Storing wind and solar with new gravity-based system
Scottish start-up Gravitricity is planning a project to store surplus power from renewables at Port of Leith. A 250 kW, grid-connected prototype facility will have its ability to stabilize the network tested. The system involves a 16m rig over a 150-1500m shaft.
Lithium-ion storage is here to stay
A German-Israeli research group has gathered for three days to discuss which storage technologies may outperform lithium-ion batteries in the future. They concluded that there is no such a thing as a “post Li‐ion” era in sight. They recommended a “side‐by‐side” approach for multiple technologies in different applications, as well as the hybridization of technologies. The group highlighted the strong potential of redox flow storage, which in their view may outperform Li‐ion, although only for stationary applications.
Form Energy claims aqueous air battery provides 150 hours of storage
The holy grail of energy storage has always been low-cost and long-duration. Form Energy intends on deploying a 1 MW/150 MWh system with a Minnesota utility before 2023, an unprecedented energy storage duration if successful.
Uzbekistan pitches for 5 GW of solar by 2030
The country’s previous solar target was 4 GW by 2031. Around 1.4 GW of large scale projects are expected to be tendered this year, according to a document published by the Ministry of Energy.
A mega solar and wind project for Western Australia
The 15 GW Asian Renewable Energy Hub has been recommended for approval by environmental authorities in the Pilbara region. The project was originally intended to export clean energy to Jakarta and Singapore via subsea, high voltage DC cables but its focus has shifted to domestic industrial consumers.
Storing solar and wind energy with compressed air
Researchers have studied the potential of using compressed air to store renewable energy in offshore saline aquifers. The technology could hold 77-96 TWh for up to two months in British waters, although the costs have proven hard to pin down.
LCOE from large scale PV fell 4% to $50 per megawatt-hour in six months
Analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance say the lowest-cost projects financed in Australia, China, Chile and the UAE in the last six months hit a levelized cost of energy of just $23-29/MWh and the best solar and wind projects will produce electricity for less than $20/MWh by 2030.
Solar can drive down levelized cost of desalinated water
A study from Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology states decarbonization of desalination could help achieve a levelized cost of water of €0.32-1.66 per cubic meter. Solar and storage are expected to play a decisive role.
Covid-19 weekly briefing: Merchant solar developers could seek shelter in return to subsidies and PPAs are being revisited, but at least the Irish are coping with lockdown measures
The unfolding effects of the Covid-19 crisis, and fears of a possible second wave, have split analysts trying to guess how the unsubsidized renewables market will emerge as slumping demand continued to distort power markets. pv magazine rounds up the week’s coronavirus developments.
A redox flow battery for MW-sized solar-plus-storage
Matt Harper, chief commercial officer of newly-merged British-Canadian vanadium redox flow battery business Invinity Energy Systems has spoken to pv magazine about the VS3-022 Battery Unit it is marketing for grid scale solar-plus-storage projects and why it may be a better bet than lithium-ion.
