Revealed in the firm’s recent trading update, the discussion around a “weak revenue environment for BESS assets” echoes the thoughts of Gresham House Energy Storage Fund, another major UK-based storage investor, who said earlier this week that this was due to assets not being able to participate in balancing the GB grid or replacing gas-fired generation to their fullest capability.

Although HEIT did not reveal the financial impact the weaker environment has had on its BESS assets fully, its quarterly net asset value update and audited annual results are earmarked for later this month and should provide further clarity.

Multiple factors contribute to a reduction in revenue which ‘exceeded market expectations’

EIT revealed multiple drivers that contributed to a reduction in revenue that “exceeded market expectations”, specifically in a macro and sector-specific sense.

The first major influence is the saturation of ancillary service markets. Due to the high rate in the buildout of BESS projects in GB this has led to the saturation of ancillary services and thus driven record low clearing prices.

Interestingly, this was “widely anticipated” and the firm’s two-hour duration BESS portfolio is positioned to protect against the event and the wider balancing mechanism (BM). However, Energy-Storage.news previously reported that the impact had been “far sharper than projected” and thus rocked numerous BESS portfolios including Gresham House.

See the full version of this article on our sister site Solar Power Portal.

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There’s no question these beasts have historically played an important role in managing the rigorous demands of maintaining an electric system for a metropolitan area of many millions of people as well as for the millions of New Yorkers that live outside the city itself.

But, increasingly, that is a historical view at best. The reality is that today, there are huge problems with New York City (NYC) being reliant on assets that are among the most polluting on the grid as well as the most expensive to operate.

And when we say ‘polluting’, of course, we mean greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but along with that, there are also particulates of nitrous oxide (NOx) and other gases emitted at dangerous levels. NYC peakers don’t just run on natural gas which is arguably the ‘least worst’ option available, but many instead run on heavy fuel oil or even kerosene.

So far, so nightmarish. It gets much worse still when you consider the siting of these power plants. The vast majority are within poorer and disadvantaged, densely populated neighbourhoods and largely around communities of colour. There are also pretty convincing arguments that that’s exactly how they were planned from the start.

This being a Friday Briefing, we always want to bring some positivity or lightness to the discussions we have on these pages. Well, here it comes.

Advocates and energy system experts are adamant that replacing peaking power capacity can be done cost-effectively and is technically viable, using a combination of different low-carbon technologies including distributed solar, offshore wind, demand response and most crucially, battery storage.

I had an interesting and dare I say, inspiring, conversation yesterday with representatives and leaders of PEAK Coalition. Regular and longtime readers might recall that the coalition was formed to take on New York’s monstrous fleet of peaking power plants, by groups including grassroots sustainability non-profit UPROSE, Clean Energy Group, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and others.

PEAK Coalition came to Energy-Storage.news’ attention in late 2020 when it teamed up with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to asses options for retiring the public utility’s own 461MW fleet of gas peakers.

More to come from that interview soon, but to sum it up in a very brief (and largely inadequate) way for the purposes of today’s briefing: UPROSE had been fighting since 2003 on this subject, successfully stopping efforts to repower then already-ageing peaker plants with yet more combustion turbines.

The battle has been uphill. The advocacy group can claim some great victories along the way, particularly in stopping new peaker projects, but overall, the problem is still there and still making people in New York sick, lowering their quality of life and opportunities, or killing them.

That said, since the passing of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) in 2019 committing the state to ambitious clean energy and climate goals, the fight has picked up.

Without battery storage, this would not seem possible at all, I heard from members of the coalition. While, as stated above, other technologies will be needed in abundance, its battery energy storage system (BESS) technology that will be the key piece at the heart of it and the technology that could finally give New York City the strength and tools to take the power back.      

Plans of intent to transition nearly two-thirds of all peakers in New York have now been announced. If that sounds a little vague, it’s because it is. Most of those plans are as-yet undefined, so it is really just the start.

That said, 700MW of assets have already been retired. At the same time, more defined proposals are in place to put three large-scale BESS assets in the place of peakers post-decommissioning by their owners, representing “encouraging progress” despite the inevitable pushback from the fossil fuel industry and NYPA is very much on board with the transition, at least publicly.

We’ve all heard how challenging it has been for New York to get its large-scale BESS buildout going, even since the state introduced a major 6GW by 2030 deployment target – equivalent to the legacy peaker plants’ combined capacity – so there are a lot of variables and moving parts to coordinate.

