Energy Storage Market Overview and Forecasts

The stored energy market has grown exponentially but this is nothing compared to what we can expect to see in the coming years. Massive growth is expected all around the world and this will contribute to an exponential increase in distributed power in developed nations. This will also allow developing nations to forego the need for a expensive investments in grid infrastructure.

The combination of increasing-efficiency and decreasing-cost will keep driving demand for energy storage in 2017 and beyond.

Lithium-ion

Lithium-ion technologies accounted for more than 95 percent of new energy-storage deployments in 2015. There is no reason to believe that this trend will not continue. Given all the options on the table lithium-ion batteries have proven to be the most suitable type of storage for EVs and stationary energy across the grid, from large utility-scale installations to residential systems.

Although most insiders suggest that the battery storage space will continue to be dominated by lithium-ion technologies there is still the very real possibility that some novel storage configuration will emerge.

As explained by Matt Roberts, executive director of the ESA, "Global trends are feeding into that…partly because major applications of today lend themselves to batteries. Equally, lithium-ion dominates on account of cost; but it has reached that cost because of demand driving production."

Cost

Affordable storage is the missing link in intermittent renewable power. The cost per kilowatt-hour  (kWh) is currently around $300 but it was $1,000 in 2010. According to some estimates costs could be $160 per kWh or less by 2025 and even cheaper thereafter.

As reported in a Renewable Energy World review of the storage market, Bloomberg New Energy Finance expects battery technology to fall to $120 per kWh by 2030.

We are seeing decreasing costs and increasing density in both the stationary energy storage sector and EVs. The release of the Model 3 is a signal that this trend will continue to drive growth. A report in Ward’s Auto says EV battery prices are falling faster than expected and could be lower than $100 per kWh by 2020.

Global

In 2014 NEC Energy Solutions predicted that energy storage would be worth $20 billion by 2020.  Others expect the lithium-ion battery sector will be worth $54 billion by 2024.

Alex Eller, a research analyst at Navigant Research says that in 2017 he expects to see the global market grow 47 percent over the record set in 2016. Through 2020, Navigant forecasts over 29.4 GW of new storage capacity to be deployed worldwide across all sectors, and a compound annual growth rate of 60 percent.

According to a McKinsey article titled, "The new economics of energy storage" global opportunity for storage could reach 1,000 gigawatts in the next 20 years. The large-scale deployment of energy storage is expected to radical alter electricity markets.

US

According to a report from the Energy Storage Association (ESA), deployed non-hydro energy storage reached 2,276 MW by the start of 2016. Last year we saw 284 percent growth in the US energy storage market as measured by megawatt-hours. The ESA anticipates that this record setting growth will continue in 2017.

Greentech Media cites a report by KEMA that indicates that a record-setting 221 megawatts of storage capacity was installed in the US in 2015 , more than three times as much as in 2014. The US market alone is expected to be worth $2.5 billion by 2020. That is six times as much as in 2015.

The biggest growth is expected to be in distributed storage and grid integration of renewables. Even without tax incentives the KEMA report predicts that we will see 820 megawatts to facilitate integration of renewables.

A Massachusetts energy storage report titled, State of Charge, claims the cost of procuring 1.7 GW of energy storage will be between $970 million and $1.35 billion. However, the report also suggests that this could yield $2.3 billion in system benefits to ratepayers and $1.1 billion in market revenue to the resource owners.

UK

The latest Energy Entrepreneurs report from SmartestEnergy suggests that UK battery capacity could grow by as much as 100 times by 2020. In 2016 there were only 20 megawatts of commercial batteries in operation but 578 megawatts of capacity is scheduled to come online by 2020. The combined capacity may be as high as 2.3 gigawatts.

The UK is investing £246m in battery technology as part of a project called the "Faraday Challenge" This initiative, which includes a competition, seeks to establish the UK as world leader in battery technology.

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Event - California Energy Storage: Cost Effectiveness and Beyond

California Energy Storage: Cost Effectiveness and Beyond will take place on Thursday, April 17, 2014, 1:00pm - 3:30pm PST/ Streamed Panel Discussion 1:30pm - 3:00pm PST/ 4:30pm - 6:00pm EST. Meeting in San Francisco.

