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Energy-Storage.news spoke with Kelly Speakes-Backman, head of ESA, for a wide-ranging feature interview. Speakes-Backman said that energy storage right now is enjoying “extremely strong, bipartisan support, from Congress, from our Department of Energy and other administrations such as the Department of Commerce and Environment Protection Agency.” One of the reasons why storage is enjoying cross-party support in what appear to be divided times, is that there is growing recognition of the role batteries and other storage can play in creating an efficient, affordable and sustainable grid.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the first two orders implementing Order 841, which aims to break down market barriers to electricity storage. FERC found that the tariffs for SPP and PJM generally satisfy Order 841’s directive allowing electric storage resources to de-rate their capacity to meet minimum run-time requirements, but the commission also found that neither market includes minimum run-time requirements for resource adequacy and capacity in its tariff. So FERC directed the two market operators to submit tariff provisions reflecting their rules and practices regarding resource adequacy minimum run-time requirements and capacity minimum run-time requirements for all resource types.
The largest wind and solar developer continues to grow, with projects paired with storage as it reaches 5.3 GW of contracted solar projects. And it’s making good money at the same time. In its third-quarter results, NextEra’s presence in the solar market is bigger than ever. Development subsidiary NextEra Energy Resources added 747 MW of solar contracts and 341 MW of battery storage to its backlog, almost all of which is in the post-2020 time frame.
Supporting New York’s state goals of reaching 3,000MW of energy storage by 2030 – equivalent to 40% of today’s electric demand – codes for the safe installation of energy storage systems will go into effect on a permanent basis after 1 November. The issue of fire safety in relation to the deployment of stationary energy storage systems in New York, particularly in the US state’s densely populated urban areas, has been considered to have held back what has otherwise been a hugely fertile state for clean energy.
The biggest battery in America has been quietly at work for almost 16 years in a far more remote corner of America: a warehouse in central Alaska. The 46-megawatt battery, in Fairbanks, uses a chemistry that’s largely gone the way of fax machines. It’s old enough that its operators can’t find replacement parts for some components. But it still works, keeping the lights on in the city of 32,000 near the Arctic Circle, preventing 59 blackouts last year alone.
Now that wind energy has gone mainstream, the big challenge is how to squeeze the most kilowatts out of a wind turbine. The task is more complicated than simply increasing the size and efficiency of the turbine. People—and businesses—need electricity when they need it, but the wind blows when it will. The result can be an undersupply of wind energy during peak demand periods and an oversupply at other times, especially at night. However, more economical energy storage technology is coming online, and it’s having a powerful impact on both the wind and solar energy markets.
Community Environmental Council (CEC) and the City of Santa Barbara will present a free Home Energy Storage Workshop to help Santa Barbara homeowners understand the ins and outs of pairing solar power with battery storage. Led by CEC, the free workshop will provide the community an opportunity to gather and discuss power backup options in the face of imminent widespread “public safety power shutoffs.”
In a deal spanning 20 projects, seven states, two power markets and more solar than the entire state of Florida has installed to date, ACCIONA has agreed to a deal with Tenaska to acquire 3 GW of utility-scale solar and 1 GW of co-located solar and energy storage. Specially, ACCIONA envisions commissioning eight projects by the end of 2023, adding around 1.5 GW of peak capacity to its North American renewable energy portfolio.
British battery pioneers plan to build Europe’s largest energy storage project using a cryogenic battery that can store renewable energy for weeks rather than hours. The device will be built on the site of an old fossil fuel plant in the north of England to power up to 50,000 homes for up to five hours. Unlike traditional lithium-ion batteries, which typically store electricity for a few hours, the “cryobattery” will be able to store energy for months.
The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved a 316 MW / 2528 MWh (that’s 8 hours!) energy storage facility to “provide peak capacity, energy, and ancillary services in New York City while enhancing grid reliability”. Ravenwood Development (owners of the current gas plants at the site) plans to build out the project in three phases – 129 MW, 98 MW and then 89 MW – with the first phase complete by March 2021. If they deploy all 2.5 GWh of energy storage, they will demolish 16 existing gas peaker plants, only two of which are currently running.
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