Utility Scale Storage

The energy transition is accelerating, Ernst & Young global energy leader Benoit Laclau has warned grid operators, thanks to the confluence of digitization, decentralization and decarbonization. Traditional utilities must get with the program or be swept aside.

One of Australia’s largest utility scale solar arrays – and the biggest energy storage facility – has secured approval.

Several new concepts in lithium-ion storage technology have the potential to greatly the increase the energy capacity of batteries. Among them are lithium metal anodes, which could potentially increase energy density by more than 50%. With a newly optimized electrolyte, scientists at the University of California, San Diego have taken another step toward making the idea a commercial reality.

The Chinese lithium-ion battery producer has taken significant stakes in two U.K. entities associated with a mine which could hold up to 8.8 million tons of the raw material in clay deposits.

The city’s municipal utility is readying a 25-year power purchase agreement for 400 MWac of solar at $0.01997/kWh along with up to 200 MW/800 MWh of energy storage at $0.013/kWh.

The German battery manufacturer will make products for electric trucks and buses at the facility, which is expected to employ 200 workers and produce 400 megawatt-hours of batteries annually.

Singapore’s Sun Cable is eyeing up what would be the world’s biggest solar project by some distance. Australia’s Northern Territory government is on board with the plans and an environmental approval application is in the works. Project plans include deployment of the 5B pre-assembled array concept.

In our series of renewable energy and geopolitics interviews, Indra Øverland – head of the Center for Energy Research at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs – explains why hydropower can be the perfect match for intermittent renewables such as solar and wind. Hydropower assets are one of the biggest geopolitical stories of the energy transition but receive almost no attention. Nations with strong hydro potential may become linchpins of regional renewable energy.

Two Western Australian mines will be powered by renewable energy hybrid microgrids echoing a global shift away from fossil fuels in the mining sector.

The Finnish company has commissioned a large scale storage project to reduce curtailment of wind and solar assets on Bonaire. The system will use machine-learning based energy management software to provide grid services and manage all of the island’s power generators.