The Israeli Planning Administration has approved a new set of regulations for energy storage. Set out as a national outline plan, the new regulation deals with the capacities of different energy storage facilities, where they can be built and under what conditions.

“The plan will allow the deployment of storage units next to PV plants, gas stations and houses. That will help regulate energy consumption under high demand,” the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure said in a statement. “On the backdrop of the war in Gaza, energy storage can maintain energy for few hours under emergency conditions.”

According to the plan's original papers from January 2023, storage of up to 600 kWh can be built on any land, under some caveats. Bigger storage facilities of up to 5 MWh are allowed on any land, with the exceptions of agricultural land, scenic land, protected land or in the vicinity of a river.

Larger storage facilities, of up to 16 MWh, will only be allowed on land with specific uses. Among permitted lands are those for industrial use, parking lots and public buildings. More extensive storage of more than 16 MWh is not regulated in this program.

In addition, the new regulation sets environmental terms, safety terms, and water safety terms.

“Storage infrastructure improves the potential of renewable energy use,” the ministry added. “This regulation plan was made to support it, as based on it, permits for construction of such facilities can be issued.”

The Atlantic Council says that the DOE's announcement represents the most substantial public investment in US hydrogen and noted that California and Texas are the hubs of clean hydrogen activities, with a future outlook for blue hydrogen. However, the council mentioned a missed opportunity for hydrogen use in long-haul trucking. To address this, the Atlantic Council made recommendations for policymakers, suggesting a focus on cost sharing for demand-side projects within the H2Hub funding derived from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

From pv magazine USA

Enphase has announced the launch of its IQ EV charger for charging electric vehicles at home. The microinverter and home energy storage provider said that the chargers offer between 31 miles (49.8 km) and 61 miles of range charging per hour on its fast chargers.

The EV charger can be paired with Enphase solar and energy storage systems. It handles Wi-Fi connections and includes smart control and monitoring capabilities.

The devices can be coordinated to help solar and battery owners maximize electricity cost savings by charging directly from solar production. With a home battery, the Enphase system enables vehicle charging even when there is a grid power outage.

IQ EV chargers come in 32 A, 48 A, and 64 A configurations, which offer 7.7 kW, 9.6 kW, and 15.4 kW max power respectively.

Each charger has NEMA 6-50P, and 14-50P rated input cables, which are hardwired. It has a ruggedized J1772 connector for universal compatibility and a 25-foot charge cable. The device is rated for both indoor and outdoor use. They come with a five-year warranty from Enphase and is backed with a 24-7 customer support line from Enhpase.

“As a solar contractor that has installed Enphase microinverters for my customers since 2009, I’m glad to see the IQ EV Chargers join Enphase’s product ecosystem,” said Louis Woofenden, owner and engineering director, Net Zero Solar. “I was excited to try out this improved smart charger on the Enphase platform with ClipperCreek heritage. It’s so helpful to be able to easily schedule charge times, manually start and stop charging my EV, and monitor my EV energy use – all from the Enphase App on my phone.”

The 32 A device starts retail at $732 while the 64 A device retails at $1,176 on the Enphase site. Enphase is positioning its charger, microinverter and home battery as a “one-stop-shop” for home energy solutions.

“Installing an EV charger with a solar and battery system simply makes sense and can reduce overall installation costs,” said Jayant Somani, president and general manager, digital business for Enphase Energy.

Illinois-based ELM Solar, the US reseller of UK-based Naked Energy's solar thermal and photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems, has installed 240 of the British company's TÜV-certified collectors at a student dormitory at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

The university student residence installation is claimed to generate solar heat up to 120 C, with an annual peak capacity of 69.9 kW thermal energy. It is the first North American project for the British company.

The VirtuHOT HD collector uses a heat plate to absorb the sun’s energy and transfers it to the solar fluid to a high-efficiency heat plate. The absorber plate has a low emissivity coding reducing radiative heat loss. The vacuum in the glass tube reduces additional heat loss, resulting in a maximum of efficiency.

Naked Energy also makes PVT systems in a vacuum tube form with an absorber plate, conventional silicon solar cells, a borosilicate glass tube, and an integrated reflector in a mounting system with a 25.4 cm profile.

The absorbers can be tilted towards the sun optimising performance on pitched roofs, flat roofs, and vertical facades. A single tube unit measures 2,165 mm x 300 mm x 265 mm and weighs 20.9 kg. Its aperture area is 0.64 m2 and the absorber area is 0.331 m2. Its peak thermal output is 275 W and the electrical output is 70 W.

“The business development teams at ELM Solar and Naked Energy are currently in conversations with a variety of leads in the United States,” Christophe Williams, Naked Energy CEO, told pv magazine, noting that potential customers in the US range from paper and pulp manufacturers, health care facilities and restaurants, to pilot projects with international utility companies.