Yet PEAK Coalition’s 2021 study, carried out by consultancy Strategen, modelled that it would be technically feasible to transition NYC’s peakers to clean energy by 2030 and save the state money in the process.

It may be sad in some ways to think that the bottom line might be what it takes to convince people to support changes that will improve the quality of life and life chances of others, but, well, if it does convince them, then all the better.

BESS factory inspections reveal areas for improvement

Can you guess – or perhaps you already know – which components in a grid-scale BESS are the most commonly found to be defective or otherwise inadequate in factory inspections?

Clean Energy Associates (CEA) does. The international quality assurance group for solar PV, green hydrogen and battery storage has undertaken inspections at more than 30GWh of battery storage production lines to date at more than 50 factories around the world.

A few days ago, we hosted a webinar with CEA, where the audience learned about some of the things that can go wrong when taking a battery storage solution from product design through to in-field operation from CEA senior director George Touloupas and senior engineer Chi Zhang.

Given the rapid growth of this industry and given the need for it to grow much bigger and grow even faster over in the coming years, as illustrated by the recent publication of BloombergNEF’s 2024 Energy Transition Investment Trends report, the need for assurances on quality also becomes more acute.

It was one of our best attended webinars to date, and we heard about everything from the principles and practices of CEA’s inspections to a series of real-world case studies and plenty of data. Some of that was a little worrying, given that fire suppression systems are among the equipment most commonly found with problematic design or manufacturing quality.

But it is also great to know that folks like CEA are on the case and George and Chi’s presentation and candid and insightful answers to a lengthy audience Q&A demonstrated that, in the right hands, the problems which need to be tackled can be identified and fixed.   

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Tadgh Cullen, head of energy storage at developer and independent power producer (IPP) Cero Generation started by saying that co-location has historically been very ‘basic’, at least in the UK:

“Usually they’ve been co-located on the same site but using entirely separate grid capacity, so are effectively standalone assets. The next step has been to share the grid connection meaning more MW than MW connection,” Cullen said.

The discussion moved on to the crux of the panel: how to maximise the returns of such co-located projects.

Dr. Robin Hirschl, until recently technical director at investor and operator Obton, said: “Software is the really hard side of all of this. How to predict and optimise revenues, what mode you run on, whether you do frequency control or trading etc.”

“There is a huge difference between different providers of BESS optimisation. Those who based their models only on BESS are doing much better than those who think they know everything because they’ve been doing it longer on different assets (like pumped hydro).”

Cullen agreed, saying that fewer and fewer companies can perform well when optimising BESS that is co-located with generation because it’s much more complicated, because of things like needing to forecast generation. “Smaller companies are best in the space, it will be interesting to see how bigger companies and utilities catch up.”

On the same topic, Hirschl said that, in his view, the BESS and the generation should be optimised separately. “We have not found any business model where combining the two generates the most returns.”

On the topic of DC versus AC-coupling solar and storage parts of a project, both agreed that AC coupling is preferable and that DC coupling only made sense if there was a specific subsidy or regulation on that.

A similar point was made about subsidies and regulation sometimes being the only reason to co-locate at all, though in others it was absolutely necessary. Chile and its huge curtailment of solar PV was cited as an example where any solar project now needed a co-located energy storage unit.

Another question was around the size of BESS relative to the generation asset that developers should aim for. Tallen said in the UK the modelling right now points to a BESS 90-100% the size in MW power of the solar PV was optimal.

Moderator Rosalind Smith-Maxwell, Senior VP at investor Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners cited the approach of wind giant Vatenfall which generally sizes its wind-co-located BESS at about 10% of the wind plant’s size.

In response to questions around how co-location and use cases might affect BESS design, PV and BESS supplier Jinko’s business development and product manager Neill Parkinson said it did not have a substantial impact.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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Under these conditions, the European Union will require “substantial” investments in expanding its power grid, while upgrading to smarter and more flexible grids.

“New interconnectors, expanded distribution grids, energy storage facilities, dispatchable energy supply, flexibility market solutions, and sector coupling will be needed to ensure flexibility and security of supply of the whole energy system,” reads the draft document.

“Further initiatives will also be needed for networks, storage and flexibility market solutions as a key element to decarbonise and electrify the economy, smarten the grids, reduce the price volatility in peak homes and empower consumers to adapt their consumption to market conditions and their own local needs.”

The draft highlights the importance of a framework that supports the industrial transformation as a precondition for a successful transition, showcasing the EU’s competitive advantage in sectors such as wind power, hydropower or electrolyser, though not solar PV.

