Li-ion battery storage costs continue to fall dramatically. But for batteries to fulfil their potential, particularly for grid storage, developers need to focus on fast charging, electric vehicle-to-grid capability, long duration storage and second-life batteries, explains Madeline Tyson at Rocky Mountain Institute. She runs through the different types of Li-ion batteries, their strengths and weaknesses, how they can be harnessed to address these … [Read more...]
UK heating plan still means 120 gas boilers installed for every low-carbon system
Though the UK is a leader in grid electrification it is a poor performer when it comes to the electrification of heating. In May the UK government proposed a clean heat policy to support the switch away from gas heating for 12,500 homes a year for two years. Jan Rosenow and Samuel Thomas at RAP say that looks like business as usual: for every one new low-carbon heating system, more than 120 gas boilers will be installed as normal. In 2019, 1.7m … [Read more...]
2019’s grid storage additions fell for the first time since 2013. Why?
Globally, new installations of grid storage fell year-on-year in 2019 for the first time since 2013. This IEA summary of the landscape is taken from its latest series of Tracking Clean Energy Progress reports. The IEA’s recommendations reflect the fact that grid storage is new and complex, needing changes to existing regulations and market rules that are unviable in the age of transition. The policy goal is to monetise the value of storage in … [Read more...]
Sales down, but cash preserved too: Regulators take note when setting new Utility rates
Utilities are suffering financial impacts because of the current pandemic, and regulators will be asked to address them when they set new electricity rates. The intention will be to help the utilities recover while keeping bills affordable for their customers. But not all the impacts on the utilities are bad news, explains Jim Lazar at RAP looking at the U.S. Though revenues have dropped and some labour costs risen, there is a list of things that … [Read more...]
Virtual blockchain for prosumers replicates a live utility-scale grid
Wayne Hicks at NREL describes research that’s created a virtual blockchain “prosumer” accounting system that replicates a live utility-scale grid. The goal of a real-world application is to allow countless individual households with their own electricity storage and generation to buy and sell power to each other; a truly revolutionary pathway. Clearly, it will require a system that securely accounts for vast amounts of transactions - a big enough … [Read more...]
Grid-scale Solar PV storage can use re-purposed old EV batteries
Once an EV battery has declined to 80% of its original capacity it is considered too weak for continued vehicle use. Recycling the battery – at that point - to make another one is expensive. MIT’s David Chandler describes how researchers there have run experiments and models to show that old EV batteries can instead be packed together and used as backup storage for grid-scale solar PV installations. It’s cheaper than building new Li-ion battery … [Read more...]
Negative electricity prices: lockdown’s demand slump exposes inflexibility of German power
The lockdown has unexpectedly allowed us to model certain aspects of the energy sector’s possible future. One is the oversupply of variable renewables into the grid. In Germany, a slump in demand plus an exceptionally sunny and windy few months sent wholesale electricity prices negative and to record lows. Fossil generators calculated that paying buyers to take electricity was cheaper than performing a shut-down re-start sequence, so they did … [Read more...]
Clean Energy threatened by lockdown of critical minerals supply
Clean energy technologies depend on the reliable and growing supply of critical minerals and metals, far more so than the old fossil fuel world. An EV uses five times the quantity needed by a conventional car, and an onshore wind plant requires eight times that of a gas-fired plant of the same capacity. Hence, electric transport and grid storage are now the largest consumers of lithium and cobalt. Examples of rising consumption abound for other … [Read more...]
Latest data shows lifetime emissions of EVs lower than petrol, diesel
Critics of the rapid roll out of electric vehicles correctly say that their factory door emissions (i.e. CO2 emitted during manufacture) are higher than those for standard petrol and diesel cars. Then you have to add the emissions of the local grid (how renewable is it?!) that’s charging your EV. But the numbers behind those calculations are always changing. Eoin Bannon at Transport and Environment describes the findings of their new tool that … [Read more...]
DSOs can use digitalisation to empower all grid stakeholders
Distribution System Operators (DSOs) are in charge of operating, maintaining and developing the distribution network to ensure that electricity is delivered to end-users in a secure, reliable and efficient manner. Harry Taylor, Chris Collins and Erik Rakhou at Baringa Partners spell out what DSOs need to do to take full advantage of digitalisation technologies and processes to make them fit for a rapidly transforming energy system. A growing … [Read more...]
Regulatory challenges to foster cross-border trade in electricity systems with increasing shares of renewables
The share of renewable generation in Europe’s power system is rising fast, but interconnection is not keeping up. Join us on May 19, 2020 to discuss this and related issues. More wind and solar makes the supply of electricity much more dependent on the weather. Nobody wants to build capacity only to switch it off when there’s too much heading onto the local grid. This could put an extra strain on delivering the Green Deal. One solution is to … [Read more...]
Grid Battery tech on track. It now needs re-designed markets, monetisation
The rapid expansion of variable renewable electricity generation is making cost effective storage more urgent. Sure enough, in Europe several electricity storage projects are under construction and new ones are announced almost on a weekly basis. The battery technology seems to be on track, with estimates of $156/kWh in 2019 dropping to $61/kWh by 2030. But progress is hampered by the lack of a market that recognises and rewards the true value of … [Read more...]
Multi-energy “island” Microgrids can increase grid resilience
As the number of different technologies producing power and providing storage increases, the grid is getting complicated. The best way to make it resilient against outages is therefore changing. The traditional way is to shut down the failing plant, leaving the rest of the grid to cope as best as it can with the change in voltage and frequency. Xi Zhang at the Energy Futures Lab, Imperial College, describes the research looking at multi-energy … [Read more...]
“All new vehicles sold must be electric by 2030” but can your nation, state, city do it?
More and more nations, states and cities are announcing plans for the ramping up of EV adoption. Jim Conca takes a look at his home, Washington State in the U.S., where all new vehicles sold must be electric by 2030. He says the new rules imply his state will have 4 million EVs on the road by 2045, up from 52,000 today. He carefully crunches the numbers to see if this target is realistic. The good news is that grid capacity will only need to rise … [Read more...]
Pumped Storage Hydropower 2.0: steel dams, underground, or 1-10MW modular
Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) is one of the most cost-effective utility-scale options for grid energy storage. The U.S. has plants across the country, totalling over 20GW of capacity. Now the Dept of Energy (DoE) is backing four teams developing blue sky (water?!) ideas that should make the next generation of PSH even cheaper. In this article the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) tracks their progress so far. They include dams made of … [Read more...]
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