A Look at the Biggest Energy Storage

This is one of the biggest challenges, and opportunities, of building a sustainable future. Whether storage solutions are in batteries, capacitors or new tech, it will feed a global surge in new projects.

A Look at the Biggest Energy Storage Projects Built Around the World in the Last Year 

by Mike Stone 

And if current activity is any indication, 2016 will be an even bigger year than last.

Last year will likely be remembered as the year that energy storage got serious. While projects of all sizes were installed in record numbers, distributed storage received outsized attention -- particularly in the U.S.

But what of the larger grid-scale projects?

We thought it would be helpful to round up some of the biggest energy storage projects that went live last year around the world.

Starting off our round-the-world tour in Europe, two big battery projects were tied for the top spot in 2015. In September, developer Energiequelle opened a 10-megawatt utility-scale energy storage plant at Feldheim in Brandenburg state, Germany. The lithium-ion installation at the Regional Regulating Power Station has been designed to provide frequency regulation services and help integrate more wind power into the grid.

However, as the year came to a close, the German project had to share the top spot with a Dutch rival.

Going live just before Christmas, AES’ first installation in Europe -- in Vlissingen for state-owned system operator TenneT -- provides primary control reserve, frequency regulation and load balancing to the grid, using lithium-ion chemistry and AES’ Advancion technology. AES is planning another 10-megawatt project going live in Kilroot, Northern Ireland in January this year.

In the Americas, SolarReserve’s 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes solar tower in Tonopah, Nevada finally became operational in September and is now providing up to 10 hours of molten salt storage for cloudy days and night time.

On the battery storage front, the biggest project installed last year in the Americas consisted of two 31.5-megawatt installations from Invenergy. Its Grand Ridge energy storage project was deployed at a wind farm about 80 miles southwest of Chicago. As well as helping to integrate the energy from those turbines into the grid (and some solar power), it was designed to offer fast-response frequency regulation.

The Grand Ridge project features an array of lithium-iron-phosphate batteries manufactured by China’s BYD. The second, very similar, installation was at Beech Ridge in Rupert, West Virginia, about 60 miles southeast of Charleston. Both battery projects serve the PJM Interconnection.

Africa also made strong advances in the concentrating solar power field last year, with two large projects built at either end of the continent. KaXu Solar One went live in South Africa. The 100-megawatt CSP plant has 2.5 hours of thermal storage capacity, and it is expected to power 80,000 local homes. The troubled Spanish company Abengoa is behind the project and has been working with local companies for the engineering and construction.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles north, ACWA Power raised funds from a variety of international institutions, plus the king of Morocco, to build the 160-megawatt Noor-I CSP plant in that country. The Saudi company and its partners had hoped that the project -- which stores energy for up to 3 hours -- would come on-line last year. However, the opening was postponed at the last minute.

Company spokesperson Jon Barber said the delay was “purely” due to scheduling problems caused by the “many very senior people” who wanted to attend the launch. As of the time of writing, efforts to confirm a new date with ACWA have been unsuccessful.

Another would-be contender for the largest energy storage project in Africa -- and indeed the world -- was the planned 1,332-megawatt Ingula pumped hydro plant between the provinces of Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa. Although scheduled for last year, utility Eskom’s third such project has been delayed, at least partly due to labor unrest, and will probably not be active until the middle of 2016.

The Asia-Pacific region has been gearing up its production of batteries for a while now, with Japan and South Korea as clear leaders in manufacturing. Unsurprisingly, both of these countries can boast impressive new electrochemical storage projects that were constructed in 2015.

Tohoku Electric Power Company's Nishi-Sendai Substation, in Japan, started operation of a Toshiba-supplied 40-megawatt lithium-ion battery system in February for frequency regulation services. Also in Japan, Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s 15-megawatt/60-megawatt-hour vanadium redox flow battery from Sumitomo started operation last December. Located next to one of the country’s largest solar power plants, it will be used for frequency regulation as well.

Korea’s largest battery installation was Korea Electric Power Corp.'s 28-megawatt lithium-ion array, which has also been earmarked for frequency regulation and will serve the grid around Seoul. The country says it is planning up to 2 gigawatts of storage by 2020.

