The rise of electric vehicles and the quest to find solutions to energy storage for the renewables industry have created a breeding ground for tech experts to develop battery technologies.

Last week, Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy and the company he currently backs, Ionic Materials, unveiled a solid-state alkaline battery design that they claim would be cheaper and safer than the lithium-ion battery.

“What people didn’t really realize is that alkaline batteries could be made rechargeable,” Joy told Bloomberg in a phone interview last week. “I think people had given up,” Joy noted.

The three main possible applications of the new alkaline battery technology would be consumer electronics, electric cars, and energy storage for the power grid, according to the developers.

However, also according to Joy, the company just has the material, and the technology is not ready to go commercial right away. The rechargeable alkaline battery technology could be ready for commercial use within five years, Joy told Bloomberg, adding that Ionic Materials didn’t have a factory to manufacture the tech.

The prototype designs have demonstrated up to 400 recharge cycles for the alkaline battery, and Ionic Materials believes that the number of recharge cycles could be tripled, the New York Times reports.

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Founder and CEO Paul Nahi last night announced his resignation from Enphase, the PV microinverter maker and energy management specialist, which also makes its own AC Battery for energy storage.

Nahi revealed his decision during the company’s most recent earning’s call last night, when second quarter results for this year were discussed. The results showed a revenue improvement over the previous quarter but the company continues a difficult journey to become profitable and continues to face strong competition in the inverter sector of the solar industry. 

“It has been an enormous privilege to lead Enphase since inception and through its growth to become a leading global energy technology company,” Paul Nahi said.

“Our invention of the microinverter and the introduction of module level data monitoring has transformed the global solar energy landscape. Having managed Enphase from a concept through global leadership, I feel the time is right for a new CEO to continue its growth, while Enphase increases market share, expands into new geographies and explores new opportunities.”

While Enphase has deployed more than 650,000 systems in over 100 countries, including 15 million microinverters, the company is still battling to turn a profit in a highly competitive space. The company netted revenues of US$74.7 million in Q2 2017, 36% up from the previous quarter, shipping 224MW (DC) of microinverters. This meant a quarterly reduction in GAAP losses, from US$23.3 million in Q1 to US$12.1 million in Q2.

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Arizona Public Service (APS) announced Wednesday that rather than rebuild miles of electricity transmission lines, it will install two battery storage systems totalling 8MWh in rural  Punkin Center, Arizona — making it one of the first electricity companies in the US to utilise batteries instead of traditional infrastructure.

The two, 4 MWh Advancion batteries are made by AES Energy Storage. Construction on the project is slated to begin in fall 2017. While the use of energy storage to replace or complement the role of traditional wires, cables and substations has long been talked about, with one New York project discussed a few years ago thought to provide an opportunity to save a network operator more than three-quarters of a billion Dollars in upgrades to a substation for utility Con Edison, there has been little in the way of traction since. At present most utility-scale storage systems are providing grid-balancing or renewables integration – or both – rather than being seen as an alternative to transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure spending.

Scott Bordenkircher, APS’s director of transmission and distribution technology innovation and integration, said: “This project is a crucial step in the right direction for Arizona’s energy future. Over the next 15 years, APS has plans to add 500MW of storage capacity. This project is indicative of the type of smart grid APS envisions for customers, one that enables people to have more technology in their own homes.”

Currently, APS is using batteries to store excess solar power for use after sunset, with the batteries storing energy to use at peak times and for other functions such as voltage support.

Bordenkircher added: “We are watching as the prices come down on battery technology. Thoughtful implementation of battery storage is key to its future success. For a community like Punkin Center, the rural location, reduced implementation costs and added technological benefits make it the perfect candidate for this technology. ”

The batteries will increase power reliability to serve the community of 600 residents — who are located roughly 90 minutes northeast of downtown Phoenix.

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Northern Power Systems Corp., a Vermont-based provider of distributed energy power systems, is now offering a suite of megawatt-scale energy storage solutions that incorporate various battery types and capabilities, depending on the application and end-user need.

SAN DIEGO, CA–(Marketwired – Aug 10, 2017) – Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the largest gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage, today announced the winners of this year’s ESNA Innovation and Champion Awards.

The ESNA Innovation Awards were presented to three energy storage projects that demonstrated excellence and impact in two categories: Centralized Storage and Distributed Storage. Winners were recognized for their impact on the energy storage ecosystem, services supplied to customers and the grid, unique technology solutions, financing or partnerships.

ESNA Innovation Award Winners
Centralized Storage

• SDG&E Expedited Energy Storage Project
• Southern California Edison Hybrid Enhanced Gas Turbine (EGT)

Distributed Storage

• Marcus Garvey Village Solar+Storage+Fuel Cell Microgrid

The ESNA Champion Awards recognize individuals from the utility and policy sectors who have demonstrated significant leadership in advancing the role of energy storage to achieve a cleaner, more reliable and more resilient energy grid.

