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Issue 1 | 2012
Business & market strategies for energy storage & smart grid technologies
SUPER CHARGED
Self-consumption sparks alliances between PV and storage industries EuPD Research analyses PV and storage trends and economics
California dreaming Ground breaking policy defines the state as an energy storage leader
A steer in the right direction Lux Research on how EV battery costs must come down www.energystoragejournal.com
“ …establishing a market of diverse, flexible and cost-effective energy storage products, platforms and services is going to be critical in these next few years.”
Publisher’s message
Message from the publisher
T
he solar PV industry may be in a tough place right now, but it is a far cry from the niche industry it was, still less than a decade ago. There
EnergyStorageJournal Business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies EnergyStorageJournal is a quarterly publication www.energystoragejournal.com Views expressed in EnergyStorageJournal are the authors’ and not necessarily those of IPVEA Published by International PV Equipment Association (IPVEA) P.O. Box 1610, D-63406, Hanau, Germany Registration Number: Court Hanau VR 31714 Tel: +1 407 856 9100 www.ipvea.org Publisher Bryan Ekus Publisher and Managing Director International PV Equipment Association ekus@ipvea.com Editor Sara Ver-Bruggen sara@ipvea.com Design Doubletake Design Ltd. (UK) darren@doubletakedesign.co.uk © 2012 International Photovoltaic Equipment Association (IPVEA)
is tremendous scope for enlarging the energy storage market in the
same way. Whether electric vehicles, or providing solutions for homeowners and businesses that want greater energy self-sufficiency, to enhancing electric grid infrastructure and networks, to enabling new off-grid applications, the opportunities are numerous. Therefore, establishing a market of diverse, flexible and cost-effective energy storage products, platforms and services is going to be critical in these next few years. The equipment companies that IPVEA represents have helped to industrialise PV with tools that range from robotics and automated handling machinery, to thin film processing lines, inspection systems and everything in between. Some of these are early movers in storage, using their expertise to develop manufacturing equipment for battery cells and modules, fuel cells, flywheel components and supercapacitors, to name a few. Energy storage, like any other a hi-tech industry, will only thrive if there is consistent innovation in materials, processes and reducing costs in production to make storage affordable and competitive. The emergence of the smart grid model has paved the way for new players to enter the business of energy generation and supply, while forcing incumbents to adapt, or exit. We’re excited to be pushing into unchartered territory and in this dynamic market place, Energy Storage Journal has an ambitious remit, to keep its readers informed of new opportunities across the entire supply chain.
Bryan Ekus Publisher / Managing Director IPVEA
Every effort has been to ensure that all the information in this publication is correct, the publisher will accept no responsibility for any errors, or opinion expressed, or omissions, for any loss or damage, cosequential or otherwise, suffered as a result of any material published. Any warranty to the correctness and actuality can not be assumed. IPVEA reserves the right to make changes or additions to the information made available at any time without notice. © 2012 International Photovoltaic Equipment Association. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or part, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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inside 06 NEWS Latest energy storage and smart grid news and developments from around the world
14 Market focus EuPD Research on Germany’s emerging PV electricity self-consumption market
18 Guest editorial CESA examines how strong policy is shaping California’s energy storage sector
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22 Technology focus Lux Research sets out cost scenarios for lithium ion batteries for electric vehicles
26 Cover story
Super Charged Energy Storage Journal explores new products and alliances in PV storage to meet demand for self-consumption
34 Production technology roundup Innovative energy storage production technologies and market strategies
38 technology FEATURE
Turning solar power into green gas Conversion of green power into storable methane is a promising option for large-scale storage applications
42 Supplier close-up Oerlikon Systems unveils advanced storage production technologies
46 Energy storage events Details of conferences, exhibitions and seminars in the energy storage and smart grid calendar
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38
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
Message from the EDITOR
W
elcome to the inaugural issue of Energy Storage Journal – business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies. In this issue you will read about the main energy storage headlines
of recent weeks, including deal launches, announcements, projects and other initiatives.
A small, but vital, contingent of hi-tech companies are behind products designed to store and manage PV electricity
We’ve also got a series of exclusive articles from our analyst partners and consultants. First up, EuPD Research explores the new phase in PV electricity – selfconsumption – examining drivers and the economic feasibility of such systems and opportunities for cost reductions. In the US, California is pioneering the integration of storage into the grid and Janice Lin, co-founder of the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA), provides a comprehensive overview of AB 2514, the crucial piece of legislation that is paving the way for energy storage adoption in the “Golden State”. Lux Research presents opportunities in materials technology and other areas to drive down costs in lithium-ion batteries for the electric vehicle market. Smart grid technology and systems have existed for some time. In this issue of ESJ you will read about a small but vital contingent of hi-tech companies that are behind products designed to store and manage electricity generated by solar panels, for increasing self-consumption. Many of these companies are forging ties with PV module producers and suppliers, which are expanding their businesses to provide solar and storage systems. Also in this issue several PV industry equipment suppliers reveal their plans for supplying the growing demand for more cost-effective energy storage systems. We hope you enjoy this first issue – we are open to feedback, ideas, opinions and fostering a collaborative platform for all matters concerning renewables and storage.
Sara Ver-Bruggen Editor
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EnergyStorageJournal Energy Storage Journal (business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies) is a new quarterly B2B publication that covers global news, trends and developments in energy storage and smart grid markets. Worldwide growth in renewable energy generation capacity, electricity-powered transportation and fastgrowing cities in developing economies will drive exponential growth in energy storage and smart grid technologies, products and applications in the coming years. ESJ is a key source of information to enable your business or organisation to keep track of these dynamic industries and the multitude of new opportunities they present. The inaugural issue of ESJ will be launched at 27th EU PVSEC, in Frankfurt, with a print run of 5000 copies made available at the show.
Target readership Renewables energy industry (executives from solar
Each issue includes Global news round-up Exclusive in depth features on new and promising energy storage applications and technologies
Case studies of advances in energy storage production to bring high performance, costeffective energy storage products to market
Analysis and forecasts on different energy storage markets and technologies from leading consultants and experts in the field
Examination of policy around the world that is enabling investment and growth in energy storage and smart grid technologies
Updated events calendar
www.energystoragejournal.com
PV, CSP, wind, biomass etc.)
Energy utilities and grid owners Distributed network operators
High performance and advanced battery manufacturers (lead acid, lithium, ion flow, ZEBRA etc)
Fuel cell and electrolyzer producers Suppliers of flywheel, thermal and other storage technologies and systems
Suppliers of energy storage management and control systems
Automotive manufacturers Producers of equipment and materials used for energy storage production
Policy makers and shapers Universities and research institutes Consultants and analysts Venture capitalists and other investors Associations and alliances representing energy storage, renewables & conventional energy sectors
To discuss how your organisation can work with EnergyStorageJournal contact the Publisher and Managing Director Bryan Ekus by email: ekus@ipvea.com
news
energy storage news
IN THE NEWS USA Germany Norway Canada China UK France Spain
New York and Texas, US
GE and Xtreme Power to supply grid energy storage GE Energy Storage, part of GE Transportation, and Xtreme Power will work together to provide cutting-edge energy storage solutions. The alliance combines GE’s Durathon battery technology for grid energy storage systems and Xtreme Power’s extensive experience as an integrated energy storage turn-key products and systems provider. GE’s Durathon batteries can last up to 10 times longer than conventional lead acid batteries and store more energy in half the space. The Durathon batteries are the result of a $100 million (€77.5 million) initial investment in battery technology developed at GE’s global research centre
in Niskayuna, New York. When paired with Xtreme Power’s Xtreme Active Control Technology (XACT), the devices should enable safer and highly efficient storage of massive quantities of electricity at low cost for grid applications. XACT is a control system architecture that provides real time response, remote monitoring, and optimized power management. Together the companies are targeting global opportunities for effective and efficient energy storage on old and new electric grids. A few months ago General Electric, announced it was increasing investment in the Durathon batteries with a $170 million factory in Schenectady, New York, up from an initial $100 million targeted when it decided to make the move in 2009. The additional investment will double the plant’s capacity.
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energy storage news The factory will employ about 450 at full capacity and will be the start of a business with a potential annual revenue of $1 billion in the coming years. GE has already received its first order for the Durathon batteries from South African engineering company Megatron Federal, which wants 6,000 units to be used as backup power supplies at telecommunications sites. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Xtreme Power is backed by investors including SAIL Capital Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, The Dow Chemical Company, BP Alternative Energy, and POSCO ICT and is one of the fastest growing private companies in the US.
www.geenergystorage.com www.xtremepower.com
Washington DC, US
US DoE funds storage projects to advance electric vehicle and grid technologies In August the US Department of Energy (DoE) announced that 19 new projects will receive a total of $43 million in funding from the department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The projects will be supported through two ARPA-E programmes – Advanced Management and Protection of Energy Storage Devices (AMPED) and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR). The projects will focus on innovations in battery management and storage to advance electric vehicle (EV) technologies, help improve the efficiency and reliability of the electrical grid and provide energy security benefits to the US armed forces. Twelve research projects are receiving $30 million in funding under the AMPED programme, which aims to develop advanced sensing and control technologies that could enhance safety, performance, and lifetime for grid-scale and vehicle batteries through maximizing the potential of existing battery chemistries. These innovations will help reduce costs
and improve the performance of future storage technologies for EVs and hybrid EVs. For example, Battelle Memorial Institute in Ohio will develop an optical sensor to monitor the internal environment of a lithium-ion battery in real-time. Through the larger department-wide SBIR/ Small Business Technology Transfer programme $13 million will fund seven projects to pursue cutting-edge energy storage developments for stationary power and EVs. These will develop new battery chemistries and designs, continuing ARPAE’s funding for storage technologies. For example, Energy Storage Systems in Oregon will construct a flow battery for grid-scale storage using an advanced cell design and electrolyte materials composed of low cost iron. The flow battery will have a target storage cost of less than $100/ kWh, which could enable deployment of renewable energy technologies throughout the grid.
The centre will focus on the immediate priority of batteries for low and ultralow carbon vehicles, but it will have the potential to extend to storage for other transport applications including commercial and off-road vehicles, rail and marine, and to other technologies such as fuel cells. Business Minister Michael Fallon said the centre will put the UK in a much stronger, competitive position to capitalise on a growing worldwide market for low carbon vehicles, alongside other world leaders in the field including the US, Japan and Germany. “It complements over £5.5 billion that global vehicle manufacturers have committed to UK projects in the last 18 months,” said Fallon. The government has contributed £9 million to the centre and $4 million has come from industry.
http://www.bis.gov.uk/newsroom
http://arpa-e.energy.gov/
California, US Warwickshire, UK
UK unveils plans for energy storage R&D centre The University of Warwick is to host a £13 million (€16.2 million) R&D centre to develop advanced storage technologies for the growing electric and hybrid vehicle battery market, which could be worth £250 million for the UK by 2020. The centre is the latest move by the government to secure future growth opportunities for the UK’s automotive sector, building on its £400 million commitment over the next four years to supporting electric cars and other ultra-low carbon vehicles. The centre will build on the UK’s world class research base in electrochemistry and will focus on the development of a new generation of high performance batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles designed to be more economic and stable, yet boast higher energy density levels than those currently available on the market.
BrightSource Energy’s solar projects with storage favoured According to a news report on Gigaom. com California regulators are likely to green-light three of five deals between BrightSource and a utility, a decision based partly on the three projects’ plans to incorporate energy storage. However, BrightSource Energy and utility Southern California Edison (SCE) face potential rejection for the remaining two, both of which lack storage. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is recommending a “no” vote for two power purchase agreements (PPA) in which SCE will buy power from BrightSource’s planned Rio Mesa solar project. According to CPUC the two agreements are too expensive while it also noted that power plants for the contracts lack storage components. The other three solar plants with energy storage PPAs will give Edison more flexibility to manage supply and demand.
news
Solar plants, integrated with thermal energy storage, effectively extend electricity production into later parts of the day and after sundown, when it is valued most by utilities and other power producers, helping reduce the cost of renewable power by increasing a plant’s capacity factor – the amount of energy produced in a given day – to offer higher asset use. The vote on the five PPAs has been postponed by the commission until September 2012. BrightSource plans to use tanks of molten salt for storing the thermal energy produced by its thousands of tracking mirrors, which concentrate and direct sunlight to heat up a water boiler on top of a tower. The steam from the heated water runs the turbine and generator to produce electricity. If the steam isn’t going to be used to generate electricity, it is piped to heat molten salt, which traps heat and can be used to produce steam for electricity generation, when it is needed at a later point.
