ROUNDUP: Big solar-plus-storage news from Australia, Texas and New Mexico
News in brief from around the world in energy storage: this edition rounds up some recent big solar-plus-storage stories from sister site PV Tech.
Articles tagged with: Hybrid
Hybrid lithium-lead acid Smart Grid Demonstration Project up and running in Poland
A hybrid battery energy storage project aimed at helping authorities and power system operators in Poland better understand how to integrate and expand renewable energy capacity in the country has gone into operation.
Standardised large-scale hydrogen solutions to enable low carbon grids offered by Mitsubishi Power
Mitsubishi Power has launched a simplified approach to commercially integrating hydrogen into energy systems either as long or short duration energy storage, or as a means of balancing the grid as higher shares of renewable energy are added.
Flywheel-lithium battery hybrid energy storage system joining Dutch grid services markets
A hybrid energy storage system combining lithium-ion batteries with mechanical energy storage in the form of flywheels has gone into operation in the Netherlands, from technology providers Leclanché and S4 Energy.
NextEra’s next era in California could see 2,700MW of batteries installed by 2024
US wholesale electricity supplier NextEra Energy Resources has said 700MW of contracted battery energy storage resources it will deploy in California within two years could be followed by a further 2,000MW pipeline of battery projects under development in the state.
Queensland site picked for AU$600m hybrid CSP, thermal storage, PV, battery plant
Australian startup Vast Solar said it has picked a site in Queensland where it could develop a AU$600 million (US$427 million) power plant combining different low emissions technologies to provide baseload power cost-effectively over a 30-year lifetime.
Enel targets 1GW of battery deployment alongside major renewables push
Enel Green Power has broken ground on its first solar-storage hybrid project in the US, setting its sights on deploying 1GW of energy storage over the next two years in the process.
Value of storage goes up with share of renewables but costs declines still vital, new study finds
The value of energy storage increases with growing shares of renewable energy on the grid, but the availability and cost of storage will determine how successful decarbonisation with renewables can be.
Feature
Analysis
VIDEO: Predicting the energy storage tech of the future
While lithium-ion batteries continue to take the dominant share of new installations by some distance, there are a variety of other technologies looking to complement, combine or even compete. Panellists at the Energy Storage Digital Series looked at the questions of which energy storage technologies are the likeliest contenders for that future.
Statkraft signs ‘hybrid’ PPA, optimisation contract for UK solar-plus-storage facility
The contract is for the 35MW hybrid York solar farm designed and constructed by developer GRIDSERVE, which was completed late last year.
Large-scale renewables-plus-storage projects in US more than doubled from 2016 to 2019
The number of sites pairing renewable energy with energy storage in the US more than doubled from 2016 to 2019 and the trend is expected to continue, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
US has 69GW of hybrid renewables-plus-battery projects in interconnection queues
With a quarter of all solar project proposals in the US including batteries, transmission grid operators across the country are taking a variety of steps to evaluate the role that can be played in wholesale electricity markets by hybrid power plants - defined as generation coupled with energy storage.
Convergent completes oil refinery battery storage project for Shell Canada
Convergent Energy & Power’s first projects out of a joint venture with Shell have come online, while GE Renewable Energy touted the imminent implementation of the country’s ‘first hybrid electric gas turbine’ project.
Hornsdale developer Neon’s proposed hybrid projects for Australia get bigger and bigger
Neoen, the French developer which partnered with Tesla on the 129MWh large-scale battery at Hornsdale Wind Farm, South Australia, wants to build an energy superpark in the state that comprises 1.2GW of wind, 600MW of solar and 800MW of battery storage capacity.
Africa’s ‘largest off-grid solar hybrid’ goes online at Nigerian University BUK
The latest project to be switched on in Nigeria’s solar electrification programme for universities is also thought to be the largest ‘hybrid’ plant of its kind on the African continent so far, inaugurated this week at Bayero University Kano (BUK).
