Vi fortsätter med Redeyes Next Generation-serie, den här gången riktar vi in oss på Energy Storage.

Behovet av energilagring ökar i takt med att det sker en förändring i hur energi produceras och även hur det används i systemet. Olika typer av lagringsteknologi behövs beroende på efterfrågan och typ av elproduktion.

Seminariet kommer inledas av professor Rafael Guedez som berättar generellt om energilagring, vilka trender som finns, tekniska genombrott som gjorts samt vad han tror om framtiden. Efter introduktionen så har Redeye bjudit in ett antal framstående företag som arbetar med spännande lösningar för hur vi skall lagra energin i framtiden. Företagen kommer att hålla en kort presentation som beskriver sin specifika teknik, marknaden de fokuserar på och hur långt de har kommit i termer av kommersialisering. Eventet modereras av våra analytiker Henrik Alveskog och Oskar Vilhelmsson.

Nedan har vi även sammanställt aktuell information inom sektorn.

 

COVID-19 effects on the global renewable energy market

IEA recently posted a new update regarding the industry outlook for 2020-2021, and we have listed some highlights below.

• The Covid-19 crisis is hurting – but not halting – global growth in renewable power capacity. The number of new renewable power installations worldwide is set to fall this year as a result of the unprecedented Covid-19 crisis, marking the first annual decline in 20 years.
• Global energy demand declined by 3.8% in the first quarter of 2020, with most of the impact felt in March as confinement measures were enforced in Europe, North America, and elsewhere. Renewable energy has so far been the energy source most resilient to Covid‑19 lockdown measures.
• In 2020, the IEA forecasts net additions of renewable electricity capacity to decline by 13% compared with 2019. The decline reflects delays in construction activity due to supply chain disruption, lockdown measures, and social‑distancing guidelines, and emerging financing challenges.
• In 2021, renewables are expected to show their resilience – the majority of the delayed projects are expected to come online, leading to a rebound in new installations.
• The impact of Covid-19 on renewable electricity technologies with long lead times, such as hydropower, offshore wind, CSP, and geothermal, remains limited.

 

The challenge with renewable electricity

The renewable sector has grown rapidly in recent years in conjunction with the technology advancements, improving the cost-efficiency in relation to other sources such as fossil fuels. The difference between the energy sources is that the generation from renewable sources such as solar and wind power is intermittent and requires sun and wind, compared to baseload power (fossil fuels) that generates continuously or on-demand throughout the day.

It is obvious that the emerging growth and trends towards an increased share of renewable electricity demand storage solutions in both on and off-grid markets. Visible below is the so-called Duck-Curve showing the deviation of production vs. usage during a day in California.

 

The market for energy storage

For a long time, energy storage has been used for several purposes as i) support the overall reliability of the electricity grid ii) to help defer or avoid investments in other Infrastructure iii) provide back-up energy during power outages or at times of system stress iiii) support off-grid systems and facilitate energy access for underserved populations. The need for energy storage has become increasingly important with the growth of renewable energy technologies with intermittent production.

Strong market outlook
Energy storage installations will grow exponentially from 9GWs deployed as of 2018 to 1,095GW (~120x) by 2040, according to Bloomberg’s Energy storage outlook. The estimated market size in terms of value between researchers differs but is expected at around 620-1100bn USD by 2040.

Decreased costs expected to continue
Falling costs and new deployment incentives are fueling record investments in energy storage. Depending on the application, there is a 74% decline in costs since 2013, and these are projected to continue to decline at a steady 8% per year through the mid-2020s. IRENA predicts that the cost of energy storage will, on average, be cut by more than 50% between 2016-2030. Going forward, we expect this to put long-term price pressure on all solutions.

Government policies fuels continued growth
Several countries have taken actions towards investments into grid-supporting energy storage solutions. For example, the USA has introduced a 30% tax reduction to support commercial, residential and large-scale projects.

Growing demand for off-grid solutions
Even though an additional ~100 million people get access to electricity every year, the demand for off-grid solutions is growing. One reason behind the increased demand for off-grid solutions is the cost of expanding the central grid into remote areas, which is not cost-efficient. Another factor is the need for a reliable electricity source with solid performance, where mini and microgrids are used as support to a poor or unstable grid. The strong growth in populations with a high proportion of off-grid systems/unreliable electricity has also for example outnumbered the population connected to a stable grid between 2010-2017.

Latest (large scale) news

• The adoption of short-term energy storage technologies is mainly increasing in developed countries.^[1] An example of this is one of the world’s largest BESS installments at Hornsdale power reserve in Australia of 100MW attached to a wind farm. The installment is used for peak shaving with many cycles throughout the day, visible here.
• Hawaii’s largest renewable tender to date includes nearly 3GWh of storage capacity. The storage will provide load shifting and fast-frequency response services to Hawaiian Electric, enhancing grid reliability and accelerating the integration of readily available renewable energy.^{[2] [3]}
• Another example is the asset producer Neoen currently building a 30MWh battery energy storage (BESS) to a wind farm. The project is also grid-connected.^[4]
• In Colorado, Xcel Energy is retiring 660MW of coal to be replaced with 1800MW of solar and wind renewables, combined with a 275MW battery storage (attached to PV)^[5]