As wildfires, heat waves and hurricanes sweep across North America, residents are bracing for the power outages that come with these extreme weather events.

Strong winds can knock down electrical lines or blow dry vegetation like dead tree branches into power lines and ignite wildfires. Utilities may intentionally shut down targeted sections of power lines in fire-risk areas in the interest of public safety. In October 2019, for example, with wildfires burning through California, PG&E, the largest utility in the United States, cut the electricity to two million homes.

But turning off the power can also have negative effects on communities. People rely on a stable electricity supply for evacuation warnings, health care and essential services such as water and lighting.

Local electricity generation could mitigate these disruptions. During the California blackouts in 2019, Blue Lake Rancheria, an Indigenous community in northwestern California, was a “beacon of energy” in a sea of darkness. The community had previously constructed a state-of-the-art microgrid that allowed it to disconnect from the main grid and provide homes and businesses with solar-generated electricity while other Californians were left without power.

This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has further complicated the unplanned power outages caused by wildfires, hurricanes and other disasters. People are increasingly dependent on their home electrical supply to communicate, work and learn — and reduce their social isolation. In addition, travel restrictions, isolation requirements and supply chain problems for equipment and materials are making it difficult for utilities to respond quickly to power outages.

The trouble with the status quo

In the power systems that dominate North America and Europe, electricity is typically generated in large quantities far away from population centres and transmitted by power lines over long distances. More than 430,000 kilometres of transmission lines crisscross North America.

Indian Energy, a Native American-owned microgrid development and systems integration firm, plans to install flywheel technology as long-duration, non-lithium ion energy storage at a microgrid in San Diego County.

This year, it was among organizations awarded grants by the California Energy Commission to demonstrate long-lasting, reliable, renewable power. The application form cites long-duration, non-lithium ion energy storage as the “final key” to permanently evading the blackouts and brownouts that California faces due to fires, the changing energy mix and climate change. Without storage, it notes, 100% renewable power is not possible.

The commission also states that as California increases its share of renewables on the grid, the state needs more cost-effective and high performing storage systems. Branching out to emerging technologies and away from lithium batteries is a requirement to meet this goal, they said.

This award requires the project to demonstrate non-lithium ion energy storage for 10 hours or longer at a minimum rating of 50 kW. It must support the needs of Native American Tribal communities. The grants fund both the installation and operation of pre-and post-commercial energy storage technologies.

Indian Energy will build the project on the 1,600-acre reservation belonging to the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, located east of Alpine in San Diego County. The completed system will incorporate 150 kW of solar PV to provide grid support and resiliency to the tribe’s emergency medical services facility.

“Indian Country is honored to play a critical role in demonstrating the value of long-duration, utility-scale energy storage. With the state’s firestorms, historical record-breaking heat and stress to the local and regional grids, the need for energy storage is urgent,” said Allen Cadreau, Indian Energy CEO.

Indian Energy joins with Webcor as its construction partner and KESC as the solar and energy storage contractor. KESC will develop an energy storage integration and certification unit (VICU) to use the long-duration energy storage capabilities.

Tesla has over 120 operational microgrids around the world using its batteries and renewable energy, according to a new comment from an executive.

Ever since the launch of Tesla Energy and its stationary energy storage products, Tesla started working on microgrid projects.

The idea is to have a self-sufficient energy system using self-produced renewable energy stored in batteries and supplying a small community or facility.

After the acquisition of SolarCity, it made even more sense for Tesla to get into the microgrid business since it now had expertise with both batteries and solar power.

The first flagship microgrid project with SolarCity was on the island of Ta’u in American Samoa, where Tesla deployed a microgrid consisting of a 1.4-megawatt solar array and a 6-megawatt hour energy storage system with 60 Tesla Powerpacks:

The microgrid saved the nearly 600 residents of the island more than 100,000 gallons of fuel per year previously used to supply them with electricity.

Tesla has kept deploying microgrids since, and we now learn that the company has over 120 of them in operations around the world.

Michael Snyder, director of engineering and construction, energy projects at Tesla, released the information in a Linkedin post about a new position on the microgrid team:

As renewable energy generation grows, electricity grids have needed to adapt. Increasingly, smaller-scale generation has allowed communities to set up their own small electricity networks, called microgrids. These promise secure energy supplies, as well as an opportunity for people to invest in their own energy future.

In the US, this can mean less risk exposure to sever weather events, when utilities could take a long time to reach remote communities.

Boston suburb develops ‘microgrid without borders’
The Chelsea suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, has developed a ‘microgrid without borders’ for residents and businesses to opt in to. While Massachusetts rarely faces the full force of hurricanes, towns in storm prone areas of the US have increasingly considered microgrids as a way to ensure power stability.

