[Graeme]

The Biggest Battery in North America Gets Unveiled by SCE Today

Although there are plenty of grid-scale energy storage procurement and deployment announcements being made, the truth is that utilities are still figuring energy storage out. While the grid-scale energy storage industry aspires to enter commercialization, utilities might still be rooted in the demonstration stage.

Southern California Edison's demonstration project at the Monolith substation in the Tehachapi Mountains, unveiled today, happens to be the largest battery project in North America and one of the largest battery storage projects in the world. Other battery storage projects in this size range include the Duke Energy Notrees wind farm in west Texas and the 8-megawatt-hour Laurel Mountain Wind Farm. (The DOE has a database of global energy storage projects here.)

Southern California Edison has been working with LG Chem on the 8-megawatt, 32-megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery system since 2010. The Tehachapi Mountains, where the project is sited, is an area with the potential to produce up to 4.5 gigawatts of wind energy by 2016.

Here are some stats on the project:

8 megawatts with 4-hour duration, 32 megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery energy storage system
LG Chem provided the batteries, ABB provided the balance of plant
The battery system comprises 604 battery racks, 10,872 battery modules and 608,832 individual battery cells, according to SCE
A 6,300-square-foot building houses the energy storage system
The substation is on the 66-kilovolt Antelope-Bailey system
The cells are the same lithium-ion cells installed in battery packs supplied to GM for the Chevrolet Volt
The $53.5 million demonstration is funded by SCE as well as federal stimulus money from the DOE as part of 2009's ARRA

greentechmedia

[Graeme]

Tehachapi Energy Storage Project — SoCal Edison Opens Largest Energy Storage Project In North America

The Tehachapi Energy Storage Project — the biggest battery energy storage project to date in North America — has now opened.

The 32 MWh battery energy storage system built by Southern California Edison (SCE) comprises lithium-ion batteries from LG Chem stationed in a special 6,300 square-foot facility at SCE’s Monolith substation in Tehachapi, California.

The project was built in that location owing to its proximity to the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area — which is expected to produce up to 4,500 MW of power from wind energy infrastructure in the area by the year 2016.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Winfried Hoffmann: Stored Electricity As Low As $0.06/kWh By 2030

You can expect to see the cost of storing electricity via lithium-ion battery cell systems fall drastically by the year 2030, according to the relatively well known figure Winfried Hoffmann.

Hoffman — best known for his rather accurate projection of the solar module pricing curve of recent times — predicts quite bluntly that battery storage costs will fall considerably faster that most experts are currently projecting.

“Experts in their own field are often unable to imagine how fast prices can fall,” Hoffmann, an analyst at the consulting firm ASE, stated in an interview with pv magazine.

Why take Hoffman’s word? The most compelling reason to do so would simply be that he was amongst the first analyze the solar module field and make accurate predictions about the nature of the curve that it was/is on. That’s not to say that these new predications are accurate, but certainly it seems that they are worth consideration.

The new predictions about the cost trend of lithium-ion battery cells — using the same method as that used for solar modules — were outlined in detail at a presentation during the recent EU PVSEC meeting in Amsterdam.

Hoffman is expecting lithium-ion batteries (for EVs+electronics) to “break the sound-barrier” of $100 per kWh capacity at right around the same time as batteries with a cumulative capacity of 1 tWh are installed.

So, the next question then, is when is that?

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

New Standards for Grid Energy Storage From MESA and SunSpec

This week’s Energy Storage North America conference has a definitively upbeat theme. California’s 1.3-gigawatts-by-2020 mandate, Hawaii’s 200-megawatt storage RFP, and New York’s distributed energy incentives and utility pilot projects are all providing new markets for battery-based, grid-capable systems to provide services from millisecond-level grid balancing to multi-hour bulk storage.

With grid opportunity comes grid responsibility, however. Almost all of today’s big grid storage uses proprietary software and hardware to get the job done, with integration handled on a case-by-case basis. Standards for battery makers, inverter manufacturers, software developers, utilities and financing partners could yield big cost savings compared to the old way of doing things, as well as laying the groundwork for future innovations.

The MESA Standards Alliance, a group of Washington state energy storage players, wants to help solve that problem. On Wednesday, the alliance officially launched with a list of partners that includes storage software startup 1Energy, inverter maker Parker Hannifin, flow battery startup UniEnergy Technologies, big French grid player Alstom, and the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

greentechmedia

[Graeme]

360 MW Of Grid-Scale Energy Storage Systems Launched In 2013-2014

Navigant Research has released a new report stating that between January 2013 and September 2014, 91 new grid-scale energy storage systems were announced or launched. The total capacity for these systems is 362.8 megawatts. Lithium-ion technology is the leader for these storage systems, but flywheels and flow batteries are also emerging as options for storing electricity produced by clean sources.

