BESS

Audi unveils second-life BESS in Berlin

German car giant Audi has opened a 1.9MWh second-life battery energy storage system (BESS) in Berlin as part of a research project.

Audi said the facility on the EUREF campus— a “climate-neutral-powered” centre for start-ups and innovation— uses lithium-ion batteries from development vehicles to test “interaction scenarios between electric cars and the power grid”.

Audi

BESS

second-life

lithium-ion batteries

Regulators in BESS safety review warning after US explosion

Regulators in the US have warned a major shake-up of safety standards may be needed for home battery storage systems in the wake of an explosion at a lithium-ion grid-scale battery storage facility in Arizona.

The Arizona Public Service (APS) utility told BEST Battery Briefing an investigation into what caused the “catastrophic failure” of the 2MW/2MWh system at its McMicken facility last month in the city of Surprise was still under way.

Arizona Public Service

Arizona Corporation Commission

Scottish hotel plugs in to battery storage trial

A lithium-ion battery storage system has been ‘booked in’ to a hotel in Scotland as part of an energy efficiency trial project.

The Gyle Premier Inn at Edinburgh Park, owned by brewing giant Whitbread, said the 100kW battery has the capacity to run the hotel— “including powering meals cooked” at its bar and grill— for up to three hours daily.

The battery functions by drawing power from the National Grid during off-peak periods and takes two hours to fully charge.

Cheaper BESS systems 'to rival fossil-fired peaking plants'

Cheaper battery storage systems are less than 20 years away from becoming a "competitive" alternative to oil and gas-fired peaking plants, according to a new International Energy Agency (IEA) study.

The cost of battery storage is projected to “decline fast” by 2040 and global BESS capacity could reach 220 giagwatts by 2040, the IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2018 said.

This would see batteries "increasingly compete with gas-fired peaking plants to manage short-run fluctuations in supply and demand"— with the scenario’s projected need for global peaking capacity set to increase by three-quarters compared to 2017.

International Energy Agency (IEA)

Arsenal gunning for battery storage

Ribbon-cutting ceremony for BESS at Emirates Stadium

London-based Arsenal Football Club has becomes the first UK football club to install significant energy storage, after unveiling a lithium-ion battery system that will store enough energy to power Emirates Stadium for the duration of a match.

The battery at the 60,000-seater stadium will be used to avoid peak energy prices, and will store renewably generated electricity from Octopus Energy, with whom Arsenal has been in partnership since April 2016.

JCI ‘in Power Solutions sale talks’ with investment firm

North American firm Brookfield Asset Management is at the centre of fresh speculation about a possible sell-off of Johnson Controls’ batteries business.

Brookfield, whose business interests include a graphite electrode manufacturing business and battery storage systems, could pick up JCI’s Power Solutions for between US$13 billion and $14bn, according to Reuters.

johnson controls

JCI

Brookfield Asset Management

BESS

George Oliver

BMW, Northvolt and Umicore join forces for cells recycling

The BMW Group has formed a joint technology consortium with Swedish lithium-ion start-up Northvolt and Belgium-based materials tech giant Umicore, to develop a “complete and sustainable value chain for battery cells for EVs in Europe”.

This announcement comes just weeks after BMW placed a “billion euro” order for EV batteries from China, saying that they “can’t wait” for Europe to build a battery cells industry.

The consortium’s main aim is to establish a closed life cycle loop for batteries to make battery cells sustainable. The partners said this would be achieved by creating a recyclable cell design and manufacturing process that uses mostly renewable energy.

SoCal Edison selects esVolta to shore up grid with storage

Utility-scale energy storage developer esVolta has been chosen to supply four lithium-ion battery storage systems to provide “incremental capacity” in California for utility Southern California Edison Company (SCE).

SCE said the systems, with a combined battery storage capacity of 38.5 megawatt-hours, would provide incremental capacity at specifically targeted locations, in order to improve the reliability of SCE’s electric distribution system”.

The installations in Riverside and Ventura counties— the contracts for which are subject to approval by the California Public Utilities Commission— will also “avoid more costly system upgrades that would otherwise be necessary to meet anticipated load demand”, SCE said.

Battery system at heart of microgrid in Micronesia

The government of the Pacific Ocean island nation of Palau has signed an agreement to install a battery system at the heart of a solar and storage microgrid.

The agreement with Engie Electro Power Systems (Engie EPS) will see the creation of the 100-megawatt ‘Armonia’ microgrid— comprising 45 megawatt-hours of battery storage and a 35MW solar photovoltaic project to be integrated with existing diesel generating facilities.

Engie EPS general manager and CEO, Carlalberto Guglielminotti, claimed the microgrid “would not be just one of the largest storage-enabled solar projects in world, but a pioneering showcase for the whole global energy sector”.

Renault to use EV batteries for ‘biggest stationary BESS’

The Renault car group has unveiled plans to build “the biggest stationary energy storage system using electric vehicle batteries ever designed in Europe” by 2020.

Renault said the 70-megawatt/60 megawatt-hour system will be installed across three sites in France and Germany— at Renault plants in Douai and Cleon, and at a former coal-fired plant in North Rhine-Westphalia.