Energy Storage Journal — issue 8 Spring 2015

Issue 8: Spring 2015

The new titan of leadEcoult’s UltraBattery, ready to take lithium on, head-to-head

The CEO interviewAnil Srivastava and Leclanché’s bid for market dominance

Next gen integratorsComing soon to a smart grid near you, the ideal middle man

Let cool heads prevailThe lead-lithium storage debate steps up a notch

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CONTENTS

www.energystoragejournal.com Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2015 • 1

COVER STORY 17

LEAD ACID AND THE GRID

Separating hype from substance as competing battery chemistries clash 17

The value of grid storage is often judged on the prices of batteries alone, making lead

acid seem a good deal and lithium ion too costly. But when the functionality of the various

chemistries is compared is there such a thing as a clear winner?

One size doesn’t fi t all 22

Lithium ion would appear to dominate the grid storage market, but the industry

needs a range of storage technologies at its disposal.

EDITORIAL 2

The rise and rise of the Horsey Horseless

PEOPLE NEWS 6Younicos focuses on selling storage-as-service and announces senior management team • Alevo

recruits Duke Energy veteran Jeff Gates as sales director • AEG Power Solutions appoints Casper as

CEO • Axion Power mourns sudden passing of chairman and CEO • Sad farewell to Chuck LaSota

• Jones, Teliska set up agency for sales, marketing of energy storage products • Australia’s AGL Energy

hires AES’ Vesey as new chief executive • National Grid’s Winser to chair new UK energy systems,

storage centre • New industry-academic partnership picks professor of energy storage research

• NAATBatt International honours three in AGM awards ceremony

NEWS 12Oakridge move to take controlling stake in Leclanché ‘expensive’, but could work • Aquion to supply

aqueous hybrid ion battery to Hawaii private estate • New Energy Power Systems facility to deliver

500MWh of lead acid batteries suitable for grid storage/start-stop • Iberdrola pilots energy storage

system, as alternative to substation upgrade • Grid storage, transportation sectors to drive revenues in

advanced battery materials— reaching $132 billion for 2014-2023 period • Smart grid installations to

drive energy storage from 2014 to 2020 • Lead acid tipped for growth in India • Exide expands energy

storage range with two new products • Hammond, EcoBat collaboration boosts performance of

advanced lead materials • Arnold Magnetic introduces new line of thin and ultra-thin metals

• Trojan targets renewables with new deep-cycle AGM battery • NEC Energy launches 12V LiFePO4

battery for off-grid and telecoms • Eos raises $15m, seeks a further $10m

FEATURES

The integrators: Batteryman becomes middleman as

next generation of grid storage rolls on 27

The integrators: interview with NEC Energy’s Roger Lin 30

UltraBattery throws down the gauntlet to the lithium ion battery industry 36

John Wood, CEO of East Penn-owned Ecoult, explains how the company’s core offering, the

UltraBattery, was squaring up to the challenges posed by lithium ion.

THE CEO INTERVIEW 41Europe’s oldest battery maker, Leclanché, is about to execute the final stage of a turnaround plan

away from battery producer to energy storage systems supplier. Meet the company’s new chief

executive Anil Srivastava

SOLARUNITED 44Inside track run-down of what SolarUnited is planning as it restructures its committees to tackle a

fragmented industry. Plus: news from the association’s members

EVENT REVIEW 49Energy Storage India December 3-5, 2014 • New Delhi, India

EVENTS 51Our comprehensive listing of the major events in the energy storage and smart grid world

HEROES OF THE GRID 60Our regular section looks at Jun Furukawa, one of the pioneers of the UltraBattery

The lessons of history 2

From PV to plug 27

New team at Younicos 6

Srivastava: the plans 41

Energy Storage India 49

Furukuwa: grid hero 60

EDITORIAL

2 • Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2015 www.energystoragejournal.com

The patent offi ce has always been the home of the weird and the wonderful. Take one patent fi led in the US in 1899, describing a car hood with a life sized wooden horse’s head attached.

The inventor, a Seventh-Day Adventist preacher called Uriah Smith, wanted to overcome the problem that motorcars were causing for horses.

The sight, smell and noise of those fi rst vehicles were deeply frightening and disturbing, sending horses into a panic and something to be avoided at all cost when attached to carts or passenger buses packed with people on busy thorough-fares.

Smith’s idea was that horses would not panic at the sight of a motorcar if it looked like a horse.

For so many reasons, which we don’t need to go into, this invention did not fl y. All the evidence left, with the US Patent Offi ce, is a sketch of the horse head on a car bonnet and a lengthy description of its purpose.

But its inventor must have been convinced he was on to a winner because Smith even gave it a name, the Horsey Horseless.

Eventually horses got used to motorcars, especially as cars became increasing popular and … well … the rest is history.

But the thinking behind the idea at that very time – however silly and ludicrous it seems now – came from that same place in terms of how we react to change.

There was a logic to Smith’s idea; rooted fi rmly in a belief that the world of horsepower, would always prevail.

We try to bend the new and potentially disrup-tive to fi t. But what threatens today’s way of doing things will be the status quo tomorrow.

It’s a question of when, not if.

Just think back again to the early days of the motor car — one or two-seated affairs equipped for towns

Sara Verbruggen • [email protected]

The rise and rise of the Horsey Horseless

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EDITORIAL


and cities, far from able to match a team of pulling horses.

People who drove them were viewed as eccentric, rich and a little odd.

They were slower and horses were far more ef-fi cient. The notorious Red Flag laws introduced in the UK in 1865 (before the petrol driven car was even born) dictated that a man had to walk ahead with a fl ag or lantern to warn of the vehicle’s ap-proach. And they had a top speed — by law — of 2mph in the city, but 4mph in the country.

They were prone to breaking down. They were noisy. Their value was questionable, especially in the context of what they were promising to replace.

But why change away from the tried and tested?

Expensive, tricky and diffi cult to ascertain if they are a more effi cient, cost effective and smarter way to do something, batteries on the grid bear a strik-ing resemblance to those fi rst motorcars.

Just like cars, making their presence felt on the thoroughfares of the turn of the last century, energy storage will continue to make its presence felt on the network. Many are drawn to California’s gol-drush, though the smart money is on Texas and the PJM Interconnection, while in Germany, wind and solar plant owners, and businesses using UPS, are all doing the math and can see that storage pays.

The point is players now have a growing number of markets to choose from.

This wasn’t the case 18 months ago. Storage is ap-proaching a tipping point – just look at the grow-ing number of seasoned utility executives that have hopped the fence, from gamekeeper to poacher.

It took roughly 20 years from those fi rst automo-biles in the mid-1880s to reach a point where Ford Motor Cars begun mass production of the Model T.

And then within a decade the motor vehicle revolu-tion swept over America and then Europe.

The industry’s equivalent of Ford might be the Tesla. It might be another, or it may well need more than one.

But before it even gets to that point, storage has to continue to work hard to prove its value. It’s easier for storage to be thought of as simply a drop-in replacement for existing parts of the network, but a growing number of projects are showing that stor-age is most valuable if it can do several jobs, some renewables fi rming, peak shaving, a little frequency regulation. Storage is a grid asset quite like no other. It can even be relocated around the network. No wonder, that the conservative, regulated energy sec-tor, it has often failed to grasp its full potential.

There is change in store for the energy sector, but let’s not try to dismiss it, and stick a horse’s head on it in the hope it will eventually go away, like a passing fad.

Sara VerbruggenEditor

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PEOPLE NEWS


Energy storage developer and integrator Younicos has created a new senior management team, which includes several new hires.

The Berlin-headquartered company has been reor-ganized into three main business divisions, which the new appointments will manage.

The technology busi-ness will oversee software development, as a core part of Younicos’ business is developing the software needed to operate batter-ies in response to different grid signals.

The development com-pany will supply Younicos’ energy-storage-as-service business model, where customers benefi t from storage for providing grid services or deferring grid infrastructure investments.

Power purchase agree-ments and other fi nanc-ing tools will be used to fund the projects so that customers do not have to raise capital to own costly storage assets outright.

Younicos’ third business — a consultancy arm — will target potential stor-age opportunities, working across policy, regulatory and fi nancing issues. The team will work with utilities, grid operators and industrial and commercial end-users to identify, for example, how much stor-age is needed to integrate more renewables within the T&D network and will carry out grid studies to see where on the network storage can potentially be most effective.

Alan Gotcher, who was CEO of Xtreme Power, is now CTO at Younicos, which bought Xtreme’s

assets in 2014, following its bankruptcy. Gotcher has been bringing together both companies’ technol-ogy teams and manages over 70 staff.

Clemens Triebel, who co-founded Younicos – and prior to that Solon, one of Germany’s fi rst solar PV panel producers – is the company’s chief visionary offi cer. He will oversee Younicos’ advanced R&D programmes.

Philippe Poux became chief fi nancial offi cer at You-nicos in January. Poux was the former general man-ager for operations and special projects at Areva Solar. He joined Areva as a vice president for mergers and acquisitions in 2005.

Stephen Prince became Younicos’ chief revenue of-fi cer last November. He is responsible for global sales as well as marketing and product management. His background is in execu-tive, large company roles and venture capital-backed CEO positions. Compa-nies Prince has worked at include Oracle, SAIC and Edison Enterprises.

Michael Mahan has been appointed as the company’s chief development offi cer. Mahan, a former senior executive at Good Technol-ogy and at General Electric, heads the company’s busi-ness development division,

promoting and implement-ing the company’s energy-storage-as-service business. He has had extensive busi-ness development experi-ence in the energy storage and enterprise security software industry.

Robert Manasse, a former executive at the renewables division of Italian utility Enel, in change of business development, regulatory affairs and innovation, be-comes Younicos’ chief con-sulting offi cer. He joined the company in October 2014 as a senior adviser.

Wade Guindy becomes chief operating offi cer. Guindy has worked for 30 years in energy storage and software businesses includ-ing Teledyne Technologies, Solicore, Valence Technol-ogy and Quantum3D.

With an estimated pipe-line of 2GW mainly in the US and Europe, Younicos is also planning more recruit-ment, across software en-gineering, sales, consulting and other areas, especially at its US business, with a mix of new hires and some transfers from Europe.

Younicos has about 90 staff at its Berlin headquar-ters and around 30 working in its US offi ces, in Kyle, Texas.

There are also plans to set up a small local offi ce in Singapore as the company looks to expand into Asia-Pacifi c. ■

Younicos focuses on selling storage-as-service and announces senior management team

Gotcher: CTO

Triebel: CVO

Prince: CRO

Mahan: CDO

Manasse: CCO

Guindy: COO

The Berlin-headquartered company has been reorganized into three main business divisions, which the new appointments will manage.

PEOPLE NEWS


Alevo recruits Duke Energy veteran Jeff Gates as sales directorJeff Gates, previously the managing director at Duke Energy’s commercial transmission business, joined Alevo as director of sales and fi eld operations in December.

Gates will be responsible for project development for energy storage pro-jects, project execution and operations, and sales of energy storage services. In particular he will be responsible for the fi rm’s energy storage product GridBank.

Gates previously spent 14 years at Duke Energy, the largest electric power holding company in the US with assets across the Americas. Senior positions at Duke included work as an associate director in corporate fi nance, a strate-gic planning manager for growth, and then director

and managing director for commercial strategy.

The fi rst projects using its batteries and energy storage systems will be built, owned and operated by Alevo, generating rev-enues from providing grid services such as frequency regulation.

Having Gates on board will help the company to convince utilities, grid operators and other energy sector players of the ben-efi ts of energy storage.

It was during his time at Duke Energy that Gates came across the company. He says, “From being on the buyer side I had talked to every battery vendor and Alevo was the fi rst company to talk not only of the operational benefi ts, but of the actual value of storage on the network.”

He refers to the com-

pany’s analytics software, which has been in develop-ment for over fi ve years, and is able to process data from numerous, disparate sources, rapidly.

Alevo has simulated the benefi ts of fast ramping GridBanks in the west-ern grid in the US. This required analyzing histori-cal data from the western grid to evaluate how future deployment of battery storage co-located with coal-fi red power plants will bring about cost savings

and other benefi ts like reduction in emissions. “The grid is like a car in traffi c, with power plants ramp up and down chasing loads. Locating storage on the network helps the grid operate more effi ciently, like a car on the freeway going further on a tank of gasoline than it would by stopping and starting,” he says.

Gates had primary pro-ject development respon-sibility for the award-win-ning $44 million 36MW energy storage system at its Notrees wind farm and related battery storage project in Texas. This was developed by energy stor-age fi rm Xtreme Power which, however, fi led for bankruptcy in 2014.

Gates is also vice chair of the Energy Storage As-sociation.

Founded in 2009, Alevo Group is headquartered in Martigny in Switzerland. The company’s GridBank system comprises scalable containers of batteries and control electronics that can be sited on the grid network.

The company claims that its technology is the only 100% DoD lithium battery on the market. The devices can tolerate extreme tem-perature swings with no calendric aging.

Alevo bought what was a Philip Morris cigarette factory in Concord, North Carolina and has kitted it out to make industrial-scale lithium batteries.

Production lines are being installed during late Q1 and Q2 and the factory should produce its fi rst batteries by July. In the fi rst year of operation the company expects to make about 480MWh of batter-ies and will roughly double this amount in 2016. Each GridBank is 1MWh. ■

AEG Power Solutions promoted Jeffrey Casper to chief executive in November. His appoint-ment follows the hiring of Dietrich Ehrmanntraut as its chief operations offi cer in September.

Casper was previously chief restructuring offi cer and chief fi nancial offi cer of the company. He remains as CFO. As such he was a key architect in putting together the fi rm’s recovery and fi nancial debt restructuring — a process that started in December 2013 and only ended last August.

Casper, a former director at UBS Investment Bank, joined AEG in 2009. He was a key fi gure in transi-tioning the fi rm to public company status, with a listing fi rst on Euronext

in Amsterdam in 2010 and then on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Casper is expecting good things for the future. “In the last 11 months we have refocused AEG Power Solutions on its core strengths in industrial power supplies, power control and advanced power solutions in emerg-ing technologies such as energy storage,” he says.

Ehrmanntraut joined in September and initially

focused on operations activities in the company’s largest facility in Warstein-Belecke in Germany. His background is in the auto-motive industry.

Previously Ehrmanntraut worked at Yazaki Corpora-tion from 2000, including heading Yazaki North & Central American activities in Detroit.

AEG PS is a global sup-plier of uninterruptible power supply and energy storage systems as well as power electronic compo-nents for utility, industrial, commercial off-grid and renewable energy markets.

AEG Power Solutions appoints Casper as CEO

Casper: new chief exec Ehrmanntraut: COO

PEOPLE NEWS


David DiGiacinto, chairman and chief executive of Axion Power, died unexpectedly on January 25.

David DiGiacinto was respected as much for his proven business acu-men — fostered in over 30 years of commercial experience — as a kind-hearted and fair employer, known for his ability to see all sides of the man-agement situation: the workforce, the customer and the need for a company to thrive.

“Companies are about people,” he said recently. “How you employ and lead them with structure, fl exibility, and process. The other side of the people equation is the customer. Cus-tomers will buy and appreciate if they gain the confi dence of their suppliers and they see a product, operational organization, and management team that can execute consistently and successfully.”

He was born in Bethlehem, Penn-sylvania — a town that despite his travels he was attached to all his life — in 1954. He graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point with a BS in Engineering and the Humanities in 1975. While at the academy he lettered in varsity football and baseball.

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Air Force and became a pilot in command before he eventually resigned his commission as a captain. He fl ew one year for a private charter before he started his business career with Pfi zer in 1982.

He worked at Pfi zer for two major operating groups until 2000 in ever-increasing positions of responsibility in sales, marketing, business devel-opment and general management

where he was in charge of businesses, domestic and international.

From 2000 onwards, he joined Spencer Trask Ventures a New York private equity investment. Within 18 months of joining he became senior managing director and eventually VP for business development.

Once a company or technology was identifi ed, it was up to Dave DiGiacinto to sponsor the investment candidate through the review process, and fi nalize the business proposition.

As part of this he served on the board of directors of several client companies, both public and private. He also held roles as audit and com-pensation committee chair on many of those boards.

This large experience was brought to bear when he was brought into help Minrad, a troubled general an-aesthesia and medical device compa-ny. He was involved in raising a $40 million debt fi nancing and became the company’s president.

DiGiacinto refocused and restruc-tured the company. It was later suc-cessfully sold to Piramal Healthcare.

After this he took on the P&L re-sponsibility of a $200 million private label pretzel and snack food compa-ny, managing the day to day opera-tions. This business was successfully sold to ConAgra Foods.

He has also worked on various other boards of directors in help-ing companies to achieve their full potential.

He was brought into help Axion Power in February 2014. He quickly became a key fi gure in the fi rm and took over from Tom Granville as chairman last summer when he

retired due to ill health.DiGiacinto’s new work encom-

passed Axion’s private placement in November as part of a more general attack to balance the books and bring the start-up fi rm’s exciting technology to a wider audience.

In his private life, he held various civic responsibilities for his home-town, Bethlehem and also for local non-profi t organizations.

A local paper reported that friends and family members of David DiGiacinto recalled him as a fi scal watchdog — he was the city’s fi nan-cial controller — dedicated to his city and his family.

“He was a great public servant with a great love for the city and an even greater love for his family,” said Rob-ert Donchez, the mayor of Bethlehem.

“He was one of the smartest people I ever met and certainly one of the most passionate,” said Bethlehem council president William Reynolds.

A local paper said that despite a divorce in 2000, his ex-wife described him as her best friend and how they still talked daily. “Dave was a de-voted family man,” a friend said.

He was just 61. ■

Charles LaSota, president of the Bat-tery Innovation Center, lost his battle with his cancer on January 26.

His presidency of the BIC, based in Indiana in the US, was a second ca-reer for LaSota who had completed a distinguished and much respected 35-year term with the US Navy.

The BIC is a not-for-profi t tech-nology development enterprise

that brings together resources from industry, academia, and government agencies to accelerate the develop-ment and commercialization of advanced battery solutions. The BIC, which was formed in May 2012, is being considered for membership in the soon-to-be-formed Energy Hub run by the US Department of Energy.

One of his colleagues said: “He

had that unique ability to very quickly grasp a technical problem and then provide the technical lead-ership as solutions were developed and implemented.”

Jim Greenberger, head of NAAT-Batt International, said: “Chuck was an outstanding patriot and an even more outstanding gentleman.

“He will be sorely missed.” ■

David DiGiacinto • 1954-2015

Axion Power mourns sudden passing of chairman and CEO

Sad farewell to Chuck LaSota

PEOPLE NEWS


Two well known battery industry fi gures, Laura Jones and Maggie Teliska, announced in January the set-up of a marketing/sales partnership working under the banner of Regent Power/RyanTel.

“A new generation of companies and products are seeking to do business in what is still a market that has largely been unexplored,” says Teliska. “The world of microgrids, community energy storage, integration of photovoltaic and wind power into smart grids, adapting existing new generation products, such as hybrid buses, to fi t third world environments are just some of the products that we intend to promote.”

The two say they each complement the other’s strengths. Jones — who married last autumn and is better known under the surname Schacht — brings over 20 years of consulta-tive selling to the partner-ship.

Teliska, with a PhD from George Washington Uni-versity and a background of post doctorate research, as well as senior experi-ence in Johnson Controls’ Power Solutions Business and consultancy work, brings technical expertise as the customer-facing engineer.

The two argue that the energy storage industry is under-served and there are structural problems hinder-ing its development.

Jones and Teliska been endorsed by several key industry leaders, including Ann Marie Sastry, who runs solid state battery company Sakti3. “Laura and Maggie are Energy Storage Impresarios — they have their fi ngers on the pulse of the industry. Firms like theirs provide a criti-cal business interface for

manufacturers, purchasers and other members of the supply web in batteries. We are thrilled to welcome their new business to the industry, given their out-standing track records and joint expertise.

“We’ve many companies that are fi lled with some of the best and brightest engineers but their prob-lem is that this, their core strength, works against them when involved in sales,” says Jones. “Their tendency to over-analyse is confusing for buyers who don’t want a fl ood of infor-mation but the big picture fi rst. It’s not just this but also the ability to engage the prospective buyer into getting the big picture and ultimately the ideal solu-tion.”

“Moreover, technical ex-pertise only goes so far in a sales relationship where meeting a buyer’s objec-tives and earning their trust is only the fi rst step. Buyers need to feel safe with their decision and that their sales rep has their back.”

