SA Water announced in April it intended to install 35MWh of energy storage coupled with 152MW of solar in the next two years as it moves towards its goal of achieving zero net power costs by 2020. The company, which spent A$55 million ($42 million) on 220GWh of power in 2016-17, has been trial-
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ling storage technologies alongside PV arrays during two projects — 50kWh of lead battery storage from Ecoult at its Crystal Brook workshop and a 128kWh flywheel by South Australian company Greenfields Energy at its Hope Valley Reservoir site. In the adjoining state of Victoria, wind power company Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy — created in April 2017 from a merger between Gamesa Corporación Tecnológica and Siemens Wind Power — started the construction of a wind farm in April, incorporating a 20MW/34MWh lithiumion battery. Commissioning is set for August 2019. The company has been awarded an engineering, procurement and construction contract for the entire project — known as the Bulgana Green Energy Hub — that will encompass 56 turbines with the battery in Stawell, Victoria. Siemens Gamesa will build
and maintain the project for 25 years under the terms of the contract with the French renewable energy firm Neoen — the company that owns the South Australia Hornsdale wind farm, which uses Tesla’s 100MW lithium ion system. The complex has secured two power purchase agreements: one for 15 years with the state’s government, the other with the Australian agribusiness Nectar Farms up to 2028. In March, Australia-wide energy retailer EnergyAustralia announced it had signed agreements worth around A$50 million ($37 million) to operate two lithium ion, utility-scale energy storage systems totalling 55MW/80MWh, also in the state of Victoria. Tesla is due to deliver a 25MW/50MWh lithium ion system at the Gannawarra Energy Storage System near the 50MW Gannawarra Solar Farm. Fluence (the joint venture
between Siemens and AES Corporation) will build a 30MW/30 MWh gridconnected battery at the Ballarat terminal station. EnergyAustralia will hold the rights to charge and discharge energy from the ESSs into the National Electricity Market until 2030 and 2033 respectively. The two consortia-led projects, by Edify Energy, will be delivered with joint investment from Wirsol Energy and Spotless Sustainability Services and are part of the Victorian Government Energy Storage Initiative. The state and national governments will each provide up to A$25 million ($18m) in funding. Victoria is also set to trial virtual power plant technology and install a 4.3MWh lithium ion micro-grid. The A$10.5 million ($7.8m) microgrid will supply wholesale market energy needs and feed surplus power into the broader grid for peak shaving services.
Western Australia switches on biggest industrial battery system Australian utility Alinta Energy announced on April 12 it had switched on the country’s biggest industrial application lithium ion battery at its Newman Power Station in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The 30MW/11.4MWh battery is capable of operating as a stand-alone system or can supply power if one or all of the station’s gas turbine generators fail or while a standby gas turbine starts and takes up load. The lithium batteries were supplied by Korea’s Kokam, which teamed with ABB Australia to
form an integrated microgrid. As a stand-alone system, the ESS will provide grid services including frequency control, voltage regulation, synthetic inertia, short circuit current and load control to the high voltage network. The ESS can also operate in a grid forming mode in an islanded system and power a 220 kV high-voltage power system (overhead transmission lines, substations and an iron ore mine) with up to 30MW of load, without support from any other generation source.
Alinta Energy CEO Jeff Dimery said the system would demonstrate how renewable generation and other technologies can help tackle the three main issues of the future power supply: security of supply, cost and tackling climate control concerns. The battery supports the 178MW open cycle gas turbine at the power station by emulating a 30MW gas turbine and providing spinning reserve. It also delivers frequency control, voltage regulation and reduces peak demand on the gas turbine at the Newman Power Station.
Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 9
NEWS
Stina changes name after acquisition
POWER-BLOX
Plug and Power off-grid storage solution Power-Blox is revolutionizing the off-grid energy market by opening up new ways and means for independent power generation. The innovative principle not only allows for simple expansion of capacity and performance, but also applies intelligent swarm technology when connecting several units up to the Kilowatt range. Each Power-Blox unit can be charged by photovoltaic modules, wind or other generators. Thanks to its design and user-friendliness, it is perfectly suitable for areas of application where flexibility and ease of use are essential Power wherever you are. www.staubli-alternative-energies.com
Staubli is a trademark of Stäubli International AG, registered in Switzerland and other countries. © Stäubli 2018 | Photocredits: Shutterstock_123732148, Stäubli
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Battery materials and electrolyte producer Stina Resources announced on May 1 it had completed the purchase of all the outstanding assets of vanadium redox flow battery maker Gildemeister Energy Storage, including its CellCube technology and energy storage business. Just two weeks later the Canadian headquartered firm announced it was changing its name to Cellcube Energy Storage Systems. The buy-out and name change reflects the company’s focus on becoming a vertically integrated vanadium firm — from materials to energy storage systems — within the storage sector. German firm Gildemeister’s assets and business were bought for €5 million ($6 million).
The sale was made through Stina’s newly established, wholly owned Austrian subsidiary Enerox, which focuses on researching, developing, manufacturing and distributing vanadium flow batteries. Enerox says it expects to release the next generation of the CellCube flow battery modules product soon. On May 2, Stina announced a strategic relationship with and $2 million investment in US e-commerce platform company Braggawatt Energy. The investment was made to allow Enerox to capitalize on expanding markets. This March, Stina appointed four members of Gildemeister on to its staff, including the former company’s head of technical sales Schauss.
New phase of PNNL’s VRFB electrolyte trials starts The second phase of a vanadium redox flow battery trial is to begin following the satisfactory results of phase one tests of a vanadium electrolyte developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Golden Share Resources Corporation, a Canadian mineral exploration company that licensed the material, according to an early June announcement. The trial looked at the compatibility of the electrolyte, licensed by the Canadian minerals firm and China’s Hunan Vanadium Valley New Energy Technology, in a bid to develop a custombuilt VRFB. The initial trial was conducted under the letter of intent over a two-
month period that began this March. The second phase will happen over the summer. The next phase will test the technology’s operational ability under a wider temperature range — particularly higher temperatures which should prove higher reliability — as the companies look to boost overall battery performance. The first phase involved more than a hundred full cycles of the technology, following the letter of intent in February. Golden Share announced on April 17 it intended to make its energy storage business a new public entity, with the company retaining its mineral exploration business.
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NEWS
Australia’s FCAS market must recognize ESS’s capabilities says power operator On April 5 power systems operator Australian Energy Market Operator gave its opinion in a report on South Australia’s Hornsdale Power Reserve Battery Energy Storage System (HPR). The Initial operation of the Hornsdale Power Reserve Battery Energy Storage System report found the 100MW/129MWh lithium ion system was capable of providing a range of rapid and precise frequency control ancillary services to stabilize the state’s grid. It also found that frequency control markets should be modified to monetize the rapid deployment capabilities of the system, and battery ESSs in general. South Australia’s ancillary services market specification does not address performance requirements for regulation frequency services, and essentially considers them equal and interchangeable, with providers paid the same price per MW of enabled service, regardless of performance. The report said: “Current frequency control ancillary
service market arrangements could be modified to specifically recognize the rapid and accurate response capabilities of batteries, and therefore enhance their ability to earn income from providing them. “Batteries, and some other inverter-based technologies, have demonstrated that they are capable of rapid delivery of a large and sustained response to a change in frequency. In some circumstances this can be particularly valuable, such as following a large disturbance, or when the power system is operating with low inertia. “The current methods for assessing and commoditizing frequency response involve performance assessment against a slow moving change in frequency, and do not therefore recognise, or reward, the more rapid response capabilities of batteries, and some other inverter-based technologies.” The project, arguably the biggest energy storage system in the world, provides a range of grid-scale services
under commercial agreements between the South Australian Government, battery provider Tesla and the French owner and operator Neoen. It was the first time batteries had been used for regulation frequency control in Australia’s national energy market. These services had previously been delivered by gas and coal generated power. The system also provides energy arbitrage, reserve energy capacity and network loading control ancillary services (South Australia requires that 10MWh is reserved for this), as well as being registered to provide eight different frequency control services.
Neoen has around 30MW of the discharge capacity for use in the energy market and the rest is reserved for power system reliability, which to date has not been needed. The system was first called into action a month after it was commissioned in November last year. The battery has been deployed twice to cover outages at the coal-fired Loy Yang facility in the state of Victoria. The Hornsdale ESS was deployed after two tornadoes destroyed elements of the power infrastructure, which caused the system to trip in 2016, leaving 1.7 million South Australia residents without power.
Protean uses Korean grant for WA trial of vanadium battery
US firm delivers first iron flow batteries order to Europe
Storage firm Protean Energy announced on April 11 it is to use a A$120,000 ($90,000) grant from the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning to test vanadium redox flow battery technology in Western Australia. The Australian firm and its Korean affiliate Korid Energy will use the cash to test its co-owned V-Kor technology. The 25kW/100kWh battery is due to be installed this month. Protean chairman Bevan Tarratt said: “This trial is the first major step for the the company and V-KOR
ESS, the long duration energy storage maker, announced on March 13 it is to enter the German market after securing a deal to supply two of its trademarked Energy Warehouse iron redox flow battery systems. The Oregon, US firm, founded in 2011, will supply two 50kW/400kWh to chemical company BASF, which made a significant investment in ESS last year, marking the company’s first foray into Europe. Last December Energy
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to capitalize on the growing energy storage sector in Australia. The vanadium flow battery has the potential to play a crucial role in revolutionizing the new energy sector.” The trial follows the VKOR technology being selected as a superior emerging technology by Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. In addition to the Australian trial, test laboratory Korea Conformity Laboratories are analyzing two 25kW stacks as part of a solar PV and VRFB-ESS combination.
Storage Journal reported how ESS had secured $13 million in series ‘B’ funding to expand the annual production of its product to 900MWh, automate its manufacturing process and promote its product. The funding round includes new investors led by BASF, as well as cleantech investment firm Cycle Capital Management, and investment management companies Presidio Partners and InfraPartners Management.
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NEWS
New mini-grid association sets goal of 100% electrification of Africa The Africa Mini-grid Developers Association, the continent’s first trade association dedicated to microgrids, was officially established on April 13 in Kenya. The body aims to provide a voice for the industry by partnering with governments and utilities to build grids based on the needs of industry and communities. Th association has 11 member companies that aim to combine private sector innovation, efficiency and customer service with public sector support to help end energy poverty across Africa. AMDA will share knowledge and feedback with policy-makers, regulators and investors, while also
representing end users. It plans to grow into a panAfrican platform for private utilities. The association has chapters in Kenya and Tanzania and is in the process of setting up another in Nigeria. The goal is to add Ethiopia and Uganda by the end of 2018. Jessica Stephens, AMDA’s global coordinator, said: “AMDA’s vision is to see 100% of Africa electrified before 2030, and this will require utilities to incorporate new and innovative technologies, with minigrids playing a central role. “Mini-grids can deliver more connections per dollar, can be deployed more rapidly than traditional
grid infrastructure and play an important role in stimulating economic opportunities and creating jobs.” Near-term objectives include mobilizing finance for mini-grids, equalizing public-private incentives and establishing a national grid integration framework to include mini-grids. AMDA is supported by the Shell Foundation, the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development. “Mini-grids offer the quickest, most cost-effective way to bring 24-hour power to large parts of Africa, while other areas will be better served by standalone home systems or national grid extension,”
Mini grid expansion to drive battery storage across Africa Up to 200,000 batterybacked mini grid systems could be installed in Africa by 2040 as the region struggles to connect nearly 140 million people to electricity, a summit in Nairobi discussed on March 21-22. By far the most dominant battery chemistry is lead. Representatives from governments, utility companies and private sector power developers told the fourth annual Africa Mini Grids Summit in the Kenyan capital that expansion would be supported mainly by imported batteries, dominated by lead batteries because of their cheaper cost. “Lead acid is still the dominant choice for the African market although different versions are in use depending on the consumer’s priorities,” said Laurent Grimaud, managing partner at France-based Ergos Energy Partners, a consultancy.
Ergos is working with a telecommunications firm in East Africa to install infrastructure in off-grid areas with lead acid batteries as the energy storage option. “Gel batteries are a better option for such areas because of their lower maintenance demand,” he said, adding that other lead battery options in the market currently included wet cell and absorbed glass mat. “Battery energy storage is procured by various entities that are developing mini grids mainly from imports
because of the inadequate manufacturing capacity in the region,” said Kamal Gupta, sales consultant with Schneider Electric (Kenya). Schneider supplies a gel version of lead acid batteries with its VillaSmart system, a hybrid solar PV micro grid system that replaces dieselpowered systems in off-grid areas. “With less than 15% of rural households in SubSaharan Africa (excluding South Africa) having access to electricity, strategies for creating commercially vi-
said Richard Gomes, director, market development at Shell Foundation. The 11 members of the association are European mini-grid firm Engie; Tanzania PV and hybrid back-up power firm Ensol; Indian power utility and mini-grid operator Husk Power; Tanzania hybrid mini-grid firm Jumeme; Kenyan renewable energy system PowerGen; US mini-grid software firm Powerhive; German power utility E.On owned start-up Rafiki Power; German solar power outfit Redavia; Zimbabwean hydro and wind power company Rift Valley; Portuguese mini-grid firm RVE.SOL and Kenyan micro-grid company Steamaco. able small power producers and mini grids in rural areas are critically needed,” said Maggie Tan, CEO of event organizer Magenta Global. In West Africa, some 128,000 mini grids have been approved for construction by 2030 by countries that are members of the Economic Community of West African States at an estimated cost of $3.7 billion. Some of the off-grid systems include PV systems, solar home systems, small wind turbines, solar residential systems and hybrids with renewable energy sources as the primary system and a generator back-up powered by diesel, gasoline or liquefied petroleum gas.
US inverter firm signs Indian agreement US power electronics firm Dynapower announced on May 17 it had moved into the India energy storage market with a technology transfer and licensing agreement with Mumbai headquartered Raychem
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RPG, a joint venture between North American firm TE Connectivity (formerly Tyco Electronics) and RPG Enterprises, India. The companies have commissioned a 1MW
microgrid featuring Dynapower’s CPS1000 inverter (which was issued a US patent last November) at the Central Electronics Limited facility in Sahibadad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
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NEWS VIEW Electrochemical storage will have a vital role to play in any future low carbon economy — for behind the meter and renewable energy integration applications — but it won’t be enough.
Battery storage will be insufficient to meet low carbon future demands Electrochemical storage technology’s fast response and cycling capabilities will secure its future in megawatt-scale applications, but Nigel Holmes, CEO of the Scottish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, warns it will fail to meet the terawatt-scale demands of a low carbon power and heat network. This is especially true as the UK positions its infrastructure to meet a Paris Agreement promise that requires 35% of its electricity to come from renewable generators by 2020. Holmes believes fuel-sourced power such as hydrogen will be required if the UK is to reach its goal of an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050 (below 1990 levels), and a 26% reduction by 2020. He told ESJ on the sidelines of the All-Energy event in Glasgow, Scotland on May 3 that: “Comparing all the technology available, the classic comparison I’m getting is between energy storage and hydrogen. “And if asked which will be the winner, the answer is it depends, because looking at residential PV and battery storage in houses you can store all the output on a daily basis and use that, and the system will return energy 365 days a year. “That for me is a good solution at that scale. The bit we are trying to understand is going bigger in terms of energy storage and big in terms of duration and demand. Scaling up with batteries in a linear way from kWh to MWh is not quite as simple because it is 1,000 times bigger. “With hydrogen there are potentially very large economies of scale storing hydrogen in salt caverns. That’s happening in Texas.” So would the UK be able to add enough electrochemical storage capacity to meet growing renewables integration to balance supply and demand over longer timeframes? His response was simple: “At present my answer is no. “I struggle to envisage a situation where the UK battery storage capacity
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could economically satisfy the interseasonal demand for energy when you consider scenarios where we begin to significantly decarbonize heat. “To meet the inter-seasonal energy demands for low carbon heat we will need many, many TWhs of energy storage. “I can see a key role for battery storage in behind the meter (with PV for instance), and for local grid balancing at MW scale. But I struggle to see the case for TWh scale battery storage. The economics won’t stack up.” The issue revolves around system operators balancing the weekly, monthly and seasonal heat demands as well as growing electrical and transportation demands, such as electric vehicle charging. Grant Wilson, teaching and research fellow at Sheffield University, says electrochemical storage would, however, still play a crucial role in managing renewable integration at a sub-daily level, and day-to-day level. He said: “Perhaps with time it may even help with balancing up to a week and beyond. “However, when the sheer scale of balancing heat demands as well as electrical and transport demands over weeks to months to seasons is considered, electrochemical storage simply seems to be the wrong technology choice. “Basically, if a system is looking to store TWhs (this is energy not power) of energy over longer periods of time — then it is very hard to see this being accomplished without the use of a fuel, and hydrogen has potential to fill this role.” Last December the UK Renewable Energy Association and an interest group made up of members of the
House of Lords and House of Commons released a paper that suggested the UK would reach 8GW of battery storage by 2021 in a medium deployment scenario — up from 60MW today. Putting this in perspective, if this had four hours of energy associated with this storage, it would be equivalent to 32GWh of stored energy. On March 1 this year the gas demand at the local area was nearly 3,500GWh; meaning 32GWh would be equivalent to less than 1% of local gas demand. A best-case scenario, requiring major policy support and a rollout of all the policies contained in the UK government’s July 2017 smart systems and flexibility plan, Britain could have a 12GW battery market by 2021. Transmission operator National Grid suggested that up to 40% of the UK’s electricity demand could be supplied by gas-fired generation in its Future Energy Scenarios report. The report noted that, in 2017, daily transmission fed gas-fired generation demand fluctuated between 990GW and 792GW. Wilson said there is broadly about 3,800GWh of natural gas in the high pressure transmission gas lines, of which on a daily basis, the change in pressure allows the energy in the pipes to fluctuate by anywhere up to 450GWh over a day (but on average it fluctuates by just over 100GWh per day). He said: “This fluctuation can be considered to be energy storage — as the amount of energy in the pipes can be changed to accommodate changes in demand further downstream in the gas network — this fluctuation itself is typically termed ‘linepack’.”
“Basically, if a system is looking to store TWhs of energy over longer periods of time, not power, then it is very hard to see this being accomplished without the use of a fuel, and hydrogen has potential to fill this role.” Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 13
NEWS VIEW Sonnen’s Ani Backa talks about the transformative nature of storage, the growth of VPPs and the legislative hurdles the markets need to navigate going forward.
