Energy Storage Journal, Issue 14 - Autumn 2016

Issue 14: Autumn 2016

Staying ahead of the field AES’s recipe for success: first mover advantage The interview ABB’s Botti clears the path into residential energy storage

Vanadium supply Market gathers to discuss opportunities, possible shortages

Recycling lithium Trying to solve the problem of advanced battery disposal

to 2MW (up to 700V) • Single or dual circuit models available

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CONTENTS COVER STORY

46

FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE, AND THE RACE TO DEPLOY 1GW OF ENERGY STORAGE

John Zahurancik, president of AES Energy Storage, spoke to Sara VerBruggen about the thinking behind the creation of the AES subsidiary and its later development

EDITORIAL

2

OPINION 4

First mover advantage: Staying ahead of the game

46

NAATBatt’s Jim Greenberger looks at the challenges the industry faces in recycling advanced batteries.

THE INTERVIEW

Leonardo Botti at ABB talks about the company’s plans for the way that its residential product line can also fit the future.

8

ANALYSIS

11

NEWS

15

CONFERENCE IN PRINT

25

Using the grid as a communication network isn’t new but now it looks possible to use this wired connection across the whole network to manage the demand-side response market.

GE, California Edison to install first ever gas and battery storage system • Redflow wins orders for residential and business flow batteries • Oxis hits 400Wh/kg milestone with Li-S batteries • Ecoult installs UltraBattery in European location at Tallaght smart grid test bed in Dublin • Residential storage+solar challenge thrown down by lead carbon firm Axion • UK National Grid names winning suppliers for enhanced frequency response support • Leclanché partners SGEM moves into US energy storage with work for PJM • Convergent project financing with CJF Capital sets milestone in funding storage • Aachen researchers investigate five chemistries in M5BAT ESS • Primus opts for lead batteries for renewables • Younicos and Panasonic North America join forces on solar-storage project • Sunrun and LG Chem partner for US residential energy storage tie-up • South Korea incentivises solar plus storage installations • NorthStar adds Bluetooth to battery health monitoring.

A look at the financial benefits of a hybrid storage system incorporating flywheels.

Leonardo Botti: The head of global marketing at ABB looks to the future 8

Events Review: The Battery Show

FEATURES

46

VANADIUM INDUSTRY GATHERS TO FOCUS ON STORAGE AND SHORTAGES

35

TAKING THERMAL STABILITY TO THE NEXT LEVEL FOR LITHIUM BATTERY SEPARATORS

38

ARCACTIVE USING NANO-TECHNOLOGY TO SOLVE LEAD’S DCA DILEMMA

43

EVENTS REVIEW

46

EVENTS

51

HEROES OF THE GRID: STANLEY WHITTINGHAM

60

Energy Storage Journal’s round-up of some of the most important meetings in the energy storage world.

Energy Storage Journal’s round-up of the most interesting conferences and exhibitions to attend in the coming six months.

A profile of the early pioneers in lithium ion research. www.energystoragejournal.com

Events: Looking forward to Brazil, Singapore, Japan and more 53

Battery Hero: Stanley Whittingham 60

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 1

EDITORIAL Mike Halls, editor • mike@energystoragejournal.com

The new leaders of the pack Fear and greed. As a trainee financial journalist many years ago, these were vital elements to have at the front of any investment story.

Fear, because you wanted the reader to be aware that if they didn’t read your story, there was a good chance that they would miss out on an excellent investment opportunity.

And greed? Just think of the money you’ll make from this investment. Why, you’ll be rich!

This may be a sad statement about the nature of humanity — and in another way the nature of huge chunks of financial journalism — but it very much characterizes the mood of the present climate for energy storage projects.

There’s more than a whiff of greed in the air. There’s the impression that a desperate race to the finish could just be about to start.

In the days of the internet boom, there was much the same half-fanatic enthusiasm. Some of it had reason behind it.

Early valuations of Google, for example, or Amazon, were extraordinarily high — but now seem ridiculously low.

Others, of course, were palpable duds, but who knew it at the time?

The talk of that long distant hype has slipped into history.

But some of the language of the period — remember the first mover advantage for crossing the chasm? — is still with us.

In our cover story, a profile of AES Energy Storage, we look at that first-mover advantage. Part of the cleverness of their two early protagonists John Zahurancik and Chris Shelton was their ability to see a trend in energy storage in 2006 that wasn’t immediately obvious.

While most of the energy storage world was getting excited about electric and hybrid vehicles, and the solar world was about to go ballistic, there were only a few outliers looking at what new batteries — at the ridiculously extravagant size of 1MW and lithium ion and expensive to boot — could ever do for the world in a major way.

Part of the confusion over the role of energy storage in a larger universe of how it can be used, has been the multiplicity and diversity of its potential business models. Many of which are not proven but going ahead anyway.

And also the rapidity in how business models adapt. PV and residential/commercial/industrial started on the basis of paying for installation through feed-in tariffs. As the price of PV fell and feed-in-tariffs started to be cut, people started to look at energy self-sufficiency at lower cost than utility suppliers. At the same time others saw potential profitability through offsetting peak demand charges. And now we’re even looking at residential storage feeding into grid balancing services.

These are fascinating times in that there is an extraordinary rapidity in the way everything is developing — and there is such a huge diversity of reasons or processes.

In California, for example, the impetus into renewables is now acknowledged as useless without the addition of energy storage. The answer? Create state-wide regulations (with often crazy deadlines) that force energy storage into existence.

In Germany, another model is at work, with a commitment to abandoning nuclear power by 2022 while at the same time trying to create an energy supply that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. It is proving hard to get going without the benefit of government sponsoring it. (And each time the government tries to rein in its spending, the market slumps.)

Or look again at Ireland, which has set itself aggressive renewables targets and sees storage as the key to its delivery.

So far, an interesting variety of experimental projects but little by way of concrete planning is emerging, Yet further afield, huge projects in India for remote telecoms, in particular, promise great potential to firms seeking to be technology suppliers. But so far in concrete terms, there seems much talk with little action.

For those of us in the business of reporting about the industry, these are exciting times indeed. And though AES has shown that it will be a major player in the years ahead, what new businesses will yet emerge? And who will be the new energy storage giants of the future?

Advertising manager: Jade Beevor jade@energystoragejournal,com +44 1 243 792 467 Supplements editor: Wyn Jenkins, wyn.jenkins@serenglobalmedia.com, +44 1 792 293 222 Energy Storage Journal — Business and market strategies for energy storage and smart grid technologies Energy Storage Journal is a quarterly publication.

Publisher: Karen Hampton karen@energystoragejournal.com +44 7792 852 337 Editor: Michael Halls, mike@energystoragejournal.com +44 1 243 782 275

Let cool heads prevail

The lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch Associate editor: Sara Verbruggen sara@energystoragejournal.com +44 7981 256 908 The new titan of lead Ecoult’s UltraBattery, ready to take lithium on, head-to-head

The CEO interview Anil Srivastava and Leclanché’s bid for market dominance

Next gen integrators Coming soon to a smart grid near you, the ideal middle man

2 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

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OPINION The issue of recycling lithium ion and nickel metal batteries has been neglected too long, says NAATBatt International’s Jim Greenberger.

The case for recycling high voltage advanced batteries The recycling of high voltage advanced batteries used in automotive, industrial and stationary energy storage (ESS) applications has long been a regular topic of conversation in the battery industry.

The topic is a challenging one because, unlike recycling lead-acid batteries, which produces a waste stream of valuable and resalable lead, recycling advanced batteries based on lithium-ion, nickel metal hydride (NiMH), and nickel zinc chemistries is generally a cost-negative proposition.

SAE International has a standing subcommittee on battery recycling, which been studying and making recommendations about advanced automotive battery recycling for several years. EPRI will shortly release a study about decommissioning ESS systems that include high voltage advanced batteries.

But except for those studies and a $9.5 million ARRA grant from the DOE to Toxco back in 2009, little has happened in North America to promote the systematic recycling of high voltage advanced batteries.

There are three reasons for the lack of progress on advanced battery recycling.

First, and perhaps most obviously, is because the use of high voltage advanced batteries in vehicle, industrial and ESS applications is a relatively new phenomenon. Few such batteries have yet reached their end-of-life stage where safe disposition must be considered. But this is about to change.

End-of-life numbers

A recent report published by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) estimates that nearly 276,000 advanced automotive batteries reached their end-of-life stage in North America in 2015. Most of those were NiMH batteries.

Over the next 15 years, CEC expects almost 1.5 million advanced automotive traction batteries to reach their end-of-life, of which about half will be lithium-ion batteries.

And this is just the beginning.

The markets for high voltage advanced batteries in automotive, industrial and ESS applications are growing explosively.

Navigant Consulting predicts that the market for new lithium-ion batteries alone during the 2015-2024 period will exceed $221 billion. Eventually all these batteries will reach their endof-life and need to be disposed of in some way.

The second reason for so little action on the advanced battery recycling front is because recycling advocates have largely failed to address a fundamental question: Is there a need to recycle advanced batteries at all?

Recycling is not a given. There are plenty of hazardous substances and systems used in automobiles (for example, airbags) and in electricity grid

The prospect of a fully or partially charged high voltage battery laying in a salvage yard or landfill is a public safety hazard of a completely different magnitude than that of any other expired automotive or grid infrastructure system.

NAATBATT RECYCLING WORKSHOP • NOVEMBER 30, 2016 THE MICHIGAN UNION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN The volume of high voltage lithiumion and other advanced batteries deployed in automotive, industrial and stationary energy applications is growing exponentially. Navigant expects the market for lithium-ion batteries alone during 2015-2024 to exceed $221 billion. The question of what is going to happen to this vast, new volume of advanced batteries at the end of their useful lives is of growing concern to industry, to regulators and to the general public.

NAATBatt International will hold a workshop on November 30 at the University of Michigan in Ann

4 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

Arbor to explore the future of high voltage advanced battery recycling.

The workshop will examine the economics of recycling today and the technologies that might change those economics in the future.

Regulatory regimes in the European

Union and China, which already require the recycling of advanced batteries, will be examined and discussed.

The workshop will discuss the threshold question of whether there is any special need to require the recycling of high voltage advanced batteries in North America, and, if so, what can be learned from other countries and from other industries about how to structure an efficient and effective recycling regime.

Workshop faculty will include leading experts in advanced battery recycling from around the world.

www.energystoragejournal.com

OPINION infrastructure for which no dedicated recycling programme exists.

Moreover, one of the principal benefits that most advanced batteries enjoy over traditional lead acid batteries is that they do not contain significant amounts of hazardous chemicals or metals that require special handling.

It is reasonable to ask whether there is something so unique about high voltage advanced batteries that requires a special recycling mandate.

If there is a case to be made for a special regulation requiring the recycling of advanced battery recycling, that case will center on three arguments.

The first has to do with the issue of stranded energy.

The prospect of a fully or partially charged high voltage battery laying in a salvage yard or landfill is a public safety hazard of a completely different magnitude than that of any other expired automotive or grid infrastructure system. If high voltage advanced batteries containing an electric charge are mishandled, people will die. And potentially quite a few of them.

According to one NAATBatt board member, there have been 128 reported accidents (ie, fires and explosions) to date at lead acid recycling facilities caused by the intentional or unintentional mixing of lithium-ion and other advanced batteries into lead acid battery waste streams. These accidents have severely damaged equipment and pose a serious danger to human life and safety.

Further compounding this problem is the rising use of mixed chemistry battery systems, which combine batteries and energy storage devices (such as supercapacitors) of different types and recycling requirements in the same system.

Phil Gorney, vehicle safety research engineer at the US Department of Transportation and the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has been ringing alarm bells about this for the past year. A mandatory recycling regime would minimize the chance of public exposure to charged high voltage batteries and reduce an obvious public safety hazard.

The second argument centers on ensuring the long term supply and price stability of energy materials, such as lithium, cobalt and nickel.

The price of lithium carbonate has famously tripled over the last year, an increase widely attributed to growing demand for battery-grade lithium.

Last January, China published a Policy on Recycling and Utilization Tech-

www.energystoragejournal.com

Over the next 15 years, CEC expects almost 1.5 million advanced automotive traction batteries to reach their end-of-life, of which about half will be lithium-ion batteries. nologies for Electric Vehicle Batteries (2015 Edition), which seems aimed at protecting the access of Chinese battery manufacturers to a long term supply of energy materials by using recycling as a source of alternate supply.

China, is actively implementing a lithium-ion recycling policy. The China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC) estimates that there will be 120,000 to 170,000 tonnes of lithium-ion battery waste generated in China per year by 2020.

One NAATBatt member, that manufactures lithium-ion battery cells in China, reports that it already obtains a portion of its lithium carbonate supply from recycled materials.

Strategic risks

Instability in the availability or price of energy materials is a strategic risk as it would undermine the long-term economics of vehicle electrification, energy storage and, ultimately, integrating variable renewable energy on to the grid. The US Department of Commerce is actively studying the strategic implications of advanced battery recycling.

The third argument for advanced battery recycling turns on a life-cycle analysis of advanced batteries and their impact on carbon emissions. If one of the principal goals of vehicle electrification and renewable energy integration on the grid is the reduction of greenhouse gases, the energy inputs and carbon emissions from mining and refining energy materials must be considered.

Recycling advanced batteries can considerably alter the relative environmental “cost” of advanced battery technology compared to hydrocarbon technology (which cannot be recycled). An environmental analysis of advanced battery life-cycle is discussed in Linda Gaines’ 2012 article “To Recycle, or Not to Recycle, That is the Question: Insights from Life-Cycle Analysis.”

Finally, a major, unspoken reason for the lack of much progress on advanced battery recycling is the uncertainty about who would have to pay for it.

Vehicle OEMs, advanced battery

manufacturers, and ESS developers are rightfully concerned that imposing additional cost in the form of a recycling fee on high voltage advanced batteries would unduly burden the price-sensitive emerging markets for advanced battery applications, such as electrified vehicles and ESS. But if the value of advanced battery technology is its ability to address the larger social issues of greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum dependence, the cost of recycling those batteries so that they can perform their larger social function should be socialized in the same way that we have socialized a portion of the costs of renewable energy generation and electric vehicles themselves.

This issue must be addressed in the design of any new mandatory recycling regime.

NAATBatt will seek to play a leading role in convening industry to discuss the recycling problem and in helping it create and administer a responsible but cost-effective solution to the advanced battery recycling problem.

Jim Greenberger has served as executive director of NAATBatt International since co-founding the organization in 2008. He was previously a partner in the Chicago office of the law firm of Reed Smith, where his practice concentrated in commercial finance, venture capital and cleantech. His blog can be found at www.naatbatt.org/blog/

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 5

Check out how Hammond Group is driving innovation for PbA batteries. www.hmndgroup.com/about/

For the challenges ahead...

2016 InnovatIon award wInner

THE INTERVIEW: ABB’S BOTTI Leonardo Botti, head of global marketing, product group solar at ABB, spoke to Energy Storage Journal about the company’s plans for the way that its residential product line can also fit the future.

Pushing ahead on the domestic home front

“On average, payback is possible between six and eight years, for a consumer installing a solar plus storage system in Italy today” – Leonardo Botti 8 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

In 2013 when ABB acquired PowerOne, the global number two producer of solar photovoltaic inverters at the time, for $1 billion, the deal marked an important step in the firm’s transformation into a global provider of smart grid products and systems.

Inverters are critical components in distributed generation, particularly for rooftop solar PV. One of the product technologies ABB acquired through its takeover of Power-One is a residential energy storage system, an all-in-one product that integrates the battery with the inverter. ABB started rolling out the behind-the-meter energy storage system in Europe in 2016 to meet growing demand for self-consumption, enabled

by PV-plus-storage.

ABB’s solar product group encompasses both residential, business-toconsumer (B2C) products, such as string inverters, and larger, utilityscale, business-to-business (B2B) products, such as central inverters and packaged solutions.

The product solar group is also responsible for React, ABB’s home energy storage system for integration with residential and small commercial rooftop PV systems. The system uses Panasonic’s lithium ion batteries. (The letters in React stand for Renewable Energy Accumulator and Conversion Technology.)

React, comprising an all-in-one battery, smart inverter and energy management system, originated from the home energy storage product developed by inverter supplier Power-One, which ABB acquired in 2013. The system is designed for new PV and storage installations. For retrofit installations, the existing solar inverter becomes obsolete.

The energy storage system can channel electricity generated by the solar PV modules to power loads in the home during the daytime, as well as

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THE INTERVIEW: ABB’S BOTTI charge the battery with surplus solar PV electricity, and export any remaining energy to the grid.

The React system releases energy to power loads in the house when the panels are not generating electricity and can absorb electricity from the grid to charge the batteries, though this functionality is not being promoted by ABB since grid operators will not allow this function in some markets.

React was available in Italy first, this spring. The system is modular and can be expanded up to three times.

Italy’s solar PV-storage market is much smaller compared with Germany’s. Compared with about 14,00015,000 systems of small-scale energy storage systems sold in Germany, in Italy the amount is in the several hundreds.

“You have to be a pioneer with a new technology. That means being a first mover in markets,” says Botti.

By December 2016 ABB will start rolling out React Europe-wide, targeting Germany, the UK and the Benelux countries.

With cuts to FiT incentives it can make more sense for new PV customers to install an energy storage system along with their rooftop solar system, while some existing PV customers, which have already achieved payback for their PV installations are now looking at installing energy storage so

that they can increase their self-consumption.

Whether new or retrofit, adding battery storage to PV can save money on bills.

Though payback timeframes in the UK are around the ten-year mark, the market is promising, as the UK has a lot of middle and high-income earners that can afford PV and storage systems, without necessarily having to invest in loans. “Because costs

Italian market

While the availability of energy storage products in Italy is more limited compared with Germany, since the market is more nascent and much smaller, the availability of an all-inone inverter and battery product is a distinct offering compared with the existing installations.

Many of these use lead-acid batteries and are coupled to the PV system in a more rudimentary way so that the batteries can charge up with solar electricity for use later, but cannot integrate with the grid, which requires smart (bi-directional) inverter technologies.

Due to various factors, including a tax reduction on solar PV and solar PV plus storage systems over the first 10 years of the product’s operation, electricity rates and plenty of sunshine hours, plus ongoing reductions in the cost of solar PV and energy storage systems, Italy is seen as an attractive market for solar plus storage because home owners can save money on bills by increasing their self-consumption in addition to tax reductions.

“On average, payback is possible between six and eight years, for a consumer installing a solar plus storage system in Italy today,” Botti says.

ABB’s market share in Italy is more than 30%, and it is one of the company’s key markets in Europe, so it is intending to leverage its existing market presence in Italy to promote React through its existing solar distribution channels.

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“The utilities know there is a change coming in the energy sector, particularly in the retail electricity market, where more consumers will be producing and consuming electricity, where electrification of cars and vehicles is going to occur. These are challenges that also present new opportunities for utilities.”

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 9

THE INTERVIEW: ABB’S BOTTI have come down, you can spend the same on a PV and storage system — a few thousand pounds — than you would on a two-week family holiday abroad,” he says.

In the UK, consumers are also generally savvy about gadgets and technology, believes Botti. “The UK will continue to see growth in rooftop residential solar PV but it will be underpinned by energy storage – the selfconsumption market,” he says.

Across Europe generally, incentives like the FiT have been reduced or cut, so the incentive to buy a PV system in order to make money by selling electricity to the grid no longer exists.

“Self-consumption means less in terms of annual PV sales than European markets have witnessed in previous years but it means much steadier growth and sales – we welcome that.”

React has been certified for the UK market and ABB is in the process of qualifying distribution partners.

Business-to-consumer market

The React product is helping to grow ABB’s B2C market, although the company is probably best recognized as a global player in the energy sector for its equipment and products. However, within the corporation it does also have B2C channels such as smart plugs for homes and buildings for improving energy efficiency.

“Energy storage is a technology that straddles both markets. But the utilityscale application is very different from the residential distributed generation

aapplication, hence requiring different technical requirements and different market channels – the utility-scale battery energy storage systems that ABB provides are supplied through the new power grid division,” says Botti.

“But in principle it is critical that our residential energy storage system is as relevant to utilities as much as our industrial, multi-megawatt storage systems,” he says.

The innovative design of React means that it contains all of the software protocols that are required for individual systems to be networked and controlled as one virtual power plant platform.

Utilities

“We are talking to utilities in Europe and the discussions we’ve had are with executives, responsible for innovation, who are reporting directly to the CEO and they are saying that in future centralized energy generation — though it is always going to be required — is no longer going to be sufficient as their only business model. They have to move away from that traditional model and redefine the utility role in terms of electricity trading, as well as centralized generation and distribution.

“Utilities know there is a change coming in the energy sector, particularly in the retail electricity market, where more consumers will be producing and consuming electricity, where electrification of cars and vehicles is going to occur. These are chal-

lenges that also present new opportunities for utilities.

“In terms of React we have a futureproof product platform and when utilities are ready to communicate what they want to control and measure we can enable that,” he says.

Despite Germany being the largest but also the most competitive and the most crowded market for energy storage systems, ABB will also be rolling out React there in the coming months.

“Germany has been a pioneer in solar PV and it has also pioneered energy storage, so we need to be present there. Also, we believe there is scope for alternative products, especially an all-in-one inverter and battery type of product,” says Botti.

In future ABB will also probably extend its smart inverter/energy storage platform with more flexible offerings, such as smart inverters that are configured to work with different batteries in order to have a behind-the-meter energy storage product range that meets various consumers’ requirements.

“For now, our React product is a really innovative offering that we are confident will prove popular with installers and consumers as the selfconsumption market emerges across Europe,” Botti says.

ABB recently promoted React at the All-Energy tradeshow in Australia.

“Definitely Australia is one of the markets outside of Europe that we are looking at with a lot of interest,” he says.

ABB — THE INVERTER RANGE SERVING THE STORAGE Utility segment – PVS980 1500 volt intelligent central inverter and low voltage products. The PVS980 is a new low maintenance and high efficiency1500 volt utility-scale inverter that is now available with optimized all-in-one medium voltage packages. Containing a patented self-contained cooling system, the PVS980 is a rugged solar solution rated up to a 2MW inverter size, suitable for harsh environments.

The product is supported with a full range of 1500 Vdc string monitoring combiner boxes.

Commercial segment – The TRIO-50.0 high-powered string inverter is ABB’s highest powered string inverter. This is a threephase transformerless inverter that

10 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

combines the performance and price advantage of a central inverter with the flexibility and ease of installation of a string inverter, making it ideal for large commercial and small utility projects. Its redesigned SunSpeccompliant communications protocol allows off-the-shelf compatibility with the grid’s infrastructure and other devices in the system.

Residential segment – REACT storage inverter and UNO-DMPLUS residential string inverter. The REACT storage inverter contains a modular battery system that stores solar energy for later use, reducing electricity bills. Its integrated load manager and compatibility with ABB’s Free@Home automation system make it an integral part of the

modern smart home.

ABB’s residential product range is now the unified UNO family, with the flagship UNO-DM-PLUS smart inverter. Its integrated webserver and wireless connectivity optimizes the installation complexity with almost zero commissioning needed, and its SunSpec-compliant open communications protocol ensures integration into smart buildings and smart grids.

