Utility Scale Storage

The nation has plans for two ambitious renewable energy tenders but the procurement process is dragging and Lebanese institutions lack experience in designing such schemes. A solution will be provided by Europe.

Messe Düsseldorf has partnered with pv magazine for a special publication for Energy Storage Europe 2019. As part of the project, we tasked an independent jury of experts to rank a range of Energy Storage Highlights that were exhibited at the event. During the show, our editors caught up with the top five entries to get a bit of an insight.

In the paper “EU support for energy storage”, the audit agency said that measures taken so far for storage and electromobility development across the EU will not be sufficient for the achievement of the Union climate targets. The authors of the report also stressed that EU is far behind its competitors for battery cell manufacturing, and that more innovation is needed. They also claim development of grid energy storage is being slowed down by double grid fees in some EU countries, including Austria, Germany, Netherlands and Finland.

The energy company plans to build the “HySynGas” project in the Brunsbüttel Industrial Park with ARGE Netz and MAN Energy Solutions. The consortium wants to establish a power-to-gas hub for cross-sector decarbonization in northern Germany.

Saft, a subsidiary of French oil giant Total, is joining forces with Chinese storage specialist Tianneng to grow in China’s energy storage and EV markets. Tianneng will take a 60% stake in the newly created joint venture, with Saft holding the other 40%.

Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments (REIL) has invited bids to set up 1.7 MW (AC) of grid-connected PV projects with battery storage in India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The projects — to be implemented on a turnkey basis on Havelock Island (Swaraj Dweep) and Neil Island (Shaheed Dweep) — will be awarded through competitive bids, followed by a reverse auction.

The New Development Bank has agreed to offer a $180 million loan with sovereign guarantee to Eskom. The utility, which is based just outside of Johannesburg, plans to build new infrastructure to integrate 670 MW of unspecified renewables into the South African grid.

A recent Australian National University study shows that newly developed geographic information system algorithms can identify prospective sites for off-river pumped hydro projects throughout the world. The researchers, who identified around 530,000 potential sites, said pumped-hydro installations could enable large-scale energy time-shifting, as well as a range of ancillary services such as frequency regulation, which could help to integrate high levels of PV and wind into electricity systems.

Gridserve has revealed plans to install more than 100 electric-vehicle charging stations throughout the U.K. It will start building the first of these facilities later this year, backed by a £1 billion ($1.7 billion) investment.

Green hydrogen has been exported from Australia to Japan, under a trial executed by researchers from JXTG, Japan’s largest petroleum conglomerate, using Queensland University of Technology’s cutting-edge Redlands Research Facility. The Queensland government has also announced AUD 250,000 ($177,000) in funding toward the establishment of a renewable hydrogen production pilot plant.