Sungrow’s high expectations for Spanish energy storage market despite lack of regulation

Proof of this interest in the Spanish market is the company’s choice of location to host its PowerTitan 2.0 Experience Day in Madrid – which Energy-storage.news attended – earlier this month, showcasing its latest product in energy storage systems to the European scene, where it targets to deploy 200MWh of Power Titan 2.0 systems this year, all between the UK and Germany.
One of the reasons for Spain to be a late bloomer in the storage scene, is due to its lack of regulations which could draw some parallels with Italy, says Javier Izcue Elizalde, vice-president and responsible for Southern Europe at Sungrow.
“We need to have clear regulations because right now, the standard is under development. And needless to say, the capacity market is also not yet defined, but some of our customers have an appetite for these kinds of investments,” explains Izcue.
Last year alone Spain only added 5MW/10MWh of capacity, according to data from consultancy LCP Delta, with 2025 expected to be the year where BESS deployment will kickstart. A broader look at the Spanish market and other European countries’ grid-scale deployment in the coming years can be read in Energy-storage.news recent Energy Storage Report.

Sungrow hosted an event in Madrid last week to introduce the new product to the European market. Image: Jonathan Touriño Jacobo for Energy-storage.news.
During a panel at Sungrow’s event, Alberto Quesada, head of engineering at renewables developer Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) explained the reason for the Spanish market to be behind in the energy storage scene is due to the lack of specific regulation and a lack of capacity market, adding: “You can only go to the wholesale market.”
The lack of regulation is not an issue unique to the Spanish market, but more broadly at the European level, as Margareta Roncevic, policy officer at the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE), explains: “Energy storage, in general, is not recognised in many regulatory forms on the EU level and on the national level. That is a big barrier dragging in the market, even though technologies are commercially viable.”
Quesada also highlighted the issue of negative prices or close to zero in the Spanish market due to high amounts of PV during sunny days in the Summer, or wind during the winter.
Spain’s energy storage tenders
Izcue added that with Spain’s first tender for energy storage to be co-located with renewables – which awarded 1.8GWh of capacity – projects are expected to be much smaller, as is the case of Spanish utility Iberdrola which was awarded 300MW of BESS to be co-located with existing solar PV plants. It will deploy six 25MW/50MWh lithium-ion systems in the regions of Castilla y León, Extremadura, Castilla La Mancha and Andalusia.
However, with the results of an upcoming 2.4GWh Spanish standalone energy storage tender to be unveiled, in the coming months, Izcue expects the size of battery storage projects built to increase.
If these tenders could help kickstart interest in energy storage in the country, these will not necessarily be the main driver for Spain to reach 22GW of energy storage by 2030, explains Izcue.
Deployment of BESS in Spain is not expected to kickstart before 2025. Chart: Cameron Murray for Energy-storage.news.
“I don’t think that’s going to be the future of Spain, because these [auctions] are funded from Europe. We have been discussing recently with customers and some of them are not working in these plans.” Izcue added that “not everything is going to be subsidised”.
Grid issues and lack of professionals
If the lack of regulations for BESS to soar in the coming years is one of Spain’s main challenges, grid congestion and lack of personnel are also high on the list, which the solar PV industry has been facing too. With the higher complexities of storage technology, Izcue says: “It’s not easy to also find a specialist in storage.”
A report last year by Aurora Energy Research highlighted that 5% of Spain’s renewable energy generation could face economic curtailment between 2025 and 2030, which Quesada said was expected to increase in the coming year. However, long-duration energy storage (LDES) could reduce or eliminate these constraints with the deployment of 15GW LDES.

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DOE: US energy storage pipeline up 300% since Inflation Reduction Act passed

Frisch was speaking during a keynote address – ’18 Months On: The Impact of the IRA on the Energy Storage Industry’ at this week’s Energy Storage Summit USA 2024 in Austin, Texas, put on by our publisher Solar Media.
As Energy-Storage.news reported this week, the US grew its battery energy storage system (BESS) – the technology of choice for the vast majority of projects today – to 17GW by the end of 2023, according to trade body American Clean Power Association’s (ACP) latest figures. 2023 saw the US deploy 7.9GW of new capacity, double the prior year, ACP said.
The DOE’s Frisch said that deployments would roughly double in 2024 to 15GW, though was citing a lower estimate for 2023 deployments of 6.5GW. She noted that the DOE’s forward forecasts acknowledged that some projects in the interconnection queue, which is much larger, would fall out and not get built.
The keynote address primarily went through the various measures that the IRA has taken to give its clean energy sector a boost. The most relevant for energy storage are the 45x manufacturing tax credit, which pays US$35 per kWh for cell production and another US$10 for battery pack assembly, and the investment tax credit (ITC) for 30% of downstream projects’ capital expenditure, with the option to grow that to 70% with various adders.
Long-duration energy storage (LDES) is also a specific goal for the government department. “We have the goal to reduce storage costs by 90% for storage systems that deliver 10-plus hours of duration. We’re projecting a massive need for LDES by 2050.”