Microgrid segment – PVD 1.0 Photovoltaic-Diesel hybrid controller targets off-grid sites such as smallmedium industrial sites and remote areas, and intelligently combines ABB’s TRIO and PVS800 solar inverters with gensets, providing up to 50% solar penetration.

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ANALYSIS: GRID COMMUNICATION CONTROL Using the grid as a communication network has long been a goal of internet developers — there is a wired connection into every home in the country — but now it looks possible to use this connection to manage the demand-side response market.

Time to communicate better with the demand-side response Demand-side response, where the output of large electricity loads is adjusted to balance the grid, could soon benefit from a technology that sends and receives instructions to participants over the transmission and distribution system.

Demand-side response along with energy storage is an important tool in the box for creating more robust and resilient grids. Each approach imparts some much-needed flexibility to grids.

Energy storage does so by responding rapidly to grid signals, in a second or under, to inject or absorb power to compensate for real-time mismatch in consumption and demand.

In demand-side response programmes, participants — typically government departments, businesses and industrial energy consumers — adjust their energy consumption patterns to take the edge off peaks in demand

by turning down or switching off loads during times of high demand.

Both DSR and energy storage can earn revenues from ancillary grid service markets.

Communicating with assets in a demand-side management programme requires a reliable internet or mobile communication connection in addition to an individual meter, which can make the technology too expensive and impractical to extend the benefits of DSR to thousands of smaller assets, like water or electric heaters in homes, for example. Many assets are excluded from existing DSR arrangements due to a lack of remote connectivity.

The investment required to install equipment even for businesses thinking about performing DSR services can be costly. This is putting off would-be participants in the commercial and industrial sector, which transmission system operators such as the UK’s National Grid are trying to attract to provide demand management.

Reactive Technologies has developed what it calls a grid data and measurement system (GDMS), which provides a cost-effective alternative by using the frequency of the electricity network to carry data.

“Unlike cellular networks where there are often patchy reception areas,

“Unlike cellular networks where there are often patchy reception areas, sending data via the grid’s frequency provides full coverage of the UK.”

Grid operators and distribution network operators face a major challenge in keeping the grid in balance due to more renewables, rising electricity demand and retiring old power plants. Technologies like demand-side response and energy storage can be used to balance the grid.

www.energystoragejournal.com

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 11

ANALYSIS: GRID COMMUNICATION CONTROL “Through this visibility the technology allows for better utilization of intermittent resources, rather than curtailment, when they generate energy when there is not necessarily the demand. By putting a receiver on the asset the distribution network operator will know whether a solar farm’s output is 8MW or 10MW” sending data via the grid’s frequency provides full coverage of the UK,” says Marc Borrett, chief executive of Reactive Technologies.

Measuring output from renewables

GDMS allows connected devices to share information and enables remote control and measurement of generators and consumption devices across electricity networks. Potential applications extend beyond the functions of smart meters.

They include communicating with assets connected to the electricity network to measure and control their energy consumption or generation.

The grid frequency communication technology, which works in real time, can also be used to measure the generation profile of grid-connected solar or wind farms, as well as other types of generators, providing their owners, grid operators and local distribution network operators with greater visibility of how these assets behave on the network.

“Through this visibility the technology allows for better utilization of intermittent resources, rather than curtailment, when they generate energy when there is not necessarily the demand. By putting a receiver on the asset the distribution network operator will know whether a solar farm’s output is 8MW or 10MW,” Borrett says.

Earlier this year Reactive Technologies completed a pilot with the National Grid and the distribution network operator SSE. “SSE provided us with the infrastructure and sites where we could broadcast from. These were primarily substations with the National Grid providing access to the transmission level infrastructure. There was one power station in the pilot too.”

Typically, energy retailers and large commercial customers have the means to participate in demand response programmes.

Connected devices send and receive data across the electricity network

12 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

through minute and subtle changes made to the grid frequency by modulating the power consumption of transmitting devices.

These frequency changes create a unique code. Receivers that are embedded in loads are programmed to detect the frequency changes. They identify and decode the messages, which are instructions to tell the load or appliance to carry out an instruction, turning down, or switching off according to a schedule, or based on grid frequency changes.

“We are looking to address a gap in the market where you don’t need to rely on an internet connection.

That means we can potentially reach more assets compared with current demand-side response technologies,” says Borrett, whose background is in telecommunications.

The hardware — the receiver — can be embedded in plugs, potentially allowing air-conditioning units, thermal heaters, electrical storage heaters, hot water tanks and freezers, appliances that are found in millions of homes, to benefit from providing demandside services.

By the end of 2017, Reactive Technologies is aiming to have some small pilots with energy suppliers and the company is also talking to distribution network operators. However it could be a few years before a residential DSR rollout happens using the technology.

Visibility

The data provided by GDMS can provide a clearer picture of how electricity is generated and consumed at the distribution network level. Such information is essential for operators tasked with balancing electricity networks which are becoming increasingly complex with the greater variety of assets connected to them, such as rooftop solar, energy storage and electric cars.

Commercialized smart grid technologies, which typically use sensors, software and other technologies to monitor assets like medium and low voltage cables and equipment, have to

“The grid frequency communication technology can also measure the generation profile grid-connected solar or wind farms, as well as other types of generators, providing their owners, grid operators and local distribution network operators with greater visibility of how these assets behave on the network.”

Below: Schematic showing how Reactive Technologies’ communication technology, deploying the grid’s frequency, works

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ANALYSIS: GRID COMMUNICATION CONTROL “We are looking to address a gap in the market where you don’t need to rely on an internet connection. That means we can potentially reach more assets compared with current demand-side response technologies” — Marc Borrett, Reactive Technologies send data over GPRS networks. Therefore a significant part of their platform offering to utility customers includes ICT products such as communication modules and modems.

To ensure the reliability of sending data over general packet radio service (GPRS), suppliers of smart metering and smart grid products and systems have to improve their modems. One such player has had to address the problem of what can happen when a cellular area experiences outages or a smart meter drops out of the network by implementing a logging feature in its modems, to log key data to identify issues causing data transfer failures.

There have been various attempts to send data via local electricity networks, such as a single building, known as Power Line Communications (PLC). However, these technologies are limited in range and cannot send a signal through transformers or over long distances.

The pilot of Reactive Technologies’ grid communication technology with the National Grid and SSE is thought to be a world first in sending data through an entire electricity network over long distances and through transformers even to the very fringes of the

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Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 13

ANALYSIS: GRID COMMUNICATION CONTROL grid, such as appliances in homes and businesses.

An important and relevant concern that is accompanying the rise of smart grid technologies is the issue of security and privacy.

GDMS does not know or commu-

nicate any private user details, just high-level service descriptors, as in “water heaters in the south-west of England”. However, trusted encryption techniques can be used to ensure data security.

Because it uses grid frequency, the

technology can identify whether it is communicating with a real asset as opposed to a virtual one, which could address fraudulent misappropriation of energy concerns as digitalization and smart grid infrastructure is increasingly adopted.

A DEMANDING MARKET TO GET RIGHT The UK’s National Infrastructure Commission estimates that smart power and grid technologies, which includes technologies like GDMS, could save the consumer €8 billion by 2030. The transmission system operator National Grid spent more than a billion euros on balancing the electricity system in the UK in 2015 and estimates that this could double in the next five years.

Traditionally these balancing services have been provided from power stations on the supply side of the electricity system. However the National Grid announced that it would like to procure up to 50% of its balancing services from the demand side by 2020, which would change how the energy system will be managed in the future.

In the UK, the Ministry of Defence, the retail group Sainsbury’s and several other businesses and organizations have signed up to provide demand-side services.

Energy users can contract with the National Grid directly to participate in the demand side market or they can work with a demand aggregator, energy supplier or other type of third party energy services provider.

If an energy user has a predictable daily usage profile and is impacted minimally by a 30-minute interruption it can participate in the frequency control in a demand management programme. London Underground is able to offer 55MW of demand reduction through this programme.

Some markets for ancillary services pay out more revenues since these services are deemed more valuable to the grid operator though they are more technically challenging for an energy user to provide. They include firm frequency response, where a participating business or organisation must be able to turn on generation or switch off demand within 30 seconds.

The National Grid has also introduced a demand turn-up service that will pay businesses to increase their demand when there’s too much

14 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

energy in the system, which is often during the night or at quieter times in the day.

Most providers are expected to respond within 10 minutes of a signal, but the service will also be requested a day ahead at times. Businesses that might benefit from providing this type of service include water pumping and stations or those with cold storage or space cooling.

That said, ‘The energy revolution and future challenges for UK energy and climate change policy’ report published in October by the government-appointed Energy and Climate Change Committee criticizes lack of progress so far in the design of a demand-side market that entices non-utility players.

Like energy storage, which the report also addresses, technology maturity is not a barrier to the development of DSR. Colin Calder, chief executive of PassivSystems, who is quoted in the report, said: “The technology for doing this exists and as a company we will not enter the electricity demand-side response market until we see a sensibly organized market with less risk, fewer policy changes and fewer barriers.”

The Capacity Market provides a regular retainer payment to reliable forms of capacity, including demand as well as supply side, in return for capacity being made available when the system is tight. In some of the Capacity Market auctions, the National Grid will only provide aggregators of DSR with a one-year contract, compared with 15 years for new power stations.

The rationale is that existing generation and DSR does not require significant upfront investment.

“We will not enter the electricity demand side response market until we see a sensibly organized market with less risk, fewer policy changes and fewer barriers” — Colin Calder, PassivSystems However according to aggregators, feedback they have received from potential commercial and industrial participants is that the cost of investing in the hardware and other equipment needed to make their businesses DSR-ready is too expensive for one year’s worth of returns.

According to the report: “Together these issues leave demand-side measures at a serious disadvantage.

It is clear to us that current policy is still skewed towards generation to meet balancing needs, and regulation is inhibiting the development of the demand-side.”

“…the National Grid announced that it would like to procure up to 50% of its balancing services from the demand side by 2020, which would change how the energy system will be managed in the future.”

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NEWS

GE, California Edison to install first ever gas and battery storage system The world’s largest gas and battery hybrid grid storage system will be installed by the end of the year, utility Southern California Edison announced in mid-October.

SCE said the 10MW lithium-ion battery system, from General Electric spinoff firm Current, will merge with an existing but upgraded GE LM6000 gas turbine.

“Operating the batteries and turbines together will allow the turbine to remain in standby mode without using fuel and enable immediate response to changing energy dispatch needs,” said Paul Griffo, an SCE official.

“By eliminating the need to constantly run the turbines at minimum loads to maintain spinning reserve, the two projects will save fuel and reduce mainte-

Solar on the climb in India India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy announced at the end of October there has been more solar PV installed this financial year than wind.

Indian has more than 28 GW of wind capacity installed, having embraced this form of renewable energy with more initial gusto than solar PV. However, as solar’s costs have tumbled and the Modi government has made proactive steps to increase its capacity, that gap has slowly begun to close.

As of September 30 the cumulative solar capacity in India stood at 8,513 MW, and for the FY so far (which began on April 1), some 1.8 GW of new solar PV capacity has been installed.

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nance costs.”

The installation is in response to the Aliso Canyon incident. This happened in October last year when a gas leak was discovered by Southern California Gas Company inside the underground storage facility in the Santa Susana Mountains near Porter Ranch in Los Angeles. This was the second-largest gas storage facility of its kind in the US. The leak was not declared under control until February 2016, by which time the California Public Utilities Commission estimated 97,100 tonnes of methane had been released into the atmosphere.

The storage facility was shut down by the end of March, and the well remains sealed.

In June, the California Public Utilities Commission ordered SCE to undertake an “expedited procurement” of large-scale, gridconnected energy storage to cope with expected outages with the loss of power reserves following the closure of Aliso Canyon.

“It is the sort of innovation that we need to modernize the grid,” said Griffo. “Particularly given our increased reliance on renewable resources that have intermittent operation, energy storage integrated with peaker

operations is going to be critical to reliably managing the grid at a cost that’s affordable to customers.”

SCE is planning similar gas turbine upgrades and a similar battery storage project elsewhere.

GE’s power services and Current businesses developed the hybrid through a partnership with Wellhead Power Solutions.

Eric Gebhardt, chief platforms and operations officer for Current, said the project was brought to fruition in a very short time frame. “Now we can bring this same technology to other GE gas turbine customers around the world,” he said.

Redflow wins orders for residential and business flow batteries Australian flow battery designer Redflow on October 4 announced orders worth US$600,000 for its ZCell batteries from installation partner Standard Solar, which said half of those 48 systems had been sold to a range of business and residential customers including one government agency and an educational institution.

One customer is planning a fully off-grid solution that requires multiple ZCells, the company told Energy Storage Journal.

In September, Redflow announced it had approved its first installers, which include Geographe Electrical Communications, Off-Grid Energy Australia, SolarQuip, Suntrix, the Solar Depot and WES Group, as well as Standard Solar.

“Without going into who ordered what, we have received orders from several of these installers and we expect more because of the high level of interest they’ve received since their Redflow relationship was

announced,” a Redflow spokesperson told Energy Storage Journal.

Redflow says its zincbromide batteries are the world’s smallest flow batteries, making them suitable for all sizes of applications.

“The batteries tolerate temperatures up to 50°C, and unlike lithium-based batteries, are not at risk of thermal runaway because the zinc-bromide electrolyte is fire-retardant,” says the firm.

“The batteries can charge and discharge 100% of their energy capacity each day without causing any of the damage that would be sustained with traditional battery chemistries.” The batteries are backed with a 10-year warranty.

The ZCell flow batteries were launched in March, when new CEO and executive chairman Simon Hackett welcomed Tesla’s entry to the energy market, saying it made the industry ‘sexy’.

“I believe that, in future years, 2016 will be seen as

the year that the renewableenergy storage sector hit its inflection point,” said Hackett. “Converting the world energy grid to becoming majority renewable-sourced is now entirely achievable by using batteries to timeshift electricity.”

Despite the abundance of solar energy available in Australia electricity costs are high, and in a report by Australia’s state-backed Climate Council, the country is predicted to become one of the world’s largest markets for energy storage.

In a survey by Morgan Stanley, half of households asked were interested in battery-backed solar systems, creating a potential market value of $24 billion.

“Redflow already has its commercial batteries installed in South Africa, New Zealand, Asia, North and Central America and Europe, so interest is clearly present in both the developed and the developing world,” said the spokesperson.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 15

NEWS

Oxis hits 400Wh/kg milestone with Li-S batteries Lithium-sulfur battery developer Oxis said in October that it had successfully tested its development cell technology to 400Wh/kg of energy density. The UK firm said it had been reached after increasing gravimetric energy density by creating new Li-S formulations including battery materials such as conductive carbon materials, polymer binders and electrolyte additives.

David Ainsworth, chief technical officer at Oxis, told Energy Storage Journal, “400Wh/kg is significant — the best lithium batteries around at the moment are around 250Wh per kilo. This is a milestone that we have reached in the past couple of months.

“The next stage is trying

to scale up that technology so we can produce tens of hundreds of cell units and work on other aspects, such as cycle life.”

Although Oxis’ batteries don’t have a cycle life suitable for the heavier durations required of electric vehicles — though cells are being deployed for testing in vehicle demonstrations — Ainsworth said that by comparison, a Nissan Leaf battery would contain around 140 Wh/kg and a Tesla around the 200 mark.

In theory a Li-S battery could potentially offer two to three times the driving range.

Oxis says it is targeting high-technology areas such as aerospace applications and satellites, which have

David Ainsworth, chief technical officer at Oxis

a strong requirement for high energy density and do not need a large number of cycles.

“There’s bags of potential for this technology and although it might be a few years before it’s in the mainstream, before it’s in an electric vehicle like the Leaf, it will certainly grow in high technology, the un-

manned aerial vehicles, the very high-value applications,” said Ainsworth.

The firm says that cost comparisons can only give a picture of what may eventually be the pricing, given that the firm is a start-up.

“That said, if we were to make 10 million cell units, which is a typical lithiumion production run, Li-S would be incredibly cheap.

The cost of sulfur, for instance, is negligible — a few dollars per kilo — unlike the NMC cathodes and so on that are being used in lithium-ion.”

Lithium sulfur technology had been around since the late 1960s, but there had been “a lot of technological challenges in trying to get the technology to market”, including improving cycle life and increasing the capacity in the cathodes, two areas Oxis scientists are focusing on.

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NEWS

Ecoult installs UltraBattery in first European location at Tallaght smart grid test bed in Dublin East Penn’s Australian subsidiary Ecoult has installed its lead-acid hybrid UltraBattery in Dublin, Ireland, which makes it the first European installation.

The UltraFlex battery, a lead-acid battery with an added layer of carbon, was developed by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), which owned Ecoult until it was bought by the US manufacturing giant East Penn in May 2010.

South Dublin County Council and the Irish Micro Electricity Generation Association (MEGA) chose the Ecoult UltraBattery for its Tallaght smart grid test bed in what could be just one of 30 nationwide installations.

Chief engineer and director of MEGA Dudley Stewart said the testing was at level

one, with a further two levels to go, but signs were positive.

“Ecoult’s battery is very interesting, there’s a good chance of it being the right solution for grid stability because it can really take a hammering and still provide grid response,” he said.

“It’s not a traditional leadacid battery because of the layer of carbon, which allows the battery to discharge as quickly as an ultracapacitor without doing it any harm, and it can do it for many, many more cycles.

“It was already tested in Kilkenny under very severe conditions and it was successful.”

Stewart said cloud intermittency was one of the biggest problems for solar energy in Ireland’s renewable energy industry, and the ultimate aim was to provide

high frequency response.

“This is just a 300 kilowatt-hour system, but we are still in the first stage and there is another 2MW system being built for the next stage,” he said.

“Our first job is to stabilize the grid. Then we provide the smart meters, the equipment, all with high intelligence.

Then we aim for a smart demand response. You don’t know where the demand is going to come from, and we are aiming for a smart, visible demand response, with all communities equipped with reserves and frequency response.”

“The UltraBattery is a hybrid technology,” said Ecoult chief executive John Wood.

“It contains both battery chemistry and ultracapacitor technology built into each cell. This Australian invention has the safety, sustain-

ability and dependability of lead-acid, and has been shown to outperform other battery chemistries in similar applications.”

German renewable systems and power converter manufacturer Freqcon has supplied the converter technology in the project.

Freqcon chief executive Norbert Hennchen said: “The market for grid-tied energy storage systems is growing, and fast frequency response is a valuable system service to the grid. We are excited to partner Ecoult and deploy the first unit in Europe.“ Last year, Hydro Tasmania in Australia integrated an Ecoult UltraBattery system, capable of 3MW of power and 1.6Mwh of capacity, into the local network. It was the largest battery in Australia.

Residential storage+solar challenge thrown down by lead carbon firm Axion Lead carbon battery manufacturer Axion Power announced the release in September of its first residential energy storage system for the public using solar energy stored with the firm’s newest generation of PbC batteries.

This is the first challenge by a lead battery firm to enter the the residential solar + storage market so far dominated by lithium ion products.

Earlier this year the Pennsylvania, US-based firm released a DIY Solar Light Kit that has a DC powered system, whereas the new one can be coupled with the AC grid.

“The residential battery

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system is ideal for homes in areas where net metering of solar is no longer an option, like Hawaii,” said Doug Speece, a marketing official at Axion.

“The solar array and the battery become the primary energy source, and the grid is used as back-up. The system is attractive to homeowners who are at risk of frequent power outages, providing a place to store excess energy produced in the middle of the day, and shift it to later in the evening.”

Although Axion has engineered the PbC battery using existing VRLA battery technology, the company says the activated carbon electrode offers distinct ad-

vantages over conventional lead-acid batteries: a high charge acceptance, for instance; long cycle life in deep discharge and partial state-of-charge cycling; superior lifetime energy work throughput; and minimal maintenance in high voltage string applications.

The PbC batteries are ~30% lighter than leadacid batteries of equal size because the lead negatives are replaced with lightweight carbon electrodes.

They are also nearly 100% recyclable.

The base 15 PbC battery cabinet provides 7kWh (20hour rate) of usable energy storage and can be customized for larger sizes. It costs

$7,995.

“I am excited about the future of the lead acid battery industry,” said CEO Richard Bogan. “PbC battery technology does not directly compete with current lead acid battery applications, but it does provide the industry with new applications and market opportunities that traditional lead acid batteries cannot serve.

“We are evaluating opportunities domestically and abroad. Most recently, Axion has reported on discussions to take its PbC technology to China and also testing that is now under way in Belgium for automotive applications.”

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 17

NEWS

UK National Grid names winning suppliers for enhanced frequency response support For the record, seven battery firms won UK National Grid contracts on August 26 to provide 200MW subsecond enhanced frequency response support to the grid. It is the first time that batteries will be used for grid-scale energy storage in the UK. The bid winners have all signed four-year contracts, which will begin on or before March 1, 2018.

Lead-acid battery manufacturer Belectric, which confirmed on September 1 that it was being bought by German utility RWE, said it had won its 10MW bid with a lithium-ion version of its Energy Buffer Unit, which is also produced with lead-acid batteries.

The National Grid invited tenders on April 15 and by the closing date of July 15 had whittled 37 bids down to just eight, with one of the

winners, energy investor Low Carbon, being handed a total of 50MW in two contracts, one in Kent, one in Cumbria.

The six other providers, RES, Eon UK, EDF Energy Renewables, Element Power and Vattenfall, will all supply lithium-ion technology.

Cordi O’Hara, the director of UK System Operator at the National Grid, said: “We are constantly looking to the future to understand how we can make the most of the energy available to us.

“This project is at the very core of our power responsive work, to balance the grid by the most efficient means possible, saving money and energy.

“These awards show that we can work with industry to bring forward new technology and I believe storage

has much to contribute to the flexible energy system of tomorrow. This is the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the industry.”

Adam Sims, senior account manager at the National Grid, said the beauty of batteries lay in their flexibility.

“You can use them for congestion management, frequency response, all sorts of things,” he said.

“Costs are going down and we think it’s going to be a major penetration into storage in the UK. “We have looked at other countries and how they use them, and Germany is the biggest player. But the model they look for is very short term, far smaller scale. We have a different approach.

“We want to give people certainty over a longer period of time to drive costs down. It will be a four-year

investment time for the right balance.”

“The requirement for EFR is driven by the change in generation mix from thermal plant to renewable plant,” said Gilly West, an official, at the UK National Grid, who said the new systems would need to transform existing EFR provision times from more than ten seconds to less than one.

“The different technical characteristics result in the system frequency becoming less stable, with smaller imbalances in supply and demand creating larger fluctuations than previously experienced.

“With fast acting battery technologies becoming financially viable, EFR is an economic solution to this issue that also creates a route to market for a new class of technology.”

Leclanché partners SGEM moves into US energy storage with work for PJM For the record, Leclanché was selected by Swiss Green Electricity Management Group in August as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor and battery energy storage system supplier for the Marengo Energy Storage Plant in the PJM Market for the north-east of the US. This preferred partnership agreement with SGEM for investment into utility-scale energy storage projects begins with the Marengo project.

Leclanché revealed news of the partnership in October.

