Metals Tech

Last month at Greentech Media’s Energy Storage Summit, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel, Crowdsourced Market Insights: Role of Energy Storage in Creating the Grid of the Future. This panel employed a unique structure where our experts on stage were asked to interpret and weigh in as 500 attendees answered live polling questions on the top themes in the market.

Storage will displace natural gas peakers (eventually!)

Only 1 percent of attendees feel that natural-gas plants will always out-compete storage, a perspective that may have been shaped by Shayle Kann’s earlier presentation indicating that 4-hour storage begins to compete with peaker plants within four years, and always wins financially within 10 years. The majority of attendees foresee energy storage dominance outside of a five-year time frame.

Broad optimism among the industry on utility engagement

More than four out of five attendees believe 41 percent or more of utilities will be including energy storage in their IRPs within five years — and their optimism seems justified. GTM Research’s tracking shows the trend is not just emerging — energy storage is becoming the norm in utility planning.

In fact, Oregon is a sign of the times for utilities — Portland General Electric recently announced RFPs for up to 39 megawatts, the upper limit of the state’s energy storage mandate. When was the last time we saw a utility outpace legislators?

Lithium-ion is the undisputed king – who will emerge as its challenger?

Flow batteries draw the most optimism, with nearly half of attendees citing them as the most exciting technology for utility-scale applications. As system durations continue to grow, flow battery manufacturers are increasingly bullish on their pricing, claiming the high ground for 6-hour or longer duration and even eyeing the coveted 4-hour mark.

In the most definitive result, solar emerges as storage’s one true love

According to GTM Research’s latest analysis, coming out this quarter, a residential solar-plus-storage system installed today in SDG&E, PG&E or SCE’s service territory in California can break even within seven years, even without the Self-Generation Incentive Program.

Utility-scale solar-plus-storage PPAs are also reaching record lows as costs drop, and recent analysis has examined just how low costs will have to go to sustain these rock-bottom LCOEs.

BioSolar, Inc., a developer of breakthrough energy storage technology and materials, today highlighted the potential impact of its silicon anode additive technology. This new technology may enable widespread commercialization of Silicon (Si) anodes made from lower cost Si micro-particle materials, as opposed to Si-nano-particles, to fill the need for advanced batteries in many emerging market sectors.

The industry standard for Si anodes currently uses Si nano-particles, but the difficulty of manufacturing raw Si nano-particle materials remains a costly challenge. In contrast, Si micro-particles are easier to manufacture at a significantly lower cost. Unfortunately, anodes made from Si micro-particles are more prone to damage during battery charging and discharging due to volume expansion, thus not yet commercially viable. BioSolar’s innovative additive technology is designed to solve this problem.

Last year, BioSolar announced that its additive technology exhibited significant improvement in battery capacity and capacity retention when applied to Si anodes made from Si micro-particles. Following the announcement, the Company has received numerous inquiries from battery material suppliers worldwide that have been working on Si micro-particle anodes.

The company’s technical advances come at an opportune time in the rapidly growing battery market. This week, Ford Motors announced that it plans to invest up to $11 billion by 2020 with 40 hybrid and fully electric vehicles in its model lineup. This commitment from a major automotive manufacturer follows Volkswagen’s decision to spend $40 billion on electric cars, autonomous driving and new mobility services by the end of 2022 – significantly more than when it announced two months earlier it would invest more than 20 billion euros on electric and self-driving cars through 2030.

To enable mass-market applications such as electric vehicles, cost must be lower and capacity must be higher. Silicon anodes hold great potential in achieving these objectives, which is why it is heavily researched around the world. BioSolar believes its additive technology, when more fully developed and reviewed by industry experts and scientific peers, represents a breakthrough solution for this growing unmet need.

“The number and type of industry players that contacted us regarding our additive technology was surprising, and also confirmed for us that we are on the right path,” said Dr. David Lee, CEO of BioSolar. “Our additive technology is one we believe solves a fundamental challenge in how to significantly increase the capacity and lower the cost of lithium ion batteries using silicon anodes. We are quite encouraged by the positive interest we’ve received from battery material suppliers regarding our additive technology and we look forward to exploring market opportunities with them.”

Just like other economic sectors, the modern energy sector requires science, research and innovation. New technologies reduce costs and increase competitiveness, allowing states to meet international targets.

Decentralised production, efficient storage and renewable energy sources (RES) now complement or replace traditional large, centralised energy production. While in the past the sector belonged exclusively to large, strictly-targeted enterprises, today small firms and municipalities can engage in the production, storage and efficient consumption of energy, according to Economy Minister Peter Žiga.

“This leads to the interconnection of formerly separate industries such as electro-energetics, transportation and information technologies,” said Žiga at the Modern Trends in the European Energy Sector conference held in Bratislava on November 22, 2017.

The application of the trends results from not only the individual decision-making of countries, but also from the global, long-term strategy under the Paris Agreement of 2015. The agreement aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide a significant share of RES in the gross final energy consumption and increase energy efficiency.

“The targets, hand in hand with the interconnection of the power system, shift the EU from the role of global energy consumer to the global example for ideal management of the energy portfolio, its stocks and supplies,” said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at the conference.