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/regulatorspush-for-energy-storage-for-solar-farms/
Ontario, Canada and Porsgrunn, Norway
Electrovaya acquires lithiumion battery company Miljøbil Grenland In September Electrovaya Inc increased its shareholding in Miljøbil Grenland (MBG), a lithium-ion battery (LIB) developer based in Porsgrunn, Norway. MBG is commercialising LIB technologies for a range of electric vehicle (EV) and other transportation applications. The acquisition allows Electrovaya to expand into Europe, acquire a large portfolio of battery patents and other intellectual property, acquire plant and machinery and add a product portfolio which is targeted to the energy storage, marine and EV market while adding a strong technical team with many years of
LIB systems experience, according to Dr Sankar Das Gupta, CEO of Electrovaya. Founded in 1996 Ontario-headquartered Electrovaya designs, develops and manufactures proprietary Lithium Ion SuperPolymer batteries, battery systems, and battery-related products for the clean electric transportation, utility scale energy storage and smart grid power, consumer and healthcare markets. MBG is an engineering company in energy storage, electric vehicles and proprietary battery technology, specialising in development and pilot series production of battery and control systems. The company has invested $30 million in LIB technologies.
www.electrovaya.com www.miljobil.no
factory and deliver products configured for different applications, such as improving productivity of renewable energy sources and micro grid storage integration. Meineng Energy recently opened its Wuhu factory, showing several complete EnerStore battery modules that included content sourced from its China supply chain, in addition to key components ordered previously from ZBB. Meineng Factory has an annual nameplate capacity rated at 100 MWh of energy storage and control products. ZBB EnerStore flow battery modules are modular and scalable, self-contained and front accessible – making them ideal for distributed energy projects whether on or off the grid.
www.zbbenergy.com
Milwaukee, US and Wuhu, China
Nevada, US and Dongcheng, China
ZBB Energy meets demand for energy storage systems from Chinese partner
Altairnano’s batteries to trial at Chinese wind farm
ZBB Energy, a provider of renewable energy storage systems based on zinc bromide flow batteries, has received follow on orders from its Chinese joint venture (JV) partner Meineng Energy.
Shenhua Group Corporation, the world’s biggest coal producer, will test energystorage systems supplied by Altair Nanotechnologies (Altairnano) at a wind farm in China, according to a Bloomberg news report.
The orders, in excess of $0.6 million, will be shipped to the Meineng factory for assembly and testing in Wuhu, in China’s Anhui province.
The project will evaluate the ability of Renobased Altairnano’s lithium-titanate batteries to retain electricity.
Earlier this year, Meineng placed an initial order with ZBB for components to assemble 10 ZBB EnerStore advanced energy storage units, which Meineng deliver to various customers by the end of this year. “The follow-on order indicates the growth potential in China for our products as well as the scalability and repeatability we are looking for to reach critical mass,” said Dan Nordloh, ZBB Energy executive VP of global business development and member of Meineng Energy’s board of directors. With the new orders Meineng will be able to continue ramping its assembly and test
Guohua Energy Investment Co., Ltd, a wholly stated-owned enterprise under the administration of Shenhua Group Corporation, controls various wind energy assets and wind farm developers in China. Altairnano is developing the storage system with Shenhua Science & Technology and National Institute of Clean and Low Carbon Energy, both units of Shenhua Group, based in Dongcheng, China. Altair has completed a series of agreements to prepare for opportunities to supply the Chinese market. In April 2012 the company signed economic development agreements with the cities
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energy storage news of Handan and Wu’an, where both are providing the subsidiary Altair China with a package of economic incentives, including a land use rights grant, which shall be used for production facilities. In August Altair China received an initial down payment of $1.9 million (€1.5 million) from Wu’an for its first electric vehicle (EV) bus order under its April 2012 economic development contract agreement with the city. Altair China will deliver 50 electric buses to Wu’an by the end of 2012. Altairnano is the first company to replace traditional graphite materials used in conventional lithium-ion batteries with a proprietary, nanostructured lithiumtitanate – a process that delivers distinctive performance attributes, including power, fast charge/discharge rates, high roundtrip efficiencies, long cycle life, safety and ability to operate under extreme temperatures. The company is targeting electric grid, transportation and industrial applications with its battery technology.
www.altairnano.com www.shenhuagroup.com.cn
Florida, US
RoseWater launches Residential Energy Storage Hub RoseWater Energy Group’s Residential Energy Storage Hub was launched this September at CEDIA Expo 2012 – an international trade show for electronic systems designed for the home. The Residential Energy Storage Hub can hooked into solar, wind or backup power in addition to the mains. The “hub”, which uses lead carbon battery technology developed by Axion Power, functions as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with extras – providing 10 kW of power to selected circuits and 12 kWh of energy storage during power failure. Joe Piccirilli, MD of Florida-based RoseWater Energy Group, says the Residential Energy Storage Hub – costing
in the region of $45,000 – is designed for luxury residences and a market of consumers prepared to pay for a good quality, versatile power network to run their home entertainment systems and other electronic gadgets. Used with a solar panel the “hub” could also qualify for a 30% renewable energy tax credit from the US Federal Government. Axion’s lead carbon batteries are maintenance-free and can be cycled 2,500 times to a full discharge. Power protection is provided by two bidirectional DC to DC converters. This stabilises power before conversion to AC.
http://www.rosewaterenergy.com/ www.axionpower.com
Seoul, South Korea and Minnesota, US
Hanwha SolarOne enters energy storage market through partnership with Silent Power South Korean PV panel producer Hanwha SolarOne has entered into a strategic partnership with Silent Power, a US-based energy storage systems company. Hanwha Group led Silent Power’s recent Series B funding round with an $8 million investment.
The strategic partnership will feature a comarketing strategy for bundling Hanwha SolarOne’s high quality PV panels with Silent Power’s distributed energy storage device, the OnDemand Energy Appliance. The two companies demonstrated their complete solar power and energy storage system for the residential, commercial and industrial markets at this year’s Solar Power International (SPI) event, 10-13 September in Florida, with a first bundled product offering ready for sale. Charles Kim, president of Hanwha SolarOne, said: “Hanwha SolarOne is building the solar economy of the future with focused, strategic partnerships like this collaboration with Silent Power. It expands the Hanwha SolarOne’s portfolio of product offerings and builds upon our goal to be the most innovative, flexible and reliable partner for our customers.” Energy production from solar PV peaks during prime sunlight hours and does not always align with the peak demand for energy. By storing excess energy produced during times of peak production, the energy can be saved for later use. The stored energy can be used locally by the owner of the system, or can be used by the local utility company to provide power to the electric grid during times of peak demand. The OnDemand Energy Appliance can also provide backup power for the owner during grid outages.
www.hanwha-solarone.com www.silentpwr.com
Taiwan
Taiwan to invest over $4 billion in constructing smart grid A nationwide smart grid planned in Taiwan is expected to increase the contribution of solar and wind power in meeting the island’s energy needs. According to a recent news report on www.taiwantoday.tw the ROC government will invest approximately $4.4 billion (€3.4 billion) over the next 20 years to construct a nationwide smart grid.
news
The establishment of a comprehensive smart grid has been listed as part of a national energy conservation and carbon reduction project, the Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs has stated. The plan is expected to boost grid-related technology industries and services, including storage technologies and facilities, digital meters, charging systems for electric vehicles, smart appliances, energy management units and automated electricity distribution systems. The investment will be spent on overhauling infrastructure for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, installation of smart appliances by end users and establishing national standards and certification for smart grid applications. State-run Taiwan Power Company will be in charge of finalizing details for implementation and getting private industries on board, according to the report. The smart grid will use communication systems to link electric meters with appliances to regulate and shift supply during peak load periods, taking pressure off power plants and will allow greater penetration of renewables.
www.moea.gov.tw
Asia-Pacific
Asian storage and smart grid markets set to boom According to two recent reports by analysts, the Asian energy storage and smart grid prospects are bullish as governments must seek to alleviate the pressure placed on under-developed grid infrastructure that cannot meet the electricity demands of rapidly growing cities. In its new ‘Smart Grid in Southeast Asia’ report Pike Research, part of Navigant Consulting, forecasts that smart grid revenue in the overall south-east Asia
market will experience steady growth across the forecast period to 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just over 10%. South-east Asia smart grid revenue generated by the investment in transmission, substation, and distribution upgrades (as well as smart meters) will grow from approximately $1.9 billion in 2011 to $4.5 billion in 2020. According to a new report by Zpryme Research & Consulting the entire Asian grid-scale energy storage market is expected to reach $3.6 billion this year, constituting more than half the global market’s projected $7.3 billion. By 2020 the region’s market share is expected to reach $36.4 billion, also more than half of the projected global market of $67 billion, according to Zpryme. In addition, the report indicates that by 2020, Asia‘s advanced batteries, pumped hydro and other segments will reach a market value of $10.9 billion, $21.1 billion, and $4.4 billion, respectively. Energy storage in Asian grids is also expected to give rise to new business models and a more sustainable path for meeting the ever-growing needs of the region. The report suggests that utilities should view energy storage as an “enabler of efficiencies” for smart grid models that could not occur otherwise, and must think strategically about their priorities. Some solutions can reduce costs by making the grid more efficient or enabling micro-grids that reduce the need for carbon-based energy while others can yield new revenues by extending power to locations that either had no energy before, or ensuring a more reliable supply, said the report. According to a new market study by SBI Energy China’s smart grid components market is forecast to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% between 2011 and 2021 reaching $1.43 trillion (€1.11 trillion).
China is expected to become number one globally on the smart grid market, surpassing the US whose CAGR is estimated at 4%, according to the SBI Bulletin: Smart Grid Components Markets: 2011-2021 report. Renewables are one of several drivers for the market. Though China still sources most of its power from coal, the country is installing more and more wind, solar and other green energy generation plants. But in most cases renewables are intermittent and can destabilise the grid, so in order to use renewable energy effectively China is developing local micro-grids that are integrated via a smart grid, according to SBI. In the market report SBI notes that in March 2011 China’s largest utility, State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), which caters for 88% of the country, unveiled 11 pilot smart grid projects and is constructing multiple smart substations, distribution automation systems and supplying 50 million smart meters. In addition, SGCC intends to pour $250 billion in upgrades until 2016 and $45 billion in smart grid technologies. The company is also planning additional investment from 2016 through 2020, according to SBI.
www.pikeresearch.com www.zpryme.com www.seenews.com
Frankfurt, Germany
Results of largest PV storage field trial presented at EU PVSEC Sol-ion partners will present papers at EU PVSEC 2012, 24-28 September 2012, Frankfurt. The French-German research project Solion has developed a PV storage system based on lithium-Ion batteries. The paper provides an update on the field test results up to August 2012. The data is analyzed with respect to the parameters critical to the economics of the system and with respect to non-monetary values provided
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energy storage news by local autonomy and back-up capability in case of grid failure. A black-box approach is proposed and applied to calculate the efficiency of the PV storage system during operation from logged traces of PV energy fed into the system and energy delivered from the system. The benefit of this approach is to allow collection of typifying performance parameters of PV storage systems from field data, without need for measurements at internal interfaces.
www.sol-ion-project.eu
Virginia, US
PV electricity trading for households An economically feasible way to store solar energy in existing residential power networks is the subject of a paper written by two Virginia Tech electrical engineers. The authors Reza Arghandeh, a doctoral candidate at Virginia Tech and his advisor, Robert Broadwater, show how selling household generated electricity into the electric energy market and the storage of electricity in storage systems and demand control systems provide a variety of economic opportunities for customers and utility companies to use more renewable resources. Some residential houses are already selling power back to an electrical distribution industry. But Arghandeh and Broadwater’s work provides an optimization algorithm for a Distributed Energy Storage (DES) system on a broad scale. The system they developed presents a fleet of batteries connected to distribution transformers. The storage system can then be used for withholding distributed photovoltaic power before it is bid to market, according to Arghandeh in the paper. “Withholding distributed PV power, probably gained from rooftop panels, represents a gaming method to realize higher revenues due to the time varying cost of electricity,” he explained.
