Grids & Integration

Analyst WoodMac has spelled out the urgent need to decarbonize the global hydrogen production industry. While the fuel can offer a sustainable grid balancing act for intermittent renewables, in its current fossil-fuel driven form it is pumping out more than 800 megatons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

The long-duration energy storage provider plans to eventually build a portfolio of 50 MW/250 MWh liquid air systems throughout the United Kingdom.

In January, the U.K. Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy opened consultation on its solar-plus-storage proposals. To date, systems with a capacity bigger than 50 MW are classed Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

Although the International Energy Agency’s latest renewables report forecasts impressive solar growth there is still a nagging feeling it has produced conservative estimates and the emphasis on sharing costs with grid operators is predictable.

The islands of the Caribbean have been focusing on the deployment of storage solutions, minigrids and microgrids in response to the damage their power systems suffered during the 2017 hurricane season. But with the opportunities, there are also challenges.

New company NGEN appears to have introduced the Powerpack battery to central Europe in a €15 million, 12.6 MW/22.6 MWh project in the northwest of the country which is the first of two planned utility scale systems due for completion by July.

The German Energy Agency has drawn up a list of proposed measures which it says could help the world’s biggest solar market accelerate its clean energy plans through the adoption of subsidy-free – private – power purchase agreements.

Dutch transmission system operator Tennet, which also serves Germany, said the investment will be used to connect around 2 GW of renewables generation capacity to the high-voltage transmission system of the northern Netherlands.

The Consortium for Battery Innovation has outlined research goals for advanced lead-based battery concepts, claiming the potential of the technology is “nowhere near fully exploited”. The group, comprised of lead-battery industry stakeholders, says such devices can play an important role alongside lithium-ion and other storage technologies in electric vehicles, renewable energy storage and other applications.

A massive green hydrogen production project has been unveiled in Western Australia with Siemens on board as technology partner. The location has been touted as Australia’s best for solar and wind power generation potential.