Education key to boosting deployment of ESS in US US regulators and legislators must be educated on the benefits of energy storage if the country is to establish the best practices that will one day inform the laws and regulatory policy to boost deployment, says Ani Backa, the new US director of regulatory strategy and utility initiatives of energy storage firm Sonnen. Sonnen recently hired Backa to work directly with regulatory bodies and utilities across the US to promote the implementation and expansion of the Germany headquartered company’s sonnenCommunity model, and help drive innovative electricity services that connect clean, decentralized energy. Backa, the former attorney and government affairs manager for Xcel Energy, said proper encouragement from companies such as Sonnen, as well as from legislative and regulatory policies, would enable utilities to bridge the gap between small-scale storage and the provision of services. Legislators in the US began their push for renewable generation integration on May 9, when California became the first US state to mandate solar be built on new homes and apartments from 1 January 2020. The unanimous approval by policy and planning agency California Energy Commission could possibly pave the way for similar regulations on storage to follow. While some states and utilities are open to the integration of renewable energy resources and residential battery storage, Backa said other states lag far behind. You say grid modernization is key to a sustainable energy future. What does this entail? For example, will every home one day have storage and PV, or will it be the introduction of VPP to neighbourhoods connecting residential, commercial and EVs? Sonnen believes that having a more modernized, reliable energy grid is the only way to ensure a sustainable energy future. This is where energy
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storage has the ability to play a transformative role. Smart energy storage systems are able to manage renewable energy with intelligent and intuitive software that knows when to store excess energy locally, when demand is low, and when to discharge local energy to meet high demand. Ultimately, this model can save homeowners money and simultaneously take the strain off the energy grid by assisting utilities in optimizing the lifecycle of their transmission and distribution infrastructure, T&D deferral, greater grid utilization and ancillary grid energy services. Sonnen’s hope is to deploy more residential energy storage systems and connect them to create virtual power plants in neighbourhoods around the country to bolster grid infrastructure. This has been a successful and vastly deployed model in Germany and, in partnership with our stakeholders, Sonnen is ready to adapt this model to fit the US utility landscape. In the US, widespread integration of solar + storage solutions cannot be achieved without involving local utilities, installers and of course the end-users themselves. What are the biggest legislative hurdles the energy storage industry must cross in the US (and wider, if possible) in the next 10 years? The legislative landscape is varied and complex. Some states and utilities are open to the integration of renewable energy resources and residential battery storage, while others lag far behind. While residential energy storage is no longer a nascent technology, we are still seeing a lack of understanding of its role in some states, by legislators and utilities, as well as scepticism towards the technology and outspoken reluctance to embrace wider adoption. And while many within the industry see the long-term value in residential battery storage, we need to further educate our regulators and legislators
on the indisputable benefits of residential battery storage so that we can establish best practices that facilitate law-making and regulatory policy. Utility leaders want to bridge the gap between small-scale residential battery storage and services provided to their residential customers, but they need the proper encouragement from companies like Sonnen, as well as from legislative and regulatory policies. What do you mean by grid integration? Grid integration refers to the process of using battery storage and the VPP model to facilitate the introduction of residential renewable and distributed energy resources to a local utility grid. Depending on the location, utility landscape and energy regulations, implementation of this process will vary. Given our experience in Germany and our recent implementation of distributed, community micro-grids in Puerto Rico, Sonnen is poised to help utilities and end users understand the options available to them, customize the approach, and execute on the integration process. How do you see the rise of renewables in the energy mix affecting the grid, and what innovations do you foresee will aid the transition from fossil fuels? We live in exciting times, with widespread penetration of renewable energy resources and adoption of these technologies by markets and utilities. However, renewables such as wind and solar are intermittent and sometimes unpredictable as energy is available and collected via solar panels and turbines. When these bursts of availability occur, the surplus of energy is often generated during low-demand times of the day or shoved into an energy grid that isn’t equipped to handle the influx. These bursts can cause traffic jams or congestion on energy highways or transmission lines and can lead to outages or higher utility bills for customers. To address this issue, Sonnen is leading the transition towards a cleaner, smarter and more resilient grid by introducing storage as the missing link in integrating renewables.
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FINANCE NEWS
World’s first large-scale investment fund opens in UK UK-based private equity group Gore Street Capital has raised £30.6 million ($43 million) in May through what it says is the world’s first stock exchange-listed fund focused solely on energy storage. The fund — floated on the London Stock Exchange — had aimed to raise £100 million ($132m) for largescale storage projects in the UK, and possibly North America and Western Europe. Although the firm said it was chemistry agnostic, system operators have turned to lithium ion storage as a solution to maintaining the grid at 50MHz, while integrating more and more wind and solar gener-
ated power. Patrick Cox, chairman of the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund, said: “Given the increasing penetration of renewable power in international energy consumption and the move away from fossil fuel generation, we believe that investment in energy storage projects will deliver strong returns.” The fund’s established seed portfolio includes a 6MW project in Yorkshire, Britain, which uses NEC supplied batteries, and a 4MW system in Swansea, Wales using cells from Tesla. Both behind-the-meter projects use lithium ion cells to provide capacity market and frequency response services. A third 10MW project
Sonnen closes $71m funding round led by Shell Ventures German energy storage firm Sonnen announced on May 23 it had secured €60 million ($71 million) in its latest financing round, led by Shell Ventures — the corporate venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell — and supported by existing investors. Alongside the investment, Sonnen and Shell’s New Energies division launched a strategic cooperation agreement. The firms will work on integrated energy propositions, enhanced EV charging solutions and the provision of grid services based on Sonnen’s virtual battery pool. The investment will enable Sonnen to expand further into the US and Australia. The company expanded its presence in North America, when it opened an innovation centre in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 2017 and a North America HQ in California the year before. This February, the company announced plans for a factory in Adelaide, South
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Australia. The company will assemble its residential storage systems at the factory, set to open in Q4 of this year. Sonnen first launched the sonnenCommunity — a variation of a virtual power plant where end users share renewable energy — in 2016 in Germany. The next year it was introduced in Australia, followed by the first US-based sonnenCommunity in Jasper, Arizona.
in Essex, Britain, is in the planning stages. A Gore Street official told Energy Storage Journal: “We are technology agnostic, but we find lithium ion to be the most productive financially and has service merits, but if we come across better technologies we will acquire those as well. It really depends on the services the
technology is able to offer and the costs.” Last July, the UK government announced £246 million of funding through its Faraday Battery Challenge. The investment includes £80 million earmarked for the development of a stateof-the-art automotive battery development facility, in West Midlands, and a £45 million Battery Institute competition to establish a centre for battery research.
Leclanché secures possible $125m to boost global market ambitions Energy storage system firm Leclanché announced on June 5 it had secured Sfr75 million ($76 million) in corporate funding and a conditional Sfr50 million funding facility for acquisitions and joint ventures from its largest shareholder FEFAM, a collection of various investment funds. It follows the Switzerlandbased firm’s announcement last month it had signed a non-binding term sheet with a strategic investor to increase corporate funding to between Sfr100 millionSfr125 million. Completion of the deal is towards the end of the year. The acquisitions and JV facility will operate on the basis of a Right-of-FirstOffer for FEFAM. Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché, said the facility
would be used for margin accretive acquisitions, and to grow its market share in Europe, Asia and North American in both the stationary grid-based storage and e-Transport markets. Leclanché is in the process of buying an unnamed US energy management software company, and completing a JV agreement with an electric vehicle company in India. On May 3 Leclanché forecast the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization would be positive by 2020. The firm says it has an order book of more than 50MWh (contributing Sfr40 million to Sfr50 million of revenue in 2018), and expects to have 100MWh of ESSs in operation by 2018.
Confidence grows in energy storage as VC funding hits $299 million in Q1 Investment in battery storage companies rose more than 400% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same time last year, says clean energy communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group’s Q1 2018 Battery Storage, Smart Grid and Efficiency Funding and M&A report published on April 20. The report focuses on funding and mergers and
acquisitions activity for the battery storage, smart grid and energy sectors over the first three months of 2018. The report found that venture capital funding in battery storage companies reached $299 million in 12 deals compared to $58 million raised in eight deals during Q1 of last year. $151 million was raised in five deals during the last three months of 2017.
US AI and virtual power plant firm Stem was the top five VC funded company, raising $80 million through investment from Activate Capital, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Temasek. An indicator of which direction battery technology is going in, at least according to VCs, was the $65 million invested in solid-state battery company Ionic Materials.
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FINANCE NEWS
Sembcorp Industries acquisition paves way for 120MW energy storage portfolio UK Power Reserve, the gas-fired energy firm, announced plans for a 120MW battery storage portfolio on June 12, less than two weeks after it was bought for £216 million ($288 million) by Singaporean energy group Sembcorp Industries. The Solihull-based firm has partnered with energy storage technology compa-
ny Fluence — the joint venture between Siemens and the AES Corporation — to deliver 60MW of storage for the first phase of the plans. Fluence will provide three 20MW ESSs using its Advancion technology platform. All three sites should be operational this winter. The mini-gas powered plant operator, previously
BP/Lightsource partnership moves into smart home market, acquires Ubiworx Utility-scale PV firm Lightsource BP — a strategic partnership between Lightsource and international petroleum and gas firm BP — announced on May 8 it had bought into the smart home market with the buy-out of Internet-of-Things software developer Ubiworx. The platform connects solar panels to residential energy storage — which stores power for use during low generation periods or sold to the grid — using a smart management system, allowing the consumer to become a prosumer. The sale adds machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, small footprint embedded software and smart control systems to Lightsource BP’s portfolio of energy technologies. Lightsource BP was formed last December when the British gas and oil company announced it was to invest $200 million in Lightsource over three years in exchange for a 43% stake in the company. The acquisition comes after a two-year working relationship where the Irish firm Ubiworx’s platform become one of the core technologies deployed by Lightsource BP’s in-house innovation
arm, Lightsource Labs. Karen Boutonnat, group chief operating officer for Lightsource BP, said: “We cannot underestimate the power of the home and its vital role in shaping this new energy future.” In June 2016, Lightsource teamed with French power company EDF Energy to launch its Sunplug system — which came in the Sunplug Complete and Sunplug Battery formats — that combines PV, storage and a management platform. This January, BP Ventures, the company’s venture capitalist arm, announced it had invested $5 million in Freewire Technologies, a US company that makes mobile EV charging systems. The systems are due to be installed in BP retail sites across Europe. BP recently released a report, Advancing the Energy Transition, which sets out goals to meet zero net emissions growth; generate sustainable reductions of 3.5 million tonnes of annual CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions throughout its businesses by 2025; and invest in carbon offsetting projects and the introduction of a group-wide accreditation programme, Advancing Low Carbon.
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owned by private equity groups Inflexion and Equistone, successfully bid for 200MW of gas-fired power capacity in the UK’s February T4-Capacity Market auction for delivery by October 2021. The T4 auction took UK-
PR’s portfolio beyond the gigawatt scale. Tim Emrich, who cofounded the company, stepped down following the buy-out. Sam Wither, the company’s former chief commercial officer, succeeds him.
RedT Energy raises £3.85m from share sale Vanadium flow battery maker RedT Energy announced on April 13 it had raised £3.85 million ($5.2 million) from the sale of around 10% of the UK company’s shares at 5.9 pence each. Proceeds will be used to grow the business, including the development of new product generations to satisfy orders and the pipeline of customer interest. Andrew Raca, a joint broker at VSA Capital, told ESJ: “It’s an important step in the development of the company as far as investor support is concerned.”
On March 30 the company announced it had been chosen to supply a 600kW/3MWh system for a European Union-backed initiative for a large-scale tidal generation plant. However, the project remains subject to finance and formal contracts. On March 1 the company confirmed it had been awarded £750,000 ($995 million) by the UK government, which RedT is using to accelerate the research and development of its stacks, production automation and its vanadium electrolyte.
ION Energy acquires Freemens India-headquartered energy storage firm Ion Energy announced on February 4 it had bought French lithium ion battery management system firm Freemens in a cash and equity deal. Freemens’ engineering and sales employees will join the core team of Ion, with Alexandre Collet, founder and CEO of Free-
mens, becoming the Indian start-up’s vice president of engineering as part of the deal. Ion intends to grow its portfolio of customers in India, US and Europe, which includes Freemens’ 20-plus clients such as aerospace company Airbus Safran and electric vehicle firm CarWatt.
Wells Fargo to commit $100bn American bank Wells Fargo has pledged more than $100 billion to support clean technology and fund renewable projects, the company’s CEO Tim Sloan said on April 19 during his keynote address at a CEO Investor Forum in San Francisco, US. The money will be invested in businesses and
projects that support the transition to a low-carbon economy through to 2030. The move by Wells Fargo follows a $12 billion investment in sustainable businesses last year. In 2016 projects owned in whole or in part by the firm produced more than 9% of all wind and solar photovoltaic energy generated in the US.
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VIEWPOINT: S&P GLOBAL RATINGS
Battery storage: the US grid’s missing piece Battery storage technology will be among the most disruptive developments that US energy markets have seen in some time. Less certain are the details: where and when might the industry make its mark, and which technologies could eventually lead the charge. Aneesh Prabhu, senior director, US Energy Infrastructure at S&P Global Ratings, offers his views on the market’s most pressing questions. America’s energy transition is starting to gather pace. Progress comes as state-level decarbonization initiatives begin to align with the falling costs of renewables and storage technologies. This latter development, advanced battery energy storage (ABES), is potentially among the most transformative advancements the power markets have seen in many years. Globally, advancements over the past five years have increased battery capacity at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25%. Though, to date, America’s grid only has around 700MW of installed battery capacity, the industry is primed for significant growth. Experts predict the US storage market could see a 9x
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increase in deployment between 2017 and 2022, which is largely fuelled by ABES additions. Further, it is expected that annual deployment should cross the 1GW threshold by 2020. Many factors are converging to ease development. Yet, while ABES’ growth may seem inevitable, many questions remain: first, where and when might these developments arise? Second, which technologies might eventually dominate? The more progressive US states will likely ramp up their battery storage capacity within the next decade. This may begin in the coming years. And, while lithium-ion storage has taken the mantle as the early market leader,
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VIEWPOINT: S&P GLOBAL RATINGS Given that wealthy families will be among the first to transfer to home-based storage systems, regulators may deem passing the tariff burden to less wealthy consumers a form of regressive taxation. there may be other battery technologies following closely behind.
Regulators bolster batteries
Key to the American grid’s transformation is development at the state level. Advancements have been largely supported by renewable portfolio standards — voluntarily adjusted targets that mandate utilities to sell a minimum amount of renewable-generated electricity. Today, 29 states have adopted them, with some even looking to increase their commitments. Of course, this not only plays into the hands of battery developers, it also goes some way towards helping states meet their lofty renewables ambitions. Among the most zealous for battery development are California, Oregon and New York — three states where half of their power usage will be generated via renewables by 2030. Notably, California — along with New York and Massachusetts — is making significant investments to ease the transition. It is helped by regulatory incentives for battery storage as well as other transformative technologies.
In September 2016, California governor Jerry Brown signed AB1637, which extended such subsidies for battery storage incentives, and tacked on an additional requirement that the state’s largest investor-owned utilities add another 500 MW of battery storage capacity on their existing 1.325GW mandate.
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In September 2016, California governor Jerry Brown signed AB1637, which extended such subsidies, and tacked on an additional requirement that the state’s largest investor-owned utilities add another 500 MW of battery storage capacity to their existing 1.325GW mandate. This has played some part in California’s burgeoning battery capacity: the state has 4GW of utility-scale storage capacity under development across 149 projects. The ramifications for the Golden State’s incumbent gas-fired generators seem clear. It has ramped up renewables insofar as aging combustion turbine capacity is increasingly being used as peaking assets. Battery storage is, in turn, being used to fulfil backstop generator duties — a role previously managed by gas-fired peaking assets. And this battery revolution already brewing in California could eventually spread further afield. States such as Washington, Nevada, New Jersey and Oregon are also ramping up battery capacity, albeit on a smaller scale.
Could lithium-ion dominate the market?
Market participants are equally concerned with which battery technologies will eventually dominate — and whether these technologies can compete with the grid’s status quo. For now, lithium-ion presents itself as a solution for energy storage challenges in multiple industries and will likely remain the battery market leader for the next decade. This particular technology is the fastest growing in the industry, largely thanks to its high energy density, high power, low self-discharge and near100% efficiency. Further helping its case is its endorsement and development by large original equipment manufacturers. The likes of Samsung and Tesla feature in this group. That’s not to say that other technologies couldn’t eventually overtake, however. Among the likely candidates at the utility-scale level are lithium sulfur, magnesium-ion or zinc batteries — which are all under development in research laboratories today.
More esoteric technologies are undergoing testing, too. Prominent among them are liquid electrochemical systems: flow batteries. Because these batteries can be readily scaled up and linked together, they are being tipped for use for long-duration storage. Holding them back, however, is cost: most flow batteries use vanadium as an electrolyte — an expensive element. Of course, the next question is whether the economics of lithium-ion (and others) could dislodge the power markets more widely. In our view, this may take time. The average total capital costs of lithium-ion-stored energy sit at just over $400/MWh; energy from sodium batteries, meanwhile, costs well above $500/MWh. However, compare this to the economics of compressed air at just over $100/MWh. As such, an exodus of conventional power sources remains an unlikely scenario for the time being. There are technological and regulatory constraints to consider, too. This is especially the case for their application at residential properties. First, lithium-ion batteries were primarily developed for portable electronics. They are not designed for storing energy across seasons (for instance, excess power generated in the summer for use in winter). Second is the issue of paying for the incumbent grid. Should we see home-based battery installations rise, which would prompt many consumers to no longer use the grid, regulators may find themselves wondering who should pay for the existing grid’s maintenance. And given that wealthy families will be among the first to transfer to homebased storage systems, regulators may deem passing the tariff burden to less wealthy consumers a form of regressive taxation. Both these considerations in mind, it seems more probable that every household would remain connected to the central grid. This is also the case given that an average-sized rooftop could not accommodate a self-sufficient PV system, one that does not require a backup power source. Based on consumption patterns in California, a typical solar PV system supported by a battery could provide 80% of a household’s power in the summer but would only provide around 55% in the winter. Connection to the main grid, there-
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VIEWPOINT: S&P GLOBAL RATINGS fore, would be necessary to help meet the customer’s peak load. And even if a PV system could equal the customer’s load throughout the year (thereby making the residence a netzero home) it still could not generate enough power to meet the customer’s demand at peak usage. According to our analysis, the only US state where solar-PV-plus-storage systems are not only economical but workable is Hawaii.
Bracing for change
So, what next for the battery industry — and the power markets, generally? While an imminent migration from the conventional grid remains improbable, we deem battery storage to be among the disruptive (and expedient) technologies required to serve the grid’s needs in the longer term. With renewable costs plummeting and utilities scrambling to maintain existing business models, an affordable battery could represent the missing piece of necessary infrastructure that prompts an upending of the US grid. Here lies the crux of the matter. The cost rationale for batteries does not improve even if battery capital costs reduce by half to around $250/kWh. Further, the economics seem to work only in markets where retail electricity rates are already much higher, such as in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Given time, these solar-PV-plusstorage systems should dramatically decline in cost, however. At present we estimate that 65% of their overall costs are “soft costs”, which we believe could be partly eradicated. Once this happens, it could pave the way for many consumers to exit the grid, and instead combine solar, battery storage and a small, home-based generator (for use in extreme weather conditions). This would prompt a fullscale exodus — a phenomenon that some believe could happen within the next decade. What remains, then, is for the industry to begin bracing itself for change: the advent of disruption caused by batteries could soon be upon us – and once it is, there may be no going back.