Today’s power systems are moving towards a smart grid concept to improve their efficiencies, reliability, economics, and sustainability. Arhhandeh and Broadwater want to make sure that solar technologies are integrated with the existing technologies like energy storage and control systems. Specifically, the distributed energy storage system computation they devised is called a discrete ascent optimal programming approach. It insures convergence of the various power systems after a finite number of computational iterations. A solution determined by using their approach depends upon the day ahead forecast of load variation, market prices, and photovoltaic generation. Electrical Distribution Design (EDD) of Blacksburg, Virginia, a leading edge software company serving the utility industry, funded their research.
www.vt.edu
Paris, France and Gran Canaria, Spain
Saft supplies LIB system to provide MW-level energy storage French company Saft, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-tech industrial batteries, will provide MW-level lithium-ion battery (LIB) energy storage systems for one of Europe’s first large-scale electricity storage projects. In 2013, a fully integrated Saft energy storage system (ESS) capable of delivering 1 MW of power for up to 3 hours will be commissioned on the Spanish Island of Gran Canaria as part of the Endesa-led pioneering STORE (Storage Technologies of Reliable Energy) project. STORE will demonstrate how energy storage can maximize the integration of renewable energy within utility networks and optimize the grid infrastructure. Endesa, which is part of the Enel Group and Spain’s largest electric utility, is heading the €11 million STORE project which is partially funded by the Spanish
Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness’ Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology. The aim of the STORE project is to demonstrate the technical and economic viability of large-scale energy storage as a solution to reduce the need for grid infrastructure upgrades and to lower system operation costs, and to further increase the penetration of intermittent renewable generation within power networks. This project will also contribute to the penetration of electric vehicles on the Canary Islands. “Energy storage is one of the new paradigms that will determine the direction of the electricity business in the medium term.” says Pablo Fontela Martinez, project manager STORE, Endesa. “The constant growth in renewable energy generation on the Canary Islands places a much greater load on their transmission infrastructures and electrical distribution, while the nature of the local geography makes it extremely difficult to carry out traditional upgrading projects.” For the STORE project, Saft will deliver a fully integrated turn-key ESS based on Intensium Max 20 containerized systems. These comprise LIB modules, power management and control interfaces, air conditioning and safety devices together with the appropriate power conversion system for connection to Gran Canaria’s grid. Together, the entire system will deliver 3 MWh of energy to help smooth the peak demand on a substation and compensate for the intermittent production of wind farms and solar photovoltaic (PV) installations, as well as delivering ancillary services such as network frequency and voltage control. The Intensium Max 20 containerized systems will be manufactured at Saft’s specialized LIB facility in Bordeaux, France, for delivery at the end of 2012.
www.saftbatteries.com
ENERGY STORAGE International Summit for the Storage of Renewable Energies
ELECTROCHEMICAL ENERGY STORAGE
THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE
MECHANICAL ENERGY STORAGE
FUTURE ENERGY STORAGE
18 – 19 March 2013 CCD Süd, Messe Düsseldorf Düsseldorf, Germany KEYNOTES:
PETER ALTMAIER Federal Environment Minister
• Get insights into all relevant areas of Energy Storage • Meet the top decision makers - the perfect platform to network • Hear international opinions and perspectives on our future energy system • Learn from the top players in the industry
Be part of it and book now www.energy-storage-online.com JEREMY RIFKIN CEO and Founder of the Foundation on Economic Trends
strategen STRATEGIES FOR CLEAN ENERGY
PARTNERS & SPONSORS 2013 Fonts: Apollo MT Small Caps; Frutiger 55 Roman
N 2012: 1ST EDITIO ANTS PARTICIP
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MARKET FOCUS
Future proofing Self-consumption, the new phase in PV generated electricity, begins in the German market
MARKET FOCUS
MARKET FOCUS By Martin Ammon EuPD Research
Long-term LIBs will become the superior choice, once cost competitiveness has been achieved, which could be in the region of five to eight years.
Table 1: Assumptions of near future developments Source: EuPD Research
B
efore the introduction of lucrative subsidy schemes, most PV installations included batteries as part of off-grid systems for domestic usage or as backup power supply in rural regions. PV system owners have also used the generated power for night storage heaters. Increasingly PV systems are being incorporated into the household heating circuit, functioning as a supportive energy source. This suggests that PV is becoming a complementary energy source, allowing for a balanced energy supply together with other renewables. Therefore storage technologies are critical to the continued growth of PV electricity generation in the long term as feed-in tariffs (FIT) continue to reduce. Many of the storage batteries targeting PV are designed for use within the residential, domestic rooftop market.
Integration of PV storage in household electricity circuits The emergence of the self-consumption market, where PV and battery systems enable the consumer to store and later use the electricity their panels produce rather than export it all to the grid, has created a need for new system designs, based on whether the installation is a new PV and integrated storage system, or the storage is being integrated into an existing PV installation.
For new PV installations with integrated storage solutions the wiser option is to have a DCcoupled battery. Here, the battery is connected to the circuit prior to the conversion to AC, where a specific inverter, featuring a charge regulator is used. For a PV system that already exists integrating an AC-coupled battery only requires the addition of a second inverter. However, the additional conversion back to DC leads to further efficiency losses. Most commercial residential PV storage products use lead-acid batteries, which account for the largest battery segment. As a result lead acid batteries are cheap and reliable. However, in the coming years, lithium-ion batteries (LIB) will supersede lead acid technology. The growth potential of the self-consumption market is attracting global and regional players. Many of the early mover suppliers that are addressing the self-consumption market with lead acid batteries now will be in a position to supply more sophisticated LIB technology under an established brand in future. Business cases outlined reveal that both technologies are likely to exist next to each other in the short and midterm. Long-term LIBs will become the superior choice, once cost competitiveness has been achieved, which could be in the region of five to eight years.
Near future
PV System
Lead
Lithium -Ion
Electricity Price
Further BOS
Annual Price Change
-7.5%
4.0%
-8.0%
5.0%
-5.0%
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MARKET FOCUS
Figure 1: IRR calculation of PV systems and storage solutions
Economic feasibility – the case in Germany Because LIBs are less mature in terms of technological advancement and economies of scale, the potential for annual cost reductions is likely to be considerable. In addition decreasing FITs, based on the latest EEG revision (which could run out post-2015), will impact the profitability of future solar storage investments. The assumptions shown in table 1 have been applied to feasibility calculations for investment projects in the near future. The following diagram shows the results of the feasibility calculations under given assumptions. Due to the smaller investment costs of lead batteries and the relatively late accruing replacement costs, PV systems with lead-acid batteries have a higher rate of return than systems that use LIBs. According to EuPD Research‘s assumptions the compensation for electricity fed into the grid will stand at zero in 2020, in turn reducing the profitability of PV systems without storage. Compared to an alternative investment with an interest rate of 2%, integrated storage solutions are almost a profitable investment already today, excluding inflation rates. Today the rate of return on a PV system without storage based on the current FIT is around 7%.
By choosing the expected internal rate of return of an investment as an adequate value for an investment comparison, PV with either lead-acid and LIB technologies are less profitable than a PV system without storage. However, over the long term, several factors will ensure that the rate of return from a PV-storage system will be higher than that of a PV installation today. By 2020, PV and storage costs will continue to reduce and the price of electricity will increase. In addition it is unlikely that there will be a FIT for PV by 2020. This means that the rate of return will be 7% for PV storage, while the rate of return for a PV system without storage and without the FIT will be 5%. While it is possible to use up to 25% of electricity generated by a PV panel without storage, using a battery pushes this up to 58-60%.
Drivers & barriers There are several drivers but also challenges concerning the successful development of a market for storage systems for PV applications. From the viewpoint of the PV system operator, the investment in a PV and storage system can provide independence from the grid and long term rising fuel and electricity prices. The intermittency issue of PV electricity generation is overcome as power can be stored and used when it is needed.
MARKET FOCUS
By 2020, PV and storage costs will continue to reduce and the price of electricity will increase. In addition it is unlikely that there will be a FIT for PV by 2020. This means that the rate of return will be 7% for PV storage, while the rate of return for a PV system without storage and without the FIT will be 5%.
Because storage systems are a comparatively young technology, investment costs are high and system lifetimes are limited and operators/ consumers have to factor in battery replacement costs into their investments and there is little public experience and therefore acceptance of such technologies, compared with the PV market. However, in future, PV systems that incorporate storage solutions will become more competitive and mainstream. Already PV producers are expanding into storage, through joint ventures and alliances with battery companies to provide systems that combine PV and storage.
About the author
About EuPD Research
Martin Ammon, Diplom-Volkswirt, works as Senior Research Manager at EuPD Research and is responsible for the economic analysis and modeling of renewable energy markets. His operational tasks cover both the functional and personnel responsibility in the market and policy advice division.
EuPD Research is an international research company focusing on B2B market analysis. We provide our clients with a wide range of qualitative and quantitative research services. With the help of methodological professionalism combined with in-depth market knowledge, we provide practical, futureoriented business solutions and ensure that our clients receive a return on their research investment.
Before joining EuPD Research Mr. Ammon worked in the field of policy advisory for several years and was responsible for several economic studies. He is currently doing his doctorate with a dissertation on the topic of “Grid parity of photovoltaics in Germany” at TU Freiberg.
OFFER Storage & Solar Briefing 2012 With focus on the various entry opportunities in the storage market in connection with the PV industry, the Storage & Solar Briefing 2012 will offer a platform for industry experts to respond to queries, and demonstrate their market-oriented solutions. Specific topics will be covered, which in practice are still associated with increased uncertainty or insecurity and under certain circumstances presently block market growth. EuPD Research is hosting the event at the Mövenpick Hotel Stuttgart Airport & Trade Fair. IPVEA members are entitled to a 10% discount on the ticket prices stated below. Please send an email to Verena Grollmann v.grollmann@eupd-research to secure both your ticket and discount for this event. Participation Fees Standard: €495.00 Late Bird: €560.00 (from 21st September 2012)
www.eupd-research.com/
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GUEST EDITORIAL
California dreaming AB 2514 - an overview of energy storage policy in action
When we look at the expansion of the smart grid and all of its components, policy makes a huge difference. That’s especially true for energy storage systems in California, where cutting-edge policies are enabling a set of expanding technologies to greatly benefit the grid. Indeed, the policies and rulemaking being explored in the Golden State should be a benchmark for agencies nationwide.
GUEST EDITORIAL
guest EDITORial
By Janice Lin California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA)
Paving the way
Addressing barriers
In February 2010, assembly member Nancy Skinner introduced AB 2514, titled “Energy Storage Systems.” The bill directed the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to establish procurement targets and policies for cost-effective and commercially viable energy storage systems for the state’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs). It was the first law of its kind nationwide, and signalled a major turning point by recognizing the inclusion of energy storage as a necessary part of a well-functioning grid. It also stood as a turning point around incorporating storage procurement into an often timeconsuming and deliberative grid development process. By considering storage now, the CPUC is commencing a full-on evolution of California’s electricity system towards something smarter, more reliable, and more sustainable.
CPUC President Mike Peevey put it succinctly at the first storage rule-making workshop in March 2011: “So,” he said in his opening address, “we’re looking at how we can tear down barriers that prevent cost-effective energy storage resources from competing and providing benefits to California customers, ratepayers of California utilities.” The nine barriers listed in the CPUC’s Energy storage Framework, which was formally adopted on 8/2/12 include:
AB2514 directed the CPUC to begin rulemaking by March 2012, but the Commission started a full year early, on March 3, 2011. In its Storage Rulemaking (R.10-12-007), the Commission is aiming to set procurement targets for, and facilitate the expansion of storage statewide. The first part of that equation requires significant coordination with other proceedings, including California’s 33% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), Long-Term Procurement Planning (LTPP), and Resource Adequacy (RA) activities. The second has taken the Commission down a path of analysis, reflecting on the role that energy storage technology can play within California’s energy policy landscape. A key output of the storage rulemaking will include essential focus on priority applications, a cost benefit methodology for evaluating those applications and hopefully, a policy roadmap that can be used for other entities that wish to do the same.
