Over 9,000MWh of battery energy storage could be deployed in Britain over the next five years as the sector enjoys a trend towards “explosive growth” driven largely by the country’s clean energy transition, a market analyst has said.

Lauren Cook of Solar Media’s Market Research division spoke to CEN sister publication Energy-Storage.News this week on the publication of ‘UK Battery storage: Opportunities & Market Entry Strategies for 2018-2022’, a new report.

Cook found that in just 12 months, the UK’s pipeline for new battery storage projects has grown by over 240%, with forecasted installations in 2018 set to rise more than 200% year-on-year. Opportunities are being created by a range of drivers including a national commitment to phase out coal, falling technology costs and more than 30GW of wind and solar capacity ripe for co-location with batteries.

“The market is growing and it’s changing rapidly. There’s now projects completed on the ground. Once global companies start to see it’s not just a speculative market, it will make sense for them to think about how to enter the market and what the opportunities are for them.

“They will then need to know who is active in the market, who has these opportunities and who they will have to work with to take advantage of those opportunities.”

Going beyond the deployment figures, Solar Media Market Research also looked extensively at business models, another aspect of the industry analyst Cook said is changing fast. With an emphasis on projects earning long-term revenues, it is becoming commonplace to speak of a “revenue stack” – earning multiple revenues streams for providing a range of services. However, Cook said, there is no such thing as a “typical” stack in the market today.

“I’m not sure there’s any such thing as a typical stack because there are many factors involved, but if you look at the timeline from the EFR of 2016 you had those projects were successful, those projects then went on to apply for the Capacity Market (CM), T-1 and T-4 in early 2017,” Cook said.

“Some of those were successful, some of those weren’t. We then saw the FFR auctions happening throughout 2017. Those projects also participated in those auctions, new projects also came in.

The California Public Utilities Commission in mid-January became the first state regulator to issue revenue stacking rules for energy storage projects, but the rules could be more of a starting point than an end point.

Revenue stacking — the layering of uses for a storage system to allow for more than one revenue stream — has become something of a Holy Grail for energy storage projects since the concept was included in a 2015 paper by the Rocky Mountain Institute. The idea is that the economics of energy storage can be optimized by using its unique characteristics to act as both load and supply, which gives it the flexibility to provide multiple uses or applications, sometimes simultaneously, and therefore layer on more than one revenue stream.

“The new rules will provide a framework for authorizing multi-use applications for energy storage projects that should guide both utilities and developers alike,” Alex Morris, vice president of policy for the California Energy Storage Alliance, told Utility Dive.

In addition to drawing up a set of 11 rules on revenue stacking, the underlying order also establishes a working group to develop “clear, actionable recommendations” on issues such as compensation for PUC jurisdictional services, the appropriate metering and measurement of Multi-Use Applications, and PUC enforcement of Multi-Use Application rules. It also includes recommendations on enabling uses for community storage projects and the implementation of AB 2868 — a 2016 law that calls for the “acceleration” of 500 MW of distribution-connected energy storage facilities, such as behind-the-meter and community energy storage installations.

California Public Utilities Commissioner Carla Peterman raised the possibility of opening another proceeding on energy storage, if need be. The CPUC is also exploring the idea of instituting an expedited process for approval of energy storage projects, Morris said.

Stem, Inc., an energy storage optimization company, was chosen by Kilroy Realty Corporation (KRC) to deploy over 7.5 MWh of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven energy storage at eight commercial buildings in KRC’s California portfolio. The selection was facilitated by Black Bear Energy Inc., who acted as the owner’s representative for Kilroy Realty.

Stem will install its Athena^TM-powered storage in 2018 at four KRC office buildings in San Francisco and another four in Los Angeles, representing approximately 20% of KRC’s stabilized office portfolio. The KRC systems, which utilize a uniquely-tailored financial structure for real estate firms, will join the world’s largest digitally-connected storage network. This network uses the systems when idle to support strained local grids and enable higher penetrations of clean power in the community.

“Intelligent energy storage helps reduce the environmental footprint of our building operations,” said Sara Neff, senior vice president of sustainability at KRC. “Black Bear’s expertise with clean energy and Stem’s AI-powered solution will help us achieve our environmental goals while helping to modernize the grid, which is a natural alignment with our business vision.”

“When it comes to real estate and energy storage for commercial buildings, it’s the brains behind the batteries that differentiate solutions,” said John Carrington, CEO of Stem.