While 360 MW might not sound like much compared with the amounts of renewable energy that are being generated in places like California, which reached 4.8 GW of utility-scale solar power generation in September of 2014, it should be noted that these storage systems are emerging technologies,, and they need to be supported.

Navigant Research analyst Anissa Dehamna explained, “This is a critical time for the advanced energy storage industry. The market has started moving quickly across a number of technologies, but in order for the industry to continue to scale, more systems integrators are needed.”

A separate Navigant research report found that the market for grid energy storage and support services will grow in the next ten years from $675 million annually to $15.6 billion. That’s an increase of over twenty times in ten years. Investors, take note.

Everyone who follows renewable energy knows that solving the energy storage problem for solar and wind is sort of a holy grail, because once it is resolved, there really isn’t much of an argument against clean energy. Intermittency is an acknowledged barrier to more solar and wind power, but the energy storage trend seems to very gradually moving towards catching up.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

ow energy storage will accelerate decline of fossil fuels

New Citigroup analysis says that energy storage will have a profound impact on traditional, fossil energy sources, with coal, oil, gas all affected. It’s good news for renewables though.

As we reported here, Ciigroup expects the cost of batteries storage to fall significantly in coming years. By 2020, it predicts solar and battery storage will reach “socket parity” in some countries, and at the utility scale level it will reach “grid parity” in large parts of the world.

Six overarching impacts include:

Renewables: Citigroup says storage is the Holy Grail for intermittent renewables, and deployed at large levels would reduce both the cost of intermittency and the physical grid constraints that prevent deeper renewables penetration. Citi ran three scenarios that increase its base forecast of renewables growth rates in major countries by 25% and 50%. Those results are shown in in the figures below.

reneweconomy

[Graeme]

Energy Storage North America: Standing Room Only

Energy storage is a game changer for the electric power system, and enthusiasm from a variety of stakeholders was seen at the recent Energy Storage North America show in San Jose, California.

The annual Energy Storage North America show in San Jose was a sold-out success, with affirmations from a variety of large utility representatives that they planned to move forward with energy storage projects even if the economics argument was not clearly in place yet. California and Hawaii utilities led the chorus but other speakers made clear that utilities in New York, in Illinois and in some of the dozen states covered by the PJM transmission group also would be contracting for energy storage capacity and/or services over the near term.

Janice Lin, the show developer and co-founder of the California Energy Storage Association, said, “Energy storage is a game changer for the electric power system, and this year’s ESNA event truly represents that.” She highlighted the utility vow as one of the most important messages heard during the event. Another important message was the recognition of energy storage policy development work in California under Carla Peterman, commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission, and from legislation author and State Assembly member Nancy Skinner; the state requirement for 1.3 GW of utility storage by 2020 now leads the country.

The show this year was roundly said to have doubled in size, and included more than 1,300 pre-registered attendees from 26 countries, 50 exhibitors, nearly 110 speakers, over 40 conference sessions, and local tours of energy storage installations.

pv-magazine

[Graeme]

2nd Annual Energy Storage North America Conference and Expo Doubles 2013 Attendance; Sets New Standard for Industry Participation and Deal-making

Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the most influential gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage, concluded its second annual conference and expo with more than twice the previous year's attendance, a sold-out show floor, and praise from attendees for the high quality of programming, exhibits, and deal-supporting networking opportunities.

ESNA 2014 was held at the San Jose Convention Center in California from September 30th to October 2nd. Jointly organized by Messe Dusseldorf North America and Strategen Consulting, ESNA 2014 maintained its singular focus on projects, policies, applications, and deals. A total of 1,524 attendees (including 150 exhibitor personnel) from 26 countries, representing more than 500 organizations – including 100+ utility executives – celebrated successful commercial projects and revenue-generating applications, shared best practices and accelerated energy storage market development. Fifty exhibitors showcased innovative technologies that are transforming North America's grid infrastructure.

