A serious incident at an energy storage project that hospitalised four firefighters in Arizona is currently under investigation, with “investigative outcomes” from the utility in question, APS, set to inform the industry’s path forward.

Energy-Storage.news received a statement from the US national Energy Storage Association in response to the fire, which APS tweeted originally had arisen from “equipment failure”, although it is not yet clear what equipment was responsible and how. One firefighter is thought to have suffered particularly serious injuries, with one medical professional quoted by local press as describing ‘complex injuries’ combining chemical burns, trauma and thermal burns.

“Our first and foremost concern is for the health and safety of the first responders. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them and their families. We are comforted to know that APS is working with local officials to ensure safe conditions and to thoroughly investigate the cause of this incident,” the ESA statement reads.

“As the national association leading the conversation and advocacy efforts surrounding energy storage battery safety, investigative outcomes from APS will inform our path forward as we continue to develop health and safety policies and standards.”

Safety should be top of agenda – and will be
The Energy Storage Association, literally one day before the fire happened, sent out communications launching a best practices initiative involving 30 key industry stakeholder companies – with an emphasis on health and fire safety,

Earlier this year, following reports of several large battery fires in South Korea, analyst Julian Jansen at IHS Markit said that health and safety – and fire safety in particular – will be a key focus for the industry in the near term.

“One of my key predictions for 2019 is that across more developed energy storage markets, we will see accelerated development of safety standards and fire regulations,” Jansen said.

Even as its solar business declined in step with its overall earnings, Tesla is bullish on the prospects for the energy side of its business over the course of the year.

The energy business is an unheralded part of Tesla — overshadowed by its headline-grabbing (and much larger) auto exploits — that chief executive Elon Musk thinks will generate an increasing share of revenue for the company over time.

Revenues from its solar power and energy storage business fell by 13 percent from the fourth quarter 2018 and 21 percent from a year ago period, down to $324.7 million from $371.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 and $410 million in the year ago quarter.

Solar energy deployments fell from 73 megawatts to 47 megawatts from the fourth to the first quarter, the company said. Those figures were offset by a slight increase in solar deployments.

The company actually introduced a new financing and purchasing model for solar installations in the second quarter — saying in its shareholder letter that residential solar customers can buy directly from the Tesla website, in standardized capacity increments.

“We aim to put customers in a position of cash generation after deployment with only a $99 deposit upfront. That way, there should be no reason for anyone not to have solar generation on their roof,” Musk and chief financial officer Zachary Kirkhorn wrote in the shareholder letter.

Tesla’s battery storage business was hit as the company shifted units from energy storage to installation in its own vehicles.

UK battery project developer Zenobe Energy was the biggest recipient of corporate and venture capital (VC) funding in the energy storage sector in the first quarter of 2019, according to Mercom Capital.

Mercom issues quarterly reports on M&A and other funding activity in the battery storage, smart grid and energy efficiency sectors. The company’s report on Q1 2019 said that overall, investment in the combined sectors was down from the US$472 million raised in Q1 2018, standing at US$210 million in the quarter just gone.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news in February, Zenobe raised £25 million (US$32 million) in investment from Japanese power giants Jera and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). The £25 million comes atop £45.5 million of equity already invested into Zenobe over the course of the last 18 months and a further £30 million of senior debt facilities provided by Santander and Generation IM.

That equity injection is not only one of the largest direct investments in a UK energy storage company, but also constituted yet another move from Japan’s energy utilities into the UK power scene, following investment in a number of other providers including home energy storage company Moixa.

Behind Zenobe in the top three for the quarter just gone were Sunfire, a German company focused on hydrogen electrolysis using steam, powered by renewable energy, netting US$29 million, and Ambri, a startup spun out of MIT’s labs – much like 24M – that is developing a liquid metal battery, which received around US$17 million.

Along with TEPCO, Mercom named other major utilities and companies with a background in oil and gas as investors in the battery storage sector during the quarter: Shell Ventures (which has recently acquired Sonnen and a number of other cleantech companies spanning electric vehicles, aggregators and more), Total Energy Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures and Centrica.

The U.S. energy storage market is growing rapidly — expected to double this year after nearly doubling in 2018, according to Speakes-Backman.

The ESA initiative seeks to steer the storage industry from the pitfalls of expanding too quickly without safety standards.

“If you look at the trajectory of some other industries that kind of went gangbusters in growth but didn’t take care of this at the early onset, there were some missteps,” Speakes-Backman told Utility Dive.

Duke is planning to install about 400 MW of battery storage over the next decade based on its various integrated resource plans, spokesperson Randy Wheeless told Utility Dive. Duke also has a commercial arm that launched battery projects in Texas and Ohio.

“I think we can’t do this energy storage widespread deployment without [utilities]. We can’t do it without third parties either,” Speakes-Backman said.

The company’s emerging technology innovation center outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, has been testing storage technology over the past 10 years.

“Over the decade, we’ve probably piloted batteries from every manufacturer out there,” Wheeless said. “Safety is a concern.”

Duke is currently seeking regulatory approval for a solar-plus-battery project outside of Asheville. The Hot Springs Microgrid project will consist of a 2 MW solar facility and a 4 MW lithium-based battery storage facility.

The company also powers a communications tower in the Smoky Mountains with a microgrid. That facility pairs a 10 kW solar array with a 95 kWh zinc-air battery, “which doesn’t have the fire hazard of a lithium-ion,” Wheeless said.

German insurance company Munich Re will now offer long-term insurance on battery performance in energy storage systems, a move that could reduce barriers to investment in energy technologies.