The Marengo 20 MW/10 MWh grid-scale energy storage project is among the largest, fully commercial battery storage projects in North America. The Chica-

go-area project is being developed for PJM Interconnection, the regional market transmission operator.

It was developed by GlidePath Power, which recently sold three similar projects in the US. The Marengo Energy Storage Plant will be interconnected to the local Commonwealth Edison Company electric grid and will provide real-time frequency regulation service to PJM. The storage facility will respond almost instantly to the continually changing needs of the grid, providing real-time frequency regulation and allowing PJM to deliver higher quality reliable electrical service at a lower cost to its end-users in 13 states and the District

18 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

of Columbia.

“The increasing share of renewable energy in the electricity mix poses substantial challenges to grid stability. As a direct result, demand for frequency regulation is growing considerably,” says Leclanché. “The smart deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESS) is the lowest-cost solution to support grid operators in their efforts to reduce and defer their investments into transmission and distribution infrastructure upgrades.”

SGEM provides equity capital, leads project finance and supervises the construction and operation of energy storage infrastructure assets to deliver returns to its investors.

The group invests in energy storage projects on a build-own-operate project finance model. Thanks to its partnership with Leclanché, SGEM enjoys the right of first offer for all qualified projects of the company which represent more than 85 MWh for 2017.

“The formation of SGEM and its acquisition of projects sends a strong signal that international investors are recognizing the tremendous potential of this exciting new infrastructure asset class,” says Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché. “The pipeline of similar projects will continue to generate a high-growth demand in North America. This leads the way to additional future projects.”

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NEWS

Convergent project financing with CJF Capital sets milestone in funding storage Convergent Energy and Power announced at the end of October the successful project financing of a portfolio of energy storage projects in Ontario, Canada, with SUSI Energy Storage Fund I and the facility lead, CJF Capital. The projects were awarded as part of the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator’s (IESO) solicitation to demonstrate energy storage’s potential in the power grid. Convergent’s financed project portfolio includes a 5MW flywheel and a 7MW lithium-ion battery, both under contract with the IESO to provide fast-response grid support services for frequency regulation and voltage support.

“This transaction demonstrates significant mile-

stones for the broader industry,” says Convergent.

“The facility reflects a non-recourse, third-party project financing structure for energy storage assets in a sector dominated by on-balance-sheet financing. In addition, the financing structure incorporates construction financing elements to bridge a short development period before commercial operations.

“The transaction also represents the entry of CJF Capital into the energy storage and renewable energy sector, as well as an expansion of SUSI Partners’ geographic scope into North America and energy storage. Apricum — the Cleantech Advisory — introduced SUSI Partners to the transaction.”

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Craig Farr, the founder of CJF Capital, said: “I am very excited to introduce a unique capital solution to the energy storage space.

Providing flexible capital in the sector will be a key building block to accelerating the use of energy storage.”

Primus opts for lead batteries for renewables Primus Wind Power has chosen Trojan’s OverDrive AGM 31T deep-cycle batteries for its line of AIR wind and hybrid wind/solar turbine equipment used in remote regions as back-up power for wind and solar turbines that power oil and gas wells, according to an early October announcement.

The decision, say commentators, is a vindication of the persistent interest in parts of the renewable industry in lead batteries because of their ability to withstand harsh temperature ranges and price advantage.

Primus Wind Power, based in Colorado, makes a variety of wind turbines

that can be combined with solar systems. “The oil and gas sector has a focus on system up-time and downtime and costs associated are unacceptable and can be very expensive,” a Primus spokesperson told Energy Storage Journal.

“Hybrid systems are what the oil and gas industry is moving towards for SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) and off-grid power supplies.”

“Trojan was our first choice as the battery backup power source in Primus AIR wind turbines for our customers in the oil and gas industry,” said Ken Kotalik, director of global sales and operations at Primus Wind Power.

NEC in ‘plug-and-play’ pilot for SCE NEC Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, announced in November it is supplying Southern California Edison (SCE) with its first grid energy storage pilot system under a pre-approved energy storage procurement program initially conceived of and announced by SCE last year.

The NEC ES GSS grid storage product line is the first in the “plug-andplay” procurement strategy being employed by SCE to demonstrate the ability of energy storage to support the distribution grid. Energy storage

with a variety of features and configurations can now be ordered by SCE on demand and installed almost anywhere to support SCE pilot program activities.

The first turn-key GSS energy storage solution delivered under this program will include 3.4MWh of containerized lithium ion batteries, a 3MW power conversion system, and NEC ES’s proprietary AEROS controls software suite.

NEC ES will also provide service and maintenance packages to SCE for this storage installation.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 19

NEWS

Aachen researchers investigate five chemistries in M5BAT ESS Scientists at the RWTH University of Aachen in Germany in September announced they were testing a large-scale M5BAT battery storage system using five different chemistries — four lithium ion variants and one lead acid.

The aim is to test the usage possibilities of a combination of technologies in the grid and on the market.

With €6.7 million ($7.6 million) from the Energy

Duke’s Walz becomes RES Solar’s chief executive For the record, US solar power company REC Solar appointed Matt Walz as chief executive officer on August 24. He was previously a vice president of commercial solar at Duke Energy Renewables.

Duke Energy Corporation, the largest and arguably one of the most innovative US utilities, bought a majority interest in REC Solar in February 2015.

It formed Duke Energy Renewables to manage the acquisition.

Walz previously managed Duke Energy Renewables’ commitment, made at the time of the aquisition, to invest up to $225 million in commercial solar projects developed by REC Solar and supported by longterm power purchase agreements. Walz was also a board member of REC Solar.

Walz, who joined Duke Energy Corporation in June 2004 as a senior financial analyst, has steadily worked his way up the firm.

Storage Funding Initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the project was directed by Dirk Uwe Sauer at the Institute of Power Generation and Storage Systems. It went into operation next to a transformer and the university’s research centres.

Exide Technologies provided the lead acid strings.

Rainer Bußar, director of Industrial Batteries/R&D Europe at Exide Technologies, said: “In stationary applications, where size and weight matter less than they do in mobile applications, lead batteries represent an interesting technological alternative to finite lithium resources. Two of the five M5BAT lead battery strings will undergo direct technology comparison field tests.”

Project director Dirk Uwe Sauer said: “From day one,

we have intensely and individually monitored more than 25,000 battery cells in six strings of different lithium-ion battery technologies and four strings of different lead batteries.

“This’ll allow us to gather valuable information on aging, reliability and service life. We also want to use intelligent battery management to show how overall operations can be optimized with a hybrid system using different technologies.”

The automated operations will be monitored and operated with a remote control system from power generator Uniper SE, an offshoot from Germany utility Eon which is already using the system for energy trading.

Uniper chief operating officer Eckhardt Rümmler said: “M5BAT will allow us to test the possibility of using

a combination of different battery technologies in a real network and on the market.

“This storage system is incorporated into Uniper’s trading business, and will soon deliver important findings regarding the development of business models based on decentralized storage systems. Energy storage systems are important if energy transformation is to be a success. They contribute greater flexibility and stability to energy systems. They are thus essential for a lowcarbon energy supply based on renewable energies.”

Rik W De Doncker, director of the Sustainable Energy Cluster at RWTH Aachen University, said: “Now that operation has started, we expect interesting new findings regarding the economic and technical characteristics of battery storage systems..”

Sunrun and LG Chem partner for US residential energy storage tie-up Sunrun Inc and South Korea’s LG Chem announced in October a partnership to launch LG Chem’s energy storage technology in the US residential solar market.

Sunrun will use LG Chem’s lithium ion RESU

batteries in its Brightbox solar-plus-storage systems.

Sunrun BrightBox combines solar generation with energy storage giving consumers new ways to manage their energy. In Hawaii, Sunrun BrightBox allows

consumers to self-supply their own energy completely. Sunrun BrightBox will allow consumers with timeof-use tariffs to time shift when they use solar energy to minimize paying peak rate energy prices.

Younicos and Panasonic North America join forces on solar-storage project German energy storage integrator Younicos is working with Xcel Energy and Panasonic Corporation North America to develop a 1MW/2MWh system at Panasonic’s Denver operations site.

The project deploys Younicos’ plug-and-play Y.Cube storage system. The solarintegrated energy storage system will be built at Peña Station NEXT, a transit in-

20 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

frastructure development in Denver, Colorado. The location also includes the operations hub for Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Company and Panasonic CityNOW. Four Y.Cube modules will be installed at Panasonic’s facility.

The battery plant will be connected to the Xcel Energy power grid to provide frequency regulation, solar grid integration through

ramp control, grid peak shaving, passive energy arbitrage, and backup power.

Younicos’ software controls will enable the battery to perform the multiple applications, so that maximum benefits and revenue streams can be extracted from the system, which also includes Xcel Energy’s 1.6MW solar PV system sited on a parking structure nearby, and 259kW of rooftop PV.

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NEWS

PG&E pilots Green Charge’s behind-the-meter technology In October, Green Charge started working with one of California’s three investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas and Electric, to install energy storage systems in PG&E’s service area in northern and central California as a pilot project.

The behind-the-meter energy storage systems, which Green Charge will operate, demonstrate the delivery of grid services from distributed energy storage as part of the utility’s Distributed Energy Resource Management System pilot.

The DERMS pilot simulates what has been described as a “distribution grid of the future”. It features high penetration of distributed energy resources, including rooftop solar PV installations and energy storage.

PG&E wants to learn how coordinated control of distributed energy resources can support the operation of the distribution grid, instead of presenting a challenge to the grid’s smooth operation.

Potential revenue streams for all stakeholders in the pilot range from peak demand shaving, energy arbitrage, demand response, and resiliency/backup power.

Green Charge will install five behind-the-meter energy storage systems at sites of commercial, industrial and municipal energy customers of PG&E. Together the systems will add up to 360kW/1.4MWh. The systems are being installed on two electrical feeders in San Jose. One of the use cases is to provide relief of peak load on the feeders between 4pm and 8pm to alleviate the socalled “duck curve” rampup during that period.

Some systems will be installed by February 2017 with the balance installed

by July.

In the pilot, the systems will provide capacity relief at selected distribution substations. Green Charge’s GridSynergy platform will integrate with a distributed energy resource manage-

Vic Shao, Green Charge CEO

ment system that PG&E is developing with General Electric.

The platform will provide several grid services including voltage anomaly mitigation and economic dispatch, via automated control signals.

Power lines carry electricity at standardized voltage levels, which must be maintained to deliver reliable power. Rooftop solar PV can impact grid voltage, but because energy storage can be controlled and can make

Alevo taps C&I market with GridBank system US energy storage firm Alevo launched a 50KWh/100KW battery energy storage system in October, designed for commercial and industrial customers.

The standalone system is for behind-the-meter applications, though front-of-meter installations are also possible.

The system uses the same non-flammable inorganic electrolyte as Alevo’s GridBank storage system being commercialized in utilityscale applications in America.

“In places like New York

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City, where permitting codes don’t allow lithium ion batteries due to safety concerns, we have launched this system, so customers can install in close proximity to buildings. We’ve developed the GB50 in response to requests from the C&I market,” says Jeff Gates, vice president of Alevo’s operations.

One of Alevo’s initial projects is for seven schools in a Californian city. One GB50 will be installed in each of the schools. The

schools have solar PV installed and the system will be able to increase self-consumption and also operate in islanding mode, in case of an outage. Each unit can be aggregated to provide grid services.

Alevo is targeting partnerships with solar PV installers and developers, with solar leasing programmes that would be interested in leasing energy storage as well as selling systems outright to C&I energy customers.

solar PV dispatchable, the technology can correct voltage fluctuations caused by solar PV or other changes to grid conditions.

Voltage support is typically performed by equipment installed on the grid

by PG&E. However, it may also be provided by distributed energy resources that enter into service contracts with the utility. Wholesale energy markets are settled by economic bids to supply and consume energy.

“Typically, this process is settled at a state or regional level, but with increasingly complex local grid needs, it is being demonstrated at the local level as part of the pilot,” says Vic Shao, chief executive of Green Charge.

Green Charge will continue to provide power efficiency services to customers for the remainder of the 10-year customer contracts.

The company’s Grid Synergy platform controls Green Charge’s fleet of energy storage systems. It hosts analytics tools, provides real-time monitoring, and enables both automated and manual system controls of individual energy storage units as well as aggregated units in a virtual power plant.

The Grid Synergy platform integrates with the distributed energy resource management platform that GE is developing to interface with the utility’s own controls.

“The power efficiency agreement is Green Charge’s no-cost, no-risk, shared savings solution that provides a percentage of each revenue stream to the host customer,” says Shao.

Green Charge has more than 55MWh deployed or under construction, mainly in the US.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 21

NEWS The South Korean goverment is offering concessional terms on RECs if energy storage facilities are co-located with existing solar plants

South Korea incentivizes energy storage deployment with solar PV plants, LG Chem set to benefit The South Korean government plans to encourage PV plant operators to build accompanying energy storage, to support the integration of renewable energy into the grid.

The announcement was made by the Ministry of Energy Trade and Industry (MOETI) in September.

According to local news reports, operators that install energy storage systems at their solar plants will be

given additional points on assessment of their renewable energy certificates (RECs) starting in 2017.

The incentive covers storage co-located with new solar PV plants as well as retroactive storage installations with existing PV plants. The incentive is chemistry agnostic, though domestic lithium ion battery producer LG Chem has supplied several projects.

A similar incentive awarded to on-

shore wind farm operators that add energy storage was introduced in 2015.

REC-awarded electricity is generated from renewable energy resources, including onshore and offshore wind and biomass as well as solar.

The energy storage incentives are aimed at encouraging local power operators to store energy in large-scale batteries for more electricity distribution.

LG Chem could become number one in South Korea in terms of awarded and supplied energy storage projects co-located with renewable energy plants, due to the proven safety of the company’s batteries in the market and its ability to produce quantities to meet demand. By May 2016, the company had been awarded 1.6GWh of stationary storage projects globally.

Wind turbines operate at a wind power generation site developed by LG Chem and GS E&R in Yeongyang, North Gyeongsang Province

22 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

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NEWS The government estimates that Won440 billion ($392 million) of new demand for electrical energy storage will be created by 2020, due to the support mechanism.

Meanwhile, South Korea is shutting down some of its coal-powered plants. The renewable energy target is for 6% by 2020.

Because existing PV farms in Korea are usually smaller in size, compared with wind, and land for solar PV projects is in short supply, the electrical energy storage projects are smaller in scale compared with those developed for wind farms.

However, for operators that are planning new PV farms and are considering co-locating energy storage at the development stage, these plants can increase their output, by storing electricity and feeding into the grid when demand is high but solar output drops, from late afternoon through to evening.

In 2015 LG Chem — one of South Korea’s largest lithium ion battery makers and a global exporter of battery storage — built a 50MWh battery plant for local company GS E&R. GS E&R installed the battery with a wind farm that it completed in September 2015.

The battery, which started operations this January, will receive MOETI’s incentive until 2017. This is the world’s largest wind power storage system.

In 2012 South Korea introduced a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to replace the previous feed-in tariff system, to try and accelerate renewable energy deployment and create a competitive market place for the renewable energy industry.

The RPS requires the country’s largest state-owned power companies to steadily increase their renewable energy mix in total power generation until 2024. The target is 3.5% in 2016, rising steadily to 6% in 2020 and 10% in 2024. To meet their RPS targets power producers can invest in renewable energy generation themselves. A solar PV farm above 30kW in size and

The battery, which started operations this January, will receive MOETI’s incentive until 2017. This is the world’s largest wind power storage system. www.energystoragejournal.com

“Based on the announcements of MOETI, LG Chem is proposing customized solutions for operators by assisting power companies with the planning of energy storage capacity for proposed wind and solar PV plants and providing economic analysis of the projects in terms of when they can expect to achieve payback” onshore wind farms receive one REC. Alternatively RECs can be traded.

Power companies must submit their gathered RECs to the New and Renewable Energy Centre (KNERC) on an annual basis. If a utility cannot present the required number of RECs, KNERC fines them, which is 50% above the average market price for the REC for that same year.

Under MOETI’s energy storage incentive a wind or solar PV plant will receive additional RECs for building an energy storage system.

MOETI will evaluate the results of the policy after three years. The calculation method for RECs for energy storage co-located with renewable energy generators, is not limited to one certificate. Multiple RECs can be awarded, even for the same amount of energy supplied, though the maximum amount of RECs will decrease each year. To receive additional RECs permissible with the addition of energy storage, certain conditions have to be met.

The operator of a wind farm has to ensure that the electricity stored in the co-located battery is discharged at the time of “peaks” that are announced

by MOETI in each season. RECs are awarded based on the amount of energy discharged in that time.

To comply, the PC operator needs to limit feed-in to the grid to hours outside of peak solar electricity generation. The energy storage system will need to be charged from between 10:00 and 16:00. Electricity must only be released into the grid outside of the timeframe to receive RECs. A source within LG Chem expects the company to be number one in South Korea in terms of awarded and supplied energy storage projects colocated with renewable energy plants, due to the proven safety of the company’s batteries in the market and its ability to produce quantities to meet demand. By May 2016, the company had been awarded 1.6GWh of stationary storage projects globally.

Domestic demand

While there is no mandate to force every new solar PV and wind plant to be developed with a storage component, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO), one of the largest of the country’s state-owned utilities, and its various subsidiaries, do have a tendency to follow policies announced by MOETI, according to the source.

Most of South Korea’s power companies, which are all state-owned, are likely to drive the country’s deployment of grid-scale energy storage via public private partnership-style cooperation with industrial players such as LG. “Based on the announcements of MOETI, LG Chem is proposing customized solutions for operators by assisting power companies with the planning of energy storage capacity for proposed wind and solar PV plants and providing economic analysis of the projects in terms of when they can expect to achieve payback,” says the source.

LG Chem is also supplying the batteries for a 27MWh energy storage system being built on Jeju, South Korea’s largest island, which functions as a semi-autonomous province.

Jeju has ambitious plans to become carbon neutral by 2030, which the president Park Geun-hye promoted during her speech at the COP21 UN climate change talks, held in Paris in late 2015.

The battery, which will be installed by the end of this year, will be used to stabilize the output from wind turbines on the island during peak hours.

LG Chem’s sister company LG CNS will operate the energy storage system, while LG Electronics, another affiliate within the LG Group, is providing the power conditioning technology for the energy storage plant. The island’s energy company tasked with developing the island’s renewable energy capacity, Jeju Energy Corporation, contracted LG CNS.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 23

PRODUCT NEWS

NorthStar unveils Bluetooth, remote wireless battery monitoring system NorthStar, the US-Swedish lead-acid battery maker, released on October 25 a remote battery monitoring system called ACE which uses wireless Bluetooth connectivity.

The company says the system will, overall, increase the average battery life of its products by 30%.

“The ACE system extends battery life because problems can be identified immediately and the installer can tell by looking at, for example their iPad or iPhone, exactly where the battery is,” says CEO Hans Liden. “The Bluetooth connection is totally integrated into the battery so when the installer sets it up, they can choose the setting for the temperature, voltage and so on that’s appropriate for it.”

The firm says: “About 15 million to 20 million batteries are bought each year for telecom site backup power.

More than half of these are replaced prematurely due to insufficient control throughout the product life cycle.

“Batteries are not properly managed and maintained in warehouses, installations are incorrectly performed and in operation the batteries are exposed to suboptimal power system settings, elevated temperatures and theft, resulting in shortened battery life.”

It also says that some 75% of early battery failures occur in the charging process — both undercharging and overcharging are damaging — and a prime cause of this is not ensuring that the rectifier settings match those of NorthStar’s battery. This can be spotted immediately via ACE. The Bluetooth connection — which typically has a range of around 10 metres

— is then linked into an internet connection allowing remote monitoring to be conducted anywhere nowadays, know as the Concept of the Internet of Things.

The monitoring system, which will first be rolled out for stationary power applications such as telecoms base stations, may eventually be extended for automotive batteries. There would be limited application for individual vehicles but remote monitoring of electric bus or truck fleets would be one potential area of application.

In September the firm signed a $500 million deal with Daimler to supply the German company’s Freightliner Cascadia trucks with high-performance pure lead AGM batteries There are other aspects to ACE that offer auxiliary benefits. The first would be quality control of batteries over their entire manufacturing life.

“Our ACE system is live from the moment each battery is ‘born’,” says Liden.

“So any discrepancies, such as temperature abnormalities or state of charge, can be picked up even before the battery leaves the warehouse.”

This also means that when they come to the end of their working life they can be identified in their recycling stream. This is an issue that will be coming to a head given the dangers expected when similarly looking lithium and lead acid batteries are mixed in the recycling process — and with explosive consequences.

Frank Fleming, chief technology officer and a co-founder of NorthStar, speaking to Energy Storage Journal at the Intelec conference in Austin, Texas

24 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

David LeClaire, vice president of sales for the Americas, showing how the connectivity between the batteries and his iPhone works.

— where the batteries were first displayed — said there were industry-wide implications following the introduction of ACE. “Battery theft at remote and unmanned installations in both the developed and developing world is an increasing problem,” Fleming says. “At one level identification of when batteries are stolen and where they might reappear in recycling has security implications that ACE can help. But there is a growing tendency for remote base stations — aware that their batteries might be stolen well before the end of their useful life to use cheaper, lower quality batteries from, say China or India. Or even worse move to lithium batteries which have no recycling value.

“Either way they damage the business of quality lead acid battery manufacturing.”

Liden says the cost of ACE — it has been under

development for two years and will come on to the market in the first quarter of 2017 — would be less than a traditional monitoring system.

“At the same time it is without the limitations of traditional systems, such as remote monitoring and upgrading difficulties, little or no interaction with power systems and little or no ability to support batteries during operation.

“We have worked closely with some of the larger OEMs and they are very excited about the products — it’s not been a hard sell,” he says.

“People can see the extra value this will give them.”

Liden did not wish to identify the OEMs. NorthStar specializes in producing thin plate pure lead batteries. These have a better life and performance than traditional batteries.

The firm was formed in 2000.

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CONFERENCE IN PRINT Rainer vor dem Esche and Reddi Tudi from Stornetic discuss the cost advantages that using flywheels can have when integrated into larger scale energy storage systems

Benefits of a hybrid storage system with flywheels Energy storage systems are widely used today to support the implementation of renewables. Battery technologies have become mature, bankable, state of the art technology.

Their prices have fallen significantly in the last few years due to overcapacity and improved manufacturing technologies. They have reached a price level where material costs are <50% of the system costs.

Li-ion modules are sold today at the edge of, or below sustainable pricing at approximately $300/kWh for larger quantities resulting in storage container costs of around $500/kWh (excluding power conversion costs).These systems are typically designed for: • Shifting energy production to meet demand • Reducing the impact of volatility on grid stability (firming of renewable generation) • Mitigating CO2 release Business cases have been mainly determined by the difference between renewable generation costs and the purchased energy cost at the meter.

They are especially attractive when energy costs at the meter are high, such as in islands, countries or states with high grid fees or power taxes.

However, many large scale storage projects serving the wholesale energy markets are under threat because market prices are falling and the historical mid-day price peak has been eliminated due to PV generation.

Additionally, storage systems have been successfully used to balance grids. Studies have shown that the fast response time of flywheel and battery storage systems compared to conventional generators has a positive influence on grid stability and ancillary service costs whilst also reducing the CO2 pollution.

