US Utility Xcel To Put Form Energy’s 100-hour Iron-Air Battery At Retiring Coal Power Plant Sites
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
This is the first two paragraphs.
‘Multi-day’ battery storage startup Form Energy’s proprietary iron-air battery is set to be deployed at the sites of two US coal power plants due for retirement.
Form Energy said yesterday that definitive agreements have been signed with Minnesota-headquartered utility company Xcel Energy for the two projects, one in Minnesota and the other in Colorado.
On their Technology page, they say this about their battery storage technology.
Our first commercial product is an iron-air battery capable of storing electricity for 100 hours at system costs competitive with legacy power plants. Made from iron, one of the most abundant minerals on Earth, this front-of-the-meter battery will enable a cost-effective, renewable energy grid year-round.
They also seem to be very much into grid-modelling technology. As I’ve build mathematical models for sixty years, I like that!
It does seem Form Energy is on its way.
First Offtake Deal Signed For 500MW/4,000MWh Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage Project In California
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
These three paragraphs explain the deal.
Advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) company Hydrostor has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for one of its flagship large-scale projects in California.
Central Coast Community Energy, one of California’s several dozen Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) non-profit energy suppliers, has signed a 200MW/1,600MWh energy storage PPA with a 25-year term with Toronto-headquartered Hydrostor for its Willow Rock Energy Storage Center.
That’s just under half of the output and capacity of the planned 8-hour, long-duration energy storage (LDES) facility, which is designed to be 500MW/4,000MWh. This is its first offtake deal, but the company is in discussion for others to take the rest of the plant’s available resource.
The article says that Hydrostor aim to have the plant online by 2028.
This segment describes their current projects.
It is currently working on large-scale projects with around 9GWh storage capacity in total across two sites in California as well as another in Australia.
Together with Willow Rock in Kern County, Hydrostor is developing the 400MW/3,200MWh Pechos Energy Storage Center in San Luis Obispo County, California, and the 200MW/1,500MWh Silver City Energy Storage Center in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.
On its UK Projects page, Highview talks about a 200MW/2.5GWh facility in Yorkshire, which puts the two companies in similar markets, with Hydrostor appearing to have slightly larger systems under development.
Conclusion
It will be interesting to see how this technology progresses and which company does best in what is a very large energy storage market.
Wind Generation Sets New Record In UK Surpassing 21 GW
The eye-catching title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Renewables Now.
I regard anything over 20 GW as very good, as the UK’s average daily consumption is typically around 23 GW, so surely we can find a couple of gigawatts of biomass, gas, hydro or nuclear.
The Renewables Now article says this about UK electricity generation.
According to National Grid ESO, on Monday, January 9, wind accounted for 50.2% of British electricity, nuclear for 15.9%, gas for 13.1%, imports for 10%, biomass for 4.8%, hydro for 3.8%, solar for 1.3% and coal for 1.1%. Tuesday’s wind record may undergo slight adjustments in expectation of all data for yesterday.
I shall be following these figures.
- Especially, as Wikipedia says another 3 GW will be installed this year.
But it does seem that we’re getting there with renewable electricity.
A Thought On Energy Storage
I also think that if we are generating large amounts of electricity at times, which are more than we need, then we had better crack on and build lots of energy storage.
If we don’t need the energy and Europe or Ireland doesn’t want it, then we must store it, so that if the wind isn’t blowing we can recover it for a useful purpose, even if it is only selling it to the Germans to make hydrogen, which is used to replenish their stores.
Giant Solar Farm Project In Doubt After Disagreement Between Mike Cannon-Brookes And Andrew Forrest
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Guardian.
This is the sub-heading.
Australian billionaires had backed $30bn Sun Cable venture designed to help power Darwin, Indonesia and Singapore but the company has gone into voluntary administration.
It does look like the administrators will be able to continue the project and look for more funding.
Qatar must be in the frame, as this link will probably cut some of their gas sales.
I wrote about this monster project in Sun Cable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink.