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Enel Green Power, Mercedes-Benz projects push forward European flow battery efforts

Enel Green Power posted some pictures of the project to X (formerly Twitter) on 18 March with the comment that the plant “paves the way for a sustainable, fossil-free future.”
Meanwhile the renewable energy developer’s parent company, Endesa, posted a short video of the project to business networking site LinkedIn yesterday (20 March), alongside comments that the “innovative” project is pioneering for the Spanish market.
Endesa also highlighted some of the technical benefits of VRFB technology, describing the new system as a “high-performance solution with no negative impact on the environment” that was developed in partnership with Largo Clean Energy.
Energy-Storage.news reported on the project in 2021 as it got underway, with the solar PV deployed in the first phase and the flow battery system in the second. It followed a partnership formed between Largo and Enel Green Power in August of that year.
Largo Resources said this week that it has signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture (JV) with US-headquartered energy storage solutions provider Stryten Energy, combining Largo’s access to raw materials and electrolyte production capabilities with Stryten’s manufacturing and design.
Last year Stryten inaugurated a VRFB demonstration project in the southern US state of Georgia.
That 20kW/120kWh system is being used by utility Snapping Shoals EMC to test the ability of flow batteries to perform “a wide range of applications such as energy cost control, peak shaving, avoiding curtailment and renewable integration,” according to a Stryten spokesperson who spoke to Energy-Storage.news in August 2023 as the ribbon was cut.  
The claim that the Son Orlandis project is the largest flow battery paired with solar PV in Europe certainly rings true, at least for publicly announced projects. A 5MWh VRFB sits at the Energy Superhub project in Oxford, UK, supplied by Invinity Energy Systems for project owner EDF. The Superhub is also notable in that it features both VRFB and lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technologies at the same site, designed as a ‘hybrid’ for each to perform different, complementary applications.
Elsewhere, Anglo-American flow battery company Invinity has also supplied tech to a much bigger solar-plus-flow battery project in Alberta, Canada, with a share of government-distributed funding to support it. Chappice Lake Solar & Storage Project features a 2.8MW/8.4MWh VRFB system paired with 21MWp of solar PV.
Meanwhile, the biggest VRFB project of any type in the world is thought to be in Dalian, China. Co-developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences with a storage capacity of 400MWh to 100MW output, the project is planned for expansion to double both megawatts and megawatt-hours and is one of a number of large-scale projects supported by China’s government.
Mercedes-Benz orders 11MWh organic flow battery in Germany
Vanadium is the most common main ingredient for flow battery electrolyte, but it is far from the only one, with a range of other materials used by providers.
One of those providers is European company CMBlu Energy, which has just won a deal for an 11MWh system from carmaker Mercedes-Benz.
CMBlu sent a release yesterday to media including Energy-Storage.news, describing the CMBlu SolidFlow energy storage tech as “an important building block” for the luxury car brand to “gradually increase” its use of renewable energy for its production lines.

Render of the layout of the CMBlu SolidFlow system, which will be installed at Mercedes-Benz’s production plant in Rastatt. Image: CMBlu
It will be deployed at Mercedes-Benz’s Rastatt plant near Karlsruhe in western Germany, close to the Rhine River and the country’s border with France.
CMBlu said series production of its flow batteries will begin in Q3 2024. The company has not revealed the exact electrolyte chemistry of its devices but has previously said it uses an aqueous electrolyte solution made using recycled materials.
CMBlu raised €100 million (at that time about US$107 million) investment last year from technology and construction firm Strabag, as reported by Energy-Storage.news in October.
“We are making our contribution to renewable energies: we want to play an active role in shaping the energy transition,” Mercedes-Benz member of the board of management at the company’s production, quality and supply chain management division Jörg Burzer said.
“The integration of energy storage systems into our production system, which is increasingly powered by renewable energies, is an important factor,” Burzer said.
The flow battery will be installed in the second half of 2025, and CMBlu said its customer is investing a “single-digit million Euro amount” into the project, which will help store “green electricity” from sources including onsite solar PV, for use over “many hours”.
The 11MWh figure was given as approximate, while a megawatt number was not provided.
CMBlu founder Dr Peter Geigle claimed the CMBlu flow battery tech “relies on natural and practically infinitely available resources,” thus preventing new dependencies on raw materials that he said metal-based batteries experience. The flow battery supply chain is also decoupled from the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain, which is another claimed advantage.