See the full version of this article on PV Tech.

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It speaks of the company making some tough choices in the face of some industry headwinds and a recent sharp fall in its share price, mentioning that Gresham House’s board and fund manager, “are determined to take a proactive and disciplined approach to capital allocation”.

Nonetheless, Gresham House remains on target to reach 1,072MW of operational assets by the end of this year, from 740MW at the time of writing, and will extend the durations of some of its existing assets from 1.2-hour to 1.6-hour, which would be commensurate with a doubling of its present capacity in megawatt-hour terms, the fund said.

However, the fund said there won’t be any fresh project announcements during 2024, with its focus being solely on the completion of projects from its 2023 pipeline. That 332MW of projects are already constructed and at the stage of completing works relating to grid connections.

Those projects and duration extensions at existing facilities will contribute to boosting Gresham House’s portfolio earnings, the fund said. It plans to deploy some of its existing £40 million (US$50.71 million) cash in hand to finance the capex required.

Challenging shift from ancillary services-based business model

GRID’s share price has fallen from £110.20 on 2 January 2024 to £48.91 as of the time of writing. On 1 February last year, the price stood at £161 per share.

The board intends to hold a share buyback in light of this, and the fund will not declare a dividend for the Q4 2023 period. It also noted that if the “current revenue environment” continues, generating enough cash for a dividend will be challenging for this year, but further announcements on that can be expected before the full annual results drop in April.

Gresham House also said it intends to discuss options to amend its borrowing arrangements. That could equal a reduction in its debt facility’s size to reduce the overall cost of funding. The drawdown as of the end of 2023 to date from a total £335 million facility had been £110 million, unchanged from the half-year 2023 mark. Gresham House said a facility of its size may no longer be required.

Gresham House chairman John Leggate said that with the BESS market in the UK – or more specifically on the connected grid of Great Britain (GB) – shifting from an ancillary services-based one to one more focused on energy trading, a “challenging environment continues to persist for the battery storage industry”.

Back in October, Energy-Storage.news Premium reported that although saturation of UK frequency regulation ancillary services markets had occurred in 2023 as anticipated by many in the industry, depressing available revenues, the impact had been far sharper than projected.

One of Gresham House’s fellow LSE-listed BESS investment funds, managed by Gore Street Capital, has said falling revenues in the UK has been one of its motivating factors for expanding internationally.

Diversifying into Ireland, Germany, and the US, Gore Street Energy Storage Fund saw its overseas assets generate on average 2.6X more revenues than its GB grid assets in the first half of its 2023 financial year, it said in December.

Also in December 2023, industry benchmarking and analysis group Modo Energy said average revenues for BESS assets in the GB Balancing Mechanism – the real-time electricity supply and demand-matching tool of the system operator, National Grid ESO – had fallen to their lowest levels since batteries began participating in it.

The flipside to this coin is that wholesale market trading revenues did increase during 2023, growing 45% month-on-month from September to October, again, according to Modo.

Low utilisation of BESS in Balancing Mechanism

Gresham House ascribed the “weak revenue environment” to have come about due to three main factors, one of which is that the Balancing Mechanism (BM) utilisation of BESS assets is very low in National Grid ESO’s half-hour trading blocks.

BESS in the BM are being subjected to high skip rates, where the assets are overlooked in favour of other resources, most likely gas. The ESO has very recently introduced a new platform for managing the BM which is hoped may address this issue. Gresham chair John Leggate welcomed the ESO’s efforts in this, but said they had yet to manifest into positive changes.

Closely related to that is Gresham House’s second cited factor: what it called the “excessive use of legacy gas-fired electricity generation” in the BM. This generation is flexible, albeit polluting of course, and its overuse creates wholesale market oversupply which further erodes revenue opportunities for BESS.

Finally, new project commissionings have been slower than expected, due to extremely lengthy grid connection times for new assets, with it not being unusual for BESS or solar PV developers to be given grid connection dates in the mid-2030s.

“The UK’s need for increased energy storage capacity remains as clear as ever given the rising levels of committed renewable generation coming online over the period to 2030,” Gresham House Energy Storage Fund chair John Leggate said.

“In turn, clean energy dominates energy output more and more frequently, as legacy gas-fired electricity generation continues to be squeezed off the system by cheaper renewables, with battery storage the clear technological leader in tackling the consequential rising intermittency.”

