Energy security is a growing concern for economies across the world with electricity outages currently costing economies billions of dollars annually, driving electricity prices up. The US experienced nearly 700 power outages caused by severe weather between 2003 and 2012, costing the country up to US$70 billion annually.
Will the Indian battery market scenario witness a major change? As the power supply in the country continues to be unreliable, the role of batteries has to change from being an emergency back-up solution to a long time power/energy storage solution.
Just 3–4% of electricity generated by utilities globally is stored today, according to the International Energy Agency. This is despite the fact that storage can help overcome the energy ‘trilemma’ of curbing rising energy prices, the need to ensure the security of supply and creating a low carbon economy. So, what’s the hold-up? Taking the UK as his starting point but with lessons transferrable to other regions, Roger Lin of NEC Energy Solutions explains and counters some of the myths that stand in its way.
Dean Frankel of Lux Research blogs about utility Southern California Edison’s recent 235MW award of battery-based energy storage projects, a decision which surpassed their 50MW requirement by some distance and was described as “monumental” by one trade advocacy group when it emerged. Frankel examines the procurement in detail and looks at some of the questions that remain as-yet unanswered by the announcement.
Dr Rahul Walawalkar, founder and executive director of the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), on why his organisation is excited by the promises of the Modi government, how he hopes the decade between 2015 and 2025 will be one of “energy infrastructure transformation” for the country and the role energy storage and microgrids might play in that transition.
The increased growth in urbanisation is putting a strain on our energy, transportation, water, buildings and public spaces, so solutions need to be found which are ‘smart’, i.e. both highly efficient and sustainable on the one hand, as well as generating economic prosperity and social wellbeing on the other.
In the UK, the National Grid has recently warned the government that its capacity to supply electricity is at a seven-year low due to recent generator closures, fires and outages. The margin of capacity over demand is expected to be just 4% this winter.
One of the U.S.‘s largest investor-owned energy utilities, Consolidated Edison (Con Edison), is planning to spend US$200 million on demand reduction technologies. Con Edison has filed a proposal with the New York Public Utilities Commission for a Brooklyn/Queens Demand Management Program (BQDM) that it hopes can defer the US$1 billion cost of building a new substation and expanding two existing ones.
The developing economies of the world are largely located in geographical regions that have abundant renewable energy resources, be they solar, wind, hydro or in some cases geothermal, yet paradoxically at the individual and rural community level, access to energy is often a very real issue. Establishing a continuous chain of temperature controlled cold environments from the point of harvest to the marketplace and on into the home, a ‘cold chain’, is what is required in order to avoid produce spoilage and to connect farmers with higher value market options in distant urban centres or overseas.
A team at Harvard is pursuing a metal-free battery chemistry based on organic molecules called Quinones. The technology potentially offers an abundant and safe material to use for scaling up flow batteries, but according to the energy storage team at Lux Research in Boston, there are significant limitations based on project cost.