ESNA Champion Award Winners
Utility Champion

• Ron Nichols, President of Southern California Edison (SCE)

Policy Champion

• New York Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (D-88)

“I’m honored to receive Energy Storage North America’s Champion Award,” said Ron Nichols, Southern California Edison President. “The need to replace fossil fuels with alternative sources of energy for a cleaner energy future is of paramount importance to Southern California Edison, and to me. Through the visionary work of so many dedicated energy professionals at Southern California Edison and throughout the industry, we are now on the cusp of this change; and I’m extremely proud to be part of it.”

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Pierre-Pascal Urbon, CEO of solar inverter manufacturer SMA, has said that the company is anticipating medium-term “exponential growth” in the energy storage market, reporting a “positive performance” in storage-related sales.   

SMA, which in around 2014 and 2015 could comfortably have been said to have supplied around one third of all central inverters deployed worldwide, this morning released its financial results for the first half of this year.

In short, the company reported 3.8GW of inverter sales in the six month period, similar to 2016’s first six months, when 3.9GW of devices were sold. This equated to €381.1 million and EBITDA of €29.0 million. SMA also said it has an order backlog of €673 million. However, due to price pressures in the PV market overall, sales figures were considerably lower than in H1 2016, when almost the same number of inverters sold meant €482.3 million in sales.

“After a moderate start to the year, SMA increased its sales by 20% in the second quarter of 2017 as against the first three months of the year,” Urbon said.

“We saw a favourable increase in all key segments, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC). For the second half of the year, we expect the business to significantly pick up again based on strong incoming orders in all markets”.

The company is forecasting sales across all segments of between €900 million and €950 million for the 2017 financial year and net cash to rise to over EUR450 million.

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Energy storage providers are finding that aggregating storage and distributed energy resources can give them “a foot in the door” in wholesale power markets.

The California ISO has two products available for aggregated DERs: one for demand response providers, proxy demand response (PDR), and one for DER providers, known as DERP.  In particular, CAISO developed rules for DERPs to allow for aggregating different types of resources in the ISO markets, but these complex rules have yet to be put into practice. 

Still, companies are sussing out opportunities to leverage aggregated DERs, as the emerging market begins to gain traction.  It is an approach companies such as Tesla and EnerNOC have taken, as have Advanced Microgrid Solutions and PowerSecure. In their new partnership, Stem and CPower say California is one of the first markets they plan to target.

The company told Greentech Media it is already “engaging with customers” and looking “forward to some quick wins in California.”

The partners hope to find synergies by joining batteries’ demand cutting ability with demand response tools that can turn down air conditioning and heating systems, refrigerators and motors.

“If you’re solving it all with a battery, it’s going to be an expensive solution. If you’re doing it all with curtailment, it’s going to be a potentially disruptive solution,” Jason Babik, senior vice president of business strategy and development at CPower, told Greentech Media. Combining the two “can be really a ‘one plus one equals three’ type play,” he said.

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The sale of an NEC Corporation business division involved in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries will have no material impact on the group’s activities in energy storage, according to a company spokesman.

AESC (Automotive Energy Supply Corporation), a company owned 50-50 by NEC Corporation and carmaker Nissan, makes lithium-ion batteries, mainly for supply to the automotive sector, but also including stationary energy storage. Nissan confirmed yesterday that the entirety of that business will be sold to a Chinese investor, GSR Capital.

Nissan will implement the transaction by first taking full control of AESC – founded in 2007 to develop advanced lithium-ion batteries – by acquiring the combined 49% minority holding held by NEC Corporation and its wholly owned battery and electrode subsidiary, NEC Energy Devices (NECED).

The deal includes a stake held in AESC by NEC Energy Devices, which is an NEC business division making electrodes for lithium-ion cells, supplying AESC, among others. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of this year, but remains contingent on GSR purchasing all shares in NEC Energy Devices from NEC Corporation.

Meanwhile NEC Energy Solutions (NEC ES) sits further downstream in the energy storage value chain. This division, as the name implies, makes and delivers full-service solutions in stationary energy storage, for balancing grids and integrating renewable energy into networks and microgrids.

In short, NEC ES focuses on everything expect for the lithium cells themselves; in terms of hardware this includes battery systems, power conversion systems and control systems. But the company’s range of services offered on top of that include construction and commissioning, service and maintenance, warranties and financing.

“The rumour [that was reported] last week, was about NEC exiting the battery manufacturing business. It’s really the [electrode] and cell manufacturing business was sold,” said Roger Lin, marketing director for NEC ES.

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