- Lack of definitive operational needs - Lack of cohesive regulatory framework - Evolving markets and market production definitions - Resource adequacy accounting - Lack of cost-effectiveness evaluation methods - Lack of cost recovery policy - Lack of cost transparency and price signals (for both wholesale and retail electricity) - Lack of commercial operating experience - Lack of well-defined interconnection processes. Many of these barriers stem from a lack of existing rulemaking, procurement, or interconnection processes. By “tearing down barriers,” the commission is establishing methods by which cost-effective and beneficial storage resources may be fairly evaluated against status quo (largely fossil fuel) solutions, and how such resources may be procured and integrated into the grid. When fairly evaluated, storage will prove more cost-effective than traditional fossil fuel alternatives. Storage has a lower cost of delivered flexibility, improves overall system efficiency, reduces risk in system planning, improves existing system asset utilization to deliver more kWh per kW
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GUEST EDITORIAL By “tearing down barriers,” the commission is establishing methods by which cost-effective and beneficial storage resources may be fairly evaluated against status quo (largely fossil fuel) solutions, and how such resources may be procured and integrated into the grid. of system capacity, and helps accelerate renewable deployment. The California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA) believes that these policy changes will recognize these benefits and increase procurement accordingly.
Rulemaking process The overall rulemaking process comprises two main phases: in the first, the general procurement rules and procedures were established; and in the second, the Commission will establish methodologies for evaluating and prioritizing individual projects within the procurement process. Stage one of this rulemaking was completed on 3 August 2012 when the Commission adopted a staff proposal surrounding storage procurement procedures. This stage outlines basic concepts, such as establishing a definition of energy storage for rulemaking purposes. It also identifies 20 “end-uses” for storage broken down into four general categories: renewables firming, demand-side management, distributed energy support, and transmission-like ancillary services. Returning to the theme of barriers, the CPUC addressed “operational needs” in Stage 1 by identifying these applications as major operational roles for future storage procurement. Overall, stage one has addressed many of the policy barriers identified by the Commission, opening the door for comprehensive state-wide policies. In the upcoming second phase, the CPUC will establish methods for locking down procurement targets and prioritizing individual projects accordingly. The latter includes the Commission’s methods for balancing qualitative characteristics with measurable capacities, as well as any established calculations for financial valuation of energy storage projects. As methods for calculating the financial value of
energy storage are largely limited to theoretical papers, valuation methods – including innovative calculations such as options valuation – will evolve for real-world application right in the Golden State. Finally, the bureaucratic details for actually getting projects off the ground are starting to take shape, including a draft request for offers (RFO) which is being presented to the commission this year pursuant to the LTPP and Storage Rulemakings, so concrete processes may soon be established.
Growth in storage projects and investment Even before the new rules are instituted, industry growth has begun to impact the expansion of storage in California. CalCharge, a recently founded clean technology consortium, has identified 30 storage startups in the San Francisco Bay Area alone. Investment has likewise seen massive growth. The Cleantech Group’s i3 industry research shows that energy storage companies raised $630.5 million between May 2011 and May 2012. Between 2010 and 2011, these investments grew 13 fold to represent 11% of the state s clean tech venture capital investments. Ultimately, the payoff is showing through innovation: statewide battery patent filings numbered an impressive 258 between 2008 and 2010, according to a report from Next 10, a San Francisco-based non-partisan research group. Storage projects and smart micro-grids incorporating storage have also multiplied. For example, the Eagle Mountain Project is a pumped storage plant under development that will provide 1300 MW of electricity when needed. On a smaller scale, Alameda County’s Santa Rita Jail has incorporated a 2000 kW, 4 MWh lithium iron phosphate battery into its smart grid system (currently the largest Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS)-based micro-grid in the country). At least 13 major projects in California are either operational, contracted, or under construction, according to a new, publicly accessible storage database from Sandia National Laboratories (www. energystorageexchange.org). As the database is just starting, numbers of actual projects are undoubtedly higher.
GUEST EDITORIAL
Development of California energy storage policies December 2009 Attorney General Jerry Brown decides to sponsor new legislation to establish energy storage portfolio standard in CA January 2010 Assembly member Nancy Skinner agrees to Author the bill February 2010 AB 2514 formally introduced June 2010 AB 2514 voted out of Assembly (41 ayes, 28 noes) referred to Senate Energy Utilities and Communications Committee (EU&C) August 2010 AB 2514 voted out of Senate Appropriations and Senate Floor (22 ayes, 13 noes) and Assembly Concurrence (48 ayes, 27 noes) September 29, 2010 Governor Schwarzenegger enacts AB 2514 into law. March 2011 CPUC begins implementation of AB 2514, a full year ahead of what is required in the bill. May 2011 Assigned Commissioner and Administrative Law Judge’s (ALJ) Scoping Memo and Ruling issued, establishes 2-phase process October 2011 CPUC Begins proceedings on interconnection procedures for storage November 2011 CPUC Begins proceedings on Resource Adequacy (RA) for storage December 12, 2011 Commission Staff issued its Initial Energy Storage Framework Staff Proposal April 3, 2012 Staff issued its Final Energy Storage Framework Staff Proposal August 2, 2012 CPUC adopts Phase 1 staff proposal, “ Proposed Decision Adopting Proposed Framework for Analyzing Energy Storage Needs.” September 2012 CPUC begins Stage 2 proceedings: project valuation & prioritization October 2013 Planned completion of full rulemaking & procurement process
Figures cited/paraphrased from http://energy. aol.com/2012/05/29/ california-energy-storagestartup-community-getsstate-bridge-ac/
Future
About the author
The future potential is vast as storage industry evolution finally meets storage-friendly policies and procurement, both of which will be implemented by October 2013. Benefits include an optimized and improved grid which will further expansion and competitiveness of intermittent renewables, reduced carbon footprints through minimizing peak electricity use, savings to ratepayers through reduced transmission & distribution (T&D) investment, increased grid stability and reliability, and the establishment of California as the centre of storage industry expansion and innovation. We at CESA want to see California as a global leader in storage policy and technology. AB 2514 and its components are a huge part of that leadership, and we believe its success will inspire other states to pursue similar changes. Ultimately, that transformation will be the next step in making widespread storage a reality, and the world will be better off for it.
Janice Lin is the Executive Director of CESA and the Managing Partner of Strategen Consulting. At CESA, Janice oversees all aspects of the organization’s operations and strategic priorities. Prior to CESA and Strategen, Janice held several senior management positions with PowerLight Corporation, where she led initiatives in product and new market strategy, business development, regulatory affairs, strategic partnerships, investor relations, and customer finance. She co-founded CESA with Don Liddell in 2009.
About CESA CESA is a broad advocacy coalition that is committed to expanding the role of energy storage to promote the growth of renewable energy and a more affordable, clean, and reliable electric power system. CESA’s members are a diverse mix of energy storage technology manufacturers, renewable energy component manufacturers, developers and systems integrators. CESA is a technology and business model-neutral association of members who share a common mission, and is supported solely by the contributions and coordinated activities of its members.
www.storagealliance.org
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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
A steer in the right direction
Driving down costs in lithium-ion batteries for the electric vehicle market
technology focus
Technology focus By Kevin See Lux Research
The hotly anticipated arrival of battery-powered vehicles came in 2011, the first full year of sales for both the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) Chevy Volt and all-electric vehicle (EV) Nissan Leaf. However, early sales were disappointing with both the Leaf and the Volt falling short of expectations. Numerous factors have contributed to the hesitation of car buyers, including limited range and infrastructure, but the high upfront costs of the vehicles is the main deterrent – and that high cost is largely driven by the cost of the lithium-ion battery (LIB). The prevailing question in the electric vehicle (EV) market is how to reduce cost fast enough to spur adoption of EVs. All agree that the cost of automotive batteries will come down, but opinions vary as to just how fast they will decline, and which innovations can have the greatest impact. One common refrain is that increased scale will be an important factor in reducing the price of cells and packs. On the cell manufacturing side, the planned expansions are well known, with major suppliers like LG Chem and the Nissan-NEC joint venture Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) pushing towards multiple factories each with around 1 GWh of capacity. Less-publicized but just as crucial is the expansion of materials supply to feed these factories, and help drive scale and cost reductions at the material level as well. Suppliers such as Toda Kogyo in cathodes, Celgard in separators, and Chemetall in lithium carbonate are expanding material production capacity.
Cathode materials Since materials – and specifically cathodes – play a critical role in battery performance and cost, we’ll examine trends and innovations in cathodes that stand to affect the cost of LIBs in the future. Today, manganese spinel (LMO) is attractive for cost and safety, but lags in energy, which has led manufacturers like AESC and LG Chem to use cathodes that blend LMO with higher energy content materials like nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) and lithium nickel oxide (LNO). With tunable ratios of three elements, NMC provides a flexible framework to vary composition and properties to fit certain applications. Many developers focus on reducing the loading of expensive cobalt, while trying to preserve high energy density to decrease the overall $/kWh. Due to this flexibility, many companies have NMC R&D, with established cathode providers like Umicore and Toda Kogyo focusing efforts here, along with newer entrants such as BASF and Dow Energy Materials. NMC shows the greatest momentum towards larger adoption in transportation at present, but one pending issue may be patent conflicts over NMC: Entities including 3M and Argonne National Lab (ANL) hold patents that cover the space.
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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Cost Scenarios for EV Batteries Source: Lux Research
Realistic cost reduction forecasts
Base case and likely lithium-Ion cost scenarios for an EV Battery
To determine the impact of innovation on LIB costs, Lux Research developed a cost model (see the Lux report, (Searching for Innovations to Cut Li-ion Battery Costs”) that allows for cost breakdowns today and in the future, and can measure the impact of various technology advances on the long-term costs of LIBs. As a base case, Lux analyzed how scale would affect the cost of today’s lithium-ion cells without further innovation in the materials, systems, or manufacturing. We found that for a nominal 24 kWh electric vehicle pack with an NMC cathode and a graphite anode, prices will fall from $741/ kWh in 2012 to $446/kWh in 2020, far short of aggressive targets like the $150/kWh target from the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC).
Of course, cathodes are not the sole factor impacting battery costs; in order to account for this, the model allows testing of innovation in other materials like anodes, as well as pack level innovations in battery management and improvement in manufacturing processes. As an example, the model shows that increasing the state of charge window (how much of the rated pack energy is useable) and reducing capacity fade (how much the capacity of the pack fades over time) add benefit by maximizing usable energy, with a simultaneous 10% increase in state of charge (SOC) window and 10% decrease in capacity fade over the life of the battery. This will cut useable pack costs (the cost per useable amount of energy) in 2017 from $983/kWh to $789/kWh.
At the same time, the electric vehicle battery field is rife with press announcements touting improved performance and lower cost, such as Envia’s purported 400 Wh/kg cell. However, many proposed cathode and anode technologies still face questions about their suitability for an automotive battery. To account for realistic innovation in materials Lux assumed a likely scenario, where advanced cathode materials with intermediate improvements in nominal voltage and materials capacity will come to fruition in the 2015 timeframe. In this likely scenario, LIB prices fall all the way to $397/kWh in 2020 (see figure 1), lower but still short of the cost point that can truly drive broader vehicle adoption.
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Cost Scenarios for EV Batteries $/kWh v/s Year
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Cell Nominal
$538
$481
$436
$398
$368
$343
$324
$308
$296
$286
Likely Advanced Cell Nominal
$538
$481
$436
$398
$328
$305
$287
$272
$260
$250
Pack Nominal
$807
$741
$679
$627
$583
$546
$515
$488
$466
$446
Likely Advanced Pack Nominal
$807
$741
$679
$627
$524
$490
$461
$437
$416
$397
Source: Lux Research
Disruptive innovation will drive down LIB costs Ultimately innovation across the battery value chain – from materials to manufacturing – will have to combine to reduce battery costs and drive vehicle adoption. Indeed, with a cooperative effort across the value chain a combination of scale, improved materials and reduced thermal management costs can drive costs near $200/kWh in 2020. The message is clear – corporations throughout the value chain can make EV adoption a reality, provided corporations invest in disruptive innovation to develop the novel technologies that push past the limits of our vision today.