Within the EU’s 2020 climate-energy package, Slovakia committed to increasing its RES share to 14 percent. Based on the latest Eurostat data from 2015, the country fulfils the target at 12.9 percent.

Households and small businesses using independent power systems, or microgrids, still find it hard to cope without their national electricity grids. Despite the rising popularity of photovoltaic plants and wind turbines, citizens still choose to remain connected to the national grid as a way to avoid power shortages.

Green energy generators rely on weather conditions and on the storage capacity of the building. To secure a permanent power supply, households should remain connected to the national grid, experts advise. “When the battery runs dry and there is no access to additional power, grid connectivity offers a vital back up function, even for households looking to become self-sufficient,” explains Christoph Graefe from EURELECTRIC, Brussels, representing the interests of the European electricity industry.

However, even if the storage capacity of the current available batteries is limited, smaller, more efficient devices are expected to be produced over the coming years. One example is the hybrid car battery that can also serve buildings. “The idea is that you drive to work in the morning, come back in the afternoon, and plug the electric vehicle into your house to recharge it. You may not need the car for the next days and, if the right technology is available, you could use the same battery as a storage device for your household or for your local area network,” adds Graefe. This pioneering system was launched last year by the Japanese company Nissan and it is being tested in Denmark.

In addition, once households are able to generate their own power, any excess can be fed into the grid. However, this puts strain on the grid, experts warn, as the infrastructure was designed for a single flow of electricity, i.e. from the power station to consumption places.

“A robust and flexible grid is essential for encouraging small power producers to feed into national power systems, and thus participate in the wider electricity market alongside conventional generation technologies,” says Red Eléctrica.

The Spanish electricity operator recommends better monitoring of the energy resources at TSO level (transmission system operators, entities entrusted with transporting energy), regardless of the voltage at which they connect to the grid: “This detailed exchange of information is paramount for the security and efficiency of system operation as well as for carrying out efficient network planning.”

The renewable energy provided by microgrids comes mainly from solar plants, as a wind turbine is less affordable for a household or even for an association of households. Fluctuations can be overcome with transformers or other technological devices.

“Beyond the particularities of any technology, we believe that all renewable technologies can contribute and complement each other and that the key element for their successful integration is to develop a strongly interconnected pan-European system and a robust and flexible grid, able to adapt to and cope with any feasible generation-demand scenario,” adds Red Eléctrica, which is the coordinator of the European project Best Paths, aimed at increasing the transmission network capacity to integrate more renewables.

The fact that customers are leaving the national grid to be self-efficient in energy can be challenging for the network operators. The overall costs of the system remain the same, regardless the number of the subscribers. So, fewer people sharing the grid costs means higher costs for those remaining connected. To sort it out, some experts suggest setting up a tariff model, which consists in paying for the real amount of the contracted energy.

Under this scheme, called proper cost allocation, users that have higher contracted capacity [the generation capacity is the maximum electric output a generator can produce, ed. note] pay proportionally more for the grid costs. “This requires transparent pricing based on the energy consumed and the networks used, free of inefficient tax, levies or regulation which distort the actual prices involved. In this respect, we consider a key milestone will be the completed roll-out of smart meters as this will allow wholesale market prices to be passed onto end-users or their suppliers,” points out Red Eléctrica.

The users, including those with self-generation capacity, will therefore be able to choose a supplier, connection type, configuration or tariff and, irrespective of their choice, the cost allocation will help the development of the energy system.

Existing microgrids are not monitored at national or EU level, but their number has grown recently, also due to the state incentives which the individual networks have received, notably in countries like Germany or the United Kingdom. The right of citizen to produce, store and sell renewable electricity is supported at EU level, through the so called Clean energy package, eight legislative proposals that will guide the energy policy all across Europe for the next decade.

SolarReserve’s 150MW solar thermal power plant has been granted development approval by the South Australian Government, paving the way for construction to begin this year.

The Aurora Solar Energy Project ocated in Port Augusta, about 300km north of the South Australian capital Adelaide, will incorporate eight hours of storage or 1100 megawatts-hours, allowing it to operate like a conventional coal or gas power station.

The AU$650 million plant – the biggest of its kind in the world – will have a capacity of about 135MW under normal operating conditions with the ability to increase that output in favourable conditions.

The plant will be situated about 150km northwest of Jamestown, where Elon Musk has installed the world’s largest Lithium-ion battery at Hornsdale Wind Farm.

Aurora will deliver 495 gigawatt-hours of power annually – providing fully dispatchable baseload electricity to the network.

It will supply 100 per cent of the South Australian Government’s electricity load from 2020, after it won a competitive tender process.

The project will also supply the broader market, enhancing competition and putting downward pressure on power prices.

In September 2016 the South Australian Government launched a tender process to procure 75 per cent of its long-term power supply in order to attract a new competitor into the electricity market, increasing competition and putting downward pressure on power prices.

The offer from SolarReserve was the lowest-cost option of the shortlisted bids with the government paying no more than AU$78/MWh.

The project is a big win for the Port Augusta community, which is still recovering from the 2016 closure of a major coal-fired power station in the town.

SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith said the development approval was an important milestone for the Aurora Solar Energy Plant.

“The remarkable story of the transition of Port Augusta from coal to renewable energy – which won a competitive tender against fossil fuel – is also a preview of the future of power generation around the world,” he said.