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India: 20GWh battery storage system gigafactory announced at IESA’s New Delhi event

The company’s announcement was made at the 4th annual staging of India Energy Storage Alliance’s (IESA’s) Stationary Energy Storage Conference in New Delhi, which Good Enough Energy co-hosted with the industry advocacy and trade group.   
National news outlet Economic Times reported that according to the company’s founder, Ashak Kaushik, IR1.5 billion (US$18.07 million) has been invested already in the plant. Good Enough Energy plans to ramp up annual production capacity to 20GWh by 2027, investing IR3 billion by that time.
On 19 March, the day prior to the announcement, founder Kaushik posted to business networking site LinkedIn that the company had also unveiled two new BESS products at the event before “esteemed” attendees such as Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) joint secretary Dinesh Jagdale and advisor to the government of India Rajnath Ram.
As regular readers of Energy-Storage.news will be aware, the Union Government has been keen to support deployment of energy storage solutions to enable integration of renewable energy and enhance reliability of the grid, as well as extend access to electricity to rural and remote areas of India.
That has been coupled with direct support for battery cell manufacturing through the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, through which an initial 50GWh of advanced cell manufacturing from domestic and international entities is being partially subsidised.
Meanwhile, what is thought to be the country’s first BESS solutions to roll off an Indian production line have already been made in Pune by Tata AutoComp Gotion Green Energy Solutions.
A joint venture (JV) between Chinese cell manufacturer Gotion High-Tech and Tata Group company Tata AutoComp, the venture’s factory went online last year. While a timeline was not given, the JV said it aimed to ramp its factory to 6GWh annual production capacity, and would develop and make equipment ranging from battery packs to system-level technologies such as battery management systems (BMS).
Tata AutoComp Gotion Green Energy Solutions supplied BESS equipment to a Tata Power project, which is currently India’s largest solar-plus-storage plant, pairing 100MW of solar PV with a 40MW/120MWh BESS.
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 2nd Energy Storage Summit Asia, 9-10 July 2024 in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.

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Engie Chile starts commercial operation of 139MW/638MWh BESS in Antofagasta

This is Engie Chile’s largest BESS project in the country, and the company is currently building two other BESS projects in Chile that will be co-located with solar PV plants. Last month the utility started construction of a 5-hour duration battery storage system with a power output of 48MW and a capacity of 264MWh to be paired with an 88MW plant in Antofagasta.
Also in Antofagasta, the company is adding a 68MW/418MWh BESS to the nearby Tamaya solar project, pictured above, with Sungrow as the provider for the batteries.
“The lack of optimisation from renewables generated in the north of Chile has always been one of our concerns. For this reason, we decided to include a storage system during the development of the Coya solar PV plant, with the goal to inject energy to the system during night, when it is most needed,” said Rosaline Corinthien, CEO at Engie Chile.
Most large solar PV projects in Chile are adding energy storage to mitigate the huge levels of curtailment seen in the last few years, while standalone energy storage projects are being deployed to capitalise on capacity market and broader energy trading opportunities (made possible by a new bill passed in late 2022).
Furthermore, earlier this year the Chilean government formed an entity to keep a majority stake in domestic lithium production with one of the two private companies that mine it, while also setting aside land for 13GWh of downstream energy storage projects.
Returning for the third edition in Santiago, Chile, the Energy Storage Summit Latin America will explore opportunities in countries such as Chile, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Join Solar Media on October 15-16 to meet with investors, policy makers, developers, utilities, network operators, technology providers, EPCs, consultants, law firms and more to make sure you are a part of the rapidly evolving storage landscape in Latin America. More information, including how to attend, can be read here.

