Battery Storage linked with Grid Tied Solar Power Will India be the Game Changer BY: A. Nathany, Director, LSI Financial Services India is eyeing an aggressive renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022. The total installed renewable energy capacity for FY2016-17 as of January 2016 stood at 28GW, almost 22% of the target. Solar capacity addition during this period has crossed a mammoth milestone of 5GW and set to reach 9 GW by end of FY2015-16. As the Government ramps up capacities, the next step to sustain growth in the world’s second largest solar market comes from unexpected quarters.
orld over battery storage is re-emerging as the trend to push the solar growth story to the next level. When India stepped up solar capacity addition at an unprecedented level, it had neither foreseen nor planned that stepping up power generation from renewable energy, would also enable it to initiate technological advancement in an area that would take the solar industry to the next level in the growth story. India,without doubt is the right candidate for enabling energy storage linked technologies, with its power sector riddled with evacuation problems. Studies by the US Western Electricity Coordinating Council have revealed that finding better ways to store energy could cut total transmission and distribution W losses by about 18% and boost the efficiency of electricity use by up to 11%.
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The Who's Doing What of Solar Battery storage -
• Gemasolar, the 19.9 MW project with • SolarReserveis now targeting its $300 per kilowatt hour when its new a 140 meter solar tower, the world’s second solar power cum storage battery factory runs at full capacity first commercial-scale solar tower and venture at Australia. The company by 2020. storage facility, in southern Spain, first now has proposed to build an 110 MW • Tesla Energy batteries will be used began producing electricity in May plant – with eight hours storage, to be for a SolarCity 12 MW solar farm 2011. Gemasolar was the first solar located at the north of Port August a and energy storage system for Kauai plant in the world to operate non-stop in South Australia, and had submitted Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) in for 24 hours, and in June-July 2012 it the plan to the State Government’s Kaua’i, Hawaii. The Tesla Energy set a record of 36 days of providing tender for low-carbon energy. batteries will supply a 52 MWh non-stop power. • Tesla is using Panasonic’s lithium-ion utility-scale energy storage system • The 110MW Crescent Dunes Solar batteries for its cars and is building in order to help KIUC meet evening Energy Plant, a CSP project located a huge US$5billion battery factory in peak demand, which typically occurs near Tonopah in the Central Nevada Nevada to meet anticipated demand between 5:00 pm and 10:00 pm. Desert, around 300kms north of Las for cars and the grid energy storage • According to a study by IHS Global, Vegas, is the largest solar power systems. Tesla plans to charge $250 as of December 2015, grid-connected tower plant with fully integrated per kilowatt hour for the batteries in systems with battery back-up energy storage. The US$1 billion the large system it has designed for accounted for only 9% of the revenue project was developed by the Santa business and utility customers and from solar PV plus energy storage. Monica-based SolarReserve and $500 per kilowatt hour for a system But by 2018, these systems are features the company’s molten salt that includes the electronics and projected to increase and drive 28% power tower technology with fully software to operate it. The company of solar storage revenue. integrated energy storage. expects to lower that system price to Figure 1: PV Installations versus PV plus Energy Storage Uptake (MW), 2012-2018 (F)
Source: IHS Global
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ith batteries now cheaper and solar Ashvini Kumar, MD of SECI, “Mechanisms for forecasting penetration growing, battery storage how much renewable power will be available each day has shot back into the limelight and (and informing the grid in advance) are being put in place. Germany, the US, Japan and, leading Developers will have to work out how much deviation is solar players worldwide are beginning there and how much it will be reduced by battery storage. to look at advanced energy storage You have to go beyond the present stage of technology. technologies as the obvious link to sustain growth in the This tender may trigger many more similar ones in future.” Wsolar sector. SECI naturally expects higher prices to be quoted for this Though advanced energy storage technologies are still type of tender contrary to the recent trend of falling solar in infant stages in the Indian market, a leap from infancy bids and the bidders will also be eligible under this scheme to a level on par with more advanced players is purely for Viability Gap Funding (VGF). Expectations are that plausible on account of the vastly developing market consumers too might have to bear higher costs currently. potential owing to India’s massive solar leap. However, in the long run storage costs will decline in a An estimate by the India Energy Storage Alliance similar manner to how component costs fell in a record suggests a potential of 15 to 20 GW by 2020 for the breaking manner over 2015. Indian market for energy storage technologies, primarily There is an element of skepticism among analysts whether stemming from renewable energy, telecom towers and solar companies could directly leverage the value of grid ancillary services. distributed storage as solar power installers and service The game changing SECI solar providers may not be internally equipped to handle the tender with a storage clause complexities of storage regulation. However, with international companies, such as Sun Power, India has recently taken that crucial step that could prove a invested in battery storage technologies and others such game-changer in the solar arena, and use energy storage as top executives of companies like Sun Edison on the technologies to catapult the Indian solar market to the board of battery manufacturing companies that might next stage in the growth trajectory. The Solar Energy bid in such tenders, could help in taking this model to a Corporation of India (SECI) has floated its first hybrid successful finish. At LSI Financial Services, we believe tender, in which every bidder will have to include a small that transfer of technologies and market competition could storage system alongside its solar plant, adding up to a act as a leveler and enable grid related energy storage total of 100 MW installed storage capacity. According to market to achieve newer heights.
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