…the electric vehicle battery field is rife with press announcements touting improved performance and lower cost…
About the author Kevin See is a Senior Analyst at Lux Research who leads the Electric Vehicles Intelligence practice. Prior to joining Lux, Kevin was a joint postdoctoral researcher at The Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and The University of California, Berkeley, where he worked on novel nanocomposite materials for thermoelectric conversion of waste heat into electricity. Kevin obtained his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins University.
About Lux Research Lux Research provides strategic advice and on-going intelligence for emerging technologies. Leaders in business, finance and government rely on us to help them make informed strategic decisions. Through our unique research approach focused on primary research and our extensive global network, we deliver insight, connections and competitive advantage to our clients. Visit www.luxresearchinc.com or contact carole.jacques@luxresearchinc.com for more information.
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COVER STORY
SUPER CHARGED
The self-consumption trend sparks alliances between the PV and storage industries
COVER STORY
cover story
By Sara Ver-Bruggen
Electricity storage and management is a complex field and companies with understanding and knowledge of it are in a strong position to supply the emerging trend for PV selfconsumption.
As the incentives that have helped make PV affordable in the first place taper off and electricity prices continue to rise over time, storage is becoming increasingly important for the PV industry’s long term growth, with closer collaboration between PV companies and those supplying energy storage and management systems. The emerging trend for self-consumption For off-grid electricity supply PV panels and battery generators are essential components, but these are not technologies that have been designed with each other in mind. Conventional lead-acid batteries, widely commercialised for automobile starting, lighting and ignition, are cheap but over the 20 year lifetime of a typical solar panel, they will need to be replaced several times and may also incur additional maintenance. Efforts to commercialize storage technologies – battery based – for stationary PV applications are gathering pace, as the electric vehicle (EV) market has taken longer than initially anticipated to get going. Electricity storage and management is a complex field and companies with understanding and knowledge of it are in a strong position to supply the emerging trend for PV self-consumption. Storage and management systems enable owners to use up to 60% of the energy their panel produces, significantly more than is possible with just a panel and no storage. According to Photon Consulting by 2016 as much as 15% of new PV installations worldwide will include storage. PV module makers, inverter companies and PV component and system suppliers are converging on the opportunities that will be afforded by the grid-connected stationary storage market in the coming years.
One of these is Tenesol, which was set up over 15 years ago by the oil and gas company Total to manufacture solar panels before expanding into supplying and installing PV systems, specializing in off-grid. Tenesol’s off-grid PV business spans energy, pumping and telecoms industries, private residential and regional authorities. Its off-grid markets include the French overseas territories, which are mainly made up of islands where the electricity grid infrastructure is non-existent or very basic, mobile telecoms providers across the African continent and the oil and gas sectors in the Middle East and North Africa. The company has built up extensive experience in supplying and installing off-grid PV systems. Earlier this year Total sold Tenesol to SunPower, in which it is also a shareholder. About 10 years ago Tenesol began exploring a new kind of battery, based on lithium-ion technology. Collaborating with lithium-ion battery (LIB) producer Saft, Tenesol designed and studied a stationary system application and from the results the decision to go into the prototyping was made. To do this Tenesol established the Sol-ion project in 2008 with a consortium of French and German companies and research institutes to benefit from subsidies and support from both governments.
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cover story
What changes with a PV energy storage and management system? According to partners on the Sol-ion project, a typical residential PV system with a panel size of 3 kW produces a daily average of 8.5 kWh throughout the year in northern Europe, ranging from 3 kWh in winter to a peak of 12 kWh in summer. About 4.5 kWh of the PV energy will be used directly (selfconsumed), as soon as it is produced. There is therefore an average excess of 4 kWh – with a seasonal range of 1 kWh to 6 kWh – that can then be stored until needed. So an energy storage system will need to ‘time-shift’ between 1 and 6 kWh per day – averaging 4 kWh. On a yearly scale, the average direct self-consumption of a typical household is about 30%. With Energy Storage, it is possible to substantially increase this self-consumption. However, a very large battery size would be needed in order to achieve a full energy autonomy covering all kinds of PV production and energy consumption uncertainties. Simulations in the Sol-ion programme show that an optimum of about 70% self-consumption vs. battery size is realistic. www.sol-ion-project.eu/sites/en/Solion-future/sol-ion.html
In the project 75 battery systems have been installed and field tested, with Tenesol coordinating installations in France and its overseas territories, including Guadeloupe, and inverter company Voltwerk coordinating trials in Germany. Based on the results of the field trials, in which the batteries reached 97% efficiency, Tenesol introduced a new PV energy conversion and storage system, called Sun Smart + late last year to a few international markets. The systems enable solar power to be time shifted, allowing grid connected PV households to consume the energy they produce as well as feeding excess into the grid. The system provides energy conversion and system management. The functions of Sun Smart + include multidirectional energy flows, self-consumption, grid support and back-up and can be retrofitted to residential and small commercial systems, accommodating PV energy production of up to 5 kWp for more than 20 years using LIBs rated from 8-13 kWh. Jean-Christian Marcel, Tenesol’s R&D projects coordinator, says: “I have been involved in the off-grid PV field for over 15 years and the weak point was always the battery, especially where it was difficult to understand the lifetime of conventional lead-acid batteries and the behaviour of the user. While Tenesol has carved out a profitable business in off-grid PV in the intervening years, he says:
“As the smart grid model evolves there is a good chance that energy storage will come back in force and LIB will enable it, no question.” Products and partnerships Through its acquisition of Sanyo in late 2009 Japan’s Panasonic is one of the leading suppliers of batteries for electric and hybrid vehicle (e-mobility) market, with customers that include Tesla and Ford. LIBs for electric vehicles have high levels of energy density and high powerto-weight ratios, because smaller and lighter batteries reduce vehicle weight. Now Panasonic is investigating how it can adapt its mature LIB cell recipes and come up with designs more tailored for the stationary storage market, where cutting costs is the most important metric, over maximising power-to-weight ratios for stationary storage, particularly for community and largescale storage applications.
cover story
Panasonic is also supplying its latest large-scale LIB battery packs for a storage system designed for the PV self-consumption market by German engineering firm E3/DC, a subsidiary of EWE AG. E3/DC’s product, called S10, was field tested in Germany in 2011 and could be introduced for sale towards the end of 2012, or early 2013. The system has a nominal capacity of 1.35 kWh, which stores excess energy generated from the PV panel during daytime peak hours of sunlight and discharges the energy as needed. The battery has a life time of 5000 cycles, for long term operation that is on par with the PV panel lifetime, based on the conditions of about 80% depth of discharge and normal temperature.
“Panasonic is now focused on how it can closely align its storage and solar businesses and take full advantage of its PV and battery technologies.”
We are actively shifting our internal structures to take leverage these strengths,” says Mark Waring, business strategy director at the Silicon Valley Technical Center of Panasonic North America. A few months ago South Korean PV module producer Hanwha SolarOne made an $8 million investment in Silent Power, a Minnesota-based business set up in 2002. Initially Silent Power developed energy storage and management systems for the off-grid market. With the investment by Hanwha SolarOne the company will focus on its self-contained grid-compatible storage management system OnDemand Energy Appliance. Hanwha Solar One plans to introduce a complete PV and storage packaged offering at Solar Power International in the US in mid-September 2012. OnDemand is safe for home use (UL approved). The system will also be demonstrated on Hanwha SolarOne’s booth during EU PVSEC to gather feedback, for possible introduction in Europe at a future date, though certification will be required.
A battery management system designed to control charge and discharge of the battery is also included allowing users to remotely monitor the status of the system and battery. Recently E3/DC announced it was working with PV module producer Trina Solar to bring to market next-generation storage systems for homes and small businesses, for selfconsumption. Products will be introduced in mid-2013 in Europe and parts of Asia. The self-consumption market is spurring partnerships and joint ventures between PV module producers and providers of storage and management technologies as PV companies look to enlarge their offerings in a market where panels have rapidly commoditised in the past few years. Through acquiring Sanyo, Panasonic has not only grown its battery portfolio but also gained access to high efficiency PV cell and module technology developed by Sanyo. But there remains scope for seeing how these parts of its businesses can be reorganised to make the most of PV and storage opportunities. “Panasonic is now focused on how it can closely align its storage and solar businesses and take full advantage of its PV and battery technologies, to provide more integrated PV-storage systems.
OnDemand is designed to be battery agnostic and is compatible with LIB, lead-acid and advanced lead acid, depending on the user’s budget and requirements and includes inverters and connections, such as DC-DC and ACDC, control panel and interface, all housed in a cabinet. “The system is software-intensive making it flexible to be configured for different markets,” explains the company’s senior vice
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cover story “…the storage system can be integrated into smart storage applications, so if the utility is overloaded then the system can take capacity from the grid.” president, John Frederick. The systems are supplied as 4.6 kW or 9.2 kW outputs for residential and small commercial applications, but can be linked together for bigger applications of up to 40 kW output. Axion Power International is breathing life into lead-acid technology for the US residential storage market. The company, which has rejuvenated the traditional lead-acid battery with the addition of carbon, is supplying Florida-based Rosewater Energy Group for the company’s new product, the Residential Energy Storage Hub, being launched in September 2012. Joe Piccirilli, MD of Rosewater Energy Group, says the company is targeting high-end homes and residences with the system, where typically owners are prepared to spend a lot of income on electronic gadgets and home entertainment systems and expect a high quality power supply to serve their homes, whatever the source of electricity. The hub serves as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for the home and also conditions incoming utility and auxiliary power while allowing integration of solar energy. The hub acts as a surge protector and assures that, regardless of source, the connected circuits will always see pure sine waves at 110 volts and 60 cycles. It will also allow the user to participate in demand/response programmes from their local utilities and go off-grid, enabling power independence. Axion Power’s advanced lead-carbon battery used in the system ensures at least five times the cycle life of traditional lead acid batteries, is safe for home use (UL approved) and is over 99% recyclable. The Residential Energy Storage Hub uses 10 kW/12 kWh power quality conversion switchgear. This is able to correct many of the power quality problems that can occur with power from the grid, renewables and backup generators. Piccirilli says the advanced lead-acid technology developed by Axion has additional advantages
as it is able to leverage a very established manufacturing base, where lead acid factories initially built for the automotive sector can be upgraded, reducing capital expenditure on establishing new production lines and equipment necessitated by LIB. According to the consultancy EuPD Research, in Germany, while the self-consumption storage market is likely to provide opportunities for cheaper battery technologies based on leadacid in the near-term, the LIB stationary storage market will grow as products come down in cost with some analysts forecasting costs to come down by as much as two-thirds over the next 10 years. Three years ago, Dispatch Energy was set up in Germany to commercialise advance LIB technology to smooth the continued expansion of PV into the grid, initially developing products for the small scale/residential market. Dispatch Energy’s LIB technology meets several important criteria for the stationary storage market. These are high calendar lifetimes, intrinsic safety, as well as high and full cycle activities including 100% depth of discharge, ideal for stationary storage. These advantages are due to the use of lithium titanate spinel as the anode material in place of more commonly used carbon, such as graphite. Dispatch Energy has been developing the cell technology for commercial markets, scaling up production of the cells – based on technology developed within Fraunhofer Institute of Silicon Technology in Itzehoe – by working closely with equipment provider Jonas & Redmann. However, Dispatch Energy is not just a pure cell manufacturer. The company has developed hardware and software to operate the cells and also makes modules as well as battery management technology for the modules. Dispatch Energy’s intelligent battery systems can tell the inverter the stage of charging and how much the battery can give back to the utility. “This is important because the storage system can be integrated into smart storage applications, so if the utility is overloaded then the system can take capacity from the grid. But to do this smart metering is required and Dispatch’s system is prepared for this,” explains founder Dietmar Gruidl. Customers of Dispatch Energy include IBC Solar.
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are more expensive compared with lead-acid batteries or even some of the more conventional LIB technologies that use carbon-based LIB technologies adapted from EV applications. But in the case of lead acid batteries, as these will need replacing over the lifetime of a PV system, which is about 20 years, the total cost of investing in lead-acid technology can work out more expensive.