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UK ROUNDUP: Large-scale BESS news from RWE, Quinbrook, E.On and more

The 50MW BESS, dubbed ‘Camilla’, is a 1-hour lithium-ion battery located in Fife, Scotland. The project connected to the National Grid in December 2023 and concluded final phases of commissioning earlier this year.
The first asset to be delivered through NSIF’s £300 million (US$381.3 million) Joint Venture Partnership programmed with developer Eelpower Limited, Camilla, has been pre-configured for augmentation to increase its duration to two hours.
The asset was also successful in this year’s T-1 Capacity Market Auction, securing a contract with a clearing price of £35.79/kW. NSIF added that the contract requires the derated capacity of 5.659MW and is expected to generate £202,000 of additional contracted revenue for the period 1 October 2024 through to the end of September 2025.
By Lena Dias Martins
To read the full version of this story, visit Solar Power Portal.
Quinbrook, E.On partnership developing 460MWh BESS
Specialist investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners has partnered with E.ON to construct a 230MW/460MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Uskmouth, South Wales.
The project, situated on the site of a former coal power station stockyard, will become one of the UK’s largest BESS projects being developed to date. It is expected to support the local area with around 140 jobs across 2024.
Under the terms of the agreement, E.ON will acquire 50% of the project capacity and jointly invest in its construction. The 2-hour duration asset is expected to be operational in Q1 2025, with construction having commenced in November 2023.
Plans for the project were unveiled in May 2022 when global sustainable energy developer, owner and operator Simec Atlantis Energy (SAE) agreed a partnership Quinbrook to pursue the project via the joint portfolio company Uskmouth Energy Storage (UES).
Since then, Quinbrook has acquired the exclusive development rights for the project and completed all major development milestones, including planning approvals, grid import agreements with National Grid, project design and equipment procurement.
As previously reported on Solar Power Portal, UES will own and operate the project.
By George Heynes
To read the full version of this story, visit Solar Power Portal.
Developers TagEnergy, Harmony Energy bring online 49MW Scotland project
The 49MW/98MWh Jamesfield standalone battery energy storage system (BESS), a joint venture between TagEnergy and Harmony Energy, has gone live in Scotland.
The project, located near Abernethy, Scotland, uses 2-hour duration Tesla Megapack lithium-ion batteries and Tesla’s Autobidder AI software.
Jamesfield became a joint venture with energy infrastructure developer Harmony Energy following the clean energy enterprise’s acquisition of a 60% stake in the project in November 2021.
Following £12.5 million in funding from Santander UK’s green energy initiative, the project progressively came online from November 2023 before being completed and fully energised in early February 2024.  
“The completion of the Jamesfield BESS is another significant milestone for our valued partnership with TagEnergy, following the success of our other joint venture site, Chapel Farm,” said Peter Kavanagh, chief executive at Harmony Energy.
TagEnergy’s secured BESS portfolio in the UK currently stands at 320MW/640MWh.  
By Lena Dias Martins
To read the full version of this story, visit Solar Power Portal.
RWE’s first UK solar projects will include 45MW co-located battery storage
RWE has begun constructing its first seven UK solar and storage sites, representing 330MW of solar and 45MW of co-located battery energy storage systems (BESS).
The projects are the first of the 3.8GW solar and 2.5GW battery storage capacity from the portfolio the German energy giant secured through its acquisition of developer JBM Solar to enter construction.
Completed in March 2023, the acquisition made RWE one of the key players in the UK’s solar market.
The seven projects entering construction are:

Langford (35MW solar + 35MW BESS)
Claydon (45MW solar +10MW BESS)
Cotmoor (50MW)
Moreton Lane (50MW)
Doverdale (50MW)
Stoneshollow (50MW)
Ashorne (50MW)

All seven projects have successfully secured Contracts for Difference (CfD) and will be constructed to facilitate a co-located BESS asset where one is not already installed. Additionally, RWE’s projects will contribute a total of £645,000 towards communities local to the sites.
By Lena Dias Martins
To read the full version of this story, visit Solar Power Portal.

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EU Batteries Regulation ‘will force energy storage industry to think more about end of life’