Relationship building Both Teliska and Jones believe in the after-sales relationship. “It’s this that delivers referrals and future business within our small — and very connected — ecosystem of an industry,” says Jones.

“Repeat business and referrals only happen when that balance of quality, trust and reliable results are achieved consistently. Over the past 10 years, I’d say 80% of my business has come from referrals.”

Part of the sales’ product they offer is preferential access to parts of US gov-ernment business through being certifi ed as WBE (women owned small busi-nesses) and DBE (disadvan-taged business enterprise)

members. “There are advantages

in bidding for govern-ment and military business as there are quotas for WBE, DBE and WOSB business and most of the Fortune 100 companies in the US are striving to increase their diversity pro-grammes,” says Teliska.

“Some are called ‘set asides’ which can be bid on by certifi ed small WBE and DBE (as well as veteran) businesses. It gives small fi rms like ours the oppor-tunity to earn business that they might not be consid-ered for.”

Results based “Once given the chance, it is up to us to build on our reputation and not rest on our certifi cation laurels. We have to deliver consistent quality results or we won’t continue to win projects.”

Jones says: “In my expe-rience, women look at sales as a process rather than an event, which is why it is easier for us to establish long-term relationships with clients. It’s never for the one-off sale.”

Future business could come from a variety of energy storage directions. “Many will be in smaller niche markets that the big players don’t want to deal with,” says Jones.

“It may be fi nding the best batteries for a certain application or integrating an entire renewable solu-tion which will be attrac-tive to hospitals, small communities with unstable grid systems and brown-outs, or simply smaller products for other niche applications.”

Jones, a long-time direc-tor of sales for Sovema, be-came an outside rep for the Italian battery equipment manufacturing company in December to focus on and advance Regent Power.

“I’ve made some wonder-ful friends in Sovema and the broader industry these past years so transitioning on a positive note is unusu-ally nice. But, the inter-national energy industry is standing on the brink of the biggest upheaval in a century— and we need to foster the leadership to usher in these changes.” ■

Jones, Teliska set up agency for sales, marketing of energy storage products

Marketing and technical savvy: Laura Jones and Maggie Teliska

PEOPLE NEWS


Andrew Vesey joined AGL Energy on Janu-ary 12 as the company’s new managing director and chief executive and replacing Michael Fraser who retired on February 11, following the half year results announcement.

Fraser established AGL as one of Australia’s largest energy retailers and led the expansion of the utility’s activities in renewables, thermal power generation and upstream gas explora-tion and development.

Before joining AGL Vesey was executive vice president and chief operating offi cer at AES Corporation, an independ-ent power producer with

businesses in 20 countries. Vesey has more than 30

years’ experience in the energy sector, including strategic and commercial leadership of large energy organizations.

While at AES Vesey gained knowledge and experience of large-scale renewables, including

wind and solar, as well as rooftop solar and battery storage, particularly the R&D and commercializa-tion of new technologies that are expected to shape future energy markets and pave the way for new business models in the electricity markets.

His duties at AES also included chairing subsidi-ary Daytona Power and Light, which operates competitive electricity retail businesses in Ohio and Illinois.

“His experience in creating value in energy companies with evolving business models will be an advantage to AGL,” said Jeremy Maycock, chair-

man of the utility. Vesey joined AES in

2004 from FTI Consult-ing, where he was manag-ing director of the utility fi nance and regulatory advisory practice. During his 10 years at AES, Vesey held a number of senior positions, including chief operating offi cer of global utilities, leading AES busi-nesses in 10 countries, and executive vice president and president for Latin America and Africa.

Before that he was a partner in the energy, chemicals and utilities practice at Ernst & Young. Vesey’s appointment as AGL’s chief executive sees him return to Australia. Before Ernst & Young, Vesey worked in at Cit-ipower in the company’s offi ces in Melbourne.

Vesey has also written papers on restructuring transmission grids and the role of new technology in deregulated electricity markets. ■

Nick Winser, a National Grid executive director, has been appointed as chairman of a new energy systems centre in the UK that aims to speed commercialization of storage and other energy and grid technologies.

The Energy Systems Catapult, which opens for business in April, is one of several hubs set up by the UK government to improve links between cutting-edge fi elds of R&D and private industry.

Winser had been a member of National Grid’s board for 11 years before leaving last year.

This July he will also step down as chairman of sub-sidiaries National Grid Gas and National Grid Electric-ity Transmission as well as

president of the European Network of Transmis-sion System Operators for Electricity.

Winser previously had been the chief operating of-fi cer of National Grid’s US transmission business since 2001.

He began working at Na-tional Grid in 1993 holding a number of managerial roles before becoming the company’s director of engi-neering in 2001.

He started his career at the state-owned Central Electricity Generating Board in 1983, working in a number of technical and engineering posts before becoming involved in the privatization of the UK electricity industry in 1989, then joining PowerGen as

a commercial negotiator in 1991.

The focus of the Energy Systems Catapult will be on technology-based products and services, including energy storage, to trans-form and improve energy networks, in electricity, combustible gases and heat.

Like its counterparts, the main aim of the Energy Systems Catapult is to con-nect businesses with UK research and academia, support the commercializa-tion of new products and services and open up new opportunities for exporting to global markets.

UK universities have been leading developers in whole systems approaches to energy as well as enabling technologies for energy

systems such as storage, power electronics, system controls and communica-tions technologies.

However, small and mid-sized companies that are trying to bring these types of innovations and new products to market face a number of obstacles.

For example, in deal-ing with a sector that is regulated, conservative and complex, suffers a lack of resources and a need for supportive environments in which to test promising inventions and new tech-nologies relating to energy systems. ■

National Grid’s Winser to chair new UK energy systems, storage centre

Australia’s AGL Energy hires AES’ Vesey as new chief executive

PEOPLE NEWS


Renewable energy expert Deyang Qu has been named as the Johnson Controls endowed pro-fessor in Energy Storage Research, a collaborative appointment between the company, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Energy Institute.

Qu’s new duties, in Milwaukee, include help-ing lead joint projects that will get ideas and concepts about storing energy out of labs and into products. He says, “This will also pro-vide a unique opportunity for students to gain early exposure to the real-world of industrial engineering and my focus will be on developing student cur-ricula to build the skill sets needed for advanced technology industries.”

Qu has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the Uni-versity of Massachusetts

Boston since 2005. He will be responsible for provid-ing long-term strategic coordination between the universities and the clean

energy industry’s needs in matters of curricula, sponsored research and the nurturing of talent. During his tenure at UMass Bos-

ton, Qu built a recognized research programme in energy storage systems for electric vehicles, smart-grid technology and military applications.

In addition to the endowed professorship, Johnson Controls’ multi-million dollar investment in research already has produced two joint labo-ratories at UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science, where faculty, students and the company’s scientists work side-by-side.

One of the labs is a state-of-the-art dry pilot manu-facturing lab, the only one of its kind on a university campus in North America, which enables work on the next generation of lithium ion batteries.

The company also has funded and installed the Johnson Controls Energy Storage Research Lab, housed in the Wisconsin Energy Institute at UW-Madison, to test, evaluate and optimize how bat-tery systems perform and interact with a vehicle’s powertrain and electrical architecture.

Qu brings with him two PhD students, one senior research associate and a visiting professor. He holds three patents and brings existing grants from the US Department of Energy and the Offi ce of Naval Research.

Qu earned a PhD from the University of Ottawa in Canada and a bach-elor’s degree in chemistry from Wuhan University in China. For more than a dozen years he worked in research for private industry, including Rayo-vac Corporation (Spec-trum Brands) and Emtech Technology Corporation (Ashurst Technology Center). ■

New industry-academic partnership picks professor of energy storage research

James Greenberger, executive director, of the NAATBatt International announced in January the three winners of its awards that will be presented at its annual general meeting held in Phoenix in mid-February.

• Stan Whittingham of SUNY Binghamton will receive the NAATBatt 2015 Lifetime Achieve-ment Award —Technol-ogy. Whittingham is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the mod-ern lithium-ion battery. His work has facilitated battery applications that would have been unthinkable 30 years

ago. Anyone working in lithium-ion technology today owes their job in part to the professor.

• Naum Pinsky of South-ern California Edison will receive the NAAT-Batt 2015 Technol-ogy Commercialization Award. When Pinsky went to work for SCE some 23 years ago and established its Electric Vehicle Technical Center, few envisioned electric drive, let alone stor-ing electricity on the power grid, as practical possibilities. Pinsky was an early researcher and pioneer in those fi elds at one of the fi rst electric

utilities to take electro-chemical energy storage technology seriously.

• Sally Miksiewicz, former chief executive of East Penn Manufacturing, will receive the NAAT-Batt 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award — Industry. Under Miksie-wicz’s leadership, East Penn introduced the Deka UltraBattery, a ma-jor leap forward in lead acid battery technology, and became an industry leader in lead acid bat-tery recycling. She was a friend, mentor and role model to many in the industry. Miksiewicz died tragically last year.

NAATBatt International honours three in AGM awards ceremony

NEWS


Oakridge move to take controlling stake in Leclanché ‘expensive’, but could workOakridge Global Energy Solutions, the solid-state bat-tery system fi rm, is to acquire a controlling stake in Leclan-ché, one of Europe’s oldest battery makers in a deal that analysts call ‘expensive’ but say could ultimately work for both companies.

Oakridge will acquire 11,000,000 Leclanché shares from Precept Fund Manage-ment in a deal worth $45 million.

Leclanché also invested heavily in recent years in lithium titanate energy stor-age technology. One analyst said this will be a big attrac-tion for Oakridge — though it could prove diffi cult to

commercialize.“The deal looks expensive

but the company has made signifi cant investments in lithium titanate cell produc-tion which, so far, is loss making and needs cash,” he said. “They need sales in util-ity energy storage and related markets at a premium price which will be a challenge.”

The deal follows a joint development and marketing agreement between the two in April 2014 that provided Leclanché with a Sfr3 million ($3.1 million) loan in June 2014.

However, the agreement with Oakridge is a non-exclusive relationship. CEO

Anil Srivastava says the two companies are not under obligation to use the others’ technology in each market. In the US, Leclanche’s bat-teries for energy storage are undergoing testing with a national research laboratory to gain certifi cation.

Two and half years ago Leclanché began promot-ing and fi eld-testing energy storage products using its lithium chemistry, including residential energy storage products as well as supplying its cells for testing with wind and solar farms. In 2013, the company said it begun ramp-ing production at its factory and validating lithium titan-

ate cells from the line, but since then the company has been quiet on its activities concerning energy storage.

Anil Srivastava, chief executive of Leclanché, in a keynote speech at the Energy Storage Europe conference in Düsseldorf in March, is to say that instead of debating the merits of individual stor-age technologies the industry needs to adopt a multiple-technology approach that consolidates the strengths of different options into hybrid systems.

“Different storage applica-tions often require different capabilities. While some ar-eas of application need high output and quick reaction, others demand inexpensive storage technologies with a high capacity,” he will say.

“Frequently these various features need to be combined seamlessly with each other. These days, many people are on the lookout for a kind of miracle system that fulfi ls all their requirements equally as well.”

Separately, Leclanché has secured a Sfr21 million ($23.6 million) credit from Danish fi nancial services fi rm Recharge. The facility matures on June 30, 2016. The fi nancing consists of two parts.

A Sfr13 million portion will provide Leclanché with working capital until it can achieve steady-state cashfl ow break-even, which it expects to happen by the end of the year. A second Sfr8 million will fund the company’s 2015 Growth Plan, which aims to create sustained profi tability and increase market share through vari-ous initiatives.

Leclanché, founded in 1909 in Switzerland, is one of the oldest con-tinuously operating battery businesses globally. It is credited with inventing the lead acid battery used for starter motors. ■

Aquion Energy, a devel-oper of aqueous hybrid ion batteries and energy storage systems, is to supply a 1MWh battery system to complement an off-grid solar microgrid at Bakken Hale, a private residential estate on Hawaii.

The battery system will store energy generated from the solar installation and enable the estate to operate entirely from self-generated solar power.

The off-grid microgrid system will be designed and installed by Renewable En-ergy Services. The microgrid uses a 176kW solar array, a 1MWh Aquion AHI battery system, and a propane-fuelled generator for emer-gency backup. It is designed to generate 350MWh annu-ally from the sun, with little maintenance for 20 years.

The battery storage system will enable Bakken Hale to meet most of its electricity needs with solar generation and will reduce fossil fuel usage by 97%.”

Scott Pearson, chief execu-tive of Aquion, says: “This

is the fi rst of several very large microgrid projects we plan to supply using our M-Line battery modules.”

The company’s battery technology is attracting interest from the energy storage market. Last year, Greensmith, a company that integrates advanced batteries with its software controls for grid and com-mercial storage applications, announced it would deploy Aquion’s aqueous sodium-ion batteries in its storage systems. The company confi rms it is bidding for a couple of projects that will use Aquion’s batteries.

Separately, Aquion an-nounced the closing of a $36.8 million series ‘E’ fi -nancing round in November and included participation from new investors.

Hawaii and other islands have begun turning to green microgrid technolo-gies, which use solar PV and wind with batteries, to reduce the cost of produc-ing electricity from running diesel generators and to cut emissions.

Navigant Research predicts microgrid-enabling technologies could exceed $155 billion by 2023 with energy storage using advanced battery technolo-gies being one of the big winners from this change.

In February last year, US power company NRG Ener-gy announced a contract to provide a renewables-driven microgrid for Necker Island, owned by UK billionaire Richard Branson.

NRG’s microgrid system is designed to provide electricity powered at least 75% by an integrated array of solar, wind and energy storage technologies. The system will be supported by energy effi ciency and con-trol automation designed to reduce energy use and synchronize consumption with renewable energy pro-duction on the island.

The agreement was signed and announced at the Creating Climate Wealth Summit, by Bran-son, founder of the Virgin Group, and NRG CEO David Crane. ■

Aquion to supply aqueous hybrid ion battery to Hawaii private estate

NEWS


Energy Power Systems, which has developed a new lead acid battery based on planar layer matrix technology, is preparing for commercialization of a high-volume factory that will make lead acid batter-ies, for around $150/kWh.

The new plant, in Michi-gan, will start commercial scale production in the second quarter of 2016. It will make batteries for use in utility-scale distributed energy storage, renewables integration and batteries for start/stop micro-hybrid vehicles.

The initial annual pro-duction capacity will be 500MWh — the equivalent of half a million start/stop vehicle batteries.

The company says it has spent the last few years

developing its planar layer matrix nano-technology and claims it has fi ve times the life of standard AGM bat-teries with over 2000 cycles at 80% DOD, over 5000 cycles at 20% SOC swing and more than 200,000 for start-stop applications.

“PLM technology partic-ularly has a sweet spot for applications that require multiple hours of storage (two to six hours) such as behind the meter applica-tions, energy arbitrage as well as T&D applications,” says EPS. “The advantage in this segment is driven again by the lower cost as well as ability to meet a three to fi ve year opera-tional life which is desired by most customers.”

Energy Power Systems says it has addressed every

aspect of lead acid bat-tery chemistry, including materials morphology and processing, as well as bat-tery and electrode design to come up with a device where the mechanisms that result in corrosion, sulfa-tion and stratifi cation are slowed down.

Company founder Sub-hash Dhar — who is also chief executive of X-Alt Energy, a former Dow Kokam company that is now owned by venture capital fi rm Townsend Capital — has spent many years working on electric and hybrid vehicle tech-nologies, including lithium ion, fuel cells and, before that, nickel metal hydride batteries, used in many electric vehicles today.

“Here our approach has

been to take a high energy density or high power density chemistry and then try to push down the price, which is very hard to do,” Dhar says. “We looked at what’s cheap. Lead acid, of course. Now let’s think completely out of the box about making a battery that performs on par with a lithium ion one.”

The new factory is unu-sual as most investments in building advanced battery factories to supply growing stationary and grid storage demand are for lithium ion chemistries.

The new factory, which will be in a former General Motors building, is expect-ed to create some 300 new high-tech and manufactur-ing jobs during the initial production phase. ■

One of the largest utilities in the world, Spanish elec-tricity provider Iberdrola, is piloting an energy storage system to defer investing in new transformer equipment at one of its substations.

The storage system, which went live in January, has been built at the site of a secondary substation owned by Iberdrola, in Vitoria, northern Spain.

The installation is housed in two buildings, one for the 600kWh battery bank including the battery man-agement system, based on wireless cell sensors. The other contains controls, monitoring and supervision systems, communications and power conversion equipment.

The batteries store elec-tricity during low demand, injecting it into the grid at

peak demand, which can occur at various times on a daily basis, during the week. Iberdrola can moni-tor the grid load closely and integrate locally gener-ated electricity, adapting the secondary substation’s consumption more closely to the grid by using the batteries for peak shaving.

The transformers will be able to operate more effi ciently, avoiding satura-tion. Otherwise, the power of the transformers needs to be increased, which would require upgrad-ing the substation. The storage system also allows Iberdrola to free up more electricity for demand on other parts of the local grid network. During the week-ends, when demand is less, the batteries will be able to charge fully.

The project uses lead acid batteries based on tubular cells, customized by AEG Power Solutions. The battery has to charge at double the rate of stand-ard long-life gel cells (C/5 instead of C/10). To do this required producing a use profi le for the batteries, a process of information exchange between AEG Power Solutions and the battery supplier over 3-4 months.

Eduardo Lopez de Ar-mentia, marketing manager at AEG Power Solutions Iberica who worked on the project, says: “The project is important for Iberdrola because it will demonstrate the potential of energy storage to be used to stabi-lize the grid in areas where high renewables penetra-tion is occurring across

parts of Spain.” Iberdrola, through its

renewables subsidiary, has developed wind and solar plants, in Spain and Europe but also in North and Latin America. The team at Iberdola involved includes colleagues from Iberdrola Renewables.

The system, is part of the project SAGER (Sistema de Almacenamiento de Energía a Gran escala para la Red Eléctrica — System for Large Scale Energy Storage for the Electricity Grid). Tecnalia, the Spanish government-funded R&D and technology agency is also a partner.

The project’s fi rst phase examined different energy storage technologies, in-cluding batteries, types of compressed air storage and hydrogen. ■

New Energy Power Systems facility to deliver 500MWh of lead acid batteriessuitable for grid storage/start-stop

Iberdrola pilots energy storage system, as alternative to substation upgrade

NEWS


Maxwell Technologies, an-nounced mid-February that Freqcon, a German devel-oper and distributor of re-newable energy systems, has deployed an energy storage system for the Tal-laght Smart Grid Testbed in Ireland that uses Maxwell ultracapacitors and lithi-um-ion batteries to support grid stability in residential and industrial settings.

Freqcon’s Microgrid Stabilizer addresses the electricity intermittency challenges that accompany high renewable energy penetration.

The testbed uses Freq-con’s Microgrid Stabilizer for voltage and frequency stabilization, with a combi-nation of lithium-ion bat-teries and ultracapacitors

for active power support in the grid’s distributed network. The Maxwell ultracapacitors perform fast functions such as frequency response, while the batteries are used for peak shifting and operating reserve.

As Ireland works toward its goal of 40% renewable energy generation by 2020, the Tallaght Smart Grid Testbed, run by the South Dublin County Council and the Micro Electricity Generation Association (MEGA), is designed to demonstrate how energy storage can minimize elec-tricity distribution issues and grid instability.

With multiple sources of energy generation, the grid network in Ireland must deal with voltage and

frequency issues before distributing the electricity to end users.

“Smart grid projects are a priority in Ireland, and depending on the local set-up, the grid challenges can vary greatly,” said Dudley Stewart, secretary gen-eral of MEGA. “Freqcon’s Microgrid Stabilizer can be customized for individual projects, and the combi-nation of batteries and Maxwell ultracapacitors is a promising solution. We are looking forward to see-ing more of these systems deployed in the fi eld in the near future.”

Stewart said that: “on achieving stable critical, the operation will open 30 new similar test beds to create a basic mesh

throughout the island of Ireland.”

Norbert Hennchen, chief executive of Freqcon, said, “The market for grid-tied energy storage systems is growing, and fast frequen-cy response is a valuable system service to the grid. Ultracapacitors are the ideal technology to do this.

“Based on our long-standing relationship with Maxwell and our experi-ence with ultracapacitors in pitch systems for wind turbines, we’re bringing this technology to the space of grid stabilization.”