“According to our analysis, the only US state where solar-PV-plus-storage systems are not only economical but workable is Hawaii” — Aneesh Prabhu, S&P Global Ratings
TECHNOLOGY BREAKTHROUGHS, THE RISKS Utilities most vulnerable to a battery technological breakthrough would be fully integrated utilities located in areas with above-average sun strength, serving customers with above-average incomes. These utilities would initially be most susceptible to declines in electricity sales given the desire of customers in sunny areas to take advantage of this improved power source and their ability to afford the steep upfront costs of installing an enhanced distributed generation system. Based on the states identified, there are 14 US utilities that we think could face increased risk if there were a battery technological breakthrough (see table). Although this list includes all three of California’s large electric utilities, these utilities have been proactive in managing their generation supply commitments, moving their utilities closer to a T&D-only model. Utility
Parent
State
Arizona Public Service Black Hills Energy Wyoming Public Service of Colorado El Paso Electric Entergy Texas Hawaiian Electric NV Energy PacifiCorp Pacific Gas & Electric San Diego Gas & Electric Southern California Edison Southwestern Electric Power Tucson Electric Power Westar Energy
Pinnacle West Capital Black Hills
Arizona Colorado,
Xcel Energy El Paso Electric Entergy Hawaiian Electric Industries Berkshire Hathaway Energy Berkshire Hathaway Energy PG&E Sempra Energy Edison International American Electric Power Fortis Great Plains Energy
Colorado Texas Texas Hawaii Nevada Utah, Wyoming California California California Texas Arizona Kansas
Source: S&P Global Ratings
While we think a disruptive technological breakthrough that will threaten the electric industry’s business model is more than a decade away, the risk of this occurring over the long term is real. Certainly, the electric utility industry has provided low-cost, reliable electricity for more than 100 years, a service that has underpinned US economic growth during this time. However, it is hard to imagine that by 2037 the electric utility industry will still deliver power in the same way it does today. Source: RatingsDirect: Future Shock: Will Better Batteries Dim Electric Utilities’ Prospects
Market participants are equally concerned with which battery technologies will eventually dominate … lithium-ion batteries were primarily developed for portable electronics, they are not designed for storing energy across seasons … among the likely candidates at the utility-scale level are lithium sulphur, magnesium-ion or zinc batteries. www.energystoragejournal.com
Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 19
COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS
Coming soon to a grid near you…
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COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS
The next generation of electricity delivery — theoretically without power plants — is just round the corner. Paul Crompton reports.
The utility death spiral. It’s been the energy industry chatter for the past five years. It follows an analysis by the Edison Electric Institute that the rise of distributed energy resources would kill off the utilities. At its most basic — and the thinking was clearly far more nuanced than this — was the idea that when everyone generated their own electricity, there would be little need for the huge generating capabilities and transmission networks of the old-fashioned utility. But a new business model is emerging for the energy business. And the rise of virtual power plants — where individual distributed energy resources (DERs) are aggregated and then coordinated into a larger generating network — doesn’t necessarily spell the end of the regular power utility. Rather it would fit into a newer type of operation, where the customer is able to coordinate their own assets through an outside party — think Uber, the taxi firm with no taxis; Airbnb, the hotel with no beds; or eBay, the retailer with no shops. The technology to do this so far is now advancing from pilot projects to larger scale operations. If utilities as well as transmission operators can reorganize themselves — they already have most of the expertise in place — to moving to this new model, they could well continue to have a useful and profitable future. Future grid operators will be more an aggregator of distributed energy resources than an asset owner; teams of analysts will manage mega data from hundreds of separate sources to balance the grid, rather than rely on engineers and traditional power supply methods. The big question will be who is willing to step up to the plate to create the partnerships between regulators, utilities and customers that will help nurture the environment that can make this transition possible.
A changing business
In the UK the role of Distribution Network Operators is moving to a Distributed Systems Operator model to reflect the twoway relationship of supply and demand as the means and methods by which power is generated, distributed and consumed.
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Transmission network operators have to ensure the grid remains stable at 50Hz, which entails balancing supply and demand as finely as possible. However, traditional methods of balancing the grid, such as Peaker plants, are slowly being usurped by energy storage systems as grid operators seek cheaper and quicker ways to maintain grid frequency, especially during unforeseen fluctuations in generation and consumption. UK energy aggregator Limejump works with 1,200 organizations and 150 generators to create a VPP capable of supplying more than 200MW of capacity to the National Grid. Its head of business development, Joe McDonald, says: “Aggregators and suppliers have always been there in the energy industry. Now the Internet of Things is spilling over into the energy industry, so there will be a big fundamental
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COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS “VPPs are already part of energy markets, or in subset as aggregations of flexibility, for example frequency, DSR and capacity markets. Full-scale VPPs will become inevitable, particularly in large island nations or cities that need to manage growing grid-edge production and batteries to manage balancing.” — Simon Daniel, Moixa shift in the next six years. Big storage systems are coming on line, more renewables and assets and the technology will open up those markets. “Renewables are starting to affect the grid systems and people are becoming more aware of how they cause problems and how the grid needs to be balanced.” Chris Hickman, chief executive and founder of Innovari, believes we are in the middle of the next evolution of the electric grid. But, he says, this time the challenge power network operators face is even more daunting than any from the past, as the integration and impact of DERs on the grid system change future business models. “At stake are the most fundamental relationships we maintain with our customers and the communities we serve,” he says. “Virtual Power Plant technology will be at the centre of the solution that enables utilities to control all resources at the edge of the grid and help them optimize existing grids and existing central station resources.” In the future, VPPs will provide the backbone of numerous grid-connected services. At the base level operators will be able to integrate consumer and utility owned DERs to provide capacity and energy benefits to the grid, and also balance customer and community owned renewables from buildings, batteries and EV charging. At the next level VPPs will enable a whole new set of ancillary services at the distribution level such as power factor correction and even phase balancing. Companies such as Stem, which pairs artificial intelligence — AI —
Aggregators and suppliers have always been there in the energy industry. Now the Internet of Things is spilling over into the energy industry, so there will be a big fundamental shift in the next six years.” — Joe McDonald, Limejump 22 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018
.with energy storage to help end-users optimize the timing of energy use, utilizes their proprietary software to rapidly respond to spikes in electricity use, drawing on stored power to automatically reduce demand. Meanwhile, Moixa’s Gridshare enables a range of real-time, system, energy-use or flexibility data to be analyzed and automated, to optimize battery and grid services. The company acts like a battery operator and is responsible, through its Gridshare platform, for maximizing the battery asset value from behindthe-meter for households, at-themeter for utilities, local-to-meter for DNOs/networks and front-of-the-meter for the grid. And they are not alone. Companies are developing cloudbased systems that aggregate the capacities of diverse DERs to enhance power generation and the way it is distributed. The future grid will see consumers — or prosumers — generate power, with excess stored in smallscale ESSs and shared among a community of users. In the UK, the roll-out of smart meters into all homes, some 26 million by 2020, will ensure this prosumer model is better understood by giving the end-user real-time data on their energy supply and demand.
The grid of the future
“The global energy world will change completely and get decentralized, sustainable and digital. Nothing will remain as we know it. We are running a fundamental transformation process to meet the challenges of the new energy world,” says Markus Nitschke, in charge of communication and political affairs at E.on, the Germany-based utility. Nitschke believes VPPs will be an important component in meeting the challenges posed by the transition from traditional energy generation methods to renewables. For example, E.on’s VPP directly draws on the power generation facilities of numerous consumers’ distributed energy resources to stabilize the grid when demand is too high or too low. “The increasingly decentralized production associated with the expansion of renewable energy sources means that fluctuations in the electricity grid are increasing and forecasts are becoming ever more difficult to make, which creates major challenges for grid operators,” says Nitschke. “Positive balancing power is needed
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COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS Rather it would fit into a newer type of operation where the customer is able to coordinate their own assets through an outside party — think Uber, the taxi firm with no taxis; Airbnb, the hotel with no beds; or eBay, the retailer with no shops. if consumption exceeds generation and negative is required in the opposite case. The transmission network operators have three balancing power qualities available, of which one is the tertiary balancing power.” This has the purpose of replacing the previously activated secondary balancing power and must be capable of being fully available within 15 minutes. Since July 2012, the minimum supply size in Germany has been 5MW and it is automatically requested. Network operators will also be able to use VPPs to aggregate DERs and collectively make them behave as a grid asset. This might be as a generator, or to organize a group reduction in energy demand. “These are important to the future as they can enable customer-owned or grid-edge renewable assets to participate and help balance the energy system. It becomes critical with the increasing adoption of PV, batteries and electric vehicles,” says Simon Daniel, the co-founder of Moixa. “VPPs are already part of energy markets, or in subset as aggregations of flexibility, for example frequency, DSR and capacity markets,” says Daniel. “Full-scale VPPs will become inevitable, particularly in large island nations or cities that need to manage growing grid-edge production, and batteries to manage balancing.” This is a point shared by Ted Ko, director of policy at US digitally connected energy operator Stem. He believes that utilities and bulk grid operators will increasingly seek dynamic, network-enabled VPPs as a service, where local, modular capacity and resources can be instantly applied to address localized issues. “These dynamic, network-enabled VPPs may in the future include islanding microgrids that operate indepen-
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SECOND-LIFE EV BATTERIES FOR VPP Japanese firms Benex Corp and Sumitomo announced in April they had launched a project using second-life lithium ion electric vehicle batteries to power Benex’s plant in Isahaya, Japan. The stationary energy storage system project combines renewable energy, end-of-life batteries and electric vehicles to demonstrate the technology as Japan moves to a low carbonized power economy. The project will use 10 Nissan e-NV200 electric commercial vehicles and EV batteries to stabilize output from the rooftop solar panel system and for peak-shifting services to reduce the plant’s electricity costs. Nissan employees will use the e-NV200s for commuting or work purposes, with the vehicle’s batteries recycled and refabricated into components of the ESS at their end of life. The two companies co-developed
the system for use in virtual power plants that are expected to be operating in Japan by 2020. They have already field tested ESSs and EVs as part of their participation in the Kansai VPP project, which will be used to optimize and manage supply and demand throughout the region. In January Nissan Motor, Kansai Electric Power and Sumitomo Electric Industries started testing tools to charge EVs via remote control as part of the Kansai VPP Project. Sixty electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles owned by customers and Kansai will be outfitted with EV switches, which are control instruments for EV charging developed in conjunction with Sumitomo. All three firms will link their servers to enable remote-control charging, collect vehicle data and identify available charging capacity.
Stem uses its AI driven ESSs to reduce an end-users’ peak demand and provide real-time and predictive data and energy management visualization tools. It can then link that system with others into aggregated VPPs, where a dozen additional energy services for the utility or grid operator is able to use stored energy at lower cost than traditional grid infrastructure, and with five minutes notice.
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COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS “Virtual Power Plant technology will be at the centre of the solution that enables utilities to control all resources at the edge of the grid and help them optimize existing grids and existing central station resources.” — Chris Hickman, Innovari
dently of the electric grid when required to maintain service amid larger grid disturbances,” says Ko. At the individual commercial or institutional customer level, Stem uses its AI driven ESSs to reduce an enduser’s peak demand and provide realtime and predictive data and energy management visualization tools. It can then link that system with others into aggregated VPPs, where a dozen additional energy services for the utility or grid operator are able to use stored energy at lower cost than traditional grid infrastructure, and with five minutes notice. E.on’s VPP in Germany is connected directly to the grid. By analyzing data from power facilities such as wind farms and the power consumption of B2B customers, the system can decide how to act at short notice. This allows it to use the energy of a customer that has its own power production to stabilize the grid when supply or generation is low, or split customers from the grid to save energy. Alternatively, if low demand or too many renewables causes too much energy in the grid, the company can cut energy production.
Helping VPPs become business as usual
GRID CONNECTED PROJECTS ADVANCE IN EUROPE Tesla has partnered ReStore, the Belgian demand response start-up bought for €70million ($81million) in November 2017 by UK-based Centrica, for a 18.2MW lithium ion virtual power plant for grid balancing services in Belgium, Tesla announced in May. This is being built in a retired coal mine in the country. Commercial and industrial customers have agreed to participate in the project and will allow the project partners to limit demand when needed and provide access to their battery storage. ReStore says its algorithms can coordinate a complex mix of distributed energy sources. That means it can instantly balance
24 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018
everything from residential water heaters to heavy factory equipment. That flexibility means utilities can use them for a wider range of applications than standalone batteries. “That makes for a significant economic difference: energy providers can generate 150% more revenue from networked batteries than from standalone ones,” says one industry commentator. The system at Terhills, in northeast Belgium, is using 140 powerpacks to store excess renewable power for use at times of peak demand. The system has been integrated into the primary reserve of Elia, the national grid administrator in Belgium.
Hitherto utilities, transmission and network operators and regulators have been the stewards of the electricity system that provides the lifeblood of modern society. What has to happen now is that new technologies, customers, communities and regulators must be brought together in a way that will allow all the different technologies to work in an energy ecosystem as myriad DERs become an integral part of the power architecture (in Europe, for example, the sale of fossil fuel cars will be banned in many countries by 2040 and in some as early as 2025). If this is seen as an opportunity, Hickman says there is a phenomenal untapped potential for utilities to enhance and strengthen their relationships with their customers, communities and regulators. He believes that if all parties work closer together to ensure the grid evolves holistically, it can benefit all stakeholders. As the nature of power demand, supply and distribution changes with DERs, utilities in industrialized markets must also change how they decentralize their grids. They will have
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COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS to become more flexible, localized, and manage energy in real time. In the UK the role of Distribution Network Operators is moving to a Distributed Systems Operator model to reflect the two-way relationship of supply and demand as the means and methods by which power is generated, distributed and consumed. “It’s not just integrating these resources at the edge safely,” says Hickman. “It’s making them work with existing central station resources, existing grids and existing customer constraints that have developed over the past 100 years. “As the grid is the centre of this entire conversation, the utility must be in a position to make the decisions to proactively engage these stakeholders, including innovative newcomers, and enable the conversations to make this possible.” Business models will change as customers become more connected and willing to adopt DER technologies, so the utility industry will have to move forward to meet consumer desires to engage in the new connected energy future. This evolution has already started and utilities need to be engaged. Hickman says: “This is inevitable. This is not a theory, a political red herring or a policy that will simply fade away when a specific regulator or politician moves on. This evolution is based on technology and no one can stop the evolution and required incorporation of technology.” Today any number of disruptive technologies are presenting challenges to grid operators, with many viewing DERs as one of the most significant. And just as the need to define energy storage proves a stumbling block in the UK with double charging and the integration of grid enhancing technologies becomes business as usual, there will be regulatory implications for those newly developed utility assets. While many believe sweeping regulatory change is needed to implement VPPs as business as usual, companies such as Innovari believe the regulatory path already exists in most jurisdictions. Hickman says: “Leveraging existing regulatory frameworks provides an easier path for the utility to engage their customers for the benefit of all stakeholders. However, this requires a fundamental belief that regulators and utilities have an aligned vision for the future. “If this relationship is fractured,
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there is little hope that either sweeping change or existing structures have any hope of helping create the distributed, resilient and clean energy future that everyone desires. “The ability of a utility to effectively integrate them into the grid and manage those resources in harmony with the other assets the utility manages is being significantly hampered by special interest groups driving policy or regulation strictly to support a single technology.” However, Hickman says that forward thinking commissions and utili-
ties are partnering to recognize that DERs are actually an opportunity, not a challenge. “Things that people have never thought possible are now possible with a diverse set of resources at the edge of the grid,” says Hickman. Moixa’s Daniel thinks regulation is moving slowly to accommodate and maximize the opportunity of new technologies and models, such as virtual power plants. But he understands the challenge of ensuring fair market access, and the persistency of technology — so that
INTEGRATING JAPAN’S EVS INTO VPPS In June Japan’s Ministry for Economy, Transport and Infrastructure announced it was awarding a grant to seven firms in what it called a “Demonstrator project for virtual power plant utilizing consumer energy resources in a VG2 aggregator project”. Put simply, the project aims to build a vehicle-to-grid system whereby the electricity stored in electric vehicles is made available to the grid as and when required. The energy is then pumped back when no longer needed. In this way EVs become part of a larger virtual power plant. The seven firms in receipt of the grant are Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings; TEPCO Energy Partner; TEPCO Power Grid; Hitachi Systems Power Service; Mitsubishi Motors; Shizuoka Gas; and Hitachi Solutions.
An official statement said: “the hopes are that the batteries of EV/PHEVs, ownership of which is expected to grow rapidly in the near future, can be effectively utilized as a VPP resource. There are, however, several problems that must be solved first, including the establishment of V2G technology that utilizes large numbers of EV/ PHEVs; the upgrading of related systems; and ensuring grid stability is compatible with EV/PHEV mobility needs. “The companies will work to establish a V2G business model, the objective of which will be to encourage sustainable adoption of renewable energy sources and of power grid stabilization. In FY2018, the companies will build the testing environment and conduct validation testing on the results produced using the V2G system.”
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COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS the models can be properly factored into future energy system design — still needs to be addressed. Stem’s Ko says: “Utility regulators and grid operators must set policies that allow third-party energy storage providers to provide additional grid services and remunerate them fairly for these ancillary benefits. “Finally, in the US, policymakers outside California must create the rules to allow third-party DER aggregators to participate in wholesale markets equally with front-of-meter resources.” In California the move from utilitybased Demand Response programs to wholesale market-based DR resources that provide capacity to the California ISO grid operator is under way. An example of policy working is in the Demand Response Auction Mechanism programme, which was started in 2015 by the California Public Utilities Commission for utility customers to participate in the California wholesale energy market. DRAM makes the transactions more economical, larger in scale, and more predictable than the smaller previous pilots. Ko says DRAM has been a success on many fronts, despite the small current VPP sizes and high transaction costs. “It is proving the technical viability of the first customer-based VPPs in the US. Moreover, the DRAM contracts are proving the ability of the VPPs to execute in the real-time market,” he says. Stem’s own network of customersited storage responded to 150 ‘realtime’ or five-minute dispatch events for San Diego Gas & Electric between January and May 2017. Hickman says: “Utilities have to be at the centre of the delivery of a business model. As an example, people are clamouring about ‘competitive EV charging networks’. Yet what they are actually asking is to be the single provider of these charging stations. They are asking to be granted a monopoly licence in an area with no regulatory oversight. “Regulators are seeing these initiatives and seeing how when a young, innovative start-up fails, all stakeholders are affected and they have no oversight or authority. “The simple truth is that the grid must manage all comers and the utility most be in a position to partner with the commission to integrate and manage these resources if we are to be successful in our endeavour to enable a distributed, clean energy future.”