Interviewed after a panel discussion on the EU Battery Passport, a key part of the new legislation adopted by EU Member States after a vote last summer, Shang said that the Batteries Regulation is going to have a major impact on the European supply chain.
The regulation represents the first major update to EU directives on areas including battery management, safety and sustainability since the early 2000s.
Its various requirements, such as carbon footprint labelling, incrementally increased use of recycled materials and transparency on where materials have been sourced, come into effect over a number of years, becoming more stringent over time.
The Battery Passport will be a digitally tracked way of making data on those and other metrics available, increasing transparency and accountability, as well as ensuring that devices placed into the EU market are fit for purpose.
One thing that was emphasised in the panel discussion that morning at the conference was that complying with the regulation will be mandatory for anyone placing batteries into the market, which Shang said is of particular interest to the energy storage industry.
When it comes to electric vehicles (EVs), Shang said, “People talk about recycling and how we manage the end of life of batteries,” but that it doesn’t happen anywhere near as much on the energy storage system (ESS) side.
“Now, because of this new Battery Regulation, basically, [although batteries are imported largely from China], local system integrators [in Europe] have to be responsible for how to deal with these batteries in the energy storage system when they reach the end of life,” Shang said.
This is due to the legislation insisting that it is the ‘economic operator’ of the battery that places the battery in the EU Common Market, not the manufacturer that takes ultimate responsibility.
It also applies to all components. Regardless of whether system integrators are importing battery cells, battery modules, or DC containers, because they are shipping them from China to Europe, “they will be the entity to be in charge of this management, or to deal with the end of life batteries”, Shang said.
“What I’ve heard is that almost all the leading companies have to examine their supply chain. The new regulation has these clear milestones: at what year do you have to achieve these carbon emission targets, what year do you have to achieve this [level] of the localised content, and what do you have to achieve the requirements on the materials’ circularity.”
Impact of the Inflation Reduction Act
One big talking point across the Atlantic divide is the ripple effect that the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is having on Europe’s battery manufacturing ambitions.
The view from the Giga Europe conference hosted last week in Sweden by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence was that the IRA’s clarity of purpose and implementation, as well as generous incentives for domestic production of everything from raw materials to finished products, is making investors’ view the US as a safer bet on where to put their money.  
“The US Inflation Reduction Act did have an impact on this European industry, or on the European battery manufacturing industry,” Shang said, but “many of these companies haven’t given up on the European market entirely, they just prioritise their resources in the US market, because the incentives for investment in the US market are so attractive”.
Separately to that, Shang noted that gigafactory plans in Europe are largely driven by demand from the EV sector. The portion of battery products going towards battery energy storage system (BESS) applications is growing, but is still relatively small.
Investment and offtake agreements that make gigafactory plans a reality have been a little dampened by slower growth in EV sales than many had expected.
Furthermore, “it takes time” to establish battery manufacturing capabilities, on which companies in Asia have a major head start. So the advent of mass production of batteries in Europe was always going to take time, the analyst said.
“For homegrown companies [in Europe], it takes time for them to achieve the cost structure they hoped for, [and] to achieve high volumes of manufacturing in a very high-quality and cost-competitive way.”
Energy storage supply chain ‘becoming more independent’ of EVs
However, European system integrators should be able to procure the volumes of batteries they need to enable their downstream BESS deployments, and the IRA is perhaps ironically also a factor there.
Being that the higher levels of incentives under the IRA will be unlocked through domestic content rules, the European outlook is “more friendly” to short-term procurement strategies. That’s a key difference, Shang said, because European Union-based buyers will still have more freedom to source their products from outside their domestic market.
“It really depends in the long-term on this new Batteries Regulation. It determines whether your batteries can meet, for example, the sustainability requirements. In the US, you have to make the batteries in the US or in some other specific countries,” Shang said.
“Which means that for the Chinese battery companies, they still have much more opportunities in Europe than the US.”
Wood Mackenzie has also “thought a lot” about overcapacity of battery cells made in China, and also about the growing trend for battery manufacturing dedicated to the ESS market.
“A couple of years ago… battery manufacturers prioritised their supply towards EV customers. If they had more, they gave them to the storage industry.”  
However as battery makers see the stationary storage industry grow, the supply chain for it has become more independent. Manufacturers may previously have “separated a few production lines dedicated to ESS customers,” Kevin Shang said.
“Now, we have seen a growing trend for dedicated plants for ESS customers. Coupled with these overcapacity issues, I think it’s quite likely we would have enough supply for the ESS demand [in Europe].”

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Optimising energy storage: A synergistic approach for enhanced efficiency and profitability

