Energy storage | e-Zinc signs pilot deal with Toyota
Toronto-based zinc–air battery developer e-Zinc has entered into a collaboration with Toyota Tsusho Canada Inc (TTCI) on a pilot project to further validate commercial scale e-Zinc energy storage systems as a technology for long-duration energy storage, in particular for the integration and firming of renewable power.
The TTCI pilot project is slated for spring 2023 and is one of several upcoming e-Zinc field demonstration projects, including a $1.3 million USD project with the California Energy Commission.
The TTCI project will be hosted at Eurus Energy America Corporation’s (EEAC) Bull Creek wind facility in Borden County, Texas. The pilot programme will see excess wind generation stored in the e-Zinc battery system at Bull Creek. EEAC can then use the stored energy to power buildings at the local facility. e-Zinc’s system is expected to store power for 24 hours, and is said
to be better suited to the intermittency of wind generation than typical batteries. The pilot project will deliver first hand experience with what e-Zinc describes as its disruptive technology, and potentially lead to future manufacturing, supply chain and commercial opportunities to be pursued jointly by TTCI and e-Zinc. Additionally, TTCI will draw on its its capabilities to support installation, integration, and system O&M.
“The most important aspect of this relationship is that TTCI’s interest extends far beyond this initial project – TTCI has identified e-Zinc as a high potential company with strategic alignment to its business,” said James Larsen, CEO at e-Zinc. “This project sets the stage for TTCI to support e-Zinc with manufacturing and supply chain capabilities, sales, and distribution support, as well as project deployment and service for a variety of market applications (eg, remote mines, off-grid car dealerships, hospitals on weak grid, etc).”
EV as buffer storage
German power electronics company Infineon Technologies and Delta Electronics, Taiwan-based provider of power management solutions, have developed a three-in-one-system that integrates solar, energy storage and charging of electric vehicles. Thanks to bidirectional inverters, the electric car is not only charged, but can also be used as buffer storage or for household emergency backup power. Looking ahead, bidirectional power flows could also be used to realise new vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions. A single-family home can consume an average of 10-15 kWh of electricity per day. A fully charged car battery with a capacity of 30 to 100 kWh could therefore theoretically bridge a few days as an emergency power solution, suggests Infineon.
The new system, provided by Delta, employs Infineon’s SiC based power semiconductors, which result in increased power density. It can supply a maximum continuous current of 34 A and achieves peak efficiencies of more than 97.5%.
e-Zinc concept. Zinc metal – high energy density and inexpensive – is the proposed storage medium. When charging, zinc metal is deposited on the electrodes in the charging section. When discharging, the zinc is dissolved back into the electrolyte and recirculated to the charging section, ready for the next charging cycle
Battery boom in the USA
According to the EIA’s Annual Electric Generator Report, the capacity of utility-scale battery storage more than tripled in the USA during 2021, from 1.4 GW at the end of 2020 to 4.6 GW.
During 2021, 59% of the 4.6 GW of utility-scale battery capacity in the United States was used for price arbitrage, up from 17% in 2019.
Other applications include frequency regulation, which is well suited to batteries because they do not require any startup time.
More than 93% of battery capacity that came on line in the USA in 2021 was co-located with solar power plants, the EIA report estimates.
UK: £20 billion of batteries needed
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
9%
Li-ion batteries Pumped hydro Wave and tidal Energy from waste Advanced conversion Nuclear Coal
BECCS Hydro Biofuel
Reciprocating engines CHP OCGT CCUS CCGT
Solar PV
Onshore wind
Modelling from Cornwall Insight of the Great Britain (GB) power market out to 2030 has suggested that almost 10% of grid capacity will be provided by battery storage by 2030, costing an estimated £20 billion. Over the next decade battery storage will need to increase to address stability and flexibility requirements in the energy market, this is driven by significant changes to the generation technologies making up the system, notably the increase in intermittent energy sources such as solar and wind power.
While battery storage is set to grow in the immediate future, with the T-4 2025-26 capacity market auction adding 2.6 GW, which on top of the existing storage capacity amounts to a total of around 4 GW of battery storage on the system, it will need to continue this upward trajectory to meet energy market requirements, says Cornwall.
2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030 UK installed capacity projection to 2030 (Cornwall Insight) 30 | September 2022|
www.modernpowersystems.com
Although the cost of batteries is expected to fall as more are deployed, materials costs following the wider rise in commodity prices across the world and supply chain issues in major battery production centres are still likely to be the main hurdle for a major roll out of battery projects, the consultancy suggests.
Installed capacity (% of total)
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45