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MAJOR VPP PLAYERS • Alstom Grid • Bosch • Comverge • Consert • Cooper Power Systems/Eaton • Customized Energy Solutions • Duke Energy • ENBALA Power Networks • EnerNOC • GE Digital Energy • IBM
• Joule Assets • Ørsted (formerly DONG Energy) • Power Analytics • Power Assure • RWE • Schneider Electric • Siemens • Spirae • Sonnen • Ventyx/ABB • Viridity Energy
AND BLOCKCHAIN TOO … Where one can see B2B systems in the current deployment of VPPs, in the future peer-to-peer business models based on Blockchain technologies will be possible. In December, E.On launched the pilot project Regio Bayern Strom in two Bavarian regions for trading energy, whereby residents get the renewable power produced in their region directly from the producer of the renewable energy. Nitschke says: “The energy producers of one of our pilot regions are equipped with smart meters and will directly supply the consumers: a so-called P2P market is created. These platforms are the starting point for autonomous electricity regions — and thus the independent energy ecosystems of the future. “As a first step, the Blockchain technology helps private electricity producers and consumers to see directly where their energy comes from — or where it flows to. This creates an awareness for a regional energy ecosystem, which aims at increasing the energy autonomy of communities.”
And in London, trials are set to begin to test the possibilities of sharing power generated from PVs situated on site between homes on a housing estate. The 12 month, Blockchain-based peer-to-peer pilot, run in part by energy trading firm Green Running, will use storage, energy monitoring and renewable generation. To get to P2P as business as usual will take a culture shift. McDonald says: “Peer-to-peer connectivity is becoming more and more normal. With Uber and Airbnb, people manage their own assets, it’s a platform to coordinate assets. But energy is invisible, so it’s hard to understand what it is. So there needs to be a level of transparency, and until we get a full roll out of smart meters (in the UK) it’s difficult to show the benefits to customers.” And so the evolution of VPPs and the creation of an advanced grid that is cost effective will be dependent on utilizing the combined technologies of the utility, its customers, and its communities.
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COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS
Artificial intelligence
— the next weapon in the smart grid armoury Artificial intelligence looks set to be the major enabler for the development of yet more complex virtual power plant systems. AI-driven energy storage is transforming all expectations of the electricity system — among commercial customers, utilities, grid operators, and policymakers — and putting businesses in the driver’s seat to control their costs and even participate in new ways in the energy markets to maximize their economic opportunities. These cloud-based systems will use advanced technology platforms that utilize big data, analytics and AI to aggregate DERs and fully automated controllable loads that operate like any other generation asset with twoway verification and closed loop control. To get an idea of the amount of data being processed, Joe McDonald, head of business development for the UK energy aggregator Limejump, says most of the demand response in the UK that goes through a VPP will need to process 80-90 times more data than Facebook does each day (Facebook processes around 2.5 billion pieces of content and 500+ terabytes of data each day) — to curtail or ramp up supply as required to balance the grid. This will become increasingly important as DERs such as electric vehicles, solar panels and energy storage
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systems are adopted by end users. However, operating a network of multi-purpose, grid-responsive energy storage systems requires sophisticated software that includes distributed decision-making and edge computing,
honing predictive capabilities using machine learning and neural networks to continuously improve optimization decisions and reduce latency, says Ted Ko, director of policy at US digitally connected energy operator Stem. “The AI behind energy storage is transformative because it turns a commodity battery into a platform for grid-edge matchmaking among market opportunities, akin to a shared ride service or shared tourism residence service, putting more power in the control of the consumer,” he says. Looking at Stem’s work, it’s easy to see why analysts will be as important as engineers in the future grid ecosystem. Stem captures data on a onesecond basis, and stores terabytes to the cloud. To date it has analyzed more than three million hours of field data from more than 300 systems using machine learning, smart analytics, and other data science techniques. This data is used to continuously inform its predictive algorithms, savings projections, hardware controls, and other performance and system life aspects. “The more data we collect, the smarter our platform gets and the more value is delivered to customers, utilities, and grid operators,” says Ko. What that means in the real world is that an AI-based platform offers grid operators a means to provide grid-level services such as flexibility, balancing and peak-shifting, without additional reinforcement costs, while making the forecasting and planning for reduced load growth and distributed energy changes easier. Limejump understands that the data is required first and then education, because McDonald says getting a platform and educating at the individual level on how customers can make those changes to their energy usage is fundamental to the transition to VPPs. “Granularity is the key to being able to read the data in less than a second; in technology terms real-time is subsecond. Batteries are reliable enough, but if you want to control renewables you have to do that on a sub-second time scale,” he says.
“The AI behind energy storage is transformative because it turns a commodity battery into a platform for grid-edge matchmaking among market opportunities, akin to a shared ride service or shared tourism residence service, putting more power in the control of the consumer.” — Ted Ko, Stem Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 27
COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS Simon Daniel, the co-founder of Moixa, adds the caveat that data itself can’t achieve anything without control of the energy resource. “In our 2008 IP model, we were concerned that the ’data only’ providers would disappear, as customers fundamentally need affordable and reliable energy. “We used and pioneered early AI and advanced network models, so have significant experience above the current fad, where many are simply using basic algorithms, not machine intelligence.” Consumer needs are changing as fast as the technology itself, so the industry is being forced to evolve rapidly.
This is a disadvantage for many grid operators who are being forced to catch up and adapt an antiquated grid-system — which served a purpose when the flow of energy from coal and nuclear plants could be forecast easily — to the introduction of renewables in scale. And unfortunately for these operators many will find it hard to do this. Anecdotal evidence is that as late as two years ago some utilities were only then appointing someone to work out how they would integrate renewables into their business models, the difficulty being that the uptake of renewables is not so easy to forecast, despite
the crunching of millions of bits of data by AI. And so the industry must move forward and embrace technology while educating itself and customers (Moixa has found some consumers are reluctant to share even small amounts of energy resources) to the possibilities that VPP allow. The question is how long will this mass integration/aggregation take? Players such as Limejump predict it could be years. Others see it as decades. What is certain, however, is that the industry as a whole must gain real-world experience if it is ever going to understand it.
STEM, SUNVERGE AND MITSUI JOIN FORCES IN AI ENERGY STORAGE IN JAPAN California-based firms Stem and Sunverge announced last December that they are to install energy storage systems across multiple sites in Japan to examine how virtual power plants can allow the country to increase renewable energy generation in its energy mix. The pilot projects come as Japan’s Ministry of Energy, Trade and Infrastructure (METI) investigates how deregulated services and markets and flexible capacity can help manage grid-connected renewable energy as it looks to redesign its near 300GW electricity market. The Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co is involved with both projects. Stem, in its first international project, will initially deploy around 750kWh of industrial customer-sited energy storage at multiple sites outside Tokyo for Mitsui and host customers to form a fast-responding distributed resource. The first system
is at a recycling centre in the service territory of Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Company). Stem will use its AI software to capture data on a second-by-second basis, which it will then dispatch on a five-minute basis, with terabytes of data stored to the cloud. The initial project within the VPP network is the first of a series of planned schemes in Japan by Stem and Mitsui, and could form a base for further expansion throughout Asia. Meanwhile, the Sunverge project aims to demonstrate VPP ability to provide grid-balancing and demand charge reduction services, by providing the grid operator with an energy control system that adjusts within 15 minutes (or less) of major changes in demand. In February 2016, Mitsui invested $10 million in Series ‘C’ preferred stock financing by Sunverge amid reports that the pair were due to work on a next-generation electricity power business. That business looks as if it will involve a project, in cooperation with Mitsui, to manage seven of its 19.6kWh battery invertor units as a single virtual node on Tepco’s grid. The net aggregated power flow will be controlled at the individual unit
level, based on the predicted load, PV generation and available storage capacity. Sunverge CEO Martin Milani, said: “The ability to aggregate and manage distributed energy resources as a fleet and combining and managing a logical subset and grouping as a virtual nanogrid is increasingly important to make the grid more stable, resilient and dynamic. “When aggregated, renewables can contribute a significant portion of a country’s energy generation without significant investment.” Enabling a secure energy supply has been a key issue in Japan since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami knocked the Fukushima nuclear power plant off-line. Japan, which wants renewables to account for at least 20% of its power generation in 2030, has so far seen METI designate ¥7 billion ($59 million) in subsidies for VPP development in fiscal years 2016 to 2017. On the same day the projects were announced, Mitsui confirmed it had invested around ¥500 million ($4,433million) in shares of Preferred Networks, which develops and supplies artificial intelligence technologies, including deep learning technology.
“The ability to aggregate and manage distributed energy resources as a fleet and combining and managing a logical subset and grouping as a virtual nanogrid is increasingly important to make the grid more stable, resilient and dynamic.” — Martin Milani, Sunverge
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COVER STORY: VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS As virtual power plants, smart meters and distributed energy resources move from trials to business as usual, data will be vital in how power is managed. Paul Crompton reports.
Changing information from data … to power A flood of recent headlines — from talk of outside manipulation of US president Trump’s election campaign to new rules over public information access across Europe — shows data and its interpretations are more important than ever. But in the energy storage world there’s one big question. You’ve harvested your market data — it could be any data — from a myriad of sources but now what to do with it? How to make it worth the effort? Data harvesting has become commonplace. But the specifics of what to do with the information — and the huge varieties of ways that might make it commercially valid — are issues where there’s little agreement. Or, sometimes, little profit. In the energy storage world, data is king if suppliers and aggregators are able to use it to control minute-byminute and second-by-second power supply and demand, as well as managing their assets performance and electricity prices and tariffs. The more relevant or detailed the data, the more lucrative the market it can be. But data ownership is also an issue. Adrian Timbus, technology and solutions manager, smart grids and renewables at ABB, says the firm was seeing data, and that can be a sub-set of data, being mostly owned by the customer, or the asset owner. “A company might say it can monetiize some of its energy information but only certain bits of that data mean it can offer a service. Part of that agreement will require the company to look at the data and control some of the assets, which allows them to monetize and share profit,” he says.
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It’s also the pedigree of the information. When discussing small, distributed energy resources a data company may not care as much about the gathered information, but when talking about bigger assets like a wind-farm or large solar plants there is a markedly different set up in the market. It’s a question of where the value can be found. “Take wind farm OEMs, data is produced by the manufacturer building in sensors connected to digital control centres,” says Timbus. “The OEM will then access data from the turbine to see how it is operating to allow them to do good business, minimize risk and build value for the customer.”
Ownership of the data can vary with circumstance. In the example of a wind farm owner, if that person wants to go to the second level of the data parameter, such as how fast a wind turbine turns into the wind direction, then various components in that wind turbine will have de-fault parameter settings, but that can be controlled to make it more dynamic, says Timbus.
Monetizing VPPs
There are two cases where data can be monetized for virtual power plants. The first is where the DER is connected to the virtual power plant and its flexibility is sold to the market. The second is using Distributed Energy Resource Management systems whereby a utility has connected the DER to its own system, which is in turn is connected between the asset owner and the utility, and the markets are not involved. Most virtual power plants — around 95% — monetize capacity or flexibility on certain markets. The data aggregator business will say they have to monitor the capacity of the DER and will take that flexibility and sell it on to the market, says Timbus. “So when the market says ‘can you agree to sell some flexibility to me’ and they need it now we can go back to the system to supply that flexibility.” ABB’s technology can ask EV chargers to not charge as fast, which creates power gaps by using data gathered from what happened before and what is happening at the moment. But it requires a lot of data about the maximum capacity of a single DER, such as roof top solar that may generate more power at different times of the day, say between 11am and 2pm or different weather conditions, and its operating parameters. Timbus says: “Once we have that data we can sell certain amounts of solar capacity on the grid. All these data points need to be known by the control centre. There are some cases of taking power from a DER and selling it to the grid on the electricity market.”
“A company might say it can monetiize some of its energy information but only certain bits of that data mean it can offer a service. Part of that agreement will require the company to look at the data and control some of the assets, which allows them to monetize and share profit” — Adrian Timbus, ABB Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 29
ELECTROMECHANICAL ‘BATTERY’ TECHNOLOGIES Could the idea of electrochemical energy storage be one of the last fantasies of the 20th and early 21st centuries? Perhaps secondary batteries should be mechanical instead? It may be a contradiction in terms but a lot of start-ups are pursuing this idea with a vengeance.
Not so weird but wonderful — technologies that could become mainstream within a decade
But the principle of pumped hydro — use energy to pump water up a slope
and catch some of that energy through turbines on its way down — can be applied in a variety of other ways. What happens, say, when you put energy into pushing a train with heavy weights up a slope and capture electricity when it’s released? Or hoist a huge weight up a pit shaft and use pulleys to catch the energy on its release? Or pump air into a cavern and use the escaping air to drive turbines and generate power? All of these techniques — and a few others listed here —are now either being designed or are already commercially available. One interesting start-up is Gravity Power which, based in California, has devised a system that relies on two water-filled shafts, one wider than the other, which are connected at both ends. Water is pumped down through the
Gravity Power: megawatt demo plant being constructed in Weilheim, Bavaria
Gravitricity managing director Charlie Blair: “The difference with pumped hydro is that we don’t need a mountain with a loch or lake at the top, and we can react much faster”
Turning mechanical energy into electrical energy isn’t particularly new. The first practical hydroelectric facility — capable of powering just a couple of the new-fangled Swan light bulbs — date to a private house in the north of England in 1878. From there it grew and grew. By the early 1880s hydropower stations were being pioneered in the US and across Europe. But the concept of energy storage and hydroelectricity first happened in the 1890s in Italy and Switzerland with the first pumped hydro installations. Nowadays pumped hydro accounts for close on 98% of the world’s energy storage.
New ways for pumped hydro
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smaller shaft to raise a piston in the larger shaft. When demand peaks, the piston is allowed to sink back down the main shaft, forcing water through a generator to create electricity. The system’s relatively compact nature means it can be installed close to areas of high demand, and extra modules can be added when more capacity is needed. Another bright spark on the horizon, working on a similar principle, comes from a UK start-up called Gravitricity, with a simple variation of pumped hydro. Instead of water being pumped up a hill, a large weight of up to 3,000 tonnes is raised/dropped from the bottom of a disused mine shaft. Gravitricity plans to equip these long-abandoned mine shafts with enormous weights and winches. Sur-
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ELECTROMECHANICAL ‘BATTERY’ TECHNOLOGIES plus power will be drawn from the grid to raise the underground weights closer to ground level. When the time comes to inject energy back into the grid, the weights can be released for a burst of power generation. The firm says the output duration can be between 15 minutes and eight hours. Although this is similar to pumped hydro it has one extra benefit — an almost instant (one-second) response to fluctuations, as well as a potential degradation-free operational lifespan of 50 years. Innovate UK, the British government funded agency, awarded the start-up a £650,000 ($1 million) grant earlier this year. A full scale demonstrator will be developed this year and the firm hopes to install a full scale prototype by 2020. Managing director Charlie Blair says the difference between pumped hydro is that “we don’t need a mountain with a loch or lake at the top, and we can react much faster”. He says the biggest single cost is the hole, and that is why the start-up is developing its technology using existing mine shafts, in the UK and also in South Africa. He reckons that as the technology advances, the cost of drilling will reduce significantly and will allow them to sink purpose-built shafts wherever they are required. The firm plans to build models from 1MW to 20MW. It says its total cost of ownership is far lower than the equivalent installation of a lithium ion storage facility.
Train power
A similar gravity propelled energy storage system is being developed in the hills of Tehachapi in California close to the Mojave desert. Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm is one of the first large-scale wind farms installed in the US with a capacity of around 700MW. The firm, known as ARES — Advanced Rail Energy Storage — uses rail cars carrying heavy blocks of concrete that are pushed to the top of a grade using excess power from renewable energy plants during off-peak hours when electricity demand is low. Similar to the Gravitricity model, when the grid requires energy to meet periods of high demand, the rail cars are released down the hill, generating electricity through regenerative braking. The company says the system can respond to increases or decreases in
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Although the system requires sunshine to generate power, it doesn’t necessarily require the sun to be shining on the panels the whole time. The problem of intermittency has been avoided. demand in seconds. The time taken for powering the system will be longer than the Gravitricity model, given there is the question of momentum being built up with increasing speed. The firm says it has a charge/discharge efficiency of 80% — roughly the same as Gravitricity — which is roughly that of pumped hydro and can deliver constant power for periods of up to eight hours. The company has tested a pilot system on a 268 metre track and the company has been granted permission by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to build the energy storage system in Nevada’s mountains. The US state of Nevada is ranked around third in the country in terms of existing solar installations. The firm envisages that by the 2020s a fleet of automated 300 tonne electric-traction-drive shuttle trains could be moving up and down a 7.2% grade slope, providing 50MW of power to balance the California electricity grid. The 34 shuttle units on the ARES system will operate on a 9.2 km track with an elevation differential between top and bottom of 640 meters). The firm’s ambitions are much greater, however. The rail track model used is scalable — shuttle trains can run in parallel and installations could range from 100MW with 200MWh of storage capacity, up to larger 2-3GW regional energy storage systems with 16-24GWh energy storage capacity. Jim Kelly, chief executive of the firm and a former senior vice president for Southern California Edison, says the system can be deployed at around half the cost of other available storage technologies.
Under the Dutch thinking, the maglev train would be travelling in a sealed, vacuum tight tunnel running at 2,000 km/h around a circular track with a 2.5 km radius. This energy
ARES pilot track. Rail cars carrying heavy blocks of concrete are pushed to the top of a grade using excess power from renewable energy plants. On release they return the energy stored.
Maglevs too
Another version — still only at the theoretical level — is being explored in the Netherlands. This takes the concept of the kinetic energy flywheel further on a maglev train. A maglev train — magnetic levitation — use two sets of magnets, one set to repel and push the train up off the track as in levitation, then another set to move the floating train ahead at great speed taking advantage of the lack of friction.
Hawaiian Electric and Amber Kinetics are testing the 8 kW/32kWh storage system for local grid reliability and support and aid in the integration of renewable energy. One 8 kW unit can power approximately 25 homes for one hour
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ELECTROMECHANICAL ‘BATTERY’ TECHNOLOGIES could be tapped and the inventor of the idea said it would be able to capture 10% of the Netherlands’ daily electricity requirement.
