POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022 - 24

RENEWING THE PROMISE OF CLEAN ENERGY
ENERGY STORAGE
and it works, [and] the stuff that works
better right now is more expensive. In
this country, these decisions are made
by the market, and the market looks
for the good-enough, low-cost thing
of the moment. "
Storage tech includes pumped hydropower,
creating large-scale reservoirs
of energy with stored water. And
then there's hydrogen-where excess
electricity generation can be converted
into hydrogen via electrolysis and
stored.
as LFP [lithium-iron-phosphate] to replace
lithium-ion, and also the rise in
flow batteries such as Eos [which offers
a zinc hybrid cathode device]. "
" I am hoping that hydrogen as an
energy storage medium will become
viable. Hydrogen has almost been
there for a long time, " said Kelly
Echols, a partner with Stoel Rives and
co-chair of the firm's Energy Technologies
Working Group. " I'm hopeful
that we may actually be on the cusp,
where this P2H [power to hydrogen]
" Where the battery really has a place
is in reliability. I think storage is the
next evolution. If you're comfortable
with solar, then the next step is to
ask about the storage aspect. "
-Anthony Shaw, CEO and founder of
Progeneration Energy
" Hydrogen is by far the most exciting
recent technology to be advanced
by industry, albeit, it, too, is an old
technology that has been given a new
lease on life, " said Brian Restall, senior
director for Quinbrook Infrastructure
Partners, a renewable energy investment
company. " Hydrogen is by far
the biggest competition to batteries
for stationary and vehicle applications. "
Restall
said it's important to develop
alternatives to lithium-ion-based
storage systems. " As electric vehicles
become more accepted and popular,
lithium-ion batteries' supply chains are
coming under pressure to supply both
stationary and vehicle applications, "
Restall told POWER. " For stationary
energy storage, lithium-ion has a relatively
limited ability to support 2-hourplus
energy storage needs. As a result
of this and also ESG [environmental,
social, and governance] concerns over
cobalt, it is good to see industry investing
in alternative chemistry such
will become a reality, where it can be
produced at a low-enough point to be
cost-effective. "
Echols told POWER, " There does
seem to be a demand, essentially in a
fuel cell. You can store it longer, and
with fuel cells, the storage capability,
the ways you can hold onto that
hydrogen, it could be longer. There
does seem to be a lot of interest in this
combined electrical hydrogen future,
where they're complementary to each
other, not competitive... where hydrogen
is used in long-haul trucking, and
we see interest in air transport. "
Eric Martin, a Stoel Rives partner
focused on natural resource development,
told POWER, " From a hydrogen
perspective, the utilities that are facing
this prospect are where the public
is concerned about GHG [greenhouse
gas] emissions, and climate change.
It's a way to adapt their existing infrastructure
in a less-climate-intensive
way. Then there's the demand function
from the end-users. If you're the
24 Supplement to POWER & RE+ 2022
owner/operator of a fleet, and you're
[deciding] what type of vehicles you're
going to have, then it's feasible [hydrogen]
could be implemented. "
Hardware, Software, Reliability
The hardware involved with energy
storage-batteries, inverters, etc.-receives
a lot of attention in storage discussions.
Shamik Mehta, director for
product marketing for Data Platform
at Intertrust, told POWER, though, that
" software is one of the most important
BESS components. The software controls
and sets limits on how much each
cell can be charged to, discharged to,
how fast to charge or discharge, and
more. "
Mehta said the software " has to
detect the state of charge and depth
of discharge of each individual cell
and monitor each cell's health and
temperature. When a typical battery
pack can run up to tens of thousands
of cells, this quickly becomes a challenge.
Whether it's energy arbitration,
demand response, or other energy
storage applications, the software and
its associated algorithms decide the
right times to charge and discharge,
controlling how much, far, or fast to
charge or discharge each cell and
pack, and when. "
" Where the battery really has a
place is in reliability, " said Anthony
Shaw, CEO and founder of Progeneration
Energy, a Texas-based energy
project developer. " I think storage is
the next evolution. If you're comfortable
with solar, then the next step is
to ask about the storage aspect. Right
now, for many, storage is kind of a nice
to have. The assumption is that if the
battery is being used simply to store
excess power, it doesn't pencil. "
Shaw told POWER about a project
his company worked on-a facility that
" wanted the added benefit of backup
power. For them, having a storage
component made sense. " He said the
cost of batteries has been an issue, but
technology advancements are helping
in that regard.
" They're moving in the right direc
POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022

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