Different opportunities and applications for batteries for stationary storage
“Storage technologies are the key for the success of the energy change and provide interesting opportunities, especially for installers, for new business models”
Dispatch Energy is also getting requests for building larger scale batteries for grid balancing, for 500 kWh transformer stations and also mid-size applications, where storage is taken out of the grid, for example for PV installations in a street. For these sorts of applications, the battery must be able to discharge and load very quickly. The company is ramping up its production line and battery systems of 3.5 kWh and 5 kWh will go into production in Q4 of 2012. The fully automated line, supplied by Jonas & Redmann, at Itzehoe is equipped to produce 200,000 cells a year. In mid-2012 Switzerland-based Leclanché completed its production line for making lithium titanate batteries. The line has an installed annual capacity of up to 76 MWh in cells. The company will sell its batteries through Talesun Solar Germany, a new producer of PV modules that is expanding its business to include storage systems for PV. The HS 3200 storage module achieves 15,000 charge and discharge cycles with an overall capacity of 3.2 kWh and 100% depth of discharge. “Storage technologies are the key for the success of the energy change and provide interesting opportunities, especially for installers, for new business models,” says Joachim Simonis, MD of Talesun’s German business. High-end stationary PV storage systems, based on technologies such as lithium titanate,
While demand for renewables storage in Europe is being led by the emergence of the selfconsumption PV model initially, in the US the electricity market is fragmented with different regulations and policies so it almost has to be dealt with at the individual state level. As well the residential and small-scale PV market, other applications include smoothing, to prevent the grid from destabilizing and can be problematic with PV when cloud cover clears and panel generation suddenly peaks. Smoothing applications can range from small-scale, right up to 0.5 MWh, for 1 MW sized PV or other renewable energy installations. Smoothing is also going to be more common in eastern Europe and in parts of Asia, where the grid infrastructure is less well developed, says Waring. The other opportunity in the US, which Panasonic is also investigating, is the utility and direct wholesale electricity market to provide storage to stabilise the grid, working with third parties in the utility sector, because the US wholesale electricity market is more open to new entrants and competition than in Europe. Silent Power’s OnDemand product is suited to areas where grid infrastructure is poor or underdeveloped as it is designed to continue working through rolling blackouts. “Ultimately, when the user installs their own storage system, it will mean they always have electricity supply, than if it is installed further up the grid and something goes wrong,” says Frederick. And that could be a compelling reason for the growth of the small-scale stationary storage market in the coming years, putting consumers and homeowners firmly in control of their own energy supply and costs.
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cover story Costs In Europe, particularly in Germany, where self-consumption is being incentivised the big challenge is making energy storage more affordable. PV and storage systems designed for typical domestic households can vary considerably. Take, for example the VS 5 Hybrid System, available from Voltwerk. The LIB-based system, with a storage capacity of 8.8 kWh, costs in the region of €20,000. At the more affordable end, using lead-acid batteries, HaWi supplies a PV storagemanagement system with 5 kWh storage capacity, costing around €10,000. However, the different technologies and grades of sophistication make systems prices hard to compare. From a German consumer perspective, today they can expect to pay for a PV and storage system from €18,000 up to €27,000. Prices will come down, though according to Dr Armin Schmiegel, programme manager, smart grid and hybrid systems at Voltwerk, which is now owned by Bosch: “The key questions are whether battery costs are going to decrease this quickly and can the market actually support or afford this cost?”
There is more scope over the next decade to reduce LIB costs, further than lead-acid. By 2020, PV and LIB-based storage systems for a typical household could cost around €12,500, according to EuPD Research or even €5000, for a system with 5 kWh of storage, according to Schmiegel. He adds: “Bosch has a lot of experience in how to reduce production costs and can leverage its experience and know-how from the other industries it supplies, such as automotive.” Gruidl says: “Those companies that develop and make machines for semiconductor, PV production are able to supply the battery industry – there are many processing and production steps to get involved in, such as mixing slurry, pasting on foil, calendaring, slitting, formation, degassing – there is a lot of manufacturing expertise opportunity. The R&D is done, but it is now time to ramp up. In Europe we need to hurry up.”
Voltwerk VS 5 Hybrid
Provider
Lead Battery
Li-Ion Battery
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Lifetime Efficiency
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Installation / Maintenance
Source: EuPD Research
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Price 2012
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Potential Minimising Costs
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Risk
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Customer Image
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How Bosch, a leading global technology and engineering brand, is serving the PV self-consumption market In April 2012 Germany’s Bosch Group, which operates several businesses including Bosch Solar Energy, acquired Conergy’s inverter business Voltwerk Electronics. As well as string and central inverters Voltwerk also supplies storage systems to increase solar energy selfconsumption, which include inverters, lithium ion batteries (LIB), made by Saft, and software controls. In 2008 Dr Armin Schmiegel, Voltwerk’s programme manager, smart grid and hybrid systems, began work on the Solion project, with partners including Saft and Tenesol. Schmiegel explains: “At that time there was no self-consumption tariff so the idea of Sol-ion began with a focus on island off-grid applications. But then revisions to the ErneuerbareEnergien-Gesetz (EEG) – German Renewable Energy Act – introduced an incentive for self-consumption of PV generated electricity in 2009, which pays PV panel owners for consuming the electricity produced by their panels. Germany is the only country to incentivize self-consumption for solar PV.” (These tariffs are applicable for installations commissioned until 2013 source: Clean Horizon Consulting). To date Voltwerk has installed 27 storage systems, 22 of which are in private households. The VS 5 Hybrid System was officially launched in summer 2012. The VS 5 Hybrid is a combination of a transformerless 5 kW inverter, a Saft lithium-ion battery with a capacity of 8.8 kWh and a management system with a colour touch screen display. If required, the battery capacity can be increased – the system cabinet is designed for 13.2 kWh.
Schmiegel states: “Today, We are starting to see a shift in motivation when it comes to buying PV systems. Up until now it has been an investment with the emphasis of selling electricity back to the grid. But now it is starting to be about self-sufficiency.” According to Schmiegel the supplier base for this market is growing, with over 100 companies at this year’s Intersolar Europe event in Munich showing energy storage/management systems, suggesting that the future market for PV is going to be driven by the self-sufficiency model. Energy storage products on the market encompass high-quality, highperformance systems, where high quality LIBs last 20 years (such as Voltwerk-Bosch Power Tec), which is about the same lifetime as a PV panel, to significantly cheaper systems, based on consumer LIB batteries or even leadacid batteries, where the consumer will need to replace the battery up to four times during the life time of the PV system. The standard mode of operation for PV battery systems is to only inject PV power into the circuit when it is needed, and to inject the rest into the battery and any excess into the grid. The system is always calculating whether it is either more valuable to inject excess electricity into the battery or into the grid. This is going to be the story for the next 3 to 5 years, where the investment in a PV storage system is to reduce the electricity bill, says Schmiegel.
tariffs) and are applicable for power ratings below 500 kW. In 2012, selfconsumption tariffs can exceed €0.10/ kWh. If the consumer injects PV electricity into the grid at the same time as using electrical power this can be measured by a production meter and an injection meter, which calculate that the consumer gets a lower tariff, but when this is added to the saved power from the grid then the payment is about €0.08-0.10/kWh.
Payback Schmiegel says: “The end customer price for the VS 5 Hybrid System is in the region of €20,000. However in payback terms, which can only be exact with a detailed load profile of the customer, amortization is in the range of 10 years, give or take a couple of years. But you have also to take into account, that your electrical bill is reduced. In cash flow terms, after you have invested into such a system, the yields from the feed-in and self-consumption tariff are higher than the rest of the electrical power bought by the utility.” In the meantime costs of the battery are expected to reduce.
These feed-in tariffs are differentiated (meaning, the more the PV system owner consumes, the higher the
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Production technology round up Equipment and machinery developed for mass production environments and challenges can play a significant part in cutting costs of energy storage technologies. Energy Storage Journal finds out about energy storage production technologies that are in development or being commercialised with responses from Manz, Jonas & Redmann, Reis Robotics, Applied Materials and Beneq. 1. What energy storage technology is your business focused on? Reis Robotics is working on production technologies for lithium-ion battery (LIB) based energy storage products. By developing automation and other manufacturing processes for LIBs, Reis can enable their more cost-effective production. Manz is focused on lithium-ion batteries in the energy storage field, and expects sales to at least double in 2012, compared with 2011. The company is able to supply all major technologies for the production of battery cells (from reel to cell) and battery packs (from cell to pack). Manz is also working with customers and research institutes for fuel cell production. Jonas & Redmann is developing production equipment and systems for lithium-ion battery (LIB) manufacturing. AMAT is focused on developing production tools for lithium-ion battery (LIB) manufacturing. The company’s Large Energy Storage Group’s activities are centred on two R&D projects, each one focused on energy storage applications for grid integration of renewable electricity generation electric vehicle applications.
In a project, funded with a $4.4 million grant from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), AMAT is working on an advanced coating process and tool that can process electrodes more cost effectively than current methods. AMAT’s technique seeks to improve product reliability and cell performance at lower cost than conventional methods and also increase the battery’s energy density and reduce the size of components to more space within the cell for energy storage. In a second project, announced in August 2011, AMAT is supported with a $4.9 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE) Office of Vehicle technologies to design and assemble a low cost, high volume manufacturing module for fabricating high capacity metal alloy anodes in a continuous roll-to-roll configuration. The project runs for three years. Beneq is focused on atomic layer deposition (ALD) for lithium ion battery (LIB) production, where high accuracy and performance of thin-film coatings is a prerequisite. Coatings on LiCoO2 cathode particles, diffusion barriers and current collectors are potential applications.
2. What potential applications and markets are targeted? Reis Robotics is interested in both e-mobility and various stationary applications, for example providing storage for buffering of wind power. The company observes that the stationary storage is growing very fast, whereas even though e-mobility emerged first, it appears to be a smaller market than first expected. Manz is currently focussed on the development of advanced systems for the production of LIBs for the electric vehicle (EV)/e-mobility market. However stationary applications for the storage of renewable energy or premium consumer cells are very promising for the company. Jonas & Redmann is addressing all applications and markets for LIB, including the EV market and intermediate storage of renewable energy, as its equipment is designed for all manufacturers interested in high production volume, where throughput and level of reproducibility needs to be very high. As a designer and manufacturer of special purpose machinery Jonas & Redmann is able to provide production equipment for different cell designs in different applications.
Production technology round up
3. When did work begin working on energy storage applications? Reis Robotics began evaluating energy storage processes, technologies and concepts in 2011. Manz began its energy storage activities back in 2009. Jonas & Redmann began working on energy storage applications in 2009. Beneq began working on energy storage applications in 2009.
4. What is the commercialisation timeframe likely to be? Each system for energy storage production that Reis Robotics delivers is customized and so there is no general commercialisation timeframe. By implementing standardisation that it uses in its other businesses, such as PV production, Reis is able to supply systems quickly. Manz’ systems are already suitable for mass production. Since 2009 Jonas & Redmann has delivered equipment to Dispatch Energy, a producer of LIB products for storing renewable energy produced by PV panels, as well as other applications. In the last few months Jonas & Redmann has further developed this prototype line for Dispatch Energy as part of ongoing work. New LIB markets, beyond consumer electronics, are still at an early stage and call for efficient production equipment, which Jonas & Redmann is drawing up through various partnerships at research level. Beneq already has a particle coating system for smaller scale work available, with a fluidized bed reactor option). Scaleup is ongoing for larger chambers.
Image - top right: Jonas & Redmann supplies production tools designed for handling sensitive materials such as foils used in lithium-ion battery production
5. Summarise the drivers and reasons that prompted the company’s interest/activity in energy storage? Reis Robotics began exploring the processes in battery module manufacturing, compared with those used in the PV industry. The company’s focus is the supply of turnkey systems based on processes developed in-house as it has done already in the PV industry. In addition Reis Robotics is leveraging the advantage of its holding structure, which lets Reis Solar Energy, the company’s PV installation business test storage systems in the field, providing direct feedback that is used for the development of its energy storage production technologies. Reis Robotics has an established PV after-sales business and through this is aware that more and more of its PV clients are moving into energy storage. This provides Reis with knowledge about projects from early on so that it can start supporting clients from the outset, during development to create a cost-effective product. Manz has been developing and supplying production machinery for the PV industry for almost 25 years. The firm’s versatile technological base and competencies in automation, laser processing, wet chemistry, vacuum coating and metrology can be leveraged to provide customers in the energy storage industry with shorter cycle times, efficient processes, reduction of failure rate and by a consequence of these help reduce production costs. By being focused on several different markets the company’s overall business is more stable and not so vulnerable to cyclical downturns in individual markets. Jonas & Redmann sought to make use of the production technologies that it has already developed for the medical and PV industries, especially leveraging its experience of developing machinery for handling and assembling very sensitive materials. In addition, some of Jonas & Redmann’s PV customers are planning to
produce batteries or establish partnerships with battery manufacturers. Because these companies are already aware that Jonas & Redmann is a successful and competent supplier of production machinery, the basic conditions for establishing a new business segment already exist. According to Beneq, as the dimensions of batteries continue to decrease, ALD offers new opportunities for high performance energy storage. Utmost chemical and dimensional accuracy combined with flawless conformality are attractive properties for many applications.