Flywheels advance
Far more practical are systems that use flywheel energy storage (FES). These introduce electric energy, which is stored in the form of kinetic energy. When short-term backup power is required the inertia allows the rotor to continue spinning and the resulting kinetic energy is converted to electricity. The flywheel rotates in a vacuum on bearings that are as frictionless as possible. Advanced FES systems have rotors made of high strength carbon-fibre composites, suspended by magnetic bearings, and spinning at speeds from 20,000 to more than 50,000 rpm in a vacuum enclosure. The amount of energy that can be stored in a flywheel is a function of the square of its rpm, making higher rotational speeds desirable. Flywheels can come up to speed in a matter of minutes — reaching their energy capacity much more quickly than some other forms of storage. Some of the key advantages of flywheel energy storage are low maintenance, long life (some flywheels are capable of well over 100,000 full depth of discharge cycles and the newest configurations are capable of even more than that, greater than 175,000 full depth of discharge cycles), and negligible environmental impact. Flywheels can bridge the gap between short-term ride-through power and long-term energy storage and
have been used in some UPS systems for nearly a decade. Two of the largest installations are an FES in Stephentown in New York built in 2011 with an output of 5MWh (20MW over 15 minutes) and a similar 20MW system in Hazle Township in Pennsylvania, built in 2014. Firms that are active in flywheel technology are ABB, which in February 2017 provided a battery and flywheel storage system for a microgrid in Alaska; Amber Kinetics (formerly known as Berkeley Energy Sciences Corporation); Powerthru; Temporal Power and Vycon Energy, which is part of Calnetix Technologies.
Heat pumps
Another non-electrochemical way to store energy is in the form of heat. A profusion of new ideas has erupted in recent years. One of the basic ideas — pumped heat electrical storage (PHES) — is that electrical energy drives a heat pump that pumps heat from a cold tank to a hot tank. To recover the energy, the heat pump is reversed to become a heat engine. This takes heat from the hot store, delivers waste heat to the cold store, and produces mechanical work. When recovering electricity the heat engine drives a generator. A recent start-up, Isentropic, a company based in Cambridge in the UK, uses inert argon gas to transfer heat between two large tanks filled with gravel. Incoming energy drives a heat pump, compressing and heating the argon. This creates a temperature differential between the two tanks, with one at 500°C and the other at -160°C.
Isentropic uses inert argon gas to transfer heat between two large tanks filled with gravel. Incoming energy drives a heat pump, compressing and heating the argon. During periods of high demand, the heat pump runs in reverse as a heat engine, expanding and cooling the argon and generating electricity.
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During periods of high demand, the heat pump runs in reverse as a heat engine, expanding and cooling the argon and generating electricity. Isentropic says its system has an efficiency of between 72%-80%, depending on size. Another way to store heat energy is pairing it with solar generation.
Molten salt too
Concentrated solar power, in which computer-controlled mirrors focus the sun’s heat to a central point to boil water and turn a steam turbine, is well known. BrightSource Energy, a company based in Oakland, California, recently signed a deal with Southern California Edison to implement a system that stores this solar energy in molten salt. What’s unusual about this system is that, although it relies on the fact that the sun is shining to generate power, it doesn’t necessarily require the sun to be shining on the panels the whole time. The problem of intermittency — when clouds reduce the amount of electric power that PV panels can produce — is avoided. The storage system, called SolarPLUS, uses a heat exchanger to transfer some of the heat captured by the heliostats to the molten salt. It is then run back through the heat exchanger to drive the steam turbine when needed. This allows BrightSource’s plants to deliver energy even after dark, and gives utilities and grid operators more flexibility than solar power usually provides. BrightSource says it is planning to equip three of its plants with SolarPLUS.
BrightSource Energy’s storage system, uses a heat exchanger to transfer the heat captured by the heliostats to the molten salt. It is then run back through the heat exchanger to drive the steam turbine when needed.
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The largest global gathering of lead battery experts in 2018 Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Centre, Vienna
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Further information
Maura McDermott, International Lead Association, Bravington House, 2 Bravingtons Walk, London N1 9AF United Kingdom
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VIEWPOINT: INTERNATIONAL LEAD ASSOCIATION Andy Bush, head of the ILA, the global representative organization of the lead industry, reckons the demand for energy storage will be such that the either/or choice of battery chemistry will become irrelevant.
Room for both lead and lithium to grow “Lithium is the only true challenger to lead.” It’s an odd statement coming, as it does, from the mouth of Andy Bush, managing director of the International Lead Association. But it’s a perspective that is increasingly coming to the fore as the lead industry comes to a place of acceptance in the lead versus lithium debate. Yes, it still needs to fight its corner against the encroachment of lithium batteries into territories where lead should be (and is) king. But it’s also that lithium batteries have a role in energy storage. Bush’s statement should also be considered within the context of the steep growth projections forecast for the rechargeable battery market over the next 10 to 20 years. “We are confident that there is room for both lead and lithium to grow together,” says Bush. “I’d even argue that for batteries to stand any chance of meeting this increase in demand, a combination of both chemistries is necessary,” he says. “Neither technology has the scale potentially required — neither lead nor lithium alone would be capable of meeting expansion on that scale. It really must be a combination of the two.” Each chemistry will serve the markets they are best suited to given their different characteristics and performance. Growth in lithium-ion batteries will be driven mainly by portable devices, energy storage and EVs. But the chemistry faces big challenges on sourcing enough raw materials and scaling up manufacturing capabilities.
Change in focus required
Bush says the lead acid battery sector must start to invest more in innovation. It has lost out on significant sums in recent years before — given a wider, oft-times misled, focus by governments and private investors on lithium-ion.
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Andy Bush: “The impression I get is that where investment is occurring, it is mostly in improving technology in sectors where lead acid is already established …our industry must also increase its focus on investing in markets where it has not traditionally had a stronghold”
“For an industry that is more than 100 years old, it is surprising how much untapped potential there is,” says Bush. “It is critical we find ways of tapping into that using technical innovation and better communications and marketing.” Such efforts should be designed to tempt investors back to the lead industry and our industry must also increase its focus on investing in markets where it has not traditionally had a stronghold. “The impression I get is that where investment is occurring, it is mostly in improving technology in sectors where lead acid is already established. In contrast, we see lithium battery manufacturers targeting new emerging markets such as energy storage,” he says. “Clearly there is a need to invest in what we are good at traditionally, as these markets evolve, but the danger is that this is done at the exclusion of emerging markets.” ALABC, which is managed by ILA, is working with its members to help the industry better understand where
its greatest potential lays. “For example, we believe that lead batteries can meet the needs of certain applications in the energy storage sector and we must go after these sectors as well,” he says. Bush says that while its traditional strongholds will represent the biggest growth in gross terms, because of their existing size, it will be fascinating to see if there are new sectors that can also provide rapid growth. He says: “other battery chemistries and technologies are either in very early stage development or are only suitable for very niche applications. The lead battery sector has dealt with challenges from other sectors/chemistries in the past but there is only one serious contender with the scale required to steal market share from lead batteries: lithium-ion.
But warnings too
He sounds an extra note of warning. There are also a number of health and safety initiatives or legislation on the ILA’s agenda, which could have big implications for the sector. “Europe in particular is entering a period of very significant regulatory challenges,” Bush says. Bush is concerned about US legislation particularly how the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) chooses to take forward the Green Chemistry Initiative (GCI) or Safer Consumer Products Program, a new environmental law designed to identify and restrict toxic chemicals in consumer products sold in the state. The law requires a new life-cycle “alternatives analysis” to evaluate alternatives and substitutes. The concern, he feels, is that if lead gets caught up in this, it would have the potential to disrupt the distribution channels that the industry relies on both for the distribution of the product and the way in which lead acid batteries are recycled.
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INTERNATIONAL MARKET UPDATES
Monetizing storage as it moves from a green dream to business as usual Highlights at ees North America 2018 First mover California leads US’ drive to low-carbon future South America’s untapped renewables could pave way for mass ESS adoption Taking an holistic approach to India’s evolving energy market
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MONETIZING STORAGE AS IT MOVES FROM GREEN DREAM TO BUSINESS AS USUAL STORAGE AND SOLAR IS NO LONGER JUST AN ENVIRONMENTAL STORY – IT’S A STORY OF PRODUCING CHEAPER ELECTRICITY THAT CREATES A MORE RELIABLE GRID.
“Changes in NEM tariffs and utility rate structures are pushing more behind-the-meter customers to pursue storage, and in particular solarplus-storage” Brett Simon, senior analyst energy storage at GTM Research.
In May, California mandated that rooftop solar be added to all single-family homes being built from 2020. It was the first time the California Energy Commission had issued such regulations, and a first for the whole of the US. Last year, the US installed 110 MWh of behind-the-meter storage, of which California contributed 73% of the total. This year, Q1 saw almost as many residential MWs deployed in the US as the whole of the previous year. 2018 is expected to see 557 MWs deployed, with the market set to reach 3.7 GW in annual storage deployments by 2023. Legacy solar players are pursuing storage business lines, with solar installers becoming energy solution providers. Meanwhile, since 2016 utilities have been getting more involved with storage, exploring the opportunities it can provide for both grid modernization and improved services for end users. There is also an emerging opportunity for storage players to partner with homebuilders to install solar-plus-storage at new developments. “Changes in NEM tariffs and utility rate structures are pushing more behind-the-meter customers to pursue storage, and in particular solar-plus-storage,” said Brett Simon, senior analyst energy storage at GTM Research. “Solar-plus-storage will become a bigger portion of the equation: non-residential and front-of-the-meter storage developers are increasingly pursuing solar-plus-storage projects given economic attractiveness, particularly in the wake of shifting NEM rules for the former and a desire for firmed generation in the case of the latter.” The fact is that while demand rises, and the cost of the technology falls and become more scalable, interest in the energy storage market will increase. This will require new solutions that help smooth renewables’ intermittency by creating fast-dispatchable, highly localized
solutions when and where the utility needs it most. The most important point is that storage and solar do not need to be co-sited to provide value to the utility and to the grid; in fact standalone storage can sometimes perform more functions, in the form of distribution congestion relief, local capacity, or other grid services. The value of energy storage for advanced grid applications providing peaking capacity, deferring transmission and distribution investments, and improving the use of renewable generation has increased significantly as the technology has matured in the market, said Camron Barati, senior analyst solar and energy storage at IHS Markit Technology, who will be talking during the event’s Solar and Energy Storage: Unlocking Financial Value with Technology stream. “Notably the United States is now rapidly advancing its regulatory frameworks and is putting in place legislative support for energy storage to participate in energy markets, having identified it as a key technology for transitioning to a more distributed, low-carbon and reliable electricity supply."
AFFECTING BUSINESS MODELS New technologies, economies of scale and policy will undoubtedly affect future business models. Technologies — and variants on those battery chemistries, such as excluding cobalt — continue to emerge, as do hardware and power conversion system innovations related to those chemistries. Meanwhile software and communication system developments point to a future where the supplier has more options and control over energy decisions, and the end user more ability to participate in grid modernization. The need for long duration systems — four-hours plus — will see less commercially advanced battery technologies such
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“The United States is now rapidly advancing its regulatory frameworks and is putting in place legislative support for energy storage to participate in energy markets, having identified it as a key technology for transitioning to a more distributed, low-carbon and reliable electricity supply,” Barati, senior analysts solar and energy storage IHS Markit Technology" Camron Barati, senior analyst solar and energy storage at IHS Markit. as flow batteries benefit as the market makes a general pivot from short-duration applications. There will also be significant financial investment by large technology companies improving customer confidence and providing performance security. Meanwhile, Barati says continued improvement in lithium ion storage and other component learning curves, the reduction of soft and hard costs through economies of scale, and federal and state policy decisions will affect the market's potential growth. He said: “Each will have an impact on whether customersited energy storage will be allowed to offer the 13 different services to customers, utilities, and grid operators that were so well articulated by Rocky Mountain Institute in their 2015
report on the Economics of Battery Energy Storage." Key to maximizing energy storage's full potential. will be running technological innovations parallel to business model innovation. Viable business models between grid operators and utility customers will unlock the full value of storage and distributed energy resources. Behind-the-meter C&I storage has been successful for mitigating demand charges, but residential customers will be more focused on improving self-consumption of solar and optimizing time-of-use rate schedules to generate value.
MONETIZING NEW ENERGY The greatest challenge for monetizing storage and renewables
PROGRAM FOCUS 2018: POWER2DRIVE - CHARGING, BATTERIES AND EVS For the first time, ees North America is hosting the Power2Drive conference program. On the Wednesday, three conference tracks will explore the growth in EV demand, how vehicle OEMS and utilities can provide the necessary charging infrastructure and the forecast demands on the battery and components supply chain. In 2016, the global electric car stock — primarily Battery and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles — doubled in size from one million in 2015, according to the Global EV Outlook published by OECD and IEA. The US holds a strong lead in the market, witnessing a 21% increase in vehicles sales from 2016 to 2017. Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects the US will pass 640,000 sales annually by 2021. Governments around the world are pushing to replace the internal combustion engine. California's governor Jerry Brown has set the goal of five million zero emissions vehicles on the state’s roads by 2030, around 14% of the state’s registered vehicles. As EV sales grow, a big concern is the increased load on the grid from charging infrastructure and the potential exacerbation to the challenge seen in the CAISO duck curve
brought on by increased solar on the grid. The geospatial and temporal characteristics of EV charging could have an outsized impact on the need for grid infrastructure upgrades. While the market for BEVs and PHEVs expands, the battery supply chain — particularly the battery manufacturers — will come under strong pressure to enhance performance and cut costs. What are the requirements vehicle OEMS and their suppliers have to meet? The Power2Drive conference program will discuss the advances of high-voltage batteries in the context of product liability, functional safety, technical compliance and product safety. With the potential for EV components, infrastructure and services growing exponentially, the special Power2Drive exhibition will be an industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and start-ups in the field of charging infrastructure, traction batteries and electric vehicles, and help you to enter and capture a share of this exciting market. Power2Drive sessions at ees North America Tuesday, July 10, 2018, West Hall, Level 2, ees Stage Power2Drive – Technical Innovations for a New Kind of Energy and Mobility Wednesday, July 11, West Hall, Level 3, Room 3010 09:00am - 10:45am Global EV Market Development Snapshots: 11:15am - 01:00pm Can the Electric Vehicle Flatten the Duck? 02:00pm - 03:45pm EV - Battery Durability / Advances of High-Voltage Batteries Power2Drive Expo Program (Free of charge)
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is finding the right use-case for customers, which although diverse, is important for energy storage to be able to stack value through multiple applications. In other words, fulfil the maximum number of services with a single asset. Each end user will have individual needs and requirements for both the behind-the-meter segment and front-of-themeter applications. Accessible revenue streams, sometimes determined by local regulation and electricity tariff structures, also vary from market to market or even on a regional level. Barati said: “Both lead to a difficult customer acquisition process, as well as creating steep learning curves as vendors and developers look to expand to new markets. Additionally, taking advantage of available incentive programs is critical for the early-stage development of storage adoption in the market, which can vary significantly from market to market.”
DATA IS THE NEW DISRUPTER Artificial Intelligence will beome a cornerstone of business
models. It relies on predictive analytics relating to weather, load, tariff options, and automates thousands of real-time calculations and decisions that would otherwise necessitate tremendous manpower, and therefore mitigate cost savings. Incorporating data analytics and intelligent software will have a larger role to play in markets, especially decentralized systems, as America’s energy landscape changes, and regulators increasingly articulate its value proposition against other infrastructure and peaker plant alternatives. AI can manage the timing of energy use in real time to minimize costs and balance the grid by responding to changing needs in demand and supply. It is extremely complex, however, says Barati. “Even with the ability to store energy, there are still thousands of calculations, forecasting simulations, and splitsecond decisions required to produce meaningful results.” And the more data that's captured, the smarter the network becomes, with AI and data analytics already having a significant impact on the market Utilities and grid operators need highly flexible, localized resources to manage the intermittency of renewable energy penetration and local grid congestion events, and AI-driven energy storage can offer that data and real-time execution. Brendan Harney, director business development at information technology firm Stem. said: “The potential to aggregate a portfolio of distributed EESs to provide balancing services could disrupt the power market. Many of the leading companies involved in energy storage have embedded software at the heart of their operations.”
Source: Whitepaper: Grid Edge Innovation - Technologies, Business Models and the Future of Demand Flexibility > find out more at ess North America. As the grid has become more decentralized and decarbonized, the need for a flexible and digitally managed grid have increased drastically. A part of this challenge stems from reduced visibility, control and arguably, revenues for the utilities and system operators. At the same time, the tools available to run a well-orchestrated grid have moved closer to the customers. This whitepaper will look at one potential future where a suite of customer focused grid edge solutions is commonly resourced to enhance grid flexibility. Some of the technologies included in the study are standalone and solar paired storage, load control and electric vehicle charging. Beyond just examining the state of the technology and historical deployments, the whitepaper will assess the state of the marketplace, including players, business models and most interesting developments.
EES NORTH AMERICA
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HIGHLIGHTS AT EES NORTH AMERICA 2018 STORAGE IS NO LONGER A MEANS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY, IT'S NOW A WAY OF PROVIDING LOW-COST, LONG-TERM GRID STABILIZATION SERVICES. Last year the global energy storage market saw growth similar to the trajectory witnessed by the solar market almost a decade earlier. The US remained the market leader, and in 2017 became the first global powerhouse to cross the GWh milestone.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT RENEWABLE With the expected growth in the storage marketplace, choosing a renewable to pair it with will be critical. Solar energy is the renewable resource of choice in more than two thirds of projects. With installers expressing interest in projects that offer solar-plus-storage packages, which may contribute to another deployment spike in the next few years. Incentive programs, such as California’s Self-Generation Incentive Programh, have enabled these projects and brought them to completion. This allows behind-the-meter deployments to flourish, fortifying the Golden State as the energy storage pioneer.
ENERGY STORAGE'S BOTTOM LINE Energy storage is on track for continued boosts in the market due to its vital role in both the solar and transportation industries. For solar developers looking to endure the impacts of Section 201 tariffs, many are turning to energy storage to add new value streams to existing projects and improve overall system economics. With this much storage and new revenue streams the annual energy storage market is predicted to reach $3.8 billion by 2023, said GTM Research analyst Brett Simon during his presentation at Intersolar and ees Summit USA East in April.
SPECIAL PAVILIONS Now in its fourth year the California Solar Pavilion returns alongside the inaugural California Energy Storage Pavilion, which will showcase member companies from the California Solar & Storage Association, which is hosting the pavilions in partnership with Intersolar and ees North America. The California Solar and Energy Storage Pavilions, and the expanded Powerhouse Pavilion, hosted in partnership with Oa-
FREE WHITE PAPER FREE WHITE PAPER RELEASE EVENT AT ees North America Grid edge innovation and future business models are in the focus at this year’s expo and conference programs at ees North America and in the FREE white paper. Don’t miss the release event: See you in San Francisco on Tuesday, July 10 at the Innovation & Application Stage (Level 1, booth 7331)
kland-based incubator Powerhouse, will provide a first look at the technologies that are poised to disrupt the industry. The three exhibition pavilions provide a platform for emerging companies and promising start-ups to present new products and services. The pavilions underscore Intersolar North America and the co-located ees North America’s commitment to delivering unparalleled information and networking opportunities that help move the North American market forward.