“Solar heat technology has enormous potential because it takes the task of heating water, a major energy cost in any building, either off the power or gas grid, resulting in financial and carbon savings for the building owner,” said Lee C. Graves, chairman, ELM Companies, owner of ELM Solar.

According to its CEO, Naked Energy is developing a software platform to ease the planning and modeling of new PVT installations, including cost, performance, and return on investment calculations for PV-generated electricity, solar heating and cooling. Williams also said that a first German project is slated to start construction in January, without providing further details.

Naked Energy claims that its technology quadruples the reduction of greenhouse gases per square meter compared to traditional solar PV panels.

The article was amended on October 20, 2023 to reflect that it was a thermal system and not a PVT system as originally reported.

According to Siemens Energy, hydrogen is produced on site with a 1 MW electrolyzer, stored in a 1 ton tank to power a Siemens Energy SGT-400 industrial gas turbine.

A group of scientists from South Korea's Rural Development Administration, an agriculture organization under the country's Ministry of Agriculture, has created an energy system based on photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panels and a ground-source heat pump.

The system is intended to provide cooling and heating to greenhouses.

“In Korea, geothermal energy is widely used as renewable energy for agriculture, but if geothermal heat is used for a long time, the heat source becomes insufficient,” the agency said, noting that covering around 10% of the greenhouse's roof with PVT panels may easily compensate for this typical shortcoming of geothermal energy. 

The researchers said the PVT panels are able to produce hot water at temperatures ranging between 30 C and 40 C. “This is then used as a heat source for the heat pump to produce hot water at temperatures ranging from 48 C to 50 C, which is a suitable range for greenhouse heating,” they explained.

In spring, summer, and fall, when heating is not needed, the heat produced by the PV panels is sent to the groundwater layer, stored, and used to heat the greenhouse in winter.

The PVT system used in the project has an overall efficiency of 73% and is able to achieve an electricity output of 3 kW and a heat output of 7.9 kW of heat occupying a roof surface of around 18㎡. The presence of the PVT panels, according to the research group, allowed them to reduce the installed capacity of the existing geothermal system by up to 30%.

The researchers conducted an economic analysis of the system performance and found it may reduce heating and cooling costs in a greenhouse by up to 78% compared to diesel generators. They also estimated that the system may achieve a payback time of 4.4 years. “The PVT panels can increase the energy saving rate of a greenhouse by 20% compared to existing geothermal systems,” the researchers added.

The Rural Development Administration said it has applied for a patent for this technology and plans to distribute it to Korean farmers.

“The price of electricity for agricultural use is rising, putting a huge burden on farm management,” said the agency. “We are actively using new and renewable energy such as solar power, heat, and geothermal heat to reduce the costs and achieve carbon neutrality.”

From pv magazine USA

LG Energy Solutions is set to launch a new residential energy storage system in the US market in November. The enblock S products are stackable, modular lithium-ion batteries designed for easy installation. 

A list of LG installers can be found here.

From pv magazine USA

Texas-based Plus Power announced financing commitments of $1.8 billion to advance five large-scale battery energy storage projects totaling 2.76 GW/h. The company reports that the transactions will support construction and operations of the portfolio and include construction financing, term financing, letters of credit, and tax equity investments, in partnership with 11 leading industry lenders and investors.

The recent financing includes $707 million for the 250 MW Sierra Estrella Energy Storage facility in Avondale, Arizona, which is expected to be the largest standalone battery facility in Arizona once online. This financing is in addition to initial funding of $903 million.

“Over the last year, Plus Power has raised an unparalleled amount of capital for standalone storage projects from a wide range of leading energy project finance banks and investors,” said Josh Goldstein, chief financial officer of Plus Power. “This capital will support the ongoing buildout of the largest and most diverse portfolio of standalone storage projects in the US. The scale highlights our first-mover advantage in bringing high-quality projects to market as well as the tremendous work by our fantastic team.”

The Sierra Estrella facility is one of two battery storage projects the Salt River Project (SRP) announced in fall of 2022 with Plus Power, with both projects scheduled to come online by summer of 2024. The other, a 90 MW / 360 MWh project is called Superstition Energy Storage, which is planned for Gilbert, Arizona.

Norddeutsche Landesbank and Société Générale acted as coordinating lead arrangers while Mizuho, US Bank, Bank of America, CoBank, and Siemens Financial Services were joint lead arrangers.

The financing for the SRP facilities includes:

• Sierra Estrella (250 MW/1,000 MW/h): $202 million of tax equity from Bank of America coupled with a $505 million construction, term loan, and letter of credit facility.
• Superstition Energy Storage (90 MW/360 MWh): $196 million construction, term loan and letter of credit facility.

