Battery storage

The launch of the U.K. Smart Export Guarantee regime today failed to include a price floor – as predicted by trade body the STA – but the government did not rule out future intervention. Commercial customers, however, still have no way of securing payment for their excess power.

Among 45 critical energy technologies and sectors assessed in a tracking report by the International Energy Agency, only seven are keeping hopes alive that climate, energy access and air pollution goals can be met.

Pumped hydro storage is highly cost competitive for large-scale energy storage, according to a report published by the San Diego County Water Authority. The report models a pumped hydro project as securing better financing terms than battery storage.

The transition for utility scale storage from offering short duration, high value grid services to the world of long duration energy peaking could spell the end of fossil fuel backup generation within five years.

The new budget looks to lower the cost of energy for households by turning to distributed energy, energy efficiency and community energy programs. To this end, several billion Canadian dollars will be spent.

In December, pv magazine met SolaX Power president Li Xinfu and his team at the company’s headquarters in sprawling Hangzhou, in Zhejiang province. The region is a hotspot for the Chinese PV industry and SolaX belongs to the cutting edge of Chinese inverter and residential battery manufacturers.

A number of significant manufacturing and investment plans in China, Germany and North America by major automobile makers VW, Tesla and BYD are backing up predictions that electric vehicle car sales are set to skyrocket in the coming decades.

The ASX-listed company which aspires to ‘close the loop’ on the energy-metal cycle has successfully produced lithium-ion batteries from tri-lithium phosphate sourced directly from a mine dump. It has also reported outstanding results in lithium recovery in excess of 90%, using its SiLeach process at the ANSTO Minerals pilot plant in New South Wales.

The rise of batteries will attract that headline figure in investment up to 2040, say analysts, as exponential growth in EV ownership, falling stationery system costs and the needs of the world’s grid-poor regions combine to boost lithium-ion technology.

Lithium Werks has ambitious plans for a global chain of utility-scale production lines that has secured the backing of the Netherlands government and PM Mark Rutte, as EU leaders contemplate a post-US trade future.