POWERING THE SMART GRID
Issue 30: Autumn 2020
Energy in transition
And the storage imperative An industry matures Industrial & commercial Changing regulations and stiffer competition lead the charge
Lithium-sulfur
Zero-carbon targets prompt A look at whether the firms to assess business technology is ready to case for storage come out of the lab www.energystoragejournal.com
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EDITORIAL Debbie Mason: debbie@energystoragejournal.com
The energy storage industry must not hold back from putting its case forward Energy storage is touted across the world by the sector as the key to a carbon-free energy future, in which the world will be powered by renewables and backed up by batteries or other forms of storage. It’s an industry with heaps of potential and throughout the coronavirus pandemic we have been quoting agencies such as the International Energy Agency and the US Energy Storage Association, which have been persuading governments and banks that one way of kickstarting their economies is to throw money in this industry’s direction. “A well designed stimulus package could offer economic benefits and facilitate a turnover of energy capital which would have huge benefits for the clean energy transition,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol in May. “Governments can make clean energy even more attractive to private investors by providing guarantees and contracts to reduce financial risks. Taking these steps is extremely important because the combination of the coronavirus and volatile market conditions will direct the attention of policymakers, business leaders and investors away from clean energy transitions.”
The FT reported that China was approving new coal power plant capacity at the fastest rate since 2015 and intended to add more than 40GW to the country’s power supply, which it said would equal the entire existing fleet in South Africa. “The news will fuel concerns that urgent efforts to stimulate economies devastated by virus lockdown will push global emissions to levels higher than those recorded before Covid-19,” the newspaper said. “Survey data from the Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air also show that China approved the construction of more coal power plant capacity in the period to mid-June than in all of 2018 and 2019 combined.” China Dialogue, the independent thinktank based in London and Beijing, said the energy storage boom in China was faltering. It quoted the China Energy Storage Alliance, which said newly installed batterypowered storage capacity shrank by nearly a quarter year-on-year in 2019. CNESA senior policy research manager Wang Si said companies whose sole business was energy storage were now under enormous pressure to survive, regardless of the epidemic.
Yet just a month later, he admitted that global investment in storage remained far below the levels required to accelerate energy transitions — and not just because of the coronavirus.
Yet just two years ago the same CNESA was saying it believed China’s energy storage market had taken a new turn, “with grid-side energy storage capacity experiencing a tremendous increase”.
This year’s 9% fall in investment only compounds a bigger fall in 2019, he said, “and spending on important sources of power system flexibility has also stalled, with investment in natural gas plants stagnating and spending on battery storage levelling off.”
“In the next one to two years, energy storage will play an important role in the restructuring of the energy market. It currently stands at a crossroads, and determining the direction in which it moves will require careful consideration and decision making from all industry members.”
In China not only has investment in energy storage fallen — and has been doing so since last year — the country has even increased its spending on coal. According to a recent article in the Financial Times, China has decided to boost its energy industry and thus its national economy — the second largest in the world — not by investing in battery technologies and renewable energy, but by expanding the number of its coal plants. www.energystoragejournal.com
Exactly which direction will only be determined if the case is made, and made strongly. If the energy storage industry wants to keep going straight on, it needs to act. It needs to prove to decision makers that rather than a regressive move back to older forms of power, like coal, the future has far more potential if it stays on the path it has taken. Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 1
Contents FEATURES
Energy Storage Journal | Issue 30 | Autumn 2020
I&C CASE FOR STORAGE
LITHIUM-SULFUR
COVER STORY: TRANSITION
20
27
32
MORE INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL FIRMS ARE SEEING SENSE IN ENERGY STORAGE
A BATTERY CHEMISTRY THAT PROMISED SO MUCH — IS IT READY TO VENTURE OUT YET?
HOW THE ENERGY STORAGE INDUSTRY IS MOVING TOWARDS DELIVERING ON ITS PLEDGES
Decarbonization is the buzz word — and in the drive to reaching net carbon, businesses are considering how best to achieve it. Storage is a contender for some.
Lithium batteries come in many guises, and lithium-sulfur is one of those we have been keeping an eye on. Some think it could be the next Big Thing. Others don’t.
There’s still work to do before the renewables and storage sector can prove its worth. We watch an industry emerging from its cocoon, and the opportunities ahead.
ABOUT US
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
5
Hitachi completes $6.85 billion 80.1% take-over of ABB power grids division
10
13
Korean battery firm GS Yuasa to provide hybrid lead/lithium system for UK interational port
First International Energy Agency Clean Energy summit lists batteries as critical technology
18
London bus garage forms ‘Bus2Grid’ facility to become world’s largest V2G site
IN THIS ISSUE: 1 EDITORIAL: The energy storage industry needs to make its case to guarantee its future | 3 PEOPLE: Latest people news from around the globe | 5 NEWS: DEALS AND AGREEMENTS | 7 PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS | 12 TECHNOLOGY | 13 GENERAL NEWS 20 INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL STORAGE : Firms assess whether it makes business sense 27 LITHIUM-SULFUR BATTERIES: Are they ready to come out of the lab yet? 32 COVER STORY: ENERGY TRANSITION: The sector prepares to mature | 40 REGULAR COLUMN: IHS Markit analyst Oliver Forsyth says energy storage systems are a feasible alternative to traditional network investment for improving reliability 42 FORTHCOMING EVENTS: ESJ sorts through the re-scheduled programme following major disruption caused by lockdown.
Energy Storage Journal — Business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies Publisher: Karen Hampton karen@energystoragejournal.com +44 7792 852 337 Editor-in-chief: Michael Halls, mike@energystoragejournal.com +44 7977 016 918
Let cool heads prevail
Editor: Debbie Mason | email: debbie@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 1 243 782 275 Advertising manager: Jade Beevor | email: jade@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 1 243 792 467 Reporter: Hillary Christie | email: hillary@batteriesinternational.com Finance: Juanita Anderson | email: juanita@batteriesinternational.com | tel: +44 7775 710 290 Subscriptions and admin manager: Claire Ronnie | email: admin@energystoragejournal.com | tel: +44 1 243 782 275 Design: Antony Parselle | email: aparselledesign@me.com Reception: tel: +44 1 243 782 275 The contents of this publication are protected by copyright. No unauthorized translation or reproduction is permitted. Every effort has been made to ensure that all the information in this publication is correct, the publisher will accept no responsibility for any errors, or opinion expressed, or omissions, for any loss or damage, cosequential or otherwise, suffered as a result of any material published. Any warranty to the correctness and actuality of this publication cannot be assumed. © 2020 HHA Limited. UK company no: 09123491
The lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch The new titan of lead The CEO interview
Next gen integrators
on, head-to-head
the ideal middle man
soon to a 2020 Ecoult’s UltraBattery, Anil Srivastava and • Coming 2 • Energy Storage Journal Autumn smart grid near you, ready to take lithium Leclanché’s bid for market dominance
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PEOPLE NEWS
First member picked for the team to build UK’s first battery gigafactory
Isabel Sheldon
Britishvolt, the start-up planning to build the UK’s first lithium battery gigafactory, has hired the first member of its technical team, Isabel Sheldon, as chief strategy officer, the company said on June 15. Sheldon is described as a ‘battery industry veteran’ by Britishvolt, having worked for nearly 20 years in the industry and is joining from the UK government-backed Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC). “As one of the first pioneers to integrate lithium-ion batteries in road vehicles, including the first commercially available plug-in hybrid in the world based on the Toyota Prius hybrid in 2003, I have developed a wealth of knowledge on a wide range of disciplines — from cell technology, chemistries and system integration to how the global industry and supply chain works, as well as the processes involved in manufacturing the cells,” says Sheldon. “I take great pride in having grown over time with this nascent industry, which is now of global strategic significance as the world transitions to electrification and green technologies, having learnt some hard lessons through trial and error to spot the industry’s pitfalls and opportunities.” Sheldon will also be head of an advisory board with Britishvolt, which was founded by Swedes Lars Carlstrom and Orral Nad-
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jari in December 2019. “Lars Colstrom was a senior figure in the automotive industry, and Orral Nadjari has a strong background in finance, with a good knowledge of raising funds,” said a spokesperson for Britishvolt. “The joint project was born out of their specialities.” She said the plans were to have capacity of 10GWh in production by the third quarter of 2023, with a further 10GWh added the following year and then the full amount, 30GWh, in production by 2025/6. While the main market would be electric vehicles, energy storage applications would also be part of the market, she said, and while at first the UK would be the focus, the option remained for the batteries to be sold overseas as well. In May, Britishvolt signed a memorandum of understanding with the Scotlandbased battery firm AMTE Power to build the gigafactory. Kevin Brundish, CEO of AMTE Power, said the coro-
navirus crisis had highlighted the importance of having a robust onshore supply chain given the disruption experienced as a result of it. “The creation of a gigaplant would place the UK in a strong position to service automotive and energy storage markets,” he said. “The scalable production of lithium ion cells is key to electrifying vehicles and would drive new manufacturing revenues and new employment, and can be built on AMTE’s focus on the supply of specialized cells.” “It is costly and carbon intensive to have lithium batteries imported from Asia, and this giga-plant would cement a solid onshore supply chain to ensure quality and eliminate future uncertainty of supply,” said Carlstrom. A location for the new plant has yet to be confirmed, although sites are being assessed in Wales and Teesside, with the possibility of operating two plants at separate sites.
Powin Energy appoints Kate Stock as CFO Powin Energy, a battery energy storage system developer, announced on June 18 it had appointed Kate Stock as chief financial officer. She was previously CFP with the packaging and logistics firm TransPak.
Kate Stock
Powin Energy, based in Oregon, US, says Stock is one of a series of new hires made to ‘address the increase in demand for large commercial and industrial and utilityscale energy storage applications’. The firm has 2.2GWh of projects awarded, 241MWh in construction and 222MWh in operation, it says. In April ESJ reported that the company had launched three storage systems, using Chinese lithium giant CATL’s battery cells, for any application from residential behind-themeter to microgrid to utility-scale.
Clarion names Wallace as new CEO and president Clarios, the largest lead battery maker in the world, named Mark Wallace as its new CEO and president on May 18. Interim CEO John Barkhouse steps down but will continue as board chairman. Wallace joined from Dana Incorporated. He was previously executive vice president and president of commercial vehicle drive and motion systems with the firm. Dana is a supplier of integrated drivetrain and electrified propulsion systems which are used in automotive applications. He had worked there since 2008. Before that he spent almost two decades with Webasto Products, most latterly as its CEO. “Mark has a demonstrated history of driving revenue growth and improving profit margins. His experience as a leader with extensive knowledge of the OE and aftermarket industries ensures Clarios and its customers are in good hands, and our strategic plan will continue to advance globally,” said Barkhouse. Former CEO and president Joe Walicki retired in September 2019, when he also stepped down as president of Battery Council International’s board of directors. He had been with Johnson Controls for 30 years, and made president and CEO of the battery business when it was sold to the asset management firm Brookfield Business Partners in 2018 and renamed Clarios.
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 3
PEOPLE NEWS
Key Capture Energy adds three new staff, takes on four interns
Energy storage provider Key Capture Energy on May 27 announced it had appointed Ken Rush as director of technology, Emma Johnson manager of market analysis and Andrew Gelston manager of market strategy.
It has also made four interns full-time members of staff. All will be based at the company’s headquarters in Albany, New York State. Rush was previously chief engineer for GE, acting as architect of solar + storage
and grid support applications and designing more than 200MWh of storage facilities across the world, the firm said. Johnson came from Citigroup Energy’s Global Commodities Group, and
Gelston from NextEra Energy. “With more than 1,500MW of stand-alone energy storage projects under development, we remain busier than ever. It is critical that we have the internal resources in place to push forward as we continue to bring our projects online,” said chief operating officer Dan Fitzgerald. Key Capture Energy was founded in 2016 to develop storage projects to back up the grid in New York State. It also has projects in Texas. It has offices in Albany, Houston and Salt Lake City.
Alex Jiang joins CTT Technical following company reform in October
Alex Jiang
Alex Jiang joined CTT Technical as its representative in China and south-east Asia in July. CTT Technical is a new company formed from Chloride Technical and Trading in October last year by Mike Dunn, who has become managing director following the retirement of its former CEO, Ian Pinson. Jiang, a Chinese national based in Changsha in the People’s Republic, speaks
fluent English and has worked with Dunn in the past, most notably on a CTT slurry filling system and paste recovery plant. The two have known each other for 12 years. Dunn was previously senior project engineer with Chloride Technical and has worked in a huge variety of lead battery projects around the world after joining Chloride Industrial Batteries in
1973. Dunn said: “I’ve worked with Alex on various projects over the years and he will be a valuable addition to our international support team. He’s a lead battery man through and through. He understands the complexities of battery manufacturing from all points of view — electrochemical, technical and engineering.”
Bühler pays tribute to head of global service and sales Dieter Vögtli Swiss machinery firm Bühler has announced that executive board member and global service and sales head Dieter Vögtli died after a short illness on June 5. “We lose a great entrepreneur, a powerful leader and close friend,” said Bühler Group CEO Stefan Scheiber. “He created a great reputation for Bühler and for himself. We are ever thankful to him for his 16 years of service to the company, and our thoughts are with his wife and family.” Vögtli began his career as a global power plant commissioning engineer at Brown Boveri, also in Switzer-
land, before joining Bühler in 2004 as president of Bühler China. He became head of Bühler Group AsiaPacific in 2009. “His entrepreneurial attitude and deep market understanding, combined with strong empathy for customers and employees, he was fundamental to the success and growth of Bühler over the past 16 years, especially in Asia,” the company said. He returned to Switzerland in 2018. Samuel Schär will step in as head of service and sales as well as continuing as CEO of the group’s advanced materials business.
“We lose a great entrepreneur, a powerful leader and close friend” 4 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020
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NEWS — DEALS
Hitachi completes $6.85 billion 80.1% take-over of ABB power grids division Japanese multinational conglomerate Hitachi and ABB, the Switzerland-based technology company, on July 1 completed a $6.85 billion transaction that gives Hitachi 80.1% of ABB’s Power Grids business, with an option to take over 100% after 2023. The deal resulted in the formation of a new company, Hitachi ABB Power Grids, which will include ABB’s Grid Edge Solutions business. Bloomberg, the news agency, said the transaction, which has been on the table since an agreement was signed in December 2018, would be Hitachi’s biggest ever corporate deal as it moves away from its nuclear plant business to develop electricity networks. Claudio Facchin, the head of Power Grids business with ABB, has been appointed CEO of the new firm. Hitachi executive vice president Toshikazu Nishino is chairman. “Today’s announcement marks an important turning point in the history of ABB,”
said Peter Voser, chairman of the board of ABB. “Since announcing our intention to divest Power Grids to Hitachi, ABB has made significant progress in becoming a more customerfocused and simplified organization. We believe Hitachi is the best owner for Power Grids and its next stage of development, building on the solid foundation achieved under ABB’s previous ownership. “ABB remains committed to using net cash proceeds from the transaction for a share buyback programme.” A key part of growth in the new Hitachi ABB Power Grids organization is storage, says Maxine Ghavi, senior vice president and head of the Grid Edge Solutions business with ABB. “Our choice of battery type/technology is matched to the right application. From our perspective, it’s about what brings the highest value at the system/solution level,” she said. “The joint venture opens new ways to develop the core competencies of the two
EnergyHub and Vinint Solar join forces linking utilities with residential storage EnergyHub, a distributed energy resource provider for utilities, is working with Vivint Solar to manage behind-the-meter batteries to tie up with grid services in the US, the firms said on June 17. The batteries, to provide demand response and load shifting for the grid, will be managed through EnergyHub’s Mercury DERMS platform. Vivint Solar, which has more than 196,000 solar installations in the US, provides residential solar-plusstorage systems that use
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lithium-ion batteries from Korean manufacturer LG Chem. EnergyHub works with more than 40 utilities across the US. “Residential battery programs are a win-win for utilities and their customers,” said Jordan Winder, vice president of new products for Vivint Solar. “Our partnership with EnergyHub helps utilities build portfolios of clean, reliable resources while rewarding our customers for contributing to the health of their local grid.”
organizations, which are highly complementary. Our focus includes customers across utilities, commercial and industrial and communities, whether grid connected or off-grid (islands and remote communities).” Globally, ABB’s Grid Edge Solutions already has 500MW installed, and the JV will inevitably expand this geographical reach. “It also opens greater access to Japan, which is home to Hitachi and the third largest economy in the world,”
she said. “For the battery energy storage business we are excited about our expanded capabilities, especially around digital and service offerings. “Both the market and the entire energy transformation are accelerating faster than we have ever seen before. Through the new JV, and ultimately the combined portfolio in digital and energy platforms, we are able to increase resilience and efficiency and unlock new business models.”
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Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 5
NEWS — DEALS
Simpliphi ties up with Heila in VPP demo Lithium battery supplier Simpliphi Power announced on June 3 a partnership with start-up Heila Technologies, a developer of self-managing microgrids, in a trial virtual power plant project. The firms will deploy solar plus storage systems in a demonstration project in Louisiana, US, along with the Southwestern Electric Power Company. The plan is to manage an intelligent network that will control the batteries and energy management system to interact with the grid or island itself during power outages. “Under a single platform, SWEPCO will be able to leverage the storage + solar systems to correct power factor, perform peak shaving and manage overall energy supply, all while improving customer resiliency,” says Simpliphi CEO Catherine Von Burg.