The completed transactions were financings totaling $884 million to support construction of 700 MW of batteries on the ERCOT grid in Texas in the Ebony, Anemoi and Rodeo Ranch energy storage projects. Plus Power reports that while the Ebony and Anemoi projects are expected to operate as merchant resources in the ERCOT wholesale market, Plus Power executed an innovative hedge for Goldman Sachs’ commodities group for a portion of the Rodeo Ranch Energy Storage facility. The three storage facilities are expected to be operational next summer and are designed to bring stability to the ERCOT grid during high demand.

The financing for these projects brings Plus Power’s current ERCOT portfolio to 1.57 GW/h. Deutsche Bank and First Citizens Bank were the coordinating lead arrangers, with First Citizens Bank as the administrative agent and Siemens Financial Services, Inc. acting as the joint lead arranger.

The financing for the three ERCOT projects includes:

• Rodeo Ranch Energy Storage (300 MW/600 MW/h): $212.2 million of tax equity financing from Foss & Company, as well as $276 million of construction and term financing, for the Rodeo Ranch Energy Storage facility in Pecos.
• Ebony Energy Storage (200 MW/400 MW/h): $196 million of construction and term financing.
• Anemoi Energy Storage (200 MW/400 MW/h) $200 million of construction and term financing.

Plus Power expects the Ebony and Anemoi projects to operate as merchant resources in the ERCOT wholesale market, while the company reportedly executed an innovative hedge for Goldman Sachs’ commodities group for a portion of the Rodeo Ranch Energy Storage facility.

“These financings demonstrate Nord/LB’s commitment to the battery energy storage sector as the bank continues to play a prominent role financing strategic assets to support the energy transition as part of the broader mission to achieve a net neutral, carbon free grid,” said Sondra Martinez, managing director, Nord/LB. “We look forward to continuing the strong relationship with Plus Power to support both our company’s goals of decarbonizing the energy grid with high-quality projects.”

Plus Power currently has a growing portfolio of large-scale lithium-ion battery systems in more than 25 states and Canada, and the company reports that it is executing on 10 GW of interconnection capacity now in transmission interconnection queues.

From pv magazine USA

Flexrack by Qcells and Alltrade Industrial Contractors, an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company, are partnering on the construction of two solar projects in Alberta, both with bifacial solar modules on fixed-tilt trackers.

The 81 MW Scotford project is expected to be the largest behind-the-meter solar project in Canada. Additionally, the 101 MW Saddlebrook project includes the future addition of a flow battery energy storage system, projected to be one of the first of its kind in North America.

The projects are currently under construction and are providing hundreds of local jobs. Both projects are expected to complete construction by the fourth quarter of 2023.

The Saddlebrook project will be owned and operated by an energy infrastructure company, with operations in natural gas, oil and power industries. The project is partially supported by Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA). Projects range from new solar opportunities in coal-impacted communities to electrification of transportation to energy storage and more.

Once complete, the electricity produced by the Saddlebrook project will feed into the Alberta Interconnected Electric System (AIES) through a new 138 kV substation located on the project land. In total, the project is expected to directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 73,600 tons of carbon dioxide per year, or the equivalent of taking nearly 16,000 cars off the road.

Alltrade is constructing the Saddlebrook Solar Project in a joint venture partnership with SkyFire Energy, a solar contractor serving Western Canada.

The 81 MW Scotford project is expected to power a global oil producer’s refinery complex, which supports the fossil fuel company in achieving its goal of net zero emissions by 2050. The project is expected to contribute approximately $200,000 a year on a levelized basis to the Strathcona County local government and school system.

“We are excited to be able to work alongside our longtime partners at Alltrade in Canada again to both support fossil fuel companies in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions as well as deliver more renewable energy to local communities,” said Ken Mack, head of Flexrack by Qcells.

Flexrack by Qcells offers custom-designed, fixed-tilt ground-mount and single-axis solar tracking systems in the commercial and utility-scale solar mounting industries. The company has completed more than 4 GW of solar racking installations in over 40 U.S. states, nine Canadian provinces and across the globe. One of its notable projects is the 1.3 MW Jimmy Carter Sumpter project in Plains, Georgia.

Alltrade provides EPC services, specializing in ground-mount solar. The company has 1 GW of utility-scale project experience in Canada.

North American manufacturer Ecoflow has launched a “retrofit” residential battery solution that it claims can be easily integrated with existing rooftop PV arrays.

“Unlike conventional DC-coupled or AC-coupled battery systems, PowerOcean DC Fit uses EcoFlow's PV-coupling technology to directly connect with existing home solar energy systems on the PV side – meaning users don't need to install additional storage inverters,” the manufacturer said in a statement.

The battery uses lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo4) as the cathode material and is based on a self-adaptive algorithm that the manufacturer said makes the system compatible with most of the existing solar single-phase and three-phase inverters that are already in use in existing PV installations.

