The United States is headed for a battery breakthrough
From pv magazine USA.
Symbiosis is one of life’s most beautiful phenomena. Certain things just work perfectly together and the energy revolution is no different, as renewable energy resources and battery storage go together like peas in a pod.
However, the United States has an operating battery storage capacity of only 899 MW to date. And while that figure is expected to reach 1 GW this year that would still only represent 1/67th of the nation’s cumulative solar generation capacity, and an even smaller percentage of the overall renewables capacity.
That could all be about to change dramatically though, as the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has released a report predicting battery storage capacity will almost treble by 2023, to 2.5 GW.
The projections were made based on proposed utility scale battery storage projects scheduled for initial commercial operation within five years. The EIA tracks data with its Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory survey, which updates the status of projects scheduled to come online within 12 months.
As drastic as a prediction of 2.5 GW appears, there is a precedent. Between late 2014 and March, installed battery storage capacity rose more than four times over, from 214 to 889 MW.
A look at the states that brought the U.S. to its current storage reality offers surprising results. Leading the way was California, unsurprisingly. However, of the six states known to pv magazine to have energy storage mandates, California is the only one in the top 10 for installed capacity. The others: Arizona, Nevada, New York, Massachusetts and Oregon; each have less than 50 MW of installed battery storage capacity.
Texas, Illinois and Hawaii are relatively unsurprising storage pioneers as all three states have strong solar industries and Hawaii especially has been pushing battery storage deployment. Right away, however, the names that stand out on the list are West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. None of those is known as a solar pioneer; they have just under 650 MW of generation capacity installed between them. Special recognition goes to West Virginia on that score, with its 8.5 MW.
So what’s with all the storage? Independent of renewables West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio – plus New Jersey, the seventh state on the list – are all members of the PJM Interconnection. PJM was the first large market for battery storage, and uses the technology for frequency regulation.
That list is likely to look different by 2023, however. Of the 1,623 MW expected to come online by 2024, 725 MW will come courtesy of two projects – both in states outside the current top 10.
Two mammoth projects
The first of those is Florida Power and Light’s (FPL) planned battery system for its Manatee Solar Energy Center in Parrish. The battery is set to clock in at 409 MW, which would make it the largest solar powered battery system in the world.
In that project’s shadow, but nevertheless considerable is the Helix Ravenswood facility, planned in Queens, New York. Almost more impressive than the project’s anticipated 316 MW of capacity is the idea of having a storage project of such magnitude in NYC.
FPL’s Manatee battery is anticipated to begin commercial operation in 2021, as is the first stage of Helix Ravenswood. That initial phase in New York will represent 129 MW of capacity, with the remaining 187 MW following via a 98 MW second phase and 89 MW final stage. The anticipated commercial operation dates of those expansions have not yet been announced.
We have seen the future and there are batteries, lots of them, demonstrating symbiosis extends beyond the natural world.
By Tim Sylvia
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[…] July predicted the 1 GW of battery storage systems expected in the States this year would grow to 2.5 GW by 2023, helped along by Florida Power and Light’s 409 MW Manatee Solar Energy Center in Parrish and the […]
[…] York plans to have a 316 MW storage system built in Queens. Florida has planned to install a 409 MW battery storage facility for a solar farm, which when […]
[…] PV MAGAZINE Por Tim […]
And the total energy capacity in GWh? This is just as important as the power output in GW.
You, and “had one job” Barbato, and Page seem to think a system that stores and then generates energy on demand has a specific time attached to the battery in hours of discharge.
Even Page said it himself, “A watt is a _rate_ of using electricity, not a quantity of electricity.” When one is using the system, the storage is sitting waiting for some discharge load to be placed upon the actual power storage unit itself. When the ESS inverters are called to generate electricity, the inverters create the kWh or MWh of A.C. generation from the D.C. storage source. IF the system is designed to generate MWh, then it is then the storage battery Amp-hours can be used as a D.C. buss to switch to A.C. at an inverter(s) rate which would have a time constant attached. IF YOU really are involved with the systemic process, then YOU would not say the battery has to be in GWh. You can charge it up and leave it for months, the only loss is a chemical reaction of 1% to 5% per month self discharge, so GWh is a lie after one month. Most battery chemistries don’t do well with cycling when discharged below 80% of full charge. Actually if one says 250MW/1GW storage system it is not really a 250MWh generation resource for four hours, it is a 250MWh resource for 3.2 hours now that means something.
I dont mean to sound so negative…. There is an aluminium smelter in South Carolina that is in squabble with the local utility over the transmission cost of electricity through the utility.. I wonder why the smelter cannot install own solar farm to replace the disputed 25% of the electricity in question … China is still using coal to power its new smelters to produce cheap aluminium . I wonder if we can do this with solar power here?
Solar is cheaper than coal now, right ? what is holding it up?
You may have just asked the right question at the right time. Both wind and solar PV with energy storage is proving its worth in the utility industry. The industrial community also NEEDS to install their own distributed generation with energy storage. Think about the electric rate spiking that occurs when utilities, buy electricity on the spot market at a premium price to feed the grid. These reoccurring costs are making the industrial manufacture of goods less competitive than those in other countries. If this smelter had their own generation with energy storage, they could do two functions. Store over generation during the day to use in the late afternoon and early evening hours. Charge the energy storage system from late night to early morning hours with off peak electricity and use this electricity early in the morning when the solar PV isn’t at peak generation.
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If your numbers reflected how many GWh’s rather than capacity it would be meaningful. For instance, how many hours of battery capacity will power how many homes on average. thank you.
PV Magazine – you guys are a news source dedicated to renewable energy – and you’re labeling battery storage capacity in “MW”. Lmao. This is the epitome of “YOU HAD ONE JOB”
What am I missing here?
Battery capacity is not and cannot be measured in megawatts.
A watt is a _rate_ of using electricity, not a quantity of electricity.
I assume you mean MWh or megawatt hours?
[…] capacity to reach 2.5 GW by 2023. Florida and New … Source: Renewable Resources The United States is headed for a battery breakthrough – pv magazine International The United States is headed for a battery breakthrough – pv magazine […]
[…] July predicted the 1 GW of battery storage systems expected in the States this year would grow to 2.5 GW by 2023, helped along by Florida Power and Light’s 409 MW Manatee Solar Energy Center in Parrish and the […]