COVER STORY: THE YEAR AHEAD
Drive to solar, storage unstoppable
Ken Munson President and chief executive officer, Sunverge
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expect storage to continue its upward growth trend in 2017, with three significant factors at work. The first is basic economics. The penetration of solar generation will continue to grow, at both the distributed energy resource (DER) and utility levels. A survey from the Pew Research Center shows overwhelming support for solar power overall in the US, with 40% of homeowners con-
sidering rooftop installations (to save money and protect the environment). Adding storage to DER solar immediately increases the system’s return on investment, shortening the payback period. The increase in electric vehicle sales will contribute, driving down the cost of batteries (through volume and innovation) while driving up demand for storage to make recharging more efficient; Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects that 35% of all new vehicles sold worldwide in 2040 will be electric. Demand for storage will also be driven by continuing changes in net energy metering tariffs, along with the addition of demand charges by many utilities and, eventually, time of use rates. There are 13 US states considering new distributed generation rate designs, including time of use and demand charges, while in Australia eliminating the feed-in tariff has been forecast to lead to 50% penetration of storage with rooftop solar — and there are already 1.6 million rooftop solar installations in the country. This will create increased demand, not simply for behind-the-meter storage, but for that storage to be ever-more intelligent, with predictive analytics that enable DER owners to automatically get the greatest possible benefit from their system — and to help utilities manage the complexities
More policy makers around the world are recognizing the value of widespread local solar and storage and strongly encouraging its deployment — Ken Munson, Sunverge of putting so much local generation on to already taxed grids. Finally, more policy makers around the world are recognizing the value of widespread local solar and storage and strongly encouraging its deployment — Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan in particular are world leaders, along with the US. Even though it appears likely the Trump administration won’t have as strong a pro-renewables energy policy as there has been under Obama, there remain strong pro-renewables policies in forward-looking states and their governors in California, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York, New Mexico, Washington and Hawaii. These are bellwether states when it comes to energy policy in the US, so the outlook remains positive and strong.
Silver lining from power outages
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Troy Miller Director grid solutions, S&C Electric Company
24 • Energy Storage Journal • Winter 2016/2017
number of significant developments that have happened in the last six months will help build momentum for the utility-scale segment of the industry in 2017. One of these has been the aftermath of the Aliso Canyon natural gas leak that occurred in facilities owned by Southern California Gas in October 2015. The shortage in stored gas caused by this event, which could lead to blackouts in the region, has led to the fast-tracking of permitting required for battery energy storage to fill the shortfall. Ordinarily the permitting for 40MW of traditional generation would take two to four years to complete, but to deploy the megawatts of energy storage needed, it has taken a matter of months in order to make sure that
Energy storage is more than just a renewablesenabling technology. It is a valuable and versatile grid tool, as recent events like Aliso Canyon have shown — Troy Miller, S&C Electric shortfall is addressed in early 2017. We’re seeing more uptake of energy storage from across the utility spectrum, not only investor owned utilities, but also electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. The S&C project with the Village of Minster in Ohio, has used a private public partnership model to develop, in partnership with
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