I wonder if this administration will have any effects on the prospects of the other giant intercontinental interconnectors?
- EuroAfrica Interconnector – See The EuroAfrica Interconnector
- EuroAsia Interconnector – See The EuroAsia Interconnector
- Morroco-UK Power Project – See Moroccan Solar-Plus-Wind To Be Linked To GB In ‘Ground-Breaking’ Xlinks Project
- TransPacific Interconnector – See Chile Wants To Export Solar Energy To Asia Via 15,000km Submarine Cable
The economics will decide. But I do think, the last one could be a bit ambitious.
How Liquid Air Could Solve The UK’s Energy Conundrum
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Telegraph.
The article is mainly an article that described the technology and it discloses a few facts.
- The Carrington plant should be delivered in 2024.
- Carrington will be a 30 MW/30 MWh system.
- Efficiency is around 50 %, but there are possibilities to raise it to 70 %.
- Australia is mentioned as a market.
- It is likely to be paired with supercapacitors or a flywheel to have a quick start.
- It seems to me, that turning an idea into a practical system is taking a lot of work and money, and a bit of a rethink.
But hopefully, the system will eventually be developed, as it does promise to be an energy storage system, that doesn’t make high demands on the environment in terms of expensive metals and rare earths.
Is Something Happening At Highview Power?
It seems to be impossible to connect to the Highview Power web site.
I get the message, that my security is not private.
There is also no news of the company in the last month.
Gravitricity Makes Hydrogen Play With FlexiStore
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Engineer.
This is the sub-heading.
Edinburgh-based energy storage firm Gravitricity is looking to green hydrogen, bringing a new underground storage solution to market.
The system is explained with a large graphic, showing an electrolyser, a FlexiStore and a hydrogen filling station, with this paragraph underneath.
Known as FlexiStore, the concept involves purpose-built, steel-lined shafts capable of holding up to 100 tonnes of compressed hydrogen at 220 bar – around 3.33GWh of energy, or enough to refuel over 1,000 HGVs, according to Gravitricity. Unlike naturally occurring underground storage like salt caverns, FlexiStores could be positioned anywhere, with the current plan to co-locate the storage as close as possible to renewable generation. Gravitricity says a single FlexiStore could serve a 460MW wind farm and that 1,000 units could meet the UK’s predicted hydrogen storage needs in 2050.
Note.
- The concept certainly solves the problem of storing hydrogen on a country-wide basis.
- I suspect, a machine could be designed and built to create the shafts.
- A 3.33 GWh store could supply 460 MW for nearly 33 hours. As a Control Engineer, that sounds a good balance for backing up a wind farm!
As ARUP has been involved in a feasibility study, I suspect there’s a fair chance that FlexiStores can be built.
Second Life Energy Storage Firm Smartville Inc On Modules vs Packs, Ramp-Up Plans And Tesla’s Approach
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
I like the concept of taking the life-expired batteries out of electric vehicles and giving them a second life as grid batteries.
Smartville seem to have taken this simple and useful idea to a new level.
These are my thoughts.
The Internet Of Batteries
By the use of clever software, it appears, that they can control different types of battery packs, in a manner that could be called the Internet of Batteries.
They can also measure the state and performance and calculate the replacement date of each battery pack.
The Mother Of All Batteries
The implementation of this concept in their MOAB product allows the controlling software to manage a number of battery packs precisely to deliver a battery of the precise number of MWh, that the customer ordered.
- Provided an interface driver can be written, any type and make of battery pack can be incorporated.
- Nearly new, salvaged or elderly battery packs cab be used.
- The operating system can predict, when a battery pack must be replaced.
- Smartville are planning to install a 4MWh grid battery in central California that will be co-located with an existing power plant.
In some ways, the controlling software, is like the Chief Coach of a tug-of-war team, of mixed sexes, weights and strengths, that by asking for the right level of power from each member, gets the required performance.
Working With Tesla
The article talks about why, they don’t work with Tesla, where this is said.