“Using EcoFlow's unique PV-coupling technology, the PowerOcean DC Fit connects its batteries directly with solar panels. Users can leave the AC wiring as it is and don't have to apply for an on-grid permit,” the company stated.

The storage system measures 680 mm x 183 mm x 479 mm and weighs 59.2 kg. It has a capacity of 5 kWh and is expandable to 15 kWh. It also features an output voltage range of 150-800 V and a maximum output current of 20 A.

The new product is IP65-rated and reportedly has a lifecycle of more than 6,000 cycles.

“Each battery pack is connected parallelly and equipped with the EcoFlow BMS (Battery Management System) to prevent one battery's issues from affecting other packs,” the manufacturer said, noting that the new product comes with a 15-year warranty.

From pv magazine Australia

A team of researchers from Monash University’s Faculty of Engineering have developed a new lithium-sulphur (Li-S) battery design featuring a nanoporous polymer-coated lithium foil anode that “significantly” improves the number of times the battery can be cycled.

Lead researcher Declan McNamara said when compared with similar coated lithium anode systems, the polymer coating cell has exhibited outstanding performance across a range of metrics.

“This coating is a step towards highly efficient, easily manufactured Li-S batteries,” he said.

Li-S battery technology continues to prove popular among researchers and commercial developers, with the potential for the metallic lithium and sulphur combination to deliver more energy per gram than lithium-ion batteries.

The technology does however have its limitations. Typically, Li-S batteries contain a lithium anode (negative electrode) and sulphur cathode (positive electrode) with a separating layer. When the battery charges and discharges, the lithium and sulphur react which leads to the formation of polysulfides, rapidly reducing the battery performance.

“Metallic lithium is a bit of a double-edged sword,” McNamara said. “Lithium is packed full of energy, but in a bad battery, this energy is wasted on side reactions. On the other hand, if the energy is channelled correctly, it can make some incredible energy storage devices that are easier to make.”

In this new battery configuration, the researchers at Monash have coated a lithium foil anode with a nanoporous polymer which they say allows the lithium ions to move through while protecting the anode from corrosive sulphur compounds.

“The polymer contains tiny holes less than a nanometre in size, one billionth of a metre, which allow lithium ions to move freely while blocking other chemicals that would attack the lithium,” McNamara said. “The coating also acts as a scaffold for lithium, and helps it charge and discharge repeatedly.”

In their paper, the researchers said that the polymer coated anode had exhibited improved capacity retention over 275 cycles, adding that the new design reduces the amount of lithium required in a single battery and does not require nickel or cobalt, removing the need for minerals that have a significant environmental and social cost.

Mainak Majumder, from Monash’s Faculty of Engineering, said these developments are promising steps toward more widespread adoption of Li-S batteries and other lithium metal-based energy storage systems.

“The study establishes a new framework to protect Li-metal from rapid decay or catastrophic failure which has been an Achilles heel for Li-S batteries,” he said.

The turbulent weather seen in recent months across Europe and beyond – crippling heatwaves, thunderous storms, and catastrophic floods – has once again highlighted the need to tackle the climate crisis by reducing our carbon footprint, and to transition to net zero as quickly as is humanly possible.

The United Kingdom government’s U-turn on some of its net zero commitments has placed an even greater emphasis on the role local authorities can and must play in creating a cleaner, healthier environment.

Members of the Key Cities network have shown a high level of ambition and proactive action in terms of achieving net zero, with many developing strategies, forming strong partnerships between community and private enterprise, and delivering successful projects across various sectors.

Crucial to these efforts is the development of sustainable energy. One technology which has attracted the attention of our Key Cities members has been solar power. Along with wind, solar offers the promise of renewable, sustainable energy and the creation of the infrastructure needed to collect and channel it is almost certain to lead to the creation of thousands of new, well-paid jobs.

Like many people, members of the Key Cities network were interested to hear, earlier in the year, of government plans to back technology which would, in effect, collect energy from the sun out in space using satellite-mounted panels and beam it back down to Earth.

It will doubtless take years to develop but as scientists work on this and other schemes to develop much-needed sustainable energy security, closer to home, Key Cities members have been making their own contribution toward greening our energy and power networks.

Findings

As spelled out in our “Levelling Up, Emissions Down: Accelerating Net Zero across the Key Cities” report, the United Kingdom has made significant progress in lowering carbon dioxide emissions in the last 30 years, with a reduction of 73.4% between 1990 and 2021, largely as a result of the closure of coal fired power stations and increased investment in low-carbon energy sources such as solar, wind, and nuclear energy.

