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Renewable energy production, particularly from sources such as solar and wind, has increased like never before; but unfortunately, it is intermittent because of its weather dependence. This can cause serious gaps in electricity supply. One possible solution is storage. If renewable electricity generated from intermittent sources can be stored, it could then be utilized at times when there is no generation. Unfortunately, technology capable of storing large amount of electricity is still being developed.

High capacity storage facilities will improve the reliability of power supply during the course of natural disasters. It will maintain and improve power quality, frequency and voltage which is now required for almost every segment like smart homes, electric vehicles, stationary and grid applications, etc.

Infrastructure needed for electricity storage is in the range of Giga Watts but it is available in Kilo Watts range, which means only ~2% of generated power can be stored. Electricity generation facilities are abundantly available as compared to electricity storage infrastructure which is still a subject of research. Electricity storage facilities were never considered an important factor earlier but now, as the demand for smart cities, intelligent infrastructure, green environment and electric vehicles has increased, this requirement too has become very critical. Such an infrastructure will provide a continuous and flexible power supply for consumers while continuing to be more of renewable energy and less of fossil fuels with reduced carbon-dioxide emissions.

Classification Of High Capacity Storage

Storage technologies are of two types:

  1. Storing energy for producing electricity, and,
  2. Storing the produced electricity.
Storage-technologies

This paper deals with technologies for storing the produced electricity which comes under electro-chemical storage systems such as electro-chemical capacitors, lithium ion batteries, nickel cadmium batteries, nickel metal hydride batteries, solid state batteries, lead-acid batteries, flow batteries, metal air battery, sodium sulphur battery, sodium nickel chloride battery, flywheels, supercapacitors, etc.

Retail Market Of Storage Technologies

Electricity storage can directly drive rapid decarbonisation in key segments of energy usage. In transport, the viability of using battery in electric vehicles for storing electricity is improving rapidly. Stationary electricity storage can provide a range of energy services in an affordable manner. As the cost of emerging technologies falls further, storage will become increasingly competitive, and the range of economical services that it can provide is only set to increase.

In future, energy systems will rely on a large array of services based on effective and economical electricity storage. This plethora of service needs, with varying performance requirements, implies an important opportunity for different storage technologies.

Total electricity storage capacity is set to triple in energy terms by 2030, in case countries proceed to double the share of renewables in the world’s energy system.

Total-electricity-storage-capacity
Service Batteries
  • Battery-based electricity storage systems could provide great economics for behind-the-meter storage opportunities — notably when paired with new PV installations. This could make this application the largest driver of battery storage growth. Behind-the-meter storage could become the primary-use case for 60-64% of total BES energy capacity in stationary applications by the year 2030.
  • The cost reduction potential for new and emerging electricity storage technologies is significant. The total installed cost of a Li-ion battery could fall by an additional 54-61% by 2030 in stationary applications.
  • Other battery storage technologies also offer large cost reduction potential. The total installed cost of “flow batteries” could drop two-thirds by 2030. These batteries themselves offer valuable operational advantages, since they work at ambient temperatures, and their power and energy storage characteristics are independently scalable.
  • High-temperature sodium sulphur (NaS) and sodium nickel chloride batteries will also become much more affordable. Their installed cost could fall 56-60% by 2030, while their performance is set to improve simultaneously.
  • Flywheels could see their installed cost fall by 35% by 2030. Compressed air energy storage (CAES), although based on a combination of mature technologies, could see a 17% cost decline by 2030.
  • Materials availability is unlikely to be a constraint for the growth of battery electricity storage technologies up to at least 2025. Systems for the end-of-life recycling, reuse and disposal of battery packs are being tested and will need to scale quickly during the 2020s.
  • Pumped hydro storage currently dominates total installed storage power capacity, with 96% of the total of 176 gigawatts (GW) installed globally in mid-2017. The other electricity storage technologies already in significant use around the world include thermal storage with 3.3 GW (1.9%), batteries with 1.9 GW (1.1%) and other mechanical storage with 1.6 GW (0.9%).
Patents

Kagra Inc., a Japan based battery manufacturer and a pioneer in capacitor management system and battery sustainment system, recently filed a patent application US20170201102, discloses a two-terminal circuit to provide electricity storage element charging in a short time while voltages are balanced among the electricity storage elements. It consists of voltage applier which applies a constant voltage to the electricity storage elements in a state that all of the electricity storage elements are connected in parallel.