One of the challenges facing the industry is the degradation and lifespan of batteries. This issue is particularly critical in the context of the massive expansion of storage facilities required for the success of the energy transition.
Ineffective management of batteries can lead to premature battery replacements, reduced energy throughput, and substantial loss in profits.
In the current industry landscape, methods for assessing battery operation often prioritise real-time profits over long-term battery revenues, performance and health.
The prevailing focus on immediate financial gains may overlook the broader implications, potentially resulting in lower profits over the lifetime of the battery. However, by adopting new methodologies that emphasise both profit maximisation and health considerations, batteries can have higher energy throughput, and overall profits can be increased.
This shift in approach ensures a balanced strategy that not only optimises real-time profits but also fosters the long-term health and longevity of energy storage assets.
Battery degradation and storage capacity
Battery degradation has a profound impact on the efficiency and the ability of batteries to store energy over time. These challenges are intricately linked to the complex nature of charging and discharging cycles that batteries undergo during their operational life.
Achieving a delicate balance between short-term high utilisation and long-term service life has become a crucial aspect of battery management, and it requires an understanding of various influencing factors.
Battery degradation is an inevitable phenomenon that impacts the efficacy of energy storage systems, manifesting as a progressive decline in a battery’s capacity to store and release energy.
This degradation process is influenced by numerous factors, including the frequency of charge-discharge cycles, variations in temperature, and the broader spectrum of operating conditions under which the battery functions.
Some of the critical aspects influencing battery degradation are the average energy stored in the battery over a period of time and the charging and discharging cycles a battery experiences. The frequency, depth, and speed of these cycles play a pivotal role in determining the health and lifespan of the battery. Batteries are subject to degradation with each cycle, and understanding these patterns is essential for devising strategies that can mitigate degradation.
Elevated temperatures accelerate chemical reactions within the battery, leading to a faster deterioration of internal components. Similarly, high charging currents and extended periods of full charge can contribute to faster degradation. Recognising these factors and implementing measures to control and optimise charging conditions are crucial for maintaining battery health.
Navigating the complexities of energy storage systems presents a significant challenge, particularly when it comes to making well-informed decisions about the charging and discharging of batteries. The delicate task lies in striking a balance between immediate profitability and the enduring health of batteries, a challenge compounded by the scarcity of comprehensive information about battery health.
Traditional energy management systems often face challenges in addressing both short-term profitability and long-term battery health. The focus tends to lean towards immediate financial gains, potentially overlooking the holistic approach required for sustainable energy storage operations. This approach can result in missed opportunities to maximise the overall performance and lifespan of batteries.
As batteries undergo degradation, their usable capacity diminishes, directly impacting profits and limiting the operational potential of the battery.
Consequently, ensuring the longevity of batteries becomes synonymous with securing higher capacity throughout their lifespan, thereby amplifying overall profits.
Modelling degradation and State of Health estimation
Understanding the intricate process of battery degradation and closely monitoring the State of Health (SoH) emerges as a pivotal aspect in the energy storage landscape.
SoH serves as a critical metric, offering insights into the condition of the battery, expected lifespan, and reliability. To effectively model battery degradation, advanced optimisation algorithms can leverage historical and current battery data or initial information from battery tests. This historical context provides invaluable insights into how specific operational parameters influence the health of the battery over time.
By continuously monitoring battery behavior and considering diverse usage patterns, the algorithm can gain a profound understanding of degradation rates. The resultant comprehensive dataset, comprising voltage, temperature, and current data, becomes the foundation for accurate estimations of SoH and State of Charge (SoC).
Modeling of battery degradation and the precise knowledge of SoH and SoC are crucial factors needed for optimal battery operation. With a comprehensive understanding of these metrics, the next crucial step involves developing sophisticated algorithms for the optimal operation of batteries.
Optimisation can mean a boost in throughput and profits
In the pursuit of effective energy storage, the intertwined goals of optimising battery lifetime and maximising profits demand a strategic and innovative approach. Employing sophisticated algorithms to strike this delicate balance has become a necessity in the industry. These algorithms meticulously consider various inputs, ensuring batteries operate at peak efficiency while concurrently increasing the batteries’ capacity over the lifetime.

Overview of reLi Energy’s battery optimisation algorithm approach for maximised lifetime and profits. Image: reLi Energy
An illustrative example of such an advanced optimisation algorithm is shown in the figure above. This algorithm takes a multifaceted approach, factoring in diverse inputs like data from the renewable energy project (including historical and predicted generation, consumption, electricity prices, etc.), the battery’s charge/discharge rates, and historical performance data.
Utilising these inputs, including the battery degradation model, the optimisation algorithm calculates how to operate the battery to maximise both lifetime and profits. It provides insights into optimal charging and discharging times and speed. One of the innovative aspects lies in dynamically modeling battery degradation, learning from the battery itself, and integrating real-time data with historical trends to tailor strategies for maximising the battery’s lifespan.
This comprehensive approach extends beyond simply enhancing battery capacity throughout its operational lifespan; it also significantly boosts profitability. The synergy created transforms energy storage into a sustainable and economically viable solution for stakeholders in the renewable energy landscape. Notably, by utilising this approach, the battery’s usable capacity remains high, enabling more extensive utilisation and, consequently, greater profit potential.