Franz Fink, president of Maxwell, said, “With a reduced number of fossil-fuel-based synchronous generators in operation, grid stability is becoming a challenge, and we expect ultracapacitors will play an important role in address-ing this issue.” ■

Ultracaps used for frequency response in Ireland’s Tallaght Smart Grid Testbed

Boosted by demand from the grid storage and transportation sectors, the global market for advanced batteries materials will total $132.2 billion from 2014 to 2023, according to a new study by Navigant Research.

More battery factories coming online, increased experience, coupled with a maturing supply chain as well as growing demand for products using advanced batteries are all contributing to Navigant’s predictions.

Capacity and materials shipments are also expected to continue to grow. The report – “Materials for Advanced Batteries” – ex-pects the number of annual shipments to nearly triple by 2023.

The study describes ad-vanced batteries as any mass manufactured rechargeable chemistry that has been introduced in the last two

decades. Conventional lead acid, nickel cadmium and nickel metal hydride battery materials are not covered in the report, though newer implementations of lead acid, such as carbon-doped lead acid, lithium ion, fl ow batteries and several other

recent chemistries are. Stationary storage and

electric vehicles are the end-user markets driving growth of the market. “By 2020 we expect 90% of the battery market to be relatively even-ly split between stationary storage, transportation and consumer electronics,” says

report author Sam Jaffe. While the enhanced capa-

bilities that advanced bat-teries can enable has been a major driver in the increased shipments of materials for these batteries, a decline in the prices of batteries them-selves is also contributing.

During the last fi ve years, according to the report, the factories in which batter-ies are made have become larger, while manufacturing yield losses have decreased and supply chain ecosystems have become established, nudging prices down.

Jaffe expects advanced

lead acid to see signifi cant growth in the next decade, including the technology’s uptake in stationary energy storage applications, but the increasingly low price points of lithium ion are making it harder for advanced lead acid to compete. “We think that the advanced lead acid batteries have reached as low as $500/kWh, but most pricing we see for that technology is still above $800/kWh. The cost of the carbon doping adds to the cost of advanced lead acid batteries and we do not see a way to bring that down,” says Jaffe.

The vast majority of advanced batteries are made in Asia. China is the largest producer, followed by South Korea and then Japan. Advanced battery makers in Europe and the US produce less than 5% of the global total. ■

Grid storage, transportation sectors to drive revenues in advanced battery materials —reaching $132 billion for 2014-2023 period

Stationary storage and electric vehicles are the end-user markets driving growth of the market. By 2020 we expect 90% of the battery sector to be relatively evenly split between stationary storage, transportation and consumer electronics.

NEWS


Hammond Group is work-ing with lead producer Eco-Bat Technologies on a project to further improve materials used to make advanced lead acid batteries.

The collaboration’s fi rst phase will be completed by mid-year, building on each companies’ new product launches targeting advanced lead acid batteries. These are Hammond’s additives under the K2 brand and Eco-Bat’s launch of recycled lead under the Supersoft brand. The technology division of Eco-Bat is working on the project with Hammond Group.

Terry Murphy, CEO of Hammond Group, says, “We believe we can notably improve the performance of lead batteries and we are evaluating the best of our developments with specialty chemical additives, combined with Eco-Bat’s resources and insights with metallic compounds.”

Many of the formula-tions under Hammond’s K2 branded carbon-based additives for lead acid bat-teries have been developed to enhance the performance of these batteries operating in partial state of charge.

The company is able to offer these expanders at a range of prices, depending on the customer’s battery require-ments.

The collaboration is in response to transportation and industrial battery seg-ments that are demanding improved energy density and charge acceptance across dif-ferent duty cycles.

In the last issue of Energy Storage Journal Murphy said he believes grids of the future based upon renewables will be underpinned by lead acid batteries.

However, according to

some energy storage system providers, lithium ion bat-teries outperform many of the commercially available advanced lead acid batteries in some of the more chal-lenging grid storage applica-tions. Price, however, has always been a limiting factor in lithium ion battery adop-tion. ■

Marubeni Corporation has announced an exclu-sive distribution agree-ment with EnerG2, a US company manufacturing advanced carbon materials for energy storage devices.

Marubeni will have the exclusive rights in Asia — including Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea and Malay-sia. EnerG2’s engineered carbon is used for high-end and high-performance rechargeable lead acid bat-teries, electric double layer capacitors (supercaps), and lithium ion batteries.

Marubeni says its pro-prietary carbon technol-ogy platform enables it to design and manufacture customized carbon and silicon carbon nano-com-posite materials. ■

Hammond, EcoBat collaboration boosts performance of advanced lead materials

Marubeni to distribute EnerG2’s next-gen energy storage materials throughout Asia

GNB Industrial Power, part of Exide, is launching two products in the coming months to meet growing demand for energy storage. Both have been developed in Germany.

The fi rst is a containerized 500kWh energy storage system. Restore500, avail-able in mid-2015, uses the company’s line of Sonnen-schein A600 lead acid gel batteries, designed for solar energy storage.

The company anticipates demand for Restore500

in regions where renewa-bles adoption is rising, but particularly in emerging markets where battery stor-age in conjunction with a renewable energy plant can provide power during the night, for instance.

The modular system can be customized to match specifi c applications, such as peak shaving for utilities and industrial sites, as well as renewables time shift-ing, long-term storage of renewable energy, grid volt-age stabilization and UPS.

Combinations of these main functions are possible based on individual customers’ re-quirements and investment.

The Sonnenschein battery range is rugged, has a long-life and has been used for many years in installations worldwide.

GNB’s other new product, also due out in the summer, is a residential energy stor-age system that uses lithium ion batteries. The new offer-ing expands the company’s Sonnenschein@home energy storage system, which has

been available as a lead acid battery-based product since 2013.

The new Sonnenschein@home Lithium product achieves excellent fl oat and cycle life with zero main-tenance, saving end-users money on the total cost of ownership of the system over its lifetime.

As energy prices continue to rise, self-consumption of solar-generated energy has become more popular in Germany, which has also incentivized households and small-scale energy users to invest in solar and storage systems with interest-free loans and subsidies that cut the cost of storage systems. ■

Arnold Magnetic Technolo-gies introduced in December its BESThin line of thin and ultra-thin metals for battery and energy storage designs.

The BESThin line, which includes nickel, aluminium and copper, enables thin-ner substrates to be used in battery and energy storage technologies.

As the push for new bat-tery performance materials increases, titanium and

stainless steel are also be-ing considered. These thin substrates improve storage capacity by allowing for greater energy density in a smaller system.

In addition to thinness, Arnold says it is able to im-prove material performance through fi ne-tuned grain size and grain structure and uniform surface roughness.

These allow for precise deposition of electrode ma-

terials on to the substrate.“Thin and ultra-thin met-

als play an important role in today’s battery and superca-pacitor technologies,” says Ted Baker, general manager of Arnold’s Precision Thin Metals division.

“We’re working to overcome the challenges and limitations of each technology, to achieve more effi cient electrifi cation of their machines.”

Arnold Magnetic introduces new line of thin and ultra-thin metals

Exide expands energy storagerange with two new products

NEWS


NEC Energy Solutions, the energy storage sub-sidiary of NEC Corpora-tion, announced production availability of a lithium iron phosphate battery at the end of January.

The new ALM 12V35 battery uses technology from A123 Systems, which Japan-headquartered NEC bought

in 2014. The product is being sold as an alternative to 12V 35 amp-hour lead acid bat-teries, extending the service life and reducing total cost of ownership of systems such as telecoms, remote off-grid power, uninterruptible power supply, solar PV and medical carts.

The battery is suited to

deep cycling applications, such as weak and off-grid power systems, including remote telecoms and oil and gas.

Key benefi ts of the ALM 12V35 include twice the us-able energy at fast discharge rates, says the fi rm. This can cut – by up to half – the number of similarly sized

batteries required for high power applications. Charge rates are faster than stand-ard lead acid batteries and other lithium ion batteries, enabling systems to remain in service longer, reducing the total cost of ownership.

The batteries are also com-patible with most lead acid battery chargers, use built-in management and communi-cations for monitoring and have integrated safety sys-tems developed by NEC. ■

NEC Energy launches 12V LiFePO4 battery for off-grid and telecoms

Trojan Battery has devel-oped an AGM battery that it says it designed from the ground up for deep-cycle applications.

The product, Reliant AGM, increases total energy output to meet demanding deep-cycling requirements in various markets, including fl oor cleaning, renewable energy, telecoms, golf and material handling. Trojan will produce the battery in the US and anticipates substantial demand from the domestic market.

Regulation has been a key driver in Trojan’s decision to develop the battery, where the company’s customers in several end-use markets are required to use non-spillable lead acid batteries that also address the rigours of deep-

cycle applications. Unlike other AGM bat-

teries, which tend to have a very high initial capacity and then decline rapidly — the ‘ski slope’ curve — Reliant AGM is designed to provide sustained performance over the lifetime of the battery.

The battery uses the com-pany’s C-Max technology, which includes features not found in many other AGM products.

“The active material in our paste formulation can get energy out — not just high current but energy for long duration needs. To do this you need smaller, consistently sized crystals, which create lots of surface area needed for high energy production,” says Vicki Hall, Trojan’s director of global

technical services. The paste is applied to

plates on both sides of the grid using an automated process to provide consist-ent thickness when com-pressed.

The separators are very porous and have a thick design to ensure high compression to prevent the paste from shedding as it is pressed between the plates and the glass mat.

The polymer casing pro-vides both rigidity to protect the cells but enough defl ec-tion to absorb vibration and shock.

The C-Max technology also incorporates a fl ame arrester for each cell to max-imise battery safety.

Trojan will produce the batteries at its new-

est factory, in Sandersville, Georgia.

Though completed in 2007, the Sandersville plant closed following the global economic crisis, and the production tools were sent to other Trojan facilities. This February Trojan fl ew in engi-neers and staff, from around the world including Haiti, Japan and Spain for training about the new product.

The fl oor care market is providing the biggest de-mand for the new batteries though the solar and renew-able energy market is also expected to grow rapidly. As with telecoms, the use of solar with battery storage is growing as the cost of solar panels has fallen and the operational expenditure is less compared with diesel.

However, sites are often remote, requiring a tough, durable battery that provides energy as well as power for back-up. ■

Eos Energy Storage, a developer of grid-scale bat-tery systems, has raised $15 million from a private place-ment with specialist energy investment fi rm AltEnergy.

The New York-based start-up plans to raise a fur-ther $10 million from other investors. The money will be used to scale up manu-facturing of its hybrid zinc cathode, aqueous electro-lyte-based battery, known as the Aurora battery.

Eos previously raised

about $27 million in two funding rounds from inves-tors including AltEnergy, NRG Energy and Fisher Brothers.

Eos says its batteries promise 75% round-trip effi ciency, along with a 10,000-cycle, or 30-year, lifetime, at a price point of $160/kWh, much lower than the cheapest compet-ing lithium ion battery grid storage systems.

The company has part-nered with utilities and grid

operators to commercialize its battery storage systems, including Enel, National Grid and Public Service Company of New Mexico.

Eos Energy Storage will also demonstrate its grid-scale battery system at Pa-cifi c Gas & Electric’s Smart Grid Lab in San Ramon, California, with the support of a $2.1 million award from the California Energy Commission.

“We’ve developed an energy storage solution

designed specifi cally to meet the requirements of Califor-nia’s utilities and industrial users. At a price of $160/kWh, our batteries will compete with gas peaking plants and copper wire to provide peak generation and infrastructure benefi ts,” says Philippe Bouchard, Eos vice president of business development.

Commercial volumes of Eos’s MW-scale Aurora systems will be available in 2016. ■

Eos raises $15m, seeks a further $10m

Trojan targets renewables withnew deep-cycle AGM battery

COVER STORY: LEAD ACID AND GRID STORAGE



Separating hype from substance as competing battery chemistries clashThe value of grid storage is often judged on the prices of batteries alone, making lead acid seem a good deal and lithium ion too costly. But when the functionality of the various chemistries is compared is there such a thing as a clear winner? Sara Verbruggen reports.

Grid storage is probably the battery industry’s toughest challenge yet. More often it seems that in many pro-jects happening now, energy storage systems are expected to do not one, but often several things.

It’s partly the result of how the elec-tricity grids are regulated, where stor-

age is too expensive to be solely a generation or a distribution asset, so its value is extracted by measuring out a multiplicity of different services and functions, over the system’s lifetime.

These values might be calculated by deferring the cost of investment need-ed in putting more copper wires into

the system, or from providing the vari-ous different additional services that generators provide the grid to keep it all operating smoothly.

Specialized software controls are critical parts of modern energy storage systems. Nevertheless, at the core of these systems is the battery, called on



to absorb and inject electricity into the grid, on a daily basis or, in cases, many times a day.

The industry is going through a hype cycle and at the heart of the bubble is lithium ion.

Some forecasts suggest variants of this chemistry are going to dominate

grid storage in the years to come —lithium sulfur and lithium air are re-cent favourites — while others see lithium ion as being too expensive to ever provide real genuine value for in-vestors.

Some are already saying that lithium ion is a battery technology that will be

supplanted sooner rather than later.Compared with its share of the over-

all global battery market lead acid is disproportionately under-represented in grid storage, even in the format of advanced lead acid, which has been commercialized by companies includ-ing East Penn, through its Ecoult sub-sidiary — see interview on page 36 with John Wood, Ecoult CEO — and Axion Power.

Some energy storage insiders say that is for good reason. Lead acid batteries lack the functionality of lithium ion.

The $44 million 36MW/24MWh Notrees energy storage project in Texas, owned by Duke Energy, is to have its advanced lead acid batteries swapped out. They will most likely be replaced with a lithium ion variant. In January 2013, when it was connected up to the grid the Notrees Battery Storage Project was one of the largest grid installations in the US at the time.

Duke Energy matched a $22 mil-lion grant from the US department of energy to install large-scale batteries capable of storing electricity produced by the company’s 153MW Notrees wind farm in west Texas. The system was supplied by Xtreme Power, which had also commercialized an advanced lead acid battery under the PowerCell brand.

However Xtreme ran into cashfl ow problems and in 2013, the fi rm put its battery manufacturing business up for sale, to raise funds and focus on the management side of energy storage, by testing qualifying and integrating dif-ferent battery technologies.

However, the company could not sell the battery business and even with over 77MW of energy storage pro-jects under its belt, including installa-tions on Hawaii, was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2014. Its assets — ex-clusive of the battery business — were picked up by Younicos.

Jeff Gates, director of sales and fi eld operations and energy storage provid-er Alevo, says, “I can’t comment on the Notrees storage project, but the bat-teries are doing a different duty cycle compared with when the project was initially commissioned, responding to a new signal that did not exist when they were installed. At conferences it was suggested that the batteries would most likely need to be replaced fairly early on because of this.”

Gates was managing director at Duke Energy’s commercial transmis-sion business, and worked on the utili-ty’s storage pilots and the Notrees pro-ject, before joining Alevo as director of

The global grid storage market is still in its early throes. Where batteries are concerned, it will be a case of horses for courses, analysts think. Many say that is why companies such as Greensmith and Younicos, have opted to be battery agnostic and focus on applications and software needed to make batteries perform well for grid storage tasks.

Anil Srivastava, chief executive at Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché, thinks the continuing obsession with pricing batteries in terms of dollars or euros per kilo watt hour, only engenders hype.

He believes it has led to some aggressive pricing, particularly by the bigger energy storage players, looking to take a large chunk of the market.

As a sustainable long-term strategy by the industry, it is questionable. “Expressing the cost of the storage system cost at the investment level, such as in euros or dollars per kWh, does not account for the operational cost or the total cost of ownership, which is defi ned by the chemistry operating under a load profi le,” he says.

The solar photovoltaics industry fell into a similar trap a few years back, expressing cost of this form of

renewable energy generation as cost per watt. The result was that while it encouraged the industry to push hard to reduce costs — and prices have come down dramatically — the trend also facilitated a price war.

This encouraged solar panels to be produced as a mass commodity product, leading to compromised product quality in many cases.

Nowadays, usually the cost of a utility scale solar or wind power plant is calculated using a common metric that was used for more traditional power plant assets, levellised cost of energy (LCOE).

This considers all costs, not only capital outlay on the plant itself but the operational expenditure over the plant’s operational lifetime, such as costs of fuel, operations and maintenance and other considerations.

THE DILEMMA OF COST METRICS:

THE NEED FOR A BIGGER PICTURE



sales and fi eld operations in December. The Switzerland-headquartered

company is a vertically integrated provider of energy storage systems, in-vesting in the region of $1 billion in a factory in North Carolina to make its lithium ion batteries that use a solid-state electrolyte.

Some observers are more direct about the lack of a role that they see for lead acid batteries in grid storage.

When it started out, Greensmith, a US supplier of grid-integrated energy storage systems used a lead acid bat-tery for UPS functionality.

John Jung, the company’s founder says, “Lead acid has not kept up with lithium ion as it pertains to broad, grid scale energy storage needs in several ways. That includes, cycle life, which is a fraction of what lithium ion is these days.

“Useful capacity is anywhere from 30%-70% state of charge, versus 5%-95%, or better, for lithium ion. These two factors creates an energy unit cost disadvantage for lead acid when you calculate a levellized cost analysis in contrast to nameplate pricing per kilo-watt hour.”

His company regularly collects pric-ing versus performance quotes from lead acid vendors along with those for other types of batteries.

Then there can be other issues con-cerning lead acid too. Lack of density is a problem for some applications with space constraints. The Notrees energy storage project also shows that some types of advanced lead acid may not be up to high power applications like frequency regulation, though poor integration and issues with software controls can also be likely to blame.

“Lead acid could retain niche mar-kets like backup cell towers in India or automobiles in general but it’s not re-ally advancing either on the cost front or innovation which is a huge contrast to the growth, scale and innovation seen from not only li-ion but fl ow and new technologies like aqueous ion by Aquion,” says Jung.

When Younicos was getting started the company’s founders looked at over 20 different energy storage technolo-gies, including supercapacitors, com-pressed air as well as several types of battery technologies, including lead acid and advanced lead acid.

Company spokesmen Philip Hierse-menzel says, “We looked at lead acid technologies since such a lot of bids for projects at the time were based on these types of batteries. Even then, we were sceptical.

“While these batteries were cheaper they had issues, such as only being able to be discharged to 40%, both for lead acid and advanced lead acid.”

The company settled on three main battery technologies, vanadium fl ow, sodium sulphur and lithium ion. Even though it acquired the intellectual property for a vanadium redox fl ow battery technology and set up the Austrian company Cellstrom to com-mercialize these types of batteries, Younicos has reduced its stake in Cell-strom, which is now majority-owned by renewable energy company Gild-emeister.

“We made two decisions, to not be-come a battery manufacturer and not to use lead acid batteries, or variants of the technology, unless the customer specifi cally wants them,” says Hierse-menzel.

The company continues to test vari-

ous battery technologies in its labs. The Samsung cells used in the Leight-on Buzzard energy storage project, in the UK, which deploys Younicos’ software controls to address various grid applications, uses the same chem-istry as lithium ion batteries found in BMW’s electric car model. “It is the software that transforms a car battery into a stationary storage battery,” says Hiersemenzel.

“I don’t have a crystal ball but cost reductions in lithium ion are projected to fall by 20% yearly. This is being driven by the e-mobility market. Lead acid has been around so long that there is not the potential for it to re-duce in cost, it is already a mass man-ufactured product with economies of scale achieved.

“Lithium ion factories are being built. Not just the Tesla gigafactory but in Asia, by companies such as

$150/kWh is a realistic and sustainable price point for lead acid as opposed to some of the aggressive pric-ing in the lithium ion battery market, where players are prepared to incur losses to gobble up market space. Their strategy requires deep pockets and does not al-ways work out.” — Subhash Dhar, Energy Power Systems

Lead acid has not kept up with lithium ion as it pertains to broad, grid scale en-ergy storage needs in several ways. That includes, cycle life, which is a fraction

of what lithium ion is these days. “Useful capacity is anywhere from 30%-70% state of charge, versus 5%-95%, or better, for lithium ion — John Jung, Greensmith

The batteries on the Notrees energy storage project are doing a different duty cycle compared with when the project was initially commissioned, responding to a new signal that did not exist when they were installed



Samsung. You only have to look at the solar PV industry to realise that a claim that a particular technology is always going to be too expensive can be proved wrong.”

