Cross-party backing for a new fossil fuel power plant in Australia has been criticised by experts and clean energy industry voices, who have said battery storage would be a more viable option to provide peaking capacity. 

Augmentation at the Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California has been completed, with the world’s biggest battery energy storage system (BESS) now at 400MW / 1,600MWh. 

With coal on its way out and decarbonisation across many parts of the US now an integral part of state level policies, could the demise of natural gas be the next step? Gas is seen by many as an interim solution in the energy transition and provides flexibility to energy networks that have adopted a greater share of renewables, but the tide could be turning against this last great dinosaur of the fossil age.

SimpliPhi Power has made some bold choices in the decade that the company has been active, leveraging key technologies to “satisfy different pain points around energy”. Andy Colthorpe hears from CEO Catherine Von Burg about why chemistry matters in the push for clean energy.

Standalone energy storage can challenge new gas peaker plants as a “mainstream” option in the US right now, Fluence has said.

Southern California Edison, one of the US’ top-ranking utilities for energy storage capacity already deployed, has signed contracts for seven more projects, totalling 195MW in its California service area.

In the hierarchy of grid needs, peaking power is often a priority in terms of providing resiliency and balance to the network. This is usually provided by natural gas turbines, which come at a high environmental and economic cost. Andy Colthorpe charts the rise of the solar-plus-storage peaker plant.

While a tranche of seven solar-plus-storage projects under proposal in Hawaii would see renewable energy make its biggest competitive play against fossil fuels in the US island state so far, a project just completed will deliver energy well into the evening at just US$0.11 per kWh.