UK energy storage developer Anesco has completed work on a 20MW BESS near Manchester, taking the company’s storage portfolio to 147MW.
The facility (pictured), which comprises 16 1.25MW/1.25MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, was built on a brownfield site in Lascar.
The team investigating an explosion at a lithium-ion grid-scale battery storage facility in Arizona say it could be weeks before the cause of the accident is known.
A probe was launched by the Arizona Public Service (APS) utility after its 2MW/2MWh McMicken energy storage system in the city of Surprise suffered what was described as a “catastrophic failure” last April.
Nevada utility NV Energy has unveiled proposals to build an additional 590MW of lithium-ion battery energy storage systems in the state along with 1,200MW of new solar photovoltaic capacity.
NV is asking regulators to approve a total of three projects in the south of the state towards the utility’s target of doubling its renewable energy generating capacity by 2023.
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”.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
