The Extinction Rebellion movement formed last year in Britain with a three-headed list of demands (1. Tell the truth 2. Act now 3. Beyond politics) in response to growing concern over climate change. The group brought Central London to a standstill last week, blocking traffic and seeing hundreds of its members arrested.

While from the outside, the group might look like a continuation of past protest movements for social justice, there’s a recognition that the sheer number of people involved mean that it is increasingly a more inclusive movement than, say, the pro-Brexit marches also taking place on London’s streets over the past few weeks.

The protestors have joined schoolchildren from around the world who decided to ‘Climate Strike’, kicking back against a futureless future and even the UK government finally caved in and admitted the scale of the climate emergency – while at the same time concerns grow over air pollution and the other environmental costs associated with ‘business as usual’ carrying on despite the rise in global temperatures.

We think they’ve done a pretty good job of raising awareness. Certainly the ‘XR’ Extinction Rebellion logos are to be seen on mobile phone cases, handbags and all over the ticket barriers of the underground tube train network. But in focusing on climate doom, are they misrepresenting or failing to see the existence of solutions? It’s a tricky question.

For me, I would say that it is our job at Solar Media to present the arguments for clean energy and the specific technologies that can play a role in modernising our energy system(s) along a path to decarbonisation. Every day we see that solutions are in many cases already present for the biggest problems the world faces. We’ve seen batteries and solar replacing coal and now gas, we’ve seen the cost of solar drop 90% in the past 10 years and we’ve seen that even the UK is committed to phasing out petrol-powered vehicles by 2040.

However, there’s no time to be smug. Those that do not study history are doomed to repeat it, those that do study history are sometimes condemned to watching others repeating its mistakes. To fail to act now on climate change would be a huge dereliction of duty by us all. While Extinction Rebellion may have helped draw attention to the scale of the problem, it’s now up to us all – especially those of us with a head-start in the industry – to bring the solutions to life.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry has announced $89 million to support innovative, advanced manufacturing research and development projects. This Department of Energy (DOE) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) tackles key Departmental priorities — such as domestic manufacturing for energy storage.

“Embracing new technologies that drive innovation in American manufacturing is the key to creating real-world progress that significantly improves energy efficiency in manufacturing,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. “By focusing on energy-related advanced manufacturing technologies, we are building a new era of manufacturing that will stimulate the economy, create jobs and build American energy independence.”

The FOA requests proposals in three areas that will improve the global competitiveness of the U.S. by catalyzing innovation around manufacturing of key energy technologies and by reducing industrial process energy intensity.

Topic 1: Innovations for the Manufacture of Advanced Materials. Focuses on employing machine learning to develop better batteries, phase change storage materials for heating and cooling applications, and new semiconductors that convert temperature differences into electricity. A key focus is developing and scaling new, low-cost manufacturing processes to catalyze increased domestic battery manufacturing for vehicle and stationary applications.

Topic 2: Lower Thermal Budget Processes for Industrial Efficiency & Productivity. With 70% of all process energy use related to heating, this topic focuses on novel research on industrial process drying technologies that increase energy efficiency throughput and product quality. It also seeks new ideas on process intensification to reduce overall heating energy.

Topic 3. Connected, Flexible & Efficient Manufacturing Facilities and Energy Systems. With recent advances in new, wide band-gap semiconductors supported by DOE, this topic seeks application of more efficient industrial power conversion equipment and new opportunities for converting process energy to electrical energy and better integrating it with the electrical grid. It also seeks advancements in combined heat and power that result in higher electrical efficiencies.

The national Renewable Energy Association has taken aim at a British government proposal to hike up tax rates attached to some energy saving equipment purchases, including solar and battery storage.

A consultation launched by the government department responsible for tax, HM Revenue & Customs closed late last week, proposing an increase in the VAT (value-added tax, the UK’s sales tax mechanism) attached to these energy saving materials from 5% to 20%, essentially eliminating a discount that had been applied to those products.

It is not the first time that solar PV has been threatened with a higher rate of VAT. In 2015 the European Court of Justice ruled that the UK’s application of a discounted rate was illegal and, despite attempting to fight it, the government eventually conceded that the increase could not be averted.