Unfortunately, the market prices

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for ancillary services have come under pressure in many markets due to overcapacity in conventional generation as a result of renewable growth.

This makes the business case less attractive today for energy storage in the wholesale markets. However, the need for grid stabilization in general is increasing, because: • More and more fossil power plants have been decommissioned due to environmental concerns and compliance. This leads to a lack of system inertia and increases the need for fast dynamic responding energy sources like storage • The volatility of new renewable power generation increases grid instabilities • The increased power flows at the distribution level require additional decentralized voltage stabilization increasing the responsibility of Distribution System Operators (DSO) for grid security and stability.

Rocky Mountain Institute has determined which storage services can be combined into useful business cases from both a commercial and technical perspective. Services like self-consumption or excessive solar storage can be effectively combined with regulation services like frequency regulation, voltage support or UPS. Preferably those applications should be combined which achieve a combined hourly income larger than $30-35/MW(h)/h assuming that the costs of siting, project management and/or financing costs are included.

Typically, these projects are closer to the end customer at the meter.

The significant spread between energy generation costs and energy purchasing costs are used to deliver additional services such as frequency regulation and voltage control.

Market challenges

In the current market environment different challenges exist for storage project profitability.

• Storage projects with income lower than $30/kW(h)/h have to increase the guaranteed operational service life to reduce the technical and operational risks and allow a reasonable return on investment beyond a five to seven-year period.

• Projects with combined applica-

As shown by this example, bankable projects require an hourly income ≥ $25/MW(h)/ hr neglecting the additional cost for siting, interconnection and permitting. Significant financial risk exists if the income is ≤ $15/MW(h)/h. A long payback time increases market, as well as, technical risks such as the lifetime of the storage technology. This underlines the need to collect income from various streams to reduce project risks.

Multiple services help to: • Increase the number of operating hours and thus the annual income • Increase the hourly income by combining services

Figure 1: Calculation of the impact of hourly income on the simple payback period of a storage investment

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 25

CONFERENCE IN PRINT Grid frequency or voltage changes are a typical indicator for short term generation/consumption changes. The cycles lead to a frequent number of smaller cycles, requiring the storage to switch from charging to discharging and changing the storage energy content (state of charge) of the batteries… tions have a more complex technical design, including control and management systems. They are more challenging and less predictable due to demanding load curves, thus increasing the difficulty to determine conditions for long warranty period.

To cover the long term risks, it is important that the storage solution offer a broad application portfolio to the end user, as well as, robustness and longevity. Both features directly increase the salvage value and the capability to deal with market changes.

This allows the end customer to be more flexible and have lower asset risks.

Both features also raise questions

on the battery technology employed, typically designed today for a service life of around 10 years. This is caused by heat and temperature restrictions and limited load cycle capability for Li-ion technologies.

Alternatively, project cost can be reduced by using flow batteries or other lower cost cell chemistries, as long as durability, responsiveness and power costs are reasonable.

Hybrids the high level solution

Hybrid storage systems offer an economic and technical solution for these challenges. Synergies created by the combination of the strength of each technology, can create a system which is more efficient and more robust than a standalone battery solution.

… these cycles stress the battery on top of the larger cycle from renewable firming. Tests at the Transmission System Operator (TSO) grid level in Italy have shown that batteries are aging up to two times faster than expected compared to results from lab test cycles

Figure 2: Power profiles of a grid with Solar- + Wind-Firming and Frequency Regulation and the impact on the energy state of the storage system. Data taken from PNNL, Sandia and PJM Data Center.

26 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

For hybrid systems made with lead or Li-ion batteries in combination with flywheels, flywheels, because of their excellent cycling behaviour, act as a filter to reduce battery cycling and provide enough time for battery cells to cool when switching from charging to discharging, thus extending system lifetime.

Additionally, they can provide ultrafast response to load changes in applications that require UPS functionalities.

(Flow batteries are typically not as responsive as li-ion batteries. Sometimes they only allow lower c-rates during charging. This disqualifies them for some applications like frequency regulation. However, they have superior properties in long term storage offering better business cases for solar or wind energy shifting. Flywheels can fill the gap making hybrids more competitive, for example in micro grids.)

Both cases require different smart system and control designs to provide maximum service at minimum initial investment and operating costs.

System design

Storage demand signals are typically a combination of long and short term signals. Renewable firming or generation leads to relatively long term trends. The best example is PV producing over the day and not producing after sunset.

This results in one long daytime period where the storage is filled and then discharged overnight. Storage times from three to six hours are common. Typically, Li-ion or flow batteries are used with flow batteries becoming more popular.

Additionally, small generation/consumption deviations lead to short term load changes. Grid frequency or voltage changes are a typical indicator for short term generation/consumption changes. The cycles lead to a frequent number of smaller cycles, requiring the storage to switch from charging to discharging and changing the storage energy content (state of charge) of the batteries.

These cycles stress the battery on top of the larger cycle from renewable firming. Tests at the Transmission System Operator (TSO) grid level in Italy have shown that batteries are aging up to two times faster than expected compared to results from lab test cycles. Additionally, they are less predictable over time creating challenges for warranty agreements.

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CONFERENCE IN PRINT In a hybrid system consisting of battery and flywheel storage, the micro-cycles are handled by the flywheel system. This can be achieved by having cascaded control loops in the Smart System Controller. The flywheel system acts as a filter and its state of charge is then used to operate the long term storage. Additional control loops can be added to add functionalities and improve system response.

The flywheel functioning as a filter allows an energy optimized battery container design. In the case of multiple applications, the SOC corridor which can be effectively used is reduced.

Because the system needs to provide power at any time for ancillary services extremely low or high SOC cannot be used, as explained in the diagrams. Because of the cell impedance any current flow in or out of the cell changes the terminal voltage of the cell.

If the terminal voltage is lower than 2.5V or higher than 4.2V, the battery management and protection system will disconnect the cell and the battery is not operational anymore. To avoid this, the system needs to be designed taking into account its SOC limits. In the case of flywheel use, these limits can be broadened reducing the investment into the battery container.

Additionally, lower cost energy cells could be used, because of the reduced need to have low cell impedance.

There have been successful tests in Germany with a Stornetic DuraStor 500 system. The Smart controller is external, operating in a virtual power plant, delivering, for example, secondary frequency control to the German grid. Communication is done via the internet. The system is locally integrated into a production and research facility.

The impact on the battery performance is significant.

Cycles are reduced and even more important the average cell temperature is reduced as less power flows through the cell, see Figure 4. The cyclic impact on system life is described and field data is available The field experience shows significant deviation from lab testing. Effective cooling of battery cells has a strong impact on their lifetime explaining the variations in results.

Typically cell lifetime is reduced by a factor of two to four per 20°C per temperature increase.

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The comparison of the two power plots in Figure 3 show the significant difference in power flow for a battery doing firming or firming plus frequency regulation. This directly impacts cell temperature which increases based on cell impedance.

Simulation with these results show that micro-cycles impact the system by up to 30% mainly caused by temperature driven aging. The results are strongly dependent on the cooling design and on the resistance of the cell.

Figure 3: Example how a 1 C-Charge request changes the cell voltage and the impact of this on the usable SoC corridor using a 68Ah cell with 0.05ohm impedance.

Figure 4: Impact of cell current and cell temperature on cell lifetime for a renewable firming application including frequency regulation @ 98% yearly operating time (Data sources available.)

Figure 5: Payback and NPV of a 10MW installation for combined services assuming $35/kW/h income @operating costs equal to 7% of Capex. The results show that at almost comparable investment costs and payback times, a hybrid solution can offer a significantly higher Return on Investment while reducing project financing risks.

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COVER STORY: INSIDE AES ENERGY STORAGE

First mover advantage, and the race to deploy 1GW of energy storage

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COVER STORY: INSIDE AES ENERGY STORAGE

John Zahurancik, president of AES Energy Storage, spoke to Sara VerBruggen about the thinking behind the creation of the AES subsidiary and its later development

Almost exactly 10 years ago you could have walked into an office in Washington DC and found two men deep in conversation. The first would have been John Zahurancik, now president of AES Energy Storage; the second, Chris Shelton — now vice president and chief technology officer at AES Corporation.

The initial topic for their protracted conversations was energy storage as a generality. But as time went by their focus moved to an identification of specifics — where would energy storage be successful?

What chemistries would likely lead the way? What form of deployment could be successful?

Both men had realised that storage was set some time in the near future to reach a critical moment in its development. But the question, the two asked themselves, was how could this be exploited to best effect?

Zahurancik and Shelton were ahead of the curve.

A decade later, AES Energy Storage — a subsidiary of independent power producer AES Corporation — has built and connected over 136MW of utility-scale batteries.

The company, which has a global pipeline in excess of a gigawatt, is also an energy storage early mover in markets such as India, the Caribbean and the Philippines. Initial projects were built in the US, Chile and Europe.

“Chris and myself started looking at energy storage in late 2006,” says Zahurancik. “Advancements in battery technology and power conversion systems were coinciding with regulators and policymakers creating more transparency in ancillary services markets, opening them up to demand response and fast-acting resources like storage.”

With this in mind the two decided to be completely open-minded in their approach. Zahurancik and Shelton reviewed and investigated the suitability of a number of energy

storage technologies, including flywheels and different battery chemistries.

“For the provision of ancillary services, which need a chemistry able to respond quickly to rapid signals that could provide or absorb power for 10, 15, 20 minutes, the characteristics of lithium ion made it the most suitable,” says Zahurancik.

The other side of the development of AES’s energy storage technology includes software controls, which wraps around that battery and power conversion hardware and interfaces with the grid to provide different services.

The two wrote up a business plan in 2007 and by early 2008, the first pilot of a grid-scale energy storage system, based on two 1MW batteries, was installed and connected to the grid in Indianapolis.

The pilots came to the attention of transmission system operator PJM Interconnection, which at the time — during the initial pre-Tesla wave of enthusiasm for electric vehicles — wanted to see if it would be possible to aggregate individual electric vehicle batteries as a resource on the grid.

When PJM could see AES’ battery working in a pilot of its own, AES asked if it could be put through the same tests that generators are required to do in order to be able to provide frequency regulation. The system became the first battery asset to secure generator status to enable it to provide frequency regulation services.

“And the first grid battery in the US to earn a dollar,” says Zahurancik.

“Once PJM had this asset to experiment with, they could see how to adapt market rules to take advantage of energy storage — how you adapt signalling, for example, to leverage the battery asset more,” Zahurancik says.

As a company within a large global power player AES Energy Storage is

Left: Chile is one of AES Energy Storage’s first markets where it has installed its energy storage technology. The company operates two gridscale storage plants in Chile.

“When PJM could see AES’ battery working in a pilot of its own, AES requested that it be put through the same tests that generators have to in order to be able to provide frequency regulation.” www.energystoragejournal.com

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 29

COVER STORY: INSIDE AES ENERGY STORAGE

Template for the future: AES Netherlands Advancion energy storage array began operating commercially in January 2016, enhancing European grid reliability with fast response ancillary services. The 10MW battery is equivalent to 20MW of flexible resource.

“When I am asked about challenges facing the energy storage industry, I would say that compared with a few years ago, today nothing really is holding energy storage back. The fact is simply that the technology is here and available.” growing its energy storage pipeline in emerging as well as developed markets, where its parent already has a footprint as well as through its global alliance partners Eaton and Mitsubishi Corporation.

AES Corporation entered the Philippines’ power market in 2008, acquiring the 630MW Masinloc coalfired thermal power plant in the province of Zambales.

Emerging markets

By the end of 2016, a 10MW battery array at the Masinloc site will come online to enhance the reliability of the grid serving the Luzon group of islands. It will be the largest battery storage plant in south-east Asia.

Zahurancik says: “With the exception of nuclear, we develop and operate generation plants, including ther-

30 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

mal generation, hydropower wind and solar, as well as transmission and distribution assets. In setting up AES Energy Storage we had a sense of the problems and issues that grids were beginning to face and how energy storage could address these.”

Like other countries in the region the Philippines is industrializing at a rapid pace, which is driving up demand for electricity.

The government has a mandate to improve energy security and reduce emissions by developing its own indigenous renewable energy resources.

However for island grids, such as those that distribute power in the Philippines, fluctuating sources of energy create havoc. For the Luzon grid AES’ battery can provide balancing services such as frequency

regulation, matching supply and demand in an instant.

Another battery project is also under way in Kabankalan, in the Visayas group of islands. The battery, which is in the late stages of development, will be installed and operational by the end of 2017.

The storage plant will improve the Visayas grid’s ability to incorporate the significant volume of solar photovoltaic power that has started to come on-line in the region in 2016.

AES will own the battery, which will be installed at an independent location.

In the US and in Europe, AES is developing what will be the largest battery storage projects to date.

In Northern Ireland, where the first 10MW phase of a 100MW storage installation has been running since early 2016, AES is waiting for the System Operator for Northern Ireland to implement market rules, designed to facilitate storage and other technologies.

The remaining 90MW is expected to come online in 2018. The project has passed several key stages of development including site selection,

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POWERING THE SMART GRID www.energystoragejournal.com

Meet the team Issue 8: Spring 2015

Sara Verbruggen, Associate Editor Sara, one of the founding figures of Energy Storage Journal, has relocated back to England, and now works as our in-house adviser as well as a respected contributor to sister magazine, Batteries International.

Let cool heads prevail The lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch The new titan of lead Ecoult’s UltraBattery, ready to take lithium on, head-to-head

The CEO interview Anil Srivastava and Leclanché’s bid for market dominance

Next gen integrators Coming soon to a smart grid near you, the ideal middle man

Mike Halls, Editor Mike, a former journalist with the UK newspaper the Financial Times, has been involved in journalism, publishing and print for three decades.

“I’m particularly fond of writing about the energy storage industry,” he says. “It’s an unusual mixture of being fast-paced but slow to change — and friendly too. There’s always something more to learn.”

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Go ahead and challenge her!

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COVER STORY: INSIDE AES ENERGY STORAGE

Indianapolis Power & Light, a subsidiary of The AES Corporation, officially opened its IPL Advancion facility Generation Station this July. This is the first grid-scale, battery-based energy storage system to make a footprint in the 15 US states that form the Midcontinent Independent System Operation (MISO) region

permitting and grid connection.

At the end of 2020 AES will also complete construction of a 100MW battery in California, for customer Southern California Edison.

“When I am asked about challenges facing the energy storage industry, I would say that compared with a few years ago, today nothing really is holding energy storage back. The technology is here and available,” says Zahurancik.

He points to the ever widening circle of progressive grid system operators and regulators that are changing market rules, as well as the increase in utilities that are investing in energy storage or buying services from it.

“All this has put the wind in the sails for the industry,” he says.

“That said, we are a relatively young sector, so the areas of focus — and this is no different from other less mature industries where growth margins are high, but costs need to come down — is about improving components. In the case of batteries it’s about increasing density, scaling manufacturing, extending operational lifetimes, all with the view to drive down costs.

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“The industry has come a long way. Ten years ago a 1MW battery was big, today a 100MW grid battery is possible. The commercial opportunities are still evolving. It’s not like X, Y or Z are the sole business cases for energy storage.”

“We’ve developed our Advancion platform to make it flexible enough to adapt to the changes in the market, ensuring the technology does not become obsolete.

“The industry has come a long way — 10 years ago a 1MW battery was big, today a 100MW grid battery is possible. The commercial opportunities are still evolving. It’s not like X, Y or Z are the sole business cases for energy storage.

“These are likely to change in future, especially as storage technology advances. A few years ago, lithium ion battery based energy storage was cost-effective for applications in the 10 to 20 minute range, then it was an hour, now it’s four hours, which unlocks new demand and markets,” says Zahurancik.

Different commercial models will continue to proliferate, so the company is working to ensure that its technology can address these.

“Regulatory change lags behind the market. That’s the nature of these things — you have to have a market before you know how to regulate it.

In a technology-driven industry like energy storage, progress is happening fast. It has taken the wind and the solar industries about 30 years respectively to go from small scale to mainstream, to reach a tipping point,” he says.

With energy storage, progress appears to have happened more quickly, plus the technology is benefitting from the maturity of solar and wind because these technologies on the grid have opened up a need for stor-

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COVER STORY: INSIDE AES ENERGY STORAGE age to support the integration of renewables.

Zahurancik says: “Who would have predicted three years ago that renewables growth in terms of new capacity development would outpace investment in traditional power generation assets. Similarly energy storage demand is doubling, enabled by reducing component prices and the industry scaling.

“I recently spoke with someone who has been a power industry veteran for a few decades. He readily admitted that when we first started to build batteries back in 2008 and introduce the industry to the technology he thought we were crazy at the time.

“Today he says the opposite — energy storage is so obvious a choice for addressing a lot of issues that electricity systems are facing.”

Co-locating storage and renewables is one approach to finding new opportunities for the technology.

South Korea recently introduced incentives for building energy storage with solar PV plants to help support the distribution of electricity from renewables.

“Co-locating is an interesting question. In some markets — like island grids for example — you are seeing a prescriptive approach such as all new renewable capacity must have some storage because it helps to preserve the grid, or where big investments in T&D infrastructure are not feasible.”

In some cases energy storage is starting to be co-located with renewable energy, because it makes sense to put storage on an existing connection. Generally renewable energy plants tend not to use all the connection.

“It saves on costs and you can also design the system to do some firming or some balancing services. In the US, where there is a tax credit for renewable energy projects and if you build storage with a renewable energy plant it also qualifies, so that can make the business case compelling to co-locate,” Zahurancik says.

But the most interesting and the best approach, according to Zahurancik, is finding the most cost-effective way to deploy storage in the system.

“That means identifying lots of benefits — different services, or investment savings, for example. Colocating with wind or solar might only serve that site without benefitting the grid as a whole,” he says.

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“PPAs are how most solar and wind farms are financed, as well as traditional power plants. For utilities to feel comfortable signing PPAs for a battery project of this size they have to have reached a level of comfort and confidence in energy storage” — John Zahurancik Many of AES Energy Storage’s operational energy storage systems are assets operated by the parent company’s own subsidiaries, a good example of which is the 12MW battery installed at the AES Gener Los Andes substation in Chile.

The system, which has been in operation for nearly seven years, provides contingency services to maintain the stability of the electric grid in northern Chile.

According to the grid operator CDEC-SING the asset is one of the best performing reserve units in the region as it is the only one that has responded to restore all generatorassisted faults, to support mining operations in the area.

In Northern Ireland, the 10MW battery array, which has been operational since the start of 2016, is on the site of AES’ Kilroot power station.

New ownership models

AES is also financing and building storage through different business and ownership models. SCE will pay for services from the 100MW asset in California according to a power purchase agreement that the utility and AES have signed.

The battery has a total capacity of 400MWh of energy and will be built south of Los Angeles at the Alamitos Power Center in Long Beach, California.

When it is built the plant will provide services that peaking plants traditionally have provided and will help to fill the gap that the retired San Onofre nuclear power station has left.

When SCE tendered the project more than 1,800 offers were submitted, including thermal generation, demand response and preferred resources as well as energy storage.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 33

COVER STORY: INSIDE AES ENERGY STORAGE “The minute you put storage in front of someone — be it at a grid operator, a utility or an industrial entity — with problems that storage can address, it is a light switch moment. They become the evangelist for the technology. But it’s knocking on the door of the next market and starting that education process over again.”

Of the gigawatt-plus of energy storage pipeline and the projects under construction some will be operated by AES subsidiaries in various markets while others are for third party customers.

“The 100MW project for the customer SCE is significant, because it shows that energy storage is reliable and proven. Power purchase agreements are how most solar and wind farms are financed, as well as traditional power plants. For utilities to feel comfortable signing PPAs for a battery project of this size they have to have reached a level of comfort and confidence in energy storage,” Zahurancik says.

In other cases we are building turnkey installations to sell to a customer, such as the utility that will own it, though AES will be contracted to provide operations and maintenance services.

“What we are seeing is a market that is becoming more mature and able to sustain different ownership models. Our customers can take on as much responsibility as they can manage by buying a turnkey system from us, owning, operating and managing it, or have us manage it, or they can procure services from the facility, which we build, own and operate,” he says.

To meet demand, AES has a supply chain in place, with key suppliers on the batteries side that include LG Chem as well as several company’s qualified to supply power conversion equipment, including Parker Hannifin.

“Like every industry there are going to be ups and downs and that’s no different for ours. The recall by Samsung Electronics for its latest smartphone because of the batteries catching fire will draw attention to lithium ion, but we have to remember that the deployment of this technology for grid-scale batteries is very different, in terms of the battery management systems that monitor

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Shelton: prime mover behind AES Energy Storage

cells, the design of packs, the power conversion, right through to the testing and so on.

“We are able to point to an installation like the asset at AES Gener Los Andes in northern Chile and highlight its reliability, after six and a half years of operation,” says Zahurancik.

Lithium ion dominance

While there are a number of technologies and chemistries available for grid storage, what Zahurancik observes is deployment of lithium ion in most geographical markets and across most applications.

“Back in 2007 we investigated flywheels and other batteries, when we were looking at these fast responsetype of applications initially but we kept coming back to lithium ion.”

That said, the company continues to investigate other storage chemistries and technologies, through

maintaining relationships with early stage companies.

“The technology — the combination not just of chemistry, but power conversion and software — platforms such as Advancion — means that energy storage systems using lithium ion batteries can provide storage in the four hours range, which is required for competing with peaking plants,” says Zahurancik.

He points out that even a few years ago that was inconceivable. “There’s no reason why six-hour, eight-hour applications aren’t going to be possible. There will, of course, be niches requiring other storage technologies as the energy storage market continues to evolve but today it is only the lithium ion battery industry that is large enough — it has the scale and the financing behind it — to continue to drive down costs and ensure that energy storage demand can be met,” he says.

To be able to reduce the cost of its energy storage further, the company is focused on addressing technological issues.

“AES Energy Storage has a dynamic team — it is an exciting field to be working. How do you make the system last longer? Or reduce its footprint? How do you make it more cost-effective through technological enhancements? We have people that can address these issues.

“The challenging part is the education,” he says.

“The minute you put storage in front of someone — be it a grid operator, a utility or an industrial entity — with problems that storage can address, it’s a lightswitch moment.

They become the evangelist for the technology. But it’s knocking on the door of the next market and starting that education process again.”

Not content with limiting itself to the power sector, AES Energy Storage is also going after potential commercial and industrial customers of energy storage-based services and is negotiating a deal with one in Chile.

“The C&I customer base is going to become key in the future. We are not just a project developer, but a full service solution provider,” says Zahurancik.

“The C&I customer base is going to become key in the future. We are not just a project developer, but a full service solution provider” www.energystoragejournal.com

FLOW BATTERIES: VANADIUM SUPPLY A new vanadium energy storage committee has been set up to address issues such as supply and how costs of the technology can be reduced.

Vanadium industry gathers to focus on storage and shortages The world’s largest battery announced to date — a 200MW/800MWh beast to be installed by 2020 in northern China — is not being made of lithium ion but from industrial sized 20MW/80MWh flow battery systems, developed out of a US-Sino collaboration.