However, Subhash Dhar, chief exec-utive of Energy Power Systems which makes an advanced lead acid battery using planar matrix technology, says “An accurate metric governing how the cost of batteries are measured is cents per kWh per cycle. “We have a

long cycle life. If our cost is low then that metric is favourable.”

However, if he has to put a price on the batteries they are about $150/kWh. “This is a realistic and sustaina-ble price point for lead acid as opposed to some of the aggressive pricing in the lithium ion battery market, where players are prepared to incur losses to gobble up market space. But that’s a strategy that requires deep pockets and does not always work out.”

Dhar’s company is building a fac-tory that will produce a new type of advanced lead acid battery, based on the company’s proprietary technology. The batteries use the same ingredients as the traditional lead acid industry, but that’s where the similarities end.

Every aspect, from materials mor-phology to battery design has been reconfi gured radically. “For example, lead is used in the substrate but is used differently than how it has tradition-ally been used. There is no casting pro-cess. We use the same lead oxides as used by the lead acid industry. But the form — the morphology — of the ma-terials is different,” he says.

The resulting PLM batteries even-tually corrode and undergo sulfation and other mechanisms that cut down their performance and lifetime — the difference, however, is that only pro-cesses have been slowed right down.

Dhar says the company made a con-scious decision not to play up the lead acid origins of his company’s PLM batteries. “When it comes to markets like grid storage, there are questions about the performance of lead acid technology, including advanced for-mats. Our focus is on the application, but of course we do not shy away from telling people what chemistry is at the heart of PLM.”

Valuing energy storage on the price of batteries, as in dollars or euros per kilowatt hour, may not do lead acid players breaking into grid storage any favours either, in the long term.

A new report out by Navigant Re-search forecasts the global market for materials for making advanced batter-ies will total $132.2 billion from 2014 to 2023. Demand from grid storage and transportation sectors is driving demand. While advanced lead acid materials can expect to see signifi cant growth in the next decade, the falling cost of lithium ion is making it harder for advanced lead acid to compete.

The cost of advanced lead acid bat-teries has reached as low as $500/kWh, according to the consultancy, but the cost of the carbon doping — adding carbon materials — to lead acid batteries to enhance their perfor-mance under partial state of charge (PSOC) intensive applications, adds to their cost.

Grid storage covers a broad range of applications and for high power ap-plications, such as frequency regula-tion, lithium ion seems to be favoured though there are lead acid battery-based energy storage installations that are performing these tasks.

Question: How do you come up with a cheap battery that’s up to scratch in terms of a comparison of lithium ion performance?

Answer: You take battery and storage expertise from across several technologies, but exclude lead acid. Then you go ahead and make a lead acid battery.

That’s the gist of how Energy Power Systems, got started.

“In August 2011 we walked through the doors of these premises,” says Subhash Dhar, the chief executive and company founder from its headquarters in Troy, Michigan.

“None of us knew anything about lead acid. Between us we had worked with nickel-metal hydride batteries, lithium ion batteries, fuel cells, metal oxide coatings. But not lead acid.”

The approach was a deliberate one. “We couldn’t risk having that mentality of, ‘But, you can’t do this. Or ‘But, that’s not going to be possible.’ We needed to tackle this without blinkers.”

The challenge Dhar and his team set themselves was to do the opposite of the lithium ion battery industry. “For years it was always about once lithium ion scales the cost will come down. The industry was saying this every 10 years and it wasn’t happening.”

Dhar should know. He’s worked on electric and hybrid vehicle technologies, including lithium ion, fuel cells and, before that, with nickel metal hydride batteries. He’s also the chief executive of Xalt Energy, a high tech fi rm that deploys lithium ion batteries for energy storage.

“Our approach has been to take a high energy density or high power

density chemistry and then try to push down the price, which is very hard to do. We looked at what’s cheap. Lead acid, of course. Now let’s think completely out of the box about making a battery that performs on par with a lithium ion one.”

That approach is starting to register with pockets of the energy storage industry as well as the automotive sector producing micro-hybrid models for the North American market. From its pilot line in its Troy facilities, Energy Power Systems is able to make a small number of batteries a week and send these off to prospective partners and customers for testing and qualifying.

“We’ll keep doing that through this year and into next year,” he says. Meanwhile the company will build its high volume factory about 12 miles north of its premises (see news section). This should be operational by mid-2016. Then, production from the pilot line will make the transition to the full-scale factory line.

IT IS LEAD ACID, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT

Dhar: “we needed to tackle this without blinkers”



Last year, Axion Power was named as the supplier of energy storage and frequency regulation for the largest solar farm in Pennsylvania, which will comprise two 2.4MW plants. As well as storing electricity for supplying the local Coatesville Area School District, the storage system, based on Axion’s advanced lead acid technology, will provide frequency regulation services for the PJM Interconnection.

East Penn, too, has supplied some grid storage installations using the advanced lead acid technology in the UltraBattery of its subsidiary, Ecoult.

Chad Christ, marketing manager for East Penn’s motive and reserve power batteries, thinks the balance is tipping in favour of lead acid.

The lead acid industry is mature with a growing base of over 20GW of existing installed stationary stor-age in the US, with more than 6GW being installed each year in new sites and refi ts. “This storage doesn’t grab headlines because it is relatively pas-sive — performing stand-by functions for data centres and critical indus-tries,” he says.

In terms of the short term need for ancillary services, and variability man-agement on the grid and microgrid systems, 20GW is very large. “But it is a tiny amount of the output of the lead acid industry today and the in-dustry can expand readily. East Penn is investing in expanding its industrial manufacturing capacity, for industrial and motive, while investing in the Ul-trabattery technology to address the needs of advanced products for grid storage,” says Christ.

He says the next step is to draw upon the manufacturing and support indus-tries that maintain the 20GW installed

base of lead acid cells to support the growth of grid storage.

“We see scope for a gradual evolu-tion of the existing stationary industry away from single purpose backup to dual purpose systems that can both provide backup and contribute to grid services. The existing backup systems provided a resource that is already grid connected.”

Potentially these can begin to be migrated to new lead-acid formats, bringing large banks of distributed, cycling storage online.

Financial incentives will encourage data centres to install fast cycling stor-age to earn grid regulation revenues in increasing numbers of grids.

Ecoult says it is pursuing leads for the business. “The only hurdle is the cultural change required for under-standably conservative owners of data centres who depend entirely on uninterrupted power,” says Christ. How long this change might take to happen is diffi cult to judge, in part as many UPS players say that the sort of proposal put forward by East Penn is more theory than reality.

Nevertheless East Penn is building on its earlier projects such as the PNM Prosperity site in New Mexico. “This project has delivered and exceeded the original project objectives and is con-tinuing to operate extremely effective-ly, while our PJM grid frequency regulation project is a profi table installation that has been used as a show-case for several fully-commercial projects that will begin to come online over the next year,” says John Wood, chief executive of Ecoult, the East Penn subsidiary.

“These are MW-scale projects with a multi-purposing ca-pability. The customer will use the storage in-frastructure for their own internal require-ments, such as load management or backup, but will have a regular income stream gained by using the batteries to sell

frequency regulation services to the grid operator.”

The global grid storage market is still in its early throes. Where batteries are concerned, it will be a case of hors-es for courses, many think. Many ana-lysts say that is why companies such as Greensmith and Younicos, have opted to be battery agnostic and focus on applications and software needed to make batteries perform well for grid storage tasks.

Leesa Lee, senior vice president of product management and marketing at Greensmith says, “Our software platform gives our suppliers’ batter-ies an edge. We spend an inordinate amount of time researching and keep-ing up to speed on batteries, including new chemistries and technologies and new iterations of existing technolo-gies.

“The process of integrating them with our software can take two to eight weeks and we also regularly visit our vendors’ factories.” Currently two thirds of the company’s batteries come from lithium ion suppliers, though the company is bidding for projects that will use Aquion’s aqueous ion batter-ies.

“There is not a single chemistry or a single product that can serve all needs. But we’ll have something com-pelling to offer, for behind the meter and for load shifting, for example,” says Dhar. ■

“You only have to look at the solar PV industry to real-ise that a claim that a particular technology is always going to be too expensive can be proved wrong.”

The Samsung cells used in the Leight-on Buzzard energy storage project — battery building shown above — in the UK, which uses Younicos’ software controls to address various grid appli-cations, uses the same chemistry as lithium ion batteries found in BMW’s electric car model

Energy Power Systems made a con-scious decision not to play up the lead acid origins of its company’s PLM batteries.


Announcements such as Tesla’s lithium ion giga-battery factory — where Elon Musk is rumoured to be extending its domestic specifi c plans for home energy storage to that of the grid — and more recently, a $1 billion lithium ion battery plant in-vestment by Alevo, help contribute to the idea that grid storage technol-ogy is synonymous with lithium ion batteries.

But big grid storage systems are not like cell phones or laptops. These batteries will have a big role to play in the coming years but they are not the whole story.

In Germany industrial and com-mercial companies that have in-vested in onsite renewable energy generation, such as wind, solar and biomass, are beginning to investi-gate the economics of having onsite energy management and storage.

GNB Industrial Power/Exide, one of the major lead acid battery makers, is working with potential customers that are evaluating how batteries can be used to provide un-interruptible power supply and also deliver controlled power to the grid and to generate additional returns.

The company is launching a con-tainerized 500kWh system that will use its Sonnenschein Solar gel lead acid batteries.

“It is important that the batteries are not only able to discharge power when needed but also act as a sink

to absorb power. The battery therefore provides positive and negative controlled power to the grid,” says Martin Sinz product di-rector advanced applica-tions and renewable en-ergy systems.

Germany operates a primary, a secondary and a tertiary control reserve market. Providers are paid to bank power as well as release it into the grid.

There is also inter-est in the system from other countries, where a battery in conjunction with a renewable energy plant, for example, can provide power during night time, often in places where the grid is not that well reinforced.

“The advantage of lead acid is that it is well proven and it works. With lithium ion many suppliers have not been around for as long. Also cost-conscious customers are interested in lead acid tech-nology, which can be 30% more economical than lithi-um ion batteries,” says Sinz.

One size doesn’t fi t all

Lithium ion would appear to dominate the grid storage market, but the industry needs a range of storage technologies at its disposal.

“It is important that the batteries are not only able to discharge power when needed but also act as a sink to absorb power. The battery therefore provides positive and negative controlled power to the grid” — Martin Sinz, Exide




Spanish utility Iberdrola is piloting an energy storage system supplied by AEG Power Solutions. The decision to use lead acid batteries was driven by the specifi cs of the application.

The system is installed in northern Spain on the premises of a second-ary substation, owned by Iberdrola, located in Júndiz, Vitoria and will be operated by Iberdrola as part of a project called SAGER (Sistema de Almacenamiento de Energía a Gran escala para la Red Eléctrica — System for Large Scale Energy Storage for the Electricity Grid).

The fi rst phase of the project exam-ined various different energy storage technologies, including different bat-teries, types of compressed air storage and hydrogen. SAGER II will provide results and data on how a battery storage asset operates on the network.

AEG Power Solutions supplied the whole 600kWh energy storage system, including the battery management sys-tem, software controls and the power conversion system.

Tubular lead The project uses lead acid batteries based on tubular cells, customized by AEG Power Solutions for the demands of the project as the battery needs to be able to charge at double the rate of standard long-life gel cells and is re-quired to cycle for 1800 cycles at 80% DOD and 5200 cycles at 20% DOD.

Variables such as temperature will have an impact on the battery’s life-time and the project will provide lots of data on the performance of the bat-teries, but it is expected that the BESS may have an operational lifetime of between fi ve and eight years, based on DOD of 80%, lasting 1800 cycles, cy-cling fi ve days a week.

The batteries were selected and qual-ifi ed by AEG to ensure level of qual-ity and reliability. To do this required producing a use profi le for the batter-ies, a process of information exchange between AEG PS and the battery sup-plier over three to four months.

AEG Power Solutions wants to sup-ply the energy storage market as a turnkey supplier of systems or as a supplier of components, such as its power converters developed from technology already widely commer-cialized in large solar plants.

“As batteries are the most expensive component of an energy storage sys-tem, in the role of integrator we would source the batteries but also need to build this into our margins, so we see the opportunity to be a component sup-

plier as well as doing full-scope energy storage system installations,” says Ste-fan Kempen, product manager for ad-vanced power solutions at the company.

In a separate energy storage project in Germany, AEG Power Solutions supplied its Protect SC converter to Vanadis Power, which supplied vana-dium redox fl ow batteries for an en-

ergy storage project in northern Ger-many.

The Braderup project uses two types of batteries — the other is lithium ion. Kempen sees potential for hybrid stor-age projects increasing in prevalence as the market grows, because it means batteries are selected for their specifi c performance strengths.

The Tensor Solar batteries are used in solar integrator Belectric’s Energy Buffer Unit, designed to be used as part of a hybrid power system that can integrate a solar plant, with other energy sources

“As batteries are the most expensive component of an energy storage system, in the role of integrator we would source the batteries but also need to build this into our margins, so we see the opportunity to be a component supplier as well as doing full-scope energy storage system installations,” — Stefan Kempen, product manager, AEG



“For medium term storage duties, required on a daily basis, lead acid could be used. For long-term needs, such as weekly or monthly, vanadium redox fl ow is suitable while for short, fast charging, perhaps multiple times a day, lithium ion is suitable,” he says.

The company also supplies rectifi ers for hydrogen storage.

AEG is also drawing on its UPS busi-ness and experience gained to also go after microgrid and off-grid projects. “In North America, there is an increas-ing demand for storage to provide

grid services such as frequency regu-lation and arbitrage, but another ben nefi t is for the systems to act as a stan-dalone back-up power source, kicking in when the main grid is down, for example due to bad storms,” he says.

Through its UPS business AEG PS has a lot of experience of building and controlling islanding grids and furthermore of working with classical batteries such as lead acid or nickel cadmium.

Medium-term storageWhile Kempen acknowledges the technology for its reliability and ver-satility for applications such as back-up and UPS, he says: “In the energy storage market, while we do see a role for lead acid, for medium-term stor-age, especially as it is so cost-effi cient, other storage technologies will also be needed depending on the require-ments placed on storage systems.

“These are dictated by the needs of the grid for specifi c applications. But in any system confi guration the selec-tion of the right set of battery technol-ogies and qualifying of the batteries is really important to ensure the storage project maximizes value.”

For more power intensive require-ments GNB Industrial Power has used an established lead acid technol-ogy gained through its acquisition of Hagen. The company made batter-

Lithium ion is popular for grid storage but its detractors argue that as well as being expensive, there are other issues too. Concerns range from issues of safety to long-term fears that it may soon be out of date.

On the safety front some companies are making progress. One of these is Leclanché. The Swiss battery maker has spent the last two years ramping its factory for making lithium ion batteries, based on lithium titanate chemistry originally developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology.

Leclanché acquired the spin-out Bullith Batteries in 2006 in Willstätt in Germany. For the cells Leclanché developed a proprietary ceramic separator, which forms a strong barrier between the anode and cathode materials.

The ceramic structure of the separator has been designed to ensure the safety of its cells.

Last year the company struck a collaboration agreement with Saint-Gobain to develop a new separator that uses polymers and inorganic grains and powders, through a Saint-Gobain division that produces material fi lms, ceramics, slurries, and inorganic materials.

Leclanché will use the separator in its stationary storage product range, while Saint-Gobain will market them for other lithium ion cell applications.

Last year, Alevo, another advanced battery company headquartered in Switzerland, bought what was

a Philip Morris cigarette factory in Concord, North Carolina and has turned it into an industrial lithium battery plant.

The factory is expected to produce its fi rst batteries by July. These will be used in its GridBank energy storage system, which the company is planning to install in the next year in the US. Each GridBank is 1MWh in size and modular.

The company’s chemistry is the fi rst inorganic lithium battery to be commercialized, a technology that has proven hard to take from the laboratory bench and then into production.

Alevo will not divulge the original source of the chemistry, which is a sulphur-based inorganic lithium ion electrolyte. The company took control of it by acquiring Fortu PowerCell, a Germany company founded in 2007. Fortu had tried to secure state tax breaks to build a factory in Michigan, before it went insolvent.

But, before Fortu tried to commercialize it, the technology was developed under a public private partnership arrangement.

“For the specifi c application it was developed for the technology had to be 100% safe. So the researchers concluded that whatever lithium ion technology was used the source of it becoming fl ammable and combustible had to be eliminated, which led them down the inorganic electrolyte route,” says Jeff Gates, director of sales and fi eld operations at Alevo.

Starting with a completely safe non-fl ammable cell technology, other features became apparent. “The cells are very reliable and they last a very long time. So this by-product of longevity would also prove useful for grid storage,” says Gates.

The batteries have achieved 40,000 recharge cycles. Alevo has not been around that long, so it has secured a third party company — in insurance — to give the batteries a 20 year warranty.

SAFETY FIRST

“Even though these sys-tems are not cost-com-petitive yet, it would be short-sighted to assume that lithium ion prices will not come down to the level that makes it com-petitive with lead acid” — Martin Sinz, Exide

www.solar-united.org

Are you ready to be connected?

Linking the Solar Power Generation and Energy Storage Technology Value Chain



ies for German submarines and also a huge 14MWh battery installed in West Berlin between 1986 and 1994, operated by BEWAG for grid services.

GNB’s line of Tensor Solar batter-ies, launched in 2012, use the same core technology and battery design as that used in the Berlin battery bank. The battery’s excellent performance in PSOC is achieved through using conductive copper-stretched metal, for optimizing internal resistance, in combination with positive tubular electrodes and larger cross sections of current conducting components.

The Tensor Solar batteries are used in solar integrator Belectric’s Energy Buffer Unit, designed to be used as part of a hybrid power system that can integrate a solar plant, with other en-ergy sources. The Energy Buffer Unit is installed in Alt Daber in Germany, with a solar plant.

GNB also supplies Germany’s residen-tial storage market, where batteries are used in conjunction with solar systems. The company is expanding its line by supplying a lithium ion battery version alongside its lead acid-battery based product. Eventually the company may consider lithium ion for larger storage.

“Even though these systems are not cost-competitive yet, it would be short-sighted to assume that lithium ion prices will not come down to the level that makes it competitive with lead acid,” says Sinz.

Because big banks of batteries are ex-pensive and grids are heavily regulat-ed, energy storage providers are under pressure to deliver systems that achieve a predictable return on investment.

While capacity ramping in lithium ion battery factories will drive down the unit price of batteries, there is more to be done to optimize system performance. The renewable energy industry has been through similar growing pains, increasing effi cien-cies of cells and panel outputs, in the case of solar, and turbine capacities, in the case of wind power, and develop-ing products guaranteed to work for longer.

But battery storage systems are also unique because the systems have to be designed for the specifi c grid applica-tion.

Grid signal frequencies, as well as oth-er services and functions must be con-sidered over the projected lifetime of the system and in some cases, these might also change. Once this is understood, a use profi le of the battery is needed. This enables system providers to decide what type of chemistry would be best

deployed and would be most cost-effec-tive over the life of the system.

The hybrid system concept behind the Braderup project has a lot of po-tential. One system can provide sev-eral services and functions, using dif-ferent batteries, as opposed to being over-sized with one very expensive type of battery.

A powerful lithium mixSwiss battery maker Leclanché is promoting a similar approach, albeit using lithium ion. The company has developed a lithium titanate battery for power intensive applications but is also producing lithium ion batter-ies with graphite anodes, for energy intensive requirements.

Depending on an individual pro-ject’s specifi cations the company can produce energy storage systems that integrate both chemistries, in varying ratios. The company’s chief executive Anil Srivastava thinks there is a de-mand for such systems from the mass transportation sector as well as from utilities and grid operators for station-ary storage.

Energy storage system suppliers can be divided into two camps.

In the fi rst, there are the companies that source batteries and integrate

them to work with their software plat-forms and controls. They range from software start-ups such as Greensmith, Younicos and Stem to the big global suppliers of T&D equipment, such as ABB and AEG Power Solutions.

But none of these companies are tied to one battery technology. They can secure more business by having a range of battery technologies — pow-er intensive through to energy inten-sive — at their disposal, depending on the specifi c project.

In the second camp, there are the vertically integrated businesses that supply everything from the software platform and controls for integration to the production of batteries, such as Leclanché and Alevo.

These businesses can control each step of the value chain but it is a risky approach.