“Stationary energy storage continues to show strong growth in the number of projects delivered, the total amount of energy storage deployed, and the size of utility-scale storage systems. These trends are likely to continue as storage increasingly becomes a grid management asset, and we will consistently see records broken for the capacity of the largest stationary energy storage plants," said Dean Frankel, an analyst from Lux’s energy storage team.

Earth Month is coming!‏

From our friends at Terra Pass.  Despite the snow today in the Northeast, good time to start thinking about making Earth Day this year a huge, lasting success:



It's almost that time of year again; April is Earth Month and TerraPass is celebrating in a big way. In fact, we're so excited for Earth Month this year that we've decided to revel in it all through April and May! With lots of interesting articles, infographics, blog posts and deals coming your way in the eight weeks ahead, be sure to tell your friends and family members to sign up for our emails so that they too can join in the fun.

The first Earth Day was on April 22, 1970. Since that very first Earth Day, we've reached many significant milestones in environmental law including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, among others. Earth Day has exploded into an international event spanning 196 countries, all demonstrating support and raising awareness for environmental issues.

We’re encouraging each person to do their part to minimize their environmental impact. Every little action makes a difference!

US Power Costs Falling With Low-Carbon Energy: ‘We’ve Entered a New Era’

This is another great, encouraging example of the business side of green--affordable renewables displacing the use of fossil fuel and powering a whole new, economic era.  Amen.

We can add to the good news.  Our interview last week with the USDOE confirmed there is a mega-watt solar project in CA coming on line soon at 3.7 cents per KW.  Remarkable. That is beyond competitive...that is a market low.

Recognizing the amazing financial/ecological benefits to producing local, clean energy, which we've recapped here many times, seeing the falling prices to bring on those power sources makes it a true, triple-bottom line win for our world.

US Power Costs Falling With Low-Carbon Energy: ‘We’ve Entered a New Era’ 

by Katherine Tweed

The impressive numbers for renewable energy in 2015 keep coming.

Just as there has been a tipping point globally in clean energy, the same is true in the U.S., according to new figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE).

The fourth annual Sustainable Energy in America Factbook  highlights the record year for utility-scale and distributed solar, huge gains for wind energy, and a shift away from coal toward natural gas (which has a smaller carbon footprint although it is hardly clean). The result is an energy industry that is decarbonizing across the board.

As in every other year of the study, “the one common thing is change, writ large,” said Ethan Zindler, head of the Americas unit at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

One of the most significant pieces of the report is the data on prices and decarbonization. As stakeholders debate the cost of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, this new study shows that decarbonizing the U.S. economy has not led to higher power prices in many regions.

Much of the decline in wholesale power prices in recent years has been driven by cheap natural gas. But that did not translate into lower retail prices everywhere. While wholesale prices were down as much as 36 percent in New York in the past decade, retail prices were down only about 16 percent in the state.

The retail cost drop in New York is considerable compared to the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which also saw wholesale price drops in the past decade. At the same time, retail prices actually climbed 17 percent. On average, however, retail prices are below the 2008 peak, while 2015 saw an average decrease of retail prices of about 1.3 percent.

Natural gas is not the only fuel affecting wholesale and retail power prices. Wind transmission is bringing more wind where it is needed, and plans for additional transmission have the ability to bring prices down further, especially in the Midwest.

"Wind power is two-thirds cheaper than it was six years ago, and after installing 8 gigawatts of clean wind energy last year, we’re going to keep this American success story going," Tom Kiernan, CEO of the American Wind Energy Association, said in a statement.

In Texas, wind curtailment fell from a peak of 17 percent in 2009 to 0.5 percent in 2014, thanks to the build-out of the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone transmission line, according to the Factbook. “Transmission is getting better and better every year,” said Rob Gramlich, SVP of government and public affairs for the American Wind Energy Association.

Along with better wind delivery, robust energy-efficiency policies, such as decoupling utility revenue from kilowatts sold and energy-efficiency resource standards, are also helping to keep power prices down without affecting the economy.

