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Quote:UK-based manufacturer of long-duration energy storage solutions, plans to construct the UK’s first commercial cryogenic energy storage facility (also referred to as liquid air) at large scale, which will be located at a decommissioned thermal power station in North of England. The 50 MW/250 MWh project is a clean large-scale energy storage facility that can help the UK achieve its goal of decarbonizing industry, power, heat, and transport. The project being developed was announced by Highview Power CEO Javier Cavada during remarks at the BloombergNEF  summit recently held  in London. Along with this first large-scale facility, Highview Power is developing a portfolio of projects in the UK and is in the process of securing sites. These projects are aimed at helping the UK meet the expected global demand for energy storage. “We are excited to begin working on our first commercial UK project at scale to become the largest battery storage system in Europe and support the National Grid.

This CRYOBattery™ plant will provide the critical services needed to help maintain a stable and reliable grid,” said Cavada. In addition to supplying energy storage, Highview Power’s facility will also provide valuable services to the National Grid to help integrate renewables, stabilize the electrical grid, and ensure future energy security. Other services the facility could deliver include market arbitrage, frequency management, reserve, and grid constraint management services. Highview Power is currently in discussions with potential offtakers to contract for the capabilities and services the facility can provide. Energy storage installations around the world will multiply exponentially, reaching 1,095GW/2,850GWh by 2040. Over the next two decades, $662 billion of investment will be needed for stationary energy storage, according to BloombergNEF. Highview Power’s CRYOBattery uses only benign materials with zero emissions and has zero water impact. The new facility in the North of England is the first large scale commercial system utilizing this technology, pioneered at Highview Power’s pilot plant in Slough, and evolved at the demonstration plant in Pilsworth, Greater Manchester, which has been successfully operating since early 2018.

Quote:Scientists at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg have figured out how to harness the energy and keep it in reserve so it can be released on demand in the form of heat—even decades after it was captured. The innovations include an energy-trapping molecule, a storage system that promises to outperform traditional batteries, at least when it comes to heating, and an energy-storing laminate coating that can be applied to windows and textiles.

Quote:Two years after Tesla Inc. installed it, the world’s biggest lithium-ion battery is helping to avert blackouts and lower costs as Australian grids struggle to handle surging renewable power generation. The Neoen SA-owned Hornsdale Power Reserve has responded to three major system outages, helping to restore stability to the network and lower the costs of running the grid, engineering consultant Aurecon Group said Friday. The battery started in 2017 after Elon Musk famously won a bet that he could get a 100-megawatt system up and running in 100 days to help solve a power crisis in South Australia.

Quote:This summer, Toronto-based e-Zinc won a $1.3 million grant from the California Energy Commission to demonstrate its long-duration zinc battery for the commercial and industrial market. As the state’s worst wildfire season on record rages on, the urgency to find new tools for clean backup power has only grown. The batteries precipitate little bits of zinc out of a solution while charging, using a windshield-wiper-like tool to clear the plate and make room for more charging. This allows for longer-duration storage, while the cheap component costs promise to keep prices low relative to other options on the market. The CEC grant will help the startup stake a claim on an underserved market, CEO James Larsen said in an interview.  Lithium-ion batteries are good at daily cycling for bill management, but they can’t run long enough to guarantee multiday backup, he noted. Customers looking for economic multiday backup power usually have to turn to fossil fuels, like gas or diesel generators.

Quote:Researchers believe they can make millions of homes in Europe gas-free in the near future, after inventing a “heat battery” based on salt and water. The team from Eindhoven University of Technology say their cheap, compact battery system is ready for real-world tests and will be a “game-changer for energy transition”. The heat battery is based on an old thermochemical principle, which is that when water is added to salt it produces heat. The reverse is also possible, whereby heat can be used to evaporate the water, thus storing the heat energy inside the salt. Storing heat within dry salt makes the battery completely loss-free, providing an incredibly efficient way to store energy for future use. This is particularly useful when energy supply is coming from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, which tend to fluctuate significantly and therefore require gas or other sources to suplement them.