The Heila platform automatically responds to changes in any of the connected components of the system or electric grid in a distributed intelligent network that is controlled centrally. Simpliphi will provide the 3.8kWh batteries and inverters for the pilot, while Heila’s EDGE controller acts as a battery and energy management system. The PHI batteries measure and report voltage, current and temperatures and give real-time state-of-charge and health so that faults can be detected instantly. They can be operated by Heila either in grid-connected or off-grid mode, and fully control the flow of power to and from the grid, load curtailment and so on. Utility or grid operators can set performance objectives at aggregate level and
Clarke Energy in MoU with NEC Energy Solutions Clarke Energy, a UK power plant engineering firm, has signed an MoU with international battery developer and manufacturer NEC Energy Solutions to install its first batteries for grid storage, the firm said on June 11. The batteries will be installed to support the grid on systems by Clarke Energy, a Kohler company, in the UK and Ireland. “We are looking at quite a few hybrid systems with the benefits of both systems together — the rapid response of batteries and the long duration of gas,” said Alex Marshall, Clarke Energy group marketing and compliance director. “There is a whole range of different options and batteries are a key part of that, with behind-the-meter applications too, as industrial customers look to replace diesel.
“We have an ongoing relationship with NEC and have worked with them on microgrids in the past.” “Energy storage products are highly complementary to Clarke Energy’s existing product offering, which includes gas engines and biogas upgrading technology,” says Clarke Energy managing director Ben Wilson. “Energy storage systems can be combined with power generation technology such as gas engines as a hybrid, or as part of a microgrid.” While Clarke Energy has not supplied batteries before, it has worked with ultracapacitors in Nigeria, in a behind-the-meter system providing voltage and frequency support for the grid. The OK Plast, Lagos plant was the company’s first hybrid facility, using gas engines and ultracapacitor storage.
6 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020
“This project will serve as a model for other stakeholders who are interested in the benefits of decentralized energy generation and storage working as a virtual power plant.” record data to streamline operations. “This project will serve as a model for other stakeholders who are interested in the benefits of decentralized energy generation and storage working as a virtual power
plant,” the companies said. “Building resiliency for utility customers using renewable power generation plus storage will be key as the southeast US continues to see an increase in extreme weather events.”
Gresham House Battery Storage Fund adds 41MW to portfolio UK asset management firm Gresham House said on July 3 its Battery Storage Fund had completed the purchase of a 41MW storage facility, bringing its total operational utility-scale battery projects up to a capacity of 215MW. The operational facility, in the Midlands town of Bloxwich, has been developed by battery software firm Arenko, which has been operating and optimizing the system since it was commissioned in July 2019. “We see batteries and other flexible assets playing a meaningful role in the energy transition and believe intelligent AI software platforms will be a crucial enabler to unlock value from batteries globally,” said Arenko Group
chief executive and founder Rupert Newland. “Bloxwich is a further step forward in our ambitions to build Great Britain’s essential renewable power storage infrastructure,” said Gresham House Energy Storage Fund chair John Leggate. “With the operational portfolio now over 200MW for the first time, we continue to make progress executing our 2020 plan.” On July 7, Gresham House Energy Storage Fund launched a private offer of secured GRID Power Bonds to raise £15 million ($19 million) to buy more battery storage projects. The money will be used to advance loans to ESS projects or refinance existing loans.
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NEWS — PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS
New York grid operator sets out ‘most aggressive’ clean energy mandates in America New York State’s grid operator, NYISO, has set the most aggressive clean energy mandates in America, according to its CEO Richard Dewey in his introduction to the Power Trends 2020: The Vision for a Greener Grid report, released in early June. “The importance of a reliable grid electric system has never been more apparent,” he says. “Looking forward, chief among our priorities are the steps necessary to prepare for the grid of the future… There is no precedent for the level of change needed to meet these objectives. “2020 has proven to be a year unlike any other in recent memory. Through these challenges, the NYISO remains committed to engaging stakeholders, market participants, policymakers and the public to support an electric system that is reliable, efficient, affordable and clean. “The NYISO firmly believes that it must continue to enhance the benefits of its wholesale markets and system planning while maintaining grid reliability for New York’s electric energy consumers.” What the report refers to as Energy Storage Resources, including batteries, flywheels, capacitors, vehicle-to-grid, thermal, pumped hydro and compressed air storage, are listed in the NYISO’s ‘Market Enhancement Opportunities’, along with carbon pricing, enhancing energy and ancillary services, and distributed energy resources. “In 2018, the NYISO developed market rules for integration of energy storage resources in wholesale markets,” says the report. “FERC [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] accepted these rules, which are expected to be implemented this year. Following the success of its energy storage resource design, the NYISO is exploring Hybrid Storage Resource market participation options (for co-locating energy storage resources next to power generation sources). “The ESR participation model will allow storage resources to self-manage their energy levels or use the NYISO’s energy level monitoring capabilities. “The option of relying on the NYISO’s capabilities to monitor and man-
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NYISO CEO Richard Dewey: “The importance of a reliable grid electric system has never been more apparent”
age energy storage levels is intended to optimize storage resource availability for periods when they can best support bulk power system reliability.” The NYISO says it is working with stakeholders to create innovative rules for integrating energy storage technology and DERs onto the grid, including limited ESRs that can provide capacity to the grid for two hours. The only kind of batteries specified in the report, however, are lithium ones — no other chemistries are mentioned. But only specifying lithium is shortsighted, says the Consortium for Battery Innovation. “There are numerous examples of highly effective energy storage projects worldwide, using advanced lead batteries, and we list many on our website. We are launching a battery matching tool online later in the year that will help system specifiers do just that — match the best lead batteries to their energy stor-
age requirements,” said CBI director Alistair Davidson. Under the state’s 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, 70% of electricity generated must be from renewable sources by 2030. It also requires 6GW of solar energy by 2025, 9GW of wind energy by 2035, and 3GWh of storage, according to Jason Doling, assistant director of the DER team with the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency. Doling said NYSERDA was technology agnostic, and other battery technologies are being considered. “The R&D side of NYSERDA has an interest in funding non-lithium technologies because lithium is good for four to six hours’ duration but if it’s more than eight hours it becomes cost prohibitive. That’s where other battery technologies become more attractive,” he said. The NYISO says it has implemented a quarterly ‘Short-Term Reliability Planning’ process to assess more accurately system reliability over the next five years, “to identify potential adverse reliability impacts associated with new resources entering operation. “If studies identify any reliability issues, this interconnection study process identifies upgrades and their estimated costs to allow the resource to interconnect reliably,” it says. “Combined with additional reforms, this new interconnection process will provide developers with more frequent opportunities and flexibility to obtain certainty over their interconnection costs and obligations and subsequently accelerate the interconnection of renewable and other new resources on to the grid.”
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 7
NEWS — PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS
‘Turning point arrived’ as largest battery in the US connected to CAISO California Independent System Operator on July 13 said it had connected a 62.5MW battery to its San Diego County power grid, which supplies about 80% of the state, in the first phase of the Gateway project, which will ultimately add 250MWh to the grid when it is fully operational. CAISO says the installation signals an era of rapid battery growth for the operator over the next several years. “We are at a turning point for storage on our system,” said CAISO president and CEO Steve Berberich. “For many years, we have understood the promise of storage to take oversupply off
the grid in the middle of the day and deliver it at the end of the day when the need is great. “With some of these large-capacity projects coming online, 2020 will be the transition year for battery storage to play a critical role in integrating renewables in the future.” The Gateway lithium-ion battery is planned to be fully operational by August, when it will be the largest operating battery energy storage system in the world, CAISO says. It won’t be the largest battery in the state for long — a raft of battery installations have been approved, including the
300MW/1,200MWh Mojave desert battery that was approved in September by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the 182.5MW/730MWh Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility in Moss Landing, which is to be built by Tesla in partnership with utility PC&E.
“The power grid has just over 216MW in commercial operation,” says CAISO. “If all the planned projects in the interconnection queue are completed on schedule, capacity will jump to 923MW by the end of 2020, a six-fold rise from 136MW at the beginning of the year.”
End of line for coal generation in Hawaii when KES project comes on line Plus Power, a developer of utility-scale battery storage projects, announced on May 26 that its 185MW/565MWh Kapolei Energy Storage project had been selected by the Hawaiian Electric Companies as
part of the utility’s transition to renewables. The June 2022 completion of the KES project will ensure that the AES coal plant — the last remaining coal-fired generation in Hawaii — will end operations
in September 2022. Plus Power says this project is also the largest renewable energy procurement by the US state. It supports the state’s goal of shifting from fossil fuels to completely renewable
Neoen to build 30MW/30MWh grid storage in Finland French renewable energy firm Neoen said on June 9 that it is to build a 30MW/30MWh gridconnected battery storage unit in Finland. The lithium-ion battery will provide rapid storage and frequency response services to the grid at the Yllikkälä Power Reserve One, near to Lappeenranta in the south-east of Finland. Neoen says this is the first roll-out of stationary lithium-ion batteries in the country. Neoen is the operator of
the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia which it co-developed with Tesla and is the world’s largest lithium plant. “Energy storage is the answer to the volatile nature of renewable energy sources,” Neoen says. “Prices have been divided by three in the last four years and storage can now be deployed on an industrial scale.” According to trade organization Business Finland, Finland has its own battery manufacturing capability, with its own
8 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020
sources of cobalt, nickel and lithium, production of which it says Finnish companies Terraframe, Keliber and Nornickel are expanding. “The EU Battery Alliance is calling for 10-20 gigafactories for batteries to be established in Europe in response to the fast-growing demand for batteries in the electric vehicle market and other sectors,” Business Finland says. “Finland offers a prime location for battery component and cell manufacturing.”
energy generation. The announcement follows the second phase of a competitive RFP process in which Hawaiian Electric selected 16 renewable energy and battery storage projects across three islands. Plus Power’s KES project is in Kapolei, on the island of Oahu, and is the largest battery storage project selected. The project will provide load shifting and fast-frequency response services to Hawaiian Electric, enhancing grid reliability and accelerating the integration of readily available renewable energy. Plus Power started work on KES in early 2019 in cooperation with the project’s landowner, Kapolei Properties, an affiliate of the James Campbell Company. Construction of the Kapolei Energy Storage facility should start in summer 2021, subject to approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.
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NEWS — PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS
GS Yuasa to provide hybrid battery system for UK international port Japanese lead-acid and lithium battery maker GS Yuasa has been selected to provide a 100kW pilot hybrid battery system at the port of Portsmouth in the UK, Portsmouth International Port said on June 19. While the battery management system is GS Yuasa’s, the integration of artificial intelligence with the system is being developed by Anthony Price, who heads up energy storage consultancy Swanbarton. “One advantage of the combination of the two batteries is minimizing expense,” he said. “Despite the price falls we have seen in recent years for lithium batteries, they are still more expensive than lead. The combination of the two and AI protocols we are introducing will reduce the cost of energy management.” Named the Port Energy Systems Optimisation project, the batteries will be connected to a rooftop solar array that will be installed in an area of the port where
24-hour loading activities need continuous power. The aim is to maximize selfconsumption by collecting energy during the night for use during the day, along with solar panel generation, which if unused during the day can also be stored. “The port already uses electric lift trucks and is keen to increase the use of EVs within the port area,” said a spokesperson for Portsmouth International Port. “This will help to combat ICE emission pollution that is already high from ships and through traffic. “The lead-acid battery provides the bulk of the energy storage capacity for cost-effective harvesting of renewable energy, and the lithium-ion battery provides high power discharge capability for EV fast charging. “The lithium-ion also supports the operating condition of the lead-acid battery to extend life and energy conversion efficiency.” The lead batteries are manufactured at GS Yuasa’s
factory in Ebbw Vale, Wales, where final assembly and the integration of the entire system will take place. The lithium batteries are made in Japan. One of the biggest problems for rapid EV charging is the limited power available to commercial premises. “This will often be in the 30kW-50kW range for a medium sized shop or car showroom. The battery capacity of standard EVs ranges from 50kWh to 90kWh, so fast charging can overwhelm sites causing the grids to crash,” said the spokesperson.
“The new GS Yuasa dual chemical energy storage system will be able to supply 100kW of power and will be housed in a weatherproof shelter.” Mike Sellers, port director at Portsmouth International Port, said: “Yuasa’s battery will provide the centrepiece of the project, which will help us use renewable energy more efficiently across the port estate.” The two-year PESO project is being partly funded by Innovate UK, itself part of the United Kingdom Research and Innovation organization.
Another US utility lays out plans to expand battery storage capacity
the storage systems to be deployed had not been finalized, but the portfolio did call for 1,400MW of storage between 2024 and 2035. “Of course, it’s likely those storage resources will incorporate battery storage systems, however we’ve not issued any RFPs or signed any contracts for those additional resources yet,” he said. In January 2020, a Wood Mackenzie report analyzed 43 utility Integrated Resource Plans in the US. “The analysis reveals exponential growth in expected utility demand for battery energy storage system procurements as utilities adopt more aggressive clean energy portfolio strategies,” the report said.
Tucson Electric Power, the Arizona, US utility, said on June 26 it aimed to provide more than 70% of its power from wind and solar sources, to be supported with 1.4GW of energy storage including battery systems. The utility is one of a growing line of power companies in the US that appear to be taking battery storage on board as part of their energy portfolios. National capacity is set to grow from around 500MW in 2015 to a projected 2,500MW by 2023, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
TEP filed an Integrated Resource Plan with the Arizona Corporation Commission on June 26, which outlined a 15-year plan for an energy portfolio, proposing to close the remaining coal-fired plants within 12 years. The first step is a new 100MW/30MWh solarplus-storage facility south of Tucson within a year. “The Preferred Portfolio assumes the implementation of 1.4GW of new BESS by 2035 (in addition to the 50MW that is in-service or under contract today), representing 84% of the grid-balancing resources in TEP’s portfolio,” says the
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Integrated Resource Plan. “In general, the BESS additions are timed to coincide with renewable energy additions to take advantage of potential efficiencies in procurement as well as potential tax incentives, or with reductions in capacity due to the retirement of existing thermal resources. “The BESS installations are staged to take advantage of anticipated steep declines in the cost of these systems with 67% of the BESS capacity going into commercial operation in 2030 or later.” A spokesperson for TEP said the finer details of all
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NEWS — PROJECTS & INSTALLATIONS Broad Reach to add to utility-scale portfolio in Texas Fifteen utility-scale solarplus-storage installations, capable of providing a combined total of 150Wh, will be built in Texas by independent power producer Broad Reach Power, the firm said on June 9. The company, which already has 3GWh of utility-scale solar and energy projects in Montana, Wyoming, California, Utah and Texas, says six of the sites will be operating as early as this summer, with the rest in construction by autumn. Each will contain battery systems capable of storing up to 10MWh of power. As well as storing power from solar generation, they will make use of excess grid power to maintain storage capacity, and discharge to the grid when energy is in demand. “Despite the turmoil of 2020, US demand for lower cost and emissionfree generation sources is increasing, and this is fuelling the need for more battery storage assets,” said managing partner and CEO Steve Vavrik. “While many parts of the country grapple with economic challenges created by Covid-19, Texas is uniquely poised for continued industrial growth in the near future.” Battery storage systems are being promoted across the US as an option for blackouts often caused by wildfires in some states, which bring down power lines and cause havoc every season. Texas was the second worst hit state after California in terms of the number of wildfires in 2019, with 6,892 recorded, and by number of acres burned ranked fifth, with 215,493 (87,000 hectares) lost to flames.
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Tesla breaks ground on ‘largest battery of its kind in the world’ in California
Tesla and the Pacific Gas & Electric Company broke ground on July 29 on a 182.5MW/730MWh lithium-ion battery installation at Moss Landing, California that they say will be the largest utilityowned storage system of its kind in the world. The agreement allows Tesla to increase the size even further, to a total of 1GWh in total, which would mean delivering six hours of power at 182.5MW. California already has the largest battery
in the US connected to its grid, on July 13 saying it had connected a 62.5MW/250MWh battery to its San Diego County power grid. Tesla won approval from the Monterey Planning Commission in February to install the Elkhorn Battery Storage Facility, which will store wind and solar power and replace the existing power plant. More than 250 Tesla Megapack units will be installed on 33 concrete slabs, and will be able to
dispatch the energy to the grid at periods of high demand. “The scale, purpose and flexibility of the Moss Landing Megapack system make it a landmark in the development and deployment of utility-scale batteries,” said Fong Wan, senior vice president for energy policy and procurement at PG&E. Four large-scale energy storage projects were approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in November 2018. The Elkhorn facility is the second largest, and will be designed, built and maintained by Tesla working with PG&E. It is scheduled for completion early 2021 and should be fully operational by the second quarter of the year, saving, says its proponents, an estimated $100 million in its lifetime.
Highview Power wins £10 million UK grant for first commercial liquid air facility Highview Power, the UK liquid air energy storage company, said on June 18 it had been given a £10 million ($12.5 million) UK government grant for its first commercial CRYOBattery, to be installed in northern England with Carlton Power. The 50MW/250MWh cryogenic facility, using a decommissioned thermal power station, will deliver long-duration storage to the National Grid just outside Manchester, the UK’s third largest city. “It will provide grid services to help integrate renewable energy, stabilize the regional electrical grid, and ensure future energy security during blackouts
and other disruptions,” said the company. “Highview Power and Carlton Power plan to codevelop up to four additional CRYOBattery projects in the UK, totalling more than 1GWh.” Highview Power was the only energy storage technology company to be awarded a grant from the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s Storage at Scale competition. The Trafford Park project begins later this year, and begin operating commercially in 2022. It will use existing substation and transmission infrastructure, with income coming from several
markets, for instance arbitrage, grid balancing and ancillary services such as frequency response. Highview Power claims its systems can provide weeks of storage as opposed to hours. Its systems are scalable and can deliver up to 2GWh of energy, with a lifespan of 30 years. “At giga-scale, CRYOBatteries paired with renewables are equivalent in performance to — and could replace — thermal and nuclear baseload power in addition to supporting electricity transmission and distribution systems while providing additional security of supply,” the firm says.