Gresham House’s BM comments somewhat echo the words of Roger Hollies, CTO at UK BESS optimiser Arenko, who said that batteries have a valuable and vital role to play in balancing the network as the country goes to higher shares of renewables. Hollies called on National Grid ESO to work closely with the industry to figure out the best ways to enable this.  

In an Energy-Storage.news webinar hosted last week with flexible and distributed energy asset trading and optimisation company GridBeyond, the audience heard a lively discussion of the GB/UK market’s evolving revenue landscape for batteries.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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With the first system set to come online in early 2025, the four sites will capture intermittent renewable energy generation and use the BESS as a method to provide flexibility to the grid.

Low Carbon has also contracted the energy flexibility management platform, KrakenFlex, across all four sites to act as a market dispatch and controls partner. This partnership will “enable Low Carbon to efficiently manage a multi-optimiser portfolio and to carry out independent revenue and dispatch checks”, the company said.

Marco Verspuij, head of power management at Low Carbon, said: “Low Carbon are one of the early movers to contract multiple optimisers for one BESS portfolio in a market that is developing at pace. Moreover, this type of agreement highlights how innovative finance options for storage can play a crucial role in helping the UK meet net zero.

“We are in a dynamic earnings environment right now and we have designed our systems to be future proof through our partnership with KrakenFlex, which will ensure our optimiser agreements remain agile.”

Last week, Low Carbon reached financial close on a 385MW portfolio of solar and co-located battery storage projects in the UK. The portfolio, which is set to enter construction in early 2024, will be delivered by international EPC contractor Equans through its subsidiary Bouygues Energies and Services, and Elma. Trina Storage will provide the BESS for the portfolio.

This story first appeared on Solar Power Portal.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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V2G technology essentially turns EV batteries into stationary energy storage assets when parked and not in use. Energy stored in the vehicle batteries flows back to the grid when needed, and the aim is generally to build scale by aggregating the capabilities of many cars.

It’s much the same principle as working with residential virtual power plants, where the aim is to aggregate dozens or hundreds of distributed energy resources (DER) to make resources akin in scale to centralised power plants.  

The Taipower project in Hsinchu has several aims, including the most obvious of putting EV charging facilities in the local metropolitan area. It will also enable the integration of solar power generation into the charging infrastructure, enable Taipower to assess and certify different kinds of charging equipment, and generate real-time market data for Taiwan’s government and policymakers.

Taipower set up two V2G charging demonstration sites in Taipei and Kinmen in 2020, with vehicle batteries discharging directly into the transmission grid. A year later, it partnered with electric bike company Gogoro to create a battery exchange station equipped with VPP capabilities.

Taiwan move follows December BESS deal in Japan for Nuvve

Nuvve is partnering with Taipei-headquartered renewable energy developer, microgrid and battery specialist e-Formula on the project. Nuvve will act as technical project manager and service provider while e-Formula would be the overall project lead.

Nuvve’s proprietary V2G platform will deliver grid services to Taipower from parked vehicles, and the company will deploy bidirectional and unidirectional charging units ranging from 11kW to 150kW. e-Formula will deploy stationary battery storage at the site, to also participate in Taipower ancillary services and other electricity market opportunities.

Although the partners have been “awarded” the project, Nuvve said, negotiations on contracts still need to be concluded, which the California-headquartered tech startup said is anticipated to take place in March. Once that deal is done, the project’s operational lifetime is planned to last around 20 years, according to Nuvve.

While much of Nuvve’s activity has been based in its US homeland and particularly in California, the company has been on a drive to expand internationally over the past year or so.

In February 2023, Nuvve said it would be managing 40MW of EV charger and battery storage resources in Norway and Denmark, playing their stored energy into Nordic frequency regulation markets.

More recently, and geographically much closer to the new project, Nuvve said in December that it will be managing 30MWh of grid-connected battery energy storage system (BESS) assets in Japan for trading company Toyota Tsusho and a utility in the Chubu region of central Japan. In that instance, the company would be transferring energy and power management technologies and expertise over to the stationary battery space, Nuvve said.

Meanwhile, Taiwan has become a market of interest for many energy storage companies, beginning with Taipower’s introduction of frequency response markets in 2018. About a week ago, BESS system integrator Fluence announced the start of commercial operations at a 60MW/80MWh stationary battery project with Taipower.

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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Critically, Sunrun customers provided electricity to the PG&E grid between 7pm and 9pm in the evening, when California’s electricity demand is highest.

