The Future?, page-1117

“It’s clear that the energy storage market is poised for tremendous growth in 2021 and beyond. The ‘Storage Decade’ is upon us with the convergence of a transforming power and transportation system, and the growing need for decarbonisation and resilience,” said Jason Burwen, ESA Interim CEO.

Powering The Potential Of Neighbourhood Batteries

The Victorian Government has awarded grants to jumpstart the roll-out of neighbourhood-scale batteries and energy storage studies to maximise benefits of solar for households, businesses and community organisations as the state works to halve emissions by 2030.

The Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio today announced 16 groups led by community organisations, local councils and industry will share in $3.68 million in grants through the Neighbourhood Battery Initiative.

The program is funding pilots and demonstrations of a range of neighbourhood battery ownership and operational models to unlock the potential of neighbourhood-scale energy storage in Victoria’s transition to clean energy.

Neighbourhood-scale batteries can benefit Victorian electricity users, networks and communities by soaking up excess output from residential solar systems during the day, and then dispatching it when needed in the evening.

These batteries can maximise access to the power generated by the hundreds of thousands of solar systems across the state, with Victoria’s Solar Homes Program having seen record levels of rooftop solar systems installed.

About 20 per cent of Victorian households now have solar panels, a figure that could grow to 50 per cent by 2030.

The Neighbourhood Battery Initiative is part of the record $1.6 billion clean energy package announced in the Victorian Budget 2020/21.

The package is delivering household and business energy efficiency initiatives, improve crucial grid infrastructure, drive down emissions and support more Solar Homes.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio

“Neighbourhood batteries are an important part of our transition to renewable energy. They can soak up energy from household solar and allow for the whole community to benefit from this clean energy.”

“We are building a modernised electricity network to prepare for Victoria’s clean energy revolution and mean that households, businesses and community organisations can benefit from battery technology.”


*To Remind,

Tesla has also recently inked a deal with BHP to provide nickel from the Nickel West mine in WA that includes plans to make the battery supply chain more sustainable.

Are we seeing the start of an Osborne Effect triggered by Tesla and accidentally reinforced by the majors?

Will the EV Transition happen much faster than the industry predicted levels of 30 to 50% new EV sales by 2030 – instead hitting 80% or more of new car sales like Norway is now?

Will the vast majority of models in showrooms soon be electric powered simply because no-one will buy ICE ones anymore? … And will ‘electric cars’ soon be so ubiquitous that we drop word ‘electric’ from their description?



* Note: Stellantis: the world’s fourth largest auto group. Their stable of brands include Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Vauxhall, Jeep, Fiat, Chrysler, Ram, Maserati and Alfa Romeo.











Stem Is a Play on the Future of Batteries.

Batteries are being supersized as renewables take an ever-larger share of the world’s energy generation. And that’s great news for power-storage provider Stem.

Renewable energy, which accounted for just 10% of U.S. energy production 20 years ago, generates 20% today, and that share should continue to rise as the U.S., like other countries, gradually phases out fossil fuels in favor of more environmentally friendly alternatives.

The Biden administration wants to hit 100% carbon-free generation by 2035.

For that to work, however, utilities would need plenty of high capacity batteries to store the energy produced by wind turbines and solar panels when the gales are blowing and the sun is shining, so there is electricity to distribute when they’re not.

That’s where Stem comes in.

The San Francisco–based company installs arrays of large batteries for utilities and industrial companies and sells software to manage them.

The company is small; its market value is about $2.8 billion after dropping 20%, to a recent $21.34, since its merger with Star Peak Energy Transition in April.

But Stem already has dozens of utility customers and has deployed more than 900 systems that combined could produce a gigawatt hour of electricity, enough to power 100 homes for a year.

A bet on Stem is a bet on renewable energy’s future.

Stem doesn’t make batteries, for good reason.

* The lithium-ion batteries used for commercial storage applications have become commodities, in a market dominated by a few huge players, such as LG Chem and Contemporary Amperex Technology.

Battery arrays can replace the expensive natural-gas-fed power plants that many utilities use to meet spikes in demand, says Credit Suisse analyst Maheep Mandloi, who notes that the transition has been under way for a couple of years.

In 2020, for instance, Australia famously bought a huge battery array from Tesla to store electricity from a large wind farm in a power-starved area of the country.

Power prices vary throughout the day. Industrial companies typically pay a rate based on the peak price they hit each month.

Falling battery costs have led many to install solar-energy systems with power-storage capability.

These can replace some utility-generated electricity, especially during periods of peak usage.

Employing renewable power and batteries to replace energy from a utility is known as going “behind the meter.”

Stem installs the batteries and provides software that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to optimize their performance, by automatically switching among battery power, onsite generation, and grid power.

“Industrial companies can save up to 30%,” says Stem CEO John Carrington.

www.marketwatch.com







Food for thought on the Road to Battery Storage

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