There is still much work to be done but many of our network members have already embraced the challenge of creating more sustainable energy solutions. As well as having a significant environmental impact in these areas, these examples highlight the potential of solar power, should it be adopted more widely across the country. The English city of Wolverhampton has worked with the its local National Health Service hospital trust to install a 6.9 MW solar farm on a former landfill site to direct renewable energy to the hospital, meeting 70% of its electricity needs. In the English town of Blackpool, a major solar farm located alongside the city’s airport will provide sustainable energy to a nearby business enterprise zone.

In the Welsh city of Newport, a partnership with the Sustainable Communities Wales initiative driven by environmental charity Severn Wye and the Wales Cooperative has ensured 2,000 solar panels will be installed at the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome. This is expected to reduce the city council’s carbon emissions by 348 tons per year and will generate 1,973,MWh of electricity annually.

Funding secured through United Kingdom government body the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS) has enabled the English metropolitan borough of Salford to install 2,562 solar panels on 21 public buildings across the city, generating 778 MWh per year. Four sites have also had battery energy storage systems installed and the 3.79 hectare Little Hulton solar farm, also funded through the PSDS, will triple energy generation.

These are encouraging examples but challenges remain. According to national electricity network operator National Grid, the United Kingdom government’s target of 50 GW of offshore wind by 2030 will require six times the amount of transmission infrastructure that was delivered in the past 30 years.

Local projects also require changes to the grid. One city in the Key Cities network is aiming to deliver 300 MW of renewable energy to meet its net zero targets; to date it has delivered 50 MW, with another 100 MW in the pipeline. Without an upgrade to the grid, however, it is unable to deliver more than this until post-2028 at the earliest, which will result in the city being unable to meet its net zero targets.

Economic benefits

The path to net zero is not only being driven by a need to address the encroaching climate crisis. Net zero solutions increasingly offer returns to the economy, over and above the economic benefits of preventing global warming. For example, renewable energy generation increasingly competes in cost terms with fossil fuels while the prices of solar and onshore wind have fallen by 88% and 68%, respectively, since 2010.

Investing in net zero solutions will have a range of other economic and social benefits, including job creation, improved energy security, and improved public health due to a fall in air pollution. Clearly, the road to net zero is not only essential to prevent climate change, but also to support the economies of places around the United Kingdom.

While local authorities are making significant contributions to achieve net-zero, greater autonomy through devolved powers and funding would significantly expedite progress and help overcome challenges such as capacity building across councils and the clarification of roles in the national net-zero transition. This is where the power of the network comes in, enabling Key Cities to harness the talents of both the community and the private sector, leading the charge towards a sustainable energy network and a climate-conscious future.

About the author: Cllr John Merry is chair of the Key Cities network and deputy mayor of Labour-led Salford City Council.

From pv magazine Spain

Spanish company nTeaser has launched a new online platform to help investors to buy wind and solar projects from renewable energy developers in Spain.

“We have already published co-developments for almost 2 GW of projects in Spain, which has generated a lot of interest from investors and has received a few good offers, and we will soon publish another 100 MW storage project from another developer, also in co-development,” nTeaser's founder, Carmen Izquierdo, told pv magazine. “We are in talks with other developers to upload their smaller, but more advanced battery projects.”

The solar projects to be included in the platform have capacities ranging from 5 MW to 10 MW. Izquierdo said that a developer with substantial experience in wind power is currently seeking a financial partner for the 2 GW storage project.

“We believe that the batteries are going to hit hard. Although there is still little visibility, the big ones are already positioning themselves well,” said Izquierdo.

Netherlands-based Triple Solar BV has launched a thermal battery for residential applications.

The manufacturer said the thermal storage system can be used in combination with its heat pumps. “Compared to a traditional hot water boiler, the thermal battery is up to four times smaller,” it said in a statement.

Triple Solar sells the new product in three different sizes. The smallest battery measures 640 mm x 365 mm x 575 mm and weighs 136 kg. It features a heat loss rate of 0.67 kWh/day and its capacity is 167 l.

The medium-sized device has a size of 870 mm x 365 mm x 575 mm, a weight of 187 kg and a capacity of 217 l. It has a heat loss rate of 0.77 kWh/day. The largest product has dimensions of 1,050 mm x 365 mm x 575 mm and weighs in at 233 kg. Its capacity is 333 l and it has a heat loss rate of 0.84 kWh/day.

All products operate at a maximum pressure of 10 bars and can reportedly provide hot water at temperatures ranging from 45C to 55 C, with minimum heat source temperature ranging between 65 C and 80 C.

“Households and their homes are becoming smaller and smaller. As a result, there is often no room for a large boiler,” said the company's COO, Cees Mager. “The thermal battery is so compact that it even fits in a kitchen cupboard.”

Triple Solar began selling the new thermal battery on October 12. The Dutch company also manufactures heat pumps and photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panels.