MOVING WITH THE TIMES Florian Wessendorf and Daniel Strowitzki, managing directors of Intersolar and ees North America, said: “We’ve weathered trade cases, policy debates, and market consolidations. We are no strangers to the ‘solar coaster,’ and work to ensure we provide valuable opportunities for the industry to connect and learn how best to respond to these rapidly changing market dynamics.”
PROGRAM Program Highlights: Tuesday, July 10 Opening Ceremony Session: The Road to Global 100% Renewable Energy Session: Regional and Local Initiatives Towards 100% Renewables Session: Optimizing DERs on the Grid: Insights on Hosting Capacity Analyses Session: Digitalization and (Cyber) Security Session: The Chinese/Indian Battery Market and Its Implications for North America Session: The Outlook for Energy Storage in California Session: Designing Storage to Provide Multiple Services Session: Solar and Energy Storage: Unlocking Financial Value with Technology Session: Financing Energy Storage Session: Impact of Trump Administration Trade and Energy Policies on Solar + Storage Workshop: Energy Storage: Designing for Markets Beyond Net Metering Program Highlights: Wednesday, July 11 Session: Industrial Micro and Mini-Grid: Concepts & Technologies Session: The Economics of Solar Storage — Where Are Future Cost Reductions Going to Come from? Session: Future Developments in Lithium Battery Technology + Recycling & Reuse of Lithium Batteries Session: Has Lithium-Ion Technology Already Won the Race for EES ? Session: Software and Storage Find out more and visit: www.ees-northamerica.com Take Advantage: ESJ readers get a 10% discount on conference passes (Promo Code: 201810CONPAC29) and/or a free expo pass (Promo Code: 2018100EXH1836)!
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EES NORTH AMERICA
FIRST MOVER CALIFORNIA LEADS US’ DRIVE TO LOW-CARBON FUTURE LED BY CALIFORNIA, THE US IS AT AN ENERGY CROSS-ROADS, BUT THE JOURNEY TO A BRAVE NEW WORLD WHERE STORAGE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY USURPS THE COUNTRY’S TRADITIONAL POWER INFRASTRUCTURE IS UNDERWAY. HERE BERNADETTE DEL CHIARO, THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT THE CALIFORNIA SOLAR & STORAGE ASSOCIATION, DISCUSSES THOSE CHANGES. In 2015, the Aliso Canyon disaster in California illustrated the fragility of the state’s natural gas supply. Last year wild fires brought home the importance of building a power grid that is both resilient to blackouts and interruptions.
MEETING TARGETS Deployment of storage is growing in the US — 110 MWh of behind-the-meter installations, of which California comprised 73% — but it’s still a decade behind the PV markets of today. Big projects in California, including those in Aliso Canyon where more than 70 MW of lithium ion energy storage was deployed in six months, is helping. However, it’s still some way off the 1.3 GW target California investor-owned utilities have been instructed to place online by 2024. Critical to meeting targets, says Del Chiaro, is in unleashing the brains behind inverter technology. “Because solar panels and the batteries are essentially dumb devices we need the inverters, harnessing some of the world’s smartest engineers, to unleash the true power of an integrated solar and storage system.” To spur California’s low-carbon demand Del Chiaro believes the state should offer consumer’s rebates for storage deployment similar to what California and other states did for PV, with rate structures designed to pay for battery services and storage devices in an on-going way over time. There is some experimentation in this area with pilots in utility territories. “State policymakers have a strong vision for a clean energy future: Do we put the pedal to the metal on energy storage or will we just workshop it without putting the market signals in place to allow the market to soar? That will be the big question,” Del Chiaro said.
REASONS TO BE BULLISH Perhaps the uncertainty due to rate changes as well as the Section 201 trade case — a 30% year-one tariff on solar cells and module imports following a case by petitioners Suniva and SolarWorld — led to a down across the state, with industry analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggesting that Q1 solar investment in 2018 was the second-lowest in three years. However, Del Chiaro believes there is still every reason to be bullish about the California solar and storage market in the long term. “In the big scheme of things, once uncertainty is eliminated, we can go back to building and growth. The high-level influences that drive growth in the California market won’t change. “This energy transition will become even more important as the electrification of the transportation section continues. These larger forces are not stopping or slowing down because of mini-blips in state and federal policy decisions.” California is making a shift to time-of-use rate, but Del Chiaro said the solar industry would only embrace these rates if they started to see energy storage become more cost effective. “These rates are smarter and more granular but it only works if storage is made available. What we’re trying to build is a decentralized interactive grid as opposed to a top-down 20th century grid,” she said.
SECTION 201 IMPACT While the impact of the Section 201 trade case on other states is unclear, Del Chiaro said California was more protected from the decisions on the federal level. “It’s no secret that the trade case will hurt the utility-scale market more than distributed generation, simply because pricing is a stronger factor in utility procurement decisions, and states that are more dependent on utility-scale projects for their solar growth will likely see a slowdown in new projects,” she said. “There are a lot of states that do interesting brainstorming and have some really great initiatives underway, but ultimately what really matters is megawatts on the ground – this determines whether there’s an actual thriving market that is driven by getting the rules of the game right.”
“State policymakers have a strong vision for a clean energy future: Do we put the pedal to the metal on energy storage or will we just workshop it without putting the market signals in place to allow the market to soar? That will be the big question” Bernadette Del Chiaro, California Solar & Storage Association.
EES EUROPE
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SYNERGY OF GENERATION, STORAGE AND CONSUMPTION UNDER ONE ROOF THE AWARDS HAVE BEEN PRESENTED, THE 50,000 ATTENDEES HAVE RETURNED HOME AND THE 1,200 EXHIBITORS ARE COUNTING THE BENEFITS OF ANOTHER HUGELY SUCCESSFUL EES EUROPE SHOW — THE CONTINENT’S LARGEST AND MOST-VISITED EXHIBITION FOR BATTERIES, ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS AND GREEN ENERGY, WHICH WAS HELD IN MESSE MÜNCHEN BETWEEN JUNE 19-22 UNDER THE NEW UMBRELLA "THE SMARTER E EUROPE".
INTERCONNECTED INDUSTRIES
Manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, service providers and partners of the energy industry saw how technology was accelerating the development of new business ideas, products and solutions that even a few years ago were unknown
It’s not until you walk from one side of the exhibition, through the eight halls totalling 86,000 square meters, to the other than you realise just how big and varied the event is. From global technology powerhouses like ABB (an Intersolar award winner this year) to start-ups introducing themselves to the industry for the first time, the entire energy storage value chain was represented. There was even the chance to let your hair down and test drive a variety of electric vehicles, from scooters to a car. Alongside the established Intersolar event, which focused on the generation and distribution of solar energy, and ees Europe, which looked at the storage of this energy, there were two new exhibitions this year: Power2Drive and EM-Power. The former was about charging infrastructure and electric mobility with the later focusing on intelligent energy use in industry and buildings. Together, the four exhibitions covered the entire renewable energies chain. They were linked together by the innovation hub The smarter E Europe. The innovation hub was introduced to empower new energy solutions, and was a reaction to the increasing interconnection of the generation, storage, intelligent distribution and use of renewable energies, said organisers.
The focus of this event is summed up the key trends spotlighted across the halls: decentralization, sector coupling and digitalization. Manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, service providers and partners of the energy industry saw how technology was accelerating the development of new business ideas, products and solutions that even a few years ago were unknown. In an industry where energy producers are installing charging stations, and roof-mounted PV is no longer just generating power but charging EVs and assisting heat pumps the synergies of the electricity, heating and mobility sectors were represented and it was clear to everyone just how huge the industry’s market penetration now is. Alongside sector coupling, it was obvious that digitalization is promoting and facilitating the decentralization of power by enabling units, including residential PV and storage systems, to work together. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than virtual power plants. The smarter E Europe saw a number of intelligent, digitalized solutions on view, including Sonnen’s VPP technology that aggregates thousands of storage units to allow end users, utilities and the companies to participate in the developing flexible energy markets. Speaking to exhibitors, the principle behind VPP is that end users who normally use self-generated energy for selfconsumption can begin to offer grid services through this block chain technology to open up new revenue streams. These includes grid operators paying to use the storage systems, re-dispatch for transmission operators or for end users to benefit from changing energy tariffs. In the Power2Drive section, the list of exhibitors showcasing their EV charging solutions was exhaustive,
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EES EUROPE
While Asia remains the manufacturing hub for batteries, plans for gigafactories are underway in Europe, with a number of gigawatt-size battery factories scheduled to start operating on the continent by 2020
➔ THE EES AWARD 2018
but a notable solution to fast charging was displayed by Porsche Engineering. The system on display allowed Porsche drivers to charge their car in less than quarter of an hour. Their partner firm, the ees exhibitor ads-tec, showcased their high-performance grid and/or renewable energy connected buffering solution for EV owners. The introduction of these buffering systems, as well as the growing adoption of PV+storage solutions, at both residential and commercial scale, will allow the integration of EVs onto the wider power system, especially as European countries prepare for the ban on internal combustion engines.
INNOVATION MEETS REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS
THE EES AWARD 2018
SMART RENEWABLE ENERGY
BATTERY MANUFACTURING
The coveted ees Award identified the following companies for their innovation, flexibility of use and cost-effectiveness.
Ferroamp Elektronik: PowerShare Technology: a modular system based on a local 760 V DC nanogrid that feeds energy from one or more common PV installations to multiple users.
Nestled in a quadrant of one hall was the battery production exhibition, the themed, dedicated area forum that gave insight into emerging manufacturing techniques and technology. A tour of this section was available and gave the attendee insight into cutting-edge ideas and solutions through presentations from battery production company spokesmen. The dedicated space comes as Europe begins to understand it will need to make its own batteries if it is to meet both demand and slash costs to match the rest of the world. While Asia remains the manufacturing hub for batteries, plans for gigafactories are underway in Europe, with a number of gigawatt-size battery factories scheduled to start operating on the continent by 2020, and another three developments rumoured, including Tesla. Against this backdrop, on the Thursday morning, vicepresident for the Energy Union Maroš Šefcovic delivered an opening speech at the High Level Industrial Forum. He reiterated the Commission's commitment to creating an innovative, sustainable battery ecosystem in Europe, already translated into the first tangible results under the industry-led European Battery Alliance. He told delegates: "There is one critical component in Europe's e-mobility value chain which is still weak in our endeavour to become a global leader: batteries. “We must be ready to compete on the global market. And this implies developing manufacturing capacities and creating an innovative, sustainable battery ecosystem in Europe. “I strongly believe that clean, 'made in Europe' batteries are about to charge our economy with green energy, green jobs and green innovation.
The presentation of The ees and Intersolar Awards and for the first time The smarter E Awards took place on June 20 at The smarter E Forum. Once again the juries of industry experts awarded the most innovative concepts and solutions from the energy storage, smarter e and solar industries.
SMA Solar Technology: Sunny Central Storage with grid-forming capabilities: inverter for grid-connected applications and hybrid PV mini-grids system for the integration of large-scale storage systems into the grid.
indielux UG: ready2plugin: the system enables the safe plug-in of PV panels and battery storage into regular sockets without an electrician.
SOCOMEC: Microgrid Energy Storage Solution: can be integrated into mini-grid system architectures, from 33kW/91kWh up to 800kW/1MWh.
SMA Solar Technology AG: ennexOS Platform: a cross sector IoT platform for energy management that provides solutions along the whole value chain.
Dynapower Company: Dynapower DC: can be used to retrofit energy storage in large PV power plants on the DC side without changing the inverter
THE INTERSOLAR AWARD 2018
OUTSTANDING PROJECTS
Now in its eleventh year, the Intersolar award recognises pioneering solutions in the renewable energy sector.
The inaugural winners of the smarter E Award were recognised for their innovative business models and projects as well as forward-looking ideas.
ABB: PVS-175-TL: a cloud-connected three-phase string solution for commercial rooftop applications and utility scale power plants.
Bach Khoa Investment Development of Solar Energy Corporation (SolarBK): Solar Experience Space: demonstrates what can be achieved with PV technology in Vietnamese homes and businesses.
Hanwha Q CELLS: Q.PEAK DUOG5: a drop-in-replacement for standard modules that combines monocrystalline Q.ANTUM cells with a six-busbar advanced cell interconnection technology design, and smoothly cut edges
First Solar: developed and built a 300 MW PV utility-scale plant in California,
Krinner Solar: CAS²– Computer Aided Solar Structure: an integrated software and hardware package that reduces the time for planning and installing large scale PV plants by up to 30%.
Unlimited Energy Australia / TESVOLT: an off-grid 53kW PV installation at an avocado farm in Australia that combines 160kWh salt-water batteries and 48kWh lithium storage.
EES SOUTH AMERICA
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SOUTH AMERICA’S UNTAPPED RENEWABLES COULD PAVE WAY FOR MASS ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM ADOPTION WITH SOUTH AMERICA’S ABUNDANCE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SUCH AS WIND AND SOLAR, COUNTRIES SUCH AS BRAZIL — WHERE EES SOUTH AMERICA RETURNS ON AUGUST 28-30 — HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO MOVE TO A CARBON NEUTRAL ENERGY SYSTEM, IF ONLY THEY CAN PROGRESS FROM THE PILOT AND R&D STAGES.
By 2024, the regulator wants Brazil to generate 10% of its energy capacity from wind — today it sits at 7% wind, with 7% coming from solar. To do this it will need storage.
Microgrids are seen as a disruptive technology in some markets, but in geographical areas such as South American where natural disasters can knock out entire power infrastructures, the technology, along with energy storage systems, are being deployed to bolster the grid and bring emergency power to people. However, Latin America is just waking to the multi-million dollar market potential inherent in the rollout out of utilityscale ESSs. Last year it was only behind Antarctica in terms of microgrid deployment at 777 MW, or 4% of the global market in Q2, according to Navigant Research’s Microgrid Tracker Q22017. The area’s market is moving, but remains in the research, development and piloting phases of projects. In Brazil, industry analysts point the finger at the country’s lack of capital and absence of regulations governing the adoption, usage and management of renewables and storage for its slow growth in deployment of storage systems. Things are changing. In 2016, the country’s energy regulator ANEEL’s unveiled a three-year roadmap to drive research and development in storage. Utilities had to invest 0.4% of their annual revenue to R&D; included in the plans were stipulations
that Brazilian firms must improve the R&D being conducted into storage and renewable technologies. By 2024, the regulator wants Brazil to generate 10% of its energy capacity from wind — today it sits at 7% wind, with 7% coming from solar. To do this it will need storage. Of the projects underway or in the pipe line are a backup battery storage pilot to provide black-out back up power at 34 substations in Brasilia, following a partnership between French battery firm Saft and Brazilian utility Companhia Energetica de Brasilia. Another is French power utility Engie’s partnership with Eos Aurora and Northern Power to install a 1 MW/4 MWh system in Tubarao municipality in Brazil to store energy from its 5 MW wind and solar farm.
➔ EES SOUTH AMERICA: THE FACTS This special exhibition is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and users of stationary and mobile electrical energy storage solutions. It will be hosted for the second time at Intersolar South America at the Expo Center Norte in São Paulo between August 28-30, 2018. The focus will be on storage solutions suited to systems with increasing amounts of renewable energy sources that are attracting investors, utilities, installers, manufacturers and project developers from all over the world. Energy storage systems are set to change the energy industry, and its potential in domestic, commercial and utility-scale applications are huge. The massive expansion in residential systems heralds the start of a structural change that holds new challenges for the energy industry and energy policymakers alike. Market research company Navigant Research predicts the worldwide revenue from decentralized storage systems will grow to more than 10 GW of capacity, and attract more than $16 billion by 2024.
South America has one of the highest solar potentials in the world. In the long-term, a high share of solar energy in the region, together with renewable energy sources like hydro, wind and geothermal energy, will impose challenges on the power system. These challenges will be met with storage, smart transmission systems and demand side management. The high penetration of renewables that is envisaged in South America’s future power systems will significantly increase the need for flexible operational measures and generation technologies, whose associated investment decisions have to be properly planned in the long-term. In Chile for example the electricity sector is already deploying battery storage as a spinning reserve. In the residential, commercial and industrial segments, the market players are looking for market-ready energy storage solutions.
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EES INDIA
TAKING AN HOLISTIC APPROACH TO INDIA’S EVOLVING ENERGY MARKET STORAGE WILL BE CRITICAL IN INDIA’S CLEAN ENERGY TRANSISTION DOMINATED BY RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATED AND DISTRIBUTED FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES ACROSS THE NETWORK AS CONSUMERS EVOLVE INTO PROSUMERS, ATUL ARYA, HEAD ENERGY SYSTEMS DIVISION PANASONIC, DISCUSSES WHAT IT MEANS FOR INDIA. HOW DOES PANASONIC VIEW THE EMERGING ENERGY GENERATION AND STORAGE PARADIGM SHIFT, AND HOW'S IT CONTRIBUTING TO THE EXCITING NEW PHASE IN HUMAN HISTORY?
"Our energy storage business in India has been growing at a rate of 45-50%"
The clean energy transition requires a co-evolution of innovation, investment, and deployment strategies for emerging energy storage technologies. A deeply decarbonized energy system research platform needs materials science advances in battery technology to overcome the intermittency challenges of wind and solar electricity. Simultaneously, policies designed to build market growth and innovation in battery storage may complement cost reductions across a suite of clean energy technologies.
Battery storage is the new energy technology today. Lithium ion batteries have mitigated the need for diesel generators to a very large extent. It made it possible to completely remove diesel generators or minimize the need to an extent where the DGs are only an emergency backup when there's no power for a very long duration. On a year-on-year basis, our energy storage business in India has been growing at a rate of 45-50%. We are the market leaders in supplying lithium ion batteries to telecom sector as well as multiple other mission-critical applications. The management philosophy of Panasonic is based on the belief of its founder Konosuke Matsushita, who said since a company runs its business by borrowing people, things, money, land, and so forth from the society, a company is “a public entity of society”. Following this philosophy and
➔ INDIA, THE WORLD'S NEXT BIG CLEANTECH MARKET With demand growing at the same rate as some European countries, India is in the process of re-thinking its power infrastructure into one that’s both reliable and meets Paris Agreement climate objectives. The IESA estimates India has more than 70 GW / 200 GWh of energy storage opportunity, one of the highest in the world, by 2022. More than half of that demand is expected from newer applications like solar or electric vehicles, hence the opportunity for advanced storage technologies is tremendous. The opportunity for energy storage in India is expected to mirror the country’s solar market, which has added more than 20 GW of installed capacity to date. As 2017 drew to a close the country’s pipeline of utility-scale projects under development stood at around 10.6 GW with another 4.3 GW of tenders pending auction.
The big question is what will India’s energy future look like? Its electric mobility market is the next big cleantech opportunity, thanks to the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan aimng to get seven million vehicles on its roads by 2020, and all vehicles electrified by 2030. In terms of monetizing this growth, a $300 billion market for EV batteries in India will open up if it meets its goal, according to a study by the Niti Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute. To mark the growth in energy storage and EV adoption, organisers at this year’s Intersolar India event have doubled the exhibition space for electrical energy storage and electric mobility solutions with the goal of helping companies develop and distribute technologies and business models in the field of traction batteries, charging infrastructure and all types of EVs, and to push forward a sustainable future mobility according to the aim: Charging the Future and Energizing Mobility.
