Renewable Energy: Battery Storage System & Modern Power Grid to Move Forward

“By 2025, renewable energy will account for nearly half of Europe's electricity generation, but one of its primary obstacles to sustainable development must be addressed: lack of storage capacity. "

Since most renewable energy sources have the characteristics of intermittent power generation, it is necessary to introduce a battery storage system to capture energy and maintain the reliability of the grid and the security of supply.

The good news is that the cost of batteries has fallen by nearly one-fifth in the past decade. In addition, the production of lithium-ion batteries, mainly concentrated in the Asian market, is expanding globally. The world plans to build more than 115 ultra-large battery factories, with a production capacity of more than 2500GWh, in 2028, which is enough to charge 40 million electric vehicles. China is a great leader, and this country alone plans to create nearly 90 factories. Nevertheless, Europe is still making great progress and plans to increase its share of the global large-scale battery factory market from 6% in 2019 to 18% in 2030.

This is partly due to the transformation of the supply chain, as the disruption caused by the pandemic has promoted the localization of its production. Although the African continent is still far from being self-sufficient, many manufacturers are taking measures to reduce their dependence on the outside, bringing about steps such as the extraction and processing of raw materials or the processing of materials for recycling. In fact, we can see how more and more projects are starting to obtain lithium in Europe. According to the European Commission, four projects for the sustainable mining of the metal have received a total of 2 billion euros in funding. It is estimated that in the next five years, these projects will meet 80% of the EU's battery sector needs.

Grid modernization: maintaining supply security

The increasing use of renewable energy also raises important and pressing issues regarding grid stability and supply security. For example, last spring, the British transmission operator National Grid was forced to urgently request the energy regulator to shut down solar and wind farms. These sources accounted for 40% of the electricity generated at the time and are considered a major risk to network stability during the upcoming public holiday.

Similarly, California, which meets one-third of its demand through renewable energy, suffered a power outage in August last year due to the so-called "perfect storm" conditions: high temperatures throughout the region prevented other states from delivering electricity to California; renewable energy production in the afternoon Decrease, especially solar energy; weather-related fossil fuel generators are interrupted, and in some cases, power plants are shut down. In February, Texas also suffered a power outage due to energy shortages—mainly due to a lack of natural gas—and the inability to import electricity from other states.

In addition, on 7.30 this year, the large scale battery energy storage system Tesla project in Victoria, Australia caught fire after only one day of operation, which made people think more about the safety of lithium battery storage. The energy storage capacity of each Tesla Megapack is approximately 3MWh. A battery facility of this size can power 150,000 homes for a year. If there are other potential threats to this system, the losses to the Australian government and Tesla are extremely heavy!

These are not the only examples. China, which occasionally happens to happen, intends to solve these problems by expanding its "super grid", which will connect areas that generate renewable energy with areas that need supply through a series of ultra-high voltage power lines. Sanctions are imposed on producers who fail to balance power generation or do not fully forecast their output.

In the face of so many countries and regions facing supply security issues, it is obvious that the future lies in an advanced power grid that can connect remote areas, store energy, accurately predict power generation and consumption, and promote demand flexibility among large consumers, especially industries. Make the system more robust.

Role of Battery Energy Storage in Grid Modernization

Grid‐scale energy storage can enable  significant cost savings to industry while improving infrastructure reliability and efficiency.

• Grid resiliency and reliability

• Improving power quality 

• Improving the efficiency of existing generation fleet

• Demand management

• Renewable integration

• Transmission & Distribution upgrade deferral

• Off‐grid applications

Battery Storage Systems in Electric Power Systems

With the decrease of cost of energy storage and the improvement of energy storage technologies, batteries for energy storage are more and more suitable for a wide range of power sector applications. They can store electricity generated when electricity demand is low and release it to the grid when needed.

BSLBATT ESS battery is developing new methods and technologies to promote the deployment of renewable energy (wind and solar) and grid integration, and realize the next generation of smart grids. The two main themes are the development of battery energy storage systems to cope with the integration of intermittent renewable energy Energy challenges, as well as grid simulation and modeling to develop and evaluate innovative control and operation technologies for grid modernization.