From pv magazine Australia

Boundary Power, a union between West Australian regional utility Horizon Power and Victoria-based electric engineering company Ampcontrol, has officially launched a standalone power system (SAPS) that uses solar power and a renewable hydrogen hydride battery to store and generate electricity when required.

Adam Champion, business development manager for renewables at Ampcontrol, said while the Hydrogen Integrated Stand-Alone Power System (HiSAP), is not yet commercially available, it has been created to explore technical factors across design, integration and operation.

“We will be using these learnings as input into our future renewable energy products,” he said.

The first of the HiSAPS, developed in conjunction with Sydney-based hydrogen energy storage system specialist Lavo and Melbourne-headquartered inverter manufacturer Selectronic Australia, has been installed at Ampcontrol’s LED manufacturing facility at Ringwood in Victoria.

Boundary Power General Manager Simon Duggan said the system uses the company’s Solar Qube, an integrated, foldout, solar-battery-generator combination. However, the traditional diesel generator has been swapped out for a self-contained hydrogen power system developed by Lavo.

“Through the collaboration with Lavo and Selectronic we’ve been able to come up with a uniquely designed solution that paves the way for what we can do in the future with standalone powers systems and renewable energy generation,” he said. “It allows us to demonstrate the capabilities of this Solar Qube unit being powered by a hydrogen electrolyser and storage system rather than using your traditional diesel generator. This is a really, really, really exciting time.”

The demonstration unit includes two systems. The standalone SAPS comprises a 4 kWp rack-mounted solar array, a 16 kWh battery energy storage system and a 7.5 kW inverter. This is coupled with a 20 kWh metal hydride hydrogen energy storage system (HESS) with an additional 6 kWp solar array (part of a rooftop array at the Ringwood facility) and 5 kWh of battery storage. The HESS also incorporates its own 2.3 kW electrolyser and 3 kW fuel cell to ensure all hydrogen used is renewably created on site.

“One of the unique things about the HiSAPS unit compared to standard stand-alone power systems is that it generates its own fuel internally,” Ampcontrol Research Engineer Thomas Steigler said. “It’s generating hydrogen and storing that within the unit.”

The entire system, including communications equipment for integration into metering and reporting systems, is contained within a weatherproof enclosure.

The newly unveiled demonstration unit will supply solar power to Ampcontrol’s Ringwood facility during daylight hours to meet daytime energy demand. Excess energy will be used to charge the battery energy storage system (BESS) and then the HESS. The BESS will be discharged to meet the power demand at night and during peak periods. The HESS will meet energy demand gaps where solar and BESS energy are not available.

The project was partly funded by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) Victoria as part of the state government’s Renewable Hydrogen Commercialisation Pathways Fund.

Duggan said the project has offered an insight into the technology required to build hydrogen systems to store and provide electricity and the demonstration plant will provide crucial insight into the technical, regulatory and safety aspects of integrating hydrogen systems into a standalone power system.

“The funding allowed us to collaborate with experts in the field to design an innovative solution to demonstrate real-world application, paving the way for future commercialisation of HiSAPS,” he said.

From pv magazine USA

The first of three Origis Energy projects that combine 550 MW of solar and 150 MW of energy storage have begun construction in Mississippi. The projects are expected to deliver electricity to customers in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) service territory.

Golden Triangle I is a 200 MWac project with 50 MW of battery storage, expected to be completed in summer 2024. Golden Triangle II, a 150 MWac project containing 50 MW of battery storage, is planned to be completed in spring 2024. These projects are located in Lowndes County, Mississippi.

The third phase is called Optimist, and this 200 MWac project with 50 MW battery storage is located in Clay County and has a projected completion date of mid-2025.

The utility-scale battery storage for each site is provided by Mitsubishi Power Americas.

About 1.5 million solar modules will be installed on the sites, which are expected to generate the equivalent electricity of the demand of 126,000 homes.

Oirigis Energy is the developer, construction firm, and operator of the solar and storage assets. The projects will deliver electricity to TVA via power purchase agreements.

“Projects like these, ensure we can continue to provide affordable, reliable, resilient and sustainable energy to fuel the region’s economic growth,” said Jeremy Fisher, senior vice president commercial energy solutions with TVA.

Over $106 million in near-term economic benefits are expected due to construction and job creation. Over the life of the project, an estimated $145 million in regional economic benefits are expected to be generated.

“Our office has worked continually with both TVA and Origis through all phases of this project. These investments provide a unique diversification to our tax base and upon completion provide additional tax revenue to the counties and the schools,” said Joe Max Higgins, chief executive officer, Golden Triangle Development Link.

 RES is providing construction services to Origis for the portfolio, employing about 300 people over the course of the three projects. Upon completion, Origis Energy will employ about 9 on-site jobs over the 35+ years expected life of the projects.

The second quarter of 2023 was the first quarter on record in which global residential energy storage shipments have declined year on year, down by 2%, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.