An increase to 20% – the default rate of VAT for goods and services – was initially expected in the 2016 Budget. However HMRC’s consultation response was absent, and later it emerged that a cross-party group of MPs had voiced their concerns over the plans.

Just a few weeks later, the ECJ published its VAT action plan with no comment on the solar decision, instead electing to “modernise and reboot” Europe’s taxation framework.

Since then the government has remained coy, however the storage market secured a partial victory in late 2017 when HMRC said that domestic battery storage systems could also enjoy the 5% VAT rate as long as they were installed alongside solar systems.

The new consultation seeks to amend the discounted rate so that a full 20% rate of VAT is applied to the machinery costs should they be above 60% of a total installation fee. Labour costs will still benefit from the reduce rate.

There is also a carve out for homeowners who are aged 60 or above and those receiving particular benefits, and housing associations will also be eligible for the reduced rate still. The new rates are proposed to come into effect from 1 October 2019.

The race to build Europe’s first lithium-ion energy storage system ‘Gigafactory’ could be won by Tesvolt, as the German manufacturer announced a “multimillion-euro investment” in production lines this week.

Promising fully carbon neutral production of the company’s battery energy storage systems, which have been used both on and off-grid in more than 1,000 projects already, Tesvolt’s factory will be “fully supplied by solar energy”, the company claims.

This will include a 200kWp PV system to power offices and system production lines, paired with a 350kWh Tesvolt energy storage system. Heat pumps using a natural refrigerant will mean the facilities’ heating also comes from solar. Mechanical engineering company teamtechnik will fit out the factory’s semi-automated production line. The facility will have an annual production capacity of over 1GWh when completed.

Tesvolt’s battery systems were recently installed at Britain’s largest subsidy-free solar farm to date, with the energy storage thought to be a key part of the project’s business plan. Similarly, Tesvolt said it is “financing its multi-million Euro investment in the gigafactory without any outside funding”, although it is accepting a small amount of EU support worth 10% of the cost.

The company did not give a timeline for completion of the production lines, although it says 12,000 sqm of floor space will be ready next month and that by the final phase of construction the production space will total 20,000sqm. Tesvolt expects employee numbers to roughly double by then from today’s workforce of 60. As with the majority of its competitors, Tesvolt does not make its own battery cells and has sourced nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells from Samsung SDI in the past.

“The world market for stationary energy storage systems has already reached a total capacity of 16GWh. Europeans are calling for an end to harmful coal-fired power plants and diesel scandals. They want a future free of environmental disasters. We want the gigafactory to be our contribution to reaching this goal, making clean and affordable energy possible anywhere in the world,” Tesvolt co-founder and CEO Daniel Hannemann said.

Utility Arizona Public Service reaffirmed its commitment to grid batteries after a fire at one such facility injured four first responders.

The April 19 explosion at the McMicken facility prompted Arizona’s largest utility to power down its remaining energy storage plants, and raised questions about the future of this rapidly growing grid technology. APS committed in February to a considerable escalation of energy storage installations, to capture more solar power during the day and make it available at night.

The investigation to determine the cause of the fire is still underway, but APS is not giving up on those plans for battery expansion, President Jeff Guldner told Arizona regulators last week.

“As you know, we have moved forward and made an announcement as to work that we intend to pursue on battery storage,” Guldner said. “This hasn’t changed our determination to move forward on that.”

In February APS announced plans to deploy 850 megawatts of battery storage by 2025, the single largest storage procurement from a utility to date.

Indeed, the investigation will provide valuable information to ensure safe practices as that expansion proceeds, locally and nationally. “This is important because battery technology is such an important future component to the operation of the grid,” Guldner noted.

The full remarks, made at the April 23 meeting of the Arizona Corporation Commission, are visible on a public video recording (starting around 2:46:00).

The ACC similarly signaled that it sees batteries playing a larger role in the future of the state’s grid.

During the hearing, Commissioner Boyd Dunn made that point explicitly.

“I agree with your comment that batteries are our future,” he said. “Wherever you go, that’s going to be the talk.”

Pika, a manufacturer of home energy storage systems headquartered in Maine, US, has been bought up by power generation equipment manufacturer Generac.

