How do electric grids that were state-of-the-art in the 19th Century remain stable and resilient through 21st Century climate disasters and other problems? They don’t, says Catherine Von Burg, CEO and co-founder of distributed battery energy storage company SimpliPhi Power – but giving people the power to be independent can be a solution fit for the future.
The residents of Parlier, a small city in Fresno County, California, are being offered a 20% reduction on their energy bills and reduce the amount of power they buy from utility Pacific Gas & Electric by 90%, by getting solar-plus-storage and energy efficiency equipment installed.
The challenges of explosion prevention – with flammable gases needing to be vented “very rapidly” – in the event of a battery fire have been highlighted at this week’s Energy Storage Summit USA.
The energy storage industry should be well prepared to deal with failure in lithium-ion battery systems so that thermal runaway in a single battery cell never becomes a fire or explosion.
The business case for a range of long-duration storage technologies needs to be addressed to help the US reach its decarbonisation targets, according to the Department of Energy’s director of energy storage research Dr Imre Gyuk.
Based on the value it provides to grids as shares of renewable energy grow, energy storage is a “very exciting market,” the VP of Goldman Sachs Renewable Power has said.
Almost 70% of home solar PV in Germany comes with battery energy storage attached and the country’s residential storage market represented around 2.3GWh of installed capacity by the end of 2020.
An order worth US$14 billion placed by carmaker Volkswagen with lithium-ion battery manufacturer Northvolt will have a “significant” impact on the stationary energy storage market, a spokesman for Northvolt has said.
Stem Inc has revealed its financial results for 2020 ahead of listing on the New York Stock Exchange, admitting that despite expecting a fourfold increase in revenues this year, the company is unlikely to achieve profitability until at least the end of next year.
