Expanding innovation, shrinking cost in energy storage-Keheng LIFepo4 lithium battery

Expanding innovation, shrinking cost in energy storage

Many countries are using batteries to store energy from renewable sources. In the U.S., more than 90% of this capacity relies on lithium-ion batteries. But that could be changing.

US energy storage capacity tripled in 2021: EIA

More than 100 utility-scale battery projects were placed into service last year, representing about 3.2 GW of capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. AES Energy Storage

Dive Brief:

Battery storage capacity in the United States more than tripled in 2021, growing from 1,438 MW in 2020 to 4,631 MW, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. More than 100 utility-scale projects were brought online last year, the agency said in a July 5 Electricity Monthly Update.

The growth occured as storage use cases have expanded, EIA noted. Batteries have been used to provide ancillary services since 2016 but arbitrage, load management and the consumption of excess renewable generation applications saw “significantly increased levels of participation.”

Utility-scale storage capacity in the United States was less than 500 MW in 2016, but declining battery prices have helped spur the development of projects. That trend may be reversing, at least temporarily, as a new report from BloombergNEF predicts battery prices will rise this year, for the first time in more than a decade.

Energy storage would win long-sought victory with Inflation Reduction Act

A dedicated grid-storage tax credit could unleash a new wave of development for technologies critical to meeting U.S. climate goals.

The relatively young energy-storage industry will get a proper seat at the clean energy policy table if the Democrats’ latest climate bill becomes law.

The U.S. conducts federal clean energy policy through tax credits, for better or worse. Wind and solar won dedicated tax credits years ago and rode them to the top of the charts, becoming the two largest sources of new power plant capacity in 2021. But the technologies to store that renewable electricity have had to scrape by without their own tax credit. The best that storage plants could do was piggyback on solar projects in order to get a tax credit.

That’s not so bad for residential installations, where the primary reason for installing a battery is to store rooftop solar production. But massive utility-scale battery plants can do a lot of good in locations where solar installations are impossible or inadvisable, like densely packed population centers or strategically situated substations. Building more storage capacity makes the grid better at absorbing large amounts of renewable generation. 

US storage providers increasingly use price arbitrage strategies to maximize income: EIA

Courtesy of Arizona Public Service

Dive Brief:

Utility-scale energy storage in the U.S. grid rose from 1.4 GW at the end of 2020 to 4.6 GW last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Electric Generator Report. Nearly 60% of installed utility-scale storage capacity was used for price arbitrage in 2021, up from 17% in 2019, the EIA found.

In California, which has the most energy storage of any state, the buy low, sell high strategy is playing a leading role. More than 80% of the battery capacity added in California Independent System Operator service territory last year was used for price arbitrage.

More than 90% of the storage installations last year were paired with large-scale solar energy facilities because of the considerable federal tax credit such installations receive, the EIA noted.

Battery Market for Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Market to Record a 28.16% Y-O-Y Growth Rate in 2022, Increased Adoption of Microgrids is a Major Trend to Fuel the Market Growth- Technavio

NEW YORK, Aug. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The battery market for energy storage systems (ESS) market size is expected to grow by USD 24.08 billion from 2021 to 2026, progressing at a CAGR of  34.5% as per the latest market report by Technavio. Also, the market to record a 28.16% Y-O-Y growth rate in 2022. Increased adoption of microgrids is one of the key ESS market trends that is expected to impact the industry positively in the forecast period. A microgrid can switch to island mode whenever there is a power outage on the main power grid or if the system is disconnected from the main grid intentionally. Microgrids are increasingly using renewable energy sources such as wind and solar to reduce the use of fossil fuels. Moreover, in the event of any cyber attack on the main grid, a microgrid can isolate itself and function indefinitely if it has access to solar or wind power, thereby allowing it to generate and store electricity during the day, which can be utilized during outages. Therefore, microgrids are gaining popularity in commercial and industrial facilities where downtime of even a minute can cause significant monetary losses. Moreover, when natural disasters occur, they expose the fragility of the centralized grid architecture. Such factors will further support the market growth in the coming years.

