Utility Scale Storage

As the sector continues to grow rapidly, delays in manufacturing scale-ups, difficulties sourcing raw materials and a separate path taken by the electric vehicle sector could all chuck ‘sand in the gears’, according to analyst Wood Mackenzie.

The Solar Energy Corporation of India should amend the 400 MW round-the-clock supply tender to make co-location of solar, wind and storage mandatory in order to ensure optimal utilization of transmission infrastructure, says NSEFI chairman.

By offering 410 KWh of cumulative battery capacity for a total cost of Rs2.51 crore, the state-owned engineer and manufacturer emerged winner in the auction which saw overwhelming response from both Lithium-ion and advanced lead-acid storage providers.

Consultancy Bridge to India has looked into its crystal ball to predict India will add 10 GW of solar capacity this year and the same next year before deployment slows to 7 GW per year in 2022 and 2023, dogged by hurdles such as an inexplicable ongoing demand for new coal-fired power plants.

By engineering the structure of a hard carbon electrode, scientists at the CIC energIGUNE research center have created an ‘ultrafast battery’ which has been shown to combine the energy density of a lithium device with the fast discharge times normally associated with supercapacitors.

While lithium batteries have taken center stage for energy storage, vanadium redox flow batteries could gain considerable traction in 2020. In previous years, vanadium battery installations around the world have done little more than provide proof of concept and a test bed for manufacturers, argues David Gillam from Mastermines. He looks at what may have changed since then and why a surge in batteries utilizing vanadium may be closer than many believe, with China taking the lead.

WoodMac analysts say the amount of new battery manufacturing capacity added in the nation this year could fall by as much as 10% because of the outbreak. With Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory affected by the extended new-year-holiday shutdown, the analyst warned of potential supply shortages for Australia and the U.S. and U.K.

Panellists including a government representative and a member of the chief policy thinktank used by Narendra Modi agreed coal will continue as the staple source of Indian power into the mid century and technology should be employed to ‘clean’ it.

A new paper published by researchers at China’s Tianjin University examines the state of the art in grid level energy storage, outlining the pros and cons of various battery technologies being deployed on grids around the world, and remaining challenges that could be overcome if research is pushed in the right direction.

The joint venture will set up a factory in India to manufacture Al-Air batteries for electric vehicles and stationary applications and facilitate development of eco-system for Al-Air technology.