Maria Belen Power, member of environmental group Green Roots, told Frank News that residents were struck by what they saw during Hurricane Maria in 2017. “It became clear that [the idea of a microgrid] connected with residents because of Hurricane Maria, and it became an opportunity for us to think: ‘How do we do things differently?’.

“What would it look like if Hurricane Maria had hit Chelsea, and how could we be better prepared to deal with a disaster like that and the energy infrastructure that’s not set up to sustain that?”

The microgrid runs in existing grid power cables, but users manage their energy supply using software. Outside of this, there are no extra physical cable connections.

The microgrid would use natural gas generation, along with a battery facility and, if possible, solar panels. The planned battery facility would allow the city to move away from the diesel generators it currently relies upon in emergencies.

Swedish furniture giant and sometimes rooftop PV retailer Ikea is about to begin work on an industry-leading, grid-connected commercial solar and battery microgrid based on its Adelaide store.

The project, flagged by Ikea Australia in June at the launch of its Solstråle residential solar offering, is being developed in conjunction with Planet Ark Power, the South Australian government, SA Power Networks and Epic Energy.

The $6.6 million first stage of the microgrid, which will be owned and operated by Epic Energy, will install 1.2MW of solar on the rooftop of Ikea Adelaide and a 3MW/3.4MWh OilPower CATL lithium-ion battery storage system, also installed on-site in three 40 foot containers.

The solar and storage system will be managed through a combination of Schneider Electrics’ smart energy management software and, on the grid-connected side, Planet Ark Power’s award-winning eleXsys dynamic voltage control platform, the hardware for which will be housed in an additional 20 foot container.

For Ikea, the 3024 Q-Cell PV panels and battery storage will – at the end of stage one mid-way through next year – provide more than 70 per cent of the store’s electricity needs, which will be delivered via a power purchase agreement with Epic Energy.

But the project also gives the furniture giant some serious green cred – on top of having already met its company-wide target to produce and procure more renewable energy than it consumes by this year, 2020.

“Collaborations like this have always been a cornerstone of the Ikea way – this is more important now than ever in order to tackle the climate crisis,” said the global head of climate and energy for Ingka Group, Karol Gobczyński.

Energy storage joint venture Fluence is acquiring a microgrid software and digital intelligence platform.

The acquisition of Advanced Microgrid Solutions’ artificial intelligence-driven software and digital platform for renewables and energy storage will extend the company’s product line, Fluence said in a release.

“Our century-old power system is stressed. Renewable energy and energy storage are the solution,” said Brett Galura, chief technology officer at Fluence. “AMS has developed one of the most powerful AI-enabled software engines available in the industry. This acquisition provides customers with data-driven insights that maximize the value and performance of generation and storage assets to make the entire grid smarter. These innovations will drive the transformation of global electric power systems to ensure a more sustainable future.”

The acquisition follows a two-year partnership between Fluence and AMS. Fluence itself was created as an energy storage joint venture between AES and Siemens several years ago.

By joining the Fluence team, AMS will leverage Fluence’s global sales reach to make its software available to more customers around the world.

“We are incredibly excited to join the team at Fluence. Customers are building larger fleets of energy storage and flexible generation assets, while at the same time wholesale markets are becoming more complex and volatile,” said Seyed Madaeni, chief executive officer at AMS. “We have a unique opportunity to lead the clean energy revolution by using AI to optimize the dispatch of flexible assets, maximize their value and make the entire electric power system more responsive, reliable and resilient. As part of the Fluence team, we will have the capabilities and resources to accelerate the global expansion of our software.”

Eos Energy Storage LLC (“Eos”), a leading manufacturer of safe, low-cost and long-duration zinc battery storage systems, today announced a partnership with Verdant Microgrid (“Verdant”), a custom microgrid solution provider. Eos will supply its Znyth™ Zinc Hybrid Cathode Technology, the core of its Aurora™ stationary energy storage system, to Verdant’s California-based microgrids beginning in the fourth quarter of 2020.

As previously announced, B. Riley Principal Merger Corp. II (“BMRG”), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, and Eos have entered into a definitive merger agreement for a business combination that would result in Eos becoming a publicly listed company. Upon closing of the transaction, the combined company will be renamed Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc. (“Eos Energy”) and intends to list its shares of common stock on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “EOSE”.

The Eos battery features a 100% depth of discharge and a wide operating temperature range to enable deployment without the use of costly thermal management measures such as HVAC cooling systems and fire suppression systems. The Znyth™ technology requires just five core commodity materials that are derived from non-rare earth and non-conflict minerals which are commercially available and scalable. The technology is also patent protected and made in the United States.

A microgrid is a self-sufficient energy system that generates power in close proximity to the area it serves. These systems are considered to be more efficient and cost effective than central grids because they do not lose as much electricity in transit and they strategically pull energy from various sources, such as the central grid or a battery, depending on the local demand for electricity at any given time.