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"Lithium ion batteries bring down diesel consumption by around a half" Atul Arya, head energy systems division Panasonic.
INDIA MOVES TO BANGALORE, THE CAPITAL CITY ➔ INTERSOLAR OF INDIA'S NO 1 SOLAR STATE AND EV HUB KARNATAKA!
advice from our founder to make a contribution to society, we've worked in the “Energy Storage Solutions” space in India since FY 2013. We have been offering lithium ion battery-based energy solutions in India for the last three years, to reduce diesel consumption in telecom infrastructure and other segments. We have already accumulated over $100 million in revenue from the telecom vertical alone in the country.
HOW IS INDIA’S BATTERY INDUSTRY, TRADITIONALLY SERVING TELECOM, RAILWAY AND AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY EVOLVING? WHAT ARE THE NEXT BIG OPPORTUNITIES? • For effective functioning, technological advances have made it crucial for telecommunication networks to have a constant supply of energy. With the tower density in urban areas approaching a peak, this sector can be the next big opportunity as the focus has shifted to extending the telecom tower penetration in semi-urban and rural areas. • Power supply framework for trains is outlined and created to suit the necessity of AC and non-AC working in the trains. Other traction applications where batteries for the Indian Railways are primarily used are: Locomotive Starting and Signaling and telecommunication. VRLA batteries are being replaced by lead acid batteries due to maintenance free operations, which is an opportunity in this space. • By virtue of growing demand from automobile and industrial sectors, the battery market in India is anticipated to reach $8.6 billion by 2022. An essential market opportunity for the Indian economy is domestic battery manufacturing to supply the transition to electronic vehicles.
IS THERE ANY NEAR FUTURE POSSIBILITY OF A DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY EMERGING IN THE STORAGE SPACE? WHERE DOES HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS DEVELOPMENT STAND VIS A VIS LITHIUM ION BATTERIES? There are many limitations of lead acid batteries. They need eight hours of charging whereas the similar capacity of Lithium ion can be charged in one-and-a-half hours. Because India does not have that kind of consistent power availability, especially in the rural areas, having batteries that last long are crucial for businesses. Lead acid batteries are relatively inefficient as 30% of the energy is wasted in charging and discharging them. Lithium ion batteries are 90% plus efficient. Use of Lithium ion batteries allows bringing down diesel consumption by around a half. There are a few businesses where lead acid is still considered for use.
Read the complete interview at: www.intersolar.in >News & Press > Interviews
After 10 years, Intersolar India has a new home. And where better to hold an exhibition and conference on solar, energy storage and electric mobility technologies than India’s solar and EV hub in the state of Karnataka. Karnataka intends to make its capital city Bangalore — already the IT and technology hub of India and known for its world-class research and innovation — the EV and energy storage production centre of the country. Last year the state’s government unveiled its Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy 2017 and with it became the first Indian state to launch a specific EV and energy storage policy. To back up its own policy, the state’s government is set to buy 640 EVs under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles program. Included in the program will be the creation of a charging infrastructure by subsidizing charging and battery swapping stations. Around $5billion is expected to be poured into e-vehicle manufacturing and 55,000 jobs are expected to be created. As well as its EV credentials, Karnataka is a pioneer in solar. Along with Telangana, it installed 50% of all India’s solar systems last year, and remains in the top for pipeline solar installation capacity. The southern state’s solar energy potential has been updated from 20 GW to 24,7 GW, and the world’s biggest solar power park - Pavagada - has seen 2 GW installed during its first phase. Now marking its 10th anniversary, Intersolar India will take place from December 11-13, 2018 - in Hall 1 & 2 of the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC). The exhibition and conference will welcome more than 17,000 industry professionals and 300+ exhibitors and will have a focus on the areas of photovoltaic, solar thermal technologies, solar plants, as well as grid infrastructure and solutions for the integration of renewable energy. With its special exhibitions ees India and Power2Drive India, the event has a strong additional focus on electrical energy storage (ees) and e-mobility solutions.
Find more Information at www.intersolar.in
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International Exhibition Series for Batteries and Energy Storage Systems
JULY 10–12, 2018, SAN FRANCISCO, USA NORTH AMERICA’S ULTIMATE HOT SPOT FOR ENERGY STORAGE SOLUTIONS www.ees-northamerica.com
AUGUST 28–30, 2018, SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL THE MAJOR PLATFORM FOR STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES RESHAPING LATAM’S ENERGY SECTOR www.ees-southamerica.com
OCTOBER 24, 2018, STRASBOURG, FRANCE FRANCE’S PREMIER SUMMIT FOR ELECTRICAL ENERGY STORAGE www.ees-summit.com/France
DECEMBER 11–13, 2018, BANGALORE, INDIA THE LEADING STORAGE EXHIBITION TO SECURE INDIA’S ENERGY SUPPLY www.ees-india.in
MARCH 5–7, 2019, DUBAI, UAE EES@MIDDLE EAST ELECTRICITY: MENA‘S MOST COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY STORAGE EVENT www.ees-mena.com
APRIL 4–5, 2019, MUMBAI, INDIA THE LEADING STORAGE EXHIBITION TO SECURE INDIA’S ENERGY SUPPLY www.ees-india.in
MAY 15–17, 2019, MUNICH, GERMANY EUROPE’S LARGEST EXHIBITION FOR BATTERIES AND ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS www.ees-europe.com
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SUPERCAPS AND GRID INTEGRATION The supercapacitor is unique in that its potential begins when used with a battery — whether in mobile or stationary applications. Vehicle OEMs have embraced the technology, but how long before the stationary market catches up?
Supercaps: energy for all seasons Supercapacitors are a different sort of energy storage. One would be hard pushed to even describe them as a rechargeable battery, given that they’re not electrochemical. But they can accept and deliver charge much faster than a regular battery, as well as having a cycle life that can tolerate more cycles than secondary batteries. Supercapacitors have long been used for applications where this high power capability is important: cars, buses, trains, cranes, elevators and even wind turbines, rather than for applications that require higher energy density and long duration energy storage. The technology doesn’t have the same problems as batteries with lower life cycles, limited temperature range and lower voltages. Battery designers and end users take these things for granted in legacy batteries with customers tacitly acknowledging they will incur additional costs when they have to change the battery every two years or so. Supercapacitors solve this problem, says Mark McGough CEO of Ioxus, but it will take a while before designers will really understand those benefits. “For the market a key issue is the total cost of ownership, which is significant if you don’t have to change the battery every two years,” he says. When entering a market, it can be useful to cover as many applications as possible, and supercapacitors work in a myriad of applications, helped in part by their ability to operate in temperatures up to around 85oC. In stationary applications they can be used in wind turbines in the pitch control systems; in energy storage systems they are ideal for short term injections of power to prevent dips or sags, and capture power during spikes. They have been deployed in mobile applications such as trains for energy recuperation and traction; hybrid buses where they are used in parallel or
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in series hybrid systems for capturing energy and then acceleration to reduce fuel consumption; mild hybrid cars use them for start/stop in the place of, or in addition to, a battery, to reduce noise and vibration and increase reliability of starts and fuel efficiency.
Fast cycling for mobile apps
Supercapacitors can be used as a drop- in replacement for lead acid SLI batteries, with Ioxus designing its uSTART product to replace a group 31 battery — the most common battery footprint for commercial vehicles in North America. “The Group 31 battery is the bread and butter solution for vehicles and the drop-in uSTART is a replacement for one of the vehicle’s batteries, and on top of that there is a built-in jump start, which can charge itself from a low battery to initiate a jump,” says McGough. The product has not yet been used on passenger cars, although there are many examples of supercapacitors being deployed in passenger cars, but heavy duty truck OEMs are designing uSTARTs into their vehicles, which are scheduled to appear from the third quarter this year. McGough doesn’t think supercapacitor use in vehicles will be at the expense of other batteries. “Lithium ion is actually complementary to supercapacitors. We don’t look at lithium ion as the enemy,” he says. Instead he sees a future where vehicle OEMs will use a small pack of supercapacitors somewhere outside the engine department. “There will be centralized energy storage in the vehicle in a single location and that’s where they think the market will go for on-board applications. Supercapacitors will play an important role in that, not necessarily replacing batteries all together but using a single battery and a single set of
supercapacitors for the power requirements. So the base load is covered by the battery and the spikes of power covered by the supercapacitors.” US firm Maxwell Technologies is already established in the motive market. At the beginning of 2017 it announced a definitive agreement with China railway firm CRRC Qingdao Sifang Rolling Stock Research Institute, to localize the manufacture of its supercapacitor-based modules for use in the country’s energy bus market. CRRC-SRI exclusively used Maxwell’s 2.7V and 3V supercapacitor cells in local production lines to manufacture the modules. The previous year the San Diego company had unveiled a lithium ion capacitor, developed in conjunction with CRRC-SRI, designed for rapid energy regeneration in the train’s trolley system. That same year the company unveiled a 51V module for hybrid buses and other high-duty cycle applications. The module used Maxwell’s 2.85V, 3,400-farad supercapacitor cell. Despite these developments in the mobile markets, McGough doesn’t think the technology will reach the same maturity as legacy batteries in his career, instead there will be continued evolution of transportation, and more and more specifically passenger car applications.
Smoothing renewable spikes
The global energy mix is at the beginning of a seismic shift towards the incorporation of renewable solar and wind generated power. The International Energy Agency reports that renewables accounted for almost two-thirds of global net capacity additions in 2016, with almost 165GW coming online. The agency predicts a further 920GW of renewable capacity will be installed by 2022. “The inherent volatility of these re-
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SUPERCAPS AND GRID INTEGRATION A NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR NEW PROBLEMS
“Without viable power quality delivery solutions it will cost billions in grid infrastructure upgrades to allow these less stable resources to enter the grid.” — Kim McGrath, Maxwell newable resources is resulting in new grid stability and reliability issues on the utility distribution, sub-transmission and transmission networks,” said Kim McGrath, Maxwell’s senior director business development and technical marketing. “Without viable power quality delivery solutions such as fast responding energy storage, it will cost billions in grid infrastructure upgrades to allow these less stable resources to enter the grid. “The number of grid power quality issues is increasing rapidly, and the need to respond to grid events ever faster is also increasing.” Grid level storage is categorized as being of long or short-term duration. Supercapacitors fall squarely in the latter. In grid applications they can be used for frequency regulation services, which McGrath believes will grow as countries develop smarter grids. Early markets establishing policy development to enable fast responding storage include South Australia, the UK and certain areas in the US, mainly due to them having higher levels of renewable energy generation. Other regions are expected to establish their own fast response policies in the next couple of years and will be a key factor to market growth and the placing of specific monetary value to storage. Supercapacitors are a solution to voltage and power quality issues in utility grids and microgrids across generation, transmission and distribution, requiring response at the millisecond
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A very modern application is for pitch control on wind turbines and manoeuvring the blades. Because wind doesn’t always blow in the same spot or same speed companies found they needed a device that could quickly change the direction of the blades, slow them down or even stop them for safety reasons. Historically, legacy batteries catered for these services, but there are difficulties with replacing them at unsafe heights, especially with offshore applications. Now, more and more companies are turning to supercapacitors, which can charge and discharge quickly to pitch the blades, move them to or from strong winds and execute emergency shut downs. McGough, a former president of Maxwell, said: “This is why I love the supercapacitor market. I left Maxwell because I could see the US market would take a while to develop and I wanted to invest my career in a more productive space. I could see the market would develop and it has, it’s grown at a much faster pace than the battery market. “Much faster than lead acid, for example. I like Abraham Maslow’s phase ‘When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail’ to describe the battery industry. “So if you are only used to batteries, that’s what you use. Supercapacitors are an alternative to that.” Under nominal operating conditions supercapacitors are safe. However, there is a perceived danger with the electrolyte, especially in Japan, which has banned the use of acetonitrile (ACN) timescale to enter these markets. The technology’s key benefits lie in being able to deliver fast voltage sag mitigation, fast frequency response, as well as solar and wind power smoothing services. “Although the costs of storage are coming down as economies of scale are being achieved, the diverse nature of grid applications cannot be served with a single type of storage, which is optimized for storage capacity and energy shifting as opposed to power quality,” said McGrath. “Utility customers need to extend their current capabilities with fast response, deep discharge and micro cy-
electrolytes in the technology. However it is still common for supercapacitor manufacturers to primarily use ACN outside Japan. The danger is because the material gives off poisonous hydrogen cyanide gas if heated too high, but only when the fire is oxygen starved. “There’s a perceived safety issue with ACN in Japan, but the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily see it as a safety concern, although under extreme high temp adiabatic burn conditions ACN has a by-product of cyanide, so there are concerns there,” said McGough. To counter this, and reach the lucrative Japanese market, Ioxus’s pouch and cylindrical cells can be made using either ACN or propylene-carbonate electrolytes, which is legal in Japan. ACN is used as a solvent because, with the appropriate level and type of salt, it has a high ionic conductivity resulting in low ESR (equivalent series resistance), thus a higher power density, and a wider temperature range than propylenecarbonate, says McGough. “A capacitor’s performance is proportional to the surface area that can capture ionic charges and the square of the voltage, so if you optimize both of these, you can get a better supercapacitor. “ACN offers lower ESR and that gives you better power. “Propylene-carbonate does not have those same safety concerns, but it does sacrifice performance. The concerns, however, are just in Japan and, by and large, in most areas of the world this safety issue is not a concern.” cling combined with long asset life, to meet technical and economic requirements. “As such, there is strong financial project justification to provide for stacked functionality combining traditional battery based energy storage with fast responding and high power supercapacitor storage to achieve multi-functionality in a single system.” Supercapacitor systems can also be used as a buffer system on these battery energy storage systems to mitigate high peak power demand stress and extend lifetime to devices that degrade more quickly due to operating at high peak power (battery heating).
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EVENT REVIEW: ALL ENERGY 2018 The energy industry is becoming increasingly aware of Scotland as a potential world leader in low carbon technology despite knowing full well — as a contradiction — as historically being a leading oil and gas producer. This was all part of All Energy 2018 on May 2-3.
Scotland’s first minister praises storage at All Energy meetings
“We let the market decide what we are going to include. What we see in the exhibitions changes from year-toyear and the conference, more often than not leads the exhibition,” says the event’s project director Judith Patten. It’s what makes All Energy, which started life in 2001, constantly fresh and relevant in 2018. The annual All-Energy exhibition and conference has made its home in Glasgow, having moved there in 2015 from Aberdeen where it had been since its inception. This year it attracted 300+ exhibitors and nearly 500 speakers. For the first time, there were keynote speeches from parliamentary minsters: first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon MSP; Paul Wheelhouse MSP, minister for business, innovation and energy; and Humza Yousaf MSP, minister for transport; and Rt Hon Claire Perry MP, minister of state for energy and clean growth.
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No surprise, then, that it attracted more than 7,000 visitors this year. Co-located with Smart Urban Mobility Solutions (SUMS 2018), more than 375 presentations, speeches and academic posters reflected the four pillars of the event: renewable power, low carbon heating, energy efficiency and low carbon transport. Energy experts gave interpretations of policy, case histories, descriptions of innovative developments and solutions during the event. A highlight included the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, who told a packed conference hall that while there were a number of opportunities in the energy sector, there were still a number of real challenges to be addressed over the years to come. Attendees heard how in the past 12 years Scotland had grown the amount of renewable energy to 60%, and was getting close to 70%. Sturgeon said: “That success we’ve
seen in electricity now has to be replicated elsewhere. We now need something similar in the next 12 years — not just for electricity but for our energy use as a whole, including heat and transport.” This year also included the introduction of a number of features including an Innovation Hub and trail; an Investors Breakfast; ‘Meet the Local Authority Official’ and ‘Meet the Farmer’ networking events; an International Trade Theatre; and The Hydrogen Hub. During one seminar, a speaker said that this year’s queues for energy storage sessions were quieter than the previous year, when queues could be seen out of the door, and people being turned away. This, he said, is because energy storage has permeated into a plethora of alternative streams. Patten said: “When I first introduced energy storage to the programme the speakers were all academics who could store tiny amounts, then suddenly we got to sensible amounts and have seen interest in the sessions — both speaking and attending — grow. “What is evident now is that not all presentations on storage are in the storage sessions.”