“The Peak Power Rewards program achieved a customer participation rate and power supply volume that’s never been accomplished before,” said Sunrun CEO Mary Powell. “PG&E was able to confidently rely on the renewing daily resource of Sunrun’s fleet of home solar and storage systems.”

The news could also encourage interest in the California residential solar sector, which has struggled for over a year now, following the passing of NEM 3.0 in December 2022. The law aimed to encourage greater adoption of battery storage technology, by increasing the difference between the price of peak and off-peak power for residential customers who sell their power back to the grid.

However, in effect, this has significantly weakened the business case for residential solar in the state, with the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA) reporting “depression-level layoffs” among solar developers which are struggling to turn a profit, with around 22% of all solar jobs in California at risk.

To read the full version of this story visit PV Tech.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 6th Energy Storage Summit USA, 19-20 March 2024 in Austin, Texas. Featuring 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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It found that total investment in energy transition technologies including renewables, hydrogen, electric vehicles (EVs) and carbon capture and storage hit record levels last year, with US$1.77 trillion total investment, a 17% increase from 2022.

China was the biggest among nations for investments, with US$676 billion representing 38% of the entire total, while electric transport accounted for the biggest share by technology, with US$634 billion invested – a 36% rise year-on-year.

EVs also overtook (no pun intended) renewable energy, which landed in a close second place with US$623 million invested during 2023.

Meanwhile, although as a share of the total energy storage’s US$36 billion of investment commitments during 2023 seems relatively small, it was a jump of 76%. Storage investments totalled more dollars than hydrogen (US$10.4 billion) and carbon capture and storage (US$11.1 billion) together.

BloombergNEF modelled a scenario aligned with net zero commitments made in the 2015 Paris Agreement to estimate from its calculations the levels of investments that will be required between 2024-2030 to meet them.

Investment in energy storage needs to accelerate rapidly nearly three times over to about US$93 billion annualised spending over the rest of this decade, while renewable energy investment needs to more than double to US$1,317 billion of investment on average each year, the research and analysis group said.

Power grids, a new addition to the scope of BloombergNEF’s analysis this year, attracted US£310 billion investment worldwide, but this sum again needs to more than double to US$700 billion annualised spending to meet the Paris Accord’s targets.

Supply chain investment exceeds net zero requirements but more needs to be focused on battery value chain

Similarly, electrified transport spending needs to nearly triple to US1.8 trillion. Of course, with EVs and battery energy storage system (BESS) both closely dependent on battery supply, and most commonly lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, Li-ion battery manufacturing plants would account for 70% of all clean energy supply chain spending, were they to be invested into to the full extent required for a net zero world.

The world is indeed already investing in battery production and investments are set to surge around 66% from 2023 to 2024 according to investment plans seen by BloombergNEF and battery gigafactories are a primary driver of this investment.

There was some other good news from BloombergNEF if we look at supply chain spending as a whole: it is currently actually at levels above what’s required to be on track for net zero by 2050. In fact, net zero can be achieved with yearly spending on supply chain at about 55% of the US$135 billion that was invested on things like equipment factories and battery metals during 2023.

The need to invest in supply of battery metals cobalt, lithium and nickel is however acute and would make up 20% of total supply chain spending commitments in the Paris-aligned scenario. In 2023, it was just 11% and BloombergNEF anticipates it rising to 18% in 2026, based on the lead times of announced projects.

BloombergNEF also found that the solar PV industry’s current situation of oversupply means no new PV factories are required before 2030. The module supply glut is going to put pressure on the sector “for years to come,” the analysis group said, as covered by our colleagues at PV Tech today.

A few months back, BloombergNEF forecast that globally, cumulative installations of grid-connected storage will reach 650GW/1,877GWh by 2030, in the firm’s 2H 2023 Energy Storage Market Outlook. Since then, the company has also published its first-ever list of Tier-1 BESS providers.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 6th Energy Storage Summit USA, 19-20 March 2024 in Austin, Texas. Featuring 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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When transmission authorities in the USA first began to realise that utility-scale storage facilities would be necessary to help manage the intermittency of renewables being connected to the grid, land availability was not a concern. With Arizona, California and Texas leading the way, land was readily available for large project footprints.  

Given both space and favourable market conditions, buildout was not an issue and, as a result, those three states currently contain more than 75% of today’s battery storage capacity nationwide.    

Those early market conditions are no longer the reality. Sites with large amounts of available land near transmission interconnections are becoming increasingly less available, and that can make today’s project sites more challenging, especially as demand for these facilities continues to grow.