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NEWS — TECHNOLOGY
Largest V2G project in world starts in Italy Work has begun in Turin, Italy on the largest vehicle-to-grid project in the world, partners Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and Engie EPS said on May 20. The automaker selected energy group Engie EPS to build the infrastructure for the project, which is being installed with compliance to safety regulations necessitated by the coronavirus outbreak. Phase 1 of the project, the construction site for which is now open at the Drosso logistics center, will accommodate 64 two-way fast charging points, controlled centrally in a system designed and built by Engie. The 32 V2G columns, with two charging points on each, will be installed by the end of July, with the
infrastructure extended to interconnect up to 700 electric vehicles by the end of 2021, the companies said. “In its final configuration, the project will be capable of supplying up to 25MW of regulatory capacity, making it the largest V2G facility ever built in the world,” said FCA. Robert di Stefano, head of EMEA e-mobility at FCA, called the project a “laboratory to experiment on and develop an offering to add value in the energy markets”. “On average, cars remain unused for 80%-90% of the day,” he said. “During this long period, if connected to the grid by V2G technology, customers can therefore receive money or free energy in exchange for the balancing service of-
fered, without compromising their mobility needs in any way.” Vehicle-to-grid technology is slowly gaining ground across Europe. In a webinar hosted by the International Renewable Energy Agency in January, Francisco Boshell, IRENA’s team leader for renewable energy technology standards and markets, said total storage capacity in EVs would total 14TWh by 2050.
Redflow and CarbonTrack join forces to develop VPPs in South Africa Redflow, the zinc-bromine flow battery firm, said on July 22 it had signed an agreement with CarbonTrack, the smart energy system company, to join both firms’ technologies to enable the batteries to operate as virtual power plants. The first systems are going to be developed in South Africa. The firms, which are both
Australian, say each side’s technology will complement the other, optimizing Redflow’s batteries using CarbonTrack’s control algorithms to tailor each customer’s power needs to suit them. The initial target deployments include commercial and large-scale residential deployments, as well as offgrid energy systems.
EIB lends Umicore €125 million to go towards cathode plant in Poland Materials technology and recycling group Umicore said a €125 million ($142 million) loan from the European Investment Bank in June will partly pay for its investment in a cathode materials plant in Nysa, Poland. The loan will cover around half of the costs of the initial phase of the project, which will supply
advanced cathode materials for advanced lithium battery cell manufacturers. “Through its integrated European battery materials supply chain, Umicore will significantly contribute to the European Union’s plans to create a competitive and sustainable battery ecosystem in Europe,” said CFO Filip Platteeuw.
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Redflow says its zincbromine batteries, with the brand names ZBM2 and ZCell, are the smallest of their kind in the world, and offer heat tolerance, no capacity degradation with heavy cycling use and long operating life. “Redflow’s plug-andplay energy storage system, based on its zinc-bromine flow batteries, can shift and manage large volumes of energy,” said CarbonTrack managing director Spiros Livadaras. “We see great opportunities to work with CarbonTrack in South Africa and the potential to then target other markets such as offgrid deployments in Australia,” said Redflow CEO Tim Harris. Redflow claims its batteries offer secure remote management, 100% daily depth of discharge. high temperature tolerance and sustained energy delivery.
Vattenfall and Northvolt test new mobile storage system Swedish power firm Vattenfall and battery cell and systems maker Northvolt are to trial a new mobile storage system by Northvolt before launching it on the market, Vattenfall said on May 18. The Voltpack Mobile System is a modular lithium-ion battery system that is being touted by the firms as an alternative to diesel generators. It can be configured to meet various large-scale storage requirements, such as powering remote grids, grid balancing and EV charging. It can operate in one place for weeks at a time before being redeployed. “We see an increased need from the market for flexible solutions, in terms of use case and location,” said Emad Zand, president energy solutions with Northvolt. “The Voltpack Mobile System is designed to give our customers a fleet of assets that can be redeployed, repurposed and connected seamlessly.” One of the systems can deliver up to 250kW and can be scaled up to a capacity of 1225kWh. Greater capacity can be added by connecting more systems in parallel. The system will be tested at Vattenfall’s test centre in Älvkarleby, Sweden.
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NEWS
First IEA Clean Energy summit lists batteries as critical emerging technology Forty government ministers and representatives from the world’s banks, climate groups, energy companies and other agencies met online at the first IEA Clean Energy Transitions Summit on July 9, to thrash out how critical emerging technologies, such as batteries, could be scaled up. Ministers from the world’s largest energy consuming countries, such as China, the US, UK, India, Canada and Indonesia, joined the virtual meeting, in which speakers from agencies like the UN, World Economic Forum, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Climate Action Network and EU talked about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. They discussed the importance of greater innovation and scaling up critical emerging technolo-
gies such as batteries, hydrogen, CCUS (carbon capture, utilization and storage) and bioenergy. “The IEA Summit comes at a pivotal moment when the world faces urgent and shared challenges to build back economies, create jobs and accelerate clean energy transitions,” said summit chairman Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA. In May he warned that the coronavirus would cause
global investment in energy to drop to a level far below that needed to accelerate the energy transition. At the time, Birol said the response from policy makers would be critical in terms of the extent to which sustainable energy was integrated into their recovery strategies, and the summit sought to underline that message. “Participants highlighted the impacts of Covid-19 on their energy systems, un-
‘Unparalleled decline’ in investment to hurt energy transition, warns IEA Over the next decade, global investment in energy will drop to the lowest level in history because of Covid-19, the International Energy Agency warned on May 27, remaining far below the level needed to accelerate energy transition. “The unparalleled decline is staggering in both its scale and swiftness, with serious potential implications for energy security and clean energy transitions,” says the IEA. “At the start of 2020, global energy investment was on track for growth of around 2%, which would have been the largest annual rise in spending in six years. “But after Covid-19 brought large swathes of the world economy to a standstill in a matter of
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months, global investment is now expected to plummet by 20%, almost $400 billion, compared with last year.” Energy storage is included in the analysis, laid out in its World Energy Investment 2020 report, which used data up to mid-May. While spending on storage, renewables, energy efficiency and carbon capture is still predicted to jump towards 40%, it will only do so ‘because fossil fuels are taking such a heavy hit’. “In absolute terms, it remains far below the levels that would be required to accelerate energy transitions,” IEA executive director Fatih Birol said. “An expected 9% decline in investment in electricity networks this year compounds a large fall in 2019,
and spending on important sources of power system flexibility has also stalled, with investment in natural gas plants stagnating and spending on battery storage levelling off.” The IEA report also sees a growth in coal. “The Covid-19 crisis is hurting the coal industry — with investment in coal supply set to fall by one quarter this year — but does not pose an existential threat,” it says. “Although decisions to go ahead with new coal-fired plants have come down by more than 80% since 2015, the global coal fleet continues to grow. Based on available data and announced projects, approvals of new coal plants in the first quarter of 2020, mainly in China, were running at twice
derscoring the importance of finding ways to support clean energy transitions despite the current challenges,” he said. “This summit proves that international dialogue and collaboration can bring great value. It was an opportunity to inform, support and inspire each other. Now, it is time for all of us to get to work — building back our economies, bringing our citizens back to work, ensuring that 2019 was the definitive peak in emissions and building towards the resilient and sustainable energy systems of the future. “What I see clearly is momentum — momentum behind sustainable recovery and momentum behind clean energy transitions.” The second IEA Clean Energy Transitions Summit will be held mid-2021. the rate observed over 2019 as a whole.” That said, the shift away from coal has been marked in some developed economies. In the UK, for example, the country has gone two full months without using electricity from coalfired power stations for the first time since the industrial revolution. This has been due to the mixture of lower electricity demand and a greater contribution of renewables to the energy mix. The response, says Birol, of policy makers will be critical to the energy industry, and the extent to which sustainable energy is integrated into their recovery strategies. “Governments can quickly create jobs and spur economic activity by building cleaner and more resilient energy systems that will benefit their countries for decades to come,” said Birol.
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NEWS
UK government removes 50MW barrier to larger battery installations Planning changes will eliminate the need to get government approval for battery installations above 50MW, the UK secretary of state for business, energy and industry strategy announced on July 14. Until the change was made, such projects fell under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime in England and Wales, although in Wales that already applied only to storage above 350MW. It meant that applications could take up to two years to be approved. Now, all energy storage technology applications except for pumped hydro will proceed under the
Town and Country Planning Act — which means permission should be granted within weeks rather than one to two years. In Wales any size (except pumped hydro) can be passed by the relevant local planning authority. To date, the vast majority of battery storage projects deployed in England and Wales have been no bigger than 49MW to avoid this lengthy and costly procedure. “The previous cap was largely arbitrary and skewed the market,” said Frank Gordon, head of policy at the Renewable Energy Association. “As energy storage built
alongside new renewables projects is crucial to unlocking subsidy-free deployment, the old system acted as a major barrier to achieving our net zero target and building low-cost generation sites. “The UK is home to pioneering compressed air, flow battery, gravity battery and cryogenic systems in addition to lithium-ion batteries.” The BEIS says the planning change could result in a trebling of the number of batteries serving the electricity grid, which currently stands at 1GW, the government department says. “There is 4GW of storage projects in planning, which
Energy storage award winners presented at online Smarter E ceremony Three awards were given in the Electrical Energy Storage category of the annual Smarter E awards in a ceremony that this year had to be held online, on June 30. The three winners in this seventh year of the awards were Fenecon, Webasto and ZnR Batteries. German firm Fenecon won for its Fenecon Industrial Storage System, a plug-and-play container that uses software to enable the use of industrial and grid applications. It is optimized for mobile BEV batteries, which can be new or second life. “The jury was impressed with this well thought-out system approach that creates a platform for intelligently integrating zero life or second life automotive batteries, taking advantage of the automotive industry’s sale and addressing end-of-life EV battery challenges,” said Smarter E. Also from Germany, We-
basto won the award for its CV standard battery system, an off-the-shelf plug-and-play traction battery for commercial vehicles. “The jury awarded this product for its scalability, its possibly wide application in diverse vehicles and its ability to retrofit existing vehicles with minimal costs, while providing battery systems to vehicle manufacturers,” the organizers said. The final EES award went to ZnR Batteries, the zincair battery subsidiary of French energy group EDF,
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for its rechargeable Zinium battery, which contains zinc-air cells made of components that are submerged in an aqueous electrolyte called Zinolyte. This makes the battery rechargeable, using ambient air to function while the battery absorbs and releases oxygen as it charges and discharges. Containing manganese and calcium, the battery does not use rare earths or precious metals and will target residential, commercial and industrial energy storage markets with lower entry barriers.
could power a combined six million homes, in addition to the 1GW of battery storage already in operation,” it says. Ben Irons, co-founder of Habitat Energy, the UK grid-scale storage trading platform designer, said very few projects were going through the NSIP process. “So this won’t increase the number of projects, but it does mean that a lot of the 50MW developments already in the pipeline may look to increase their size up to 100MW or more, depending on investor appetite,” he said. “It’s certainly very positive news for the industry and us all.” The other seven finalists were: • Ads-tec Energy, Germany — Mobile High Power Charger, a temporary moveable high-speed EV charging station • BayWa r.e., Germany — Hybrid storage system with AC/DC e-mobility charging infrastructure • BYD, China — Battery Box Premium storage device • Instagrid, Germany — Instagrid PBS portable storage solution for devices that need a grid connection • LG Chem, South Korea — New RESU Modular domestic storage system • Pylon Technologies, China — Powercube H1 high-voltage storage system • Volytica Diagnostics, Germany — A battery diagnostics system. Smarter E is Europe’s largest energy conference and exhibition provider, uniting Intersolar, EES, Power2Drive and EMPower under one umbrella of events.
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NEWS
Appeals court upholds FERC order to tear down energy storage barriers
Energy storage industry stakeholders on July 10 welcomed the US Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold Order 841 that will result in the removal of barriers to energy storage firms participating in wholesale electricity markets. FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, issued Order 841 in February 2018 before its challenges.
It aimed to remove barriers that effectively blocked energy storage resources from participating fully in wholesale markets. While it is a step in the right direction, and likely to open up opportunities for energy providers, Gwendolyn Brown, communications director with the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, sounded a cautiously welcoming note. “It is good news, but our take on it is that although states now can’t explicitly bar the participation of distributed energy storage in wholesale markets, without greater clarity in interconnection requirements for these kinds of projects at the state level, they could
still be effectively barred from participation. This is due to the imposition of unnecessary requirements (eg utilities requiring expensive infrastructure upgrades that aren’t needed and make a project financially unfeasible),” she said. Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the US Energy Storage Association, said upholding Order 841 was an important decision. “This is an enormous step for energy storage, with the affirmation that energy storage connected at the distribution level must have the option to access wholesale markets, allowing homes and businesses to contribute to the resiliency, efficiency, sustain-
ability and affordability of the grid,” she said. “This latest affirmation of Order 841 is especially important as it ensures energy storage can contribute all its values to the grid, regardless of its connection point. As our electric system becomes more modernized and distributed, we are seeing the regulatory frameworks at both the wholesale and retail levels adjust to that reality.”
“This is an enormous step for energy storage” Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO, US Energy Storage Association
Four US renewable energy associations set goal for >50% clean power and storage by 2030 Four leading US renewable energy and storage associations declared on June 2 a joint goal to provide more than half of the US’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Battery storage was predicted to see the biggest growth, from just 1GW in 2019 to 85GW by 2030. The target was set during a ‘Cleanpower’ annual conference for businesses across the renewable and clean energy spectrum which, while held online on its first occasion this year, is planned to become an annual physical event. The goal was elaborated on during a Zoom panel meeting of Energy Storage Association (ESA) CEO Kelly Speakes-Backman, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper, National Hydro Association (NHA) presi-
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dent and CEO Malcolm Woolf, and American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) CEO Tom Kiernan, who moderated. The associations pledged to work together with four principles in mind: build a more efficient, reliable, sustainable and affordable grid; achieve carbon reductions; advance greater competition through fair market rules; and actively collaborate across industry segments. One way the organizations could collaborate was in their approach to policymakers, said Woolf, from the NHA. “If someone comes in and tells [the policymakers] ‘A’, then someone else comes in and says do ‘A’ with these adjustments — the policymakers are paralyzed and so often they do nothing because they don’t want to do the
wrong thing,” Woolf said. “While we are all pulling in the same direction there are differences in our specific technologies and it’s so much more effective if we can have those fights behind closed doors and figure out a solution that works for all of us before we go to the policymakers.” Battery and mechanical storage was expected to grow from just 1GW in 2019 to 85GW by 2030, with hydro storage growing from today’s 23GW to 40GW by then. “We represent energy storage of all durations — hydro, thermal, mechanical and batteries — and by 2030 there is going to be more than 100GW to provide grid operators with flexibility to be able to absorb over-supply of abundant wind power for homes and businesses for
when the sun doesn’t shine, and also provide ancillary services and capacity,” said Speakes-Backman. “But also for more traditional resources on the grid, to be able to step up if a nuclear plant comes off or be able to ramp up and down with changing consumer demands, especially with EVs and the different sources of power demand that are on the grid. “By 2030 we expect there to be more than 200,000 jobs associated with storage.” Speakes-Backman said the plummeting cost of lithium storage — down 80% in the past seven or eight years — was the driving force in energy storage growth. The next Cleanpower conference will be held in Indianapolis, June 7-10, 2021.
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NEWS
As renewables grow, storage is to become ever more critical — report Batteries will outnumber gas peaker plants across Europe by 2030 thanks to the dominance of wind and solar power generation, a June 3 report from market analysts Wood Mackenzie says. They will also be a vital option in balancing grids and maintaining flexibility. The report names Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain as sourcing the majority of their power from variable renewable energy — wind, solar and other renewables — as early as 2023,
and by 2040 Europe will have added another 169GW of wind and 172GW of solar power to its mix. “As that variable output surges, Europe has four options for balancing out its grid: pumped hydro, gas peakers, energy storage and interconnectors,” says the report, by principal analyst Rory McCarthy. “Only the final three of these are likely to attract new investment.” The growth in variable renewable energy has been made possible by increased
government subsidies, falling technology costs and reduced investment risk, says the report. It cautions there may be other longer-term effects to deal with. “Now the majority of variable renewable energy volumes are being deployed through government renewables auctions with an attractive risk/return profile, but with little or no value placed on flexibility,” it says. “The priority is to push renewables into the system first, and deal with the consequences later.”
Bill Gates-backed start-up seeks new sources of cobalt for battery industry Battery metals exploration start-up KoBold Metals has won the backing of a group of investors including Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Richard Branson to search for cobalt this year in northern Quebec to find alternative sources of the element. Around half of the world’s cobalt is used in lithium-ion batteries, but 60%-65% of it is sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is often mined in illegal conditions and also is known to use child labour. The DRC produces 100,000 tonnes a year, according to the United States Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2020. Russia is ranked second, producing annually just 6,100 tonnes, and Australia third, with 5,100 tonnes. If successful, findings could push Canada up the rankings from its place at number eight, producing just 2,000 tonnes a year. In a podcast published
on KoBold’s website, CEO Kurt House said raw materials could become a problem, which is why the business was set up. “There are several companies that have changed their production planning because of raw material sourcing in terms of EVs and batteries,” he said. “It could become a severe constraint. “Almost two thirds of cobalt supply and cobalt reserves come from the DRC, and that’s where the chief labour abuses come from. We’re looking for cobalt in reliable jurisdictions.
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“With cobalt, because its supply is so constrained and because it’s such a good cathode material, we’re interested in finding high-value primary cobalt deposits. “Primary means that the majority of the value from that mine would be from cobalt as opposed to some other metal. “We want to provide OEMs and manufacturers with a diversity of supply.” The company has acquired the rights to an area of around 1,000 square kilometres just south of Glencore’s Raglan nickel mine.
