Energy Storage Could Emerge As The Hottest Market Of 2022
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Nasdaq.
This is the introductory paragraph.
A few years ago, battery energy storage began drawing attention as what one industry executive at the time called the Holy Grail of renewable energy. In the years since, EVs have stolen the spotlight but now battery storage is back, larger than life and, quite likely, twice as expensive.
I would wholeheartedly agree.
Although, I do think, that some of the major players over the next few years will not be based on lithium-ion batteries.
I have invested in Gravitricity and Rheenergise and would have invested in Highview Power, if I had had the chance.
My stockbroker has also invested some of my pension in energy storage and battery funds.
When Will Energy Storage Funds Take The Leap To New Technology?
This article on the Motley Fool is entitled 3 UK Dividend Shares To Buy Yielding 6%.
This is a paragraph from the article.
The first company on my list is the Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LSE: GSF). With a dividend yield of just over 6%, at the time of writing, I think this company looks incredibly attractive as an income investment. It is also an excellent way for me to build exposure to the green energy industry.
Just as everybody has a fridge in their house to stop food being wasted, electricity networks with a lot of intermittent resources like wind and solar, needs a device to store electricity, so that it isn’t wasted.
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund is being very safe and conservative at the current time, often using batteries from one of Elon Musk’s companies.
You can’t fault that, but they are only barely making a dent in the amount of batteries that will be needed.
If we are generating tens of GW of wind energy, then we need batteries at the GWh level, whereas at the moment a typical battery in Gore Street’s portfolio has only an output of a few megawatts. They don’t state the capacity in MWh.
There is this statement on their web site, about the technology they use.
Although the projects comprising the Seed Portfolio utilise lithium-ion batteries and much of the pipeline of investments identified by the Company are also expected to utilise lithium-ion batteries, the Company is generally agnostic about which technology it utilises in its energy storage projects. The Company does not presently see any energy storage technology which is a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries. However, there are a number of technologies which are being researched which if successfully commercialised, could prove over time more favourable and the Company will closely monitor such developing technologies.
They say they are agnostic about technology and are looking around, but they are sticking with lithium-ion technology.
That technology works, is safe and gives a good return.
But they are at least thinking about moving to new technology.
In the rail industry, it is common for rail leasing companies to get together with train manufacturers or remanufacturers to develop new trains.
As an example, Eversholt Rail and Alstom formed a partnership to develop a hydrogen-powered train for the UK, which I wrote about in Alstom And Eversholt Rail Sign An Agreement For The UK’s First Ever Brand-New Hydrogen Train Fleet.
Worldwide, there are probably upwards of a dozen very promising energy storage technologies, so I am very surprised that energy storage funds, like Gore Street and Gresham House have not announced any development deals.
Conclusion
Energy storage funds could benefit from using some of the financing methods used by rolling stock leasing companies.
Gresham House Plots £58million Raise To Pursue Energy Storage Pipelines
The title of this post is the same as this article on Solar Power Portal.
The article shows how increasingly the City of London is moving to increase the energy storage capacity we need as more wind and solar power comes on-line.
I wouldn’t invest my money in something like this directly, but I wouldn’t object if my pension provider placed money in energy storage.
UK Listed Energy Storage Fund Seeks 182MW Battery Project Pipeline
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
This is the first paragraph.
UK investment management firm Gresham House has confirmed it is to launch a fresh fund raising drive as it sets its sights on a new, 182MW pipeline of battery storage projects.
It is my belief as a Control Engineer, that if we move to renewable energy, like geothermal, hydro, solar, tidal, wave and wind, that the generating capacity must be backed up with large massive of energy storage.
- The energy storage captures excess electricity when nobody needs to use it and feeds it back when consumption exceeds supply.
- I suspect that the National Grid have done extensive simulations of the UK’s energy needs and that they have a model of how much energy storage is needed to support particular mixes and capacities of renewable energy.
- Most of the storage will be lithium-ion or perhaps some of the newer developments, that are creeping into the renewable dictionary.
- The cost of storage, its working life and performance must be well-known, which means that the investors can get a return, that satisfies their needs to fund pensions and insurance policies.
So it would appear that Gresham House have done their sums and come up with a mathematical model, where all are winners.
- UK industry and consumers get enough electricity for their needs.
- Insurance companies and pension funds get a return to fulfil their contractual commitments.
- UK pensioners get a reliable pension.
- UK taxpayers don’t have to fund the much-needed energy storage.
- Our electricity will increasingly be generated by renewables.
- I do suspect that Gresham House will take an appropriate fee.
There may even be an opportunity for the public to invest directly in the future.
For all these winners, there will be losers.
- Oil companies. In Writing On The Wall For Oil Say Funds, I wrote about the opinion of fund managers on oil companies.
- Despots, dictators and religious maniacs, who control much of the world’s oil resources.
I shall cry not one tear for the second group!
I’ll be very interested to see the way that these energy storage funds develop!
Conclusion
These funds will develop in parallel with renewable energy and the energy storage it needs.
As the demand for energy storage will grow significantly, these funds will grow as well to provide the capacity needed to keep the lights on.
South Australia Launches AU$50 Million Fund For Grid-Scale Energy Storage
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
This is the first paragraph.
In order to address intermittency in its grid, the South Australian Government has introduced a AU$50 million (US$36 million) Grid Scale Storage Fund (GSSF) to help accelerate the deployment of new large energy storage projects, including pumped hydro, hydrogen, gas storage, solar thermal, bioenergy and battery storage.
It is a must-read article, which shows the way progressive governments are thinking.
Mathematics Of Energy Storage
I am particularly talking about the sort of energy storage that is attracting the attention of Energy Storage Funds, that I wrote about in Batteries On The Boil As Fund Attracts Investors.
The Times article of the same name has this paragraph.
A typical 50-megawatt energy storage site of the kind the company intends to acquire hosts 19 containers each housing thousands of lithium-ion cells. A fully-charged container has the energy to boil 32,000 kettles.
This page on ConfusedEnergy.co.uk, says this.
We are often told to only use as much water as we need in a kettle and not to fill it to the top, but what are the potential annual saving in doing this. Well it takes roughly 4.5 minutes to boil a full (2 litre) kettle with a power rating of 3kW (kilowatts).
This means that to boil a kettle needs 0.225 kWh.
- Boiling 32,000 kettles needs 7200 kWh or 7.2 MWh
- Which means that the total capacity of the nineteen container energy storage facility is 136.8 MWh.
So the energy storage could provide the rated 50 MW for nearly three hours.
Lithium-Ion Batteries, Supercapacitors Or Both?
The article in The Times doesn’t mention supercapacitors.
If you watch the video in A Must-Watch Video About Skeleton Technologies And Ultracapacitors, Skeleton Technologies state the following about their ultracapacitors.
- They are more affordable.
- They generate less heat.
- They have a higher energy density.
- They can handle more charge/discharge cycles.
- They have a faster response time, so would respond better to sudden demands.
I suspect there may be several operational and financial advantages, in replacing some of the lithium-ion batteries with supercapacitors.
The Anonymous Widower 