Some of the highlights included:

Over 100 speakers and 40+ conference sessions
The 2nd annual ESNA Innovation Awards for excellence in energy storage project development
The inaugural ESNA Champion Awards honoring leadership on the policy and utility side
Seven in-depth workshops and four half-day site tours of local storage installations
A private deal room for business transactions and discussions
Free Tesla Model S test drives for conference delegates
"ESNA has once again proven itself to be the go-to event for knowledge gathering and networking, as well as a productive ecosystem for deal-making in the energy storage market," said Tom Mitchell, President of Messe Dusseldorf North America. "This event's year-over-year growth, as well as the high number of senior-level attendees we're seeing, is a genuine reflection of the surging global interest in energy storage. For 2015, we plan to continue expanding and enhancing our attendee experience to keep pace with this dynamic industry."

"This year's ESNA exceeded our expectations in every aspect, especially the strong support we received from sponsors, attendees, exhibitors and speakers," said Janice Lin, Managing Partner of Strategen Consulting and Conference Chair of ESNA 2014. "With accelerating commercial progress in energy storage, both here in North America and around the world, it's gratifying to provide such a unique venue for sharing content and ideas within our industry."

ESNA is grateful to its 2014 supporters, including Platinum sponsors AES Energy Storage, Dynapower, GE Power & Water Energy Storage, NextEra Energy Resources, and Stem. Gold sponsors are: Coda Energy, East Penn, Energy Power Systems, FIAMM, K&L Gates, and Sunverge. Silver sponsors are: ADA-ES, Inc., Bosch, DC Systems, EDF Renewable Energy, Germany Trade & Invest, Green Charge Networks, Ingeteam, PG&E, Parker, S&C Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, Sharp, Southern California Edison, Stoel Rives, Stornetic, Sumitomo Electric, UniEnergy Technologies, Wells Fargo. The ESNA 2014 Lunch Sponsor was NEC Energy Solutions.

For further information about Energy Storage North America, contact Messe Dusseldorf North America, 150 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2920, Chicago, IL 60601. Telephone (312) 781-5180 or e-mail [email protected].

Visit our website at www.esnaexpo.com
Subscribe to our blog at www.esnaexpo.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/energystoragena

prnewswire

[Graeme]

A look at the potential transformations for the battery and energy storage market

The battery and energy storage market is poised to transform two major industries, transportation and electricity storage.

This week's cover story in the Albany Business Review examines the potential growth for the battery and energy storage industry in the area and highlights some of the entrepreneurs who are developing the next generation of batteries that could end up in wearable devices, cars and energy storage for the electric grid.

The cover story is part of an in-depth look at the Business of Energy and how upstate New York is positioning itself to become a global hotbed for energy innovation. From startups to global conglomerates, Albany-area companies are solving some of the most complex energy issues of our time. ( Read more here)

bizjournals

[Graeme]

Tesla's Powertrain Group: Driving the Grid-Scale Energy Storage Business

While Tesla may have recently made its big announcement, we also recently heard from Tesla's Director of Powertrain Business Development, Mateo Jaramillo, the keynote speaker at last week's Energy Storage North America. He spoke of Tesla's aggressive efforts in stationary storage.

Jaramillo leads the efforts to commercialize Tesla's electric powertrain technology for applications without wheels. That includes Tesla’s battery systems, electric motors, power electronics and chargers. Jaramillo incubated the stationary storage project within Tesla. The executive spoke of how grid storage and stationary energy storage fits into Tesla.

Jaramillo noted that the goal of Tesla is to accelerate the advent of sustainable transportation, not just build cars. As Tesla CTO JB Strauble said in an earlier interview, Tesla was founded as an energy innovations company.

"The Mission of Tesla Motors," penned by Elon Musk in 2006, as told by Jaramillo, has been to:

Build a sports car
Use that money (and some money from the DOE) to build an affordable car -- the Model S ("We're working on the affordable part," said Jaramillo.)
Use that money to build an even more affordable car
And "the little known fourth point, the lost Beatle if you will," said Jaramillo, was to provide a zero-emission electric power generation option. "That was really a founding principle of the company," said Jaramillo.
As we've reported, Tesla has four megawatt-hours of battery "operating at the plant right now," in peak reduction and demand response applications.

Jaramillo said that the Powertrain Group is becoming "more and more focused on stationary storage." He spoke of past near-disasters in battery development "deeply seared into the engineering memory of our company," that have shown that the sustainable path forward "was to do the complete system ourselves."