Off the back of growing demand for stationary storage all around the world, interest in flow batteries is increasing, especially for applications in remote areas and for enhancing grid stabilization when too much renewable energy starts to affect the smooth running of the electricity grid.

To bring together up and downstream supply chain partners and end-users, to share knowledge across R&D, production statistics, market demand as well as best practice in health, safety and environment, global vanadium industry association Vanitec has set up a new committee dedicated to energy storage, which held

its inaugural meeting near London’s Heathrow airport in October.

Unlike other minerals the vanadium commodities industry is relatively small. For the past 40 years Vanitec has brought together the various players in the vanadium supply chain.

Until now the focus has been on steel, which accounts for 92% of vanadium production. A major market for vanadium is for the production of rebar (short for reinforcing) steel, which are the thin bars, or meshes of bars, used to reinforce concrete in construction.

The vanadium redox flow battery market size is fractional compared with steel. But with VRFB developers gaining commercial traction in global markets, including Europe, North America, China, Africa and Australia, scaling of the industry demands attention — especially if VRFB is to compete with lithium ion, which is benefitting from cost reductions, due largely

to scaling in manufacturing capacity as well as improvements to the chemistry itself.

In a VRFB system, electrolytes in different oxidation states make up the positive and the negative halves of a cell. The flow of the electrolyte is separated by an ion exchange membrane.

A reversible electrochemical reaction simply allows electrical energy to be stored and subsequently returned.

The setup of the electrolyte and the membrane stack is comparable to an engine and fuel tanks. The membrane stack — the engine — delivers power rated in kilowatts, whilst the fuel — the vanadium electrolyte — delivers energy rated in kilowatt hours.

In steel processing just adding a fractional amount of vanadium, around 0.2%, can increase steel’s strength by 100% and reduce the alloy’s weight by up to 30%. But the slowdown in China, and flat demand in established construction markets such as the US,

Gildemeister has installed its CellCube VRFB systems, mainly in commercial and industrial applications

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FLOW BATTERIES: VANADIUM SUPPLY

mean that the rebar steel market is seeing steady if unspectacular growth at an annual rate of about 6%.

By comparison, to make the electrolyte solution for a VRFB about 145 grams of vanadium pentoxide per litre is needed. For a 1.6MWh flow battery that’s equivalent to 15 tonnes.

Shortage worries

Global growth prospects for energy storage could, therefore, open up a significant new source of demand for vanadium and new opportunities for Vanitec’s members, which include vanadium producers and electrolyte suppliers as well as downstream developers of VRFB systems.

Developers of energy storage systems based on vanadium redox flow chemistry, such as Austrian company Gildemeister, are already starting to look at locking in prices of vanadium in anticipation of demand growth over the next two years.

“There is a shortage risk. We’re already seeing a shortage on the steel side, so if the price, due to steel, goes up it could risk killing off the energy storage market for vanadium,” says Vincent Algar, whose company Australian Vanadium, which is a Vanitec member, is starting to develop energy storage projects through its subsidiary VSUN. Gildemeister is a distribution partner of VSUN’s in Australia.

Scott McGregor, CEO of REDT, a US developer of energy storage systems based on vanadium redox flow chemistry, is not unduly concerned.

“There is enough vanadium in the ground to supply terawatts of demand for energy storage,” he says, referring to deposits around the world, including Brazil, Australia and Africa. “But we are locking in prices a little bit, to

36 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

“There is a shortage risk.

We’re already seeing a shortage on the steel side, so if the price, due to steel, goes up it could risk killing off the energy storage market for vanadium ” – Vincent Algar — Australian Vanadium flatten against any rise,” he says.

What makes vanadium flow batteries compelling is their ability to store energy for hours and days if necessary and an operational lifetime that is double that of lithium ion.

In September VSUN completed installation of a 100kWh Cellcube, supplied by Gildemeister, at a tree nursery farm in Western Australia. The battery stores solar energy from a 15kW solar PV array on site, so the farm can maximise its use of solar generation. The battery is big enough to store solar energy over several days.

VSUN is talking to other farms and also mining operations. And with more projects under its belt over the coming months, the developer will be in position to bid for tenders put out by utilities and distribution network operators in Australia.

In the meantime parent company Australian Vanadium is pushing on with plans to become a vertically integrated player in energy storage, with mining at the top of the upstream end and VSUN’s energy storage project development business at the downstream end.

“Production of the electrolyte has to be very clean so to reach a high level of purity you need to minimize the process of refinement, because it adds cost,” says Algar.

Australian Vanadium is developing a site in Western Australia with the potential to mine the metal. The mine will not begin production until 2019.

The Gabanintha project, measuring 91.4 million tonnes at 0.82% vanadium, has the potential to produce highgrade vanadium, which is needed for low cost production.

Today Largo Resources, through its Maracás Menchen mine in Brazil, produces the highest grade, lowest cost vanadium, producing a record 800 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide in September 2016, much of its output supplying the steel industry. Even though rebar steel production is seeing little growth, new steel applications continue to drive demand.

Australian Vanadium has also acquired a pilot line for making electrolyte from British company C-Tech Innovation. “We aim to be producing commercial quantities of electrolyte by mid-2017, buying in vanadium from third party sources until our own mine comes on-stream,” says Algar.

Controlling costs

By having total control over key stages of the vanadium battery supply chain, Australian Vanadium will be able to reduce the cost of VRFB production.

Bringing together the different supply chain partners via the new energy storage committee within Vanitec enables end-users — flow battery makers — to feed back in terms of the performance levels they are seeking from their batteries.

Enhancements to vanadium processing across the supply chain, starting with the mineral itself, to electrolyte synthesis, to stack design, will all lead to reductions in production costs.

One of the sessions at the first energy storage committee meeting included a panel discussion about the standards and quality of electrolyte. The meeting also included a presentation on research opportunity ideas.

Attendees included VRFB developers, including REDT, Gildemeister and Rongke New Power, mining companies, such as Evraz Stratcor, as well as electrolyte producers, including Chinese firm Dalian Bolong New Materials, which processes electrolyte from vanadium that has been recycled from steel, which is probably the largest source of the mineral today outside

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FLOW BATTERIES: VANADIUM SUPPLY of mining it.

“There is opportunity for the mining sector to find sites with high purity sources of vanadium because this industry cannot risk any shortage,” says Algar.

an extra 330kW community-owned wind turbine on the island. In addition, the machines will also eventually provide voltage and frequency support services as well as back-up for the remote community.

Unique characteristics

Commercial opportunities

VRFBs have performance characteristics that are under appreciated in the current energy storage market. Unlike lithium ion, lead acid and other types of batteries, VRFBs can be cycled many thousands of times with little signs of degradation, thus resulting in potentially long operational lifetimes.

There have even been discussions within the vanadium storage industry in terms of renting vanadium pentoxide electrolytes, rather than selling them.

“Because the electrolyte degrades so little. It is potentially one way of reducing the cost of vanadium redox flow energy storage,” says McGregor.

It would also be a first, since no commodity metal or mineral to date has been leased in such a way.

The commercial operational lifetime of a VRFB asset is in the region of 20 years, matching that of wind and solar farms. Twenty years is the equivalent of 10,000 cycles, and the point at which minimal degradation starts to occur.

“Most big grid-connected batteries are for short-term applications, as opposed to long-term or where the battery is not required to cycle multiple times a day. Utility investors are comfortable investing in assets that can operate for many years. But because energy storage is a new sector it is seen as a more risky technology,” says McGregor.

His company recently started shipping VRFB containers to Gigha, a Scottish island with ambitions to become more reliant on renewable power. The alternative would be to install a new transmission cable between Gigha and the mainland.

The project has received over $3 million in funding from the UK government toward the demonstration and pre-commercialization of a utility-scale VRFB technology. Should the island’s cable go down, the battery can provide power for at least 16 hours, or double that if it is only discharged at half power.

However, the 1.68MWh VRFB system will earn money by providing grid support services. The system is configured to remove generation and export constraints from the addition of

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McGregor sees a market emerging in Germany for co-locating VRFB systems with wind farms, to firm up the resource so enhancing the wind farm’s output for trading and enabling the operator to provide grid services.

Gildemeister has notched up dozens of installations of its Cellcube battery, mainly among commercial and industrial end-users. VRFB is nonflammable, making it safe to install in buildings, or densely populated urban areas, an advantage over lithium ion.

VRFB along with lead acid is the only battery chemistry to receive a letter of no objection from the New York Fire Department. The Cellcube technology was chosen for an energy storage pilot by the city’s Mass Transit Authority, announced in 2014, to show how commercial buildings can time-shift energy to save money.

This year Gildemeister beat several other companies to win a tender by Italian grid operator Terna, which is piloting a flow battery on the grid.

Two of the company’s Cellcubes were recently installed in Codrongianos, on Sardinia, with a total storage capacity of 1.1MWh. The system will be evaluated for its ability to enhance grid stabilization and provide some services.

The giant battery that Chinese VRFB company Rongke Power announced it will deploy is the result of collaboration with its US affiliate Uni Energy Technologies to scale up VRFB batteries to reduce costs.

The battery arrays approved by the China National Energy Administration will be made up of ten 20MW/80MWh VRFB systems. After full commissioning in 2020, the system will be able to peak-shave 8% of Dalian’s expected load. The battery will also provide black-start capabilities in the event of emergency.

With lithium ion batteries in the news again over flammability risks and concerns, the seemingly unstoppable ascent of lithium ion as the mainstream choice for energy storage is under question, with energy storage players reporting renewed interest in safer alternatives. However, the fledgling VRFB industry needs to rally and take full advantage if this promising energy storage technology is to have any real hope of industrializing successfully.

“Most big grid-connected batteries are for short-term applications, as opposed to long-term or where the battery is not required to cycle multiple times a day.

Utility investors are comfortable investing in assets that can operate for many years. But because energy storage is a new sector it is seen as a more risky technology.” – Scott McGregor — REDT

Scott McGregor: “There is enough vanadium in the ground to supply terawatts of demand for energy storage”

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 37

LITHIUM SEPARATORS Not all separators are created equal, certainly not when it comes to those best equipped to preserve lithium ion battery safety. Growing demand for large format cells that pack in more energy are giving rise to separators engineered to achieve the highest levels of thermal stability reports Sara Verbruggen

Taking thermal stability to the next level for lithium battery separators Lithium ion cell separators initially commercialized for small format cells, used in consumer electronics batteries tended to be made from a single or sometimes multilayer, sheets of olefin plastics, such as polyethylene or polypropylene.

Many multilayer separators are designed with a shutdown feature, where two of the layers have different phase transition temperatures.

To improve the thermal and mechanical stability of lithium ion separators, coating the base substrate with a

ceramic layer has become a tried and tested approach. The addition of a ceramic layer prevents short-circuiting within the lithium ion cells while helping to maintain good structural integrity at high temperatures.

Variants of ceramic coated separators are supplied by the large Japanese and South Korean producers that account for about 90% of the global separators market for rechargeable lithium ion batteries.

But, there is a strong case for separators with better thermal stability

for large format cells, which are used in electric vehicle and other electric transportation and mobility markets, as well as in grid and stationary energy storage segments.

Take China, for instance, which is now the largest electric mobility market in the world. The government has had to enforce a moratorium on the production of higher energy density large format lithium ion cells, which contain nickel manganese cobalt oxide cathodes, in favour of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

On a roll. Litarion’s separators are also capable of being made in more efficient, higher throughput production processes, as the stacks can be dried at higher temperatures, shortening drying times

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LITHIUM SEPARATORS SQUARING UP TO THE SUPERCAP AND TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES Thanks to investments in production capacities and increased uptake in mass transportation segments, supercapacitors are falling in cost, making them more attractive for automotive applications. These devices can provide the high power peaks and allowing the battery to handle the long, smooth energy needed for partially electrified vehicles.

Dreamweaver International was set up in 2011 to bring to market an industrial technology and process for making separators from nonwovens, for supercapacitors and also lithium batteries. (A nonwoven fabric is a fabric-like material made from long fibers, bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or solvent treatment; it is not woven or knitted.)

To commercialize its technology Dreamweaver International partnered with nonwovens and specialty paper maker Glatfelter, and has spent the past two years scaling up the production of these substrates, which when produced are very thin and paper-like in feel, with uniform properties throughout.

Getting to this point has taken dozens of manufacturing plant trials, over the past two years.

“We’ve burned through a couple of tonnes of substrate in the process.

But these machines are high-speed and you need to feed them with a lot of material at one end. It’s all part of the process,” says Brian Morin, chief executive of Dreamweaver.

The first non-woven separators products the company will make are now qualified for manufacture on a line installed at Glatfelter capable of making over 40 million square metres a year.

Where a lead acid separator might be 100-200 microns in thickness, supercapacitor separators are less than half this. At about 33 microns, Dreamweaver’s are a few microns thinner than competitors on average.

The company is also the only one to be producing supercapacitor separators outside of Asia.

The partnership with Glatfelter has been critical in helping Dreamweaver attract customers. The company has announced two, both of which are new entrants in the supercapacitor industry.

One of these is Dae Technologies, which has built a 30,000 square foot

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“The company’s target markets include mass transportation, such as electric buses and wayside storage on railways, as well as the microhybrid vehicle market, where next-generation models will use supercapacitors to capture braking energy,” — Brian Morin, Dreamweaver clean-room plant in China. One of the draws of using Dreamweaver’s substrates is their good price versus performance point, according to Linhong Li, chief executive of Dae Technologies.

“The company’s target markets include mass transportation, such as electric buses and wayside storage on railways, as well as the microhybrid vehicle market, where next-generation models will use supercapacitors to capture braking energy,” says Morin.

Going from making supercapacitor separators to those for lithium battery means a change in requirements.

“Safety is the top of the list of priorities, especially when we are talking transportation, automotive and stationary storage applications.

But other requirements are high rate and improved cycling, for instance,” he says. “Different applications

demand different characteristics, so you will have to offer a portfolio of options.”

As well as making nonwoven substrates and paper from products as diverse as coffee filters, to the paper used to make the pages in the Harry Potter books, Glatfelter also produces other materials for the energy storage industry, including a nonwoven material especially for continuous grid pasting used in the manufacturing of lead acid batteries.

So is it a logical next step for Dreamweaver International to focus on the lead acid battery separator market?

Developments here are at an early stage, says Morin. Following some lead acid battery makers getting in contact, the company has produced samples to the specification of these batteries. “They seem pleased with the results so far,” says Morin.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 39

LITHIUM SEPARATORS

Ceramic-based separators, however, are limited in terms of how thin they can go before mechanical properties are affected. Litarion has certainly tried and the limit is about 20 microns.

Using an advanced engineered nonwoven substrate, which is being produced by Glatfelter, Dreamweaver International is supplying supercapacitor separator demand for markets that include microhybrid, stationary storage and portable electronics

LiFePO4 cells have better stability as the lithium iron phosphate materials do not decompose at high temperature, generating heat, in the way that lithium nickel and lithium cobalt materials do.

Some suppliers have developed separators consisting of membranes with higher ceramic content for large format cells. They include Entek and Freudenberg. Another is Litarion, sold

by German specialty chemicals producer Evonik to Canadian energy storage company Electrovaya in 2015.

Litarion was set up to supply separators and electrodes to Li-tec, a joint venture between its parent Evonik and Daimler, for making lithium ion battery cells for the German car marker’s e-Smart electric vehicle model. The cells were designed to meet stringent safety requirements devised by the automaker, which go beyond the standard tests.

In addition to acquiring Litarion’s advanced production lines for making lithium ion cell components, Electrovaya also has exclusive rights, from Evonik, to the company’s separator in-

tellectual property Separion.

The acquisition has put Electrovaya in a much stronger position to bid for large grid and other stationary energy storage contracts.

The Litarion factory in Kamenz, about 40km from Dresden, can produce up to 0.5GWh of electrodes and 10 million square metres of separators, guaranteeing the Toronto-headquartered company with supplies of core components in the lithium ion cells used in its battery systems.

The separator technology was originally developed by Evonik (previously Degussa) in the late 1990s as an offshoot of the company’s business in producing membranes for filtering applications. The company, at the time, was investigating materials that it could potentially supply for emerging electrochemical energy storage devices, including lithium ion batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors.

Separator strategies vary among the world’s largest cell producers. Some will produce their separators in-house, sourcing in the base film and either coating one of both sides with a ceramic layer, while others buy it in as a component.

However, in most cases, manufacturing separators for the electric vehicle industry is a high volume business dominated by a handful of producers.

These include Asahi Kasei and the joint venture Ube Maxell in Japan, both of which have, over the years, invested in capacity.

Asahi Kasei’s overall capacity for wet and dry process lithium ion cell separators is in excess of 500 million square metres, following the company’s acquisition of Polypore and its Celguard lithium ion cell separators business in 2015.

The economies of scale achieved by these producers have enabled them to

Separion substrates show better dimensional stability, compared with competing products, including polyolefin ceramic-coated separators. In tests the competitor material wrinkled due to shrinkage at 127°C, while Separion maintains less than a 1% shrinkage rate at 200°C. 40 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

supply separators in volume and to drive down costs, reflecting the direction that the production of lithium ion cells themselves has taken, where a few companies in Japan and South Korean, mainly, dominate.

Ube Maxell’s coated separators are used in the lithium ion cells found in Toyota’s fourth generation Prius plugin hybrid, which uses batteries from Panasonic. Ube Maxell has a patent licence agreement in place with LG Chem to use the South Korean lithium ion battery maker’s technology concerning ceramic coating of separator substrates.

Unable to compete on costs with the industry in Asia, it proved more cost effective for Daimler to import cells from LG Chem than to make them in Germany, leading to the company’s decision to close down Li-tec in 2015.

Though Litarion’s separator and electrodes technology was initially commercialized for the EV market, due to the Daimler contract, Electrovaya’s acquisition of Litarion and its associated separator technology has opened up new lines of enquiry among industries and companies that are using large format lithium ion batteries.

“At the time of commercializing our efforts into the ceramic membrane separator, the technology was unique, but it was also just too early,” says Jörg Reim head of product development at Electrovaya-Litarion.

“But this has changed. Most major separator manufacturing operations see the benefit of ceramics and use such materials in the production of their separators,” Litarion’s technology, protected by numerous patents, goes further than ceramic-coated separators. The company uses a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) nonwoven substrate, which has excellent thermal stability. Ceramic particles are embedded into the nonwoven, to create a material with intrinsic properties that achieve superior temperature stability.

In addition to using Litarion’s separators and electrodes for making cells used in its own battery storage systems, which have been commercialized with several utilities, Electrovaya is also supplying cells and components to

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LITHIUM SEPARATORS third party companies.

Customers in the lithium ion battery industry include Switzerland-headquartered Leclanché, as well as battery producers in Germany, the US and in Asia.

“We are seeing a lot of interest from the stationary energy storage industry and have been gathering good feedback from potential customers that have been testing our materials, including our separators,” says Reim.

The company supplies separators in two thicknesses, 28 and 21 microns for use with large format cells, which tend to be used in larger applications, including mobility and stationary storage, as opposed to consumer electronics. Both thicknesses are suited to either mobility or stationary applications, though for high energy density cells the thinner separator can be more suitable.

As the trend in the lithium ion battery industry focuses on higher energy density, using higher nickel containing cathodes, as well as silicon anodes, Litarion’s technology has some important characteristics that preserve safety as well as performance.

Separion substrates show better dimensional stability, compared with competing products, including polyolefin ceramic-coated separators. In tests the competitor material wrinkled due to shrinkage at 127°C, while Separion maintains less than a 1% shrinkage rate at 200°C. More energy dense lithium ion batteries, at 200 watt hours/kg/cell, or higher, need separators that maintain stability at higher temperatures.

When Litarion developed materials for use in Daimler’s batteries, the cells were put through tests for thermal stability in 180°C temperatures, as opposed to the 130°C temperatures required by standard testing procedures.

In these thermal stability tests, which essentially involve putting cells in a 180°C oven, the competing multilayer polyolefin separator caught fire before reaching this temperature, while the Separion cell opened, with no fire or explosions.

An additional advantage over competitors that Litarion has benefitted from has been the company’s historical close development ties with Li-tec, which was its sister company at Evonik.

“This gave us access to cell knowhow and expertise that many other separator producers on the market simply do not have,” says Reim.

Li-tec benefitted too, with access to one of the most advanced and safe sep-

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Lithium ion separator and electrode layers shown

arators on the market. One of the only other companies that makes lithium ion cells as well as separator materials is South Korean producer SK. While the high degree of mechanical robustness in Litarion’s separators imparts high safety properties, in production the material is able to withstand faster and more efficient production processes. Usually the stacks are dried at 80°C-90°C, but the company’s technology can be dried at 130°C, speeding up stack drying times by several hours,

helping to increase throughput.

The higher stack drying temperatures also ensure electrodes with less moisture, leading to performance advantages in the batteries themselves as cells can achieve longer calendar lifetimes, which is an advantage in some stationary energy storage as well as other applications.

Germany-headquartered Freudenberg has a large customer base in China from supplying separators for NiMH batteries since the early 1990s, used in

When Litarion developed materials for use in Daimler’s batteries, the cells were put through tests for thermal stability in 180°C temperatures, as opposed to the 130°C temperatures required by standard testing procedures.

Daimler’s e-Smart electric car commercialized Evonik’s extremely safe separator technology, which is now being produced and supplied by Electrovaya in Canada as part of the company’s acquisition of Litarion from Evonik.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 41

LITHIUM SEPARATORS “The lithium ion battery industry either consists of big or huge players, so we anticipate it will take longer to commercialize our separators in this industry” — Brian Morin, Dreamweaver

the transportation market. Over the past few years, Freudenberg has been developing and commercializing separators for large format lithium ion batteries, in response to growing demand from the Chinese bus market.

“We/ve been effectively collaborating this customer base since day one of their NiMH batteries business,” says HolgerMichael Steingraeber, director of global communications at Freudenberg.

“Now these customers are expanding into lithium ion chemistry for highend automotive applications. Therefore, our supply chain and relationship network is well established which has proven very valuable to introduce new technologies.”

In addition the company is also targeting global markets for energy storage as well as other various electromobility markets around the world.

Freudenberg’s separator for lithium ion batteries is also based on a ceramic formulation, making it suitable for high safety and long life applications.

“Generally, safety is a major concern, especially for such large format applications like stationary storage and electromobility. Higher voltage as well as higher capacity electrodes are being developed and introduced to the market for making batteries with increased energy and power density,” says Steingraeber.

“This means thermal and mechanical separator properties must meet the highest standards and are an important indicator of the best choice of separators. This is where we see an opportunity for our material.”

Freudenberg has been working with others to bring the technology to commercialization for the past two years.

These companies are looking to improve safety and cycle life beyond the current standard multilayer polyolefin membrane-based separator technology.

The company has accomplished

42 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

qualifications and will enter commercial production in 2016.

The same technology at the heart of a new significantly thinner separator for supercapacitors which also has the potential to bring about reduction costs in lithium ion battery separators, while preserving safety characteristics.

Dreamweaver International, which is headquartered in the US state of South Carolina, was set up in 2011 to bring to market an industrial technology and process for making separators from nonwovens, for supercapacitors and also lithium batteries.