The company makes a line of ‘smart’ battery storage products, including the Coral smart battery, an ‘entry-level’ system for households scalable up to 8kW. The system is based on AGM (absorbent glass mat) lead-acid battery technology and promises to aid integration of solar and provide backup power in the event of outages.

The company also makes energy storage systems using Panasonic’s batteries, with Pika’s inverters showcased at last year’s Solar Power International in California in September, paired with Panasonic equipment. Pika’s Harbor ‘smart battery’ can go up to 10kW / 17kWh using the Japanese company’s lithium-ion battery modules.

The company has been marketing backup power products to regions including Puerto Rico recently, where, in the wake of recent disasters and the territory’s island geography, backup power is considered a big value-add feature for energy storage systems.

Generac, in the power solutions business since 1959 when it first started making and selling residential backup generators, makes a wide range of power products up to industrial scale and transfer switching and backup power equipment for applications up to 2MW.

Generac announced last week that with the acquisition of Pika, Generac has “entered the home energy storage market”. A Generac press release said that Pika has expertise in developing power electronics, software and controls for “smart energy storage and management”, while the integrated nature of the solutions help reduce costs and minimise disruption to the grid. The acquisition closed on 26 April. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Energy-Storage.news approached Pika for comment but did not receive a reply at time of going to press. Ben Polito’ Pika’s CEO and co-founder was quoted by the Generac release as saying that: “Generac is dedicated to providing people with innovative and forward-thinking solutions to power their homes and businesses. Pika energy storage technology, combined with Generac’s distribution strength and demand creation capabilities, will make this solution immediately available to more users.”

The battle between renewable energy and fossil fuel is already at a boiling point, but that’s nothing compared to the steaming hot mosh pit of internecine warfare going on between coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy. In the latest development on that score, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry went on a bomb-throwing mission at the EarthX 2019 conference in Dallas, Texas last week.

Wait — What Is EarthX?
If you’ve never heard of EarthX before, join the club. Here’s the pitch:

We are an international, nonprofit environmental forum whose purpose is to educate and inspire people to action towards a more sustainable future. We assemble and connect citizens, educators, students, businesses, nonprofits, and global leaders to explore sustainable solutions for today’s most pressing challenges.

As for where they are coming from, the person behind EarthX is Trammell S. Crow, founder of Earth Day in Texas. EarthX lists Tetrapak, Oncor, and Santander as main sponsors.

Occidental Petroleum also weighs in along with Green Spring Technologies (think hemp, not electricity) and other local Dallas companies.

A Quick Digression Over To Occidental
Wait — Occidental?! Didn’t huge fan of wind power and mega mogul Warren Buffett just lay down a cool $10 billion to juice Occidental’s takeover of Andarko — even though Chevron already has dibs?

Oh yes he did! If anybody can guess what that is all about, drop us a note in the comment thread. Buffett is asking for a good slice of the shareholder pie, which could mean that Occidental-Andarko will finally join the ranks of legacy oil and gas companies diversifying into renewables.

On the other hand, nah. We’re thinking natural gas power plants and petrochemicals, which should give ExxonMobil the willies, but that’s just a wild guess.

Where Were We? Oh Right — Coal, Meet Bus
With all this in mind, let’s take a look at what Secretary Perry said at EarthX. In a speech on April 25, he basically made the case that the US energy strategy for decarbonization should be this:

Now the first step is to take energy that is free of emissions…and generate more of it.

Okay, so that excludes coal and includes renewables, except for that intermittent thing (don’t tell Perry about wind and solar complementarity because he doesn’t think that’s a thing yet).

The UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has conducted testing of an advanced energy storage system in collaboration with the US Navy.

The system is known as the Flywheel Energy Storage System (FESS) and is based on Le Mans motor-sport technologies.

FESS has been developed under collaboration between GKN and Dstl to demonstrate an energy storage option for the Royal Navy’s most advanced ships. The new technology was originally developed by the Williams F1 team.

Testing of the FESS was performed at both UK and US facilities under an agreement called Advanced Electric Power and Propulsion Project Arrangement (AEP3).

To perform testing, the UK’s Dstl and DE&S teamed up with the US NAVSEA’s Electric Ship Office and the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

The testing in the US was also supported by US Coalition Warfare Program (CWP) funding.