Kyocera Corp., a Japanese ceramics and electronics manufacturer and leading provider of solar power systems, has filed a patent application US20180287217 that discloses electricity storage apparatus, and an electricity storage system control method. It comprises of multiple electricity storage apparatus and power controllers configured to be charged using electric power and also control the charging and discharging of respective storage cells.

Nippon Chemi-Con Corp., a Japanese producer of capacitors and other discrete electronic components, has filed a patent application, US20180047961A1, disclosing a separator for an electrical storage device such as an electrical double layer capacitor, lithium ion capacitor, and lithium ion secondary battery. The separator for electrical storage devices are excellent in tearing strength while providing compactness and resistance performance. The electrical storage device improves the yield at the time of preparation, while reducing the internal resistance value, shorten the defect rate, and reduce the leakage current value by using the separator.

Toshiba Corp., filed a patent application, US20180067167A1, disclosing a storage system that includes:

  1. Battery
  2. State of Charge (SOC) estimator (When current is not flowing)
  3. State of Charge (SOC) estimator (When current is flowing)
  4. Corrector

The storage battery performs charging and discharging of electricity. The first deriver derives a first state of charge (SOC) based on the voltage of the storage battery when a current is not flowing to the storage battery. The second deriver derives a second SOC based on the battery capacity of the storage battery and an integrated value of the current flowing to the storage battery. The corrector corrects the capacity of the storage battery which is used by the second deriver based on a difference between the second SOC and the first SOC. Furthermore, the corrector changes the quantity of correction in accordance with a state of the storage battery.

Featured Projects Of High Capacity Electricity Storage

According to DOE’s Global Energy Storage Database, the following is a list of featured projects in electricity storage area.

Niedersachsen Demonstration Project (sodium sulfur batteries)

This project aims to build a large-scale hybrid battery system using lithium-ion batteries and NAS® batteries (sodium-sulfur batteries) used to stabilize the distribution grid and control the balance between electric power supply and demand, by charging and discharging storage batteries. Another aim is to establish a new business model for electricity trading using the battery system.

Niedersachsen-Demonstration-Project

Lake Bonney BESS – 25MW/52MWh (Electro-chemical)

Tesla announced a partnership with Infigen Energy revealing plans to add a 25MW/52MWh energy storage system at its Lake Bonney wind farm in South Australia. The Power pack battery energy storage system (BESS) will be located adjacent to the 278.5MW Lake Bonney wind farm and connected to the grid via the existing Mayurra substation owned by ElectraNet.

Infigen-Energy-revealing-plans

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park (Sodium-sulfur Battery)

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has launched a pilot project to install and test a 1.2MW/7.2MWh Sodium Sulfur Battery Energy Storage System (NaS BESS), at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which is the largest single-site solar park in the world. DEWA will connect the storage systems to its grid. The project in cooperation with Amplex Emirates supports DEWA’s efforts to promote clean-energy production and storage technologies.

Sodium-Sulfur-Battery-Energy-Storage-System

1.54MWh VRFB ESS, A Paper-Mill Project in Jeonju city

Vanadium Redox Flow Battery installed at Mirae Paper, a paper making company located in Jeonju. It is modular two-story flow battery system, reduces electric consumption through energy time shifting.