The company has developed a technology and process that will enable it to eventually reduce its nonwoven separator material down to thicknesses of 12-10 microns, dramatically thinner than separators for lithium ion battery and supercapacitor separators available on the market.

Fibre size

“Nonwovens have been used to make separators for supercapacitors. But one of the problems was that the fibres have been too big,” says Brian Morin, president and co-founder of the company, which is headquartered in Greer, South Carolina.

Going thinner uses less electrolyte offering significant cost reductions.

Dreamweaver International’s technology lowers the separator’s basis weight a little, but compresses the material to half its original porosity.

The resulting material has its thickness reduced by about half, but is significantly stronger with a reduced pore size and an ESR (equivalent series resistance) equal or lower. Both supercapacitors and lithium ion benefit since the amount of electrolyte, which is expensive, used in the separators can be reduced by up to 70% in the separator, reducing overall electrolyte usage by 30%. Higher energy density in the cells can be achieved.

Crucially, for lithium ion batteries, Dreamweaver’s technology for going thinner still yields a thermally stable nonwoven. The company’s highest performing product, Gold Standard, is embedded with Twaron, a man-made fibre produced by Teijin Aramid. Properties include excellent strength, high

dimensional stability and high heat resistance. The fibre only starts to melt and degrade at 500°C. Ceramic-based separators, however, are limited in terms of how thin they can go before mechanical properties are affected. Litarion has certainly tried and the limit is about 20 microns.

“Ceramics, when compressed, tend to crush, whereas fibres turn into composites, which is beneficial as this retains strength, for example,” says Morin.

Dreamweaver’s strategy is to commercialize its technology with supercapacitor producers initially, working with start-ups and early stage companies, looking to disrupt the market.

One customer includes Zapgocharger, a UK company behind a graphene supercapacitor and is commercializing a device capable of charging mobile electronics in a few minutes.

“We are now moving up the food chain, now that we have customers that we can point to, using our separators,” says Morin.

Several large supercapacitor companies are in industrial trials with the material.

The company has developed prototypes of a 15 micron product for supercapacitors and has developed a 20 micron product for the lithium ion battery industry. Products as low as 10 microns will eventually follow.

“The lithium ion battery industry either consists of big or huge players, so we anticipate it will take longer to commercialize our separators in this industry. In addition development cycles are much longer in the lithium ion battery industry than the supercaps industry,” says Morin.

The company is at the early sampling stage for lithium ion battery cells.

“Olefin separators are the real competition, in other words single or multilayer substrates with a ceramic layer coated on the surface, as opposed to the more technically advanced ceramic separators, where the substrate and the ceramic particles are more infused,” he says.

“What we term as olefin separators dominate the market, but we see lots of opportunity for higher safety separators, for large format cells.”

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DYNAMIC CHARGE ACCEPTANCE With some tipping micro-hybrid vehicles to surge in growth in the coming years, the type of battery underpinning the technology may well come down to dynamic charge acceptance. ArcActive, a New Zealand start-up, has developed a technology that could give lead acid batteries the edge.

Solving the DCA dilemma ArcActive, a New Zealand start-up, has developed a technology with the potential to dramatically improve the dynamic charge acceptance (DCA) of lead acid batteries.

If this is a breakthrough — and some are already saying that it is — this has the potential to revolutionize the role of lead batteries within the grid and equally the fuel efficiencies of vehicles, especially micro-hybrid vehicles (MHV), and give the business case of lead acid batteries to corner this market a boost in the process.

ArcActive is awaiting the results of independent trials into the effectiveness of its technology by motor manufacturers. If these results match the findings of ArcActive’s own in-house trials, the company’s technology could quickly find demand in a global market place.

Stuart McKenzie, the company’s chief executive, says that the company’s own results suggest that the company’s technology can double the DCA of a battery and maintain its DCA at a consistent level long-term (80A or more) — in contrast to even

state-of-the-art lead acid batteries, in which the DCA drops sharply after between 30 and 60 days.

On the basis that the stable level of DCA performance for state-of-the-art lead acid batteries is at around 30% to 50% of what car makers ideally want to maximize the fuel saving potential of micro- and mild-hybrid vehicles, McKenzie claims the potential of this technology is huge. It would also represent a considerable boost to lead acid batteries more generally, particularly in grid applications.

“We are awaiting validation of our own results but the data we have had back so far looks pretty good,” McKenzie says. “It might be another six months before all the trials are concluded but we are optimistic.

“The fact is that lithium batteries are also improving in this regard and lead acid’s biggest challenge is its DCA. If that were improved I estimate lead acid would secure 80% of this market.”

While it may seem strange to apply cutting-edge nanotechnology to one of the longest living industrial prod-

Chief technological officer John Abrahamson (left) and CEO and MD Stuart McKenzie www.energystoragejournal.com

ucts — the lead acid battery — what is required from the battery has changed drastically in recent years.

Until recently, the role of the battery was simply to crank the engine (a discharge process). However, now the fuel saving capability of a vehicle is dependent on the charge capability of a battery over very short periods (five to 10 seconds) — something lead acid batteries have never excelled at — a race is now on to develop a suitable battery, or combination of batteries, to meet all of the requirements for use in hybrid vehicles.

As ever the solution seems to be all about carbon on the anode.

The solution ArcActive has developed a way of improving the DCA of a lead acid battery using a novel carbon fibre-based negative electrode using its proprietary material, AACarbon. The firm’s claim is that this technology overcomes traditional LAB charging limitations and delivers superior DCA and charging lifetime without adding significant cost.

The scale of the challenge this could overcome is made plain when the ability of a typical battery to recover kinetic energy — energy released when a car is braking — is considered. While cars may be able to generate currents of 80 to 120 amps for the five to 10 seconds of a typical braking event, a state-of-the-art lead acid battery is only able to store a maximum current of around 30-40 amps.

So better DCA allows more energy to be recovered and stored, allowing the battery to support electrical loads for longer periods of “no-alternator” operation. This, in turn, means less fuel is used.

Fuel savings are also secured because the stop-start function in many cars can also be better utilized if the battery is able to store more current in the first place. Typical stop-start technology becomes disabled if the battery’s state of charge becomes too low until the battery recharges, also reduc-

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 43

DYNAMIC CHARGE ACCEPTANCE was the first person to find and characterize carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the 1970s and in 2000, he decided to develop a production process to manufacture high-quality, low-cost CNTs via a continuous arc process.

The AACarbon product was developed from that. While it has many potential applications, since 2008 ArcActive has focused on developing an improved micro-hybrid vehicle (MHV) battery as its primary commercial product.

The next step

ing the fuel saving possibilities. Thus the better the car battery’s DCA, the greater the number of stop-start events, and the greater the fuel saving.

Typical lead acid batteries start with a relatively high DCA but this degrades rapidly with use and within a few months it reaches a stable level.

This stable level of performance is at around 30% to 50% of what car makers ideally want to maximize the fuel saving potential of micro- and mildhybrid vehicles, McKenzie claims.

ArcActive’s technology achieves this improved DCA by using a carbon fibre fabric as the structural and electrical framework for the electrode’s active material. This allows ArcActive’s electrodes to contain a much higher carbon content, but the electrochemically active, permanently electrically connected carbon fibre dramatically constrains sulfation and allows for the regeneration of the fine lead and lead sulfate structures with use.

To further improve the functionality of the carbon used, ArcActive also treats it by heating it to very high temperatures before use — a process

44 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

“Once the motor companies have completed their testing, which will be in four to six months, we will look at the business model and what partnerships we can form – Stuart McKenzie, chief executive, ArcActive that improves the functionality of the material. The lowest useful treatment for “carbonization” is typically at 1,200°C and “graphitization” is typically performed at 2,500°C. ArcActive treats carbon material at around 3,500°C — any hotter and the carbon would be vaporized.

The company, which was formed in 2007, has further developed an invention originally by John Abrahamson, an associate professor, which revolved around a continuous process for Arctreating carbon fibre. Abrahamson

The company has been funded so far by a small number of private investors and the New Zealand government.

Since its launch, ArcActive has developed its core technology from labscale, single cell electrodes to full-scale automotive batteries.

The next step for the company will be securing corroboration and validation of its in-house test results from motor manufacturers around the world. If these stack up, its CEO says the company will then explore options for the best way of manufacturing the batteries — be this via a single partner globally, regional partners or making the product itself.

The strategic direction it takes will also inform what funding the company will need to achieve commercialization.

McKenzie, who previously spent 10 years as a partner of two venture capital companies and is also an Innovation Board member of the NZ Ministry of Science and Innovation, says he is confident of the support of its existing shareholders but the company may require additional investors, depending on its future business model.

“In reality, every start-up in the world needs investors and until the profits start to come in, we are no different,” he says. “But we have a group of shareholders who really believe in what we are doing and strong interest from battery companies, dependent on how the testing is going. We never take anything for granted but there is a lot of interest.

“Once the motor companies have completed their testing, which will be in four to six months, we will look at the business model and what partnerships we can form. I guess we will be forming partnerships with battery companies in the next year or two.”

He says that the manufacturing process does present challenges because the material used is not standard. The company has spent a lot of time de-

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DYNAMIC CHARGE ACCEPTANCE veloping a manufacturing process that should be cost efficient enough to allow it to potentially produce millions of units per day: if that is not a possibility, true commercialization will be impossible.

“Our first plan was to partner with a manufacturing company at an earlier stage but we are quite unique and we ended up exploring that path — of how to best make these in large numbers — ourselves. That has been a challenge — we have been working on this for five years now and it has been a big part of what we have been doing.

“But we are now in the design and implementation phase of the first commercial version — we are pretty close to an end point now of getting the battery made on a standard production line and made and tested as normal. We will then take the concept and see if it works.”

The product has the potential to change the dynamic of the motor battery market, McKenzie says, swinging the balance in favour of lead acid batteries being used in more new models and away from lithium ion.

He says that Ford addressed the challenge of DCA at the recent ELBC meetings in Malta, specifically noting that the problem needed to be addressed by the industry. McKenzie suggests that if the DCA is improved in the way he believes possible, lead acid batteries could secure an 80% market share — much higher than current forecasts. “So this is a pivotal moment for the industry to address this issue,” he says.

He notes that other companies have previously explored ways of improving the DCA of batteries but with limited success. The problem is there are so many other things a product has to deliver to make it compatible with vehicles, including developing a high DCA, meeting all other standard tests, the cost being on a par with a traditional “starter” battery, manufacturing at scale (able to make tens of millions of batteries per year), using a known and well understood chemistry and fitting a standard battery size.

“While car makers want batteries with much better DCA, they cannot accept any compromise on the achievement of the traditional battery tests. This provides a very real challenge for developing new battery technologies as some of the best ways to improve DCA can often lead to serious problems in other performance areas,” he says.

“Right now, there is nothing similar

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“Lug” (CF Fabric-to-metal connection) Arc Treated CF Fabric (3500˚C for 3s) Leady Oxide Paste (Not Shown)

Traditional Grid

ArcActive Auto Scale “Grid”

ArcActive Electrode: A carbon Fibre-based “Grid”

to what we are doing, which can also use a relatively standard manufacturing process.”

Spying the pot of gold

Because of these stringent criteria, the two most likely products to compete for the MHV market are the lead acid or advanced lead acid battery or the small lithium ion (3Ah) battery. But while the lithium ion battery has a much better DCA performance, he sees this as an unlikely solution for the mass market due to its high cost and poor low temperature performance.

MHVs require “high power” batteries which are much more expensive than the “high energy” batteries used in electric vehicles, which have seen a dramatic fall in prices recently.

Furthermore, Li-ion batteries cannot start the engine at low temperatures — a fundamental requirement of any starter battery.

“It is likely that the most relevant solution for the mass market will be the one that achieves heightened DCA (80A or more) at the lowest cost. With dual battery solutions, there is an immediate cost and weight penalty. It is clear therefore that a single lead acid battery will make an ideal MHV battery, if the DCA can be improved,” he says.

While a number of alternative energy storage technologies have good DCA performance, the disadvantage of most is their relatively high oncost. ArcActive’s electrode has been designed to be a direct substitute for existing negative electrodes in flooded lead acid batteries.

“As flooded lead acid batteries are the lowest cost form of starter battery, even with the modest additional cost contributed by the AACarbon electrode, the resultant battery will still be a fundamentally low-cost product,” he says. “We expect that batteries using ArcActive’s electrodes will be no more expensive than the AGM batteries that are the current stop-start battery

of choice.”

While the AACarbon product has many potential uses, the company has focused on the automotive market — and MHVs specifically — because of the size of the opportunity and also the momentum that has been building in that sector towards cutting CO2 emissions, reducing fuel consumption and generally making vehicles more environmentally friendly.

To a certain extent, the opportunity is therefore driven by changing regulatory approaches and environments. On this basis, he sees the greatest opportunity at present being in Europe, where standards and targets are tougher than anywhere else in the world. But he also notes an increasing harmonization between global regulatory regimes with China and the US also moving to start to align with European standards.

“Hybridization of cars is a common approach that all large car makers globally are pursuing in order to meet the tough new CO2 emission standards,” he says. But the real question is that as fuel savings increase with higher levels of hybridization, and so does the cost of the vehicles, which types of vehicles will become the mass market during the next few decades?”

He believes micro- and mild-hybrid cars will be the mass market cars of the future. These vehicles require new battery technologies to meet the stringent emissions limits being imposed on automakers but says that many projections suggest they could become a significant new battery market in the coming decades.

Pike Research has forecast there will be 41 million new stop-start cars per year by 2020 and the battery market will be worth $8.9 billion; McKinsey suggests the market will be worth $12 billion a year by 2020; and Johnson Controls suggested in 201l that there will be 100 million stop-start batteries per year by 2020 including both new cars and the aftermarket.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 45

EVENT REVIEW: THE BATTERY SHOW

The Battery Show • September 13-15 • Novi, Michigan, USA

Battery Show continues to set attendance and exhibitor records This year’s Battery Show proved again that it was still possible to set new records for itself — attendance shot up again by just over a fifth over 2015 — and the exhibition hall was once again sold out.

The numbers show that the event has established itself as North America’s top forum for the battery industry. “It’s a great way to explore all the pressing issues of the day,” said Steve Bryan, the organizer of The Battery Show.

“We looked at battery growth opportunities, international energy storage markets, product chemistries, new technologies, ESS, safety and testing, intellectual property risks, battery pack design, and repurposing and recycling were among the many interesting topics given an airing during the three-day event.”

The battery show was co-located with Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo and Critical Power Expo.

“The three events attracted strong approval ratings from buyers, sellers, innovators and conference delegates,” said the organizers.

46 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

In all, there were 535 exhibitors and more than 3,500 visitors came through the doors on the first day with total footfall of 6,928 over the three days.

A representative from BorgWarner summed it up: “The show has been great. A lot of really good leads and a very, very busy booth. Excellent show.”

The enthusiasm with which everyone approached the event was matched by the results. “Once again, The Battery Show has exceeded our expectations. We have actually seen a 10-fold boost in our website sales during the show,” said Jeff Norris, CEO, Paraclete Energy.

Venkat Anandan, research scientist at Ford Motor Company, said, “It was excellent! It provided me with an invaluable opportunity to engage — professionals from industry, government and academia, all under one roof.”

The pace and tone of this year’s conference had been set from the moment the plenary opened with the now familiar Leaders’ Debate. This featured top executives from LG Chem, Goog-

le, ARPA-E and Pacific Gas & Electric Company.

Moderator Jim Greenberger, executive director at NAATBatt International, summed up the importance of this conference, commenting: “The key to ensuring continued success is to encourage collaboration among the many extraordinary people who have been drawn into battery technology by its promise of making the world a better place and who form the backbone of the industry today.”

Smarter Shows — the conference organizers that built the annual Battery Show to be one of the largest events of its kind in the US — is preparing to launch a European version of the show from April 4-6 next year.

Known only as The Battery Show Europe, the event will be held at the Sindelfingen Conference Centre, about 15 minutes from Stuttgart in central Germany.

The choice of venue was an interesting one given the whole of Europe was open to the organizers. “Part of the success of its American counterpart was that we positioned ourselves near

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EVENT REVIEW: THE BATTERY SHOW the automotive hub of America where much of the pioneering energy storage work was going on,” says Bryan, who is also organizing this event.

“Given the proximity of so many key development centers and production facilities including Daimler, Porsche, Bosch and Audi, we feel we are well positioned to experience significant numbers attending from within a few minutes’ drive of the venue.”

The choice of Germany is fortunate given the storage boom that is riding the back of the government’s decision to scrap its nuclear plants in May 2011 with the aim of them all being out of service by 2022 .and embark on using renewables.

With the North American event achieving continuous growth since its launch in 2010, expanding the portfolio into Europe — also co-located with Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo — was the next logical step, says Bryan.

“We started in 2013 and 2014 mulling the idea about doing the show but the timing never seemed right. But with the two events now established brands, and growing demand from our existing exhibitors to expand into the European market, we are in a strong position to deliver a successful launch show.”

Launching a conference into a market that is already full with such meetings is a difficult one given the competition already in place.

“It’s a question of what the exhibition and conference can offer,” says Bryan. “Our approach in the US has always been to position the show as close to the visitor community as possible. We’ve looked at the practi-

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cal issues of what people want to see and know and that’s what we aim to deliver.”

The Smarter Show business model is worth inspection in that it sees its revenue streams coming from its ability to showcase what the industry wants to learn about from its exhibitors — entrance is free to visitors — and only part of the event is charged to those attendees that want to listen to the speakers.

The next Battery Show will be held in Novi, Detroit in the US on September 12-14, 2017.

The European version of the event will be held in Stuttgart, Germany on April 4-6.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 47

EVENT REVIEW: ESNA

ESNA • San Diego, California • October 4-6

Rapid growth for Energy Storage North America Energy Storage North America (ESNA), the largest gathering of policy, technology and market leaders in energy storage, concluded its fourth annual event last week in San Diego.

Mirroring the growth and maturation of the storage industry at large, ESNA grew in its attendee numbers, expo floor space, and the number of organizations represented at its conference and expo, said the organizers More than 1,900 industry professionals attended ESNA, from over 1,000 different organizations and 25 countries. The nearly 15,000-squarefoot expo floor, the largest ever for Energy Storage North America, provided over 100 exhibitors with an opportunity to showcase the latest software and hardware storage technologies,

systems and services.

Senior executives from utilities, grid operators, investors and storage developers took part in panel sessions alongside elected officials and regulators to discuss the changing regulatory landscape, the process of valuing benefits of storage and the latest system deployments and assets, among other trending industry topics. In total, the ESNA conference featured nearly 150 speakers on 21 different panel sessions, six keynote addresses and eight in-depth workshops.

“The optimism, excitement and innovation that underscored ESNA’s program, expo and networking events all point to the tremendous growth of energy storage over the past year,” said Janice Lin, chair of Energy Stor-

age North America. “By bringing utilities, policymakers, storage developers and financiers into the same room to break down barriers and share successes, we can leverage the potential of storage even further to modernize and strengthen our electric power system.”

Special events at ESNA also highlighted important sectors and stakeholders in energy storage. The annual ESNA Awards Ceremony recognized innovative storage projects in the centralized, distributed and mobility sectors, as well as policy and utility champions who have advanced storage through their work.

ESNA hosted its first annual Women in Energy Storage networking event to foster connections among women in the storage industry, and continued its tradition of hosting a utility-only networking reception to encourage dialogue among utility professionals. In 2016, the number of utility employees who attended ESNA doubled compared to 2015, reflecting the increasing utility focus on and investments in energy storage.

ENERGY STORAGE NORTH AMERICA AWARDS The Energy Storage Innovation Awards were presented on the second day of the conference to three energy storage projects that demonstrated excellence and impact in one of three categories: Centralized Storage, Distributed Storage, and Mobility. Winners were recognized for their impact on the energy storage ecosystem, services supplied to customers and the grid, unique technology solutions, financing, or partnerships.

ESNA 2016 Innovation Award winners: Centralized Storage: The Village of Minster Energy Storage Project. Runners up were IPL Advancion Energy Storage Array (Indiana): First grid-scale, battery-based energy storage system to operate in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and the MESA 1 Project: Allows Snohomish (Washington) County Public Utility District to increase their use of renewable energy and improve overall reliability while using open, nonproprietary industry standards.

Distributed Storage: PowerHouse - 20-home energy storage pilot. Runners up were Stone Edge Farm Microgrid (California): First of its kind to incorporate three modes of operation - on-grid, off-grid, and microgrid with multiple types and brands of batteries and inverters, PV, bulk hydrogen storage, fuel cells and ability to export power. Also a contender was Rocky Mountain Institute Innovation Center in Colorado: PV plus energy storage system engineered and controlled such that the asset is used to manage the centre’s electric bill Mobility: EVgo & UCSD Second-life Energy Storage + Level 3 EV Charging

48 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

The Champion Awards recognize individuals from the utility and policy sectors who have demonstrated leadership in advancing the role of energy storage to achieve a cleaner, more reliable, and secure electric power grid.

ESNA 2016 Champion Award winners: Policy Champion Michael Picker, president, California Public Utilities Commission (pictured)

Utility Champions Josh Gerber, manager of advanced technology integration, San Diego Gas & Electric Brad Rockwell, power supply manager, Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative Neetika Sathe, vice president, PowerStream Inc. The individuals and organizations who received this year’s ESNA Awards have each played a key role in advancing energy storage through impactful programs, projects, technologies or policies,” said Janice Lin, Energy Storage North America Conference Chair. “Their work is transforming the energy storage ecosystem by opening up brand new markets and solving real-world problems for customers and the grid. The strength of our nominees was unmatched in 2016, reflecting the continued growth and maturation of our industry.”

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EVENT REVIEW: INTERSOLAR INDIA

Intersolar India • Mumbai • October 19-21

Solar and storage on the rise

Eighth Intersolar India, the country’s largest exhibition and conference for the solar industry, was held at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai in the middle of October.

The organizers said that it proved a success in a number of ways. Visitor attendance at 12,000 was 10% higher than at the previous year’s event, and the number of exhibitors increased by 20% to 240. There were 800 conference attendees.

“The positive development of the Indian solar market was noticeable at the exhibition,” said the organizers.

“Businesses and investors made the most of the opportunity to network, and numerous agreements and collaborations were initiated. The organizers also reported positively on the conference, where the attendees discussed India’s solar industry with 122 speakers.”

Following the declaration by Narendra Modi, the country’s prime minister, that energy supply, generation and distribution, was going to be a top priority, the Indian market has moved forward.

By 2022 the country aims to achieve an installed photovoltaic capacity of 100GW. At the conference session titled India’s Emerging Domestic Market – A Reality Check, Priyadarshini Sanjay of Mercom Communications stated that the capacity is currently at 8.6GW and was on the way to achieving future targets.

According to the consultancy firm, Bridge to India, that figure would be 23GW when projects currently un-

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der construction are included. So the country has ambitious goals, and the atmosphere in India is one of radical change.

“This year Intersolar India gave the industry a significant boost and offered the perfect opportunity to discuss upcoming steps, opportunities and challenges,” said the organizers.

Intersolar India was officially opened by Robert Habeck, minister of energy, agriculture, the environment and rural areas for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. He praised the development of India’s renewable energy industry and emphasized that exhibitions such as those by Intersolar India help to achieve ambitious goals, as they act as an industry platform and bring together all of the key stakeholders.