The study found that the U.S. economy has grown 10 percent since 2007, but energy consumption has fallen by 2.4 percent. For 2015, electric load growth was less than 1 percent, but last year’s GDP is projected at 2.4 percent.

"As we consider the post-Paris world, we should acknowledge that we've entered a new era here in the United States,” Lisa Jacobson, president of the BCSE, said in a statement. “We now have both the tools and the capacity to achieve carbon reductions and cost savings along with economic growth. Now our job is to continue to build on the progress we've made."

China Unveils Proposal for $50 Trillion Global Electricity Network

This, at first glance, might seem like a outlandish proposal.  Yet it fits in perfectly with NOAA's plan to link the US with a renewable system that will get us to 85% clean energy within 15 years of starting construction.

Can we fit that blueprint into China's world vision?  Sure.  What gets in the way, of course, is politics and self-interest first.  Encouraging, though, that China as at least proposed a global system of electricity that could bring incredible ecological benefits.  Even if we get half way around the world, the improvements with be great.


by ERIC BACULINAO

BEIJING — China has unveiled a proposal for a $50 trillion global electricity network that would help fight pollution and the effects of climate change.

The plan envisions linking existing and future solar farms, wind turbines and electricity plants in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, according to the head of State Grid Corporation of China.

The proposal is in its initial stages and would require huge investment from around the world. If it goes ahead, it would be the world's largest infrastructure project. It could be operational by 2050, according to backers.

The planet faces "three major challenges" of energy scarcity, environmental pollution and climate change, state-run news agency Xinhua News Agency quoted the firm's chairman Liu Zhenya as saying at an international energy conference on Wednesday.

Global energy interconnection" was the answer to these threats, Liu said.

The State Grid Corporation of China envisions a future "global village" of efficient transmission lines to tap and distribute electricity from giant solar farms around the equator and wind stations in the Arctic, according to its website. Liu estimated that the global network could mean clean energy comprising 80 percent of global consumption, displacing fossil fuels as Earth's principal energy source.

China's government invests more than any other country in wind and solar energy.

Energy transmission technology "has matured and clean energy is becoming more economical, so the conditions for building global power interconnection already exist," Liu said in a statement on the company's website.

Related: Gates, Zuckerberg and Other Tech Titans Team Up to Push Clean Energy

The Chinese firm's proposal is ambitious but possible, according to Xue Jiancong, energy analyst at China Merchants New Energy Group, a leading renewable energy company.

"It's a brilliant plan," he said. "It might encounter difficulties during construction but it's possible."

Xue added: "Reducing carbon emissions is a global issue and as a great power, China is taking on more responsibility. This plan is good news for the world."

— Julia Zhou contributed to this report. 

U.S. Electricity Generators Face Further Revenue Loss -

This is the other side of watching renewables grow as a producer of energy--traditional  generators lose market share, revenue, jobs.  Is this a good trade off?

Good question.  Yes, for the environment, no doubt.  Can we, though, regain as many jobs in a low-carbon economy driven by renewables.  We thing the answer is, yes, and well on its way.  Job creation, as heard on our radio show this week, is at an all time high in solar.

Like a lot of employees, those coming out of production of fossil fuel will transition, we believe, with new skills and in an industry more sustainable, to a very clean and healthy world.  This is a historic shift.  One we will financially and socially appreciate for many centuries:

Already feeling the pinch of lower demand due in part to solar power uptake and energy efficiency, conventional U.S. electricity generators could be facing an additional USD $2 billion loss of revenue starting in a few years.

According to an article on Bloomberg , grid managers serving the eastern U.S. plan to reduce

expenditure on electricity purchases from conventional generators by approximately 1,400 megawatts – enough to fully power 780,000 households – starting in 2019.

The Bloomberg news item draws on a report by power industry consultant ICF International Inc.

In 2015, revenue from electricity sales in the U.S. fell 1.3 percent to $388.1 billion and almost 18,000 megawatts of conventional generation was retired.  However, 7,286MW of solar PV was installed across the nation last year – the largest annual total ever.