Paper-Mill-Project-in-Jeonju-city
Partnerships
  • In July 2017, AES and Siemens partnered to create New Energy Storage Powerhouse to compete with the emerging market leader, Tesla.
  • Tesla, SolarCity and Panasonic have entered into a partnership for battery storage systems. It is one of the hottest business partnerships in battery storage world. Tesla battery packs are using Panasonic battery cells in cars, grid, commercial and residential storage applications.
  • AES Energy storage has the largest fleet of grid batteries in commercial service. It has partnered with industry-leading utilities and power system operators on energy storage projects.
  • Envia Systems has entered into a contract with Detroit automakers for lithium-ion batteries.
  • Imergy Power Systems is another vanadium redox flow battery company. It provides stationary storage for residential applications. It has also worked with US Navy on notable projects.
  • OutBack Power has partnered with Sunrun for residential energy storage to offer battery solutions for all stationary applications.
  • DOE & CEC have three major projects totaling $9.6M on supercapacitors, zinc-bromine batteries, and flywheels.
Start-Ups
  • Seeo, a startup company, is working on solid-state battery technology. Though it already has some products on the market, it has stated that it “has developed a new generation of rechargeable lithium batteries based on a proprietary, nanostructured non-flammable polymer electrolyte called DryLyte™.” It is targeting for use in electric vehicles, grid storage, and as telecom backup.
  • SolarReserve is a leading global developer of utility-scale solar power projects, which includes electricity generation by solar thermal energy and photovoltaic panels. In addition, SolarReserve has commercialized a proprietary, advanced solar thermal technology with integrated molten salt energy storage that solves the intermittency issues experienced with other renewable energy sources.
  • Malta, Alphabet Spin-Off, uses a heat pump to store electricity in hot molten salts and cold antifreeze liquid, followed by a heat engine to convert the energy back to electricity for the grid.
Market Players
  • ABB, one of the largest power and automation companies in the world, is in the battery storage space. It offers distributed energy storage modules for grid storage purposes such as peak shaving, load shifting voltage regulation, renewable integration, and backup power.
  • Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC) is one of the leaders in the electric vehicle (EV) battery space. It produces lithium-ion batteries, using lithium manganate as the cathode.
  • Alevo has launched its first inorganic lithium battery for the commercial market. It is targeting the grid storage market.
  • Ambri is working on liquid metal battery technology which is targeting for stationary storage applications.
  • Amprius has developed high capacity lithium ion batteries which has attracted investors like Trident capital, VantagePoint Capital Partners, IPV Capital, etc.
  • Aquion Energy’s aqueous hybrid ion battery technology boasts of long cycle life at 100% depth of discharge for long duration applications (4 to 20 hours).
  • Bosch does not have a signature product, but the technology giant is offering energy storage and related technology and service solutions, particularly in connection with solar and wind power installations.
  • Boston-Power produces lithium ion batteries for super-affordable electric cars in China. It is in the process of scaling up its gigawatt-scale battery production capacity.
  • BYD is the top producer of batteries used in mobiles. It has moved to the grid storage market. It also produces several electric vehicles including cars and buses that now utilize the batteries.
  • CODA Energy has transformed itself from an electric car company to energy storage systems. It is focusing on lithium-iron phosphate batteries for commercial and industrial applications.
  • Electrovaya has non-toxic manufacturing process for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage.
  • EnerVault produces redox-flow batteries and focuses on grid and commercial applications, not electric vehicles.
  • Eos Energy Storage uses zinc hybrid cathode battery technology which is helpful for grid storage applications.
  • GE’s Durathon battery consists of sodium batteries and lithium-ion batteries used for stationary purposes and electric vehicles including electric buses.
  • Green Charge Networks focuses on peak shaving. It is currently trying to go after cities, schools and colleges after targeting commercial and industrial customers.
  • Greensmith provides software between an energy storage system and the grid.
  • JLM Energy offers cloud-based software platform. It has advanced energy storage systems capable of demand shaving, PV shouldering, net metering, and power outage backup.
  • Johnson Controls offers various lithium-ion battery solutions and lead-acid batteries for electric vehicles.
  • LG Chem is a giant player in the energy storage market. It offers battery systems for stationary storage. It produces lithium-ion polymer batteries used in the EV battery space.
  • Pellion Technologies has been developing next-generation batteries. It has discovered a series of fundamental breakthroughs in materials, chemistry and cell design. It is focusing on applications related to mobile technologies and electric vehicle storage.
  • Primus Power has been installing zinc-bromine flow batteries with a single tank that does not have a flimsy membrane separator. Its batteries provide duration without degradation.
  • QuantumScape uses lithium-ion batteries, but its big breakthrough is the use of perovskite. It has received investments from Volkswagen.
  • RES Americas offers stationary energy storage solutions. It has energy storage plants in regional transmission organizations that are either completed or under construction. It has various energy storage technologies and it uses “lithium battery chemistries” in batteries.
  • S&C Electric Company installed its first MW-scale energy storage system in 2006. It uses its power conversion system (PCS) to integrate a wide variety of battery chemistries for specific applications. Recently it completed 6MW/10MWh UL Power Network installation, the largest energy storage system in Europe.
  • Sakti3 is working on solid-state batteries and is aiming to reduce the cost in both mobile and electric vehicle applications. Investors include Khosla Ventures, General Motors Ventures, Beringea, and Itochu Technology Ventures.
  • Samsung lithium-ion batteries are used in a large variety of mobile devices, electric vehicles and stationary applications.
  • Seeo, a startup company, is working on solid-state battery technology. Though it already has some products on the market, it states that it “has developed a new generation of rechargeable lithium batteries based on a proprietary, nanostructured non-flammable polymer electrolyte called DryLyte™. It is targeting use in electric vehicles, for grid storage, and as telecom backup.
  • Sharp’s SmartStorage™ is a unique energy storage solution that can be used to cut utility demand charges for commercial and industrial buildings.
  • SK Continental E-motion is a leading producer of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. It is in both Germany and Korea.
  • Siemens is also into energy storage business. It focuses on the grid storage market, and combines cutting-edge power electronics for grid applications and high performance lithium-ion batteries.
  • Solar Grid Storage develops battery storage systems co-located with solar PV power systems.
  • Spider9 offers lithium-ion battery systems featuring patented cell-level optimization to increase system safety, life and usable capacity for up to 40% lifetime cost savings. It has entered into an agreement to sublicense its core technology to Samsung for non-stationary applications. It also participated in the Hawaii-based Energy Excelerator program.
  • Sunverge is focused on distributed energy storage application. It uses software running in the cloud to manage and control the batteries, power electrics and multiple energy inputs.
  • ViZn Energy uses different flow battery technologies. It uses a low-cost, non-acid and zinc-iron chemistry. It is targeting the microgrid market.
  • Other key players in the energy storage association are:
    • Stem Inc.
    • Nikola Power
    • Fluence Energy
    • East Penn Manufacturing Co., Inc.
    • Others