Smart renewable energy, which refers to the combination of energy generation, storage, grid integration and energy management, was a very popular topic at the exhibition and sparked animated debate at the exhibition forum in particular.

At the session Smart Renewable Energy: Microgrids — Serving Unconnected Remote Village Communities to Grid Connected City Consumers, experts shared their experiences of bringing electricity to small villages through microgrids.

The latest developments in the industry were presented at the session Smart Renewable Energy: Electrical Energy Storage — What are India’s Drivers for ees Solutions? This proved to be one of the mostly lively of pres-

entations given the enormous impact that storage will have on developing India’s infrastructure.

This year also marked a first for Intersolar India — the debut of a cooperation with the renowned exhibition HUSUM Wind, which it said proved to be a great success with the exhibition guests. The shared booth gave visitors the opportunity to learn more about wind energy and its implementation in the Indian market.

The accompanying Intersolar India Conference took place in parallel on October 19 and 20. A central topic was private and industrial rooftop systems.

In the session Commercial & Industrial Rooftop Systems – Field Experience in India, Nalin Shinghal, chairman of Central Electronics said that rooftop systems will achieve grid parity in the near future. This is an important step, since although India plans to install 40GW of solar capacity on private rooftop systems, its current capacity is just 800 megawatts.

Sukesh Kumar Jain, power secretary for the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, told the session titled Residential Rooftop Systems — System Design and Field Experience in India that the city will play a central, pioneering role.

By 2020, he said, 1GW of private rooftop systems should be installed there, with a further GW installed by 2025.

There was also discussion around the challenges facing the expansion of private rooftop systems. Arvind Karandikar, managing director at Nexus Energytech said that the financing of these systems must be structured more simply and that business models in this area need better support.

Intersolar India 2017 is on December 5-7, 2017 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Mumbai.

EES INDIA In 2016 ees (electrical energy storage) India again took place in parallel to Intersolar India. At the companies’ booths, numerous visitors learned more about the energy storage sector. This event complements the exhibition perfectly, because batteries are essential for India’s journey to a renewable future.

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 49

EVENT REVIEW: ENERGY 2016

Energy 2016 • NEC, Birmingham, England • October 18-20

An enthusiastic return

Energy 2016 was back for its second year at the Birmingham NEC in October, as part of the award-winning UK Construction Week.

The show was reckoned a success by both attendees and exhibitors — the organizers said the numbers confirmed the success of the entire event.

They said that just over 30,000 visitors attended of whom just under 20,000 had direct purchasing authority with — in the odd way that these things are assessed — a combined purchasing power for the next year of £40,568,692,276.10. This is about the equivalent of $51 billion.

Exhibitor reaction was positive: “UK Construction Week was a great place to showcase our energy and data generating technology as we were exposed to influential people and businesses from all over the UK — ones that could really make a difference to Pavegen’s expansion. said Laurence Kemball-Cook, chief executive for Pavegen.

“It was great to see all the energy innovations and companies at UKCW, and I was able to form valuable relationships with people that have the potential to transform into future business opportunities!”

Visitors to Energy 2016 also benefitted from its co-location alongside eight other trade events being held at UK Construction Week. “This offered the unique opportunity to network with individuals and companies from across the entire construction industry, visitors can explore five halls of the NEC, which will be packed with relevant products, services, features and businesses,” said the organizers.

“I’ve enjoyed myself immensely.

It’s a treasure chest of knowledge that has opened my eyes to new technologies that I hadn’t known that were coming into play. Get yourself to UK Construction Week next year because you will gain so much from it!” said Tiffany Lewins, BREEAM assessor, project Manager, Kingfisher Ecology Central to the space was the Energy Hub, a platform for the show’s seminar content. This incorporated a mix of panel discussions, live de50 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

bates and CPD seminars. “The Energy Hub content addressed the core issues in the industry today as well as provided insight into the latest regulations, policies and technologies,” said the organizers.

The content had largely been shaped by the debate hosted by Energy 2016 earlier in the year. Thatevent brought together leading energy specialists, including Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party and Steve Fitzsimons, senior manager infrastructure services at EDF Energy, to discuss the key issues such as energy storage and its role as a crucial facilitator for the future of renewable energy in both domestic and commercial environments.

Nick Blyth, policy and practice lead, IEMA opened this year’s event followed by a three-day seminar programme at the Energy Hub featuring leading industry experts on hot topics and trends.

In addition to the Energy Hub, the Renewable Energy Association

(REA) hoasted a range of half-day conferences throughout the show, covering topics such as energy storage and renewables in the built environment.

“The REA Theatre provided a great platform to showcase to a diverse range of professionals from the built environment sector some of the latest developments in renewable energy and energy storage,” said Stuart Pocock, chief operating officer and head of UK Solar, REA The show was backed by industry bodies such as the Renewable Energy Association (REA), the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), the Energy Managers Association (EMA), the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA), the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) and many more.

Energy 2017 will be held between October 10-12, 2017 at the NEC, Birmingham, England

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 Energy Storage Japan

BIREC São Paulo, Brazil November 7-10 Seizing the opportunity and overcoming challenges in Brazil’s high-risk high-reward renewable energy sector: higher returns, more investment and optimised project development. BIREC is the must-attend event for domestic and international decision makers looking to develop, grow and succeed in the Brazilian wind and solar energy markets.

Contact Tel: +44 20 7099 0600 www.greenpowerglobal.com

Power Week Singapore November 7-11 Designed for the global electric power and energy industry, Power Week provides five days of networking opportunities, consisting of a two day conference as the focal event, three workshops, two supplementary master classes, multiple case studies, expert views, and valuable insights on market outlook.

Meet your industry peers from electricity regulators, national power companies, renewable and IPPs, investors and suppliers – all at one platform. It would serve as an opportunity to engage with top industry players from around the globe. With the vast range of participants at this exclusive event, learn about the success strategies and pitfalls of well known power projects, through our intense case studies.

With valuable insights on policy and regulations, technology innovations for generation/transmission/distribution, environmental impacts, fuel supply sources, renewable/hydro/nuclear/gas to power developments, power trading, IPP projects, investment and financing, power contracts and negotiations and many more from C-level expert speakers and attendees, Power Week is certainly an event not to be missed!

Contact Tel: +65 6325 0211 Email: register@power-week.com www.power-week.com/index.html

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Tokyo, Japan • November 8-9 For sustainable, low-carbon societies to thrive, the production and storage of renewable energies are vital. These are important goals for scientists, politicians, and businesses all over the world, and for this reason, Messe Düsseldorf Japan is proud to hold the Energy Storage Summit Japan for the third year running.

Once again, the Energy Storage Summit Japan 2016 will bring together leading policymakers, scientists and corporate representatives from Japan to discuss energy storage policy regulations and business chances with their counterparts from Europe, the US, India, China and Japan.

ESSJ is the perfect platform to learn about developments in Japan, compare them with what is going on internationally, and derive ideas for

business. In short: ESSJ is the perfect gateway to enter Japan’s energy storage market!

The summit will also cover additional topics related to energy storage applications such as: • E-mobility • Hydrogen storage and thermal storage • Renewable energy integration • Smart grid, micro grid, off grid and decentralized energy supply In addition, the cost efficiency and bankability of energy storage solutions will be discussed.

Contact Tel: +81 3 5210-9951 Email: essj@messe-dus.co.jp www.essj.messe-dus.co.jp/en/energy_ storage_summit_japan

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 Solar Asset Management Europe 2016

GridNEXT 2016: Connecting Power, Connecting People Texas, USA November 9-11 GridNEXT is a two-day conference, focused on the new business models, technologies and grid modernization initiatives needed to grow the renewable energy industry in Texas and across the US. This is a chance to learn about the latest trends impacting the grid of the future, connect with players in the grid modernization industry and foster the furthering of renewable energy integration Technology providers, utilities, energy consumers/prosumers, developers/integrators and solution providers (such as regulators, legislators, consultants, and academics) should attend Contact Raina Hornaday Tel: +1 512 971 8825 Email: raina@caprockrenewables.com www.energystorage.org/events/gridnext2016-connecting-power-connecting-people

ICPES 2016 — 6th International Conference on Power and Energy Systems Paris, France November 15-18 ICPES 2016 aims to provide a high level international forum to bring together industry professionals, academics, and individuals from institutions, industrials and government agencies to exchange information, share achievements, and discus the advancement in the fields of Power and Energy Systems, etc.

Contact Kiko Xu Tel: +1 617 229 6820 Email: icpes@asr.org www.icpes.org

5th International conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications

Milan, Italy • November 9-10 Solar Asset Management is Solarplaza’s flagship event and widely considered as Europe’s leading conference dedicated to optimization of the operational phase of PV plants and portfolios For the third year in a row, Solar Asset Management Europe will bring together the leading investors, owners and service providers in the European PV industry. The event provides an unparalleled networking opportunity, as well as the best way to learn about innovations and best practices for optimizing performance, management and financial returns of PV assets.

This must-attend event is fully ded-

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icated to the operational phase of PV assets. It will contain: • 400+ attendees, representing the value chain from service provider to asset manager and investors • 50+ leading experts on stage sharing their vision, expertise and experience • 30+ sponsors and exhibitors profiling themselves and their leading products/services Contact Stefano Cruccu Email: stefano@solarplaza.com Shushan Khachatryan Email: shushan@solarplaza.com

Birmingham, United Kingdom November 20-23 The purpose of the International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications (ICRERA) 2016 is to bring together researchers, engineers, manufacturers, practitioners and customers from all over the world to share and discuss advances and developments in renewable energy research and applications.

After the success of the first, second, third and fourth editions of ICRERA in Negasaki, Madrid, Milwaukee and Palermo, this fifth ICRERA in Birmingham in the UK will continue promoting and disseminating knowledge concern-

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016

IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies — Asia Conference Melbourne, Australia, November 28-December 1

ing several topics and technologies related to renewable energy systems and sources.

ICRERA aims to present important results to the international community of renewable energy fields in the form of research, development, applications, design and technology.

It is therefore aimed at assisting researchers, scientists, manufacturers, companies, communities, agencies, associations and societies to keep abreast on new developments in their specialist fields and to unite in finding alternative energy solutions to current issues such as the greenhouse effect, sustainable and clean energy issues.

Contact Email: registration@icrera.org www.icrera.org/index.php?id=main

IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies — Asia Conference Melbourne, Australia November 28-December 1 The IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies – Asia conference is the premier event across Asia-Pacific for power experts from academia, electric power utilities, power and energy service providers, and research and development organizations to share and exchange experiences, new ideas and enabling technologies. It is an international, non-commercial event.

The event differentiates itself from the many local industry conferences by bringing together highly recognized international expertise with a rich perspective on the many issues facing smart grids globally.

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The conference will showcase existing products and solutions, but also extend to the broader design, development and implementation of new technologies — with both practical demonstrations and analytical assessments of technology in terms of performance, cost and returns.

Experts from Australia, Europe, US and across Asia-Pacific will attend and share their experiences in this space.

Contact Email: info@ieee-isgt-asia.org www.sites.ieee.org/isgt-asia-2016

UKES2016 — 3rd UK Energy Storage Conference Birmingham, United Kingdom November 30-December 2 The Energy Storage Research Network, the Energy Superstore and the STFC Network in Battery Science and Technology, all funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, are hosting the third UK Energy Storage Research Conference, providing an inclusive platform for all researchers in energy storage to present their work through talks and poster sessions.

In line with the ethos of the Energy Superstore, the conference endeavours to bring together researchers from academia, industry and policy and across the whole field of energy storage, inspiring collaborations for future research.

Contact Jacqueline Edge Email: energystorage@imperial.ac.uk www.ukenergystorage.co

IranREC 2016: Iran Renewable Energy Congress Tehran, Iran • December 4-8 Iran Renewable Energy Congress 2016 (IranREC 2016) is designed to help you access the Iranian renewable energy sector.

A need for greater energy security, falling global oil and gas prices and rising domestic power demand has led to a committed focus on renewable energy development in Iran. The Iranian government and policy makers have set an ambitious renewable energy target of 5GW by 2020.

Following the sanctions relief coming into effect and Iran re-entering the international trade and financial markets now is the time to coordinate your strategy for this new renewables market. Our high quality, content lead programme will provide in-depth analysis of the prospects in the Iranian renewables space and highlight best practice in project development and financing.

IranREC 2016 is truly the first and only event dedicated to bringing the international and domestic communities together to discuss the critical challenges and issues facing Iran’s clean energy sector, backed up by the expertise you need to navigate the business landscape and the government figures that will be driving the reform.

IranREC 2016 is not a trade show and is not open to the general public. This will be reflected in the levels of senior decision-makers and budget holders who will attend. Don’t miss this chance to capitalise on the country’s growing commitment to green energy – 5GW of electricity from renewable sources by 2020!

Contact Tel: +44 20 7099 0600

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 US Energy Storage Summit 2016, San Francisco, USA, December 7-8

ASEAN Solar and Energy Congress & Expo 2016

International EV Batteries 2016

Manila, Philippines December 5-6

London, United Kingdom December 6-7

ASEAN Solar + Energy Storage Congress & Expo 2016 is the largest congress focusing on the energy storage market in ASEAN. As one of the emerging markets, the energy storage market in ASEAN, especially Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, has attracted more and more concerns.

Participants are governments, utilities, independent energy producers, energy developers, project owners, EPC contractors, energy storage manufacturers, consulting companies, associates as well as other related sectors are invited to together discuss applications, opportunities and challenges for solar and energy storage development in the ASEAN market.

International EV Batteries 2016 will address the critical challenges being faced by electric vehicles at the battery.

Attendees will take away the latest innovations and developments from the leading Asian, European and North American OEMs in battery management, modular design, range extension, battery testing and pack integration.

This is an unrivalled opportunity to hear the latest technologies and innovations being implemented by the OEMs themselves.

Key programme highlights include: • General Motors will discuss the successes of the Chevrolet Bolt EV’s 60KwH battery system and lessons learnt from the Volt and Spark • Understanding the opportunities and challenges that Jaguar Land Rover see for modular battery designs • How Williams Advanced Engineering determine F1 and Formula E battery development and evolution will impact electric vehicles • McLaren Automotive and Univer-

Contact Eddie Lee Email: eddie@leaderxtet.com www.aseanenergystorage.com Tel: +86 21 3102 1580 www.leaderxtet.com/en/

Asean Solar and Energy Storage Congress and Expo, Manila, Philippines, December 5-6

54 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

sity of Oxford deliver the latest on charge and current control, and reductions in weight and size of the Battery Management System (BMS) • Learning how the European Commission are assessing battery testing methods from a policy-making perspective • Mitsubishi, NAATBatt and the University of Warwick WMG bring success stories for bidirectional charging, battery recycling and second-life options Contact Tel: +44 207 973 1251 Email: eventenquiries@imeche.org www.events.imeche.org/ ViewEvent?code=CON6437

Saudi Arabian Smart Grid Jeddah, Saudi Arabia December 6-8 The purpose of the Saudi Arabia Smart Grid Conference on Smart Grids and Sustainable Energy (SASG 2016) is to bring together researchers, designers, developers and practitioners interested in the advances and applications in the field of smart grids, green information and communication technologies, sustainability and energy aware systems and technologies.

There will be nine conference focus areas: • Smart grids • Renewable energy and grid integrations • Sustainable computing and communications • Smart cities • Automation technologies • Power system planning, operation and maintenance • Regulatory aspects and market operations • Standards for the smart grid • Grid and communications solutions for plug-in electric vehicles Contact www.saudi-sg.com

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2016 International EV Batteries 2016 London, United Kingdom, December 6-7

and exhibitors can take advantage of attending an event that truly covers every aspect of the power generation industry.

Over 300 industry experts will present new solutions and innovations for the future in 70+ conference sessions offering full conference attendees a chance to earn 10 PDH credit hours.

Contact Tel: +1 888 299-8016 Tel: +1 918 831-9160

Power-Gen International Florida, USA December 13-15

US Energy Storage Summit 2016 San Francisco, USA December 7-8 Now in its second year, the US Energy Storage Summit — organized by the Energy Storage Association — will bring together utilities, financiers, regulators, technology innovators, and storage practitioners for two full days of data-intensive presentations, analyst-led panel sessions with industry leaders, and extensive high-level networking.

We will kick-off the event with an overview of the current energy storage market on both sides of the meter, examining utility strategies, policies, and market designs. On Day 2, we’ll take a closer look at emerging technologies, business models and financing strategies.

Contact Tel: +1 202 293-0537 Email: events@energystorage.org

Africa Energy Forum: Off the Grid Dar es Salaam, Tanzania December 7-9 The Africa Energy Forum: Off the Grid will focus on project opportunities for mini and off grid technology providers working in Africa’s energy space.

This year’s Africa Energy Forum, the most established investment-level conference for Africa’s power sector, saw an increased appetite for off grid projects, and this meeting has therefore been developed to address this appetite by bringing together financers, technology providers and regional leaders in a focused discussion forum.

The summit will bring together ministries of energy, rural electrification agencies, philanthropic business

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foundations, banks, regulatory bodies, multilateral organizations and off grid businesses to discuss topical issues concerning rolling out off-grid projects across Africa.

The Off the Grid Summit will be closed by a ‘Festival of Energy’s which will take place on the afternoon of Friday 9th December. The festival will feature ‘stalls’ showcasing off grid and mini grid technologies and innovations and will also feature local Tanzanian musicians and artists.

Contact Veronica Bolton- Smith Tel: +44 207 384 8069 Email: veronica@energynet.co.uk www.energynet.co.uk/event/africa-energyforum-grid-2016#tab-country1

Battery and Fuel Cell Technology Dubai, UAE December 8-9 International Conference on Battery and Fuel Cell Technology, will be organized around the theme “To Share the Latest Leading-Edge Discoveries and Emphasize Current Challenges in Battery and Fuel Cell Technology” Contact Email: batterytech@conferenceseries.net www.batterytech.conferenceseries.com

Powergeneration Week Orlando, Florida, USA December 11-15 As the world’s largest power generation event, boasting 20,000 attendees and over 1,400 exhibitors from around the world, Power Generation Week is designed to connect key suppliers and service providers with influential decision makers in the domestic and international power sector. Attendees

As the world’s largest power generation event, Power-Gen International is the industry leader in providing comprehensive coverage of the trends, technologies, and issues facing the generation sector.

More than 1,400 companies from all sectors of the industry exhibit each year to benefit from the exposure to more than 20,000 attendees.

Displaying a wide variety of products and services, Power-Gen International represents a horizontal look at the industry with key emphasis on new solutions and innovations for the future.

As a Power-Gen International full conference attendee you will have access to the conference sessions for not only Power-Gen International, but for Renewable Energy World International, Nuclear Power International and Coal-Gen. You also have an opportunity to upgrade your registration to gain access to GenForum.

Contact Tel: +1 918 831 9160 Email: registration@pennwell.com www.power-gen.com/index.html

ENTECH’16/IV. International Energy Technologies Conference Istanbul, Turkey December 15-16 ENTECH’16/IV. International Energy Technologies Conference will be held at Nippon Meeting Halls in Istanbul.

The conference is coordinated by DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Center) and will be organized by BILSAS (Science, Art, Sport Productions).

Since 2013, more than 200 presentations by scholars from different places of the world have been hosted

by DAKAM’s ENTECH Conference and three proceedings books have been published.

Energy is of vital importance to any society today and the future of energy needs to be sustainable in terms of environment and climate as crucial changes are to inevitably happen. The

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 55

FORTHCOMING EVENTS ENTECH’16/IV. International Energy Technologies Conference Istanbul, Turkey, December 15-16

discussions encompass natural scientific research, engineering and even social sciences, systems solutions and global politics. The future of global energy supply has to be addressed with objectivity and competence.

Only an interdisciplinary approach would have the potential to optimize the necessary cooperation and communication in energy research, development and the support for industrial innovation.

Tel: +91 11 4855 0059 Cell: +91-9871192345 www.esiexpo.in www.md-india.com

Contact Tel: +90 212 244 23 03 Email: conference@dakam.org www.dakamconferences.org/entech

The 3rd International Conference on Renewable Energy Technologies (ICRET 2017) focuses on timely and emerging topics of interest to the renewable energy technologies that provides an opportunity for an in-depth exchange of research ideas in an informal environment.

To encourage discussion and dissemination of the latest research developments, early-stage work, and possibly controversial results, workshops, the conference will bring together leading researchers, engineers, and scientists in the domain of interest from around the world.

ICRET 2017 aims to be the premier and most selective conference devoted to technical innovations in renewable energy technologies.

Energy Storage, India 2017 Mumbai, India January 11-13, 2017 Deliberations at Energy Storage India 2016 demonstrated a wider consensus that energy storage is the game changing technology that will help India leapfrog its energy infrastructure within the next decade.

Leading ESS companies of the world – AES & Panasonic unveiled huge interest in the Indian market with their participation at Energy Storage India 2015.

There are exciting times ahead for energy storage in India!

The 2016 conference attracted 720 delegates from 16+ countries. 80+ speakers shared their knowledge and views with the participants leaving a prominent image of the show. ESI yet again proved to be the largest and finest gathering ever held in India showcasing the niche topics and discussions.

Contact Ms Shradha Malik E-mail: maliks@md-india.com

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ICRET 2017 — 3rd International Conference on Renewable Energy Technologies Pathumthani, Thailand January 22-24, 2017

Contact Cho Chang Tel: +86 28 8652 8758 Email: icret@iacsit.net www.icret.org/index.html

Advanced Automotive Battery Conference — Europe (AABC) Mainz, Germany January 30-February 2, 2017 Make plans to participate in the sev-

enth European AABC event where chief battery technologists from major European automakers will present their development trends and projected battery needs, and their key suppliers will share their latest offerings and roadmaps for the future.

In January 2016, 600 delegates from more than 30 countries took part in stimulating discussions on battery chemistry, engineering, and design, as well as high-volume and specialty automotive applications.

Attendance increased more than 30% in 2016, and with expanded coverage of raw materials and leadacid as part of the agenda, even greater participation is expected in 2017.

Contact Tel: +1 781 972 5400 Email: ce@cambridgeenertech.com www.advancedautobat.com/europe

Energy Storage 2017 Paris, France February 8-9, 2017 ACI’s Energy Storage 2017 conference will bring together key industry stakeholders to address the current challenges of the energy storage market and discuss the latest developments.

The two-day event will give insights on business cases, regulatory environment, financial aspects, and technological advancements for the energy storage industry. The Energy Storage 2017 conference will demonstrate successful case studies, and explore the latest R&D projects.

Join us in Paris to meet senior representatives from leading companies for excellent networking opportunities.

Energy Storage 2017 will be at-

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS tended by leading power generating companies, TSOs, DNOs, and utilities including: managers and directors of energy storage, power generation, R&D and new technologies, renewable strategy, innovations and strategic project managers, as well as business development executives from technical service providers, consultants, regulators and academia.