According to Taylor, inventory levels equal to around six months of installations – around 3 GWh – are seen as normal. But the levels that S&P Global calculated in Europe at the end of 2022 were far higher.

“This certainly poses a challenge for the market in the event that demand stops growing as quickly as it had been, as we've seen in the first half of 2023,” Taylor said. “Another knock-on effect from the oversupply and high inventory will be aggressive prices, similar to what is happening with residential PV at the moment, as distributors have to clear their stock.”

Despite high inventory levels, new Chinese suppliers are entering the market and scaling quickly to ship large volumes. This trend will further exacerbate high inventory levels in Europe relative to slowing demand, according to analysts.

In the United States, supply and demand is more balanced. However, S&P Global has also tracked quarter-on-quarter declines in residential storage shipments to the US market since the fourth quarter of 2022.

“This is due to a couple of reasons,” Tiffany Wang, an analyst for S&P Global, told pv magazine. “High interest rates are the main driver, which makes the financing for storage systems looks less appetizing. Marketwise, a backlog of NEM 2.0 solar-only installations, plus decreases in electricity prices in central US means that people are delaying storage installations.”

Battolyser Systems has developed an energy system to store and supply electricity as a battery and produce hydrogen via electrolysis. It is an optimization of the nickel-iron battery patented by Thomas Edison at the turn of the 20th century. 

The company, which recently started production of its patented dual battery-electrolysis system in the Rotterdam area, currently produces systems up to a couple of megawatts. It aims to manufacture 50 MW systems in its production facility by 2024, and 200 MW by 2025. 

“The technology is based on nickel-iron electrodes. They are combined with alkaline electrolysis technologies that are commercially available today, with a proven track record of 20 to 30 years lifetime,” said Geert Wassens, fundraising associate at Battolyser Systems. “Integration of these technologies remarkably improves performance, lowers cost and increases uptime.”

The electrodes are in a conductive electrolyte circulated through the cells. In the first electrochemical reaction, the electrodes are charged and store electrons, acting as a battery. When one keeps charging (overcharge), hydrogen and oxygen are formed in a subsequent reaction. Gaseous hydrogen is produced at the negative electrode (cathode) and oxygen at the positive electrode (anode).

The company said the system could hit a lower LCOH of around €1.50/kg in the most appropriate locations by 2025. 

“In the most favorable geographies, the Battolyser is able to offer ~€2/kg by 2025. An important note to this analysis is that it does not yet include the positive economic impacts of discharging electricity from the Battolyser to the grid, it only considers revenue from producing hydrogen,” Wassens told pv magazine. “Therefore, the advantage in LCOH of Battolyser over competing alternatives will be even greater. Including this value, the LCOH is near to €1.50/kg.”

Battolyser Systems said the battery function can monetize daily power imbalances, while the hydrogen can monetize seasonal power imbalances and provide feedstock to industries that cannot be electrified. It said it can reach up to 85% system efficiency and up to 90% at stack level.

Battolyser Systems has signed a deal to develop a second production facility in the Rotterdam area. In 2026, the production facility, co-owned by the Rotterdam port authority, will be commissioned to add 1 GW of production capacity.

Battolyser Systems and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have also signed a €40 million financing agreement in Rotterdam during World Hydrogen Week.

“The financing will enable the company to scale its production facility in Rotterdam towards mass production of its combined electricity storage and electrolyzer stack system,” said Battolyser Systems.

The company said it does not use any critical raw materials, resorting only to nickel and iron, in line with the recent normative and political developments at the European level, including the RED II and the Critical Raw Materials Act. 

“We have a number of hydrogen projects in the pipeline that we are looking to sign in the near future, although perhaps not necessarily still this year,” an EIB spokesperson told pv magazine. 

Atess Power Technology has developed a new battery inverter with 1,000 kW of capacity. The PCS1000 bidirectional model is designed for the commercial and industrial segments.

“This 1,000 kW large capacity inverter can satisfy your huge energy demand, while its easily scalable design showcases its high expandable potential for customized requirements,” the company said in a statement. “With a built-in energy management function, this inverter ensures more uninterrupted and long-lasting power in a cost-effective way.”

From pv magazine Germany

Germany experienced another accident involving a battery storage system on Oct. 6.

“At around 2 p.m., the fire safety department of the Wernges district was alerted of smoke coming from a two-family house,” Police Chief Inspector Andre Müller of the East Hesse Police Headquarters told pv magazine.

From pv magazine Australia

Queensland Hydro said geotechnical exploratory drilling which will help inform the environmental impact statement (EIS) process has started at the site of the Borumba Dam pumped hydro project. The AUD 14.2 billion ($8.96 billion) project is expected to provide 2 GW of dispatchable generating capacity and approximately 48,000 MWh of large-scale storage to the National Electricity Market.

