The cost of battery energy storage has continued on its trajectory downwards and now stands at US$150 per megawatt-hour for battery storage with four hours’ discharge duration, making it more and more competitive with fossil fuels. Andy Colthorpe spoke to Tifenn Brandily, lead author of BloombergNEF’s latest LCOE report.
Fluence has been able to keep working on “all but two or three” of 73 utility-scale battery projects, with battery energy storage increasingly considered an essential part of grid infrastructure in many parts of the world.
Portugal plans to kickstart next month the solar tender it had postponed as the country began its campaign to contain the COVID-19 emergency, the government has confirmed.
In light of Virginia’s goal to go 100% renewable and clean energy by 2050, utility Dominion Energy has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for 1,000MW of onshore wind and solar and up to 250MW of energy storage as well as laying out longer-term plans.
Contracts have been awarded to 770MW of battery energy storage project proposals by Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the US state of California’s three major investor-owned utilities (IOUs).
Australia’s government-owned green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), has pledged AU$300 million (US$192 million) of existing funding towards “building investor confidence in renewable hydrogen”.
Solar Media’s Liam Stoker and Andy Colthorpe discuss the continuing effects of COVID-19 on worldwide power markets, reflecting on IEA forecasts for historic energy demand lows and what they mean for renewables.
Vanadium redox flow batteries are almost as reliable as diesel generators in providing resiliency, but won’t be competitive against lithium-ion unless cost reductions can be achieved with the scaling up of manufacturing and deployment.
The levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) that can be achieved today for battery energy storage means that “new-build batteries can be competitive on cost with gas peaker plants,” according to BloombergNEF.