6. In principle, what are some of the main challenges and also similarities in developing automation technology and equipment for energy storage, compared with PV or other markets? According to Reis Robotics, in terms of developing processes specifically for energy storage, one key difference is the connection method and there has been a need for developing measuring methods for LIB production processes. On the other hand, Reis has been able to adapt logistic and control technologies from the PV industry. According to Manz missing standardization of battery cells and battery packs is the main challenge. The company has to offer lots of customized designs of machines, which can be counterproductive to efforts to reduce production costs. However Manz has established expertise in the development of advanced system solutions and the capability to develop
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Production technology round up new technologies in the lab and bring these to mass production by a fast ramp-up of capacities. According to Jonas & Redmann the challenges are very similar. Both the medical device and PV industries are hi-tech segments, where production equipment needs to be designed and built for use in cleanrooms. Secondly, the company’s existing experience of developing equipment for handling sensitive materials in both of these industries can benefit energy storage, in this case, handling battery foils. Finally, within the production process it is necessary to guarantee very high positioning accuracy and all of the company’s customers expect high-performing equipment, which means high throughput and high operational uptimes. According to Beneq particle coating with ALD is a fairly new area. The chemistries and recipes that work in conventional batch type ALD may be different for a fluid bed type reactor as the active surface area is huge and the flow dynamics completely different. However, the company can use modular, industrially proven equipment design platforms that will drastically shorten the time-to-market.
7. What partnerships does your company have in energy storage to bring production technologies and equipment to market? Reis Robotics has developed a lot of energy storage production processes in-house, as it has done in its other fields of business, but the company is also working on strategic partnerships that will benefit its customers, often integrating the customer themselves into the project phase to provide the best possible final system. Manz is working with research institutes and customers, but prefers to keep details confidential. All partnerships are established with the aim of cutting production costs to make LIB available for a broad range of manufacturers worldwide. Jonas & Redmann is working with both the Technical University of Braunschweig and Berlin University, research institute Fraunhofer and the company is leading a consortium developing future technologies for the production of LIB cells. The company also works closely with experts in process technology and large industry players. Beneq is working with ALD Nanosolutions whose role is primarily in process development.
About Manz Headquartered in Reutlingen, Germany, Manz is a leading global hi-tech equipment manufacturer. Over the past few years, the company has developed from an automation specialist to a provider of integrated system solutions for the production of crystalline silicon solar cells and thin-film solar modules, as well as the manufacturing of flat panel displays. A new business area is the development and manufacture of production systems for lithium-ion batteries. In 2012 Manz celebrated its 25 anniversary.
www.manz.com
About Jonas & Redmann For over 20 years, Berlin-headquartered Jonas & Redmann has been developing and manufacturing innovative systems for the automation of handling, transport and assembly, concentrating on highly sensitive products, such as solar cells, in industrial manufacturing environments. The portfolio of Jonas & Redmann covers PV, battery technology and medical engineering.
www.jonas-redmann.com
About Reis Robotics Reis Robotics, headquartered in Obernburg, Germany, is an innovative company leading in robot technology and system integration supplying industries. For more than two decades Reis has been one of the most important integrators for automation systems in all major industry sectors, including PV. In addition to articulated arm robots the product range also includes linear robots, gantries and other special robots. Reis Robotics designs, delivers and installs completely integrated automation systems from one source.
www.reisrobotics.de
About Beneq Headquartered in Vantaa, Finland, Beneq is a supplier of industrial production and R&D equipment for advanced thin film coatings, serving the cleantech and renewable energy fields. Beneq also offers complete coating and development services to its customers. The business is built on two nano-based technology platforms: atomic layer deposition (ALD) and aerosol coating (nAERO and nHALO).
www.beneq.com
e th 2 at 01 u 2 yo EC e VS Se P EU
TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
Turning solar power into green gas
technology FEATURE
Technology FEATURE Messe Düsseldorf
Where does electricity come from when renewable energies cannot deliver during calm spells and in the hours of darkness? Storage media are essential for the overhaul of energy policy. The conversion of green power into storable methane is one of the most promising options.
“Enormous storage capacities are available to green energy. Therefore, we tend not to need as many new high voltage lines.”
Researchers all over the world have a goal: They want to develop storage media that allows for complete global supply using renewable energies. Power plants that generate storable methane gas using solar and wind power and convert this back into electricity when required could bring us closer to achieving this goal. Scientists from the Reiner Lemoine Institute (Reiner Lemoine Institut, RLI), the University of Kassel, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy Systems Technology (Fraunhofer-Institut für Windenergie und Energiesystemtechnik, IWES) and the companies Q-Cells and Solarfuel are demonstrating that with further technical progress and at locations abundant in sun and wind, these power plants will be able to supply power to fossil fuel plants competitively, i.e., for less than ten euro cents per kilowatt hour, by as early as 2020. The work has been published in a study, entitled “Hybrid solar-wind-methane power plants as the cornerstone of global energy supply” (“Hybride Sonne-Wind-Methan-Kraftwerke als Eckpfeiler der globalen Energieversorgung”). “With a crude oil price of $150 a barrel, this technology could be the cheapest form of power generation for 90% of the world population in about 10 years,” explains managing director of the RLI Christian Breyer. This is why researchers and engineers are now intensively driving the technology forward.
The idea is simple: Solar power and wind power are dependent upon the weather as well as the time of day and year, meaning that availability fluctuates. In order to avoid fossil fuel power plants jumping in as soon as the demand exceeds the supply of green electricity, the renewable energies must be combined with storage media such as methane. The IWES, Solarfuel and the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung, ZSW) have developed a special process for this called “power-to-gas”: Whenever solar parks are producing an excess of electricity, for example, this is diverted to electrolysis units where the power is used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen. In a second step, the hydrogen is combined with carbon dioxide in order to create methane, the main component of natural gas. This can be stored in the natural gas network to the desired extent and is used to supply heating systems, power plants and filling stations. “Enormous storage capacities are available to green energy. Therefore, we tend not to need as many new high voltage lines,” says Breyer.
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TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
By 2013, Solarfuel will have erected the first industrial-scale facility for the car manufacturer, featuring an output of 6 MW. An alternative to network expansion There is also no need for large power plants to store energy using methane, adds Stefan Rieke from Solarfuel. “It works best with decentralised units with outputs of 20 to 30 MW.” Even the federal government is pinning its hopes on power-to-gas. “In five to six years, this technology is to become a strategic application factor,” stated Federal Minister of Economics Norbert Röttgen earlier this year at the “Energy Storage” conference in Düsseldorf, which is organised by Messe Düsseldorf and the Berlinbased PV industry knowledge service provider Solarpraxis, in Germany. Researchers are giving some impetus to the matter: The IWES, Solarfuel and the ZSW are already building their second test facility with an output of 250 kW in Stuttgart, Germany. It has been constructed in such a way that it can be run by a biogas unit. This provides the power as well as the carbon dioxide required for the conversion of the hydrogen into methane. The results will be integrated into the even bigger “e-gas project” run by Audi. By 2013, Solarfuel will have erected the first industrial-scale facility for the car manufacturer, featuring an output of 6 MW. However, according to the hybrid power plant study, full supply using renewable energies can be achieved most cost-effectively by means of a combination of solar and wind power. In most regions on earth, sun and wind complement one another more or less perfectly. “There are very few network-essential overlaps in electricity production,” says Breyer. For this reason, it
tends to be the case that lower quantities of stored energy are required to balance supply and demand at solar-wind-methane power plants than when only one of the two primary renewable energy sources is used.
Photovoltaic technology driving down costs Solar and wind technology are also a good choice because they feature a high degree of potential for cost reduction. According to Eicke Weber, head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme, ISE) in Freiburg, solar power costs could halve by 2020 thanks to more efficient cells and better production. In the case of production equipment, improved automation and standardisation in particular mean that suppliers can achieve considerable savings, says Eric Maiser, MD of the PV production material division of VDMA (German Engineering Foundation). The second edition Energy Storage – International Summit for the Storage of Renewable Energies – conference with accompanying exhibition will discuss the topic of efficient storage technologies with an international professional audience from 18-19 March 2013 in Düsseldorf.
Efficiency issues Nevertheless, combination power plants also have their drawbacks. It would appear that the problem lies with efficiency, as losses add up throughout the steps of the power-to-gas process. When the green power is stored via gas and converted back into electricity, a total of two thirds of the energy is lost. The sourcing of the carbon dioxide required for conversion into methane could also represent a stumbling block. In the case of the Audi project, it is drawn from a biogas facility in a climate-neutral way, but if carbon dioxide from coal power plants needs to be used in future projects, this could damage the technology’s green image. For this reason, some experts believe other storage media such as hydrogen, which is an
TECHNOLOGY FEATURE
“Hydrogen can only be mixed into the natural gas in the network in small quantities up to 5%, meaning that its suitability as a storage medium is limited.” energy source itself, to be more practical. “This means that the resource-intensive methane conversion is missed out of the power-to-gas process,” highlighted Christopher Hebling, head of the energy technology division at the ISE, in Düsseldorf. He explained that the hydrogen can also be stored in the natural gas network or in large underground caverns. “Such caverns offer enormous storage potential and can be filled over many years,” says Hebling. Other alternatives are large battery parks, compressed air power plants or pump storage power plants. These pump water into a tank located higher up. As it flows away via downpipes, turbines generate electricity. Proponents of the power-to-gas technology do not see the degree of efficiency and the carbon dioxide sourcing as a critical factor, however. “Without storage media, excess green power would go unused,” argues Breyer. He claims that the carbon dioxide required for conversion into methane can also be obtained cleanly and ecologically by means of air filtering. In addition, he asserts that other storage media also carry uncertainties: Hydrogen can only be mixed into the natural gas in the network in small quantities up to 5%, meaning that its suitability as a storage medium is limited. Pump storage power plants, on the other hand, can only be implemented in mountainous regions: “Germany does not meet the geographical requirements,” says Breyer. The race to find the best storage concept is on.
About Energy Storage – International Summit for the Storage of Renewable Energy Technologies Energy Storage, in Düsseldorf in Germany, brings together experts from industry and research to discuss storage solutions for renewable energies. The event targets a broad base of sectors and industries including PV, wind, biomass and other renewables, regenerative gas industry, electrolyzers and fuel cells, power plants and utilities, electricity grid owners and operators, high-performance battery manufacturers and suppliers of innovative energy storage and management products and systems, collective facilities/public institutions, cities, research institutes and universities, thermal storage, consulting and services, media, associations, enterprises, ministries and housing societies. The 2nd Energy Storage 2013 will take place from 18-19 March 2013 at Congress Center Düsseldorf (CCD), Messe Düsseldorf. www.energy-storage-online.com
This article has been reproduced with kind permission of Messe Düsseldorf, organiser of Energy Storage – International Summit for the Storage of Renewable Energy Technologies .
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SUPPLIER CLOSE-UP
SUPPLIER CLOSE-UP
SUPPLIER CLOSE-UP OERLIKON SYSTEMS Solid state batteries and thermoelectric energy harvesting – how Oerlikon Systems is developing advanced storage production technology. Originally a term coined by venture capital investors looking for the next trend in technology, cleantech (clean technology) embraces a diverse range of products, services and processes that are generally designed to: Greatly reduce or eliminate negative environmental impacts Improve the use of natural resources Provide superior performance at lower costs Combining its know-how and experience in thin film coating technology with emerging advanced manufacturing processes based on nanotechnology, Oerlikon Systems is contributing to crucial areas of cleantech. For example, precision thin film coating processes are able to produce more efficient photovoltaics, windmills and batteries, and reduce the energy losses associated with transmission and distribution systems.