The report says coal will be the biggest loser, disappearing from Germany’s power mix by 2038, followed by nuclear, whose footprint will halve in Europe by 2040. Large gas-fired capacity will also decline, with a 60% reduction by 2030. As conventional assets all decline, the need for balancing and flexibility increases. The report cites hourly supply in Spain where on low variable renewable energy days gas has to be the main source of power, with its ability to be flexible, and on high variable renewable energy days there is more wind and solar generation than the system requires. “This means you either curtail power from these resources, or use other sources of flexibility to manage the imbalance, such as exporting power through an interconnector to another power market, or charging one large or lots of smaller batteries,” says the report. “It is also important to mention that at times of high variable renewable energy, with little conventional plant running, ie huge volumes of spinning turbines on the system, the system loses inertia and becomes unstable.” Without energy storage, the system would become unmanageable through “curtailment, network constraints, renewables ramping, low inertia, low and negative net load, and system critical issues that increasingly occur due to the variable renewable energy levels on the system by 2030”, the report says. In April, Wood Mackenzie shaved 19% off its pre-pandemic predictions for energy storage deployments, which equated to a 3GWh reduction over the year. However the total still going ahead, 12.6GWh, would still break records, the group said.
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NEWS
LiFePO4 to dominate energy storage market in coming years Lithium-iron-phosphate is poised to become the dominant stationary storage chemistry by 2030, overtaking lithium batteries that use nickel-manganese-cobaltoxide, according to analysis from Wood Mackenzie released on August 17. LFP batteries, which accounted for 10% of the ESS market in 2015, will rise to more than 30% by the end of the decade. “The ESS market has heavily relied on EV batteries in the past but changing performance requirements will lead to an evolution of separate markets,” says Mitalee Gupta, a senior analyst at Wood Mackenzie “Since 2010, the rapid rise in demand for EVs has driven down the cost of lithiumion batteries by more than 85%. Historically, the ESS market has mostly deployed NMC batteries. In late 2018 and early 2019, demand for NMC batteries for energy storage industry grew swiftly, outstripping the available supply. “While there was a shortage of NMC batteries in the storage market, there were plenty of LFP batteries available — with capacity mostly in China. “As lead times for NMC availability grew and prices remained flat, LFP vendors began tapping into NMC constrained markets at competitive prices, thus making LFP an attractive option for both power and energy applications.” The rise in LFP batteries is likely to cause a recycling headache in the future. NMC batteries contain cobalt and manganese — both metals that are of value when recycling. Nickel also has a limited value. LFP batteries, however, have little intrinsic value in their composition. The price
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of lithium, iron and phosphorous is low and the cost of recycling is high. Since all lithium batteries have to be recycled — they cannot be dumped into landfill as they can pollute groundwater — the recycling process creates little of value. This is unlike lead, where the cost of recycling creates a value stream. Demand from EVs and ESS will rocket in the coming years, says Wood Mackenzie. However, evolving performance priorities will create a divergence between the types of batteries used for storage and those used for EV applications. OEMs will begin to innovate and specialize their product offerings. “Aspects like high recycling capabilities and high frequency will take precedence over energy density and reliability for the ESS market,” says Gupta. “Cost and safety will continue to top the mind of battery vendors for multiple applications.” Wood Mackenzie says EVs will continue to take
the lion’s share of global lithium-ion battery demand over the next 10 years. Demand from portable electronics will drop from 26% in 2020 to 6% in 2030, as both EVs and ESS markets begin to take off. While LFP will steal the show for ESS applications, Wood Mackenzie says the use of LFP will remain popular within the Chinese EV market before breaking into the global passenger EV sector. The chemistry is expect-
ed to retain more than 20% of EV battery installations through 2025. “Improvements in gravimetric energy density combined with cell-to-pack technology is the key to LFP now becoming a more attractive proposition in the passenger EV space. Not only will cost and safety be a benefit, but OEMs won’t have to worry about issues surrounding the supply of cobalt and nickel,” the firm says.
Three firms agree to build 200MW of battery storage for Texas grid Energy storage company Key Capture Energy, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems and Powin Energy have agreed to work together to build three utility-scale battery storage systems totalling 200MW in the US state of Texas, they announced on August 19. Selected by Key Capture, MHPS will provide turnkey engineering and equipment, including power conversion systems and high voltage substations, while Powin will
provide the batteries and battery management system. The three systems, snappily labelled KCE TX 11, KCE TX 12 and KCE TX 23, will be of 50MW, 100MW and 50MW respectively. Construction will begin this autumn and they should be online before the summer of 2021, says Key Capture. “Texas is the epicentre of the global energy market, and with a growing Houston office, we look forward to providing
best-in-class energy storage solutions in the Lone Star state for decades to come,” said Jeff Bishop, Key Capture Energy CEO. All three companies operate under the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which was the first independent system operator in the US, and now one of nine. ERCOT’s grid connects more than 26 million customers, which is around 90% of the state’s electric load.
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 17
NEWS
London ‘Bus2Grid’ facility to become world’s biggest V2G trial site London bus garage Northumberland Park, one of the biggest electric bus facilities in Europe, is to become a ‘bus2grid’ facility with 100 buses plugging into the grid, energy company SSE Enterprise, leading the project, said on August 11. Also working on the project is Go Ahead London, the transport operator, battery maker BYD, Leeds University and UK Power Networks, the cables and lines owner.
The initial trial will use the batteries of 28 doubledecker buses which in total would restore 1MW of energy to the grid. “Bus2Grid will explore the commercial value and social benefits to the energy and passenger transport systems by developing services for the national grid, regional distribution network operators and transport authorities,” said SSE. “The development and test of the underpinning
technology is also an important objective of the trial.” “Developing a charging infrastructure that operates in two directions so that batteries can give back as well as take from the grid is an important part of this,” said Niall Riddell, the SSE director focused on smart systems innovation. According to UK Power Networks, there will be more than 3.6 million EVs connected to its power net-
work by as early as 2030, compared with less than 95,000 today. The UK government predicts the number in the UK as a whole could reach 10.6 million by then, surging to 36 million by 2040. The Faraday Institution reckons that 64% of all new cars bought in 2030 will be electric, rising to 95% by 2040.
Capital Dynamics works with Tenaska again on 2,000MW portfolio of BESS projects Capital Dynamics, a private asset management firm, announced on August 19 that its Clean Energy Infrastructure business has signed an agreement with US energy company Tenaska to develop a portfolio of nine battery energy storage system projects across California’s
highest electrical load centres. In total, the projects will provide approximately 2,000MW of stored electricity from renewables — solar and wind — into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) market.
“The agreement expands the existing relationship between the companies, which jointly own two solar facilities in the Imperial Valley of California and are developing additional solar projects,” the firms say. The BESS projects are designed to manage high-
More key partnerships and appointments made by owner of UK’s first gigafactory Britishvolt, the owner of what will be the UK’s first battery gigafactory, on August 13 announced the appointment of Ray Macera as project director, along with contracts for building firm NG Bailey and architects Ridge and Partners. Macera joins the firm from the international metal and automotive components firm Gestamp, where he was also project director and where he was in charge of the Gestamp pressing facility, which supplies Jaguar Land Rover’s plant
in Slovakia. He has a long career in the automotive parts sector, including positions at Jaguar, Magna International and Stadco. With the coronavirus pandemic bringing all sorts of disruptions to distant supply chains, many analysts reckon that more needs to be made closer to home, or at least sourced from more than one option. The gigafactory, a site for which has not yet been confirmed, although Wales and Teesside are looking possible locations, would
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initially supply batteries for the growing EV market with a focus on the UK, with energy storage applications and other markets to be explored later. “It is costly and carbon intensive to have lithium batteries imported from Asia, and this giga-plant would cement a solid onshore supply chain to ensure quality and eliminate future uncertainty of supply,” said Lars Carlstrom, who co-founded Britishvolt in December 2019 with fellow Swede Orral Nadjari.
demand conditions caused by California heat waves, power supply shortages, and growing local power supply deficiencies in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego areas, that cannot be reliably served solely by intermittent renewables. “With its focus on achieving robust clean energy goals, California is poised for continued significant growth in energy storage demand,” said Benoit Allehaut, managing director in Capital Dynamics’ Clean Energy Infrastructure team.” “We hope to quickly contract resource adequacy with utilities and CCAs to grow this portfolio. “This California BESS collaboration between Capital Dynamics and Tenaska builds on development agreements between the two companies to develop 24 solar projects totalling approximately 4,800MW of renewable generation in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) market and Southeast Reliability Council (SERC).”
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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: SYSTEMS SUNLIGHT
Taking the lead in responsible lead battery recycling A recent report by UNICEF and Pure Earth has highlighted the need for urgent action to abolish dangerous practices of informal recycling of lead acid batteries in response to findings that 1 in 3 children – up to 800 million globally – contain worryingly high blood lead levels. The call for urgent action is repeated by leading energy storage firm Systems Sunlight, which has spent the last two years campaigning on the issue in Greece. Recent years saw a sharp increase in the recycling of old lead-acid batteries as countries lacked the lead deposits required to meet the upsurge in demand triggered by the automotive industry. For many countries, this led to the rise in ‘backyard recycling’ - an extremely dangerous and damaging practice of unregulated recycling by individuals or unqualified firms. The result is a toxic spread throughout homes and communities as remnants of batteries were dumped in local soil and water supplies. Sunlight became acutely aware of this problem in its home country of Greece. In 2016, just 51% of the used scrap batteries were recycled or collected, compared to the European average figure of 95%. It is suspected that the remaining 49% of the used batteries were either disposed of or recycled illegally, creating hazardous situations for the environment and for people. To combat the issue, Sunlight took matters into its own hands and built a state-of-the-art recycling facility, Sunlight Recycling. The plant, which is EMAS Certified, has the ability to recycle up to 85% of a lead-acid battery, with a minimum environmental impact, embodying the circular economy model.
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Green Mission initiative
Knowing that this alone was not enough, Sunlight created the Green Mission initiative. The goal was to inform businesses and individuals about the importance of effectively recycling lead-acid batteries and aimed to increase the legal collection and recycling of lead-acid batteries. “As a manufacturer of 3.2 million cells, Sunlight has a responsibility to ensure that its environmental impact is at an absolute minimum. Not only does proper recycling relinquish the
need to take further resources out of the earth, it is essential from a safety perspective. Batteries are toxic so if thrown to waste or not recycled properly they can be extremely damaging to the environment and people. Green Mission and Sunlight Recycling is actively assisting Greece’s effort to reach its environmental targets, increasing job prospects for the local community and aiding the reduction of mined lead,” said Spiros Kopolas, Recycling BU Director at Systems Sunlight. The Green Mission currently has 67 member-companies throughout Greece. Each company is committed to ensuring that every lead-acid battery used in any part of their production line is recycled properly. Green Mission also introduced the “Green Spots”, a network of drop-offs where, for the first time, the public could leave their old lead batteries and be confident they would be recycled properly, under the Systems Sunlight guarantee. There are currently 65 Green Spots in 15 major cities of Greece, with a goal to incorporate even more cities in the year to come. Sunlight has worked tirelessly to promote Green Mission through educational campaigns via reports, radio spots and social media. Since Green Mission began, Systems Sunlight has collected.
EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme. Sunlight Recycling is one of just two lead recycling firms who have been certified at this level.
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Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 19
INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL ENERGY STORAGE
Across industries and sectors, forward-thinking companies and enterprises are testing the business case for energy storage. Sara Ver-Bruggen spoke to some of them.
Industrial & commercial consumers assess the business case for storage The reasons vary but ‘net zero’ is shaping company strategies in terms of how they source and use energy, including fuel, as a route to decarbonization. Many industrial and commercial entities, as well as the public sector, see fleet electrification as a step towards decarbonization. But these initiatives must first constitute good business decisions. Manufacturers, corporates and other entities that rely heavily on electricity to power their operations and activities are motivated to make energy a cost that can be defined, managed and controlled, and promising technology is emerging that can help achieve this. In the UK the biggest challenge is that there is no clear cut ideal for installing storage when compared with
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I&C markets elsewhere, such as the US. Power management company Eaton is targeting opportunities in the UK where I&C energy consumers, such as supermarkets and retail parks, are looking to install onsite EV charging infrastructure. The group’s energy storage business manager for the UK, Richard Molloy, says this is because such projects can add significantly to total site demand but will often require costly grid infrastructure upgrades. “Notwithstanding cost, frequently these upgrades can take a long time to implement, which can hugely delay project completion. Energy storage can defer or even completely avoid the necessity for such upgrades and this will generate demand,” he says.
The need for certainty
Managing and operating assets that collect, cleanse and distribute water in the UK is an energy-thirsty enterprise requiring a lot of pumping and other equipment. “Any water company is an energyintensive business,” says Steve Slavin, United Utilities head of renewable energy. “We see energy as one of our most controllable costs but to do this we need to isolate our supply from the volatility of the market. If we are able to do this and achieve better predictability over this cost in the long term, then along with other measures, customer bills should stabilize.” By autumn, United Utilities will have a fully operational 2MW battery storage system at its Clifton Marsh
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INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL ENERGY STORAGE “Rolling out fleet electrification will consist of EV supply happening hand in hand with smart grid deployment at sites, so that the cost of electrification can be minimized” — Peter Harris, sustainability director at UPS International
Picture: Connected Energy E-STOR 2
wastewater treatment works in Preston, north-west England, which will be coupled to onsite solar PV. Energy firm Zenobe is supplying the battery system and will own and operate the asset. Within the past few years United Utilities has installed 70MW of solar PV across 60 sites in north-west England. The water board plans to be net zero by 2030, and using bioenergy as well as solar to meet some of its energy demand is a step towards this goal. “As a regulated utility the majority of projects we do, whether increasing our flexibility through demand side response, using clean generation or smart, innovative technologies like battery storage, are with the aim of offsetting energy costs,” says Slavin. Each site’s solar array is sized to match the demand of the site, so that most of the solar generated is consumed. The battery system at Clifton Marsh will monitor grid import, solar generation and site demand and will know when to hold surplus generation rather than export, says Slavin. “The pilot will show the capability of battery storage and help show a business case going forward,” says United Utilities energy manager Andy
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Pennick. “Essentially the system will know at any given time when it is best deployed to provide frequency response, or time shift solar, or respond to a wholesale market signal. “The system will need to be deployed through at least a winter season. We’ll probably take a view next year about whether there is a clear business case for adding storage.” Slavin says: “What we’ve observed is how grid services markets, such as fast frequency response, have become more technically challenging in terms of requirements for technologies that play in them. Batteries can be one part of the flexibility to help modulate our demand but playing in those markets solely would not be a business case.” Ofgem’s Targeted Charging Review (TCR), which is changing how I&C energy consumers are charged for their use of the grid during times of
peak demand, has removed an incentive to deploy technologies like batteries which, when installed behind the meter, can recharge with onsite solar or renewables for consumption by the site during peak demand periods. “It’s tough to make a business case from the flexibility space. It’s not just about the cost of the investment today but uncertainty about the longer term, and you need certainty if you want to decarbonize electricity systems further and into the future,” Pennick says. Eaton’s Molloy says the greatest challenge is market uncertainty. “From April 2023, this reduces the delta between green, amber and red DUoS charges and eliminates triads, both of which were strong drivers for behind-the-meter storage. So this undermines the business case,” says Molloy.
“The pilot will show the capability of battery storage and help show a business case going forward” — United Utilities energy manager Andy Pennick
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INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL ENERGY STORAGE “Ofgem is also consulting on Access and Forward Looking Charges and this is being conducted out of step with the TCR. As yet, we do not know what the outcome will be and what market drivers will be or what revenue streams will be accessible. This leaves something of a void as it becomes difficult for an investor to make a strong business case when there is limited visibility of future cost savings and revenues.” As the UK is more price-sensitive, compared to some other markets, Molloy says sometimes incentives are needed to improve the business case. “This doesn’t necessarily have to take the form of a direct subsidy. It could, for example, be from reducing VAT to 5%, or delivering other tax advantages, or by recognizing the carbon reduction benefit of some of the applications. “There are many creative ways the market could be incentivized to grow more rapidly to deliver the required levels of system flexibility.”
UPS drives storage to optimize EV charging
Global delivery services provider UPS International has progressed in terms of demonstrating and learning from how behind-the-meter batteries can enable better visibility and control over costs in relation to fleet electrification. Working in partnership with distributed network operator UK Power Networks, the group has defined a blueprint for rolling out smart grid systems at its sites. Between 2017 and 2019, UPS hosted the Smart Electric Urban Logistics (SEUL) pilot, designed to support the wider transition to electric vehicles for larger commercial fleets, funded by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV), in partnership with Innovate UK. As part of the SEUL project, UPS increased the number of electric vans at its central London depot in Kentish Town above the maximum the charging infrastructure would allow before hitting capacity constraints. SEUL comprised a smart charging
system designed, developed and implemented by subcontractor UK Power Networks Services, which includes an active network management system coupled with an energy storage system that can dynamically control local demand. Peter Harris, sustainability director at UPS International, says: “SEUL was an exercise in showing how UPS can use technology to eliminate the CapEx required in upgrading the local grid to support multiple EVs charging. “We did rough calculations during SEUL and found that deploying the technology demonstrated in the project can eliminate about 70% of external CapEx in terms of the upgrades required on the grid side to ensure enough capacity to support up to 170 electric vans charging at the depot. “However, these are multi-faceted systems and require adaptation building to building.”
