EVENT REVIEW: EES/IBESA SUMMIT 2018 has also been due to the fact that insurance for French solar installers has been unavailable from local insurers. This is a situation that could change, however. But the growth of energy storage in France was seen as inevitable in the longer term given the larger worldwide context of our need for yet greater amounts of energy — mostly sparked by the drive to electric vehicles. France is committed to banning the sale of petrol or diesel cars by 2040 — as promised by its president Emmanuel Macron— but there is also a plan to only allow emissionfree vehicles to drive in Paris by 2030. Perhaps the most interesting of the discussions was led by Pablo Ralon, an associate programme officer for IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency). He said that Europe’s power mix which presently consisted of 24% from renewable sources and 76% from others was set to flip to around 85% from renewables by 2050. Ralon said that he saw V2G — vehicle to grid — technology as being “hugely important” in the way that the world’s energy mix will balance itself. This was a view that was echoed by other speakers during the summit. IRENA anticipates that by 2050 there will be some 965 million EVs on the world’s roads and 57 million electric buses. Ralon also said that he saw no business case for V2GAS at present and that the technology was at a trial stage but could become important for longer term storage. The lack of a business case may soon be changing following the UK government’s recent announcement that it planned to use hydrogen fuelled trains in some parts of the country. Interestingly enough for an audience of mostly lithium ion
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battery enthusiasts, he said that storage would be so essential that other chemistries and technologies would have to form part of the mix. He reckoned that lead batteries, flow batteries and high temperature sodium batteries would all contribute to this energy mix, as would other combinations. “Mostly they will be application specific but we anticipate that lithium batteries will be dominant by an order of a magnitude,” he said. Other topics that dominated discussions in this highly useful set of talks and presentations included the latest thinking on virtual power plants and the creation of the socalled digital utility. The role of the existing utility, France’s energy giant EDF, was discussed. Unlike most other European countries, which have a number of independent utilities, almost all electricity in France comes through EDF. “The situation for utilities could change enormously,” said Kerstin Pienisch, manager for international business development at Next
Kraftwerke. “In a virtual power plant the new utility doesn’t own the assets but manages them. The shift for the industry is the move towards production to consumption. It’s a radical way to organize things.” Perhaps the liveliest discussions came after Christophe Bourgueil, in charge of energy storage business development at Eaton, gave a presentation entitled Building the Case for Behind the Meter Energy Storage. Most of the audience are aware that to date recycling large scale lithium car batteries is a cost rather than a source of revenue, so business cases for second life batteries were of great interest. This was the first country summit led by ees and IBESA and proved a day well spent. Although the technical and business case was high, as you’d expect from these two organizations, the networking opportunities proved excellent and this reviewer looks forward to seeing further summits for other countries. Mike Halls, Energy Storage Journal
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