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Solar & Storage Finance Asia Singapore July 2-3 Returning to Singapore for its 4th edition, Solar & Storage Finance Asia will be the meeting point for developers, financiers and investors across the region. This event is specifically designed to attract: Solar and storage developers with bankable projects Equity investors both from the financial world and the energy community International banks and local lenders looking to finance the next wave of solar growth Energy Storage system integrators with a diverse range of technologies and chemistries Utilities, both local and international, looking to either be off-takers or developers of investors. To discuss amongst other topics: • The competitive landscape for development across the region • How to take advantage of the Corporate PPA market • Country specific roundtables focused on Mature markets, SE Asian markets and Pre-Fit Emerging Markets • Energy Storage revenue stacking models • Case studies on international and regional projects • O&M and asset management Contact Anthony Epega aepega@solarmedia.co.uk www.financeasia.solarenergyevents.com
ees North America July 10-12 • San Francisco, USA
Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies, Ees North America is the ideal platform for all stakeholders in the rapidly growing energy storage market. It takes place in the epicenter of the U.S. storage market: California. Colocated with Intersolar North America, Ees North America provides the best opportunity to explore energy storage systems in combination with PV and beyond. In 2017, 130 energy storage exhibitors and more than 15,000 visitors participated in the co-located events. Ees North America is part of the Ees global exhibition series. Together with Ees Europe in Munich, Ees South America in São Paulo and Ees India in Mumbai, Ees events are represented on four continents. Contact www.ees-northamerica.com/en/home.html
International Flow Battery Forum July 10-12 • Lausanne, Switzerland The meeting is aimed at all those interested in the deployment, commercialisation, demonstration, manufacturing, financing, component and material supply, and the sector of academic and industrial research of flow batteries. The IFBF has a unique combination of key note addresses, oral and poster presentations, seminars, and panel discussions to inform and educate delegates of the benefits of flow battery systems and for all to learn and share in the development of this exciting technology. The programme will cover recent progress, scientific, engineering and manufacturing issues, study of financial, marketing and commercial issues and will be relevant to renewable generation developers, smart grid operators, and all companies and businesses active in electricity supply. There will be an educational introductory seminar, which will be held on July 9, immediately before the main conference. This is suitable for those new to the industry. There will also be opportunities to visit the research and demonstration facilities operated by EPFL near to Lausanne . Contact Aud Heyden on +44 1666 840948. Email: info@flowbatteryforum.com www.swanbarton.com
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS SHMUEL DE-LEON ENERGY STORAGE SEMINARS, 2018 DATE LOCATION
PARTNER
July 9-10
London, UK
HEL
July 11-12
Zwolle, Netherlands
Dr. Ten
August 29
Asker, Norway
Hans Schive
October 24-25
Appenzell, Switzerland
Wyon
13th European SOFC & SOE Forum Lucerne, Switzerland July 3-6 The European Fuel Cell Forum continues to be one of the most prominent meeting platforms for the exchange of scientific and technical information, as well as an ideal event for networking towards future solutions. The forum will be the largest European event in this field. The technical programme will range from fundamental science and new materials, through cell, stack, and system development, to the latest results from commercial deployment. There are also topics covering manufacturing, lifetime, characterization, modeling and optimisation. Under the title “industrial achievements” product and novel concepts, P2X, chemical processing applications, standardisation, studies and others such as training and education are addressed. Contact Leandra Spirig l.spirig@efcf.com Tel: +41 44 586 5644 www.EFCF.com
PlugVolt Battery Seminar Plymouth, USA July 17-19 PlugVolt is involved in the business of promoting and fostering joint development efforts in advancing battery and alternative energy storage technologies. PlugVolt will be hosting its next Battery Seminar in Plymouth, Michigan (USA). This event will feature an entire day of in-depth training and presentations by EnerDel on lithium ion battery chemistry, its manufacturing, BMS design, thermal management, testing and validation methodologies, safety processes, etc. Next two days will include complementary industry updates provided by subject matter experts from automotive and grid storage OEMs, major battery manufacturers and global Tier 1 system developers. Attendees will also have an exclusive opportunity to tour Intertek’s 100,000+ square-foot Battery Testing Center of Excellence, along with an evening reception for industry networking. Contact Michelle Boyer Tel: +1 877 758 4865 www.batteryseminars.com
The 3rd Asia (Guangzhou) Battery Sourcing Fair 2018 Guangzhou, China August 16-18 GBF Asia engages in battery and associated applications in the field of power and energy storage. It also focuses on displaying the whole production chain of battery materials, and equipment. Contact Aileen Chen Tel: +86 20 29806525 Email: Aileen2017@yeah.net www.battery-expo.com/index.php?lang=en
Guangzhou, China hosts the 3rd Asia Battery Sourcing Fair 2018
ees South America August 28-30 • São Paulo, Brazil Intersolar South America will be hosting and highlighting the special exhibition “ees South America” to extend and round up electrical energy storage innovations and programs. ees South America is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and users of stationary and mobile electrical energy storage solutions. Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies-from components and production to specific user application-it is the ideal platform for all stakeholders in the rapidly growing energy storage market. The focus at ees is on energy storage solutions suited to energy
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systems with increasing amounts of renewable energy sources attracting investors, utilities, installers, manufacturers and project developers from all over the world.
Contact Olivia Hsu Tel: +49 7231 58598 16 Email: hsu@solarpromotion.de www.intersolar.net.br
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Advanced Batteries, Accumulators and Fuel Cells Conference (ABAF)
Solar and Storage Australia
Brno, Czech Republic August 26-29
We are delighted to announce the dates for our upcoming event Solar & Storage Australia. The event will be held on the 4-5 of September in Sydney. We are also pleased to announce the involvement of Inaccess as a supporting sponsor for the event.
The conference will be co-sponsored by the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE-competition for the best poster among young scientists) and the Electrochemical Society (ECSpublication in the ECS Transactions magazine). The conference language is English. The main field of interest of this year’s conference is the research and development of materials designated for modern electrochemical power sources, new investigations in the fields of materials research, applied electrochemistry, corrosion, preparation and properties of nanomaterial structures, non-conventional sources of electrical energy including photovoltaic systems, ionic liquids for power sources and their properties, replacement of lithium by sodium in batteries and practical use of electrochemical power sources including their application. As a new topic, electrochromism and its application will be added. Contact Marie Sedlarikova Tel: +42 054 114 6143 Email: sedlara@feec.vutbr.cz www.aba-brno.cz
September 4-5 Sydney, Australia
The event will gather: • Solar & storage developers • Investors and financiers from all over the world • Utilities • Grid operators • Large energy users • Flexibility providers To discuss amongst other topics: • How to participate in 3.5GW market • How to finance PPAs with various tenures and structures • What revenue stacks for energy storage look like now and what they will look like in the future • Flexibility and demand response advancement • The role of storage as grid investment deferral • Regional roundtable focus • CASE STUDY parades • R&D made in Australia Contact Corinna Algranti Tel: +44 207 871 0122 www.australia.solarenergyevents.com
International Renewable Energy Forum Vienna, Austria September 6-7 ICT Solutions presents its International Renewable Energy Forum 2018 which will be hosted on the 6th and 7th of September in Vienna, Austria. Bringing together Renewable Energy Experts / Professionals /Leaders from across the globe. These two days our delegates will have the opportunity to see, listen and join in highly interactive Panel Discussions, Q+A Sessions to understand the latest trends in Renewable Energy, How to Access Green Finance, Corporate Renewable Power Purchase Agreements, Renewable Energy Investment in Europe in Biomass. Contact Tel: 0036 7029 60 374 info@ict-solutions-hu.com www.ict-solutions-hu.com/internationalrenewable-energy-forum/
Vienna, Austria hosts the International Renewable Energy Forum
16th European Lead Battery Conference and Exhibition (ELBC) September 4-7 • Vienna, Austria Up to 800 delegates are expected to attend from sectors including: • battery manufactures • researchers • equipment and materials suppliers • end users from automotive, industrial and energy storage sectors.
This is your chance to hear from and meet the technical champions and industry experts who are setting the pace for the next generation of lead batteries, at an event with the industry’s most comprehensive technical conference programme. The 16ELBC is the largest global gathering of lead battery experts in 2018, bringing together all those involved in the development, production and use of lead batteries.
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Topics will include: • Consumer requirements for current and future automotive, industrial, utility, smart-grid and renewable energy storage applications. • Achievements in using carbons in lead batteries, and future research directions. • Development of full electrochemical models to simulate processes in carbon enhanced lead batteries. • Additives to the negative or positive active mass or electrolyte. • Gas evolution and water loss in relation to Dynamic
Charge Acceptance (DCA) improvements. • Improving lifetimes and deep cycle life of lead batteries for industrial, utility, smart-grid and renewable energy storage applications. • Harmonization of testing standards. • Battery testing method improvements. • Development and use of advanced analytical techniques, basic science methods and materials engineering for lead battery research. • Future production requirements in terms of quality control, impurities, raw materials, manufacturing and next generation equipment. Contact Maura McDermott Tel: +44 20 7833 8090 Email: 16elbc@ila-lead.org www.ila-lead.org/16elbc
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Future Resource — the event for energy and water efficiency Birmingham, UK September 12-13
The Battery Show North America Novi, Michigan, USA • September 11-13 The Battery Show is the largest showcase of advanced battery technology in North America, displaying thousands of design, production and manufacturing solutions including battery systems, materials, components, testing and recycling. With more than 600 manufacturers and service providers from across the battery supply chain, this free-to-attend exhibition is your opportunity to source the latest energy storage solutions, helping you to reduce costs and improve the performance of your applications.
Future Resource is the leading water & energy management event in the UK-showcasing the latest innovations shaping the sustainability sector to the industry’s most influential names and organisations. From the UK’s leading local authorities and Government departments, to the largest retailers, commercial & industrial end users, energy and water suppliers and trade associations, Future Resource attracts the most influential visitors and buyers who are attracted by the industry’s best content programme, speaker line-up and world-class exhibition. Contact Daniel Brotherton daniel.brotherton@prysmgroup.co.uk Tel: (+44) 0117 990 2093 www.futureresourceexpo.com
Contact Tel: +1 310 445 4200 Email: Tshowreg@ubm.com www.thebatteryshow.com
Energy Storage Canada Toronto, Canada September 19 - 20 Energy Storage Canada is the voice of leadership for energy storage and the only industry association in Canada that focuses on advancing opportunities and building the market for energy storage. ESC leverages the strength of our diverse membership to drive market development in Canada. ESC has made energy storage a key focus for policy makers. We educate stakeholders and drive awareness about the value that energy storage delivers. We work to create new competitive markets and ensure regulatory fairness. Our mission is to advance the energy storage industry in Canada through policy advocacy, collabora-
Toronto hosts Energy Storage Canada this September
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tion, education, and research. Energy Storage Canada works closely with sector allies and with other energy storage stakeholders to push the industry forward. Contact Pat Phillips Tel: +1 416-977-3095 Email: information@energystoragecanada.org www.energy-storage-ontario.squarespace.com
Solar Power International Anaheim, California, USA September 24-27 Solar Power International is powered by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and the Smart
Electric Power Alliance (SEPA). SPI held its inaugural show in 2004 and was designed to serve and advance the solar energy industry by bringing together the people, products, and professional development opportunities that drive the solar industry and are forging its bright future. This event focuses solely on creating an environment that fosters the exchange of ideas, knowledge and expertise for furthering solar energy development in the US. Designed and produced by Solar Energy Trade Shows, our events supply your company with solutions that further your success. Offering superior networking, visibility and value, Solar Energy Trade Shows events are important to any company active in the solar market. Unlike other solar conferences, all proceeds from SPI support the expansion of the solar energy industry through SEIA and SEPA’s year-round research and education activities, and SEIA’s extensive advocacy efforts. SPI’s primary mission is to deliver on the missions of both SEIA and SEPA in a way that strengthens the solar energy industry domestically and globally, through networking and education, and by creating an energetic and engaging marketplace to connect buyers and suppliers. Contact Tel: +1 703-738 9460 Email: customerservice@sets.solar www.solarpowerinternational
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Interbattery 2018 will take place in Seoul, Korea in October
Interbattery 2018 Seoul, Korea October 10-12 InterBattery, sponsored by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and directed by Korea Battery Industry Association and Coex, is Korea’s biggest secondary-cell battery convention that was first launched in 2013. InterBattery is Korea’s only battery industry exhibition that simultaneously accommodates the fast-growing mobile market, automobile industry, as well as ESS and EV markets, and allows for the buyers and manufacturers to naturally and most efficiently interact while learning about the newest products and trends. Furthermore, the global conference ‘The Battery Conference’ will be in session at the same time, allowing for the opportunity to listen to international opinion leaders, exchange influential ideas, and estimate the future of the industry.
5th International Smart Grid Expo Osaka, Japan September 26-28 Japan’s largest international exhibition showcasing various cutting-edge technologies and products related to smart grid and smart communities. The best place to: • Find products and technologies to solve research and production issues • Effective compare the test technologies from around the world • Seek detailed and rapid solutions to problems • Carry out face-to-face business meeting with key industry leaders Reed Exhibitions Japan strive to provide the most effective platform for exhibitors showcasing the latest technologies, products and services to meet professionals from around the world who seek such exhibits. Through organising the show, Reed Exhibitions Japan s fully committed to aid the expansion of the industries. Contact Reed Exhibitions Tel: 0081 333498576 www.smartgrid-kansai.jp/en/
23rd International Congress for Battery Recycling — ICBR 2018 Berlin, Germany September 26-28 ICBR is the international platform for presenting the latest developments and discussing the challenges faced by the battery recycling industry.
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The 23rd edition of ICBR will bring together many experts and decision makers of the battery recycling value chain such as battery manufacturers, battery recyclers, OEMs from the electronic and e-mobility industry, collection schemes operators, service and transport companies, policy makers and many more. Contact Tel: +41 62 785 10 00 Email: info@icm.ch www.icm.ch
Intelec Turin, Italy October 7-11 INTELEC is an international annual technical conference that, for the past 39 years, has been the premier forum for the science and engineering of energy systems for Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). Research and technical papers explore the needs and trends in the subject areas of power conversion, energy storage, and high-reliability and mission-critical powering infrastructure. Topics include DC power plants, powering architectures, converters, inverters, batteries, fuel cells, grounding, physical and thermal designs, building and equipment cooling systems. The 2018 conference will be held in Torino, Italy at the Lingotto Conference Centre. Theme of the conference will be: 40 years of Inspiration, Research and Exploration in Power and Energy for ICT
Contact Tel: +82 6000 1393/1065/1104 Email. energyplus@coex.co.kr www.interbattery.or.kr
Energy Storage Summit Japan Tokyo, Japan October 16-18 The Energy Storage Summit Japan is your gateway to Japan’s energy storage market. With the combination of highllevel business contacts and information exchange, it is a “must attend” event for everyone who wants to do business with Japan’s energy storage community. Summit topics to include: • Framework: Energy storage frameworks and trends • Energy storage business models • Technology: Hydrogen, fuel cells, and batteries • Thermal energy storage • E-mobility and infrastructure • Resilient & Smart cities Finance: Financing energy storage projects • Energy finance and IT • International markets for energy storage Contact Tel.: +81 (3) 52 10 99 51 essj@messe-dus.co.jp https://essj.messe-dus.co.jp/en/home
Contact Tel: +390119211467 info@symposium.it www.intelec.org
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Battery Safety Conference Arlington, Virginia, USA October 30-31
Battery Technology Show October 23-24 • ExCel London The Battery Technology Show will showcase the incredible developments happening across the battery and energy storage markets. If you are looking to keep up with the latest news in breakthrough technologies, gain invaluable insight from key players in the market, and discover the emerging technologies which are at the frontier of the energy revolution, this is the event for you This show will feature a select lineup of world-leading manufacturers in the battery and energy storage space on our Expo floor, alongside a first-class conference programme featuring three thought-leading symposiums: The Future of Battery Technology, The Future of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles, and The Global Battery Market. Come and experience the power of the future. Contact Sarah O’Connell Tel: +44 117 932 3586
Higher energy and higher use lead to higher risk. While research continues to boost the energy storage capability of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and leads to expanding applications and consumer use, the task of implementing effective safety strategies falls on regulatory authorities, cell manufacturers, R&D engineers, and forensic scientists. Accurate tests and models are critical for predicting and controlling the complex electrochemical, thermal, and mechanical behavior of LIBs while forensic investigations and regulations are required. The Battery Safety 2018 conference continues this vital dialogue to integrate and implement LIBs safety to meet ever-increasing energy demands. Contact Sherry Johnson Tel: +1 781 972 1359 sjohnson@CambridgeEnertech.com www.cambridgeenertech.com/batterysafety/
Lithium Battery Materials & Chemistries Arlington, Virginia, USA November 1-2 Cambridge EnerTech’s Lithium Battery Materials & Chemistries conference provides in-depth coverage on the chemistries, both current and next-generation, that are shaping the future of energy storage. From novel electrode/electrolyte materials to
higher-capacity cathode/anode structures, this conference explores how to economically increase battery energy density. Contact Sherry Johnson Tel: +1 781 972 1359 sjohnson@CambridgeEnertech.com www.cambridgeenertech.com/lithiumbattery-materials-chemistries
European Utility Week 2018 Vienna, Austria November 6-8 European Utility Week is your premier business, innovation and information platform helping you to connect with the smart utility community. The three day event will offer you access to executives, regulators, policymakers and other professionals from leading European utilities and grid operators. The event offers a platform to showcase solutions coherent with European strategy to achieve a smooth transition towards a low carbon energy supply. It also offers expert knowledge and foresight from hundreds of industry leaders who address trends helping the advancement of energy provision. We have solutions for every forward thinking company and person looking to participate during European Utility Week 2018. Contact Tel: +31 346 590 901 Email: service@european-utility-week.com www.european-utility-week.com
Energy Storage North America Pasadena, California, USA • November 6-8 Energy Storage North America (ESNA) is the largest conference and expo for grid-connected energy storage in North America. ESNA 2018 will include energy storage site tours, networking, workshops, and learning sessions featuring the leading policymakers, utilities, and commercial and industrial customers focused on building the grid of the future. Network with over 1,900 energy storage stakeholders through one on one meetings, roundtable discussions, workshops with interactive discussions, intimate receptions for international attendees, utilities and women in the storage industry, and an evening of dining and dancing in Pasadena. Contact Daniela Knoll Email: dknoll@mdna.com Tel: +1 312 621 5838 www.esnaexpo.com
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Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018 • 55
FORTHCOMING EVENTS The Energy Management Exhibition-EMEX London, UK November 21-22 EMEX is the UK’s must-attend energy event for everyone wanting to increase their organisation’s energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. Energy is a cost to most organisations that has grown as a proportion of overall expenditure in recent years. And yet, there is considerable potential within most organisations to make large energy cost and carbon emission savings through the installation of energy efficiency measures. EMEX connects all commercial energy consumers with leading experts, policy makers and suppliers. EMEX is more than just an event. It’s a platform where practitioners and experts from various backgrounds and sectors are coming together to share their knowledge and experiences from successful implementations of energy efficiency strategies. Whatever the size of your business there is an opportunity to find more efficiency in your energy use. Contact Chris Asselin chris@emexlondon.com www.emexlondon.com
CTI Symposium Berlin Berlin, Germany December 3-6 The International CTI Symposium and its flanking specialist exhibition is the international industry event in Europe for people seeking latest information on developments in automotive transmissions and drives for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Contact Tel: +49 2 11/96 86-3452 anna.hofmann@car-training-institute.com www.transmission-symposium.com/en
Digital Solar & Storage Munich, Germany December 4-5
ing again for the second Digital Solar & Storage conference on 4-5 December 2018 in BMW World, Munich.The event will again cover the full spectrum of challenges and opportunities impacting digitalisation, solar and storage from policy, market and technological perspectives. Join high-level executives from utilities, digital innovators and storage solution suppliers to discuss the latest business models and market trends shaping the New Energy World. Contact Saskia Choffel Tel: + 32 2 709 55 41 s.choffel@solarpowereurope.org www.digitalsolar-storage.org
The world is going digital-and so is the energy industry. Solar and Storage, with the help of Digitalisation, will be the backbone of the New Energy World. Now that we are moving towards clean and flexible power, heat & transport sectors, it is key to have a cross-sectoral platform to discuss the most efficient ways to succeed in the energy transition in Europe. This is why SolarPower Europe, Europe’s biggest solar association, and IBESA, the International Battery & Energy Storage Alliance are collaborat-
Intersolar India Bangalore, India • December 11-13 This is India’s most pioneering exhibition and conference for the solar industry Solar developments in India grew exponentially in 2017. Further announcements and new market opportunities in the energy storage and electric mobility sector strengthen India to become an interesting and very promising market in the future. The state of Karnataka is one of the most flourishing Indian solar markets and the first Indian state to launch a specific EV policy. Intersolar India, the most pioneering exhibition and conference for the solar industry is celebrating its 10th edition in Bangalore, the capital city of the top solar market. The event will focus on the solar, energy storage and electric mobility industries and will welcome more than 17,000 industry professionals and 300 exhibitors. In addition, Intersolar India will continue to connect solar businesses in Mumbai at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) on April 4-5, 2019 with a focus on financing and India’s western solar markets. Contact Brijesh Nair Tel: +91 22 4255-4707 www.intersolar.in
56 • Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2018
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