State-owned Queensland Hydro also said the state’s coordinator-general has declared the project, being developed at the 46,000 megaliter Borumba Dam near Gympie, a coordinated project, enabling an assessment of social, economic and environmental matters to begin.

The project involves building a new dam wall at Lake Borumba that will increase the dam’s storage capacity to 224,000 megaliters. A new dam will also be created at a higher altitude with the two reservoirs connected by an underground power station. Water will be pumped to the upper dam during periods of surplus renewable energy and low demand, and then released back to generate electricity during times of high demand.

Pending successful planning and environmental approvals, the project is targeting first power in 2030.

Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said the project, the first of two large-scale long-duration energy storage projects planned by the Queensland government, will play a key role in the state’s renewable energy transition.

“Pumped hydro is proven technology, ready to go now,” he said. “Borumba will allow us to replace expensive fossil fuels with Queensland’s sun, wind, and water, putting the Sunshine State on the map as a global renewable energy hub.”

The Queensland government is aiming to have 70% renewable energy by 2032 and 80% by 2035, up from about 25% of total power generation at present.

De Brenni said the Borumba project will be subject to Queensland procurement policy with the state government looking for Sunshine Coast companies and tradespeople to be part of the build. At peak construction, the project is expected to deliver an estimated 2,300 jobs.

Four-plus-hour energy storage accounts for less than 10% of the cumulative 9 GW of energy storage deployed in the United States in the 2010-22 period. However, this type of technology is likely to assume a more important and versatile role on the grid in the years to come, according to NREL's new publication.

NREL’s earlier studies identified economic opportunities for hundreds of gigawatts of six to 10-hour storage even without new policies targeted at reducing carbon emissions.

“Longer-duration energy storage may lead to better grid resilience,” said Paul Denholm, NREL model engineering senior research fellow and lead author. “There's an upside to developing and deploying greater storage, whether that value is in the ability to store more renewable energy or meeting winter energy demand.”

Historically, four-hour storage has been well-suited to providing capacity during summer peaks, and its ability to serve summer peaks is enhanced with greater deployments of solar energy.

As a result, several wholesale market regions have adopted a fixed “four-hour capacity rule” that fully compensates storage with at least four hours of duration and has no additional capacity revenues for longer durations. That means that a six-hour battery does not receive any more revenue than a four-hour one.

“This rule, along with limited additional energy arbitrage value for longer durations and the cost structure of Li-ion batteries, has created a disincentive for durations beyond 4 hours. Based in part on this rule, in 2021 and 2022, about 40% of storage capacity installed was exactly 4 hours of duration, and less than 6% had durations of greater than 4 hours,” NREL writes in its new publication.

However, the addition of solar, extreme weather conditions and building heating electrification are changing the equation and peak demand is becoming more significant in the winter than in the summer, as already seen in the Southeast and Texas.

“Energy storage could help meet increasing winter demand,” Denholm said. “Increased storage can also support transmission and resilience, further increasing the value of developing energy storage with more than four hours of capacity.”

Various technologies – such as thermal storage or next-generation compressed-air energy storage – have the potential to reach cost parity with lithium-ion batteries and longer service lifetimes. However, the new technologies must compete with the established lithium-ion, which had a decades-long head-start, and will require deployment at scale.

“We have promising technologies that, with development, can meet winter demand peaks and compete with lithium-ion technology,” Denholm said. “Reliability of the grid is the goal – greater storage can help us get there.”

Morocco-based state-owned phosphate rock miner OCP Group intends to power mining operations with solar power at two sites in the northwest African country.

The company said in a statement it inked a €100 million ($106.0 million) contractual loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), with the money going towards partially funding the construction of €360 million twin solar PV plants located in the mining towns of Benguerir and Khouribga.

The projects are expected to have a combined capacity of 400 MW and to be linked with 100 MWh of battery storage. The two solar plants will provide energy to the unspecified mine's operations.

OCP group chairman and CEO, Mostafa Terrab, said the agreement is a “major milestone” towards the company achieving its target of 100% renewable energy in fertilizer production by 2027.

OCP's first started mining Khouribga for phosphate – a common fertilizer ingredient – in 1921, and touts the Benguerir open-pit mine as one of its most important research facilities in the country. Together, these towns form the Gantour system, which is the third-largest phosphate mine in the world.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, allocated its first green loan – financing offered to projects with a positive environmental impact – to OCP Group in April for the mining company's 1.2 GW solar program, which consists of four solar power plants.

A spokesperson from OCP Group told pv magazine France in April that construction of the projects was expected to start at the end of that month, with a building permit granted at the end of 2022.

OCP Group, one of the largest phosphate and fertiliser companies in the world, is expected to convert its operations to exclusively “green” energy by 2027, the announcement states.