In October, 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission issued the unprecedented Decision requiring the state’s utilities to meet energy storage procurement targets of 1.3 gigawatts of storage by 2020. The Decision is intended to:

1. Assist in optimizing California’s electricity grid, including peak demand reduction, improving reliability, and deferring investments in transmission and distribution upgrades
2. Facilitating integration of renewable energy onto the grid
3. Contributing towards the state’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

The Decision called for the first procurement by the state’s three largest electric utilities (Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric Company, and Southern California Edison Company) by March 1, 2014, with the first solicitation by December 1, 2014. Further procurements will occur biennially. California’s Community Choice Aggregators and electric service providers will also be required to procure energy storage equal to 1 percent of their annual 2020 peak load by 2020 with installation no later than 2024. The procurements will be competitive solicitations for offers involving RFO(s) for third-party owned or –aggregated resources.

Each energy storage project must be cost effective on a stand-alone basis, with unique factors such as geographic location and multiple storage applications impacting the relative cost effectiveness of each project. The projects will be defined as either transmission-connected, distribution-connected, or customer-side storage. The decision encourages third party ownership of energy storage facilities by limiting utility ownership of storage resources to 50 percent of cumulative target capacity across all three grid domains. The transmission- and distribution-domain storage projects are to be procured in compliance with the CPUC’s Long Term Procurement Planning procedures. Customer-side storage will be procurable via existing programs such as the Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), Permanent Load Shifting (PLS), Demand Response, and Vehicle to Grid services.

Determining the cost effectiveness of each energy storage project requires complex analyses which include specific costs and benefits particular to the given project. Furthermore, as highlighted by DNV GL (formerly DNV Kema), existing modeling tools do not integrate scenarios that include both customersavings/energy use optimization and grid-performance models.

Our panel of experts will examine the most vexing challenges to quantifying the cost effectiveness of energy storage projects on a case-by-case basis.

Some of the issues they will address include:

• What are the most important aspects of the utility procurement procedures?
• Which storage projects are most likely to achieve cost effectiveness?
• What are the key assumptions made when assessing individual energy storage project cost effectiveness? 
• Which storage applications typically can be combined at one location to increase a project’s cost effectiveness?
• Should storage be valued for more than cost effectiveness: are there benefits not easily quantified?
• To what extent can energy storage help mitigate the expected mis-match in late afternoon to early evening hours, when over-generation may occur, followed by potential under-generation when solar power decreases significantly and demand peaks?

The California Independent Service Operator (CAISO) popular “Duck Graph” exemplifies this challenge, but has also created a bit of controversy.

Accepted attendees will be provided the specific location in San Francisco upon confirmed registration.

For more information or to request to join the panel, please contact: ted.howard@agrion.org

To register click here.

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Video - Walmart Fails to Pay a Living Wage

Despite Walmart's efforts to be a sustainability leader they fail to provide provide a living wage to their workers. As illustrated in this video the situation is so bad that employees are being asked to donate food to help feed their colleagues in Ohio, The fact that Walmart does not pay their employees enough for them to sustain themselves means they fail on at least one of the three pillars of sustainability. The situation is so bad that a petition is being circulated calling on Walmart to stop relying on other people's generosity to support its low-road business model.

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H&M's Sustainability Efforts Now Include Recycling

On February 21, 2013, H&M launched an ambitious program designed to reduce the amount of clothing that goes into landfills. The clothing retail giant is now accepting used clothing of any brand in its 48 markets around the world. H&M is working on the 3 R's, (reduce, reuse or recycle), with the ultimate aim of sending no waste to landfills.

H&M has partnered with Global Green USA, the American affiliate of Green Cross International, and I:Collect. Under the partnership, I:Co will repurpose the clothing collected at H&M stores.

Customers who submit clothing under this initiative will be compensated. For each bag of clothing donated, customers will receive a voucher for 15 percent off their next purchased item.

The company says it wants to reduce the environmental impact of garments throughout the lifecycle and create a closed loop for textile fibers.

In its website the H&M lists their sustainability initiatives and explains their efforts by saying: "Offering our customers fashion and quality at the best price means that we need to keep unnecessary costs down. Making the most of the resources we buy and avoiding waste at every stage of our value chain is central to this."

Under H&M’s "Conscious program," they have become the No. 1 user of organic cotton worldwide and they have banned perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs, in all of their products ordered after Jan. 1, 2013.