Possible lifetime extension using an optimised battery operation. Image: reLi Energy
The future of energy storage optimisation
As we look ahead to the future of energy storage optimisation, it’s evident that upcoming developments will be influenced by innovative technologies and practical methodologies.
The shift from prioritising immediate gains to adopting a more holistic strategy, where both profitability and longevity come together, will be guided by advanced algorithms and techniques.
The importance of dynamically modeling battery degradation and understanding State of Health (SoH) and State of Charge (SoC) is becoming increasingly important. This data is crucial to calculating how to optimally operate batteries to not only amplify the operational lifespan of batteries but also elevate profitability, propelling energy storage into an era of sustainable viability.
The goal is clear – to bring about an era where energy storage isn’t just a short-term solution but a sustainable, economically viable powerhouse for stakeholders in the renewable energy landscape.
As we navigate the landscape of advancements, driven by multifaceted optimisation algorithms, we are poised to unlock a future where the focus on battery health and capacity optimisation becomes the norm rather than the exception.
About the Author
Laura Laringe is the CEO and co-founder of reLi Energy GmbH, pioneering innovative software solutions for energy storage lifetime and performance optimisation. Holding a dual master degree in energy engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, she specialises in advanced optimisation techniques.

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Marubeni putting 100MWh BESS onto the grid in Japan’s storage hotspot Hokkaido

The project will be a 4-hour duration asset with 25MW power output to 103.7MWh of energy storage capacity, delivered through a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporation in the Hokkaido city of Kitahiroshima.
Marubeni’s new subsidiary, Kitahiroshima Battery Storage, will put the energy stored in the BESS to use in a number of different applications.
They include the new capacity market, grid-balancing ancillary services opportunities and wholesale power trading, with the Kitahiroshima project among those to avail of government subsidies.
The government scheme is intended to promote the use of distributed energy resources that can enable the uptake of renewable energy on Japan’s network of partially interconnected electric grids while increasing grid stability.
Hokkaido, which is in the far north of Japan, is an island with limited interconnection to Honshu, the country’s ‘main’ island housing major urban centres like Tokyo and Osaka. Along with the main southern island of Kyushu at the other end of Honshu, Hokkaido is fast becoming the place to be for BESS in Japan.
Their island grids, which have seen more rapid renewable energy uptake than most other parts of the country, make them the areas with the best business case for batteries right now, according to Japan-based independent expert Shunsuke Amanai.
They will also become very competitive markets Amanai said in an interview with Energy-Storage.news, “because everyone is throwing money at Hokkaido and Kyushu, there are lots of connection requests being processed right now”.
Several large-scale BESS units will start commercial operations soon on the northern island, including projects from other major domestically headquartered corporations such as petroleum company Eneos.
Marubeni said its project in Hokkaido is scheduled to begin commercial operations in the 2025 fiscal year.
Mature markets could signpost future for Japan’s grid batteries
The business case for batteries today in Japan is nascent, but Amanai said he is thinking about what the case might be in a couple of years from now, taking cues from more mature markets such as the US, UK and Australia.
Amanai said that an event that occurred last week in the UK could be taken as a great example of the benefits that battery storage could also provide to Japan.
The Viking Link interconnector between the UK and Norway, which only went into action around the beginning of this year, experienced a trip event. Battery storage stepped in and was among the technical solutions to prevent deviation in grid frequency, as seen in this LinkedIn post by Charlotte Johnson, global head of markets at Octopus Energy-owned optimiser and trader Kraken.
“That was last week, and that has great implications in Japan as well,” Amanai told Energy-Storage.news.
“Because it shows that wherever inertia is weak, there is a big chance that batteries can make lots of money [from such an event]. So we are now checking where the inertia could be weak, like where an old, ‘tired’ power plant is still running. We are trying to identify such areas, and maybe there could be big opportunities there.”
Such events that cause volatility are an ‘event risk’ for some people, but for others, like BESS, they could be an ‘event opportunity,’ according to the expert. The Viking Link incident just highlighted that opportunity in a very clear way.
Particularly with most of Japan’s nuclear fleet taken offline since the aftermath of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting accident at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant, leaving the country reliant on a mix of thermal generation along with a growing share of renewables, Japan’s need for grid-balancing flexibility services could become acute.
Also of interest from the UK market is the electricity system operator National Grid ESO’s ongoing launch of an automated dispatch platform for the Balancing Mechanism which manages the supply and demand of power in real time.
“That sort of streamlined process… with the push of a button you can broadcast the communication to every battery on the platform. In Japan, we will eventually need that sort of platform.
For now, the system hasn’t been tested and the very fast frequency response product is yet to be traded. FCR and 5 second response, as well as secondary reserve, and secondary 2, will start trading from April but the dispatch system hasn’t been tested yet.
National Grid ESO’s rollout of its Open Balancing Platform hasn’t all been plain sailing, with a relaunch necessitated last year. However, according to recent numbers from market intelligence group Modo Energy, in around two months, it increased the dispatch volume of energy from battery storage on the UK’s GB grid by 47%.
Wholesale market: ‘Not yet fully open’
The first grid-scale battery storage units went into the JEPX energy trading market last year, two 2MW/8MWh units by developer Pacifico Energy.
JEPX isn’t yet “fully open” to BESS, according to Shunsuke Amanai and much of the money that can be made from battery storage is expected to come from ancillary services, and then the capacity market, with just a small wedge of the typical BESS revenue stack made up of wholesale market income.
The spreads in JEPX aren’t that lucrative today, as the market has Daily Price Limit caps imposed on the range that can be captured by traders. That has been useful in some ways, preventing negative pricing events, for example, of the type seen with increasing regularity in Europe.
This, however, will likely change over the coming years, and the exchange will become more exposed to market forces, and Amanai has heard the cap’s value could at least triple.
“There are still areas where Japan has a lot to catch up,” Amanai said, such as the implementation of automated trading platforms.
“In Japan, I believe that almost no one is doing automated optimising,” Amanai said.
In a very recent meeting with a large energy trading entity, he said he was “amazed” to see the trader still using Excel spreadsheets “like 20 years ago”.
Nonetheless, the need for storage will only grow in the coming months and years, likely driving the industry forwards.
“Right now, Hokkaido and Kyushu are very visible and obvious places to have battery storage. But as I said, maybe we need to look closer where inertia and grid are weak, and so on.
So it will be a case of figuring out, as we have seen in other markets like the US, where storage is most needed and where it may not be. For example, in the service area of utility and grid operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), flexibility is enough, because Tepco has been very keen to have good flexibility resources that include demand response. In Tokyo, probably not much flexibility is required.
Last year the Tokyo Metropolitan government launched a subsidy scheme of its own for BESS in the Tokyo area, but not many projects are expected to arise based on that limited business case, Amanai said.
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 2nd Energy Storage Summit Asia, 9-10 July 2024 in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.

