Key Capture Energy (KCE) has selected Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas (MHPS) and Powin Energy Corporation to build three utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) projects totaling 200 MW in Texas. MHPS will provide turnkey engineering, procurement and construction, as well as long-term service support for all DC equipment, power conversion systems, and high voltage substations. Powin will provide a fully integrated battery, battery management system and long-term service.

Construction on KCE TX 11 (50 MW), KCE TX 12 (100 MW), and KCE TX 23 (50 MW) will begin in the fall of 2020, and the projects will be online before the summer of 2021. KCE has been a first mover in Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) standalone storage. The company’s first-half 2021 operating capacity of 229.7 MW of battery projects is enhanced by 199 MW of offtake contracts with investment grade counterparties.

MHPS and Powin both have extensive lithium-ion energy storage experience and together developed a custom solution to meet KCE’s technical requirements. It uses lithium-iron phosphate battery chemistry (LiFePO4) combined with fast acting controls and power conversion systems selected from key suppliers.

The BESS projects expand all three companies’ presence in ERCOT. KCE is currently the second largest operator of stand-alone battery storage projects in Texas, with three operating projects totaling 29.7 MW — all of which Powin contributed to as the battery system integrator. KCE also has a growing pipeline of stand-alone energy storage projects under development in Texas. The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group Companies have been leading the investment in lower carbon intensive energy technology in Texas, which includes 2 GW of on-shore wind generation, 1.3 GW of natural gas generation, and the world’s largest post-combustion carbon dioxide capture project. The BESS projects continue Mitsubishi’s history of technology-driven partnerships and solutions in the region.

Jeff Bishop, Chief Executive Officer of Key Capture Energy, stated, “As an industry-leading energy storage solution provider, MHPS has a strong history of technological innovation, a proven track record in large-scale project management, and strong financial positioning. We are pleased to partner with MHPS to supply full turnkey solutions for this round of Texas projects. Texas is the epicenter of the global energy market, and with a growing Houston office, we look forward to providing best-in-class energy storage solutions in the Lone Star state for decades to come.”

Swedish aluminum energy storage start-up Azelio will install a ‘verification project’ showcasing its thermal storage technology by the end of next month in Masdar City in the emirate of Abu Dhabi.

A press release issued by the Swedish company today revealed the project is on track for completion this quarter after Azelio recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the ALEC Energy solar business owned by the Investment Corporation of Dubai sovereign wealth fund for the emirate.

Azelio’s technology consists of using electricity – from solar in Masdar City – to heat recycled aluminum to 600 degrees Celsius. The energy stored in the aluminum is transferred to a Stirling engine – which generates mechanical motion from the heat-driven compression and expansion of a gas such as air – using a heat transfer fluid to meet demand.

The Swedish company said the Masdar City project follows the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding between the partners relating to the development of 49 MW of Azelio’s thermal storage tech up to 2025.

Masdar City has been developed by the state-owned renewable energy company of the emirate of Abu Dhabi and Masdar will be part of the pilot project along with Abu Dhabi-based Khalifa University, according to Azelio.

Yousef Baselaib, executive director of sustainable real estate at Masdar said: “As Abu Dhabi’s home of innovation and R&D, Masdar City is proud to be the location for this pilot project that has the potential to improve battery storage capability for renewable energy projects. The success of this project could help aid a sustainable recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic and advance the energy transition around the world.”

The aluminum storage system developed by Azelio has already featured at the Noor Ouarzazate solar field in Morocco, which features 70 MW of PV capacity alongside a 510 MW concentrating solar power facility.

The energy storage industry didn’t wait for the outcome of Arizona Public Service’s year-long investigation into the battery fire that injured four firefighters in April 2019 to start improving the safety of grid batteries.

The McMicken fire set off a series of shadow investigations, as battery suppliers, developers and customers pieced together evidence to identify the risks posed by their own systems. New looks at potential failures prompted product redesigns, along with hardware and software updates to existing systems.

“Because of our own research into the causes of the APS event, we were aware of what the report was basically going to say,” said Danny Lu, senior vice president at storage integrator Powin Energy, in an email. “We had immediately started working on solutions to those problems about a year ago.”

By the time the APS battery report came out last month, leading energy storage providers, including Fluence, which supplied the McMicken energy storage system, had already adopted key safety improvements. They engineered systems to detect and remove dangerous gases so they cannot build up and explode. They also addressed the layout of battery cells so that if one heats up, the problem does not spread.

A high-profile failure like the McMicken fire might be expected to hold back construction of more grid batteries. Numerous startups hawk alternative storage technologies on the basis of being safer than lithium-ion.

But the U.S. energy storage market did not stop expanding as a result of safety concerns. Instead, the industry has experienced meteoric growth, with record procurements announced almost weekly this summer. An unprecedented number of utilities and power producers are investing in batteries as a pillar of a cleaner electric grid.

The recent changes to top-tier battery offerings have reduced the odds of a repeat of the destructive event at the APS facility, which came online in 2017. APS now applies stricter criteria to the batteries it buys, and other utilities may follow suit.

“Overall fire safety is without a doubt a key priority, and we are satisfied by the progress around standardization of safety features,” said Benoit Allehaut, managing director for clean energy infrastructure at Swiss asset manager Capital Dynamics, which is currently constructing 1.9 gigawatt-hours of storage.

There are pros and cons associated with the two main battery chemistries used in solar + storage projects. Lead-acid batteries have been around much longer and are more easily understood but have limits to their storage capacity. Lithium-ion batteries have longer cycle lives and are lighter in weight but inherently more expensive.