5th Energy Storage Europe

Contact Samanta Fawcett Tel: + 44 20 3141 0624 Email: sfawcett@acieu.net www.wplgroup.com/aci/event/energystorage-conference

7th Annual Next Generation 2017 Energy Storage San Francisco, USA February 14-16, 2017 Breakthroughs in new battery chemistries, novel electrode and electrolyte materials, and system integration for large-scale applications have paved the road toward an emerging stationary market with a seemingly unlimited potential.

Will lithium-ion and alternativechemistry batteries deliver on the promise of power, energy, cost and safety? Cambridge EnerTech’s 7th Annual Next-Generation Energy Storage 2017 convenes leading experts in the fields of battery materials, systems design and integration, and manufacturing and commercial applications, along with utility planners, electrical, transmission, distribution, modelling, and protection engineers who address emerging issues driving this pivotal time in the battery industry.

Contact Tel: +1 781 972 5400 Email: custserv@knowledgefoundation.com www.knowledgefoundation.com/next-generation-energy-storage

Scottish Renewables Annual Conference – Scotland’s Energy Evolution Edinburgh, Scotland March 21-22, 2017 The Scottish Renewables Annual Conference will look at the new energy strategy for Scotland, changes in the feed-in tariff and renewable heat incentive and the closure of the renewable obligation, the next allocation round for CfD, an industrial, strategy and the publishing of climate change plans, as well as further clarity on the emerging shape of Britain’s likely exit from the EU — and what all this means for our sector.

Contact Lisa Russell Tel: + 44 141 353 4986 Email: lrussell@scottishrenewables.com www.scottishrenewables.com

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Dusseldorf, Germany • March 14-16, 2017 Energy Storage Europe is an expo and conference event that takes place in Düsseldorf in March annually.

The goal of Messe Düsseldorf, the organizers, is to further develop this young format of energy storage into a worldwide leading platform for the industry.

To reach this goal, Messe Düsseldorf does not only invest financial funds but also uses its worldwide distribution network of 134 countries.

International Conference on Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Technology 2017 Putrajaya, Malaysia April 11-13, 2017 Clean energy is electric energy generated by utilizing renewable and nonrenewable technologies with zero or lowest feasible emissions of greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants, and toxic air contaminants on-site.

Deploying carbon-free clean energy systems is the best option that will reduce pollution and tackle the issue of environmental and population costs due to the increasing global energy demand. From the current cost perspective, clean energy is also capable of being permanently de-coupled from the oil and gas markets.

As carbon-free energy sources, fuel cell and hydrogen energy systems can reduce fossil fuel-based GHG emissions drastically in order to give a significant impact on climate change.

Challenges ahead include inefficient technologies for the current clean energy production, short supply of energy-related materials, little understanding of the fundamental processes in the chemical reactions involved, limited actions in terms of policies and R&D, and

Good business is done where top decision makers gather at one place – in Düsseldorf!

Be part of it and revolutionize the energy storage industry with us!

Contact Caroline Markowski Tel: +49 211 4560 7281 Email: markowskic@messe-duesseldorf.de www.energy-storage-online.com

problems faced in large-scale adoption and implementation of more efficient, high-performing, and affordable alternative technological solutions.

Fuel cell and hydrogen energy systems for electricity generation and storage are among the essential elements for the transition from high-carbon, fossil fuel-based energy generation to carbon-free, clean energy power generation. They have made vast improvements and their technologies are currently on the upward move, but there is still a long way to go before they can be as cost competitive as fossil fuels.

Close collaboration, cooperation, and coordination between social scientists, climate and energy experts, and policymakers across all sectors of the energy systems can accelerate innovation and drive the most promising ideas to the marketplace.

Governments with clear, long-term, and measurable goals for a carbonfree energy economy must be willing to invest on the fuel cell and hydrogen energy R&D efforts. The zero-carbon dioxide economy is achievable with fuel cell and hydrogen energy technologies and crucial in transforming global energy politics.

Contact www.ukm.my/icfcht2017

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS Energy Storage Association — 27th Annual Conference and Expo

8th Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technology Arlington, USA April 23-26, 2017

Denver, USA • April 18-20, 2017 The Energy Storage Association 27th Annual Conference and Expo is the must-attend event in energy storage — bringing together the global energy storage industry for three days of relevant content, and unique networking and business development opportunities.

Our conference this past April was record-breaking in many ways: we featured the first-ever multi-country USTDA reverse trade mission, and had more than 1,600 attendees, 130 speakers, 40 educational sessions, six site tours to cutting-edge installations and multiple workshops led by renowned experts.

ESA will continue to build on that momentum when we bring the conference to Denver this April coming.

As one of the largest renewable energy markets in the country, Denver will provide the perfect location for ESA to expand the conversation about storage and renewables.

The showcase will include 90,000 square feet of exhibit space and we are planning more innovative content than ever before.

Contact www.27th-annual-conference.energystorage-events.org

ees Europe — Intersolar Europe

May 30-June 2, 2017 • Munich, Germany Intersolar Europe is the world’s leading exhibition for the solar industry and its partners. It takes place annually at the Messe München exhibition centre in Munich, Germany and focuses on the areas of photovoltaics, energy storage and renewable heating, as well as on products and solutions for smart renewable energy.

The accompanying Intersolar Europe Conference consolidates selected exhibition topics and showcases international markets, financing and pioneering technologies. Since being founded 25 years ago, Intersolar Europe has become the most important

58 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

industry platform for manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, service providers and partners in the global solar industry. ees Europe, Europe’s largest exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems, takes place in conjunction with Intersolar Europe. The ees Europe covers the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies.

Contact Gaby Kubitza Tel: +49 7231 58598-10 Email: kubitza@intersolar.de www.intersolar.de/en/for-visitors.html

The conference will feature plenary sessions, panel sessions, technical papers, and tutorials by experts on grid modernization and smart grid applications and system integration.

The theme for this year is “Innovative Trends in Grid Modernization” and will include an emphasis on how to economically and reliably integrate distributed energy resources in system operation, the needs for and trends in advancements of grid management technologies and systems, the seams between distribution and bulk power system operations, and approaches for planning, operations, and cross cutting disciplines to address end-to-end operational coordination and control issues, including practical application.

Contact www.sites.ieee.org/isgt-2017

Group Exhibit Hydrogen + Fuel Cells + Batteries Hanover, Germany April 24- 28, 2017 Some 50 companies from 25 countries will present their products at the 5.000 m² large exhibition area in Hall 27 of the Hanover Messe (conference centre) in 2017. The 15.000 m² ride and drive open air site offers everyone a chance to test-drive fuel cell cars themselves.

For the 23rd time international exhibitors will showcase the entire spectrum of these technologies — starting with hydrogen generation, via stationary and mobile fuel cell applications.

The focal point of the Group Exhibit will be on hydrogen generation as a solution for renewable energy storage from energy generated from photovoltaic and wind systems.

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All Energy May 10-11, 2017 Glasgow, Scotland All-Energy has historically provided the industry suppliers, experts and thoughtleaders from the renewable energy supply chain the opportunity to connect with new customers, increase their sales opportunities and expand business networks in this fast-changing marketplace.

The free-to-attend annual conference and exhibition brings together the UK’s largest group of buyers from the bioenergy, solar, offshore and onshore wind, hydropower and wave and tidal sectors,

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS International Conference on Lead-Acid Batteries — LABAT’2017

Battery China 2017 Beijing, China June 21-23, 2017

Varna, Bulgaria • June 13-16, 2017 LABAT’2017 conference offers a unique opportunity to lead-acid battery manufacturers and suppliers of equipment, technology and materials to the battery industry to hear about the latest, cutting edge innovations in this chemistry.

This event bring together the international lead-acid battery academic and technological community to: • share fundamental knowledge achievements • present results from recent research studies • discuss development trends, challenges and opportunities ahead • demonstrate new products and as well as those involved in energy storage, heat, low carbon transport and sustainable cities solutions.

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ESC ’17 — Energy Storage China June 2017, Beijing, China Since 2012, Energy Storage China has been growing alongside China’s energy storage sector, which has become a prestigious platform for cross-sectoral integration, cooperation and development. ESC 2016 attracted 2,186 professional visitors from 12 countries attended the trade fair to source the latest products, gather market information and immerse themselves in ESC forums and seminars to explore various energy storage business models.

At ESC 2017 — the 6th International Expo and Conference on Energy Storage in China, which will invite more than 6,000 global professional visitors from 18 countries and over 120 speakers, including

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equipment for lead-acid battery manufacture • report of new technological methods in recycling • present innovative ideas for future development • establish and develop successful networking with colleagues and friends Contact Mariana Gerganska Tel: +359 2 8731552 E-mail: gerganska@labatscience.com www.labatscience.com/conference2017/4_1.html

Battery China is one of the largest and most recognized state-level industry events, which is held once every two years. Since 1997, Battery China has been accompanied by the growth of China’s battery industry for 20 years.

Covering more than 20 countries and regions from China, the US, Japan, Korea, Germany, UK, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, and Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc., last exhibition reached 30,000 square metres, and attracted more than 300 exhibitors worldwide.

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Power and Energy Conference and Exhibition wide range of industry leaders, policy makers and scholars to discuss the latest sector developments. The event was held under the theme of Solutions for the Next Generation Energy System. China’s premier solution platform for energy storage technology and applications, and guide the future development of energy storage together.

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Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition Sydney, Australia, June 14-15, 2017 This event attracts professionals from the energy industry at all levels and is for utilities, energy businesses, building management and the emerging electric vehicle markets.

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Charlotte, USA June 26-30, 2017 ASME Power and Energy brings together ASME Power Conference, ASME Energy Sustainability Conference, ASME Energy Storage Forum, ASME Fuel Cell Conference, ASME Nuclear Forum and the co-located International Conference on Power Engineering (ICOPE). ASME Power and Energy focuses on power generation and energy sustainability and showcases industry best practices, technical advances, development trends, research, and business strategies, presented by a broad range of qualified professionals.

You’ll also gain access to our 2017 co-located events, TurboExpo, the must-attend event for turbo-machinery professionals and ICOPE, the International Conference on Power Engineering (co-sponsored by ASME, JSME, and CSPE). ICOPE is focused on both fundamental and applied topics in power engineering.

Contact www.asme.org/events/power-energy/register

Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 59

HEROES OF THE GRID: STANLEY WHITTINGHAM The creation of the lithium ion battery cell was the work — often collaborative but equally often on a competitive basis — of a handful of scientists around the world. And Stanley Whittingham, as batteries historian Kevin Desmond reports, was one of that elite handful that can claim to be one of the lithium battery’s founding fathers.

Exxon, Whittingham and the joys of lithium It was so 1970s. Diversification was the new name of the corporate game.

And, in 1972 it seemed a no-brainer for Exxon Research and Engineering to look at alternative energy production and storage. So, with the deepest pockets of perhaps the most profitable oil giant in the world, Exxon set about seeking the best scientists in the world for its project.

And among this elite was a 31-yearold graduate, then a more than upand-coming researcher at Stanford University by the name of Stanley Whittingham.

Exxon’s investment in Whittingham and this scientific elite paid off.

Following his investigations of the properties of tantalum disulfide, Whittingham and his colleagues made a remarkable discovery. Their breakthrough? Understanding the role of intercalation electrodes in battery reactions. This would eventually result in the first commercial lithium rechargeable batteries. The batteries were based on a titanium disulfide cathode and a lithium-aluminum anode.

Although other entities including General Motors, Sohio and the US Argonne National Laboratory were developing lithium-based batteries at the same time, only Whittingham’s invention worked at room temperature.

The implications for the oil major — and the rest of the world — could have been tremendous. In 1976, Forbes magazine declared that “the electric car’s rebirth is as sure as the need to end our dependence on imported oil”.

Sadly such enthusiasm had died out by the end of the decade. Profiting from Whittingham’s pioneering break-

through, later on Japan turned lithiumion batteries into a highly profitable industry.

Beginnings

Michael Stanley Whittingham was born near Nottingham in the UK in 1941. His interest in science stemmed from his father, a civil engineer, and his chemistry teacher in school. In the

early 1960s he read inorganic chemistry at Oxford University, obtained his masters in 1967 and his DPhil the year after that.

Whittingham recalls his days in Oxford: “Initially we studied catalytic activity and how all that changed with the changes in the electronic properties of the material. There was a great deal of interest in the crystal structure, or

“We had an incredibly good patent attorney. They would write up your invention and then ask you: why can’t you do it this or that way? And they provoked us into building a battery fully charged or fully discharged.”

60 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

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HEROES OF THE GRID: STANLEY WHITTINGHAM rather the band structure, that controls the catalytic activity.

“We chose a very simple reactant: mainly oxygen atoms, and we just looked at how they recombine at the surface of tungsten bronzes, NaxWO3, because it was very easy to change their catalytic behaviour by changing the amount of sodium.

“This was at the time of Sputnik and the US Air Force paid for the research through their London office. They were interested in how various gaseous species reacted on the surface of their space ships. That was for my Masters.”

Oxford always had a very active programme in solid state. There were three or four faculty there interested in solid-state. His DPhil continued on tungsten oxides and tungsten bronzes and looked at the same materials as catalysts potentially for gas production.

Within a few months of his starting the research, the UK struck natural gas in the North Sea and the sponsor of his research, the Gas Council, changed the emphasis to the mechanism of reduction of the tungsten oxide bronzes, to form tungsten metal.

Whittingham realised that to obtain an academic or an industrial job, he had to go the US, and where better than the warmth of California? In February 1968 he became a postdoctoral fellow, investigating solid-state electrochemistry under professor Robert Huggins at Stanford University.

It was quite a switch.

“In the UK, France, and Germany, solid-state chemistry was a respectable subject,” he recalls. “Chemistry departments did solid-state chemistry.

In the US you could count the number of solid-state chemists on the fingers of one hand. So I went to a materials science department, not to a chemistry department.”

He loved his new-found country and for relaxation he travelled most weekends to the national parks in California and Oregon. And it was in Stanford that he met his wife, Georgina, after she attended the university to get her PhD in Latin-American Literature. His two children and four grandchildren, are all natives of the state.

But the turning point of his career was fast approaching. In 1971, his published findings on fast-ion transport, particularly in the conductivity of the solid electrolyte beta-alumina won Whittingham the Young Author Award of the Electrochemical Society.

And this was the springboard to greater things. “Soon after the award, www.energystoragejournal.com

“We had an incredibly good patent attorney. They would write up your invention and then ask you: why can’t you do it this or that way? And they provoked us into building a battery fully charged or fully discharged.”

A younger Whittingham investigating molecular structure and catalytic activity

I was approached by Ted Geballe, professor of applied physics who had been asked to find people to go to Exxon which was starting up a new corporate research lab in Linden, New Jersey.

Their mission? They wanted to be prepared for the company to survive when oil ran out — a major theme of corporate thinking in the 1970s.

An offer he could not refuse

Although he was torn between a conflicting offer of a job in the material science department at Cornell University, Exxon made Whittingham an offer he could not refuse. They included him in a six-strong interdisciplinary group, led by physical chemist, Fred Gamble, who had also been at Stanford, alongside an organic chemist and several physicists.

“If you needed something for your research you asked for it, and it would

be there in a week. Money was no issue,” Whittingham says. “They invested in a research laboratory like they invested in drilling oil. You expect one out of five wells/ideas to pay off.

The Exxon research team began to look at tantalum disulfides. They found that by intercalating different atoms or molecules between the sheets of tantalum disulphide, they could change the superconductivity transition temperature. The potassium compound showed the highest superconductivity.

Whittingham realized that this compound was very stable, unlike potassium metal so the reaction must involve a lot of energy. So this suggested the possible use for this intercalation reaction for electrical energy storage.

“We looked at lithium and sodium, not potassium, because it turns out that potassium is very dangerous. We Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016 • 61

HEROES OF THE GRID: STANLEY WHITTINGHAM “Money was no issue. They invested in a research laboratory like they invested in drilling oil. You expect one out of five wells/ideas to pay off. If you needed something you asked for it, and it’d be there in days.” also looked at the titanium disulfides, because they are lighter in weight than tantalum, and moreover were good electronic conductors,” he says.

Meanwhile a Japanese company had come out with a carbon fluoride battery which was used by fisherman for night fishing. “And that was a primary battery,” he says. “This was the beginning of interest in lithium batteries.”

Towards the end of 1972 Whittingham and his colleagues informed their Exxon bosses that they had a new battery, and patents were filed within a year. Within a couple of years Exxon Enterprises wheeled out prototype 45Ah lithium cells and started work on hybrid vehicles.

The Exxon battery promised to make a huge impact. At the time, Bell Labs had built up a similar research group, again made up of chemists and physicists from Stanford. “We were competing head-on for a while, also in publications. If you look at our publications on the battery, you will see a lot of basic science with no mention of batteries at all. Exxon came up with the key patents early on,” he says.

attorney. They would write up your invention and then ask you: why can’t you do it this or that way? And they provoked us into building a battery fully charged or fully discharged.” The latter is the way almost all of today’s batteries are constructed.

In 1977, Whittingham teamed up with John Goodenough to publish a book called “Solid State Chemistry of Energy Conversion and Storage”.

To better disseminate information about the field, in 1981, Whittingham launched a new journal Solid State Ionics, which he would edit for the next 20 years.

“Exxon was run by scientists and engineers, not by lawyers or MBAs. Their philosophy was that if you were a good scientist then you might also be a good director,” he says. “So within a few years I became director of their chemical engineering division.

I was responsible for technology, for synthetic fuels in those days, chemical plants, and refineries. It sounded challenging at the time and I stayed there four years.”

But tougher times were just around the corner. “At that time there began Applications of the patents to be greater interest in shale oil and “These early batteries were quite re- coal gasification. It was a boom pemarkable, and some of the smaller riod. My job was to employ as many ones, used for marketing, are sill oper- chemical engineers as I could lay my ating today, more than 35 years later. hands on. But soon the writing was on An Original Lithium Battery “We had an incredibly good patent the wall and theCell slump was coming.

1970s – still working today

1

An original lithium battery cell from the 1970s — and still working

62 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

We started laying off people.”

By this time Whittingham was missing doing any pure scientific research himself. In 1984, he went to work at the Schlumberger-Doll Research Centre in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

“Schlumberger was the RollsRoyce of the oil field. They built very expensive analytical logging equipment which they put down oil wells to determine whether there was any oil down there and what the rock foundations were like. They would put these probes worth millions of dollars down the well, pull them up slowly and you would get wiggles and charts! And if they could reproduce the wiggles they would sell it. It was a very low-key company. In those days they probably made more money than all but two or three of the biggest oil companies.

“What they didn’t have were chemists, those who tried to understand what these measurements actually meant. They did have a large number of physicists and electrical engineers building the instruments. Then they decided to build up a basic rock science group, the job of which was to try to understand what was measured.”

For the next four years, Whittingham headed this analytical group, bringing together instrument builders and chemical engineers. It was more satisfying than his managerial post at Exxon. “But as my wife said, I was doing far too much travel. Schlumberger had labs in Texas, Connecticut, Tokyo, Paris, and Cambridge, England. During my first year I was in the US maybe half of the time.”

The next step

Four years later, with US industrial research activities starting to slow up, Whittingham realised that it was time to move on.

After 16 years in industry, in 1988, he joined the Binghamton campus of the State University of New York as a professor of chemistry to initiate an academic programme in materials chemistry.

By this time Japanese companies, in particular Sony, had made great strides in the commercialization of lithium rechargeable batteries. When Whittingham returned to battery research, the Japanese lead was becoming dominant, embodied in a raft of patents.

For five years, he worked as the university’s vice provost for research and outreach. He also was vice-chair of www.energystoragejournal.com

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Here give us your views about what our industry is doing well (or badly) or just needs to open a discussion, this is where to air your views.

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HEROES OF THE GRID: STANLEY WHITTINGHAM the Research Foundation of the State University of New York for six years.

Whittingham’s group developed a strong effort in the hydrothermal synthesis of new materials, initially of vanadium compounds, then used this technique for making cathode materials, which is now being used commercially for the manufacture of lithium iron phosphate by Phostech/Süd-Chemie in Montreal, Canada.

The group also developed a fundamental understanding of the olivine cathode and of a new tin based anode.

He co-chaired the US Department of Energy study of Chemical Energy Storage in 2007, and is now director of the Northeastern Center for Chemical Energy Storage, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center at Stony Brook University.

Understanding the electrode

This centre has as its goal a fundamental understanding of the electrode reactions in lithium batteries. Without such

This centre has as its goal a fundamental understanding of the electrode reactions in lithium batteries. Without such an understanding the ultimate limits of energy storage will never be met. an understanding the ultimate limits of energy storage will never be met. The centre comprises top scientists from around the country, including MIT, Cambridge, Berkeley and Michigan.

Regarded as one of the fathers of the lithium-ion battery, Whittingham received from the Electrochemical Society the Battery Research Award in 2004, and was elected a fellow in 2006 for his contributions to lithium battery science and technology. In 2010, he received the American Chemical SocietyNERM Award for Achievements in the Chemical Sciences, and the GreentechMedia top 40 innovators for contributions to advancing green technology.

In 2012 he received the Yeager Award

from the International Battery Association for his life-time contributions to lithium batteries.

Still at Binghamton, 71-year-old Stanley Whittingham’s recent work has been focussing on the synthesis and characterization of novel microporous and nano-oxides and phosphates for possible electrochemical and sensor applications. He still travels a lot, visiting around the world as well as relatives in England and our children and grandchildren in the West of the US. In 2012 he wrote “History, Evolution, and Future Status of Energy Storage”, which describes the evolution of lithium batteries and probes into the future.

[IEEE Proceedings, 100, 1518 (2012)]

AND INTO THE FUTURE …

In his own website, Whittingham write “The research interests of the materials chemistry group are in the preparation and chemical and physical properties of novel inorganic oxide materials, using in particular soft chemistry (chimie douce) approaches. Much of our effort is targeted at finding new materials for advancing energy storage and production.

“Recently we have reported the first layered vanadium and molybdenum oxides containing organic cations, simple layered alkali manganese dioxides formed from the hydrothermal decomposition of permanganates, and hydrothermal synthesis methods for the formation of a group of iron phosphates that are being used as the cathodes in a range of commercial applications.

“The chemistry of materials is one of the two areas of chemistry experiencing the greatest growth at the present time both in academic institutions and industry. This popularity can be associated with the pervasiveness of solids throughout our lives, from semiconductors through energy storage to geological/biological systems, and to a number of recent breakthroughs, including high-temperature inorganics

64 • Energy Storage Journal • Autumn 2016

superconductors.

“One of our goals is to find new synthetic routes to prepare metastable compounds that cannot be prepared by traditional techniques. Primary emphasis is on reacting ions in solution with solids, so that the ions diffuse into the solids giving, for example, enhanced superconductivity. In many cases it is possible to form previously unknown open structures, such as layered VO2, by diffusing ions out of existing structures creating vacant tunnels or layers in which chemistry may be performed or separations/ catalysis carried out.

“Another goal is the understanding and exploitation of ionic motion in solids and its use in electrochromic devices and batteries. Here much emphasis is on intercalation compounds of the transition metal oxides,. Closely related is an investigation of aluminosilicates which can swell in the presence of water and other solvents and have been implicated as playing a critical role in diagenetic processes.

These compounds are excellent systems for performing chemistry on the molecular level, and have the potential for revolutionizing the area of nanocomposites.

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