A predicted 16 gigawatts of capacity – around 61.5 million solar panels –  will be installed in the U.S. this year; representing year-over-year growth of 119%.

By 2021, the U.S. solar market may eclipse a cumulative total of 100 GW, with an annual installation rate of 20 GW or more. While a significant chunk of this activity will be focused on utility-scale, residential PV will certainly continue to make its presence felt.

If the grids decide to factor in power from rooftop solar power systems in the future, it would constitute “a double punch on the conventional power plants,” says George Katsigiannakis, a principal at ICF.

Mr. Katsigiannakis also cautioned that too much reliance on solar may result in an unstable grid – a point of view that some may argue against; particularly with the energy storage revolution moving along at a fairly rapid clip.

And on that topic, in January ICF  also flagged that it was time for utilities to get cracking on addressing the impacts of energy storage.

“The critical question is no longer whether storage on the distribution and customer side of the grid is going to fulfill its promise,” states a white paper from the firm.

“Rather, our industry needs to begin to shift the debate away from the potential and focus on the longer view questions of ownership and placement of the systems.”

That white paper, Utilities and Storage: Will Optimizing on Resiliency Pull Storage Back from the Edge of the Grid?, can be downloaded here.

The writing on the wall regarding losses mounting for conventional electricity generators has been visible for some time. Last year, a report by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) said customer load defection could erode utility annual energy sales in north-east USA by as much as ~10–20% in 2020, jumping to as much as ~50–60% by 2030.

- See more at: http://www.renewablenow.biz/renewable-business.html#sthash.yEKuEInt.dpuf

Sin City's Streets Going Solar

From our main site and a follow up to our coverage this week of the explosion of growth, certainly around the US, of the solar industry.  Vegas and all of Nevada are clearly great sites for clean energy production given the natural resources and abundance of sunshine:

 
EnGoPLANET announced a partnership with the City of Las Vegas. Through the partnership with the city, EnGoPLANET will install their innovative solar-kinetic street lights solution at Boulder Plaza. It will be the first-ever installation in the world of this street lighting technology that combines kinetic and solar energy.

EnGoPLANET is a New York City-based clean tech start-up, and the company aims to become a leader in the off-the-grid street lighting industry. The company 
 plans to partner with Cities, Universities and Large Corporations in deploying this clean solution to light streets. According to their team, there are 300+ million inefficient street lights globally that must be replaced over the next decade.

EnGoPLANET’s Street Light is off-the-grid solution, powered by combining kinetic and solar energy. Kinetic energy is harvested from pedestrians’ footsteps via kinetic energy pads. When someone steps over a kinetic tile, energy is created and goes directly to the battery. The street light solution is also equipped with sensors that collect real-time data. The USB ports and Wireless Charging pad incorporated into the pole are additional useful features of the product.

Petar Mirovic, CEO of EnGoPLANET, said, “No corner of the planet and no sector of the global economy will remain unaffected by climate change in the years ahead. Currently, street lights in the world release more than 100 million tons of CO2 per year. Our generation has the moral responsibility to transform our energy system. EnGoPLANET’s Street Light solution will revolutionize the way we illuminate streets. It will reduce CO2 consumption by using only renewable energy sources, and also lowers maintenance bills. With many new features, these street lights will make cities smarter.”

 

He added, “If you look at traditional street light poles, you will see that they are useless. They simply hold the lighting. With our solution, we’ve changed that by incorporating useful features into the pole and transforming it into a free service spot where people can rest, charge their portable devices, or connect to WiFi.”

“The city of Las Vegas is a leader in sustainability, from our commitment to renewable energy to recycling, our alternative-fuel vehicles and streetlights,” said Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman and added:

“We are always interested in exploring new technologies that can help us to preserve our city for future generations."

- See more at: http://www.renewablenow.biz/the-sustainable-community.html#sthash.F3Rba5AV.dpuf

Green' public housing may help families breathe easier

Over the years we've worked with Green and Healthy Homes and can confirm that investments in low-income housing, specially in older, urban centers, around remediation, efficiency and clean energy has amazing, incredible health benefits and quickly gets families back in school each day and working without chronic ailments.  Great part of sustainable changes.