Jaramillo rattled off some Tesla stats:

Tesla has developed 7 automotive products in 6 years and sold more than 40,000 vehicles.
There is about 4 gigawatt-hours of Tesla battery "storage that's out there in the world."
That's a total of 12 gigawatts of bidirectional inverters operating at their peak about once a day
Over 200 superchargers delivering a gigawatt-hour a month
"At its peak capacity [The Giga factory] will produce 50-gigawatt-hours of storage per year -- the is very much the engine plant if you will [...] of the electric vehicle production plant in Fremont. It's sized to produce enough for about 500,000 vehicle per year."

He spoke of an eventual 1.5 terawatt-hours of additional load in order to charge those vehicles. And he said that means, "$500 million of revenue that comes out of the oil and gas industry and into the electric industry."

Jaramillo said, "Tesla has new industrial and residential units coming out next year at compelling price points,"

theenergycollective

[Graeme]

How about those super-capacitors! Huh? Gonna change the way we live and work.

Yep.

Lawrence Livermore graphene aerogels could improve performance of carbon-based superconductors by more than 100%

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are developing modified graphene aerogels for application in supercapacitor electrodes. LLNL’s graphene aerogel material could potentially improve on the performance of commercial carbon-based supercapacitors by more than 100%, said LLNL’s Dr. Patrick Campbell, lead author of a paper on the technology published in the RSC journal Journal of Materials Chemistry A.

In the paper, the LLNL team reports a 2.9-fold increase in electrical energy storage capacity (up to 23 Wh kg−1) of their graphene materials by modifying them with anthraquinone. These hybrid electrodes demonstrate battery-like energy density, supercapacitor-like power performance, and superb long-term stability, the researchers said.

Binder-free, monolithic, high surface area graphene macro-assemblies (GMAs) are promising materials for supercapacitor electrodes, but, like all graphitic carbon based supercapacitor electrodes, still lack sufficient energy density for demanding practical applications. Here, we demonstrate that the energy storage capacity of GMAs can be increased nearly 3-fold (up to 23 Wh kg−1) by facile, non-covalent surface modification with anthraquinone (AQ). AQ provides battery-like redox charge storage (927 C g−1) without affecting the conductivity and capacitance of the GMA support.

The resulting AQ-GMA battery/supercapacitor hybrid electrodes demonstrate excellent power performance, show remarkable long-term cycling stability and, by virtue of their excellent mechanical properties, allow for further increases in volumetric energy density by mechanical compression of the treated electrode. Our measured capacity is very close to the theoretical maximum obtained using detailed density functional theory calculations, suggesting nearly all incorporated AQ is made available for charge storage.

—Campbell et al.

greencarcongress

[Graeme]

Renewable Energy Storage Gains Critical Mass

A host of U.S. renewable energy storage executives recently gathered here in the Silicon Valley are referring to the rapid expansion of the storage industry by comparing it to the solar power industry six or eight years ago, before that companion sector became the juggernaut it is now.

These storage advocates were assembled for the Energy Storage North America exposition, which doubled in size compared with last year, according to conference chairperson Janice Lin. Also co-founder of the California Energy Storage Association, Lin said that “energy storage is a game changer for the electric power system, and this year’s ESNA event truly represents that.”

Storage Belatedly Following PV Growth Curve

A number of investors in energy storage touted the wisdom of their bets. “Energy storage is one of the holy grails of renewable energy; the main issue is that costs still have to come down,” commented Andrew Chung, a partner at the venture capital firm Khosla Ventures, based in Menlo Park. “Energy storage wasn’t invented for grid-scale applications, but with it getting acceptance in solar, more states and nations will start to move toward implementing policy,” he said. Khosla lists six energy storage start ups within its portfolio now.

Similarly, Peter Rive, the co-founder of SolarCity said, “In three to five years, storage will be a standard component of residential solar power, not optional, but deployed with every solar system.” He continued, “It won’t look that different to the customer, but the fundamental value proposition will be cleaner and cheaper.” Rive also said that electric vehicle (EV) charging capability was likely to become a feature of the energy storage rollout.

Standout Projects Raise Storage Profile

renewableenergyworld

[Graeme]

Shot Of Adrenalin For Super-Hot Solar Market: Vanadium Flow Batteries

We sure took notice of the latest federal report showing that the cost of solar power is rocketing downwards, but there’s a hitch: what about the cost of energy storage? After all, raw solar energy is an intermittent source. Bringing down the installed cost of solar power systems is half the challenge. The other half is bringing down the cost of energy storage technologies that make solar (and wind, for that matter), an at-your-fingertips form of energy on par with stocking up on coal, oil, or natural gas in terms of both cost and reliability.