Battery Market For Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Market: Market Dynamics

• Drivers - The change in the energy mix, increased need for backup power, and increasing economic benefits of ESS are the major factors propelling the market growth.

• Challenges - The factors such as Widening demand-supply disparity with regard to lithium, stringent regulations against lead pollution & fluctuations in diesel fuel prices will hamper the market growth.

• For detailed information on the market dynamics - Click Now!

Battery Market For Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Market: Segmentation Analysis

The battery market for energy storage systems (ESS) market segmented by technology (lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries, and others) and geography (APAC, North America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and South America)

Alternative batteries are solving the biggest problem in renewable energy

Batteries made of water, sand, and more are helping build a sustainable future — one grid at a time.

Many of the cheapest, cleanest sources of power are dependent on environmental conditions.

That’s because those batteries self-discharge, meaning they’re constanting losing a bit of their stored energy. As a result, we can only store energy in them for a few days or weeks — we can’t bank power captured in the windy spring and use it in the relatively still fall.

Lithium-ion isn’t the only kind of battery, though.

Across the globe, groups are using other types of batteries — some well established, others brand new — for renewable energy storage. Here are a few of the alternative batteries helping the world decarbonize and transition to a more sustainable future — one grid at a time.

Water batteries

People have been using gravity to store energy for more than 100 years with pumped hydro storage systems, or “water batteries.” 

These systems require two lakes or reservoirs, with one located at a higher elevation than the other.

When the grid has excess energy, it’s used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the higher one. When more power is needed, water from the upper reservoir flows down again, which drives hydroelectric turbines.

The latest: The Nant de Drance pumped storage power plant in the Swiss Alps became operational in July 2022. With a storage capacity of 20 million kWh — as much as 400,000 electric vehicle batteries — it’s one of the most powerful water batteries in Europe (although just a fraction of the size of Snowy 2.0).

Developers dug more than 10 miles of tunnels to connect the Emosson and Vieux Emosson reservoirs for the water battery — in total, the construction process took 14 years and cost $2.1 billion.

Sand batteries 

Another way to store excess renewable energy is to trap it as heat in some material, such as water, volcanic rock, or — the latest medium to be explored — sand, in a well-insulated container.

When electricity is needed, the heat from a sand battery can be used to boil water, creating steam that spins turbines. The heat can also be distributed directly as heat, keeping buildings warm in winter months and supplied with hot water year-round.

For some forms of clean energy, such as wind power, sand storage requires first converting electricity into heat, but solar and geothermal energy can be directly captured as heat — no conversion required.

Flow batteries

Compared to water and sand batteries, flow batteries are a more technically complicated renewable energy storage solution.

They consist of two tanks of liquid electrolyte solution. In one tank, the solution is positively charged, and in the other, it is negatively charged. These solutions are pumped into a cell, where they remain separated by a membrane.

In this cell, the chemical energy of the solutions can be converted into electricity and discharged, or vice versa, through a process involving electrodes and the movement of electrons and ions.

The cost of energy storage battery in the United States has dropped sharply in recent years

According to the U.S. energy information administration, the average energy capacity cost of utility scale battery storage in the United States has rapidly decreased from $2152 / kwh in 2015 to $625 / kwh in 2018. By the end of 2018, the installed power capacity of the battery in the United States was 869 MW (the maximum power that the battery can provide at a given time), and the battery energy capacity was 1236 MWh (the total energy that the battery can store).

The United States increased its battery storage capacity by 152 megawatts in 2019 and 301 megawatts between January and July 2020. According to the planned new capacity data reported by developers and power plant owners as of July 2020, battery storage is expected to increase by more than 6900 MW in the next few years.

Large scale electrochemical energy storage is increasingly paired with renewable energy power plants to improve the reliability and resilience of the grid. In 2019, California's battery installed capacity ranks first among all States in the United States, with an average battery storage cost of $1522 / kWh. About two thirds of California's battery storage capacity is used for frequency regulation and also provides energy oriented services, including ancillary services, black start services, and transmission congestion mitigation.