Sites may still be available near interconnection locations, but they typically have much smaller footprints, and as a result of constrained supply and high demand, land prices in these situations are increasing. As a consequence, developers are seeking to significantly increase the amount of energy storage per acre. This drive to optimise project economics is being pursued by seeking more energy-dense batteries while also optimising the available site footprint.  

To be clear, we will be referring to energy density in this article as volumetric energy density. The industry has progressively improved upon battery energy density, with lithium-ion batteries increasing the energy available in the same footprint by about 10-12% over the last year.  

Building up, not out 

In densely populated metropolitan areas like Los Angeles, New York City and Boston, decarbonisation efforts are creating unique challenges for battery energy storage projects.  

However, the reality is that within large, dense urban areas, only small plots of land are available. The only realistic and economically viable option is to design these projects vertically, either with batteries installed in enclosed building structures or with vertically stacked battery enclosures. If the building is the preferred solution, this may involve stacking multiple racks to increase total rack heights up to 15 feet, versus the conventional 7-foot racks. This could involve the building having multiple stories of these taller racks.  

With this configuration combined with higher energy density within battery modules themselves, the overall energy capacity will come close to meeting higher energy demands of these metro areas.  

Going vertical is more complex  

Though numerous projects are now on the drawing board, it must be noted that no high-rise BESS facilities are currently operational.  

That’s because going vertical requires careful evaluation of operations and maintenance impacts, including installation of robust safety systems. These analyses shift the focus from performance and design of modules toward a holistic look at the entire site. Considerations will be given, for example, to the broad operational effects of utilising heavy mechanical equipment in compact spaces that must operate safely.   

Operating conditions for vertical BESS projects — as well as conventional projects — must be evaluated for each site. Storm and flood risks, relative humidity, seismic considerations and prevalence of salt within coastal air are among the environmental factors that can affect how the site will be designed and operated. The development of an operations and maintenance programme should include evaluating tolerances of all critical battery chemical processes in parallel with design, safety and equipment decisions.   

Other options for density  

Battery suppliers are modifying cell and module designs and footprints, along with enclosure designs, to maximise battery density and to decrease spacing between enclosures. Numerous creative designs are currently being developed to make maximum use of space, thus increasing energy density for the project site.  

One realistic constraint is the tonnage that can be feasibly transported to the job site and then lifted into place either by crane or forklift. This becomes a logistics challenge that starts as a total turnkey operation from the original manufacturer (primarily in Asia), transport to a container ship, offloading to a truck, transporting to the project site and final offloading to be set in place.   

What about safety?

Thermal runaways start as a short circuit within or external to the battery cell that triggers an exothermic reaction. These reactions produce enormous heat and explosive gases that can lead to fires and/or explosions if the event occurs within a contained space that is not ventilated.  

Placement of racks in vertical configurations can add another element of thermal management by creating different heat zones and hot and cool aisles. 

No project is identical 

Energy density has become a priority for both operational and financial reasons, but to date most of the advances have come primarily from the batteries and secondarily from space optimisation within enclosures, along with creative enclosure configurations.   

One possible sign to indicate the technology advancement for the energy storage market is shifting is the development of battery cell types geared specifically to meet the needs of the power industry. The energy storage market previously used battery cells generally designed for the EV market and not necessarily designed with a use case for the storage market. By optimising the cell design for storage applications, improvements in degradation and cycle life (i.e., life of the battery) can be achieved. Some manufacturers are starting to offer a 25-year performance guarantee (one cycle per day) for certain battery types.  

As more fossil-based thermal generation will be exiting the market, that capacity must be replaced by other sources along with energy storage playing a key role. As these energy storage systems are moving into more urban areas, energy density and land availability will be topics of great interest for the foreseeable future.   

This is an extract of a feature article that originally appeared in Vol.37 of PV Tech Power, Solar Media’s quarterly journal covering the solar and storage industries. Every edition includes ‘Storage & Smart Power’, a dedicated section contributed by the Energy-Storage.news team, and full access to upcoming issues as well as the nine-year back catalogue are included as part of a subscription to Energy-Storage.news Premium.

About the Authors

Josh Tucker is engineering manager for the Energy Storage Department at Burns & McDonnell. He is responsible for all engineering for the energy storage business. 

Ben Echeverria, energy storage regulations and compliance at Burns & McDonnell, is responsible for assisting the EPC project teams on energy storage projects globally, focusing on the safety, regulations and overall compliance of the interconnected systems.  

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