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New York State could be on its way to crafting the most aggressive energy storage goal in the country.

The target is still a work in progress, but based on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) recent announcement and interviews with analysts, it could be set above 1,500 MW by 2030.

“I think the target would be higher than 1,500 MW,” Conor Bambrick, air and energy director at Environmental Advocates of New York, told Utility Dive.

California’s energy storage target is 1,300 MW by 2020. In his state of the state address in early January, Cuomo set a target of 1,500 MW by 2025. But 2030 is the target year that will be established by New York’s current energy storage bill, to keep it on the same track as the state’s 50% renewables goal in its Clean Energy Standard.

‘Eye catching’ goal

Cuomo’s 1,500 MW goal is “eye catching,” Dan Finn-Foley, senior storage analyst at GTM Research, told Utility Dive. But “at most,” he said, “it will serve as one input for the Public Service Commission as they begin the process of designing and setting policy around the final target.”

Finn-Foley called the 1,500 MW goal “aspirational,” but noted that “it comes with serious teeth” in the form of $200 million from the New York Green Bank and $60 million from NYSERDA towards energy storage pilots and deployments. “This level of investment has real potential to kick-start the market, though the timing is still up in the air,” Finn-Foley said.

The timing of New York’s energy storage target has been a stop and go affair from the start. The state’s legislature passed a pair of bills last June that directed the New York Public Service Commission to develop an Energy Storage Deployment Program, including a storage procurement target for 2030. The program would be run by the New York Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). Cuomo signed the bill nearly six months later, but with a catch — a “chapter amendment,” which is sometimes used when a bill is passed without executive input.

In a signing memo attached to the bill, Cuomo said his office had “secured an agreement with the Legislature to pass legislation in the upcoming session” that would amend the law. That means the storage legislation will not reach its final form until it is amended by the passage of A8921, which has been introduced and is working its way through the legislative process. The bill is expected to pass soon, according to the office of Representative Amy Paulin (D), one of the bill’s sponsors.

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It’s safe to say battery storage has come to Hawaii after Honolulu County experienced a record-shattering year in issuing permits for solar+storage permits for homeowners and businesses alike.

According to a report by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT), the state capital issued 731 permits for solar+storage projects which, given the county’s population of nearly 908,000 may not seem like much – until you realize the permitting office provided a total of 40 permits in 2016.

While the number of permits issued started off slowly, a sharp spike started in May once the city and county streamlined the application and approval process.

The data also shows that homeowners who installed PV+batteries at the same time – as opposed to installing them separately or adding batteries to an existing system – saved more than $7,700.

Only seven of the permits were issued to commercial PV installations, indicating a potential growth market for solar installers in a state where residential solar penetration may be close to reaching saturation.

The sharp rise in permits issued for solar+storage comes as the state legislature is trying – again – to pass a bill (SB 2016) for energy storage installations. Introduced in early January,  the bill, introduced Tuesday, would allow Hawaiian residents to claim an income tax credit in the year they installed the system on the following schedule:

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Digital industrial company GE and flexible energy storage systems operator Arenko Group have entered into a strategic alliance to build grid-scale energy storage systemsin the UK.

The companies will seek to leverage the advantages of combining GE‘s battery technology solutions, power electronics and advanced controls with Arenko’s leadership in operating batteries in the UK market and its proprietary energy trading software platform.

GE Power global commercial and marketing executive Mirko Mollnari stated that energy storage would help balance supply and demand close to real time, avoiding frequency drifts and supporting the mid-term response to grid imbalances.

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Startup Gravitricity, which has just received a £650,000 grant from Innovate UK, plans to use abandoned shafts to house massive weights. When energy is plentiful, the weights will be winched towards the surface, in much the same way that water is driven uphill in pumped hydro storage. However, unlike pumped hydro, the system should be able to respond to fluctuations in demand almost instantly.

“As we rely more and more on renewable energy, there is an increasing need to find ways to store that energy – so we can produce quick bursts of power exactly when it is needed,” said Gravitricity managing director Charlie Blair.

“So far there is a lot of focus on batteries, but our idea is quite different. Gravitricity uses a heavy weight – up to 2000 tonnes – suspended in a deep shaft by cables attached to winches. When there is excess electricity, for example on a windy day, the weight is winched to the top of the shaft ready to generate power.”

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