Jeff Gates, sales director of Alevo, says: “The grid storage market is go-ing to be big and there are so many different applications for it that there is not one technology that is going to address it all.

“It’s not a one size-fi ts-all market. But batteries will have a big share of it and for the types of projects that we are going after, the lithium ion tech-nology that we have is right.” ■

Alt Daber: coming soon to a fi eld near you, the shape of things to come

ENERGY STORAGE IN THE GRID


A new category of business has emerged in the world of energy storage. The inte-grator. It’s a broad term —

sometimes meaning different things to different parts of the industry.

But typically an integrator is in-volved in three capacities in this elec-trical supply chain that runs from re-newable energy source through to the grid and the eventual end user: they work on hardware systems, control systems, and as project managers.

Over the last few years, the bat-tery has started to become the central player in this chain. “Battery technol-ogy is now, after years of develop-ment, fi nally on the verge of being implemented in a widespread way on the utility grid,” says James Sember, a director of the research group WEM-PEC at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.

Given their key position, it would seem logical that battery companies should assume lead integrator roles in energy storage projects. But as the high failure rates of battery makers over recent years has shown they of-ten lack the fi nancial balance sheet to acquire funding. Or, if they do, unfor-tunate circumstances manage to take them down anyway.

“The larger these systems become, the greater the commercial role batter-ies have to play,” says Pat Hayes, busi-ness development manager for ABB Energy Storage. “If 70% of the cost of project is the battery, and the rest is the power conversion system and the controls, it’s tough for that company with the 30% of the cost, to package that battery, mark it up enough to meet your margin requirements, and then report to your management.”

As a result, some of the larger bat-tery companies have to assume leader-ship roles because they represent the largest portion of the cost and invest-ment. Or they’re accepting the lead, even if they’re not used to assuming such roles.

“We’ve seen projects led by com-panies that lack project experience, and run into problems,” he says. “The companies you see consistently rising to the top, surround themselves with partners that they can trust and that can cover the areas that they may not be as strong in. That said more battery suppliers are performing their own in-tegration of their battery systems into containers to create a product that you can see and feel.

“The more that these energy storage ‘projects’ can start feeling like a ‘prod-

Batteryman becomes middleman as next generation of grid

storage rolls on

Battery manufacturers have become de facto the key players in the technology behind the

integration of renewable energy supplied into the grid. It’s not necessarily a job that they’re

cut out for — or always that adept.



uct’, the better chance of minimizing risk, which would translate to bank-ability.”

Battery makers seem to be falling into two camps.

“There are companies that make batteries as commodities,” says Chris Kuhl, a long-standing veteran of en-ergy storage, battery and power sys-tems. “For example, batteries in the UPS area are valued mostly as a com-modity by systems integrators. Then you have major battery makers like Johnson Controls that are moving into systems integration functions.

“Or they’re putting the cells into packs and modules initially for dem-onstration purposes, but eventually those translate into commercial value that is very persuasive to both clients and funders.”

The cost perspective, arguably the greatest challenge in integrating on any project, looms particularly large for battery companies.

“Lining up fi nancing is one of the toughest aspects of integration,” says Dave Roberts, former CEO of En-erdel, “particularly since no single project partner — neither the battery nor the inverter maker — wants to shoulder a responsibility they don’t understand. Most companies start by focusing on a particular competi-tive advantage they have or can culti-vate, not necessarily how to put other vendors’ products together with their own.”

For those banking on the concept that a great technology is going be enough, one cautionary tale is the case of Xtreme Power, the Texas-based grid battery startup bought in April 2014 by Younicos, the German energy management fi rm.

Good funding and a good product are great start, but when those falter, an ability to pivot in a new direction can save the day.

At the time of its bankruptcy fi ling, Xtreme had a various projects in the ground, including the US’s largest, a 36MW, 24MW-hour system sited at a Texas wind farm owned by Duke Energy. However, it no longer had its original signature “PowerCell” ad-vanced lead-acid battery chemistry upon which it had built its brand and initial success.

After encountering problems in manufacturing, the fi rm halted its bat-tery operation and with the battery’s viability uncertain, Xtreme’s battery management system — the hardware, software and related services that keep grid-scale battery units running smoothly — became its primary mar-ketable asset, and ultimately a valu-able one.

The real world experience of com-pleting projects is worth a lot it turns out, as was the case of A123 Energy Storage, which NEC bought from Wanxiang (buyer of A123 Systems in 2012) in 2014. A signifi cant portion of the company’s value in the bank-ruptcy auction was its controls, re-gardless of the battery or the inverter.

Xtreme opted not to commit them-selves to a particular battery or invert-er technology. Instead it concentrated on managing integrative functions better than its competition.

“The philosophy of not being wed-ded to any one battery or technology explains why you see several com-panies migrating to this space,” says Roberts. “Providing an integration service involves low overhead, but if done right, high margin because of the point in the value chain directly touching the end customer. Anytime you see the potential for profi t, you’ll see a number of players into that par-ticular area of the market.

“For example solar panel makers stand to gain a lot if they determine to provide integration, since they know how to do such projects, and they usu-ally have the fi nancial relationships in place to fi nance them. Typically they’ve established those relationships that can make the projects happen over the past two decades, so you’ll see more and more solar panel people coming in.”

But too many battery companies are trying to do this, and lacking adequate knowledge and experience, struggle to succeed.

“Usually they end up spending too much of their time fi nding their way, instead of actually doing the work,” he says. “Enerdel’s strategy, during my time as CEO there, was the op-posite. Rather than merely evaporate, we were one of the fi rst battery com-panies to go through a Chapter 11,

“A lot of battery com-panies started off doing batteries for consumer electronics. When you think about rechargeable batteries in your laptop, longevity was never a consideration for what they made” — Andy Tang,

Greensmith

“Sometimes we’ll come up with our own algo-rithms for state-of-charge management, and these are internal procedures or algorithms for house-keeping that preserve the life of the battery” — Jim

McDowall, Saft

“The more that these energy storage ‘projects’ can start feeling like a ‘product’, the better chance of minimizing risk, which would translate to bankability.”



and we were determined not to fail. Thereafter we saw A123 go through it, then Valance, and others, some of them going through restructuring out of court.”

“What we learned through that ex-perience was that we should not try to be the integrator,” says Roberts. “We found much better reception when we would walk into a room with a customer and tell them we had consciously determined to partner with players that complemented our strength and various weaknesses. I’d say most companies would do well to ally themselves with partners that can do the same.”

Ability to pivotNEC Energy Solutions (formerly A123), has been able to pivot from one market (power tool batteries) to another (electric vehicle batteries), and another (storage systems).

“They’ve probably done the best job, in terms of a battery systems inte-grator, in containers, in management systems — though they did not make their own inverters,” says Kuhl. “To some degree they created a project in-tegrator role when it didn’t really exist as a standard format in the fi rst pro-jects they worked on with AES.

“In a way, the two companies grew together. A123 threw resources at in-tegration capabilities and quickly be-came one of the best, if not the best, in the industry. Their integration skills added value to their systems integration technology and the com-pany. They’d mastered how to make that repeatable at cost.”

But while A123/NEC stands out for its ability to reinvent itself, other battery makers have been working in this market successfully, if with less fanfare.

Notable among them has been Saft. Jim McDowall, business development

manager at Saft’s facility in Jacksonville, Florida in the US, says the company has been working in integrative capacities in energy storage for years.

“Though not necessarily in a gen-eral contractor role,” he says. “Saft has also worked as the commercial integrator, but only occasionally as a technical integrator. For example, with a technical system we’ve put to-gether, we’re using a site controller that has been developed by someone like ABB or some other company, and they have certain standard algorithms that we can use.

“Sometimes we’ll come up with our own algorithms for state-of-charge

management, and these are internal procedures or algorithms for house-keeping that preserve the life of the battery, so it won’t continually run out of energy, or cycle too hard, or whatever. So we’ll have those control algorithms added into the power elec-tronics company’s controller.”

One of the big reasons they need the controller, he says, is that they’re the outward interface to the rest of the world, whether it’s the system op-erator, the utility, or a customer who might be an end user with a behind-the-meter storage system.

He cites Xtreme Power’s misstep in its fi rst incarnation as a lead acid battery manufacturer, when they in-vested a lot of resources in what was ultimately an inadequate battery de-sign, when their real expertise was in their energy management system — a controller — and their 24 hours call/dispatch center.

“In any given project, the weak link is rarely the battery cells themselves,” says Hayes. “It’s usually whoever is providing the integration of the sys-tem — that’s where the protection and the control break down. It’s also why experienced integrators advise people to look under the hood when they consider various systems and make sure they’re comfortable with prospective partners and their sub-assemblies.”

Andy Tang, senior vice president for business management for Greensmith Energy, the grid energy storage service fi rm, says that battery companies are experts on their products but that the markets and applications are too broad to be experts in all of them.

“While they understand the chemis-try and can explain their technology, they rely on partners like Greensmith to provide expertise in applications like frequency regulations and how they relate to the duty cycle of their batteries,” he says. “A lot of battery companies started off doing batteries for consumer electronics. When you think about rechargeable batteries in your laptop, longevity was never a consideration for what they made.”

The point at which automobile manufacturers wanted fi ve and 10 year warranties opened new territory for battery makers — they could no longer think in terms of degradation being the consumer’s problem.

“Now they’re entering into the en-ergy/utility industry, where customers want a 20 or 25 year warranty. This is all very far from their origins – but it is something we, in our industry,

understand because we come out of it. We understand the utility require-ments and why they exist, so we can convert the battery performance into a kind of fi nancial model for the cus-tomers.

“We fi nd battery companies that have been the most successful are the ones who are able to identify the in-tegrators that have the right level of market experience. Those open to be-ing collaborative, as opposed to those that assume they have all the answers, will succeed; those resistant, will struggle and even fail — for lack of full understanding beyond their core technology.”

Sember: battery storage part of the grid’s new momentum

“If 70% of the cost of project is the battery, and the rest is the power conversion system and the controls, it’s tough for that company with the 30% of the cost, to pack-age that battery, mark it up enough to meet your margin requirements, and then report to your man-agement” — Pat Hayes,

ABB Energy Storage



After focusing our early ef-forts on producing lithium ion batteries to serve the power tool market, we built

an integration team for the purpose of exploring other areas where their chemistry would best fi t.

As we began looking at what other areas the A123 Li-ion chemistry might serve, certain key segments became apparent. Certainly the automotive segment ranked high on that list.

Another was the ancillary services market where you didn’t need the bat-tery to have a lot of energy storage to get the job done; what you needed was something high power that was durable — and that was where our sweet spot was.

One of the reasons we developed that team was that the type of lithium ion battery we were making didn’t neces-sarily have a lot of applications for it. So we had to fi nd customers to take a chance on a battery that was unlike the other products available in that class.

Lithium ion was then seen as a high energy long run time product for port-able electronic devices, and what we were making was more of a high pow-

er and high cycle life product, with good safety characteristics.

Traditional lithium ion battery inte-grators didn’t have experience — or didn’t see the value in taking a risk on these new cells — back then, and so we had to do it ourselves. The tradi-tional markets didn’t appreciate the value of the characteristics our battery offered.

As vehicle electrifi cation in the transportation sector began to grow, so did the batteries and packs — we developed what was then one of the largest automotive lithium ion batter-ies in existence, a 200kW pack for a hybrid-electric bus.

Certainly the grid space had con-sidered energy storage in grid appli-cations by the time the lithium-ion industry began to look at that mar-ket more closely, but lithium ion had never reached what was necessary for grid-scale before.

A123 saw a huge opportunity if it could achieve a price/performance ra-

Finding the sweet spot for business

Roger Lin, NEC Energy Solutions’ director of product marketing, spoke to Energy Storage journal about how the former A123 Energy Solutions was facing up to the challenges of grid storage.

Roger Lin, NEC Energy Solutions’ director of product marketing

THE DEBATE CONTINUES: IT’S STILL ALL ABOUT THE PRICE PER KW/HOUR

For all the excitement and potential, says Dean Frankel, energy storage analyst with Lux Research, the market for integration technologies is still uneven and fragmented—because the ovedrall costs, particularly those of the battery, are still too high.

“Growth is strong, yes, but due to the cost conundrum, growth has been coming in spurts, most often from top down mandates or policy kick-ins,” he says. “We still have a massive disparity between what it costs to buy a Nissan Leaf battery pack and what it costs to buy a 24kW hour energy storage system. Until we hit $500 per kW hour, energy storage is still a tough sell. We’re currently at least double that in most cases.”

Price point aside, utilities represent perhaps the most immediate client base, along with industrial/commercial customers. For them energy storage offers solutions to several of their most pressing issues, chiefl y additional power supply, time-shifting, better integration of energy generation assets (renewables particularly), transmission congestion and voltage support, and resiliency.

But utilities are not investing great amounts of money yet, says Frankel. “How do you get utilities to buy these systems when the price point still isn’t there? They’re

interested but not willing to spend the money because the price point still isn’t attractive enough to them. That’s why policy is driving so much of the activity in the large scale space right now.”

Despite very concerns for its long term future, the modern day grid in most of the world is quite reliable, and most of the enhancement options on offer are less expensive than any of the coming advanced batteries and systems.

Another fundamental disconnect in the cost-benefi t equation is that the costs of outages are paid by the customers, not the utility — so

“Until we hit $500 per kW hour, energy storage is still a tough sell. We’re currently at least double that in most cases.”



tio to justify the owners’ investment in grid energy storage. When we looked at the grid space we found that grid operators had not contemplated using advanced lithium ion batteries in their infrastructure and systems at all.

Once we understood the opportuni-ty in energy storage, we tried to make our product as modular as possible, designing them for fl exibility to ac-commodate different sizes and shapes for multiple applications.

Having worked in integrative ca-pacities in grid storage for some years now, I don’t think categories of roles and functions can be precisely defi ned — roles and functions can vary from project to project.

For example, I can see three differ-ent categories of hardware alone: the energy storage itself, the power con-version systems, and the controls that provide the AC power to the grid at the right time and rate.

There are companies that can do one or two, or even all of those things; and then there are the equipment makers.

Outside of that there is the task of getting the project into the ground: designing the energy storage instal-lation, getting the permits, doing the system impact studies. A lot of that is typically done by EPC — engineer-ing, procurement and construction — companies, but they’re still learning about storage. Then there are various project structures where the lead com-pany, such as an equipment vendor for instance, might handle some of those functions, and delegate others.

In some cases we’ve done everything ourselves; selecting the type of power conversion equipment that interfac-es well with the DC energy storage equipment that we design and manu-facture. We’ve developed controls that can manage the storage and the power conversion and in some cases even other components, on-site at the substation.

We’ve also been responsible for the EPC-type work in addition to manu-facturing and sourcing all the hard-ware. That’s where the integration piece has all the value — we not only manufacture the major component, the energy storage, we also can put it all together and hand it over ready to run.

Similarly, clients want a turnkey type of service, and aren’t fi nding it.

Battery companies provide batteries but these don’t provide an AC out-put — and most battery makers don’t want to do it because they want to fo-cus on their systems.

So there’s gap there, because so many companies don’t do all of it.

Key to A123’s success in this area has been recognizing the importance of client education. We enabled the possibilities that higher performance batteries could bring to their prod-ucts and services, in power tools to

be both lighter and more powerful, in automotive to drastically increase fuel effi ciency, and in the electric grid to provide more effective and valuable grid stabilization services.

It wasn’t easy to establish the ex-pertise required to deploy all those successful grid energy storage instal-lations; there are complexities in do-ing business in the grid space as well as technical diffi culties getting all the parts working together safely and with high reliability.

Today, education continues to play a role in the discourse with utilities and other grid stakeholders, but we’re seeing a tremendous driving force to-wards greater adoption of energy stor-age.

It can enhance renewable generation and prepare the grid to accept more of it, support more effi cient use of trans-mission and distribution equipment, and lower the cost of ensuring grid reliability.

Hurricane Sandy and similar events have sparked the discussion as to how energy storage can be used to support reliability and decrease the impact of outages. Having a grid that’s hard to break, hard to kill, but at the same time more sustainable – offers many benefi ts and storage is clearly going to be a big component of that.

“The more that these energy storage ‘projects’ can start feeling like a ‘product’, the better chance of minimizing risk, which would translate to bankability.”

the utilities don’t have an incentive to increase reliability. And generally, they do not yet have the ability to fi nancially analyze the cost/benefi ts in order to take different actions.

Until the technologies produce the right price point, the projected dollar amounts being churned out by analysts will miss the mark, says Larry Dickerman, vice president of T&D integration for KEMA.

“Achieve $1200/kw per device, and there is no question that will become something very destructive to the industry. De-emphasize the cost point, and you’re not being serious about realistic analysis. Utilities can’t move forward until costs come down suffi ciently to warrant any signifi cant investment.”

Dean Frankel, energy storage analyst with Lux Research

Larry Dickerman, vice president of T&D integration for KEMA


The the 2015 Energy Storage Eu-rope, which will take place March 9 to 11, 2015, in Düsseldorf, Ger-many, will combine Energy Storage Europe, the 9th International Re-newable Energy Storage Conference (IRES 2015), the 2nd VDE Finan-

cial Dialogue Europe 2015, the 4th OTTI Power-to-Gas Conference, and the German Solar Alliance’s 6th Storage Day. Together, these annual conferences will cover the widest topical range in the international energy storage market. This land-

mark event is organized by Messe Düsseldorf in cooperation with EUROSOLAR/Weltrat, WCRE, the Institute of the Association for Elec-trical, Electronic and Information Technologies (VDE), OTTI e.V., and the Solar Alliance.

Energy Storage Europe 2015: The largest gathering in the industry brings together fi ve conferences and one exhibition

POWERED BY ORGANIZED BY

MARKUS BREHLERCEO Caterva GmbH

PATRICK CLERENSSecretary General,

The European

Association for

Storage of Energy -

EASE a.i.s.b.l.

FRANZ-JOSEF FEILMEIERCEO Fenecon/BYD,

Germany

NICOLA COSCIANICEO FIAMM Energy

Storage Solutions

DR. DÖRTE FOUQUET(Lawyer, Partner,

German Admission to

Practice) Becker

Büttner Held,

Brussels, Belgium

PROF. DR. HANS-MARTIN HENNINGDeputy Director,

Fraunhofer Institute

for Solar Energy

Systems (ISE)

DR. DR. CHRISTOPHER HEBLINGDivision Director

Energy Technology,

Fraunhofer Institute

for Solar Energy

Systems ISE

LOGAN GOLDIE-SCOTAssociate, Energy

Smart Technologies,

Bloomberg New Energy

Finance, UK

DR. ANDREAS GUTSCHProject Coordinator,

Karlsruhe Institute of

Technology (KIT)

DR. ANDREAS HAUERHead of Division

“Energy Storage”,

Bavarian Center for

Applied Energy

Research (ZAE Bayern)

SESSION CHAIRS / MODERATORS / KEYNOTES ENERGY STORAGE DÜSSELDORF


While the future of energy stor-age lies in a multiple-technology approach that consolidates the strengths of different storage options into hybrid systems, the current energy storage debate is focusing too heavily on the advan-tages and disadvantages of indi-vidual storage technologies. This hypothesis will form the central argument of the keynote speech to be delivered by Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché, at Energy Stor-age Europe.

“Different storage applications often require different capabilities. While some areas of application

need high output and quick reac-tion, others demand inexpensive storage technologies with a high capacity. Frequently these various features need to be combined seam-lessly with each other,” explains Anil Srivastava. “These days, many people are on the lookout for a kind of miracle system that fulfi lls all their requirements equally as well. Until such a concept exists, batteries, for example, will continue to be used in devices to which they are not ideally suited and oversized storage systems or a reduced service life will continue to be endured. During my more than 20 years’ experience of working in the energy industry, I have never come across any miracle technology. This is why I am convinced that we should no longer invest merely in mak-ing certain types of storage devices stand out from their competitors. Instead, we would achieve more by using smart software to integrate the strengths of different stor-age technologies seamlessly into hybrid systems. This applies to

both stationary applications and e-mobility.”

Srivastava cites electric buses as an example of where a hybrid design would work. During accel-eration, buses require a fast storage system capable of producing a high output for a short period of time. However, during the journey they need an economical battery with a high capacity. The best solution would be to use hybrid systems in which various types of batter-ies seamlessly perform a variety of functions. A similar approach could be used in stationary applica-tions to perform the different grid services required.

Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché and keynote speaker at Energy Storage, calls for a shift in focus in the energy storage debate

09 - 11 March 2015 Düsseldorf, Germany09 - 11 March 2015 Düsseldorf, Germany

DR. JÖRG HERMSMEIERHead of Research and

Development (R&D),

EWE AG, Oldenburg

FELIX HOLZVice President, Expert

Team Greentech,

Deutsche Bank,

Germany

DR. PHILIP MAYRHOFERManaging Director,

ENERSTORAGE

GmbH

JANICE LINManaging Partner,

Strategen Consulting

LLC, California/USA

Co-Founder and

Executive Director

California Energy

Storage Alliance

SØREN MOHRHead of Stationary

Battery Systems/Bat-

tery 2nd Life, BMW

Group

HILDEGARD MÜLLERGeneral Executive

Management Board,

Chairwoman of the

Management Board,

BDEW, German

Association of Energy

and Water Industries

PROF. DR. DIRK UWE SAUERProfessor for “Electro-

chemical Energy

Storage Systems”,

RWTH Aachen

University

CHRISTOPH OSTERMANNCEO, Sonnenbatterie,

Germany

DR. K. PETER RÖTTGENHead of E.ON Innova-

tion Center Energy

Storage, President

EASE – European

Association for Storage

of Energy

MICHAEL SALOMONManaging Director,

Clean Horizon, France


Anil Srivastava, CEO of Leclanché

a specialist for effi cient energy storage

Electric bus. Picture Bombardier


The search for the best possible sys-tem design does not merely extend to solutions developed for use in vehicles or homes. Srivastava argues that if we are to develop an effi cient, fl exible grid architecture able to manage large quantities of fl uctuat-ing renewable energy, a package of measures is actually needed: “Instead of trying to manage fl uc-tuations in electricity demand and supply by continuously increasing power line capacity, we must tackle the problem at its source.

On the supply side, this in-volves using storage systems as an intelligent network resource, a practice that is more economical than equipping each individual generator of renewable energy with their own storage option. On the demand side, major energy consumers must be given more

fi nancial incentives from the gov-ernment to reduce peak loads. This would lead to a grid and storage system architecture that is overall more benefi cial to the economy than an uncoordinated set of yet more intertwined networks and a plethora of privately owned stor-age solutions.”

Srivastava: tackle grid-problems at their source

PARTNER EVENTS

Energy Storage

Day2

10 march 2015

9th IRES 2015 Int. Conference

4th Energy StorageEXPO & CONFERENCE

IRENA Workshop

2nd VDE Financial Dialogue

combined (IRES, Otti, Energy Storage 2015)

Networking Dinner/Party

BVES Annual

Members Meeting*

Day1

09 march 2015



combined track

Networking Reception

Workshop 1

Day3

11 march 2015



4th Conference Power-to-Gas

6th Storageday

Workshop 2

Conference language Simultaneous translation

MICHAEL SCHIEMANNTechnical Director, BAE

Batterien GmbH

BENGT STAHLSCHMIDTHead of Sales CellCube,

Gildemeister energy

solutions; Cellstrom

GmbH, Wiener

Neudorf, Austria

TOBIAS STRUCKProject Leader,

WEMAG AG, Schwerin

PROF. DR. EICKE R. WEBERConference Chairman,

Director Fraunhofer

ISE, Chairman Fraun-

hofer Energy Alliance

and President of the

German Energy Storage

Association (BVES)

ALFONS WESTGEESTExecutive Director,

Association of Europe-

an Automotive and

Industrial Battery

Manufactrers

DR. JENS TÜBKEDivision Director

Applied Electro-

chemistry, Fraunhofer

ICT and Chairman

Fraunhofer Battery

Alliance

SAM WILKINSONAssociate Director,

Solar Supply Chain and

Energy Storage,

IHS Technology, UK

VOLKER WACHENFELDExecutive Vice

President, Head of

Business Unit

Off-Grid and Storage,

SMA Solar Technology

AG, Germany

DR. OLIVER WEINMANNDirector, Vattenfall

Europe Innovation

GmbH

PROF. DR.-ING. MICHAEL STERNERProfessor for

Energy Storage at

the University of

Applied Sciences

Regensburg


09 - 11 March 2015 Düsseldorf, Germany09 - 11 March 2015 Düsseldorf, Germany

THE VIEW FROM EAST PENN/ECOULT


Last year a report from Carnegie Mellon University said economies of scale for lithium ion batteries for EVs may be almost exhausted — suggesting that the much-anticipated cost reductions for lithium ion batteries may not materialize. In the meantime the lead acid battery industry is developing advanced products for grid storage. Is the balance fi nally tipping in favour of lead acid?

We certainly believe this to be the case. The lead-acid industry is very mature

with a growing base of well over 20 GW of existing installed stationary storage in the US. This base is maintained in

a sustainable way with more than 6 GW being installed each year in new sites and refi ts (note all refi ts are fully recycled).

This storage, while crucial, doesn’t grab headlines because it is relatively passive — performing stand-by functions for data centres and critical industries. 20 GW is large in terms of the short term need for ancillary services, and variability management on the grid and micro grid systems, but it is a very small amount of the output of the lead-acid industry today and the industry can expand readily.

East Penn Manufacturing for example is investing in a major expansion of its industrial (stationary and

motive) manufacturing capacity while simultaneously investing in UltraBattery technology to address the needs of advanced products for grid storage.

In maintaining this installed base, the lead acid industry has already solved some of the diffi cult problems now being encountered by newer chemistries — and li-ion in particular.

Reuse and recycling are the most pressing of these problems.

Whereas lead-acid batteries are essentially closed-loop the li-ion industry still produces a one-way technology. (The recycling rate of lead in the US for used lead-acid batteries is close to 100%. These batteries are broken down and made into new

UltraBattery throws down the gauntlet to the lithium ion battery industry

Energy Storage Journal quizzed John Wood, CEO of East Penn-owned Ecoult, on how the company’s core offering, the UltraBattery, was squaring up to the challenges posed by lithium ion and how the world’s largest advanced lead-acid battery fi rm plans to industrialize its product.

Ecoult Lyon station, Pennsylvania, US: Ecoult has implemented a grid scale energy storage system which provides 3 MW of regulation services on the grid of PJM Interconnection: the largest of 10 regional transmission organiza-tions/independent system operators in the US. The system is also used for peak demand management.



batteries and the situation is very similar in most developed economies.)

Virgin materials are sandwiched together in ways that make li-ion cells very diffi cult, dangerous and costly to break back into raw materials at end-of-life. Hence many cells go to landfi ll or are processed into industrial sludge to be mixed with concrete or steel, with only the most expensive materials recovered — and very rarely the lithium.

Very little information is available on the actual rates of recovery in the li-ion industry but it appears very unlikely that more than a few percentage points of the world’s li-ion batteries are ever recovered for anything other than industrial sludge.

Importantly, even if the technological barriers to li-ion recycling are overcome, the industry is yet to cost-in end-of-life recovery. Lead-acid cells are less expensive, even with their recovery step fully costed.

Moreover any lead-acid cell can be included in the recycling stream, whereas the multiple fl avours of li-ion chemistry cannot necessarily be processed together, adding a further diffi culty and adding to the incentive to simply grind old li-ion cells down for sludge.

Now that lead-acid technologies have been developed that can cycle as effectively as li-ion technologies within the reserve power market, the manufacturing and support industries that maintain the 20 GW installed base of lead-acid cells can be drawn upon to support the growth of grid storage.

As expansion and reallocation of manufacturing capacity for the new markets happens we see scope for the gradual evolution of the existing stationary industry away from single purpose backup to dual purpose systems that can both provide backup and contribute to grid services.

The existing backup systems (usually housed in battery rooms designed with low-fl ammability lead-acid safety processes in mind) provide a resource that is already grid connected. Potentially these can begin to be migrated to new lead-acid formats, bringing large banks of distributed, cycling storage online.

Importantly this gives the data centre a fi nancial incentive as fast cycling storage can earn grid regulation revenues in increasing numbers of grids, particularly in the US. Technically this change could happen today (indeed Ecoult is pursuing business cases). The only hurdle is the cultural change required for understandably

conservative owners of data centres who depend entirely on uninterrupted power.So could you tell us about the progress of storage products using Ultrabattery technology that have been up and running for a while now – such as the smart grid storage demo with PJM Interconnection, using the Deka UltraBattery and also the project in New Mexico?

Existing UltraBattery projects have been highly successful. The PNM Prosperity site in New Mexico has delivered (and exceeded) the original project objectives and is continuing to operate extremely effectively. The project was recognized as a fi nalist in the Platts 2013 Global Energy Awards The PJM grid frequency regulation project is a profi table installation that has been used as a showcase for several fully commercial projects that will begin to come online over the next 12 months. (These are commercially sensitive projects for our clients and we are unable to discuss them in detail.)

However in general they are MW-scale projects with a multi-purposing capability.

That is, the customer will use the storage infrastructure for their own internal requirements (such as load management, backup, shifting and the like) but will have a regular income stream gained by using the batteries to sell frequency regulation services to the grid operator.

So far your projects are US based, is there any reason for this?

There are two major reasons for this. First, because we are well positioned to

monitor and support projects that are easily accessible to our manufacturing plant, and second because some grids in the US offer incentives for faster frequency regulation response and batteries can provide a response almost instantaneously.

For frequency regulation applications, the faster response leads to less feedback in the system — an overshoot caused by a slower responding technology itself becomes a frequency issue that needs to be rectifi ed — and less feedback means less overall frequency regulation requirement. There is evidence that fast frequency response technology can reduce the overall need for frequency regulation services by around 40%.

In markets outside the US that have not (or perhaps have not yet) created fast-frequency response incentives, battery storage must compete against relatively cheap gas peaker plants.

These markets may be suitable for the UltraBattery in grid regulation, but the US is certainly the lowest-hanging fruit. (In other markets we are of course pursuing many non-frequency related projects, on kW and MW scales, in application areas ranging from telecoms and microgrids to smoothing and shifting in commercial and domestic markets.)

And your future plans inside and outside the US?

Again due to client confi dentiality our projects cannot be discussed in anything but general terms. That said, there are some mains-grid and large microgrid projects in various stages of planning in the US and in Europe. (While we have not planned an entry into Europe in the immediate term, we have been approached by a consortium looking

We see scope for the gradual evolution of the existing stationary industry away from single purpose backup to dual purpose systems that can both provide backup and contribute to grid services

Lithium ion battery recycling is technically highly challenging and economically prohibitive. This makes it less likely that li-ion costs will drop in the future, since the free pass given to li-ion technology for its environmental footprint — no regulated recovery, few regulations preventing wholesale disposal in land fi ll (despite toxicity concerns) — will not last



at a particular project that is quite interesting and very suitable for our technology.)

Although we are extremely active in developing grid-scale projects in the US for non-utility customers — previous projects have had the utility itself as the client, whereas our upcoming projects have large energy consumers as customers. Such projects take time to develop, particularly since, once the sales and design stage is complete, a round of network connection studies and iterations and the like are required.

In Australia the UltraBattery is used in two large scale micro/island projects and we are actively moving in the kW-scale space. We are soon to launch plug-and-play products in the Australian market to suit domestic, commercial, agricultural and remote users preliminary to release in North America and other markets.

We will release details in the near future of a diesel-microgrid project where an Ecoult system using UltraBattery technology has reduced the diesel load by more than 50% for an installed system in a remote location. Remote refuelling is extremely expensive and can require almost a working day for two employees to travel to the site, so savings are a multiple of the diesel cost itself.

Furthermore Ecoult takes control of the generator on site and can run it in a very effi cient mode of operation to further reduce fuel use and to decrease wear and tear as well as frequency of maintenance visits.

A typical example of this type of system is the remote telecom tower, of which there are several hundred thousand worldwide. Graph 1 (left) shows the way the diesel (yellow) jumps up and down in a choppy manner to try to balance between the load and a typical solar profi le for a remote tower.

This mode of operation is wearing on the generator and also sees it racking-up large numbers of duty-hours as it runs for 24 hours a day. Note too that the generator is rated far above the average load — its most effi cient output is only used rarely when a spike in the load forces the generator to ramp up to full power.

When we install the Ecoult system we see an entirely different mode of operation — here shown without a PV system installed where operation is very straightforward. (graph 2, left)

And here below shown operating with a PV system installed, where the battery manages the load and the PV variability. (graph 3, left)

Graph 1. Typical remote telecom tower with PV (without storage): Variable demand and inconsistent solar output lead to diesel ineffi ciencies

Graph 2. With energy storage: Ultrabattery system maximizes diesel effi ciency

Graph 3. With energy storage: Ultrabattery system maximizes solar utilization and diesel effi ciency



Now the fast-charging UltraBattery can be quickly charged in a short period by the generator running at full rated output. The generator runs for a fraction of the hours as it can switch off between charging periods since the UltraBattery system is sized to take the full load and to manage spikes and give the generator time to start up for a prolonged spike.

Lithium ion batteries are used for many ES projects despite their cost, why do you think this is the case?The feedback we have received from all types of end-customers is that people are very comfortable with lead-acid technology and far prefer it to li-ion. Their major concern about lead-acid stems from the belief that lead-acid cells are not well suited to partial state of charge cycling.

Therefore when we are able to demonstrate that UltraBattery cycles at least as effectively as most li-ion chemistries the reaction — particularly from installers — is one of pure joy! (Note we use the word “most” because there are vast numbers of li-ion types and we haven’t seen enough like-for-like comparisons to speak with certainty about the entire range.)

The major benefi ts that we see for UltraBattery over lithium ion occur in four major areas.

Performance The UltraBattery will last as long and cycle as effectively as li-ion. In fact there is some evidence that UltraBattery will outlast li-ion in cycling applications, although not enough testing has been done on the two technologies side-by-

side to say with confi dence. It was clear that in 2008 ( see fi gure 1 below) that the UltraBattery — which has improved markedly since that time — was at least equal to lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry in a regulation-services simulation carried out at Sandia National Laboratories.

Lan Lam, the inventor of the UltraBattery with his creation. The UltraBattery can charge faster than many other chemistries. Furthermore charge and discharge can be symmetrical — so while charge and discharge are independent and can each occur at any rate, if required the battery can match high charge and high discharge rates. Other technologies are generally asymmetrical

Figure 1: Energy throughput testing showing Sandia National Laboratories results from 2008 (lower three traces) for VRLA, UltraBattery (UB12) and Li-Ion test results. The Sandia results are compared against internal testing carried out by Ecoult and East Penn Manufacturing (top three traces) performed in mid-2013. There is a clear trend toward increasing throughput as the UltraBattery cells are improved over time.

Figure 1: Ultrabattery® Regulation Services PSoC Throughput Testing



SafetyThe UltraBattery is a non-fl ammable technology. Li-ion control software is tasked with preventing the cells moving into dangerous overcharge or undercharge modes where overheating, ignition, explosion and toxic release can occur.

The feedback from end users is that they are not all convinced that li-ion batteries are safe for large-scale installation in homes, businesses and critical infrastructure.

However, lead-acid, is a well known and well understood technology. The fi re hazards are very low and there is low toxicity associated with even a catastrophic failure. Lead, while toxic, exists in solid form inside UltraBattery and does not carry the risk of inhalation or ingestion (as it did when used in petrol or paint for instance).

Sustainability The li-ion industry has yet to develop a reuse programme and virgin materials (particularly lithium) are used in manufacture. This creates a one-way fl ow from lithium deposits — which exist only in fragile environments such as salt fl ats — to waste product. Generally li-ion cells are not recovered and go directly to land fi ll.

At the end of life, lithium ion batteries are classifi ed as dangerous goods at least for international travel. Hence, costly additional steps prior to relatively expensive transport include depowering/deactivation of the batteries and then proper and expensive packaging of the batteries.

Those that are recovered are overwhelmingly ground up for sludge additives in the construction industry. Of the recovered cells, only a small amount of genuine reuse generally takes place and then only to recover the most expensive metals in the cells.

It is not clear (and it is certainly not publicized by the industry) that any lithium at all is recovered despite the massive quantities of lithium feeding

the li-ion manufacturing industry.Recovery is complicated not only

by the sandwiching used in li-ion manufacture (where composite materials are tightly packed together in layers) but also by the multitude of different li-ion chemistries, which are not necessarily able to be processed together but which are diffi cult and dangerous to sort into types (dangerous because used li-ion cells are not always chemically stable and will often suffer rough handling in the recovery process increasing the likelihood of leakage and potential fi re).

The result is that recovery is technically highly challenging and, even if possible, economically prohibitive.

We believe this makes it even less likely that li-ion costs will drop in the future, since the free pass given to li-ion technology for its environmental footprint — no regulated recovery, few regulations preventing wholesale disposal in land fi ll (despite toxicity concerns) — will not last, particularly if the chemical release into landfi ll and the damage done to the world’s salt fl ats by lithium mining begins to become a concern to the world’s environmentalist movements.

By contrast, lead-acid technology has a fully developed recycling programme that sees an almost perfect closed-loop in the manufacturing process.

Of the batteries returned, 96% of their constituent parts (plastic, liquid and metal) are recycled. The reclaimed parts are used in the manufacture of new lead-acid batteries.

The UltraBattery is manufactured by East Penn Manufacturing, which is considered a world leader in sustainability in an already highly sustainable industry. East Penn pioneered the process of electrolyte recovery for lead-acid batteries, and reprocesses around 30,000 used batteries every day in its on-site recovery facility.

The low toxicity, simple manufacture, and solid metal componentry of lead-

acid cells makes this recovery process far less involved than for li-ion cells, and it is the case that any lead-acid cell, including the UltraBattery, can drop into the same recycling process — the cells don’t have to be sorted into families (which is a diffi cult step when the reality is considered of truckfuls of jumbled batteries rolling in from collection depots).

Fast charge and discharge The UltraBattery can charge faster than many other chemistries. Furthermore charge and discharge can be symmetrical — so while charge and discharge are independent and can each occur at any rate, if required the battery can match high charge and high discharge rates.

Other technologies are generally asymmetrical due to limitations in their charge rate. That is, they can deliver energy quite quickly but only accept it at low rates relative to the discharge.

There are several benefi ts to fast charging, the examples in the diesel cycling graphs above showing the brief period of generator run-time required to recharge the cells is one.

Perhaps the most important benefi t though is that a battery bank with fast and symmetrical charging can be smaller (and hence cheaper) than one with asymmetrical charge and discharge – particularly in applications chiefl y concerned with power smoothing and fast cycling.

If a battery cannot charge as quickly as the incoming current (from a PV or wind unit for instance) then available energy may need to be curtailed or wasted.

The only way to get around this is to install more batteries so that the charge can be shared between them, each accepting a proportionally smaller rate of energy. Although a bigger battery bank gives more reserve, it is also more expensive.

So while UltraBattery monoblocs are priced above traditional lead-acid units, in a cycling application the UltraBattery has a lower levellised cost of energy due to long life and signifi cantly smaller installed size. This lower cost often extends to energy shifting applications too, depending on the specifi c application.

Although li-ion charges faster than traditional lead-acid it generally can’t charge as fast as the UltraBattery, so the same relationship also holds between li-ion and the UltraBattery. UltraBattery, then, as well as performing better, is often less expensive as a cycling battery than most of its competitors. ■

We are soon to launch plug-and-play products in the Australian market to suit domestic, commercial, agricultural and remote users preliminary to release in North America and other markets. We will release details soon of a diesel-microgrid project where an Ecoult system using UltraBattery technology has reduced the diesel load by more than 50% for an installed system in a remote location

THE CEO INTERVIEW: ANIL SRIVASTAVA


On paper, manufacturing lithium ion batteries on European soil doesn’t work. Not when Asian fi rms — South Korean and especially the Chinese — have turned it into a volumes game, lev-eraging on economies of scale to drive down unit price.

“So why get into grid storage integra-tion and energy storage management?” says Leclanché’s chief executive Anil Srivastava.

“It’s expensive, it’s nascent. It’s high-risk. No one needs to tell me that. I spent six months looking at this mar-ket and thinking hard about if this is something that Leclanché wanted to be doing. It is so hyped right now. Our investors thought long and hard too.”

Over its 100-year history Leclanché,

headquartered in Yverdon-les-Bains in Switzerland, has produced the gamut of chemistries, from iron and cadmium-nickel, to lead acid, to mercury button cells, to making battery subsystems and customizing battery systems for the defence and medical markets. It’s even dabbled in solar photovoltaics.