EV supply and a smart grid
UPS has invested in UK company Arrival, which is initially supplying it
Case study
Oxford City Council goes with the flow Energy Superhub Oxford (ESO) is a £41 million ($54 million) demonstration project between Oxford City Council and Pivot Power. It also includes Habitat Energy and Invinity Energy Systems (previously RedT energy) and the University of Oxford. The project will trial the world’s largest hybrid battery system (50MW) to help accelerate the city’s implementation of EV charging and use of heat pumps. The delivery phase will start in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the
project is planned to go live next year. Invinity is supplying a 2MW/5MWh flow battery, making it the UK’s largest VRFB installation to date, as part of a system that also uses lithium-ion technology.
Energy Superhub Oxford’s project with Pivot Power
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The system will enable load shifting for charging fleet vehicles overnight, and will also provide services to National Grid ESO as well as trade energy via an energy management system. The VFB will complement the lithium ion battery storage in delivering grid services as the system can be used to front-end lithium-ion, acting as a first responder for any proportional use of the system. Using non-degrading flow battery technology in this way preserves the lithium-ion cycling, which is used to provide additional charge or discharge power when required. Invinity business development director Edward Porter says: “We’ll also be able to use the results to demonstrate the technology’s performance at scale and develop future projects. This project could be suitable across the UK with particular value in constrained networks or alongside renewable generation.”
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INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL ENERGY STORAGE with 10,000 electric vans for deployment in the UK, Europe and in North America. Harris says: “Rolling out fleet electrification will consist of EV supply happening hand-in-hand with smart grid deployment at sites, so that the cost of electrification can be minimized.” First EV prototypes will be delivered late 2020 and early 2021, and the next smart grid sites will happen in Europe, including some in the UK and in North America once EV delivery flow is established. Harris says: “With SEUL we knew we wanted an optimal combination of technologies, and we could have achieved what we set out to do at the depot in Kentish Town without using a battery storage system. But we knew storage may be required in future rollouts, so it was important for us to deploy the technology as part of the project. “We think where a building or depot is close to threshold of constraint, becoming a candidate for an upgrade if EVs are introduced, then smart grid technologies would comprise 90% of upgrade and we could deploy a battery system to get to the remaining 10%.” In May this year UPS started a second project out of the same depot, developing an EV Fleet-centred Local Energy System (EFLES), which aims to reduce the costs of fleet electrification by optimizing smart charging and on-site energy assets and revenue generating opportunities. “EFLES is, in some sense, a continuation of SEUL as it is focused on OpEx and managing energy demand. We need sophisticated software to manage energy demand and cost. If we can predict in advance when it is cheapest to pull energy from the grid, such as the middle of the night. This can be done by importing or not importing at specific times,” Harris says. “All sorts of things become interesting. We know that because when many of our vans are out on journeys during the day there is capacity in our system that is not being used, so what if we can sell that capacity to other operators, such as electric taxi fleets?” The interest generated by SEUL came as a surprise, according to Harris. “We’ve provided fact sheets and run workshops. Probably what operators and policymakers have taken away is that this is a signal to the future. If the government is serious about decar-
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bonization and net zero then transport electrification is critical. “Everyone thinks about the EV, the vehicle, but they tend to miss the impact it will have on the grid. You can’t just build more hardware to accommodate. You need to pull together smart technology, local generation, software and you have to be aware that the specifics of each site, such as size of fleet, or load, threshold, charging scheduling, will all have an impact.”
Second-life battery storage in West Sussex
UK energy storage integrator Connected Energy has built its entire business around second-life batteries. Founder Matthew Lumsden says: “The biggest surprise so far has been the interest and enthusiasm for systems based on second-life batteries. There is a real fan club out there for them. That aspect of them has not been a hard sell at all.” Typical customers of Connected Energy tend to be manufacturers and producers, some of which are rolling out EV fleets and onsite charging infrastructure. “The sustainable aspect of our systems, because we are effectively extending the working life of EV batteries, also appeals to the public sector,” Lumsden says. An earlier example is Dundee City Council, which has been running one of Connected Energy’s E-Stor systems for two years and using it for peak shaving the EV load, within a system that uses a solar canopy for charging EVs. Upcoming projects Connected Energy is supplying include a heritage facility due to open later this year on the University of Suffolk’s Ipswich Campus, which will house the council’s archive collection. A 300kW/360kWh E-Stor battery system will be installed during August-September to optimize electricity use at the building, called The Hold, within a system that also comprises solar PV, EV chargers and heating, ventilation and cooling equipment providing a controlled climate for the archived materials. Connected Energy is also leading the government-funded £31 million ($41 million) SmartHubs demonstrator in West Sussex, integrating technologies to decarbonize heat, transport and energy across social housing, transport, infrastructure and private residential and commercial properties.
“Batteries can be one part of the flexibility play to help modulate our demand but playing in those markets solely would not be a business case” — Steve Slavin, United Utilities head of Renewable Energy The project has several elements. Connected Energy will install 300kW behind-the-meter battery systems at up to nine different commercial and industrial locations, plus several EV charging hubs that integrate EV chargers with PV and batteries in West Sussex, in addition to a 12MW/14.4MWh front-of-meter battery energy storage system in Sompting. Lumsden says: “The whole point of the project is to look at different ways of operating these systems, which will be linked up into one virtual power plant using an aggregator’s platform.” Connected Energy is in talks with several potential host sites across West Sussex. “Two are looking to move forward soon, but we are keen to find more sites. The nine locations should be finalized with systems installations happening from later this year, through to 2021.” Lumsden says the commercial and industrial sites will be a really useful aspect of the SmartHubs project. “We’re aiming to demonstrate different applications, case studies and
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 23
INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL ENERGY STORAGE business cases, to show people how benefits of energy storage can be leveraged and taken advantage of.“ Because the company has experience of working with different aggregators it can also act as a broker between customers and sites and aggregators.
Paving the way for second-life systems
Connected Energy aims to establish a market and demand for its systems that sits somewhere between those using new lithium-ion batteries and flow batteries. A storage system using new lithiumion batteries has a lower capital cost but a higher cost of degradation, making it unsuitable for deep cycling applications, where a flow battery would
be a better choice but has a higher capital cost. Lumsden says: “Because we are taking used lithium-ion batteries, depreciated from being used in EVs, and repurposing them, the cycling cost is lower, so we can sit somewhere between as a distinct asset class. “Conceptually, we’re looking at system configurations where our secondlife battery systems can be deployed alongside a system containing new lithium-ion batteries, which will be sized for deployment for shallower cycling, like frequency response, while our battery will be able to deal with more aggressive system response.” Connected Energy is gathering data, in partnership with Newcastle University’s National Innovation Centre
for Data, from existing and upcoming installations that will be fed into shaping standards for second-life battery systems. One of Connected Energy’s collaborators is Renault, where the carmaker is provided with a specification for second-life batteries. Batteries that come out of Renault EVs are tested against the specification and those that meet it are supplied to Connected Energy. Depending on the application and how the battery is used, such as for a frequency response-type deployment, a lifetime of around eight years is achievable for second-life batteries. Lumsden says: “This is an evolving technology and market. We are still at the point where we need to amass
Zenobe battery portfolio Zenobe owns and operates one of the biggest battery portfolios in the UK, totalling more than 160MW of contracted capacity. Most comprise front-of-meter grid storage systems, with around 40MW from its EV fleet business, but a growing portion is stationary storage systems at sites owned by I&C energy consumers. The company also supplies approximately 25% of the electric bus fleet in the UK, in cities that include Guildford, London, Newport, Coventry, Leeds and Birmingham. Zenobe has supplied fleet operators with an end-to-end solution that includes batteries onboard the buses, charging systems and energy storage at depots and a software platform to optimize energy use. The company’s collective demand for batteries across these businesses also enables it to leverage its purchasing power to bring down the capital cost of the systems. Zenobe has developed its own aggregator platform, which integrates with the software that controls each ESS. Through the platform the company provides FFR, reserve power and other ancillary grid services to National Grid ESO. The company was the first to provide a reactive power service to the grid operator and will tap into 123MW of battery assets to provide that service. In having its own aggregation platform, company co-founder James Basden says Zenobe can strike a balance between tapping
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into different revenue streams while optimizing the battery to extend operational lifetime and reduce OpEx/O&M costs. “We’ve also developed our software so that it works out what service to provide and when. For example, when it might be better to do FFR than DUoS, or when it might be more advantageous to recharge batteries with solar than off the grid.” Zenobe’s I&C pipeline comprises more than 10 projects in various stages of development over next 12 months, including water utilities as well as manufacturers and processors in the food and drink sector. The company is also in discussions with pharmaceuticals and medical equipment producers and data centre hosts. Like a UPS battery, energy storage can provide resiliency, responding immediately if there is a dip due to an outage or similar event, and ensuring the electricity supply is maintained and revenue is not lost. Because each I&C project is highly dependent on site-specific requirements, a standardized business case or model eludes the sector, which can make it
Zenobe co-founder James Basden
challenging. “Certainly the outcomes of Ofgem’s TCR make the business case for a behind-the-meter storage installation a tough one and could even impact market forecasts such as BloombergNEF’s, which predicted the UK I&C storage market could grow from 25MW in 2020 to 41MW in 2021 and 71MW in 2022,” says Basden.
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INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL ENERGY STORAGE lots more data, which can inform us about performance and the optimal way to operate our systems in different types of applications and system configurations, which can then feed into extended warranties. It is an ongoing learning process.” Harris says that ultimately, one of the goals of UPS International’s fleet electrification rollout is to be able to take used batteries from UPS’ electric vans, which could have about 80% usable capacity, and build them into a stack for stationary storage systems, to make the system more cost-effective. “In addition, applying those circular economy principles is also important for the industry as a whole, where recycling infrastructure still requires investment for lithium-ion batteries. If you can take a battery after it’s been in use for eight-10 years and reuse it in a stationary application then it nearly doubles its lifetime before recycling becomes the next step in the process,” he says. In the longer term Zenobe aims to reduce the cost of energy storage further by taking batteries that have reached the end of their warrantied lifetime in electric buses to use in stationary storage systems, extending their lifetime before they are eventually recycled. The company has developed software controls for bus batteries that can monitor batteries and how much capacity is left before they require recharging, which also links up to the depot so that each bus can be assigned a specific charger and can process data about how the battery operates. This help influence bus drivers in their driving to optimize battery operation. The software will enable Zenobe to select batteries with similar capacities and operational parameters for combining in stationary storage systems. Eaton, which uses Nissan lithiumion batteries in its XStorage system, is seeing a lot of interest in second-life batteries, according to Molloy. “The interest is mainly from businesses who are keen to demonstrate great sustainability credentials and showcase the circular economy in action.” However larger systems can erode the cost advantage as a second-life battery has a lower capacity so more batteries are needed along with more racks, cabling and space to provide a given system size. Molloy says: “All commercial aspects must be considered along with the technical, but as battery technology advances, I foresee second life
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“If you can take a battery after it’s been in use for eight to 10 years and reuse it in a stationary application then it nearly doubles its lifetime before recycling becomes the next step in the process” — Connected Energy founder Matthew Lumsden becoming even more attractive as capacities and battery life expectancy increase. “There may even come a time when the battery outlasts the vehicle and the supply of second-life batteries will have performance close to that of a new battery, which would be a really interesting prospect.”
Crossroads
The UK I&C market for energy storage has reached a crossroads. The market comprises sophisticated players, delivering systems and configurations that can deliver multiple benefits and revenue streams so the investment case stands up. “Players in this field need to have expertise in all of the following: financial, legal, electrical engineering and data science,” Basden says. As the projects by UPS International demonstrate, in I&C settings energy storage is an important component, albeit one that is part of a system of integrated technologies and components. “We are trying to show how these systems can save on CapEx and OpEx. When that threshold is crossed it becomes a commercial decision to
do this, not even one about sustainability anymore,” Harris says. “Many fleet operators are small or mid-sized businesses that don’t have the resources to do projects like we have been able to do. We can generate knowledge with our rolling laboratory but smaller fleet owners need turnkey solutions. We need some good trustworthy providers in this industry.” Lumsden believes that as I&C installations happen, it will be easier to show the market systems optimized for different configurations. “This would show would-be customers that host sites can really see the benefits afforded by energy storage based on second life batteries within a holistic energy system or microgrid.” According to Molloy the push for net zero will drive deep renewables penetration, accelerate demand for EVs, heat pumps and the electrification of commercial and industrial processes, known as ‘sector coupling’. “Technologies such as battery energy storage, smart EV charging, smart appliances and V2G will all have a part to play, along with hydrogen electrolysis, reforestation and a host of other approaches.”
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BATTERY CHEMISTRY
Lithium sulfur – are we there yet? Lithium-sulfur keeps popping its head above the parapet, promising to be the next battery chemistry to compete with lithium-ion — but can it ever be a realistic competitor? Debbie Mason spoke to people who believe it can as well as those who believe it can’t. Lithium-ion batteries may have changed the way the world works but there are good reasons to believe it won’t always be the case. There are question marks over the supply of nickel and cobalt, problems with the supply chain availability — highlighted by the recent coronavirus pandemic — and concerns over the environmental friendliness of their manufacture and disposal. “There’s a huge energy cost of making lithium batteries,” says Mahdokht Shaibani, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. “It takes 400kWh to make 1kWh of Li-ion battery, plus the CO2 emissions — 75kg per 1kWh (35 litres of gaso-
line) in manufacturing and recycling a battery. Yet producing 1kWh of electricity from burning coal produces 1kg of CO2.” Other alternatives are now being discussed. “It could be that lithiumsulfur batteries tick all the boxes and outperform lithium-ion in a number of areas,” says Shaibani, who has been studying lithium-sulfur technology for the past seven years. In January her research team had a filed patent (PCT/ AU 2019/051239) approved for their manufacturing process. “No one can deny that energy density in lithium-sulfur is worth exploration — it’s several times higher than lithium-ion and only lower than
lithium-air, which is too immature to be taken into consideration. Practically, the realizable specific energy, the potential gravimetric energy density of the future lithium-sulfur battery, is probably 400Wh/kg-600Wh/kg,” she says. “The electrode ingredients come from the right menu of inexpensive and abundant materials — particularly the sulfur, for the cathode, which is cheap and abundant. Lithium is also available and a lot comes from Australia, a reliable country — we don’t process it here but that can be changed. “When it comes to cost, some say it could be four times cheaper, which
“When it comes to cost, some say it could be four times cheaper, which could make it a game changer, particularly for large-scale applications.” — Mahdohkt Shaibani (pictured above), research fellow, University of Monash
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Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 27
BATTERY CHEMISTRY could make it a game changer, particularly for large-scale applications.”
Backing off
Yet for all these potential benefits some of the former leading players in lithium-sulfur chemistry have backed off. Solid Power, based in Colorado, showed some early interest with conversion reaction materials like FeS2, says marketing manager Will McKenna. These are similar to Li-S batteries. “That work was always in a solidstate system with a sulfide-based solid electrolyte,” he said. “While conversion reaction cathodes like FeS2 remain very attractive in terms of cost and specific energy, they have fundamental challenges leading to poor cycle life. “As such, the majority of Solid Power’s work today combines a NMC622 cathode with a sulfide solid electrolyte and a lithium metal anode — which provides superior energy density to
“We found that we were able to get the high gravimetric energy from the system, but from a volumetric standpoint it was low compared to say lithium-ion” — Tracy Kelley, CEO of Sion Power
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Li-ion and cycle life that is in line with electric vehicle targets.” After working with the chemistry for 20 years, Sion Power, based in Arizona, dropped the chemistry completely five years ago. “We’re not using sulfur, although we are constantly being called to consult or experiment on it because for 25 years we were at the forefront of lithium-sulfur technology and putting those batteries into various technologies,” says Tracy Kelley, CEO of Sion Power, which is about to launch its Licerion battery pouches. “We decided to move away from it because although it had some particular advantages — we were getting from 350Wh/kg-400Wh/kg, which was very good, especially at that time, when it was probably some of the highest rechargeable battery chemistry out there and available for particular applications. “But there were shortfalls. Although it has the potential for very high spe-
cific energy and very high density, once you’d distilled the chemistry down to something that was a commercial product, and pushed what you needed to push from performance parameters, we found that we were able to get the high gravimetric energy from the system, but from a volumetric standpoint it was low compared to say lithium-ion.”
Over to Oxis
But volumetric energy density, says David Ainsworth, chief technical officer at UK-based Oxis Energy, is irrelevant for his company’s target applications. “Volumetric energy is certainly lower today for Li-S (around 450Wh/l versus 650Wh/l-700Wh/l for the highest Li-ion cells),” he says. “But this is only an issue for applications such as compact EVs and consumer electronics, neither of which are target markets for Oxis. “Longer term, after 2025, we expect to develop all-solid state configurations of Li-S batteries, which have the potential to deliver 1,000Wh/l. For certain applications in aerospace and marine sectors, a very high gravimetric technology with lower volumetric energy density can be advantageous, ie buoyancy in boats.” Where lithium-sulfur really comes into its own is density compared to its mass — where lithium-ion will peak, agree Shaibani and Ainsworth, at a capacity of 300Wh/kg. “Lithium-ion has increased its energy density, but what you have to appreciate is that it’s already at the top of the development curve. It’s quite a mature technology, so there’s been some movement in producing cells around 240Wh/kg-260Wh/kg and there have been some specialized cell variants towards 300Wh/kg, but they’re not mainstream developments,” says Ainsworth. “We’ve been able to push the gravimetric energy density of the technology further towards 450Wh/kg, which has allowed us to look at pursuing a lot of different applications in the aerospace sector, which we find one of the most promising sectors for us. “We believe we can go to 500Wh/ kg in the next two years, and we think that’s good enough for most of the target applications we’re looking at.” Making Li-S batteries uses a similar production methodology to current lithium-ion batteries, so it can be produced on quite a large scale without reinventing the wheel, says Ainsworth.