FESS uses high-speed and lightweight flywheels to provide high-power electrical pulses.

It is intended to serve the Royal Navy’s future systems such as Dragonfire Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) and help reduce the impact of these systems to the rest of the ship.

In addition, the technology will remove safety concerns related to battery-based systems.

As part of the collaborative programme, the US and UK used a power hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) approach.

The PHIL approach involved the integration of a ‘real’ FESS into a virtual ship power system that simulated a Royal Navy vessel operating in real-time.

This approach can be used to develop the hardware and de-risk its integration into a real ship in a cost-effective way.

Following the US trials, the FESS was delivered to the UK and tested at the Power Networks Demonstration Centre (PNDC) in Scotland.

Two Arkansas utilities are in a race to offer the state’s first solar energy facility featuring an onsite battery for energy storage, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving Arkansans money.

Ozarks Electric Cooperative (OEC), in a trilateral agreement with Today’s Power, Inc. (TPI) and the city of Fayetteville, broke ground in March on two solar power systems with a combined 12-megawatts of solar generation and a total of 24-megawatt hours of energy. Concurrently, Entergy Arkansas, in partnership with NextEra, announced plans in March to build a 100-megawatt solar energy facility near Searcy that will be capable of storing up to 30-megawatt hours of electricity.

Ozarks Electric Cooperative joins forces with Today’s Power Inc., on Fayetteville’s Energy Action Plan

“Ozarks Electric Cooperative is the first utility in the Mid-South to lead the charge on energy storage in partnership with the City of Fayetteville, who has accomplished 72 percent of their renewable energy goals with this project,” TPI spokesperson Jennah Denney says, adding that TPI is currently deploying the only energy storage system in the Mid-South.

Kris Williams, director of Energy Services at Ozarks Electric Cooperative, says the project is expected to be completed in late June of 2019.

Located at the east and west wastewater treatment facilities in Fayetteville and spanning a total of 70 acres, each system will utilize an onsite battery charged through solar panels during the day and offloaded during peak evening hours.

“Batteries with their increasing capacities and decreasing prices take the intermittency out of renewable energy,” Denney says. “Batteries also enable us to continue using green solar energy into the night, long after the sun has set.”

Williams says the batteries are each about the size of a school bus and will be kept in structures separate from the solar panels to ensure the appropriate environmental conditions to preserve the life of the batteries.

The power grid is a pretty complex system. Electricity is generally produced on an as-needed basis. Generators ramp up and down based on demand. However, energy storage systems are beginning to change how demands are being met.

Hydro Is Storage
Energy storage isn’t a new concept. In fact, pumped-storage hydro systems have been around since the late 1800s. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), there was 23.6 GW of operational pumped-storage capacity in the U.S. in June 2018, which accounted for 94% of the country’s energy storage. Furthermore, some experts have argued that all hydropower is a form of energy storage.

“Our water reservoir[s] are our batteries,” Eric Martel, president and CEO of Hydro-Quebec, said in March during a panel session at the BloombergNEF (BNEF) Summit in New York. Hydro-Quebec is a Canadian public utility that operates some 60 hydroelectric generating stations. Martel said Hydro-Quebec’s reservoirs are so large that the utility “can store 175 TWh, which is more than enough to provide the whole electricity for the New York state for a year and a half almost.”

Pumped-storage hydro systems function kind of like a bank. Owners can make deposits, that is, use electricity to pump water into a reservoir when power is abundant and the price is cheap. Then, they can make withdrawals by reversing the operation and generating power when electricity prices increase, thus pocketing the price difference. There is some lost energy along the way, because the systems are not 100% efficient, but as long as the price difference more than makes up for the losses, the economics work.

Besides arbitrage, energy storage can also help defer generation, transmission, and distribution capacity additions; improve grid flexibility, reliability, and resiliency; provide ancillary services; stabilize power quality; minimize renewable energy curtailments; and assist end-users in managing energy costs.

“If we use the hydro capacity to store energy and to firm the production of other resources, then we are getting to power which is as-consumed power, no longer as-produced,” Grzegorz Górski, managing director of ENGIE’s Centralized Generation Métier, said at the BNEF event.