Australia’s well-known grid congestion issues and associated federal government negligence dominate the headlines, but in the smaller-scale, microgrid, and off-grid frontiers of the renewable energy transition, there is a new solution-oriented approach. And as Aggreko and Gold Fields have demonstrated, it is paving a solar-panel-bricked-road to a renewably powered resource sector.

pv magazine Australia: Aggreko and Gold Fields are nearing completion on what is certainly one of Australia’s largest hybridized solar energy microgridsat the Granny Smith gold mine in Western Australia. Just how large is this hybrid power system and how is it integrating with the mine’s existing gas fired power station?

Karim Wazni: This is one of the world’s largest renewable energy microgrids. The system itself comprises more than 23,000 individual solar PV panels, offering 7.7 MWp of solar power generation. The PV elements of the solution will be seamlessly integrated with the existing 27.3 MW power station, which utilises high-efficiency, reciprocating gas fuelled engines. This is all supported by a 2 MW/1 MWh battery system which delivers peak power and helps providing consistency and reliability of power supply for the mine. This new system will be seamlessly integrated with the existing power station via the use of Aggreko’s control software platform.

pv magazine Australia: The mining industry is a big consumer of energy, and thus a big producer of emissions (6.2% of global emissions). However, the mining industry worldwide is beginning to realize that energizing its operations with renewables is simply a good investment. What role can Aggreko specifically, but also microgrids and energy storage generally, perform in transitioning the mining industry to clean energy?

Wazni: We see our role as a partner for mine operators to support them on their journey to a decarbonized future. As a provider of temporary power solutions and energy services, Aggreko’s offering, especially our hybrid power plants, we support those with green ambitions. We are experts in combining the reliability of thermal generation with all the benefits that come with new technologies like solar power and battery storage systems, including greater efficiency, lower costs of energy and of course lower emissions.

Caterpillar is to deliver the largest single-site microgrid in the UAE.

UAE agricultural company Themar Al Emarat has selected Cat dealer Al-Bahar to supply a 5.94 MW solar-hybrid energy solution to a new farming facility in Sharjah.

The system will provide power for cooling equipment, water chilling, mushroom cultivation and other greenhouse processes in the facility, which will produce mushrooms, lettuce and other crops used and consumed locally.

The climate-controlled greenhouse operation will utilize nearly 23,000 solar photovoltaic modules that generate up to 2.7 MW of solar-powered energy, plus five Cat 3412 diesel generator sets that will supply 3.24 MW of power.

The system will be supported by a 286 kWh/250 kW grid stability module supplied by an energy storage system and bidirectional inverters.

A microgrid controller will autonomously manage the entire system and use Cat Connect Remote Asset Monitoring for the real-time collection and off-site monitoring of system performance data.

“Energy consumption accounts for the majority of long-term operating costs for technologically advanced agricultural farms that use climate control systems to support production during the summer in the UAE,” said Dr Ghanem Al Hajri, chief executive officer of Themar Al Emarat, which speacializes in hydroponic farming – crop production without soil.[Native Advertisement]

“By leveraging Al-Bahar’s and Caterpillar’s global expertise in power generation technologies, we have been able to specify and design a customized power solution that helps to make our operations economically viable.”

I’ve written about my high hopes for microgrids and my disappointment at the speed of deployment (due in part to COVID-related slowdowns that stalled construction). 

But don’t be confused. Like a swimming duck, a lot has been happening with microgrids under the surface.

New third-party financing options for microgrids in which the energy offtaker does not own or maintain the asset — known as energy-as-a-service (EaaS) or microgrids-as-a-service (MaaS) — are making microgrids accessible to small businesses with small energy loads, according to a new report from Wood Mackenzie.

While not a new structure (EaaS has been around for the better part of a decade), the research shows the market is maturing. Increasingly, financers are investing in small-scale microgrids that are less than 5 megawatts, a size better suited for on-site power generation for, say, medium to large commercial buildings or a mid-sized industrial facility. 

This is kind of a big deal, as financial innovations are as important as technological innovations for clean energy technologies to proliferate. Solar is the classic example; it took off once people could get it without upfront costs. 

Here are three forces that, together, finally could get you that microgrid you’ve been eyeing. 

1. Microgrid portfolios are opening up new financing models

Once upon a time, microgrids were bespoke and built on a project-by-project basis. That required legwork by financers to assess the technology risk and business models, which only made sense if the projects were bigger — say, 10-20 MW minimum. 

Increasingly, microgrid service providers are selling a portfolio of microgrids — that is, deploying multiple microgrids with similar (if not identical) components at different locations. The homogenization of the microgrid technologies allows investors to streamline due diligence and finance the portfolio in aggregate.

Examples include projects at Stop & Shop, which recently announced it will install microgrids at 40 of its grocery stores in Massachusetts using Bloom Energy fuel cells, and H-E-B, which plans to install microgrids at 45 locations in Texas through Enchanted Rock.