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BATTERY CHEMISTRY “I also like the sustainability aspect, using sulfur which is available abundantly at low cost, and we believe they can be recycled. Such a process hasn’t yet been established, but with lithiumion batteries that’s only just starting even though they’ve been around for 30 years. “When we get to the realms of mass manufacture, recycling will be a regulatory requirement so we’ll have to be able to do it.”
Aircraft applications
Ainsworth says Oxis’s batteries were first going to target applications that needed high density over anything else, such as high-altitude platforms aircraft (HAPS), somewhere in between drones and satellites, which are positioned at an altitude of 20km to support telecommunications or remote sensing applications. Oxis has worked with a few companies to build prototypes of batteries for these, to power the motors and use internet connectivity, mapping and surveillance. “There’s a lot of demand for a range of military applications like radio backpacks, remote power banks and underwater vehicles, which might not be large in terms of the number of cells, but large in terms of the value of the battery pack — up to 100 times the value of a battery in an EV,” says Ainsworth. Oxis is producing 10,000 cells a year to customers across these market segments for testing and validation, with a lot of the major car and aerospace companies testing and building prototypes. There are other applications in the target line, such as electric buses and mid-size trucks, but Ainsworth says there is no plan to look at grid-scale storage for the time being. “There’s a lot of talk about this market but they want the cheapest technology available and if you think of static storage it doesn’t matter how light the battery is — you need them to be mechanically robust,” he says. “We’ve moved away from static energy because it’s a price-sensitive sector and as we’re not competing on the same scale we won’t be able to compete for quite a few years, until we’ve scaled up production.” But that doesn’t mean this can’t ever happen — Oxis has already scaled up its production, both with its pilot operation in the UK, where it has added semi-automated equipment and stepped up cell production, as well as
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its plant in Brazil, which will begin producing five million cells a year by 2022, the firm says. The aim is to supply Brazil with cells for its buses, 700,000 of which are internal combustion engine buses and are being replaced by electric equivalents over 25 years. “Oxis Energy is at the forefront of developing lithium-sulfur. It has a good patent portfolio and they share knowledge with academia,” says Shaibani. “As a scientist I can say this company has contributed the most to the development of this technology, and now it is opening the first Li-S manufacturing plant in Brazil. “The announcement has excited the energy world, in particular world of academia — the fact that this challenging technology is being realized has encouraged the scientific community to adopt more practical approaches in conducting research. This is important to bridge the gap between academia and industry.”
Obstacles to overcome
While there is little doubt that Li-S outperforms Li-ion in terms of specific energy, before the chemistry can be called revolutionary it needs to fix various things — such as its low cycle life, says Shaibani. “Every single component is problematic and needs further improvement,” she says. “Lithium-sulfur can’t withstand a lot of cycles because of dendrites. It has a reactive lithium anode, unstable cathode, the electrolyte suffers from a loss of active material and the battery degrades. “Challenges include the fact that a lot of electrolyte is needed but that makes it too heavy.” Sion Power CEO Tracy Kelley agrees. “We found that as we pushed up the total life of the cell at those types of energy levels, the cycle life began to decline — so we had very high energy, but relatively low cycle life. “Once we removed the graphite anode and supplanted it with our lith-
Oxis Energy’s new lithium sulfur battery plant in Brazil
“Longer term, after 2025, we expect to develop all-solid state configurations of Li-S batteries, which have the potential to deliver 1,000Wh/l.” — David Ainsworth, chief technical officer at UK-based Oxis Energy Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 29
BATTERY CHEMISTRY ium-metal technology, we found we could essentially double the energy of the conventional lithium-ion system and we found we were able to get a lot more cycle life out of it. We decided at that point to make the transition, and we are now ready to introduce our first energy storage packs based on our Licerion technology. “Looking at what we wanted to do, which is transitioning this battery into EV applications, we made the strategic decision that there wasn’t a clear path to a Li-S battery being used for that. So we decided to step back and look at what was a chemistry that was more applicable and we decided on Licerion technology. “We pulled everything we knew from working with Li-S all those years and looked at the traditional system that was out there, and the big shortfall was the energy level you were able to achieve.” But as far as Oxis and David Ainsworth are concerned, their key shortterm target applications — marine, aerospace and defence — do not require more cycles than a few hundred,
which they already achieve. “To meet our longer term goals of addressing EV applications like etrucks and buses we are actively addressing improvements to cycle life through research on protected metal anodes and alternative Li-S configurations,” he says. With lithium-ion technology there is often a safety concern, and with lithium sulfur it’s no different, says Kelley. “Managing the safety parameters of the system at those very high energies — sulfur and lithium are very hyperactive together and managing the safety profile of that system was a challenge,” he says. Yet back at Oxis, nail penetration, overcharge and short circuit testing has proved that the chemistry is stable. “We get very good safety performance from our cell technology in abuse tests, especially considering the high gravimetric energy density of >400Wh/kg,” says Ainsworth. “Safety is further improved through the use of cell design features such as thermal shut-down separators, thermal fuses and vent points in the cell
design. Other aspects of safety are dealt with at the system level.” Shaibani says most of the research into lithium-sulfur batteries is being done quietly in China, the US, South Korea, Germany and Japan. PolyPlus, a California firm, uses a non-aqueous electrolyte, patented in the 1990s, which Shaibani says is used in nearly all Li-S batteries, whether sold commercially or in development. She says the company is extensively exploring lithium-metal and using glass-protected lithium batteries. PolyPlus, which did not respond to requests for an interview, claims it has solved the problem of poor cycle life with protected lithium electrodes in the Li-S cell, with hundreds of cell cycles and no significant capacity loss. “Rechargeable Li-S batteries are still in development at PolyPlus,” the company says. “Initial commercialization will be focused on high-margin applications where weight is a premium. PolyPlus will likely work with a partner and/or license the technology for high volume, costsensitive markets.”
Pushing the boundaries of Li-S out further A group of researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin announced this April they had found a way to stabilize one of the most challenging parts of lithium-sulfur batteries by creating an artificial layer containing tellurium. This created a seven-fold improvement in cyclability, according to their research paper, Anodefree, lean-electrolyte lithium-sulfur batteries enabled by telluriumstabilized lithium deposition, and brings the technology another step closer to greater adoption. “We have discovered that introducing tellurium into the Li-S system as a cathode additive significantly improves the reversibility of Li plating and stripping by forming a tellurized and sulfiderich solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer on the Li surface,” says Arumugam Manthiram, a professor of mechanical engineering and a director of the Texas Materials Institute. “A remarkable improvement in cyclability is demonstrated in anodefree full cells with limited Li inventory and large-area Li-S pouch cells
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under lean electrolyte conditions. “Tellurium reacts with polysulfides to generate soluble polytellurosulfides that migrate to the anode side and form stabilizing lithium thiotellurate and lithium telluride in situ as SEI components. “A significant reduction in electrolyte decomposition on the Li surface is also engendered.” Put more simply, lithium is a reactive element that tends to break down other elements around it. Every cycle of charging and discharging a lithium-sulfur battery can cause dendrites to form on the lithium-metal anode, the negative electrode of the battery. The deposits break down the electrolyte that shuttles lithium ions back and forth. This can trap some of the lithium, keeping the electrode from delivering the full power necessary for the ultra-long use the
technology promises. The reaction can also causes the battery to shortcircuit and potentially catch fire. The artificial layer formed on the lithium electrode protects the electrolyte from being degraded and reduces the dendrite growth, according to Amruth Bhargav, who, with fellow graduate student Sanjay Nanda, co-authored the paper. Manthiram says this method can be applied to other lithium- and sodium-based batteries. The researchers have filed a provisional patent application for the technology. “The stabilizing layer is formed by a simple in-situ process and requires no expensive or complicated pretreatment or coating procedures on the lithium-metal anode,” Nanda said. Sulfur is also more environmentally friendly than the metal oxide materials used in lithium-ion batteries.
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COVER STORY: ENERGY IN TRANSITION
An industry prep
We are living in a world that has been described far too often recently as ‘unprecedented’; but where the changing energy industry is concerned, the epithet is accurate. We all know about the need for storage to push the transformation — but there are many obstacles to jump before we get there, including the fact that as renewables increase, so does grid instability. Even before the Covid-19 crisis hit, energy demand was changing — but when the virus did cause the world to shut down, it was transformed beyond all recognition in the blink of an eye. Peak consumption slumped. Power generating assets such as wind turbines were paid to be switched off. There was nowhere to go for the power that wasn’t being used. It underscored the need for more storage, but it also emphasized the need for better technology to control supply and demand as generation itself becomes less controllable. Because of the drive to decarbonize, power generation is shifting away from huge, synchronous machines, which operate with high inertia, to intermittent renewables with very low inertia — which will cause instability and imbalance until it can be solved with technology. “Currently, the electricity system is experiencing lower inertia and larger, more numerous losses than ever before,” says the UK National Grid. “Faster acting frequency response products are needed because system frequency is moving away from 50Hz
32 • Energy Storage Journal Autumn 2020
rapidly as a consequence of imbalances.” In the US, the Energy Information Agency expects coal to drop from providing the second largest share of the US electricity generation mix to fourth this year (18%), displaced by nuclear (21%) and renewable generation (20%). It would be least amount of coal consumed since 1972. But it means that the kind of generation needed will change — as there is less inertia on the grid keeping frequency stable (in the US, as close to 60Hz as possible), the need for fast-responding other sources becomes more and more crucial.
Dynamic Containment
To address the issue in the UK, the National Grid is to launch a Dynamic Containment product this autumn, a system bringing as much fast-acting frequency response together as possible to replace the loss of inertia that will inevitably happen as the bigger generators are switched off. “Dynamic Containment is a very fast-acting response service that only
storage products can provide, so this is where we will really see the benefits of batteries,” says Julian Leslie, head of Networks with the National Grid. “As the device sees a drop in system frequency, it responds within a second or two to put power back on the system. As we remove the synchronous generation to get to these low-inertia, high renewable penetration systems, then having a very fast-acting response is how to make sure the system remains safe and stable.” At first, battery providers will be offered access to the new product, then the range of possible providers will be expanded to allow them to offer both high and low frequency response. “As you devolve this power and fragment the power and supply, then storage becomes even more important,” says Leslie. “That flexibility we need in the system is only ever going to increase,
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COVER STORY: ENERGY IN TRANSITION
ares to mature
which is where the forms of storage come to the fore. And if that daily demand trend — the historic demand curves of people getting up in the morning, levelling off during the day and picking up as people come home from work then tailing off into the evening — can be shifted to meet the generation on the system, which is now a renewable output, with storage you can control demand as you see it on the system.”
Covid-19 — a glimpse of the future
“In many ways the high renewable penetration of Covid-19 gave the industry a testbed for what will come as we shift to net zero,” said Shahid
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Iqbal, COO of energy technology company Limejump, recently bought by oil giant Shell. “While the market opportunities to date have been about providing capacity to the grid from batteries, we will increasingly see the need for turndown services that take capacity out of the system for stability when we have low demand. “We have already witnessed this on sunny, windy days in the Covid-19 lockdown, when demand hit record lows at a time of very high renewable power output. “The pace of change in the energy storage space has been gripping in the last 10 years. A decade ago energy storage was centred on the pumped
hydro market. There were no gridscale battery projects, and large lithium-ion wasn’t considered feasible due to its cost and technology maturity. “But change has come fast — as is often the case in new technology revolutions — and there has been a happy coupling of developments in two distinct areas. “In the technology camp, we’ve had three game-changing developments recently: a huge reduction in the cost of the physical battery storage cells; market maturity for grid-scale storage; and a more stable, less experimental technology.
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 33
COVER STORY: ENERGY IN TRANSITION “At the same time, in the investor camp we have seen exponential growth in certainty of returns for investors. We have been at the forefront of trading and have seen the markets for battery storage become substantially more predictable over recent years with the advent of ancillary services such as frequency response, together with the balancing mechanism.” So not only can the influx of trading platforms help the grid stay stable, they can also make an attractive investment. “This coupling of developments means one critical thing has been achieved: recognized commercial viability,” says Iqbal. “In short, it’s a good time to start investing.”
National Grid ESO head of Networks, Julian Leslie
VPPs eliminate infrastructure needs As far as grid operators are concerned, optimization platforms such as virtual power plants offer an exciting key to the future and could lighten the cost of providing the infrastructure that might otherwise be needed. “From our perspective as the national system operator, we want to be able to get lots of energy very quickly,” says Julian Leslie, head of Networks at UK National Grid ESO. “If we can have one contract to provide 100MW in response then the aggregator might be talking to a million households to deliver the response within those timescales or whatever it might be. “As long as they have the technology in place and those households can deliver, we will enter into a contract with them.” The Energy Networks Association, the trade body for the gas and electricity network — effectively the wires and pipes of the network all over the UK and Ireland — set up a project with its electricity members to look at delivering a smart grid to its customers. The key aim is to avoid building more infrastructure, ie cables and wires, in favour of getting that capacity by buying it from service providers, most of whom will be storage providers. “Rather than installing a new cable, for example in a street, we will go out to tender to ask if
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someone can provide the necessary capacity for what it would cost to install that cable,” says Randolph Brazier, head of Innovation and Development with the ENA. “We are looking to buy services at all different levels — at a micro level on the street, from people who have batteries in their homes, to the industrial scale. We don’t care what kind of technology provides that, but batteries do have natural advantages because one of the critical needs is speed of response. “There is a massive shift under way because of decarbonization. There is a lot of renewable technology coming on to the grid, but lots of new demand — from EVs, potentially the electrification of heat — and it’s more decentralized
Randolph Brazier, head of Innovation and Development with the ENA.
so we need to have a much larger grid to make it all work together.” In Japan the virtual power plant scene is burgeoning, with smart battery software firm Moixa already taking full advantage, agreeing with battery firm Itochu to attach its Gridshare artificial intelligence platform to Itochu’s residential batteries. In July it announced it had doubled the number of these managed batteries to 20,000, which it says makes it the world’s largest fleet. The increased sales come as a government subsidy for Japanese home owners that adopted rooftop solar comes to an end. The Gridshare algorithms should optimize batteries in these homes in a way to replace the ending subsidy. “The scale of growth in just six months has been staggering and the Gridshare platform has enabled us to manage subsidy changes for Japanese home generators without a single blip in service,” said Hiroaki Murase, general manager of the Sustainable Energy Business Department at Itochu. And that is what the new platforms are all about: as power systems across the world transition from a centralized source because of the increase in renewables, they will fragment; and the key to managing the transition smoothly will be the firms that specialize in bringing it all together.
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COVER STORY: ENERGY IN TRANSITION
UK leads the way in optimizing battery assets As the number of markets in which power can be traded increases, batteries are becoming an increasingly attractive option for investors. But with the increasing number of markets it follows that the trading itself has become far more complicated, and battery owners themselves are not usually experts in finding their way around it. Enter a small but growing batch of companies that are competing to do just that. Limejump operates more than 1GW of renewable generation capacity, including battery storage. “Limejump provides access to the ever-increasing range of products and optimization options including trading in wholesale markets, balancing mechanism, DSO services (including reactive power and voltage constraints), frequency response as well as upcoming initiatives such as the National Grid’s Dynamic Containment,” says Iqbal. “So we’re seeing the picture improve for our battery customers through this growing ability to stack revenues from different markets together. We can use data-driven battery revenue optimization approaches to enable our customers to jump in and out of ancillary, BM and capacity markets on different timescales to ensure they get the best return for each charging cycle. “This is critical for optimum asset management as we need to help our customers maximize revenues and avoid degradation-causing cycles running at too low a return.” Kiwi Power, a London-based VPP software supplier that has launched its platform in North America, estimates there will be more than 1,000GW of energy storage installed globally by 2040, up from just 9GW today. All of this storage could be used across the available markets and optimized to make as much revenue as possible for the battery owners, as well as increase grid stability and flexibility, the firm believes. It claims asset owners are missing out on up to 41% of potential revenue by not using their assets in more markets but relying instead on fixed frequency
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Limejump operates more than 1GW of renewable generation capacity, plus battery storage
response services. “As renewable generation, energy storage and distributed energy resources continue to penetrate global electric grids, value is migrating away from the supply of power and towards the supply of flexibility,” says Jay Zoellner, CEO of Kiwi Power. Thomas Jennings, head of optimization at Kiwi, says it’s all there once asset owners are prepared to jump in. “Asset owners have to have confidence in the platform that’s going to dispatch
their asset — whether it’s providing frequency services to the grid for a month, or solving a constraint at a particular point in time. “It can vary and that’s where optimization comes into it — there’s a multitude of different things that this amazing asset can do, but which is the most valuable? And that’s why you need a platform. “We look at the market and how it operates, and the vast majority of the market sits within frequency response.
“There’s a multitude of different things that this amazing asset can do, but which is the most valuable? And that’s why you need a platform” — Thomas Jennings, head of optimization at Kiwi Power
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COVER STORY: ENERGY IN TRANSITION
“We have one of the biggest, if not the biggest, portfolios in the UK, and we haven’t been doing it for years but the truth is — no one has. — Ben Irons, Habitat Energy co-founder
And that’s all very well, that’s where most batteries are — but you’ve got another 14 markets available. Why sit in frequency response when you can be in other markets? Can you achieve greater value than the one market everyone seems to be sitting in?”
