Upcoming Event: Energy Storage for the Grid: Watchful Waiting or the Perfect Storm?
I'll be moderating Energy Storage for the Grid: Watchful Waiting or the Perfect Storm? at the MIT Enterprise Forum Northwest's May 8, 2012 program at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) , 2700 24th Ave East. The event, which includes a networking reception, will be held from 5:00 to 8:30 pm.
The evening's panelists will be:
- Terry Oliver, Chief Technology Innovations Officer, Bonneville Power
Administration - Alexander H. Slocum, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Chris Wheaton, Chief Operating & Financial Officer, EnerG2
- Nathan Adams, Manager of Development and Emerging Technologies, Puget Sound Energy
Among other topics, the panel will address:
- The most promising energy storage strategies
- How different storage methods could work together with the grid in the Northwest and nationally
- How entrepreneurs, the changing energy marketplace, grid operators, and utilities are responding to the call to build the foundation for a clean energy economy
For more information about this event, visit MITEF Northwest's web site.
I hope to see you there! In the meantime, for those who are following energy storage, I'm "tweeting" regularly on that topic as well as Department of Defense renewables procurement at @BillHolmesStoel (#energystorage).
REMINDER: Applications for SBIR and STTR Phase I Grants Due November 15th
Don't forget that the deadline for Phase I grant applications under the U.S. Department of Energy's ("DOE") Small Business Innovation Research ("SBIR") and Small Business Technology Transfer ("STTR") programs is 8:00 p.m. Eastern, November 15, 2010. Qualified small businesses with strong research capabilities in science or engineering in any of the research areas identified in the September 28, 2010 Funding Opportunity Announcement are encouraged to apply. Phase I grants of up to $150,000 will be awarded in FY 2011 under the SBIR; and grants of up to $100,000 will be awarded under the STTR.
The Phase I Technical Topics document lists several areas of particular interest for the renewable energy industry. Note that the following is not an exhaustive list. The full list and descriptions can be found in the Phase I Technical Topics document.
- Advanced Cooling and Waste Heat Recovery: Advanced Cooling; Advanced Waste Heat Recovery; Geoexchange heat pump (GHP) component R&D; Innovative GHP System/Loop Designs.
- Production of Bioenergy and Biofuels from Cellulosic and Non-Food Biomass: Biomass Feedstock Stabilization and Drying; Biomass Torrefaction; Sugar Catalysis to Advanced Biofuels and Chemical Intermediates; Pyrolytic Thermal Depolymerization.
- Hydrogen and Fuel Cells: Reducing the Cost of High Pressure Hydrogen Storage Tanks; Fuel Cell Balance-of-Plant; Demonstration of Alternative-Fuel Fuel CElls as Range Extenders.
- Innovative Solar Power: High Efficiency, Low Cost Thin Film Photovoltaics; Low Cost Building Integrated Photovoltaics; Static Module PV Concentrators; Solar-Powered Water Desalination; Distributed Concentrating Solar Power ("CSP").
- Advanced Water Power Technologies: Pumped Storage Hydropower; Advanced Hydropower Systems; Wave and Current Energy Technologies; Advanced Component Design for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Systems.
- Wind Energy Technologies: Transportation and Assembly of Extremely Large Wind Turbine Components for Land-Based Wind Turbines; Wind Energy Capture in Non-Conventional Wind Resources; Offshore Grid Infrastructure Hardware Development; Offshore Mooring and Anchoring Technology.
Detailed descriptions of each subtopic are included in the Phase I Technical Topics document.
Senators Propose Making Energy Storage Property Eligible for ITC & CREBs
Last week, Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), introduced legislation that would add grid-connected energy storage property to the list of technologies eligible for the federal investment tax credit (the "ITC"). Under the Storage Technology for Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2010 (the "STORAGE 2010 Act"), eligible energy storage property would include hydroelectric pumped storage and compressed air energy storage, regenerative fuel cells, batteries, superconducting magnetic energy storage, flywheels, thermal energy storage systems and hydrogen storage. Systems that can sustain a power rating of at least one megawatt for a minimum of one hour would be eligible for a 20% tax credit under the ITC program. Should the bill become law, the tax credit would provide significant assistance to intermittent energy resource developers that are seeking new ways to shape and firm their projects' output.
The STORAGE 2010 Act would limit the available credits to $1.5 billion, and no single project may be allocated more than $30 million.
Importantly, the bill creates special extended deadlines for hydroelectric pumped storage facilities. Whereas the majority of energy storage property considered under the bill would be required to be placed in service within two years of the date the ITC was allocated, pumped storage facilities would have three years to secure required licenses and permits, five years to begin construction, and eight years to be placed in service.
Compressed air energy storage systems would enjoy similar extended deadlines- i.e., would be reqired to begin construction within three years and be placed in service within five years.