Our experience in the US is that Tesla does not seem to be interested in working with outside partners. They’ve also publicly stated that they’re not focused on battery repurposing, not in their current business model at least, which I think might change over time. But that’s their public stance at the moment. We’re absolutely open to working directly with them but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself.
Does this indicate, that Tesla and Elon Musk are not the easiest people to deal with?
Conclusion
I shall be following Smartville.
SSE Thermal Charts Path To Green Hydrogen Future With First-Of-A-Kind Project
The title of this post, is the same as that of this press release from SSE Thermal.
This is the sub-heading.
SSE Thermal is developing a first-of-a-kind project in the Humber which would unite hydrogen production, storage and power generation in one location by the middle of this decade.
These paragraphs explain the project.
The Aldbrough Hydrogen Pathfinder project will support the evidence base for wider deployment of flexible hydrogen power in the UK’s net zero journey and is a major enabler of SSE Thermal’s wider Humber ambitions.
Located at SSE Thermal and Equinor’s existing Aldbrough Gas Storage site on the East Yorkshire coast, the project is designed to demonstrate the interactions between hydrogen electrolysis, hydrogen cavern storage and 100% hydrogen dispatchable power.
The concept would see green power sourced from grid through Renewable PPAs, in compliance with the Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard. Hydrogen would then be produced via a 35MW electrolyser before being stored in a converted salt cavern and then used in a 100% hydrogen-fired turbine, exporting flexible green power back to grid at times of system need. In future, hydrogen storage will also benefit offtakers in other sectors, for example in industry, heat or transport.
Note.
- The Aldbrough Gas Storage site currently can store the equivalent of 320 GWh of electricity, It is currently being expanded to be one of the largest hydrogen stores in the world according to this page on the SSE web site.
- SSE Thermal are proposing to build a hydrogen-powered power station at Keadby to the South of the Humber. The press release says this power station could have a peak demand of 1,800MW of hydrogen.
- Aldbrough at its current size could keep the Keadby hydrogen-powered power station going for a week. But Aldbrough will be a lot bigger than the current 320 GWh.
- The Hornsea and Dogger Bank wind farms off the coast of East Yorkshire will have a capacity of at least 13.5 GW.
- A 35 MW electrolyser will produce 15.2 tonnes of hydrogen per day.
SSE and Equinor hope to be storing hydrogen by 2025.
Conclusion
It is an enormous project and it will surely grow with more electrolysers and hydrogen-powered power stations.
Hyperbat In Multimillion-Pound Deal To Supply Battery Packs For Lotus Supercar
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on The Times.
Lotus or supercars for that matter, will not be a big market for battery packs, but they will be a high-profile one. The article in The Times may well flush out a few good sales leads from companies who want to decarbonise their products.
Many years ago, I did a consultancy job for Cummins, where my software was used to look for faults in their engine testing system. One of their engineers explained to me that they had a sales and production philosophy that could handle all markets from the large down to small niche ones. He said that we can’t tell which niche markets are going to be successful.
In the last couple of years Cummins have embraced hydrogen very strongly and it looks like they are adopting a similar philosophy.
So in the Cummins engine business model, it looks like the niche market is important.
I suspect that what goes for the diesel engine market will also go for the electric transmission market, with niche markets being nicely profitable and an important part of sales.
It looks to me that Hyperbat are going for that market, backed up by the engineering and battery experience of Williams Advanced Engineering and the manufacturing knowledge and logistics of Unipart.
Note that Williams Advanced Engineering is now owned by Australian billionaire; Andrew Forrest, through his company; Fortescue Future Industries. I wrote about this purchase in Fortescue Buys Williams Engineering In Major Push Into High Performance Batteries.
On the Hyperbat web site, this is said about their manufacturing facility.
The facility is about to double in size to meet current needs, with plans to double again in the next 2 years.
The factory is based on the site of a former exhaust plant and reintroduces manufacturing to the area, with an environmentally sustainable future.
Capacity of the factory is approximately 10,000 packs per year.
I;m sure the company, has enough backing for a very successful future.
The Anonymous Widower 