Why it matters: Large-scale renewable energy systems are expensive and complex, and in some cases their manufacturers have declared bankruptcy before the end of their systems’ maintenance and warranty periods. Insuring against such risks — as well as those associated with relatively untested new battery chemistries — could spur adoption of innovative technologies by utilities and transportation providers and in off-grid applications.

How it works: For the purchaser, a 10-year warranty reduces the financial risk for both upfront and maintenance costs and increases confidence in the technology’s performance. For the insurer and manufacturer, such programs could speed up development and installation, as the lack of insurance options for energy storage projects is holding back development.

Offering an insurance product allows the manufacturer to more easily obtain financing for specific projects because warranty costs would be capped by the insurance policy.

Where it stands: The initial insurance offering will be for large projects to stabilize electric grids and improve performance during periods of peak power demand.

The first energy storage system provider to include Munich Re’s coverage is U.S.–based manufacturer ESS, which has secured it for two flow battery systems (a competitor of lithium ion technology that offers more flexibility, a longer cycle life and faster recharging).

Additional warranty coverage can be obtained to protect from manufacturers who declare bankruptcy, a common concern in the industry.

What to watch: Battery life and replacement costs have been major concerns with electric vehicles, as have 10-year warranties that in some cases outlast their manufacturers. When Fisker, maker of the EV Vehicle Karma, entered bankruptcy in 2012, owners were left with coverage of only $2000 per vehicle.

Future policies may extend further into mobility markets, offering more robust consumer protections.

Some of the energy industry’s largest players are putting a focus on corporate responsibility as the field of energy storage grows.

And the Energy Storage Association, of course, is leading the way.

ESA brought together 30 companies—including General Electric’s GE Energy Storage, Panasonic, LG’s LG Chem Power, and Duke Energy—to announce their intention to take part in the Energy Storage Industry Corporate Responsibility Initiative, which the association first convened at its Annual Energy Storage Conference & Expo this week.

According to an FAQ, the pledge came to light out of concern with the sector’s fast growth. According to The 2019 U.S. Energy & Employment Report, the energy storage industry saw a nearly 18 percent increase in battery energy storage roles last year, along with a 14 percent increase in general energy storage jobs.

“The U.S. energy storage market nearly doubled in 2018 and is expected to double again in 2019, so this marks an ideal time for the industry to demonstrate their commitment to corporate responsibility,” ESA CEO Kelly Speakes-Backman said in a news release.

In the past, rapidly expanding parts of the energy industry have run into operational safety challenges caused by fast deployment of such technology. By getting companies to sign onto the initiative, ESA hopes to hold the industry to strong standards as the field evolves, and it will work with stakeholders to create standards that limit risk and optimize performance.

“We intend to work proactively to address topics head-on that could otherwise disrupt the industry’s progress,” ESA stated in the FAQ.

The industry will roll out the task force’s standards-making in three phases: first by addressing operational hazards, then tackling end-of-life and recycling needs, and finally by creating responsible practices within the field.

Fluence has dispatched a team of experts to help utility Arizona Public Service determine what caused an explosion at one of its grid-scale battery facilities. The explosion on Friday reportedly left four firefighters injured, including three who were sent to a burn center.

Fluence has dispatched a team of experts to help utility Arizona Public Service determine what caused an explosion at one of its grid-scale battery facilities. The explosion on Friday reportedly left four firefighters injured, including three who were sent to a burn center.

Firefighters responded to a call on April 19 after smoke was seen rising from APS’ McMicken Energy Storage facility, one of two identical 2-megawatt/2-megawatt-hour grid-scale batteries the utility installed in 2017 in Phoenix’s growing West Valley region.

According to local press reports, the firefighters were inspecting the facility’s lithium-ion batteries when they were hit with an explosion. Several of the firefighters received chemical burns, the local fire department told the Arizona Republic.

The firefighters were later reported to be in stable condition.

APS, the state’s largest investor-owned utility, said in a statement on Twitter that it is still investigating the cause of the “equipment failure.”

“Our top priority is the health and safety of those first responders,” the utility said in its statement. “We will continue to work closely with response agencies on scene.”

The battery systems were supplied by AES Corp., an early leader in grid storage, which last year finalized the merger of its storage business with that of Germany’s Siemens into a new company known as Fluence.

New York state lawmakers are aiming to adopt one of the most aggressive policies worldwide for confronting climate change by passing the Climate and Community Protection Act.

The legislation would require the state to transition away from fossil fuels by 2050 and would set an example for other states to follow at a time when the federal government is actively working against efforts to combat climate change.

Supporters of the CCPA say it is just the first step in what would be ongoing efforts to accelerate the development and adoption of clean energy sources like solar and wind power.

City & State caught up with three key lawmakers to discuss the bill, the state’s energy policies and how pragmatism remains a top concern in crafting strategies to meet perhaps the biggest challenge facing the Earth. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Steve Englebright

Chairman, Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee

What’s the status of the Climate and Community Protection Act, which you’re carrying in the Assembly?

Both the Senate and the Assembly leadership were strongly of the opinion that this should be something that we would make a priority, but that it was so important to get it right that it should not be shoehorned into the complexities of the budget itself. This is arguably the most important issue on earth. Literally.

The governor is talking about a climate action council that would develop state climate strategy. What do you think?

The representation should be broad and the stakeholders should include representatives from those communities that have historically been exploited by historic trends that have caused environmental degradation and harm in the form of asthma and shortened life spans within those communities. This is something that we really would like to see in a form much closer to what our Assembly bill has proposed. The guidance system for accomplishing carbon reduction going forward needs those voices at the table.