These are global companies which are investing in electricity storage systems.

  • Electricity storage markets are broadly classified into the following industries:
    • Renewable energy generation and storage
    • Smart Grid
    • Smart cities and smart house automation
    • Electric vehicles
    • Others
Conclusion

Electricity storage is needed to smooth out the variable loads and maintain reliability. The ideal storage technology depends on the need and application. Large-scale storage will require deployment of billions of dollars to accommodate a grid characterized by renewable energy. Many storage technologies are available but are limited in number on an economic scale. Battery costs, although falling rapidly, continue to remain high at present with applications mainly found in off-grid markets, transport and behind-the-meter uses. As costs fall further, batteries will provide more grid services. Many startups and corporate companies are partnering to explore the area and create a strong hold in this market segment. As the world is looking at smart technologies, electro-chemical based electricity storage technologies are the best available alternatives.

References

  1. A wide array of storage technologies have been developed so that the grid can meet everyday energy needs
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  2. Every electricity storage technology you need to know about
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Disclaimer:

  • This document has been created for educational and instructional purposes only
  • Copyrighted materials used have been specifically acknowledged
  • We claim the right of fair use as ascertained by the author
Author
  • Mr.Feroz Desai

    Feroz Desai, a seasoned professional with a background in MTech Control Systems and BTech Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering, specializing in Intellectual Property Law and an Indian Patent Agent. With expertise in Patent Search and Analytics, Feroz has garnered 7 years of experience and boasts research achievements in Turbo Codec, Reinforcement Learning, Secondary Batteries and Non-linear Systems. Additionally, he holds certifications in PCB Design, AutoCAD, LabVIEW, Microcontroller, PLC/SCADA, Automation, and Electrical Testing & Commissioning. Currently he works for SciTech Patent Art as Senior Knowledge Scientist Level-II.

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