Then, in 2006 the company bought Bullith Batteries, spun out from Ger-many’s Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology, to develop and commer-cialize lithium titanate cells.

When Srivastava joined Leclanché as its chief executive last June, the compa-ny was making battery cells and mod-ules, as well as controllers, for linking lithium ion batteries to inverters, but not all of the AC-side components

needed to supply complete turnkey bat-tery energy storage systems.

“Cells — the biggest portion of cost in a battery system — have the smallest margin, of about 35%,” he says. “The margin on electronics and BMS can be about 40%, while the software plat-form and controls needed to be able to integrate the system with the grid, have a margin of about 45% or more.

“So by turning into a vertically in-tegrated provider of energy storage management systems the underlying margins are raised by 10-15 percentage points.”

But Leclanché cannot do everything from within. The company is fi nalizing an acquisition that will provide it with battery management systems and the software technology that wraps around batteries and turns them into some-thing more akin to computers, dispens-ing instructions for the batteries to feed in and absorb power from the grid.

The deal should be announced in the second quarter of 2015, subject to board approvals.

Leclanché energy storage systems will use two lithium ion batteries, de-termined by how the system will be used on grid. The company’s titanate anode lithium cells make batteries for power intensive requirements, great for zipping up and down to meet fast fre-quency regulation signals and achiev-ing long life cycles.

It’s the thoroughbred horse of en-ergy storage batteries, achieving up to 15,000 cycles — this is long — a 20-year calendar lifespan, and all of its in-stalled capacity is usable, in other words 100% depth of discharge (DOD).

But some grid applications also need more of a workhorse battery, so Leclan-ché also makes lithium ion batteries with graphite anodes for bulk storage and weight-critical projects and appli-cations, such as electric buses or solar

Making the leap from battery producer to energy storage systems supplier

Europe’s oldest battery maker, Leclanché, is about to execute the fi nal stage of a turnaround plan focused on energy storage and mass transport markets. Anil Srivastava, the company’s new chief executive, thinks it is a risk worth taking.

“No one really has the attention span to appreciate that grid storage economics depend on the use profi le of the battery and the amount of time it is expected to operate for.”



integration, where 6000 cycles at 80% DOD will suffi ce and the calendar life can be 10 years.

“It’s all about the blending. The customer’s requirements for the stor-age system determine the chemistry, whether it needs to be graphite, titanate or a hybrid battery,” says Srivastava. To have these two chemistries optimized to work with the battery energy storage system electronics and software Leclan-ché is acquiring will provide customers with a better return on investment.

“It’s not helpful to display energy storage costs expressed in terms of dol-lars per kilowatt hour. That’s when the hype occurs.” But it’s a necessary evil, surely? Companies need to throw costs out that end-users, the media and mar-ket researchers, can all get their head around easily.

“No one really has the attention span to appreciate that grid storage eco-nomics depend on the use profi le of the battery and the amount of time it is expected to operate for. Total cost of ownership, dependent on end-use ap-plication, cannot be so neatly commu-nicated as, say, $250/kWh.

Investment levels“Working out the storage system cost at the investment level, such as in eu-ros or dollars per kWh, does not ac-count for the operation cost or the TCO, which is defi ned by the chem-istry operating under a load profi le. Many business cases can be optimized by using a chemistry blend,” he says.

This hybrid concept of storage is gaining interest. Leclanché is doing it using two different lithium chemistries but there are a few examples of storage projects that use different battery tech-nologies, such as lithium ion for power intensive demands and fl ow batteries for energy intensive tasks.

Such a project has been installed in northern Germany.

With some of the highest levels of re-

newables — wind and solar — plugged into the grid of any market worldwide, the effects of these intermittent sources are making themselves felt. For fre-quency control Germany’s transmis-sion system operators procure power either as positive reserve, to balance out defi cits or negative reserve to bal-ance out surplus.

Trading is done through primary, sec-ondary and tertiary control markets, with primary control having to oc-cur within 30 seconds and secondary, which is at 15 minute intervals.

When demand is low, but the sup-ply of renewables is high, instead of running the excess power to ground or using curtailment measures, storage operators are paid to act as a sink, ab-sorbing the surplus, as well as for re-leasing the power back into the grid to balance out defi cits.

“It is completely market based. There is no subsidy,” says Srivastava.

Germany’s market for control re-serves allows for energy storage sys-tems to be designed to address differ-ent frequency regulation signals rather than just one, opening up more revenue streams.

But to achieve this in the most cost-effi cient manner over the lifetime of an energy storage system, cells suffi cient for energy-intensive demands would also be included, whereas a system made up completely of power-intensive cells would be excessive and overly ex-pensive.

This is where Leclanché’s software and BMS acquisition is benefi cial — it allows the company to produce virtual batteries based on the user profi le pro-vided by the utility or other customer.

Srivastava’s past experience includes running the renewables business of French nuclear fi rm Areva. “I’ve seen the impact on T&D that the growth in renewables has had. Transmis-sion needs to keep pace or renewable generation can never be fully utilized,

because when there is too much, the excess power has to be run to ground, or curtailed, or it destabilizes the grid when there’s too little,” he says. “When governments, in Europe and elsewhere, introduced renewables-friendly poli-cies and subsidies, the effect that the growth in renewables, like wind and solar, would have on the whole T&D system was not considered.”

But this can be turned to Leclanché’s advantage. The company has been talk-ing about stationary storage for some time, albeit before Srivastava joined.

In 2011 the company announced a tie-up with Talesun for supplying resi-dential solar and storage systems, pro-jects with wind and solar plants and then the installation and ramping or a production plant with an annual capac-ity of up to 1 million lithium ion cells, equivalent to 76MWh.

Sizing it right“We started off making smaller sized cells — A5 size — and are now pro-ducing larger — A4 — cells. Getting the production process right takes time, but we have a throughput of about 85%, which is pretty good for this industry,” he says.

“Since 2012 we’ve been working on grid integration projects, but these have been to validate the technology, rather than being commercial installations. And we’ve made headway with our residential storage systems, selling nu-merous units in Switzerland and Ger-many. But we’re starting to promote it across Europe, expanding operations in the UK, for example.”

This summer Leclanché’s fi rst utility storage project will also be grid-con-nected. “It’s a 500kWh system, on the site of Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, for providing frequency regulation and will also be used for integrating solar generation from a nearby solar farm at the university.” he says. The local utility Romande Ener-gie owns both the 2MW photovoltaic plant — Switzerland’s largest — and the storage asset and fi nances research and demonstration projects at the Ecole in the fi eld of solar energy.

Leclanché also has projects with utili-ties both in the primary and secondary control reserve markets.

Italy looks promising too. “We’ve been working with the utility Enel to qualify our system, so we are tested and fully compliant with Italy’s grid code,” he says. “Like Germany, in Italy, a lot of renewable generation capacity is in the south while demand is in the north. Colossal amounts of wind power are

“There are a few examples of storage projects that use different battery technologies, such as lithium ion for power intensive demands and fl ow batteries for energy intensive tasks.”

“Every single industry that has been hyped has crashed. What this industry needs less of is companies trying to sell their chemistry or battery as the one that is the best for every application.”



lost through curtailment because there is not the grid infrastructure in place to get it to where the demand is. Storage is an option.”

And then there’s the US market. Last year US-based Oakridge Global

Energy Solutions, which licenses solid-state battery technology for industrial, government and medical applications, signed a binding letter of intent to ac-quire a controlling interest in Leclan-ché, from Precept Fund Management SPC, which is also a major shareholder of Oakridge.

The 11,000,000 shares of Leclanché equate to $45 million. Oakridge signed a joint development and marketing agreement with Leclanché in April 2014.

Press releases issued at the time stat-ed: “Leclanché can now move forward to drive its commercial and techno-logical development and strengthen its presence in North America through further collaboration with Oakridge.” They also said that Leclanché will con-solidate all of its strategic lithium ion battery manufacturing investments un-der Oakridge .

“This is not happening,” he says. “Both companies are evolving. Our joint development agreement with Oakridge is a non-exclusive relation-ship. In Precept, we each have a com-mon shareholder. Oakridge is not obli-gated to use our technology in Europe and if solid-state is not the right chem-istry for a particular application our lithium ion chemistry is an option, if relevant.”

TestingLeclanché has been testing its stor-age devices with one of the national research laboratories. “We’ll be able to announce this in a few months. It means that we’ll have a product certi-fi ed in the US. Texas and the PJM In-terconnection area, on the east coast, are areas of strategic focus. Right now, California is a gold rush, creating hype and shifting it outwards.”

Srivastava’s earned his spurs when it comes to judging a sector bubble. “I was around in the Hewlett Pack-ard days and AT&T. There’s very few of those companies at the time around now. Every single industry that has been hyped has crashed. What this in-dustry needs less of is companies trying to sell their chemistry or battery as the one that is the best for every applica-tion — and can cure world hunger while it’s at it.”

That’s why Leclanché is going after other application-driven markets, in-

cluding electrifi ed mass transportation, such as buses and trains, and industrial machines, like as forklifts, cranes and mining machinery.

“Grid energy storage has such a lot of potential but you have to de-risk the strategy by focusing on unregulated markets that are not so dependent on politics and economics. Take public transportation. Once you are certifi ed for electric buses in a city like London then you are good for seven years. In the fi ve biggest cities in Europe there are probably about 100,000 buses. Less than 5% are hybrid.”

This is, again, where he thinks the company’s portfolio of power and energy-intensive lithium ion batteries and the software controls that make them all work together in one system, confers an advantage over the compe-tition. “Hybrid buses need both. Every time they pull up at a bus stop or they open and close doors, using at least one gauge, that’s a cycle in battery lan-guage. But you also need a system that contains energy-intensive storage for when they are on the road.”

According to McKinsey Insight elec-trifi ed mass transportation is an ad-dressable worldwide market, set to grow from half a billion dollars in

2014 to over $10 billion in 2020. “We expect this business to really get started from 2017 onwards,” says Srivastava. To compare, estimates for grid storage predict the market to grow to $8 billion by 2020.

Specialty batteries tooThen there is Leclanché’s third mar-ket — specialty battery systems — ex-pected to grow from over $7 billion in 2013 to $20 billion in 2020. This is one of the few existing businesses of Leclanché’s that Srivastava has kept on. “It’s a big potential market but it’s extremely fragmented. We’re talk-ing Segways to satellites, but we have kept this business focused on defence — customers include the Swiss and French armies — street lighting, tel-ecoms and medical applications.”

This is also the only part of Leclan-ché’s business where it has to be battery agnostic. “I’d love it if we could use our batteries in everything, but there are other technologies more suited to the job. But, we are making progress.” In off-grid solar-powered street lighting this has been the case. “It’s better than sending a guy out on a camel every oth-er week to dig up a hole and replace the battery.” ■

“Right now, California is a gold rush, creating hype and shifting it outwards.”

• Founded by Georges Leclanché in 1909

• Headquartered in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland

• Lithium ion mass production plant in Willstätt, Germany

• More than 100 patents in lithium ion titanate development and production processes

• Market capitalization: Sfr100 million

• Key investors: Precept Fund Management SPC (48.11%), Bruellan Corporate Action Fund (18.5%), Recharge ApS (9.9%), others (23.4%)

LECLANCHÉ — THE BASICS

SOLARUNITED


SolarUnited, the solar tech-nology and energy storage association, made a series of appointments in January to provide leadership for its new strategic commit-tees in business, technology and marketing, which also includes communications.

“In essence this is an anticipatory move,” says Bryan Ekus, the executive director of SolarUnited. “It’s a question of being in a position both to lead and consolidate the entire solar value chain for the years ahead.

“Issues such as reinforc-ing dialogue, encouraging collaboration in anticipat-ing the regulatory and technological environment that lies ahead, are the basic building blocks needed at this time when we have a fragmented industry that needs to coalesce for the future.”

The strategic committees

and their co-chairs were announced at SolarUnited’s latest board meeting held in January in Basel, Switzer-land. The strategic commit-tees report to SolarUnited’s main board.

The business committee will deal with market issues as well as energy storage and new stakeholders. Its co-chairs are Alex Levran, who manages ABB’s solar industry initiative segment, and Dean Solon, chief ex-ecutive of Shoals Technolo-gies Group.

Jan Grimberg, global business director at DSM, and Rob Steeman, vice president of REC’s technol-ogy strategy, are co-chairing SolarUnited’s strategic com-mittee on technology.

Arturo Herrero, who oversees Jinko Solar’s emerging markets busi-ness and is chief strategy offi cer, and Holger Meyer, global director of Hellmann

Renewable Logistics, are co-chairing the mar-coms strategic committee.

The strategic commit-tees’ key tasks include unifying and encouraging more communication and dialogue between the most important players within the different steps of the solar value chain as well as related industries including energy storage, grid and electric vehicles.

The technology strategic committee is tasked with helping the solar indus-try to make the next leap towards mature credible PV technology. This includes creating a solar quality and reliability awareness cam-paign, cooperating with existing organizations on specifi c technology topics and working more closely with quality and certifi ca-tion agencies.

Marketing and com-munications tasks include

determining and coordi-nating partnerships with other events organizers and media outlets as well as dis-seminating information on solar emerging markets and proposing new business ac-tivities. It was also decided the association will align itself more closely with the promotion campaign Solar-FUTURE.

Each committee will meet at least two times a year to address progress in meeting their tasks and responsibili-ties.

In addition Tomasz Slusarz, of SolarPV.TV, a partner and member of SolarUnited, has been ap-pointed as the association’s strategy adviser.

Since 2014, SolarUnited — which has rebranded itself from IPVEA — has put in place efforts to reor-ganize and raise its profi le in the global solar industry. The association continues to expand its member-ship base, from previously representing only photovol-taic tooling and equipment makers, to attract compa-nies from across the PV supply chain.

Its newest members are drawn from panel produc-ers, and include JinkoSolar, REC Solar, CSUN and Aleo Solar, while inverter maker LTi, Shoals and Multi-Con-tact are representative of the downstream part of the PV supply chain, dealing in the balance of system compo-nents for PV farms. EVASA, Coveme and DSM are from the materials sector.

One voiceThe need for one unifying solar photovoltaic group is arguably becoming more important, as the industry

SolarUnited pursues new strategic direction with key committee appointments

SOLARUNITED


prepares to make the transi-tion from niche renewables technology to a main-stream source of electricity generation in more markets worldwide.

New business models are emerging — such as solar and storage — and some

big technology players are entering the industry, in-cluding Solarcity, Tesla and Google. Utilities, too, are becoming more prevalent in the solar sector.

This is creating new challenges for the photo-voltaic industry, such as an

increasing focus on quality.In addition, the tapering

off of subsidies also places the industry under greater pressure to deliver solar projects at a competitive cost and this is making itself felt along the entire value chain —from BOS

component suppliers, to inverter makers as well as solar cell and module producers.

However, a challenge for the global solar industry has been to unify many of the disparate industry associations representing its various factions and segments, which include regional and national solar and renewables as-sociations but also various technology-focused groups, resulting in over 90 nation-al associations all focused on local lobbying.

This has made it diffi cult for the solar industry to organize a single, cohesive international business plat-form, something that the wind industry, for instance, has managed to achieve through its own Global Wind Energy Council.

At the board meeting, it was decided that SolarUnited would host the Global Solar PV Council, comprising na-tional and regional associa-tions seeking to develop their own platform, following GWEC’s example. ■

A challenge for the global solar industry has been to unify many of the disparate industry associations representing its various factions and segments, which include regional and national solar and renewables associations but also various technology-focused groups.

SOLARUNITED MEMBER NEWS


Singulus starts production of CIGS process machines for €20 million order

German solar PV equipment maker Singulus Technologies, announced in February, that it was about to start the assembly of its CIGS — copper indium gallium selenide solar cells — process machines as well as the TENUIS II production machines for the wet-chemical application of buffer layers for a €20 million ($23 million) order. The bulk of the equipment delivery takes place in the current business year.

Aleo Solar wins orders for mobile solar containers from German military

Aleo Solar announced in February it had sold mobile solar containers equipped with high-power modules for German armed forces. The PV modules are built into Multicon Solar containers, which act as mobile power plants to generate power for the armed forces’ military camps and bivouacs. They are intended to complement or replace diesel generators.

“Our forces need a reliable energy supply, which is why we depend on our own diesel generators in confl ict areas.

“Procuring fuel for the generators is often dangerous. By reducing our fossil fuel consumption, we therefore protect human lives and increase our troops’ resilience,” says Michael Schulz, a Ger-man armed forces offi cial.

“Solar containers provide us with a secure power supply, no matter where we are based. This is absolutely invaluable for our work.”

Multicon delivers its solar contain-ers as turnkey solar installations with built-in battery storage solutions and intelligent energy management systems.

Once the containers arrive on site, the wired photovoltaic modules can be set up, or dismantled again, in less than an hour. The containers keep the modules safe from potential hazards, such as sandstorms, storms and van-dalism.

“We wanted to equip our Multicon-tainers with as much solar capacity as possible, thus providing our custom-ers with reliable and durable solar modules at a fair price.” says Sven Leinardi, executive manager of the Multicon Solar Group, which manu-

Meyer Burger, the multinational technology group, announced in February that its hybrid collector technology will reduce the use of non-renewable energy sources in combination with other system components in a pioneering residential housing project known as Suurstoffi in Rotkreuz-Risch in central Switzerland.

The local energy is harvested on the roof, stored in the ground and raised to the temperatures needed with the aid of heat pumps. This provides the development, which is being built by the Zug Estates Group, with an emission-free supply of electricity and heat.

The entire Suurstoffi develop-ment is based on a CO2-free energy concept. As part of this, all building roofs in the second phase are to be fi tted with hybrid collectors from Meyer Burger. The Swiss-made hy-brid collectors from Thun are capa-ble of increasing the development’s degree of self-suffi ciency from 67% to 80%. This level of self-suffi ciency will be further increased in the planned third building stage.

The energy concept works through the use of geothermal and solar energy. In winter, energy is extracted from the geothermal probe array made up of 220 probes; in sum-mer, the excess heat from the roof or from the offi ce and residential spaces is gathered and stored. A sys-tem of pipes linking all the buildings (energy network) enables heat to be exchanged between the build-ings. For example, waste heat from an offi ce building can be used to produce hot water in the residential buildings.

Photovoltaic modules and hybrid collectors generate the energy re-quired to operate the plant, in par-ticular the heat pumps, on site. The balancing of the current between the imported and produced electricity takes place via the public grid. The effi ciency of the system is achieved thanks to the low operating costs

and the freely available cooling. By 2018 an integrated, traffi c-free

district in which living, working and leisure activities are combined will have been built on the Suurstoffi site. When complete, the develop-ment will provide space for 1,500 residents and around 2,500 jobs.

The initial building stage was com-pleted in spring 2013. The residential concept offers a diversity of fl oor plans and high quality materials. In the fi rst phase with some 230 apart-ments, there are some 160 different fl oor plans. In a second building phase, with an investment volume of around Sfr100 million ($107 million), Zug Estates is erecting an offi ce building and a residential de-velopment with nine buildings.

“The high degree of energy self-suffi ciency can only be achieved by making the maximum possible use of the sunlight,” says a Meyer Burg-er statement. “With this in mind, the maximum number of hybrid collectors was fi tted. The architects and energy specialists developed a solution in which the hybrid collec-tors were arranged horizontally over the entire roof area of the buildings in the second construction phase. The resulting southerly inclination increased the energy yield of each collector while the spacing required between the horizontal module rows reduced the number of collectors installed by at least 30%.

“This roof layout enabled the highest possible energy yield per square meter of roof space as well as the most aesthetically pleasing appearance. The level-equalizing solar module fastening system was conceived specifi cally for the development by Meyer Burger in collaboration with the local special-ist, Bosshard. The design enables the modules to be fi tted fl ush with the edge of the roof.

The hybrid systems on all of the roofs have safety guards paral-lel with the roof edge that cast no shadows on the collectors.

Meyer Burger technology to be integral part ofpioneering CO2 free Swiss housing development



factures the solar containers.“Conventional 60-cell modules

would not allow our containers to generate anywhere near as much electricity.”

Aleo Solar’s high-power modules have an effi ciency value of up to 18.3%. In addition to the special cell connectors (LHS = light harvesting string), anti-refl ection coated front glass and a highly transparent EVA fi lm enable more light to reach the cells.