Aussie university installs 7MW ‘water battery’ to reduce intensive AC energy use
Energy use by air conditioning can be both expensive and taxing for the environment, with the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, set to trial a three-storey ‘water battery’ to reduce both energy demand and cost.
‘One generation to end fossil fuels’: BMW supplies batteries to big Dutch hybrid renewables plant
European energy company Vattenfall is combining a 22MW wind power plant with 38MW of solar PV at a hybrid project in the Netherlands, integrating the capacity with 12MWh of batteries from carmaker BMW.
100MWh ASEAN ‘pathfinder’ project for Wärtsilä
Wärtsilä remains tight-lipped on the exact location of a hybrid power plant including 100MW / 100MWh energy storage in Southeast Asia which will “leverage abundant wind and solar resources”.
Oklahoma picked out for NextEra’s next big wind-solar-battery hybrid
Wholesale electricity supplier NextEra Energy Resources will be deploying a major US complex combining solar, wind and storage batteries, a mix the broader NextEra group sees as increasingly promising.
Feature
Guest blog
Hybrid theory, in practice: energy storage as key to Australia’s energy ‘revolution’
Australia may be one of the leading major economies in terms of renewable deployments, but it’s woefully underprepared at a network level to actually make the transition...
NV Energy seeks hundreds of MWh of energy storage as utility mulls life-after-coal
NV Energy has unveiled ambitions for a solar-plus-storage boom over five years, cementing its position among the US players tapping into the increasingly cost-efficient hybrid.
Salmon fishing in Alaska gets a battery-powered renewable boost
Cordova, Alaska, is isolated from the grid, but fortunate to be blessed with hydropower resources - and now a 1MWh battery storage system will help this coastal Arctic community increase its self-reliance in a “harsh and unforgiving climate”.
‘World’s largest’ renewable energy storage project to launch in Utah from MHPS
Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) and Magnum Development, owner and operator of the only known “Gulf Coast” style domal-quality salt formation in the western US, have launched an initiative that will see the start of the development for the Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) project in central Utah. Tabbed by MHPS as the world’s largest project of its kind, the ACES initiative will develop 1GW of renewable energy storage.
‘World first’ grid-scale lithium-vanadium hybrid project will be in the UK
Pivot Power will collaborate with manufacturer and system integrator redT on what is claimed to be the world’s first grid-scale hybrid battery energy storage project to use a combination of lithium-ion and vanadium technologies.
Australian gold mine will rent ‘storage-as-a-service’ to power operations
A megawatt-scale energy storage system will be rented out to power a gold mine in Western Australia by Aggreko, the mobile power solutions company which bought up energy storage provider Younicos last year.
Scarcity of land inspires Dominican Republic’s ‘floating’ gas-plus-battery hybrid platform
A natural gas power plant that floats on water will be built in the Dominican Republic and equipped with a battery energy storage system supplied by Fluence.
Remote Scottish island uses ultracaps, flywheels in hybrid microgrid to go (almost) 100% renewable
The remote Isle of Eigg, one of the Scottish Hebridean islands, is now host to a hybrid microgrid which incorporates flywheels and ultracapacitors for high power functions as well as solar, batteries, wind and diesel backup.
Masdar to build solar-plus-storage project integrated with existing wind plant in the Seychelles
Masdar, Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, has partnered with the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) of the Seychelles to build a 5MW solar PV plant with 5MW / 3.3MWh of battery storage.
CWP proceeding with 1.3GW renewables-plus-storage plans in New South Wales
Three more vast projects pairing battery energy storage with utility-scale renewable energy installations are in the pipeline in New South Wales, Australia, through developer CWP Renewables.
Batteries for gas: Australia’s Origin claims a first with grid-connected lithium-peaker plant combo
A modestly-sized grid-scale battery will be installed at a natural gas plant in Queensland, Australia, boosting the efficiency of the existing power station and providing emergency backup, as well as helping integrate local renewable energy.