H&M is working towards resource efficiency which also helps them to minimise the negative environmental impact of their operations. This includes manufacturing waste, transport and product packaging, shopping bags, shop fittings and construction waste from building new stores. They are also working with their customers and business partners to reduce waste.

For more about H&M's sustainability initiatives click here.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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The Northface Launches a Bold Clothing Recycling Initiative

The North Face has launched an industry leading pilot recycling program for clothes. According to EPA estimates, more than 21 billion pounds of clothes linen and other textiles were thrown away in 2010, almost all of which (85 percent) ended up in landfills. According to the UN Americans throw away more than 68 pounds of clothing and textiles per person per year.

The Northface recycling program is called "Clothes the Loop," it provides customers in ten participating North Face stores with bins where they can drop off apparel hats and footwear from any brand.

Items collected are then sent to an I:Collect (I:Co) which either resells them or recycles them. Money generated by the program will be donated to the Conservation Alliance, which funds community-based campaigns to protect outdoor areas.

Customers who donate used apparel earn discounts that can used towards the purchase of The North Face products.

In addition to their public recycling efforts, the North Face is also reducing its own waste production.. Since 2008, the company has reduced the waste its headquarters sends to landfill by 35 percent and achieved an almost 17-fold increase in recycling.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Puma's Cradle to Cradle Sustainability Leadership

Puma is a Sportswear company that has taken sustainability leadership to the next level with the launch of its InCycle, footwear, apparel and accessories. This product line has earned Cradle to Cradle certification.

Cradle to Cradle certification involves the following five sustainability factors:

1) the use of environmentally safe and healthy materials; 2) design for material reutilization including recycling and composting; 3) renewable energy and management of carbon; 4) water stewardship; and 5) social fairness.

Puma developed its collection in collaboration with Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency, an organization which helps companies to fulfill the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute’s criteria.

Products in Puma's new line use homogenous materials to ensure that they are fully recyclable at the end of their lifespans.

The InCycle line includes a jacket with a zipper made from recycled polyester derived from recycled PET bottles that can be turned back into polyester granulate. The fully recylable backpack is made entirely of polypropylene.and the Basket Tee, is fully compostable through industrial composting. The Puma Shopper is constructed with reusable materials. The Puma Basket lifestyle sneaker is made from a mix of organic cotton and linen and the sole is composed of a biodegradable and copostable plastic known as Apinatbio.

According to Puma's first Product Environmental Profit and Loss Account published in October 2012, these new products have a significantly reduced footprint. The company's analysis of the Basket sneaker and Basket Tee Biodegradable indicated that these two products reduced environmental impacts by a third compared to their conventional counterparts.

Puma is also working with more than ten companies as part of an industry coalition designed to broaden the adoption of its Environmental Profit & Loss sustainability accounting method.

Puma has installed recycling bins in-store to collect used shoes, clothing and accessories of any brand as part of its “Bring Me Back” program which is being run in cooperation with global recycling company I:CO.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Revolutionary Liquid Energy Storage Technology

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new inexpensive battery technology that could revolutionize energy storage. This new battery technology could prove to be the holy grail of renewable energy storage, particularly at night when there is no light to power solar cells or when there is no wind to turn turbines. The new storage technology could overcome the obstacle of intermittent supply which is the greatest obstacle facing the widespread adoption of clean energy.

This technology could also significantly reduce the size of electric car battery systems and potentially double the range of electric vehicles.

Initial tests have used batteries the size of a shot glass, a hockey puck, and most recently a six-inch-wide version, with 200 times the power-storage capacity of the initial version.

The new approach to batteries was created by Donald Sadoway, the John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry at MIT and the senior author of a paper along with MIT Materials Processing Center Research Affiliate David Bradwell MEng and their team. They published their research in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 2012.

In this revolutionary technology there are two types of this semi-solid liquids one is positively charged, the other is negatively charged. These two liquids are pumped through the system which causes the exchange of lithium ions across a permeable membrane that triggers an external current. All three layers are composed of materials that are abundant and inexpensive (magnesium, magnesium chloride, and antimony) . The battery system operates at a temperature of 700 degrees Celsius, or 1,292 degrees Fahrenheit.

As reported in a Yale Environment article, lead researcher Yet-Ming Chiang says the power-per-unit potential will be 10 times greater than conventional designs.

This affordable storage capacity has greater longevity and lower cost than existing methods of energy storage and could make all the difference in the drive towards clean energy.

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