The bill would also allow grid-connected energy storage property to qualify for Clean Renewable Energy Bonds under section 54C of the Internal Revenue Code. The full text of the bill can be viewed here.
CPUC Staff Issues White Paper on Electric Energy Storage (EES)
Energy Electricty Storage (EES) is likely to become more and more important as intermittent solar and wind energy resources penetrate the grid. EES may be a very useful and perhaps essential way to manage the variability of intermittent renewable energy resources to allow developers to continue building wind and solar projects at an accelerating pace.
On July 9, 2010, the Policy and Planning Division of the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) issued an interesting Staff White Paper entitled "Electric Energy Storage: An Assessment of Potential Barriers and Opportunities." The report is worth reading for those who are interested in the future of renewable energy and the roll that EES can play in enhancing the deployment of intermittent renewables.
The report describes "a promising new set of Electric Energy Storage ("EES") technologies [that] appear to provide an effective means for addressing the growing problems of reliance on an increasing percentage of intermittent renewable generation resources." The report observes that EES can provide several basice services, such as (1) supplying peak electricity demand by using electricity generated during periods of lower demand (e.g., storage of wind energy generated at night for use during daily peak periods), (2) balancing electricity supply and demand fluctuations over a period of minutes, and (3) deferring expansion of electric grid capacity (including generation, transmission and distribution).
Potential storage technologies include pumped hydro, compressed air energy storage ("CAES"), batteries, thermal storage (e.g., solar thermal plants), flywheels, unltracapacitors and superconducting magnetic storage--the report provides short but helpful description of each technology. Storage presents interesting legal and policy issues, because "[r]egulators are uncertain how EES technologies should fit into the electric system, in part because EES services provide multiple services such as generation, transmission and distribution." In addition, "regulators do not yet know how EES costs and benefits should be allocated among these three main elements of the electric system."
The report makes a number of recommendations, including that the CPUC should conduct a rulemaking to develop policies to remove barriers to the deployment of EES technology in California. The report also proposes that the CPUC consider placing EES within California's energy resources loading order, require utilities to incoporate EES into their integrated resource planning processes, encourage CAISO to change ancillary service market rules to allow EES systems to more easily bid into regulation markets, and integrate EES into utility transmission planning.
The report concludes that "the major barrier for deployment of new storage facilities is not necessarily the technology, but the absence of appropriate regulations and market mechanisms that properly recognize the value of the storage resource and financially comepnsate the owners/operators for the services and benefits they provide."
You can find the report here.
CPUC Staff Issues White Paper on Electric Energy Storage (EES)
Energy Electricty Storage (EES) is likely to become more and more important as intermittent solar and wind energy resources penetrate the grid. EES may be a very useful and perhaps essential way to manage the variability of intermittent renewable energy resources to allow developers to continue building wind and solar projects at an accelerating pace.
On July 9, 2010, the Policy and Planning Division of the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) issued an interesting Staff White Paper entitled "Electric Energy Storage: An Assessment of Potential Barriers and Opportunities." The report is worth reading for those who are interested in the future of renewable energy and the roll that EES can play in enhancing the deployment of intermittent renewables.
The report describes "a promising new set of Electric Energy Storage ("EES") technologies [that] appear to provide an effective means for addressing the growing problems of reliance on an increasing percentage of intermittent renewable generation resources." The report observes that EES can provide several basice services, such as (1) supplying peak electricity demand by using electricity generated during periods of lower demand (e.g., storage of wind energy generated at night for use during daily peak periods), (2) balancing electricity supply and demand fluctuations over a period of minutes, and (3) deferring expansion of electric grid capacity (including generation, transmission and distribution).
Potential storage technologies include pumped hydro, compressed air energy storage ("CAES"), batteries, thermal storage (e.g., solar thermal plants), flywheels, unltracapacitors and superconducting magnetic storage--the report provides short but helpful description of each technology. Storage presents interesting legal and policy issues, because "[r]egulators are uncertain how EES technologies should fit into the electric system, in part because EES services provide multiple services such as generation, transmission and distribution." In addition, "regulators do not yet know how EES costs and benefits should be allocated among these three main elements of the electric system."
The report makes a number of recommendations, including that the CPUC should conduct a rulemaking to develop policies to remove barriers to the deployment of EES technology in California. The report also proposes that the CPUC consider placing EES within California's energy resources loading order, require utilities to incoporate EES into their integrated resource planning processes, encourage CAISO to change ancillary service market rules to allow EES systems to more easily bid into regulation markets, and integrate EES into utility transmission planning.
The report concludes that "the major barrier for deployment of new storage facilities is not necessarily the technology, but the absence of appropriate regulations and market mechanisms that properly recognize the value of the storage resource and financially comepnsate the owners/operators for the services and benefits they provide."
You can find the report here.
