Utility Scale Storage

The global hybrid energy market, including energy storage, is projected to touch $40 billion by 2025. It is an opportunity that India has capitalized upon, earlier than others.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new kind of thermal battery that can greatly increase the energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness of many industrial processes and shows great promise for use in the solar industry. Liz Thompson reports that Argonne’s Thermal Energy Storage System (TESS) can rapidly capture and store surplus heat so that it can be used as needed. With its pioneering modular design and material advancements resulting in greater efficiency, TESS is a big step forward in thermal battery technology.

With electric vehicles starting to gain traction, the International Energy Agency’s updated, ten-year e-mobility forecast has suggested geopolitical and economic concerns will trump environmental niceties when it comes to encouraging recycling. But what price ever-cheaper batteries?

Almost 10 GW of hybrid generation capacity is already under implementation despite India having only 100 MW of combined wind and PV projects at present, according to analyst Crisil.

An Ieefa report has suggested the cost of generating electricity from solar will be near zero in the world’s sunniest regions by 2030-40 – despite what the naysayers at the International Energy Agency might think.

Defining energy storage under the Electricity Act could help start ancillary services and frequency regulation through energy storage as a flexible asset. It will also help to enable electric vehicle charging infrastructure, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) concepts and microgrids integration with expanded grid connectivity in the long run, according to the industry body.

Covid-19 crisis has provided system operators with insights on keeping the grid stable with high levels of renewable penetration. Post Covid-19, this may be the new norm, Gautam Adani said in a LinkedIn post recently.

MIT scientists have suggested used electric vehicle batteries could offer a more viable business case than purpose-built systems for the storage of grid scale solar power in California. Such ‘second life’ EV batteries, may cost only 60% of their original purchase price to deploy and can be effectively aggregated for industrial scale storage even if they have declined to 80% of their original capacity.

The recently concluded 400 MW renewables auction to supply 24-hour electricity saw winning bid of INR2.90/kWh—a new milestone after peak+off-peak tariff of INR4.07 was achieved in January’s 1.2 GW auction demanding assured power supply during peak demand hours.

While the solar and storage pairing is still relatively new, the growth over the next five years will be significant globally. As against just 5% in 2019, by 2025 more than 25% of all behind-the-meter solar systems will be paired with storage.