There are pros and cons associated with the two main battery chemistries used in solar + storage projects. Lead-acid batteries have been around much longer and are more easily understood but have limits to their storage capacity. Lithium-ion batteries have longer cycle lives and are lighter in weight but inherently more expensive.

Can one combine the pros of each chemistry to make one cost-effective, high-capacity battery bank?

Does one have to dismantle their lead-acid battery bank just to tap into the functions of a new lithium-ion battery? Can one add a few cheaper lead-acid batteries to their lithium system to meet a certain kilowatt-hour capacity?

All important questions with a less defined answer: it depends. It is easier and less risky to stick with one chemistry, but there are some workarounds.

Gordon Gunn, electrical engineer at Freedom Solar Power in Texas, said it is likely possible to connect lead-acid and lithium batteries together, but only through AC coupling.

“You absolutely cannot connect lead-acid and lithium batteries on the same DC bus,” he said. “At best, it would ruin the batteries, and at worst…fire? Explosion? A rending of the space-time continuum? I don’t know.”

K. Fred Wehmeyer, senior VP of engineering at lead-acid battery company U.S. Battery Manufacturing Co., provided further explanation.

The market for grid-connected energy storage will defy the “headwinds” caused by the coronavirus pandemic on industries across the world, analysis firm IHS Markit has predicted.

The team at the IHS Markit Energy Storage Service has forecast that global installations will grow by over 5GW this year, despite disruption caused by COVID-19. Battery energy storage is becoming increasingly able to competitively provide critical capacity to energy networks, the analysts said, particularly in the US, which is currently the world’s biggest market for grid battery storage.

After what was a relatively low level of installations in 2019 of 2.7GW, the rebound that began with a strong first quarter of 2020 will continue on, IHS Markit believes, with annual installations set to rise fivefold between 2019 and 2025.

While installation figures could reach 15.1GW / 47.8GWh, hardware revenues will increase from US$4.2 billion this year to US$9.5 billion in 2025. At the same time, battery module prices are expected to fall around 32% in those years.

“The increasing competitiveness and critical role of battery energy storage assets in supporting the decarbonisation and resilience of the electricity system means that opportunities for energy storage continue to develop despite the turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” IHS Markit Energy Storage Service research manager Julian Jansen said.

Engineering professors and students at the University of California – Riverside have demonstrated a method they hope could “solve two of Earth’s biggest problems in one stroke” – recycling plastic waste such as plastic bottles into a nanomaterial useable in batteries.

As battery storage becomes an ever more present necessity – used in large-scale energy storage projects through to electric vehicles – sourcing materials traditionally necessary to make batteries are straining, and more sustainable alternatives are necessary.

Two engineering professors at the University of California Riverside, Mihri and Cengiz Ozkan, have been working with their students to create improved energy storage materials from a range of sources, trying everything from glass bottles to beach sand, Silly Putty to portabello mushrooms.

Their latest effort, however, has the ground-breaking potential to address not only the need for sustainable battery materials but also the need to recycle and eliminate tonnes of plastic waste.

“Thirty percent of the global car fleet is expected to be electric by 2040, and high cost of raw battery materials is a challenge,” said Mihri Ozkan, a professor of electrical engineering in UCR’s Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering.

“Using waste from landfill and upcycling plastic bottles could lower the total cost of batteries while making the battery production sustainable on top of eliminating plastic pollution worldwide.”

“Resilience” is a powerful word in 2020. Fires, floods, pestilence, pandemic — I don’t know about you all, but I was raised in a fundamentalist Southern Baptist Church and my Revelations bingo card is just about full.

Thinking about the idea of resilience as it relates to equity and energy systems merely as the ability to keep the lights on, however, is missing a powerful opportunity to right the scales of justice. Large corporate energy buyers and utilities, in particular, hold the opportunity to build better and make things right.

On resilience
The term “resilience” can be applied to a vast array of natural, built and social systems and refers to the ability to recover function following a significant, potentially unpredictable disruption. As it relates to energy, moving away from long transmission lines and centralized power plants burning extracted, polluting fuels and towards a distributed system that combines local energy storage with renewables improves resilience — consistent with the principles of biomimicry. That’s the vision.

But how is that vision valued? Resilient energy systems combining renewables, microgrids and energy storage are being deployed by corporations and other institutions that can assign an economic value to resilience as a service, by residential customers who can afford it and by utilities that benefit from the resulting infrastructure and other cost reductions.

If we define the value of resilience in such narrow economic terms, however, we will build a clean energy dystopia. But we can choose a better way.

Do justice
Our energy systems, like most legacy systems, are infused with racial injustices that do particular harm to Black communities, families and individuals because many of our laws and institutions were designed for that purpose.

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa), has commissioned the Middle Eastern country’s first ever megawatt-scale battery storage system in time to measure the pilot project’s effectiveness at dealing with peak demand in summer.

The state-owned electricity and water company announced last week that the deployment and grid connection of a 1MW / 4MWh Tesla Powerpack battery energy storage system (BESS) had been completed “ahead of schedule and beginning operations to benefit from it during the summer period,” during which Qatar’s energy demand is at its seasonal highest.

This was despite “many challenges” that a team of “young Qatari personnel” had to overcome during the project’s execution, Kahramaa said, particularly around managing and training workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pilot project could prove to be important in the Gulf State if successful, with the electricity and water supplier and regulator investigating whether the technology and its applications could be scaled up to be used at high-load substations in the country’s electricity network, and could also be integrated with large-scale renewable energy projects including the 800MW solar PV project Al Kharsaah near Qatar’s capital Doha which was tendered for and got a then-record low-price tariff in January.