Left: CLUSTERLINE® 200 II
Thin film coating technology in general plays an important role in the development and production of a wide range of energy storage, conversion and harvesting applications and Oerlikon is exploring opportunities in all these areas; this article will focus specifically on solid-state batteries and thermoelectric energy harvesting. These two technologies can be employed together to power autonomous sensors independent of the grid that can monitor the environment for pollutants, the human body for signs of illness and to provide early warning of forest fires, to name but a few of their potential uses.
Solid-state batteries All solid-state batteries are currently being developed to replace existing lithium-ion batteries in many critical applications within the next decade. They promise significant advantages over today’s technology: High energy and power densities Extremely high cycle life All solid-state design for improved safety – No toxic or flammable liquids that can leak out in the event of cell rupture – Solid electrolytes provide rugged barriers against internal shorts that can cause thermal runaway Longer shelf-life and lifespan than conventional battery technologies Solid-state batteries in the form of thin-film lithium batteries are already in production and the market for these devices is expected to undergo rapid growth over the next few years. As their name implies, these batteries are built entirely from thin-films: usually, all but the lithium anodes are deposited by sputtering. Oerlikon Systems’ LLS and CLUSTERLINE® platforms can reliably deposit five of the six layers required for manufacturing a typical thin film lithium battery. The LLS in particular offers a very attractive and competitively-priced combination of research and pilot production tool. While thin-film batteries are ideally suited for small and medium-sized autonomous sensors, it is very expensive to fabricate
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SUPPLIER CLOSE-UP Together with its European partners, Oerlikon Systems is developing new planar geometries and multilayered nanostructures for thermoelectric converters to transfer the achievements of basic research to products in the market. batteries for automotive or utility back-up applications completely by sputtering using existing equipment. Some components of large batteries such as the thin solid electrolyte and parts of the current collectors can be sputterdeposited; other thin-film techniques such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and atomic layer deposition (ALD) have been proposed for manufacturing the electrodes. While large all solid-state batteries remain in development, sputtering can play a key role in identifying new electrode materials and electrolytes that can lower their cost and improve their performance: essential improvements that are required before such batteries can be commercialized. The Oerlikon MultiSource Quattro (MSQ), available on both the CLUSTERLINE速 300 and CLUSTERLINE速 200 II cluster tool platforms, is especially well-suited to this task. Capable of DC, pulsed DC and RF deposition of films co-sputtered from up to four targets at temperatures up to 900属C, it allows the controlled addition of dopants: this has been shown to be an important factor in determining the electronic and ionic conductivities of solidstate materials. The capabilities of the MSQ were recently demonstrated when it was used to deposit high-k dielectrics in work where entire thin film capacitors were fabricated on a CLUSTERLINE速 200 II.
Multilayers for efficient thermoelectric convertors In the vast field of energy harvesting, the decades old promise of thermoelectric devices that efficiently and reliably generate electricity from dissipated heat could soon play an important role in achieving a large-scale, sustainable energy solution. Multilayers for efficient thermoelectric generators are still in the material development phase. Once the materials are better understood and optimized, actual devices will be made, most likely within two years. Together with its European partners, Oerlikon Systems is developing new planar geometries and multilayered nanostructures for thermoelectric converters to transfer the achievements of basic research to products in the market. Thermoelectric converters (TECs) convert heat flow directly into electric power. Essentially, any heat source could be exploited, for example, combustion or solar radiation, and also waste heat. TECs are inherently noiseless and do not have moving parts, resulting in low device maintenance and excellent reliability. Furthermore, TECs can operate as electricallydriven heat pumps. Besides the standard application as active coolers in compact refrigerators, they can also provide heating with 60% less power input than resistive heaters. Given the existing incentives to use resourcesaving technologies and growing environmental awareness among consumers, the fundamental appeal of TEC technology is clear. However, the comparatively low device efficiency and low production scalability continue to restrict contemporary TEC technology to niche applications. The most promising nanotechnology for increased efficiency TECs is the fabrication of thick multi-layered films. Proven candidates are layer systems of Si/SiGe, Si/SiC or B4C/B9C. For different applications, for example magnetic films, Oerlikon has already developed multilayer deposition processes and is now leveraging that know-how.
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The focus of the project is to develop highly efficient TECs based on scalable and mass-producible multilayer technology using widely available, non-toxic materials. However, the conventional TEC design, based on blocks of TE material, does not match the specific film properties and also suffers energy losses of up to 50% during heat transport to the active elements. This makes the development of a new planar design for TECs necessary to exploit the advantages of thermoelectric multilayers. To best initiate the wide range of development tasks needed to realize a new TEC design, Oerlikon created and organized the “Nanostructured High-Efficiency ThermoElectric Converters” project (NanoHiTEC). This cooperative research project is supported by the European Commission’s 7th Framework program (FP7), which supports a wide range of European research and innovation efforts open to academic organizations and businesses in all EU member states and other eligible countries. For NanoHiTEC, Oerlikon coordinates a consortium of 10 European partners – including applicants from the automotive industry – that are working on everything from basic research to mass production. The focus of the project is to develop highly efficient TECs based on scalable and mass-producible multilayer technology using widely available, non-toxic materials. Besides optimization of the thermoelectrically active layers, special attention will be given to the passive elements and a suitable planar device design to reduce parasitic losses. As a pre-requisite for the introduction of multilayers, an initial success in the design of planar TEC devices optimized for film technology was recently achieved together with our partner O-Flexx. This first generation of thermoelectric “power straps” is based on well-proven BiTe alloys, but in this work, they were sputtered as 50μm to 100μm films on a SOLARIS system.
Top: SOLARIS Bottom: LLS EVO
Oerlikon Systems Liechtenstein OC Oerlikon Balzers Ltd. Iramali 18, P.O. Box 1000 9496 Balzers Liechtenstein T: +423 388 4770 info.systems@oerlikon.com www.oerlikon.com/systems/
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energy storage events 10 October 2012
12-14 November
Storage & Solar Briefing 2012
7th International Renewable Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition (IRES 2012)
Stuttgart, Germany With focus on the various entry opportunities in the storage market in connection with the PV industry, the Storage & Solar Briefing 2012 will offer a platform for industry experts to respond to queries, and demonstrate their marketoriented solutions. Specific topics will be covered, which in practice are still associated with increased uncertainty or insecurity and under certain circumstances presently block market growth. EuPD Research is hosting the event at the Mövenpick Hotel Stuttgart Airport & Trade Fair. IPVEA members are entitled to a 10% discount on the ticket prices stated below. Please send an email to Verena Grollmann – v.grollmann@eupd-research to secure both your ticket and discount for this event. Participation Fees Early Bird €430.00 (before 17th August 2012 Participation Fee €495.00 (Standard) Late Bird €560.00 (from 21st September 2012)
Berlin Congress Center, Germany IRES has developed into the central platform for sharing knowledge and exchanging ideas on one of the key issues of future energy supply. IRES 2011 attracted attendance from more than 40 countries with 600 attendees and repeated the success of the previous year. IRES is organised by the European Association for Renewable Energy (EUROSOLAR), a registered non-profit organization, founded in 1988, that conducts its work independently of political parties, institutions, commercial enterprises and interest groups. This year’s programme can be downloaded at: http://www.eurosolar.de/en/images/ stories/pdf/IRES_2012_programme.pdf
13-15 November
The Battery Show - Expo for Advanced Batteries Detroit, Michigan, USA The Battery Show 2012 is the premier showcase of the latest advanced battery technology. The exhibition hall offers a platform to launch new products, make new contacts and maintain existing relationships. The Battery Show is attended by technical leaders, scientists, engineers, project leaders, buyers and senior executives concerned with advanced energy
storage and will host the very latest advanced battery solutions for electric & hybrid vehicles, utility & renewable energy support, portable electronics, medical technology, military and telecommunications. Join the 150+ companies confirmed for 2012. The Battery Show is co-located with Charging Infrastructure Expo http://www.chargingexpo.com/ For more details about the conference programme and exhibition visit www.thebatteryshow.com
8-10 January 2013
3rd Annual Electric Energy Storage Phoenix, Arizona, USA 3rd Annual Electric Energy Storage – Assessing the Technological and Economic Potential of Electric Storage Operations for Real-Time Applications, will be a two and a half-day, industry focused event, specific to those within energy storage, renewable energy, regulatory policy and planning and R&D. This conference, organized by Marcus Evans, will bring together leading senior executives to discuss technological advances and case studies, while focusing on the tools and strategies necessary to bring energy storage operations into real time energy operations. For more information visit www.marcusevans.com/marcusevansconferences-events.asp.
events
23-25 January 2013
18-19 March 2013
16-18 April 2013
Renewable Energy Storage & Capacity Symposium
Energy Storage
6th Energy Storage Forum
Congress Center Düsseldorf (CCD), Messe Düsseldorf, Germany
Berlin, Germany
San Diego, California, USA A three-day industry forum highlighting senior policy and decision-makers, regarding future planning, strategy and execution of critical renewable energy storage projects within the United States Visit http://www.wplgroup.com/aci/ conferences/us-ges1-energy-storage.asp.
27-28 February
Energy Storage 2013 Nice, France ACI’s 3rd Annual Energy Storage summit will bring together senior executives from the utilities industry, TSOs, DNOs, EES owners, developers as well as manufacturers to conduct a thorough cost analysis and comparison of various EES systems and their roles in the business strategies & blueprints of grid operators. The conference will have a heavy focus on case study examples of large scale RES projects across the globe, discussing how they overcame economic, political and technological challenges to improve penetration of intermittent RES.
Experts from industry and research discuss storage solutions for renewable energies at the second Energy Storage – International Summit for the Storage of Renewable Energies, a conference and exhibition co-organised by Messe Düsseldorf and Solarpraxis. At the inaugural Energy Storage summit and exhibition, held in March 2012, 20 exhibitors presented their products and services in the field of storage technology and 350 participants from 29 countries took part in the two-day conference with accompanying exhibition. The programme for Energy Storage 2013 will be announced by October 2012, where details will be published at www.energy-storage-online.com.
Past Energy Storage Forums in Asia (Beijing, Tokyo) and in Europe (Barcelona, Paris, Rome) have altogether attracted over 500 professionals from 20 countries Some of the past speakers have included utilities such as EDF, ENEL, DONG ENERGY, IBERDROLA, STATE GRID, VATTENFALL, AES, E.ON and RWE. The Forum aims to get deeper into the business case according to different applications by comparing different technologies including: flywheel, li-ion, CAES, flow battery, hydrogen, supercapacitors, power electronics, hydropower and new alternative technologies. The forum is broadening its expanding its remit to further explore the role of wind, solar and power electronics in energy storage. The event is supported by the Electricity Storage Association (ESA), which is based in Washington DC. More information about the 2013 event can be found at www.energystorageforum.com
Visit: http://www.wplgroup.com/aci/ conferences/eu-ees3.asp.
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For €3000, an annual membership to IPVEA provides a host of discounts and benefits Significant discounts on raw booth space at large solar shows Free listing and entry in the PV Matrix – a realtime platform representing the PV supply chain Free PV industry book-to-bill data Free weekly solar energy intelligence reports and e-bulletins Free subscription to Update – IPVEA’s official newsletter, which provides latest news on equipment providers, IPVEA events and IPVEAsponsored conferences and shows, exclusive analysis of PV industry and market trends, profiles and case studies.
Discounts on technical publications Numerous brand-building and networking opportunities at major solar shows including: IPVEA member press conferences and press materials Exposure through the website www.ipvea.org IPVEA video casts Inclusion on appropriate panels at key industry trade events IPVEA member pavilions at trade shows Use of the IPVEA & PV Matrix logos to support branding Listing in IPVEA PV Directory and Update newsletter
Free subscription to Energy Storage Journal – a new quarterly B2B publication covering business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies Discounts to leading solar industry conferences and events
…much more. IPVEA is working to forge stronger ties between solar and energy storage. Join IPVEA and be part of it. more@ipvea.org / www.ipvea.org