A fledgling scene
Ben Irons, co-founder of Habitat Energy, which offers an optimization and trading platform for grid-scale battery storage, said the market only began to open up in terms of grid battery storage in 2016, but they already have 200MW operational in the UK and Australia. “At about the same time the idea of aggregators, or people like us, who provide trading services, also started,” he said. “We have one of the biggest, if not the biggest, portfolios in the UK, and we haven’t been doing it for years but the truth is — no one has. “The very first battery that started doing arbitrage in the UK only started doing it last year, so it’s new to everyone, and that’s why for us it was easier to come along as a new entrant because we weren’t up against incumbents with 20 years’ experience. “It costs around £400,000 ($523,000) per MW to build a gridscale battery. The owner will need to be earning in the order of £40,000£50,000 per MW per year from the trading of those batteries and our view is that it’s possible in today’s markets, and those are the figures we give them. “Our PowerIQ platform is algorithmic, making forecasting and trading decisions; and we have a team in Oxford who are assessing and trading. It’s very complex and labour intensive so that’s why most battery owners are looking to third parties to get these services for them.” Irons says Habitat advises clients from the beginning of their asset’s
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life and has even on occasion advised against the battery they may already have acquired. “The warranty that a battery owner agrees with the maker of the battery is quite complicated and it’s not always obvious which warranties are going to be feasible for which application, so that’s something we like to get involved with,” says Irons. When it comes to battery chemistries Irons says Habitat is agnostic — although they won’t even consider lead-acid. “It’s not for this type of application. It’s obvious to everyone in the market that lead-acid is a completely different application, scale, everything — we don’t even mention them.”
Enter Tesla
One new entrant to European asset optimization is Tesla, with its Autobidder trading platform. Autobidder already operates at the 100MW/129MWh Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia, where its algorithms forecast price, load and generation as it operates in wholesale markets including ancillary services and capacity, day-ahead, real-time and continuous markets, but a tie-up
with Harmony Energy is the first time it has entered Europe. The deal coincides with an application by the Elon Musk firm to become a power generator in the UK, although it has not said what its intention is. Harmony Energy’s six Tesla Megapack 15MWh batteries were connected to the Southern Electric Power distribution network in the south of England in July, with Autobidder optimizing their charging and dispatch. “We wanted to outsource this trading because we didn’t have any experience in the area,” says Peter Kavanagh, Harmony Energy CEO. “We spoke to the larger players and we liked Tesla’s algorithm-based trading, and although I can’t say a lot about it as it’s sensitive — we are taking a degree of risk here — as we’ve been working with batteries for a long time it was a natural progression for us. The more people who get in to this space, the better. “We are guinea pigs here but they have a great team behind them — they work, work, work. The revenue stack will include frequency response, trading in the balancing mechanism, the capacity market, wholesale intraday markets and so on — we are not limited to anything, it’s just programmed around multiple income streams to maximize revenue.” Kavanagh does not understand why fossil fuels in the UK are still subsidized yet battery storage is not. “It should be a level playing field,” he says. “Energy storage is crucial in allowing us to get to zero carbon. Our batteries are positioned as close to the substation as possible to reduce the installation cost, and make sure electricity losses are minimized. “But it is important that they are used. If you’re not trading every day, it’s not worth it.”
Tesla’s Autobidder
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COVER STORY: ENERGY IN TRANSITION
Rules must change to keep pace with grid storage developments As innovation happens and new technologies are developed, regulatory bodies are constantly having to play catch-up to avoid limiting new opportunities. Across the world, governments are beginning to offer financial help to tech innovators and also pull down regulatory barricades to smooth the energy transition. In Europe, the Commission’s Industry Research and Energy Committee recently adopted a report from Austrian MEP Claudia Gamon calling for the EC to reduce regulatory burdens, provide support for research, abolish certain network charges and cut red tape. The EC identified batteries as a ‘strategic value chain where the EU must step up investment and innovation to strengthen the industrial policy strategy’. “With electrification set to be one of the main pathways to decarbonization, batteries as electricity storage devices will become one of the key enablers of a low-carbon economy,” the EU says. In the UK, a decision by the Department for Business, Energy and Indus-
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trial Strategy — BEIS — to eliminate the need for planning permission for batteries larger than 50MW has been seen as a major boost to battery makers and owners. Until the change was made, such projects fell under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime in England and Wales, although in Wales that already applied only to storage above 350MW. It had meant that applications could take up to two years to be approved. Now, all energy storage technology applications except for pumped hydro will proceed under the Town and
Country Planning Act — which means permission should be granted within weeks rather than one to two years. In Wales any size (except pumped hydro) can be waived through by the relevant local planning authority. To date, the vast majority of battery storage projects deployed in England and Wales have been no bigger than 49MW to avoid this lengthy and costly procedure. “The previous cap was largely arbitrary and skewed the market,” said Frank Gordon, head of policy at the Association for Renewable Energy & Clean Technology (REA).
“With electrification set to be one of the main pathways to decarbonization, batteries as electricity storage devices will become one of the key enablers of a low-carbon economy.”
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 37
COVER STORY: ENERGY IN TRANSITION
“As energy storage built alongside new renewables projects is crucial to unlocking subsidy-free deployment, the old system acted as a major barrier to achieving our net zero target and building low-cost generation sites” — Frank Gordon, head of Policy at the Association for Renewable Energy & Clean Technology (REA). “As energy storage built alongside new renewables projects is crucial to unlocking subsidy-free deployment, the old system acted as a major barrier to achieving our net zero target and building low-cost generation sites.” “This is a significant, positive and well timed decision from the government; encouraging larger storage projects to come forward will add more jobs and economic benefit to the green recovery,” said Madeleine Greenhalgh, policy lead with the Electricity Storage Network, a UK industry group representing storage manufacturers, suppliers, project developers and research organizations. “By recognizing the smaller planning impacts of storage projects, this change will save developers time and money and encourage more ambitious storage projects, which are vital to decarbonizing our electricity system. “The Electricity Storage Network has been advocating change to the planning regime for several years and we have been pleased to work with BEIS to make this significant change for the storage industry.”
BEIS believes the planning change could result in a trebling of the number of batteries serving the electricity grid, which, it says, stands at 1GW. “There is 4GW of storage projects in planning, which could power a combined six million homes, in addition to the 1GW of battery storage already in operation,” it says. “The recent lifting of planning restrictions is another huge step in the right direction for the industry,” said Shahid Iqbal, COO with Limejump, the DER optimization platform firm. “The reduction of this planning barrier makes investment simpler, which in turn encourages more development and strengthens the overall technological case.” Ben Irons, co-founder of Habitat Energy, the UK grid-scale storage trading platform designer, says very few projects had been going through the NSIP process. “So this won’t increase the number of projects, but it does mean that a lot of the 50MW developments already in the pipeline may now look to increase their size up to 100MW or more, de-
pending on investor appetite,” he says. “It’s certainly positive news for the industry.”
Across the pond
Change is also happening in the US and it can’t come too soon for some areas, such as California, which on August 16 was bracing itself for wildfire season and rotating power outages were conducted by the utility PG&E, affecting 210,000 people in the San Francisco bay area. “Rotating outages become necessary when CAISO (California Independent System Operator) is unable to meet minimum contingency reserve requirements and load interruption is imminent or in progress,” says PG&E. With more storage on the grid the need for these outages would diminish, and two events in July signalled changes that could pave the way for that to happen. The first was a decision that month by the US Court of Appeals to uphold a ruling known as Order 841 made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in February 2018. FERC’s intention was to remove barriers that blocked energy storage firms from participating in wholesale electricity markets. This had been challenged by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and other groups. “This is an enormous step for energy storage, with the affirmation that energy storage connected at the distribution level must have the option to access wholesale markets, allowing homes and businesses to contribute to the resiliency, efficiency, sustainability
California’s annual wildfires mean utility PG&E is forced to cut power for thousands of people
38 • Energy Storage Journal Autumn 2020
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COVER STORY: ENERGY IN TRANSITION and affordability of the grid,” says Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the US Energy Storage Association. “This latest affirmation of Order 841 is especially important as it ensures energy storage can contribute all its values to the grid, regardless of its connection point. “As our electric system becomes more modernized and distributed, we are seeing the regulatory frameworks at both the wholesale and retail levels adjust to that reality.”
IREC project launch
The second, and arguably further reaching, event was the launch of a project funded by the Department of Energy body IREC (Interstate Regional Energy Council). The project sets out to help storage firms overcome the widely varying regulatory and technical barriers to get their products connected to the grid. Current regulations are far from clear, says IREC president and CEO Larry Sherwood, which means the full benefits of storage are not being realized. “Establishing best practices for the interconnection of storage to the grid is critical to sustaining market growth and enabling significant clean energy deployment,” he says. The project, which includes other agencies such as the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Energy Storage Association (ESA), will first identify specific barriers and then develop a solution fit for national application. “Many US states do not have rules governing the process of connecting energy storage (standalone or solarplus-storage) to the grid,” says IREC communications director Gwendolyn Brown. “This can result in significant project delays or rejections of legitimate projects that hinder the growth of energy storage. “This is just one of many challenges companies and customers face in getting new storage projects approved and it’s one issue we anticipate the partners will work on.” Brian Lydric, chief regulatory engineer with IREC, says the process of allowing storage services to interconnect with the grid is different across the country, and can differ even between utilities in the same state. “Each state has a public utility commission (PUC) that will regulate indi-
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Brian Lydic, chief regulatory engineer with IREC
vidual utilities but not necessarily all the utilities in the state,” he says. “A developer applies to the utility and there are a number of steps to review the project that are laid out in PUC rules, and then the utility determines whether it can be interconnected without upgrades, or if it’s safe and so on, before it can get permission to be operated and pass the commissioning test. “If you pass all the stages you can get interconnected, but if you fail you have to go to a further level of review, which varies from state to state. Even determining if it needs upgrades can take a year.” IREC is identifying what the major issues are with storage and how to prioritize them, always with the end goal — to unleash the flexibility that storage has, and allow customers that
want to invest in these systems to be able to use them flexibly to meet the grid’s needs and increase the share of renewable energy on the system. “Standalone energy storage and solar-plus-storage systems provide significant potential for increased grid reliability and resilience. We look forward to applying our technical expertise to help address grid interconnection challenges,” says EPRI president Arshad Mansoor. “If we’re able to more efficiently connect energy storage to the grid, costs will plummet, making solarplus-storage systems more affordable and accessible to families and businesses,” says SEIA vice president of markets & research Justin Baca. SEIA has set itself the goal of creating the framework to achieve 20% of US electricity generation by 2030.
“Establishing best practices for the interconnection of storage to the grid is critical to sustaining market growth and enabling significant clean energy deployment.” — IREC president and CEO Larry Sherwood
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 39
OPINION: IHS MARKIT
Outage mitigation and the role energy storage can play Network operators of-the-grid communiacross the globe are inties that are physically creasingly facing powdistanced from largeer reliability issues as scale generation sites. renewable generation Here, power is translevels rise and network ported on often just infrastructure ages — a single line — either but for some regions transmission or distriit’s even worse, with bution — to the comoutages caused by seamunity, which means sonal occurrences such they are extremely as wildfires. vulnerable. By Oliver Forsyth As energy storage Building additional — analyst, IHS Markit systems can be fast to or reinforcing existing deploy, provide multiinfrastructure is not ple services and often come at a lower only costly but requires extensive percapital cost, there is a strong financial mission procedures. These are some case for installing them to improve of the key reasons network operators power reliability and specifically miti- are turning to ES instead — to provide gate outages. improved resiliency for these commuCountries across the globe are at nities. various stages of transitioning from IHS Markit is currently tracking a power supply relying on predomi- 254MW of operational ES providing nately dispatchable, spinning thermal outage mitigation services, driven by generation to high levels of renewable the US, Australia and mainland China. penetration. Network operators are now more acAt a system level, the intermittency tively seeking out ES in local networks of renewables creates challenges in to improve the resiliency of electricbalancing supply and demand. ity supply to customers. For example, At a local level, in areas with a high the Finnish energy company Fortum is uptake of distributed generation — building a 1MW ESS to mitigate outsuch as rooftop solar — there can be ages in the Finish capital of Helsinki, issues with power back-feeding, which which is often hit by severe winter can cause congestion and damage net- weather. work infrastructure. These trends, however, vary by counWhile energy storage can solve many try and region depending on local netof these issues, balancing power gener- work infrastructure, renewable generaation with demand and balancing fre- tion levels and regulation. quency are managed through systemwide services procured on an ongoing Utilities in the US install basis, rather than being addressed by ES for multiple applications network infrastructure. One of the key characteristics of ES In fact, a network operator is most that makes it so cost efficient is its abilinterested in using energy storage for ity to provide multiple services. Utilities managing congestion, helping to miti- across the US commonly utilize this gate outages and providing voltage characteristic by getting the system to support. Network operators may also provide multiple services, often includuse storage as a flexible resource to ing congestion management and voltdefer investments into existing infra- age support services. structure. Occasionally these systems will also With the rising frequency and sever- provide frequency regulation and other ity of natural disasters, such as wild- ancillary services in competitive marfires in Northern California or Aus- kets, which only improves the economtralia, the issue of mitigating outages ic case for these systems. is coming to the forefront of grid opNetwork challenges will also be alleerators’ attention. viated by small-scale solar-plus-storage, ES for outage mitigation is usually microgrids and large-scale front-of-theinstalled in local networks with a high meter ES. level of intermittent generation levels. Australia too is a key location for the The other major use case is in fringe- deployment of ES for outage mitigation
40 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020
services. Australia’s vast area and dispersed population means its electricity grid has to reach many remote towns and cities often connected by a single transmission or distribution line. Although front-of-the-meter ESS have been installed, Australia is unique in using a single behind-the-meter ESS paired with a solar PV system — dubbed a standalone power system (SAPS) — to replace the upgrade or rebuilding of a line. Western Australian utilities Horizon Power and Western Power have been installing fringe-of-the-grid for residential and commercial customers with these systems since 2016, with regulation standardization of SAPS across Australia, easing the way for network operators to follow in their footsteps. The other common situation in which network operators turn to ESS for outage mitigation services is in islanded nations or islanded communities, where there is limited support for interconnecting with other regions. An example is in Jamaica, where utility Jamaica Public Power procured a 21.5MW/16.6MWh Li-ion BESS plus three 1MW flywheels to reduce outages from growing intermittency from renewables. ESS are increasingly being recognized as an alternative to traditional network investment for mitigating outages at a much lower capital cost. These systems will be deployed in fringe-of-the-grid communities but as renewable penetration grows, ESS will increasingly be deployed across different points of constrained networks to increase reliability and resiliency. A key strength of ES is that it can provide multiple streams of value. Systems deployed primarily to support T&D infrastructure also participate in competitive markets. As participation becomes the standard, uptake will accelerate.
IHS Markit has more than 50,000 business and government customers, including 80% of the Fortune Global 500 and the world’s leading financial institutions.
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Disruption to the events programme As the autumn conference season approached for the battery and energy storage industry, hosts and organizers were struggling to decide whether to go ahead with events that have been in the diary for months, if not years. As this issue was released, and with the situation changing on an hourly basis, a variety of energy conferences and meetings had been postponed. While we have taken every effort to ensure these details are correct, please contact the conference organizers with any queries, or check websites throughout the listings.
ees South America August 25 -27, São Paulo, Brazil Rescheduled to August 24 - 26, 2021
ESA Energy Storage Annual Conference & Expo August 24-27 Phoenix, Arizona, USA Rescheduled from April 8-10 V Virtual Event #ESACon20 features 17 confirmed keynote speakers, 16 educational breakout sessions, daily streaming on ESAConTV, and, new this year, the ESA Storage Exchange – Powered by EPRI will be included in the programme. Programming is available from August 24–27, 2020 from 11 AM to 5 PM (EDT)/8 AM to 2 PM (PDT) daily.