Here to help un-hitch the hitch is Imergy Power Systems. The company first crossed our radar with its proprietary flow battery based on material reclaimed from mine tailings and derelict oil wells. Today Imergy is announcing the introduction of its new ESP30 series, which according to its press materials will cut the cost of its signature flow batteries from $500 per kilowatt hour to less than $300 per kilowatt hour.

Cost Of Energy Storage Sinking Like A Stone…

The latest report on solar energy costs came from the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory earlier this week. We also noted recently that the cost of energy storage is plummeting, and while the figure of $300 cited by Imergy doesn’t beat some of the other technologies that have crossed our radar, it is getting pretty close to the Energy Department’s near term goal of $250 per kWh for grid energy storage (see p. 32).

It’s also worth keeping in mind that flow batteries have an important lifecycle advantage over some other energy storage technologies, including the current gold standard, lithium-ion batteries.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Forget Tesla Motors Inc's Tiny Batteries, This Monster Battery Could Be the Future

When it comes to batteries, the headline news has been Tesla Motors' (NASDAQ: TSLA ) so-called Gigafactory, which will produce more lithium-ion batteries than the world makes today. However, that's not the only big news in battery land. AES (NYSE: AES ) is looking to build batteries for utilities capable of storing 500 megawatts of electricity. Forget Tesla's puny car batteries -- AES is talking about building one really big battery!

What does a big battery do?
Obviously, a battery stores electricity. We all know that because we've been relying on them to power our cell phones, watches, cars, and flashlights for years. But why would a utility want a big battery? The answer is renewable power.

One of the problems with renewable power is that some of the fastest growing sources, specifically wind and solar, can't be controlled. There's no way to know exactly how much power you'll get at any given time. For example, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Texas, which has made a large investment in wind power, can expect wind to provide anywhere from a high of around 10,000 megawatts to as little as 1,000 megawatts of power at any given time.

That cycles back and forth and has little to do with actual electricity needs. Solar, meanwhile, provides the most power, as you might guess, around the middle of the day when the sun is strongest. If it's cloudy, solar systems might provide just a trickle of power, if any at all. Such intermittent supplies put utilities in a rough spot; they have to ensure that your lights stay on, but they have inherently unreliable power sources contributing more and more power to the system -- and often at times when the electricity isn't really useful.

That's where giant 500 gigawatt batteries come in. A utility could take one of AES' giant batteries and charge it with excess power being produced by renewable sources. It could then release that power back into the grid when it's needed. That could be later in the day when demand spikes or, perhaps, on a cloudy day with no wind when renewable sources fall short of expected output levels.

fool

[Graeme]

Energy Storage Start-Up: Lessons Learned and a Focused Future

Globally, energy storage mandates are on the rise. Countries like Japan, China, India and Germany in addition to the US have all issued storage targets and commenced development projects aiming to support the growth of their electric energy needs as well as balance the variability of load on their existing generation assets. Nationally, California's 1.3-gigawatt grid storage mandate along with new regulatory frameworks in New York, Texas, and Washington has captured the attention of corporate and venture capital investors alike. Similarly, these aggressive mandates and regulatory frameworks have also spurred increased competition among companies looking to commercialize and deploy technologies aimed at meeting these initiatives.


One of the key takeaways from both the successes and failures across the energy storage space is that developing and commercializing technology is expensive. Researchers and entrepreneurs are keenly aware of the opportunities in energy storage however investors and other necessary partners are risk averse and see greater opportunity in investing in other industries. This divide has led to both good and bad results for the growth of the space. The good being that entrepreneurs are now forced to definitively prove their technology and business model earlier on and the bad being that it is now harder and takes more time investments to be made, increasing the time to get to market.

theenergycollective

Innovations in Energy Storage Provide Boost for Renewables

Intermittency has long been considered the Achilles heel of renewable power generation. The U.S. electricity grid, after all, is largely built around big, centralized coal and nuclear power plants that can run all the time, whether demand is high or low. In contrast, grid engineers have no control over when the sun shines or when the wind blows, making it difficult for solar or wind to fully supplant the dirty-but-reliable fuels that keep the power grid humming along smoothly.

That may finally be changing. Large-scale and technologically advanced energy storage projects — from massive lithium-ion battery installations in the California mountains to giant, compressed air caverns under the Utah desert have recently been commissioned or announced. And while numerous hurdles remain — including needed improvements in reliability and safety, regulatory and market changes, and of course, cost — policy moves in many states are steadily nudging the industry forward.


