Article
Grid-Scale Energy Storage – New Technology Developments
Energy
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Introduction
The world is moving towards clean energy. Countries are setting up ambitious clean energy targets. Wind and solar technology-based projects are already cost-competitive as compared to conventional gas or coal-fired power plants in developed countries, and developing countries are very near to achieve that price point. Increasing penetration of these renewable resources creates a need for long-duration storage to manage their variable nature. At the same time, while working towards achieving clean energy targets, it’s imperative to find out an alternative for gas plants that provide the flexibility to intermittent renewable energy sources. On the backdrop of these developments, energy storage plays a vital role in developing low-carbon grids. Currently, energy storage capacity is dominated by lithium-ion batteries. But, along with a few other limitations, these batteries also have limitations in terms of cost-effectiveness when considered for a longer duration of storage hours. This makes a case for the need for cost-competitive long-duration energy storage technologies for grid integration of clean energy. Some of such technologies are gaining traction and are discussed in this article.
New Technologies
Multiple long-duration energy storage technologies are capturing market attention. Innovations are paving the way to find out long-lasting batteries with alternative chemistries. At the same time, other types of storage technologies like mechanical energy storage and thermal energy storage are getting remarkable visibility in the industry. This section discusses three such non-battery technologies that are being looked at as assured future long-duration energy storage technologies. It also includes key market players and recent project developments & investments associated with these technologies.
Gravity Energy Storage
The gravity storage concept is based on the idea of using excess electricity to lift a weight, so the energy can be recovered when needed by letting the weight drop down again. The technology uses the same principle as pumped hydro energy storage but needs no specific topography and is more cost-effective. Gravity storage has low initial and operating costs. The technology requires minimal and comparatively cheaper raw material and can serve for a longer duration of life. The benefits also include very fast response times and hence eligibility for short and medium-term ancillary services. The system demonstrates efficiency as high as 80-90 percent.
In June 2019, Energy Vault, a gravity-based Swiss-U.S. energy storage startup, secured financial backing from Cemex Ventures. The company’s solution is based on the same fundamentals as pumped hydro energy storage but replaces water with concrete bricks. The weight consisting of large bricks is combined with Energy Vault’s system design and algorithm-based software, which calibrates the energy storage tower and electricity charge/discharge. The company’s first demonstrational project is running since 2018. In August 2019, Energy Vault received a $110 million investment from Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund. The investment was intended to aid the company on the path to accelerate its development of large-scale energy projects using its proprietary utility-scale gravity-based energy storage system.
A London-based startup, Gravitricity, is developing a novel storage technology to combine the best characteristics of lithium batteries and pumped storage. The gravity-based energy storage technology operates in the 1MW to 20 MW power range and uses a mine shaft to store energy. The startup received £300k funding from government agency Innovate UK to explore South Africa’s mineshaft potential. Gravitricity has partnered with South African energy consultancy RESA to help solve the country’s energy problem. It raised £754,000 in October 2019. The company has planned early systems in Europe, South Africa, and Australia. A 250kW demonstrator project in Scotland is planned to validate the system performance for the first full-scale 4MW project, set to commence in 2021.
Cryogenic Energy Storage
Cryogenic energy storage is a type of compressed air energy storage. The technology makes use of low-temperature liquids such as liquid air or liquid nitrogen as energy storage. The energy storage technology can be deployed for large scale and long-duration applications. The cryogenic energy storage system can be built at low costs and have 30+ years of lifetime. It can be built anywhere and marks zero emissions. The system demonstrates efficiency of 60-70%. The use cases of technology include power generation, transmission, distribution, and end-users.
Highview Power, the key player in cryogenic energy storage technology, announced the successful development of its modular CRYOBattery in June 2019. CRYOBattery system works on the thermodynamic cycle and can interface with collocated thermal processes such as LNG regasification plants, peaking plants, and industrial applications to utilize waste heat and cold streams to improve roundtrip efficiency. While the company has plans to develop multiple cryogenic energy storage systems across the UK and the US, it announced a plan to develop Europe’s largest storage system sized 50 MW (250 MWh) using cryogenic technology in the North of England in October 2019. In December 2019, Highview Power partnered with Encore Renewable Energy to develop United States’ first long duration, liquid air energy storage system with a minimum size of 50MW (400MWh) in northern Vermont. In February 2020, Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. invested $46 million into Highview Power to expand long-duration cryogenic energy storage projects globally.
Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage
Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage Technology works with the same process flow as conventional Compressed Air Energy Storage Technology. The basic concept is to use excess electricity to pump compressed air into a suitable underground formation that acts as a storage tank. The release of pressurized air allows the plant to re-generate power when needed. Hydrostor, the developer of proprietary Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) Technology, uses the approach of developing purpose-built hard-rock air-storage caverns to provide siting flexibility. A proprietary adiabatic thermal management system with no fossil fuels enables emission-free operation. The technology offers the lowest installed cost per kWh for large-scale, long-duration energy storage above 100+ MW capacity, low operating costs, and increased efficiency over traditional CAES systems. The system has 50+ years of life with no replacements required and nearly unlimited cycling. A-CAES system can be optimized to match the requirement with independent settings for the charge, discharge, and storage capacity. A-CAES offers a full suite of ancillary services available, including voltage support, spinning reserve, black start, and frequency response. The technology finds its application in fossil plant replacement, renewable integration, transmission deferral, mines, and large industries.
Hydrostor completed the world’s first, grid-connected adiabatic CAES facility in Toronto in 2015 to demonstrate the technology. In February 2019, Hydrostor’s subsidiary Hydrostor Australia Pty Ltd was awarded $9 million grant funding for Australia’s first A-CAES project at Angas mine in Adelaide. Hydrostor, in partnership with NRStor, completed the Goderich A-CAES facility in November 2019. It is the first-of-its-kind utility-scale commercial application of A-CAES technology. The plant is commercially contracted for peaking capacity, ancillary services, and full participation in the merchant energy market to support grid reliability. The entirely fuel-free plant emits no GHG and has won Energy Storage North America Innovation Award in November 2019. In September 2019, Hydrostor announced the closing of US$37 million growth financing. It also formed a strategic partnership with Meridiam and Baker Hughes to support the origination and development of its projects.
Challenges
Though the above alternative technologies have multiple advantages over lithium-ion batteries, the latter is supposed to lead the energy storage market in the near future. These technologies are nascent at present when compared to proven lithium-ion battery technology. The alternative technologies may pose siting restrictions in terms of space requirement, whereas lithium-ion batteries allow greater flexibility. Also, the above technologies are more economical for a larger scale and may impose restrictions associated with capital investment for the smaller size.
Future Outlook
Although lithium-ion batteries dominate the current energy storage market, the industry developments clearly show an increasing focus on alternative energy storage technologies. Heavy investments being fetched by these technologies is a clear indication of confidence in the performance of the technologies. The cost-effectiveness, when it comes to the duration of energy storage, will lead to the development of these emerging technologies. Fire safety issues associated with lithium-ion batteries will be yet another driver for these technologies. These emerging grid-scale energy storage technologies are set to capture a large market share soon.
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