Renewable Energy Storage and Economic issues

 

Pumped  hydroelectricity energy storage (PHES) is by far the most significant form of large-­scale energy storage in use around the world today with approximately 130 GW of generation capacity installed. PHES facility construction is resurgent globally as evolving electricity supply systems place greater value on stored energy.  Australia has approximately 1.5 GW of PHES capacities; however, no large-­scale facilities have been installed in the last 30 years

 

Today, in grids with  significant  penetration  of  renewable  energy  technologies,  PHES  is  increasingly being   installed to balance  times of  low  and  high  electricity  supply  from  variable  wind and solar  photovoltaic  electricity  generators   and to  assist  grid  frequency  regulation  and voltage support.  

 

In Europe, more than 10 GW of PHES is in the planning stage or under construction (IHA2013).China is also very actively deploying PHES  (Cheung 2011). Ten GW of PHES capacities is reported to be under construction in China including the 3.6 GW Hebei Province facility, which would become the world’s largest (IHA2013)

 

Tim Forcey is the Energy Advisor at the Melbourne Energy Institute. His role at the institute involves aspects of research, stakeholder engagement, and project management. He is a chemical engineer employed in the past by the Australian Energy Market Operator, Jemena, BHP Billiton, and Exxon Mobil.

 

 

 

Electricity providers are increasingly faced with the challenge of integrating variable renewable generation with the existing generation portfolio and the electricity grid. Energy storage is a key enabler for accelerated adoption of renewable energy. It has the ability to control ramp rates and store energy for peak demand times. The first part of the presentation will outline the successful implementation of the UltraBattery® energy storage technology in several MW scale projects in Australia and the US, delivering grid ancillary services such as frequency regulation; wind and solar smoothing and energy shifting; as well as diesel efficiency optimization on standalone power systems. The second part of the presentation will outline the work Ecoult has done developing telecom-specific battery and power management algorithms. This section will highlight the large savings storage can enable in remote diesel or PV-diesel telecom tower applications.

 

John Wood is the Chief Executive Officer of Ecoult. He joined the energy storage community in 2008 having previously launched technologies globally in Security, Identity, Payment Technology, and Telecommunications.

 

As a technology CEO for more than 20 years, John has had the good fortune to have worked with excellent individuals and led excellent teams that have created businesses and numerous successful products and solutions from the ground up that are used and trusted by many of the world’s largest enterprises and governments, either directly or under license by many of the largest global technology enterprises.

 

John is now leading the Ecoult effort to commercialize the UltraBattery® storage solutions.

 

 

 

 

The development and deployment of innovative technologies is critically dependent on government policy settings. This includes incentives and institutional arrangements for R&D and also pricing signals that recognise the environmental costs of carbon emissions.

 

Tony Wood has led the Grattan Institute’s Energy Program since mid-2011. Since then he and his team have delivered seven major reports on energy and climate change and he has developed a strong profile with governments and industry, and is a regular contributor in major media on key energy issues.  From 2009 until mid-2014, he also had a role as Program Director of Clean Energy Projects at the Clinton Foundation, advising governments in the Asia-Pacific region on effective deployment of large-scale, low-emission energy technologies such as solar and CCS.

Prior to these roles, he spent 14 years working at Origin Energy in senior executive roles covering retail and LPG line management and corporate affairs. In 2008, he was seconded to provide an industry perspective to the first Garnaut review.

He has built widespread relationships within the energy sector and is an adviser to government.