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One battery fire is ‘a fire for everyone in the industry’ – Energy Storage Summit USA 2024

“One fire for one battery is a fire for everyone in the industry,” said Aron Branam, VP development and construction for developer and independent power producer (IPP) Arevon Energy. Mike DeSocio, founder & CEO of developer Luminary Energy, agreed, saying “…there has been a lot of trust lost in batteries in New York in the last few years”.
All agreed a lot of work needed to be done to assuage those concerns as well as making local communities and decision-makers more familiar with energy storage. Tao Kong, managing partner of developer Luminous Energy said that, despite this, developing batteries is nonetheless easier than developing solar or wind ‘at the moment’.
He said three key considerations for the market were finding interconnection points, the buildout of the state’s transmission network and economic development in specific areas. It has fewer environmental concerns, a smaller footprint and zoning decisions often class it as ‘industrial’ rather than ‘renewable overlay’ which can be easier to develop.
Prior to that discussion, DeSocio had discussed how to capitalise on opportunities in the New York state market. “You’ll see much more front-of-meter (FTM) storage coming in New York (NY) State in the next few years,” he said.
Finding partners with existing connections is key, and that can include legacy generation, with grid operator NYISO putting in work to make it easy to combine fossil fuel and energy storage. A lot of transmission infrastructure is being built too and this can affect the business case for a specific location, by reducing congestion, for example.
Economic development in specific areas like northern New York is also creating opportunities, particularly for partnering with new economic or manufacturing hubs for an energy storage resiliency play, with two-week outages not unheard of in some parts.
On the Southwest US, developer Avantus’ senior director energy markets Gigio Sakota said that a shortage of Resource Adequacy (RA) capacity in the region is coming, after historically having an excess, a lot of which was exported to demand hub California.
“Storage can help replace that capacity,” Sakota said.
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media is hosting the 6th Energy Storage Summit USA, today and tomorrow (19-20 March 2024) in Austin, Texas. It features a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.

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