The special exhibition “ees South America” 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, taking place at the Expo Center Norte in São Paulo. Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies, from components and production to specific user applications, 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 systems with increasing amounts of renewable energy sources. It attracts investors, utilities, installers, manufacturers and project developers from all over the world. Contact Solar Promotion International Tel: +49 7231 58598-0 Email: info@solarpromotion.com www.intersolar.net.br/en/home/for-visitors/ about-intersolar/focus-ees-south-america. html
42 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020
Contact Energy Storage Association Tel: +1 202 293-0537 www.esacon.org
12th Shanghai International Lithium Battery Industry Fair August 26 -28 Shanghai, China The 12th Shanghai International Lithium Battery Industry Fair will be held at Shanghai New International Expo Centre, China. An exhibition of new energy vehicles, super capacitors, charging equipment and energy storage will be held at the same time. The show area will cover an area of 30,000 square metres, while more than 600 exhibitors from the whole industry chain will show their latest products and technology. More than 100 visitor groups and 35,000 people will visit the event looking to purchase or communicate, promoting industrial innovation and development. Contact Guangzhou Zhenwei International Exhibition Tel: +86 208 395 3211 Email: cnibf@zhenweiexpo.com www.cnibf.net/en/
20th International Automobile Recycling Congress — IARC 2020 September 2-4 Geneva, Switzerland Rescheduled to June 23 - 25, 2021 IARC 2020 is the international platform for discussing the latest developments and challenges in automobile recycling, bringing together more than 250 decision-makers in the ELV recycling chain such as car manufacturers, metal and plastic scrap traders, recyclers, shredder operators, policy-makers and many more. A large exhibition area is integrated into the conference facilities, where vendors meet their clients. Cocktail receptions and a networking dinner create an excellent atmosphere to get in touch with business partners and colleagues. The congress will also offer two interesting plant tours. Contact ICM AG Susann Schmid Tel: +41 62 785 10 00 Email: info@icm.ch https://www.icm.ch/iarc-2020
2020 International Zinc Conference Europe September 7-9 Istanbul, Turkey Rescheduled from March 30 - April 1 In addition to providing an update on key market trends, including supply and demand for concentrates and metal, sustainable development, first use markets with a focus on hot dip and continuous galvanizing, innovative applications and regulatory issues, this 1.5day conference offers excellent networking opportunities. The conference will be complemented by an optional plant tour to a galvanizing plant. Contact International Zinc Association Tel: +1 919 361 4647 www.zinc.org/international-zincconference-europe-2020/
Istanbul, Turkey
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Intersolar Mexico
SPARK
Solar & Storage Live
September 8-10 Mexico City, Mexico
September 15–16
September 15-17 Birmingham, UK
Rescheduled to September 7-9, 2021 Intersolar Mexico serves as the industry’s go-to source for invaluable technology trends and premier B2B contacts in the promising Mexican solar market. Intersolar Mexico sits at the crossroads of photovoltaics, solar heating & cooling technologies, and energy storage. The event will be the largest gathering of professionals in Mexico for international manufacturers and distributors looking to meet regional buyers in the fields of solar, renewable energy and cleantech. Contact Solar Promotion International www.intersolar.mx/en/home.html
Solar Power International & Energy Storage International
V Virtual Event SPARK will bring together electrical and financial engineers; traditional and novel business models; the tech giants and the tech fireflies; the old-world old grid leaders who are reinventing themselves; and the new energy leaders. We SPARK ideas, innovations and relationships that will help you succeed. And we all need these now, more than at any time in history. Until we meet again in person, our commitment is to deliver these using the most innovative digital tools in the most innovative way. We’ll all – hopefully – not only survive, but thrive and grow together as we move into a future at the same time more exciting and more perilous than we ever imagined. Join us. Contact Terrapinn www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/spark/index. stm
Rescheduled for December 2-4 Solar & Storage Live’s exhibition is free to attend for all three days. The exhibition brings together stakeholders in solar generation and maintenance, storage deployment and emerging ancillary technologies: • Network with 4,500 industry professionals over three days • Visit one of our many exhibitors and check out the latest products and news • Benefit from three days of free content in the Solar & Storage Theatre. Contact Terrapinn Helena Da Costa Tel: +44 0207 092 1093 Helena.daCosta@terrapinn.com www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/solar-storagelive/
September 14 -17 Anaheim, California, USA
The Battery Show North America
Future Resource — The event for energy and water efficiency
Rescheduled for October 21 - 22
September 15-17 Novi, Michigan, USA
September 16-17 Birmingham, UK
It’s not just a solar show any more. SPI, ESI & North America Smart Energy Week is the largest event in North America for the renewable energy industry, including solar, storage, smart energy, wind, hydrogen & fuel cells, geothermal, and EV infrastructure. Anchored by the flagship event, SPI, North America Smart Energy week brings together an extensive alliance of renewable energy leaders for four days of networking, education and innovation that moves the industry forward. SPI, ESI & North America Smart Energy Week has become the centre of integration for the wider energy industry - with Energy Storage International (the largest energy storage event in North America, Smart Energy Marketplace + Microgrid, Hydrogen + Fuel Cells International, and Wind Energy International. Contact Wes Sutler Tel: +1 703 738 9475 www.solarpowerinternational.com/solarpower-international
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Rescheduled to September 14–16, 2021
Rescheduled for September 22–23, 2021
The Battery Show connects attendees with more than 8,000 engineers and executives, and more than 600 leading suppliers across the advanced battery supply chain. A powerful, end-to-end showcase, this leading global industry event covers today’s emerging advanced battery technology for the automotive, portable electronics, medical technology, military and telecommunications, and utility and renewable energy support sectors. Explore the full spectrum of cuttingedge solutions you need to make faster, smarter, and more cost-effective products at the most comprehensive industry event in North America.
Future Resource is the leading water and 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 Informa Markets/UBM Melissa Adams Tel: +1 310 883 8822 Email: Melissa.adams@ubm.com www.thebatteryshow.com
Contact Prysm Group Tel: +44 117 929 6083 www.futureresourceexpo.com
The Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi
Birmingham, UK
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 43
FORTHCOMING EVENTS 25th International Congress for Battery Recycling — ICBR 2020 September 16–18 Salzburg, Austria ICBR is the international platform for presenting the latest developments and discussing the challenges faced by the battery recycling industry. The 25th edition of ICBR will bring together many experts and decisionmakers 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. An exhibition area is integrated within the conference faciliy, where vendors can meet their clients. Cocktail receptions and a networking dinner create an excellent atmosphere to get in touch with business partners and colleagues. Contact ICM AG Susann Schmid Tel: +41 62 785 10 00 Email: info@icm.ch www.icm.ch
World Energy Storage Day — WESD September 22 V Virtual Event
Battery Experts Forum September 29-October 1 Frankfurt, Germany Rescheduled for April 27-29, 2021
World Energy Storage Day Global Conclave & Expo will be held on the web across seven regions. It will be the first time a marathon online event dedicated to energy storage and the EV industry has been organized on this scale. The event will bring together 75+ global thought leaders and policy makers to share insights on the policy, technology and business landscape in each of the 7 global regions. We are expecting participation of 20,000+ global delegates in this online event. Global Alliances including the Alliance for Rural Electrification, California Energy Storage Alliance, China Energy Storage Alliance, US Energy Storage Association, Indian Energy Storage Alliance, Innovation Norway, Irish Energy Storage Alliance are supporting the event.
To meet demand, the Battery Experts Forum will be taking place in the financial metropolis of Frankfurt am Main. With even more exhibition space, additional capacity in the conference halls and a great backdrop, the Battery Experts Forum is growing in the premises of the Forum Messe Frankfurt. Be there when more than 100 top experts in the battery industry report on the latest technology. • Discover the hottest trends in battery and charging technology live and up close • Exchange with experts • Bring your knowledge up to date .
Contact Customized Energy Solutions Swati Gantellu Email: sgantellu@ces-ltd.com www.energystorageday.org
Contact www.battery-experts-forum.com
17th European Lead Battery Conference and Exhibition (ELBC) September 22 – 24 • EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE
Expect high class speakers and top topics. This event is an absolute must for those involved in battery technologies.
PlugVolt 2020 Battery Seminar October 6-8 Michigan, USA Rescheduled for July 13-15, 2021 PlugVolt will be hosting the Battery Seminar 2021 in Plymouth, Michigan featuring an entire day of in-depth technical tutorials presented by worldfamous professors from the top 50 US universities on day 1, followed by days 2 and 3 with industry subject matter experts presenting on automotive and stationary storage applications respectively. Attendees will also get an exclusive opportunity to tour A123 Systems’ new Novi, Michigan facility. For more information and to register visit www.batteryseminars.com Contact PlugVolt JC Soman Email: juratesoman@plugvolt.com www.plugvolt.com/seminars/
V Virtual Event What are the latest market predictions from battery companies and industry analysts for 2021 and beyond? How has the lead battery industry managed through the global health crisis and what is the ‘the new normal’? Want exciting updates on lead battery research and innovation? Find out from delegates and industry experts at the biggest global gather-
44 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020
ing since the coronavirus pandemic. Meet delegates, industry exhibitors and suppliers, showcase your business and live connect with customers in dedicated booths – all in our virtual conference hall and exhibition space. Contact International Lead Association — ILA Maura McDermott, Event Management Email: 17elbc@ila-lead.org www.17elbc.ila-lead.org
PlugVolt will be hosting Battery Seminar 2021 in Plymouth, MI (USA)
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STRONGER TOGETHER JULY 14-16, 2021 Long Beach Convention Center / Long Beach, CA USA
Energy Storage North America and Intersolar North America come together for the first time next year to advance the clean energy future. Connect with installers, developers, utilities, technology providers, policy makers, and key stakeholders from around the world for innovative programs, networking events, and exhibits that maximize learning and deal-making.
Help shape the next phase of our clean energy transformation.
Learn more at Produced by:
esnaexpo.com/esj
FORTHCOMING EVENTS Lyon, France
The Battery Show Europe October 14-16 Stuttgart, Germany
BATTERIES 2020 Lyon, France October 7-9 For 20 years, the Batteries Event has remained one of the world’s most attractive event and the meeting place for technologies (lead acid, NiMH, Li-ion, post Li-ion), applications (from micro batteries to large format batteries) and the value chain (raw material suppliers, components manufacturers, OEMs, end users, recyclers, investors,)... BATTERIES 2020 will be held in Lyon at Marriott Lyon Cité Internationale. It will cover all aspects of the battery circular economy, beginning from the production of the battery through raw materials, battery manufacturing, battery use and safety, management and applications, going through market trends, research and development, new technologies and finally closing the loop with a focus on recycling, second life and regulations. International battery industry key players such as OEM, battery manufacturers, end users, experts, researchers and recyclers will come together to discuss and exchange on new chemistries, manufacturing process, battery components, battery second life, recycling, producer regulatory obligations in Europe, future expectations and innovations. Contact Avicenne Energy Laurent Pillot Email: contact@batteriesevent.com www.batteriesevent.com
Battery Tech Expo October 8 Northampton, UK Rescheduled from March 26 V Virtual Event The Battery industry is on the cusp of a power revolution, with big technology companies investing heavily in the next generation of battery development and energy storage. The event will provide a unique opportunity to showcase the latest products, technologies and services covering the battery management systems, EV battery, battery storage, battery development/ discovery, commercial and mobile power device sectors. Contact 10fourmedia Tel: +44 1283 815 719 Email: david.reeks@10fourmedia.co.uk www.batterytechexpo.co.uk
46 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020
The Battery Show Europe, co-located with Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo Europe, is the industry’s largest and fastest-growing trade fair for advanced battery and H/ EV technology. 400+ suppliers from across the battery supply chain, such as A123 Systems, CATL, Leclanché, Voltabox and Bosch Rexroth, will display thousands of design, production and manufacturing solutions, including battery management systems, battery pack assemblers/ integrators, materials, components, research, testing and recycling. This free trade fair is an opportunity to source the latest energy storage solutions to reduce costs and improve the performance of battery applications. Contact Informa Tel: +44 (0) 20 7921 8166 Email: thebatteryshowcs@informa.com www.thebatteryshow.eu
European Fuel Cell Forum October 20-23 Luzern, Switzerland ONSITE &
V Virtual Event
The 14th European SOFC & SOE Forum will focus on solid oxide technologies: fuel cells, electrolysers and membrane reactors. The forum will be the largest European Event in this field. 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 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, modelling and optimization. Under the title “industrial
achievements” product and novel concepts, P2X, chemical processing applications, standardization studies and others such as training and education are addressed. Contact www.efcf.com/2020
Advanced Automotive Batteries Conference — AABC USA November 2-5 San Francisco, California, USA V Virtual Event The AABC 2020 program will uncover the underlying technical and business issues that will impact the pace and path of vehicle electrification worldwide. Lithium-Ion batteries are the chief candidate for most xEV applications. Contact Cambridge Enertech Tel: +1 781 972 5400 www.advancedautobat.com/us/
India Energy Storage Week — IESW November 2-6 V Virtual Event IESW is a flagship international conference & expo by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) incorporated in 2019, which was earlier Energy Storage India (ESI). It is India’s premier B2B networking and business event focused on renewable energy, advanced batteries, alternate energy storage solutions, electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and microgrids ecosystem creation. The forthcoming edition of IESW is expected to attract global participation with the intention of facilitating bilateral trade, and will invite 20+ countries, 50+ regulators & policy makers, 200+ industry leaders, 100+ partners &andexhibitors and 1,000+ delegates. Contact Customized Energy Solutions www.indiaesa.info/events
Stuttgart, Germany: Home to Battery Show Europe & The Porsche museum
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
Gothenburg, Sweden
Sydney, Australia
Battery Tech Expo Nordic
All-Energy
November 3 Gothenburg, Sweden
November 4-5 Glasgow, UK
The battery industry is on the cusp of a power revolution, with big technology companies investing heavily in the next generation of battery development and energy storage. The Battery Tech Expo Nordic on November 3 is in Gothenburg, the hub of the high-tech industrial sector, and will bring together professionals from across the advanced battery technology industry. The event will provide a unique opportunity to showcase the latest products, technologies and services covering battery management systems, EV battery, battery storage, battery development/discovery, commercial and mobile power device sectors.
All-Energy is the UK’s leading renewable energy and low carbon innovation event, showcasing the latest technologies and services for the energy supply chain and both private and public sector energy end users. All-Energy generates invaluable connections between the buyers and sellers of low carbon solutions across the UK marketplace. With more than 75,000 unique web users, 4,000 e-newsletter subscribers per month and 12,400 social media followers, All-Energy also delivers a multichannel platform for the industry with access to expert presentations, webinars, reports, interviews and blogs.
Contact 10fourMedia David Reeks Tel: +44 1283 815719 Email: david.reeks@10fourmedia.co.uk www.batterytechexponordic.com
Contact Reed Exhibitions Tel: +44 208 271 2179 www.all-energy.co.uk
The Business Booster November 4-5 Berlin, Germany The Business Booster is an annual two-day international networking event that showcases 150+ sustainable energy technologies under one roof. Contact InnoEnergy www.tbb.innoenergy.com
Electricity Transformation Canada November 10-12 Ontario, Canada Rescheduled for November 17-19, 2021 Electricity Transformation Canada will be Canada’s largest renewable energy conference and exhibition, with the key areas of focus being wind energy, solar energy and energy storage, while expanding to incorporate complementary technologies. Participants will include utilities, system operators, governments, end-use sectors undergoing electrification, and a variety of energy professionals. Contact Glenna Gosewich Show Director, Energy Events Tel: +1 (647) 560-7000 ggosewich@hannoverfairs.com
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13th Energy Storage World Forum & 6th Residential Energy Storage Forum November 24-26 Sydney, Australia Don’t miss out on the unique opportunity to learn from 20 utility and seven C&I speakers featured in two streams covering both residential and large-scale energy storage applications. We are actively monitoring the Covid-19 health and safety guidelines and have plans to move this forum online if necessary. Contact Dufresne Davide Bonomi Tel: +44 203 289 0312 davide@energystorageforum.com www.energystorageforum.com/residentialforum-program
International EV Batteries November 11-12 London, UK V Virtual Event It is estimated that the electric vehicle battery market is now worth £5 billion ($6.6 billion) in the UK. With increasing government investment, now is the time for the industry to make existing technology even more efficient to attract further buy-in. International EV Batteries 2020 will address the latest engineering design processes and best practice in battery application for a more resilient and cost-effective battery. At the event, the best methods to manage battery use and application will be discussed with representatives from OEMs, battery manufacturers, battery management systems providers and academic institutions. Contact Institution of Mechanical Engineers — IMECHE www.imeche.org
Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020 • 47
FORTHCOMING EVENTS Large Scale Solar Europe November 24-25 Lisbon, Portugal As Europe & the UK continue to see a growing number of new solar developments, this summit will look at topics such as tenders, equipment and energy pricing. Contact Solar Media Tel: +44 207 871 0122 Email: info@solarmedia.co.uk www.lss.solarenergyevents.com
The Energy Management Exhibition — EMEX November 25-26 London, UK EMEX is the UK’s must-attend energy event for everyone wanting to increase their organization’s energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. EMEX connects all industrial and 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. Contact Energy Managers Association Tel: +44 208 505 7073 Email: rr@emexlondon.com www.emexlondon.com
Battery Cells & Systems Expo and Conference December 2-3 Stoneleigh, UK Battery Cells & Systems Expo will bring together automotive manufacturers, electric utilities, battery system integrators, cell manufacturers and the entire manufacturing supply chain. A
Mumbai hosts ees India in December
48 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2020
truly unique showcase, companies from around the world will use the show to launch products and demonstrate their technology to an audience of over 4,000 professionals. Co-Located with the Vehicle Electrification Expo and the Advanced Materials Show, this will be a highly concentrated two days of networking, lead generation and education featuring the leaders and innovators responsible for shaping the future of this industry. Contact Event Partners Tel: +44 1273 286360 Email: enquiries@event-partners.org www.batterysystemsexpo.com
Future Battery Forum December 10-11 Berlin, Germany The management conference brings together the entire value system of battery technologies. Across various industries more than 300 users, battery system and cell manufacturers and their suppliers will spend two days exchanging information and making valuable new contacts. The event is rounded off by the innovation exhibition with 30 inspiring showcases as a networking and break-out area. Contact IPM Tobias Schmidt Tel: +49 511 473 147 90 www.futurebattery.eu
ees India December 15-17 Mumbai, India The market potential for electrical energy storage in India is expected to be tremendous in the future — expecially driven by incoming policies for the e-mobility industry. With the great success and support of ees Europe, Europe’s largest exhibition for
batteries and energy storage, ees India becomes the most powerful energy storage exhibition in India. The exhibition is the industry hotspot for suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and users of stationary electrical energy storage solutions. Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies — from components and production to specific user applications. Contact Solar Promotion International Kristina Merz Tel: +49 7231 585 98 212 www.thesmartere.in/en/ees-india
Advanced Automotive Batteries Conference Europe — AABC Europe January 17-21, 2021 Wiesbaden, Germany As more European nations and international automotive OEMs invest in their commitment to vehicle electrification and eMobility, the 2021 AABC Europe event in Wiesbaden propels that momentum forward, presenting unparalleled coverage of the research and development that helps drive outcomes and supports the next generation of electric vehicle batteries. Take part in this game-changing event, where battery technologists from leading automotive OEMs and their key suppliers explore development trends and breakthrough technologies Contact Cambridge Enertech Tel: +1 781 972 5400 Email: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.advancedautobat.com/europe
International Flow Battery Forum — IFBF January 19-21, 2021 Düsseldorf, Germany The IFBF is the major international conference covering all aspects of flow battery research, development, technology, manufacturing and commercialization. Each year our agenda is guided by the proposals from delegates for presentations and posters, and we are pleased to offer a mix of topics ranging from the latest commercial developments in flow battery projects, supply of raw materials and components as well as the latest research from laboratories, universities and public and private companies from around the world for discussion in the conference. Contact IFBF Tel: +44 1666 840 948 Email: info@flowbatteryforum.com www.flowbatteryforum.com
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