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As the global energy market, piece by piece, slowly but surely, moves towards a renewables-centered paradigm, dispatchable solar and uncurtailed wind, along with other forms of clean energy, are requiring longer and longer durations of storage to integrate them to the grid. While there’ll be a place for lithium-ion for many years yet, the technology really excels at applications of up to around four hours. For everything else, there’s a growing list of contenders, with diverse technologies and at different stages of commercialization. Here’s a handy guide to some of those technologies and their providers, electrochemical and otherwise, that promise anything from five hours to even days or weeks of storage.
U.S. entrepreneurs have led the world in creating new technologies for storing grid power, but they largely rely on other countries for their core ingredients. When a global supply crunch constrained those top tier suppliers, integrators turned to a growing roster of Chinese producers and found that they measured up. The Trump administration’s Department of Energy last week proposed a different vision, one in which the U.S. establishes a domestic supply chain for energy storage by 2030. It’s calling this a “Grand Challenge,” and promising millions of dollars and considerable institutional resources to achieve it.
Today, U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette announced the launch of the Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in energy storage.
“ESA commends Representatives Tom Reed (R-NY), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), and their bipartisan colleagues for introducing the Energy Sector Innovation Credit Act of 2019, which looks to establish a longer term, technology-neutral tax structure for all emerging energy technologies,” said Kelly Speakes-Backman, CEO of the U.S. Energy Storage Association.
The Republic of Ireland recently received its first grid-scale battery, which will help manage volatility as the island nation ramps up renewable power plants. The Fluence-supplied battery system will make money via a new product that rewards high-speed frequency response. Developer Statkraft and battery supplier Fluence announced Wednesday that the battery had been installed in County Kerry and will enter commercial operation a few weeks after commissioning. The Kilathmoy battery packs 11 megawatts/5.5 megawatt-hours and sits alongside a 23-megawatt wind farm.
Maryland regulators should create new value streams for energy storage projects that would compensate them based on their ability to reduce emissions and defer the need for distribution grid upgrades, among other factors, a group including utility, government, and other stakeholders including ESA said in a filing with the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC). The document is the next step toward determining how Maryland utilities will solicit energy storage projects 5 MW to 10 MW in size, as the state’s investor-owned utilities are mandated to do as part of a pilot program created by the state legislature last year.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) is putting up to $11 million on the table for developers of energy storage technologies other than lithium-ion batteries, according to a solicitation launched last month. The agency is looking for one group of projects based on emerging customer-side storage technologies and a second to focus only on customer-side electrolytic hydrogen storage. The solicitation is largely driven by California’s 100% clean energy statutory requirement and the need for a diverse set of longer-duration storage technologies, Jason Burwen, vice president of policy at the Energy Storage Association, told Utility Dive.
From Texas to Florida, more homeowners are interested in pairing batteries with rooftop solar. Local solar installation companies have faced a number of challenges in recent years, from the decline of state net metering policies to the Trump administration’s import tariffs. Now, a potentially significant opportunity is coming into focus for them: home battery systems. 2019 was a big year for both residential solar and home storage in the U.S. Power shutoffs in California and demand pull-in from the soon-to-decline federal Investment Tax Credit helped both industries log new records.
While expressing disappointment that end-of-year tax announcements in the US did not include a standalone energy storage investment tax credit (ITC), the policy could still have a big impact if introduced, the CEO of the national Energy Storage Association has said.
California regulators are proposing to authorize an annual collection of $166 million from ratepayers from 2020 through 2024 to fund the state’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) — and 85% of that budget will be allocated to energy storage technologies, in a bid to help communities that experience frequent public safety power shut-offs. The CPUC’s proposed decision would also expand the parameters of SGIP to benefit customers in high fire-threat areas.
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