'Green' public housing may help families breathe easier

By Amy Norton

  

(HealthDay News) -- Low-income families living in "green" public housing may have fewer problems with asthma and other respiratory conditions, a new study finds.

Researchers found that children living in Boston's newer, greener public housing had fewer asthma attacks, hospital visits and missed school days, compared with their peers in standard public housing.

Adults, meanwhile, were less likely to report symptoms consistent with a condition called "sick building syndrome" -- which include dizziness, headaches, nausea and eye irritation.

The research, reported in the American Journal of Public Health, did not find a cause-and-effect link that proves green housing improves people's respiratory health.

But it makes sense that it would, said lead researcher Meryl Colton, who was at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston when the study was conducted.

It's known that indoor pollutants and allergens such as mold, cockroaches and cigarette smoke -- can trigger kids' asthma symptoms, explained Colton, who is now a medical student at the University of Colorado. And experts believe that exposure to those triggers partly explains why lower-income children are particularly hard-hit by asthma.

"So we've got a likely mechanism to explain why green housing was associated with fewer symptoms," Colton said.

Over the past decade, the Boston Housing Authority (BHA) has been moving toward greener public housing, Colton said. That has meant constructing new mid-rise buildings and townhouses with eco-friendly materials, solar panels on the roof, and a "tighter" exterior to make them more energy-efficient.

But besides cutting heating and cooling costs, the greener designs also improve indoor quality, Colton explained. Mechanical ventilation systems move the "bad" air out and the fresh in. And common sources of indoor pollution are absent -- units have electric stoves rather than gas ones, for example.

Green "policies" have been another key step, Colton said. Smoking is banned, and use of chemical pesticides has been slashed -- two moves the BHA has now extended to all public housing, according to background information in the study.

Instead of spraying toxic fumes, buildings now use "integrated pest management," Colton said. That includes sealing up areas where pests can get in, and quickly fixing water leaks that can entice unwanted visitors.

"They also educate residents on pest control, like limiting open food sources and reducing clutter," Colton said. "And if pests do get in, the buildings first use nonchemical methods, like bait traps."

To see how all of those steps might be affecting residents' health, Colton's team visited 235 families living in one of three Boston public housing sites: 100 lived in green homes, and the rest lived in older, standard units.

The group included 44 children with asthma, and the researchers found that those living in green housing were faring better. The kids were two-thirds less likely to have had an asthma attack in the past year, and 75 percent less likely to have made a trip to the hospital for worsening asthma.

Meanwhile, adults in green housing reported 35 percent fewer symptoms of "sick building syndrome," attributed to indoor air pollution in modern buildings that are tightly sealed, but not necessarily well-ventilated.

One medical expert not involved with the research was excited to see these study results.

Dr. Elizabeth Garland, an associate professor of preventive medicine and pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, has studied the effects of green public housing in New York. In a 2013 study, her team found similar benefits among children with asthma who were living in green buildings in the South Bronx, she said.

"I think this really is the wave of the future," Garland said. In New York City, she noted, it is now law that all new affordable housing meet certain "green" standards.

There is still more research to be done, according to Colton. "Are these health benefits maintained over time?" she said. "Is it possible that they increase?"

Research into the financial side is also important. "Green housing does take a large initial investment," Colton said.

But, she added, the move could pay for itself in the form of not only lower energy bills, but lower health care costs.

"People sometimes think of 'green building' as an upper-middle-class luxury," Colton said. "But it can be much more than that."

Even when cities are not in a financial position to start building new public housing, they can switch to green policies, both Colton and Garland said.

Banning smoking and reducing chemical pesticides are two important steps, Garland said -- though, she added, that also means the public health system has to do a better job of helping people with smoking cessation.

Garland also suggested that whenever possible, people take their own steps to clear the indoor air -- by avoiding chemical-containing air fresheners and opting for less-toxic cleaning products, for example.