Page 6 - North American Clean Energy January February 2015
P. 6
editor's note
news bites
contemplate the year
AS WE SETTLE INTO 2015,
ahead, and potentially our energy future (at least,
if you’re in the renewables’ industry), I can’t help
but also think back. For some reason, I’m reminded re
of an online article I read quite a while ago. he Moo
le
title always stuck with me, which went something chel
like this: “he Future of Renewable Energy Can Mi
Now be Found Inside a Shipping Container.”
o by
At the time, I remember thinking if only life were hot
P
that easy.a simple shipping container holding all of the answers. However,
in retrospect, it seems the author may have been onto something. He main-
tained that the future of renewable energy in the United States could be
found in a larger container of the I-95 in Maryland (I’ve since re-located the
article by Rob Wile, which was published in the Business Insider, and can be
read at www.businessinsider.com/konterra-solar-2013-11).
“Inside of it,” he wrote, “is a system that helps solve one of the key prob- Hybrid power development
lems in the renewable industry: how to store power for longer periods of With little or ineicient access to electricity, many rural communities and villages in Africa are left
time in an economical way.”
undeveloped and seriously impacted. his afects the daily lives of people—from needing power to
he shipping container, as it turns out, is one of the country’s irst com- run schools, hospitals, and industry to providing refrigeration for food processing and post-harvest
mercial-scale microgrids, installed at Maryland’s Konterra Realty’s corporate storage, etc.
he Ethiopian government is looking for change as a part of its Climate-Resilient Green Economy
headquarters back in 2013. Standard Solar and Solar Grid Storage developed
and installed the grid-interactive energy storage system, co-located with a Strategy Plan, in which the country aims to enhance access to afordable and environmentally
402-kilowatt (kW) PV array.
friendly renewable energy. Based on a recent announcement, the plan is to begin with an initial
Now, if ever there existed a key capable of unlocking the full potential of pilot of AORA’s Tulip solar-hybrid power plant.
renewable energy systems, the answer today would likely be what’s in that AORA’s technology runs not only on solar radiation, but also on almost any gaseous or liquid
container: energy storage. If renewable systems, such as wind and solar pow- fuel, including biogas, biodiesel, or natural gas. his enables a variety of operational modes, from
er, are ever going to be truly competitive with traditional power sources, they solar-only (where electricity is supplied from ample sunlight) to hybrid-mode (where fuel helps
need a certain boost to keep up with demand and to accommodate those in- generate full power when sunlight is insuicient) to fuel-only mode (during night hours or heavily
convenient luctuations caused by the intermittency of the wind and the sun.
overcast periods). his guarantees an uninterrupted and stable power supply 24 hours a day in all
he “shipping container” system at Konterra provides for a similar boost, weather conditions.
which includes demand reduction and peak shaving. Plus, in the event of a “We are transforming our Green Economy Strategy into action,” said H.E. Mr. Alemayehu
grid power outage, it serves as a security system, with the advanced lithium- Tegenu, Minister of Water, Irrigation, and Energy for Ethiopia. “AORA’s unique solar-hybrid
ion energy storage system providing backup power.
technology is impressive and well-suited to provide both energy and heat to support local economic
As the storage evolution has gained momentum, a more recent Smart development in of-grid rural locations in Ethiopia.”
Microgrid project was announced at the end of 2014, sponsored by the Cali- Construction of the irst pilot plant is expected to begin by mid-2015.
fornia Energy Commission (CEC) and hosted by the US Navy. With the intent
of optimizing solar power consumption at military bases, college campuses, AORA Solar | www.aora-solar.com
industrial parks, etc., this project is designed to not only demonstrate the
system’s capacity (using vanadium-based low batteries) for solar irming—
thereby providing consistent power over time—but it also aims to enable
users to reduce their electricity bills by economically shifting between high
and low loads. Moreover, via “island mode,” the solar PV and battery storage Orientation Matters: Facing the sun
system will have the opportunity to work together, completely independent he irst large-scale analysis of the orientation of installed solar panels in the United States was
from the grid.
recently conducted by Opower. With a new solar project installed every 3.2 minutes in the US,
According to a 2014 report from Navigant Research, entitled “Energy Stor- according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), these indings are worth noting. Here
age for the Grid and Ancillary Services,” the market has, indeed, progressed are some interesting takeaways:
and started moving quickly across a number of technologies, including
lithium-ion, power-to-gas, low battery, and compressed air systems. In fact, • South-facing solar energy systems do substantially outnumber west-facing systems (and, for
Navigant predicts that revenue from grid-scale energy storage is expected to good reason: south-facing panels capture the most sunlight and produce the most energy over the
total more than $68 Billion from 2014 to 2024. (Read more at www.navigan- course of a year);
tresearch.com | www.navigantresearch.com/research/energy-storage-for-the- • Around 9% of residential solar systems face the western sky, and they are better at producing
power in the late afternoon;
grid-and-ancillary-services)
“Developing energy storage that is viable for grid applications has been a • Over time, west-facing panels generally produce 10% to 20% less total electricity than south-
goal of vendors and grid operators for a number of years,” said Anissa De- facing panels in a year;
hamna, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. “Recently a number • Homes powered by solar energy do meaningfully reduce peak demand: the average solar home
of factors, including the falling price for lithium-ion battery systems, have consumes 54% less grid electricity overall compared to the average non-solar home;
begun to converge to bring that goal close to fruition.”
• During peak times (1pm to 7pm), the average solar-powered home consumes 70% less grid
With the capacity of new energy storage systems installed worldwide ex- electricity than the average non-solar home;
pected to grow (to the number of 21.8 GW over the next decade, according to • Solar customers are 3.5 times more likely to be on a time-of-use rate than non-solar customers
Navigant), it will be interesting to watch renewable energy systems increase (4.6% vs. 1.3%).
in strength and numbers as well.
his year, we add a section on Energy Storage (starting on page 84), which Interestingly, these indings show that if utilities were to structure future time-of-use rates to
we also hope to grow over time as it, potentially, becomes the key to the reward net solar generation during the late afternoon hours, this could potentially reshape the
future of renewables. And don’t miss our ever-popular, annual Solar Buyers economic logic of solar panel orientation toward the western sky.
Guide on page 26, which highlights the latest in products and services in the
industry.
For a more detailed analysis, check out the informative blog posting at
http://blog.opower.com/2014/12/solar-homes-utilities-love
We hope you enjoy the read, and all the best in 2015!
Michelle Froese
Opower | http://opower.com
6 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 nacleanenergy.com