In 2012, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s landmark Renewable Electricity Futures Study laid out what it considered a clear path to 80 percent renewable energy generation in the United States by 2050. The agency, part of the Department of Energy, estimated a need of between 80 and 131 new gigawatts of storage in order to support all that sun and wind power.

Whether that will come to pass is impossible to say for certain, but storage developers like David Marcus of General Compression are optimistic.

"Like wind and solar before it, costs are coming down, installations are going up, and regulators are grappling with appropriate compensation,” he said. “These things are coming together — slower than many would like, but they are coming."

yale

[Graeme]

German Experts Lock Horns over Storage

Until recently, the going orthodoxy among supporters of Germany’s Energiewende, or clean energy transition, was that storage capacity for electricity was vital to expanding renewables in Germany’s power supply.

This capacity, experts agreed, was needed urgently to cover for solar PV and onshore wind production during periods of uncooperative weather, to obviate reliance on coal-fired plants to back up renewables, and to stabilize the growing supply of renewable energy in Germany’s system. After all, solar PV and onshore wind are the backbone of the Energiewende in the power sector, and will be in the future as Germany drives forward to switch to a renewables-based power supply.

Different means of storage — pumped water, batteries, small-scale distributed, hydrogen, compressed air, Nord Link (a Norway-Germany cable) — are among the costly options that Germany is pursuing for electricity, heating, and transportation. Just recently, Germany’s minister for energy and economy, Sigmar Gabriel, proudly unveiled Europe’s to-date largest (and most expensive: $7.5 million) commercial battery plant, which is powered by 25,600 lithium-ion batteries and has a storage capacity of 5 MWh.

But this autumn, one of Germany’s leading energy think tanks, Agora Energiewende (financed by the Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation), dropped a small bombshell on the Energiewende community. In a study carried out by Agora and other high-profile, independent research institutes, it concluded that significant storage capacity for renewably generated electricity would not be needed for another 20 years — until Germany has at least a 60 percent share of renewables in its power sector. The study is a hot potato that has, so far, incurred considerable critique from peer institutes and lobby groups.

renewableenergyworld

[Graeme]

U.S. DOE provides $15 million for solar and energy storage projects

A week after Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz announced US$53 million in awards for R&D at the Solar Power International trade show, the DOE is opening another funding opportunity focused on integrating higher penetrations of solar.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced another funding opportunity to support “low-cost, flexible and reliable solutions” for the integration of higher penetrations of solar PV on the grid through the use of energy storage, as part of its SunShot program.

“Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar PV” (SHINES) will provide up to US$15 million in funding for projects which use storage to meet both consumer and grid needs. This will include projects that utilize smart inverters, and are capable of working with smart buildings, smart appliances, and utility communications and control systems.

The continental United States does not have as high of penetrations of solar as Italy, Germany or Spain. All three of these nations met 5-7% of electricity demand with solar in 2013 and none have deployed widespread energy storage.

However, California has come close, with utility-scale PV and solar CSP alone meeting 2.4% of demand over the course of 2013. Hawaii has even higher penetrations of solar, and due to isolated island grids the challenges of integrating PV are greater.

pv-magazine

[Graeme]

The Next Big Opportunity to Drop Balance-of-System Costs: Battery Storage

What’s it going to take to make the installed cost of battery storage fall as fast as solar's?

Over the past five years, solar panel prices have fallen fast, dropping to as low as 50 cents a watt. Of course, panels are just one component of the total cost of installed solar. As panel prices leveled out, it became clear that the remaining cost reductions were going to have to come from the rest of the PV system -- racks, inverters and wires, as well as soft costs like permitting, sales and logistics.

To address this issue, the eLab project of the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Colorado think tank led by energy guru Amory Lovins, convened a workshop in 2009 to look at all the cost elements of distributed solar.

“We looked at what could be done to lower the cost from the time it comes out of the plant to the time it goes on the roof,” said eLab manager Leia Guccione.

“We all came to an epiphany that the place we are making the least progress is soft costs” and non-panel hardware, known as the balance of system, or BOS, said Guccione.

From that epiphany came the SunShot Initiative, a DOE program launched under Secretary Steven Chu that has funded more than 350 projects since 2011 to drop those BOS costs. “We like to think we had a role in inspiring the DOE,” said Guccione.

Now RMI hopes to apply the same approach to batteries. It is kicking off a battery BOS project with a design charrette in the Bay Area on November 12-13. “If we start today, how much faster can we drive down costs for batteries?” asked Guccione.

greentechmedia