Each solar container has a capacity of up to 27kWp and can store up to 150kWh of solar power. As any num-ber of containers can be connected, they can cover electricity demands equating to several megawatts, which is enough energy to power hospitals, refugee camps or water desalination plants, for example.

Manufactured in Duisburg, Germany, the patented solar containers come in four different output levels ranging from 5.4kWp to 27kWp with a storage capacity of between 15kWh and 15 kWh.

They can produce single-phase as well as three-phase electricity from 13 cents per kWh. Each container can be easily transported on a four-wheel truck.

Bosch Automotive awards status of preferred supplier to Oerlikon Balzers

Bosch Automotive Technology, the largest division of the Bosch Group, has conferred the status of preferred supplier to Oerlikon Balzers, a precision component supplier. In this step, Bosch has recognized Oerlikon Balzers’ outstanding services over the past years and has inducted the enterprise into the ranks of its strategically most important suppliers.

“For over 20 years, Oerlikon Balz-ers has supported the Bosch Group with innovative surface treatment so-lutions for the optimization of engine components, such as injection systems or piston pins,” says an Oerlikon offi cial.

“Special hard-material and anti-fric-tion coatings have enabled reductions in fuel consumption and emissions in internal combustion engines of up to 15%.”

Bosch’s preferred supplier award is characterized by strict criteria, such as quality certifi cation according to ISO/TS 16949 or ISO 9001 or the environmental certifi cation according to ISO 14001.

ROFIN releases StarCut Tube SL cutting systemROFIN, the laser technology specialist group, released its new StarCut Tube SL cutting system in January. “The newly designed system combines maximum productivity with the smallest footprint on the market,” says the fi rm.

“Powered by ROFIN’s StarFiber 180/320 FC fi ber lasers, specifi cally optimized for fi ne-cutting, the StarCut Tube SL comes as an ultra-compact tube cutting system for high produc-tivity. It cuts delicate structures with kerf widths of 15μm and below into a wide variety of established materials (including Nitinol).

“With dimensions of only 1340mm by 700mm, including all components and ancillary parts, the StarCut Tube SL sets the new standard for space optimization,” says the fi rm. “Several applications require the tube to be fl ushed with liquid during the cutting process.

“It is with this process that the ma-chine sets a new standard in its water management. The cast mineral setup with no joints provides an absolutely water-tight working chamber with an integrated sink. Circulating pump and fi lter unit are accommodated within the housing. The fl ow rate is comput-er-controlled and monitored and can be logged for process validation.

“The StarCut Tube SL can be equipped with ROFIN’s new Human Machine Interface Pro, which allows for a customized confi guration.”

Solar Systems, SCHMID and Pekintas agree to 200MWp turnkey PV cell and module manufacturing facility in RussiaSolar Systems from Russia, Germany’s SCHMID Group and Pekintas Group from Turkey signed an agreement in December to establish a new cell and module manufacturing line in the special economic zone of Alabuga, Russia, with an annual capacity of 200MWp. This will be commissioned in two phases. SCHMID and Pekintas will act as the general contractor for setting up the manufacturing lines, building and facilities. Production should start in the second quarter of 2016.

In 2013, a new Russian governmen-tal programme for renewable energy development support was set up,

providing for capacity supply agree-ments, the right of which is traded every year via a special auction.

Solar Systems — established by Chi-nese shareholder Amur-Sirius in 2014 specifi cally for the development of the renewable energy market in Russia — managed to win the biggest amount of capacity supply agreement quotes in the May-June 2014 tender.

This entails commissioning of 175 MW of solar parks by 2016-2018).

Solar Systems says it also plans to participate in upcoming tenders to be held in 2015 and 2016 and to offer solar modules to other market players in Russia together with the plans to export the production.

With this project SCHMID and Pekintas are extending their existing collaboration in PV manufacturing, started with SCHMID-Pekintas in 2012, a Turkey-based joint venture, according to an offi cal statement.

Christian Schmid, chief executive at the SCHMID Group, said this agreement was another milestone for SCHMID in maintaining its position as the leading supplier of turnkey manufacturing solutions in the emerg-ing PV markets.

Özhan Olcay, president at the Pe-kintas Group, said: “this project will be setting new standards in turnkey integration and will put Solar Systems into an undisputed leadership in qual-ity and effi ciency in Russia.”

Lawsuit ends against insolvency administrator of the Conergy Solar Module

Meyer Burger Technology announced on December 23 that the long-standing lawsuit of its subsidiary Roth & Rau against Conergy Solar Module GmbH, or rather against the insolvency administrator of the Conergy Solar Module assets, was to be closed with an amount paid in settlement.

A Meyer Burger statement said: “In 2006 Roth & Rau AG entered into an agreement with Conergy Solar Module GmbH & Co. KG to supply and install four cell manufacturing lines. Roth & Rau AG considered that it was still entitled to receive pay-ments under this agreement, which Conergy Solar Module GmbH & Co. KG consistently refused to pay and who for their part claimed damages that represented a multiple of Roth & Rau AG’s receivables. Roth & Rau AG had already written off these re-



ceivables in the past years and made a provision for the costs of this lawsuit in fi scal year 2010.

“Under the achieved agreement, Roth & Rau will pay an amount of €2.5 million in settlement. These expenses including the legal costs are covered by far by the provision set aside in 2010. For the income statement 2014, the release of the remaining provision that is not used anymore in this respect will lead to a positive effect of about €3 million on the results.”

The settlement agreement and the cessation of the claims were deter-mined by the Hamburg local court (Landgericht Hamburg).

ERDM Solar, SCHMID Group reach supply agreement for setting up GEMINUS line in Mexico

ERDM Solar and SCHMID Group concluded a contract in December for establishing a new cell and module manufacturing line in San Andrés Tuxtla, in Mexico. The line will expand the existing module manufacturing capacity from 60MW to 170MW annual output of cells and modules.

Alejandro Caballero Robles, chief executive of ERDM Solar, said the project with its scheduled start of production in Q3 2015 was perfectly timed to meet Mexico’s growing need for new sources of energy.

“The local electricity demand has exploded during the last years and PV is the only fast and sustainable solution for a quick decentralized grid expansion,” he said.

“The highest energy harvest at the lowest cost and space requirements is crucial for developing the country into a major player in affordable re-newable energy supply. The SCHMID bifacial multi bus bar technology is the perfect solution due to the much higher energy harvest as in compari-son to standard modules.”

Established in 2007, ERDM Solar was the fi rst module manufacturer in South America.

The new combined cell and module facility, says the fi rm, will be also the world’s fi rst zero carbon footprint plant combining solar power and SCHMID’s vanadium redox fl ow bat-tery technology.

SCHMID Group, a global supplier of integrated solutions for the entire PV value chain from Silicon to mod-

ules, is very pleased about this fi rst order for a GEMINUS bifacial cell and multi bus bar module produc-tion line with an annual capacity of 110MW including the new multi bus bar module technology.

“SCHMID’s GEMINUS bifacial cell technology enables low cost manu-facturing of multi and mono bifacial cells featuring over 30% higher en-ergy yield (kWh/kWp),” the fi rm said in a statement.

“It combines outstanding manufac-turing simplicity based on standard tools with the highest effi ciencies on all common p-type base material. The resulting multi crystalline based bifacial module operates at effi ciency equivalents of over 18% and hence has a 7-10USc/Wp BOS advantage in comparison to conventional multi modules.

Christian Schmid, chief executive at the SCHMID Group, said: “In the past years effi ciency improvement in PV in-dustry has been steady, but in the order of 0.2% annually.

“Now the GEMINUS technology boosts the effi ciency by more than 1% without adding additional costs and hence will be for sure a game changer in the PV industry.”

Meyer Burger appoints Gerber as new general manager of technology and product centre

Meyer Burger Technology appointed Bernhard Gerber in December as the new general manager of its Technology and Product Centre in Thun/Umkirch, a prime centre of R&D for the fi rm. With over 425 employees, the centre is the largest organizational unit with the broadest product portfolio in the Meyer Burger Group.

The fi rm said: “Gerber is taking over a key function within opera-tional management and he will play a signifi cant role in further developing and strengthening these technologies within the group.”

Gerber has held an impressive number of senior management roles within the Meyer Burger Group.

He started in the new position in December and at the end of the year stepped down as chief operating offi cer and as member of the executive board of Meyer Burger Technology. For the moment he continues to be responsible for global supply chain management and the production location in China which he will expand further.

PECVD vacuum coating equipment from ManzManz, the high tech production fi rm, said in mid-February that its product portfolio includes newly developed vertical and horizontal inline and batch systems for three deposition processes: PECVD, sputtering and vaporization.

PECVD stands for plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, a technolo-gy used for front and rear side passiva-tion of crystalline solar cells, for exam-ple. Manz’s VCS1200 vertical coating system and the PECVD technology allow cell effi ciency above 20%, cost-effectively in mass-production.

The patented vertical process in-creases the coating’s quality and con-sistency, because it creates no shading, such as pin marks from mechanical attachment of the wafer. This leads to a clear increase in effi ciency.

A silicon nitride layer on the front of the solar cells functions as an anti-refl ex layer and ensures better absorp-tion of sunlight.

The back of the cell is covered with a further silicon nitride and alu-minum oxide coating. This causes the sunlight to be refl ected back into the cell, and prevents recombination of the charge carriers.

It increases energy yield, and with it the cell’s effi ciency.

During development of the PECVD systems, the focus was on high qual-ity for the isolated layers and on the greatest possible productivity. The VCS 1200 can put out 1200 silicon wafers an hour. An electrostatic trans-port system also newly developed ensures low mechanical load on the wafer with simultaneous full-surface coating.

The VCS 1200 is the result of col-laboration between Manz and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) with a German cell manufacturer.

It was part of a project called Fein-Pass which was supported by Ger-many’s Federal Ministry for Educa-tion and Research (BMBF) and which dealt with passivation of crystalline silicon solar cells. However, the com-position and properties of the coating can vary greatly. Because of their modular structure, Manz’s PECVD coating systems are suitable for still other applications.

These include coating cover glass for smartphones and tablet computers to increase for example, their scratch resistance. ■

EVENT REVIEW


India is booming. Even though the headlines have been crowing about it’s recent slump — for the last two years its growth has plummeted (!) to below 5% a year — it is the world’s third largest economy. Moreover, it’s set to surpass China as the world’s most populous nation by 2030 — demand-ing more than twice the energy as it uses today.

India’s rapid industrialization and a growing population mean coal and other conventional fuels alone cannot meet the country’s energy demand.

It has some advantages though. In India some of the lowest develop-ment costs for renewable technolo-gies worldwide can be found. Average installed prices for onshore wind in

India are between $1,250-1,400/kW and average installed costs for large-scale solar PV have also fallen dramat-ically to $1,650/kW.

Contrast these prices with those in Europe where average total installed wind costs are $2,000/kW and those for large-scale solar PV are $2,300/kW.

These falling costs are driving re-newable energy investment in India, which is expected to surpass $10 bil-lion dollars by the end of this year, ac-cording to IRENA, the International Renewable Energy Agency.

But a yawning chasm between de-mand and supply is opening up. Building a grid — a transmission and distribution network able to de-liver electricity to people throughout

India not only its vast cities but its rural towns and villages — would be so cost-prohibitive as to be nothing more than a pipedream. It calls for ap-proaches very different to the central-ized grids found across the west.

This is good news for the energy storage industry, where falling costs of renewables and rising costs of diesel fuel, are paving the way for the use of energy storage, sometimes just with solar, or to reduce consumption of diesel generation.

And thanks to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by prime min-ister Narendra Modi, renewables and clean energy are back on the agenda.

India has one of the most ambitious renewable energy programmes in the

Ever mounting energy demand, cheaprenewables, turns India on to storage

Energy Storage India

December 3-5, 2014 • New Delhi, India

Building a grid — transmission and distribution network able to deliver electricity to people throughout India not only its vast cities but its rural towns and villages — would be so cost-prohibitive as to be nothing more than a pipedream. It calls for approaches very different to the centralized grids found across the west.

EVENT REVIEW


world and many of the opportunities and challenges these present were dis-cussed during Energy Storage India held this December in Delhi.

Rahul Walawalkar, executive direc-tor of India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), which hosted the event, said during the show’s opening presenta-tions, “We expect the next fi ve years will see a dramatic transformation towards decentralized energy solu-tions in India. Energy Storage India 2014 demonstrated the progress In-dia has made over the past 12 months in creating a solid ecosystem for ad-vanced energy storage, with the coun-try poised to become a global hub for technology deployment as well as manufacturing.”

During the conference a broad cross-section of industry stakeholders agreed on the need for storage to meet various development goals for India.

Walawalker said, “We also heard commitments from policy makers to develop policy frameworks, from R&D groups on the potential for cutting-edge research and from com-panies on setting up everything from incubation centres to full-scale manu-facturing plants for advanced stor-age.”

The conference began on December 3 with workshops covering key topics (Energy Storage 101, Power Quality, Micro-grids), and a parallel “IRENA International Energy Storage Policy and Regulators” workshop. Subjects covered here and also in the confer-ence programme included the full range of battery technologies, as well as other forms of energy storage in-cluding pumped hydro, compressed air and thermal.

In addition, the event focused on opportunities for advanced storage in India, including renewable integra-tion, rural electrifi cation, microgrids, smart cities, utility and industrial ap-plications, and transportation.

Other sessions covered fi nancing models, project development, in-centives and subsidies, and man-

ufacturing options, with special panels on “Make in India” and “International Perspectives on Energy Storage” that at-tracted delegates’ interest.

The conference and exhibition was attended by utilities, developers, en-ergy storage integrators and suppliers, India ministries, regulatory and policy offi cials, commercial/industrial end users, and other industry stakeholders.

Karen Hampton, publisher of En-ergy Storage Journal, said, “Energy Storage India 2014 may only be in its second year but it shows immense promise and a huge potential to con-tinue to grow into the leading confer-

ence and exhibition for storage play-ers and those in related sectors.

“I enjoyed my time in the conference not just from the quality and content of the presentations but also from the quality of the attendees — we were there not just to discuss what the fu-ture might bring but discuss invest-ment and collaboration opportunities in India.”

The conference organizers told En-ergy Storage Journal that the event attracted 532 industry professionals with 65 speakers from over 15 coun-tries and was the largest such gather-ing ever held in India.” ■

• India’s energy storage market is expected to grow to an aggregate capacity of 15GW-20GW by 2020.

• Massive expansion of renewable energy installations over the next fi ve years in India will drive the need for energy storage to manage variations in renewable energy and maintain grid stability.

• India’s “100 Smart Cities” initiative is a smart grid deployment programme aimed at increasing urban grid reliability and accessibility and that can be supported by energy storage.• Actions being taken by the Modi government should provide a stimulus

for the growth of the country’s energy storage industry.• Ongoing innovations in energy storage technologies will lead to cost

reductions over the next fi ve to 10 years.

ENERGY STORAGE INDIA — HIGHLIGHTS

The next conference and exhibition — Energy Storage India 2015 — will be held in Delhi for December 8 and 9, with a

preconference workshop to be held the day before. This is part of a worldwide rolling series of conferences organized by

Messe Düsseldorf. The next event will be held between March 9 and 11 in Germany. “We expect to attract an audience of some 1500 industry experts, with over 100 speakers, more than 100 exhibitors,” says a Messe Düsseldorf offi cial. “We should have some 30 media partners and anticipate having over 40 supporting partners and related associations. This is going to be a fantastic event!”

ENERGY STORAGE AROUND THE WORLD

FORTHCOMING EVENTS


Energy Storage, Europe/9th International RenewableEnergy Storage Conference (IRES 2015)Düsseldorf, Germany • March 9-11

In 2015 the International Renewable Energy Storage Conference (IRES) will take place for the fi rst time in coopera-tion with Messe Düsseldorf and OTTI. Running in Düsseldorf for the fi rst time, IRES 2015 is being held as a con-current event with ENERGY STOR-AGE EUROPE (Conference & Expo) and the 4th Power-to-Gas Conference (OTTI). A related trade show will fea-ture some 100 exhibitors.

Because of the enormous successes of past IRES conferences EUROSOLAR and the World Council for Renewable Energy (WCRE) will continue the IRES series in 2015.

The series of IRES conferences has emerged as the leading forum for the discussion of the pressing problems with renewable energy storage by drawing together one of the largest gatherings of scientifi c and economic experts worldwide. As of 2015 the par-ticipants can choose from even more extensive options.

The three conferences and the exhi-bition will take place March 9-11 in the professional surroundings of Messe Düsseldorf (Trade Fair Düsseldorf), Germany. Combining their events, the organizers, thereby, will establish the most important energy storage meeting worldwide.

ContactTel: +49 228 362 373Fax: +49 228 361 [email protected]

ICLB 2015: 13th International Conference on Lithium BatteriesMiami, USA • March 9-10

The ICLB 2015: XIII International Conference on Lithium Batteries aims to bring together leading academic sci-entists, researchers and research schol-ars to exchange and share their expe-riences and research results about all aspects of lithium batteries.

It also provides the premier interdis-ciplinary and multidisciplinary forum for researchers, practitioners and edu-cators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and con-cerns, practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted in the fi eld of lithium batteries.

Contactwww.waset.org/conference/2015/03/miami/ICLB

The 32nd International Battery Seminar & ExhibitionFort Lauderdale, Florida, USAMarch 9-12

In its 32nd year, this seminar is the leader in providing key industry speak-ers to discuss the state of the art of worldwide energy storage technology developments for portable, automotive and stationary power applications.

This meeting provides not only broad perspectives, but also informed insights into signifi cant advances in materials, product development and application for all battery systems and enabling technologies. In addition, this meeting is renowned for offering broad net-working and exhibiting opportunities

to the international battery community.As the longest running battery indus-

try event in the world, this meeting has always been the preferred venue to an-nounce signifi cant new developments and showcase the most advanced bat-tery technology.Areas of focus include:• In-depth worldwide analysis of bat-

tery markets and technologies• Government battery program devel-

opments• Battery safety enhancement and regu-

latory status• Consumer and large format batteries• Thermal and power management sys-

tems for consumer and electric, plug-in and hybrid vehicles

• Battery development for the grid• Advances in new and improved mate-

rials for anode, cathode, electrolyte, separators

• Advances in battery packs, charging and testing

• Battery recycling for regulatory and resource recovery purposes

• Status and future outlook for other energy storage technologies

ContactTel: +1 561 367 0193Tel: [email protected](this has pic, from version in BI)

Solar Energy East Africa Nairobi, Kenya • March 10-11

Stepping away from small-scale donor-led schemes - Solar Energy East Africa brings together domestic and interna-tional solar players with East African commercial and industrial power users to explore grid-tied and off-grid com-mercially viable opportunities for PV

FORTHCOMING EVENTS


deployment.Serving as forum to connect local

developers with international partners and investors the conference aims to create well capitalized and experienced partnerships who can deliver high quality PV systems in a timely manner to the East African region.The event will cover:• NEW focus session for commercial and

industrial power users exploring PV• New business models to improve at-

tractiveness of rural electrifi cation• 1-to-1 meetings: local developers with

international partners & investors• Diesel gensets, storage & micro-grids:

partnerships to strengthen the value proposition

• Accessing competitive sources of pri-vate fi nance

• Government & grid operator Q&A: Tariff changes, land control issues, grid access, & standardized PPA doc-umentation

Contact http://eastafrica.solarenergyevents.com/

NY-BEST Annual Meeting and ConferenceTroy, New York, USA • March 11-12

The two-day event, organized by the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology (NY-BEST) Consortium, will take place at the Hilton Garden Inn in Troy, New York.

NY-BEST was created in 2010 to po-sition the state of New York as a global leader in energy storage technology, in-cluding applications in transportation, grid storage, and power electronics.

The consortium has more than 130 members. Membership is diverse and includes manufacturers, academic insti-tutions, utilities, technology and mate-rials developers, start-ups, government entities, engineering fi rms, systems in-tegrators, and end-users. The majority are New York based.

Contactwww.ny-best.org

Hybrid Energy Innovations 2015New York, USA • April 8-9

Hybrid Energy Innovations 2015 gives you the big picture on the dramatic transformation sweeping the energy industry.

Historically, different segments of the energy market have been warring with each other. Now, a better and more compelling energy model has started to gain favour – hybrid energy, which offers greater benefi ts by blending to-gether the attributes of many diverse renewable energy sources and fossil fuels, as well as combining energy stor-age.

Essentially, hybrid energy affords a

fl exibility and versatility in energy pro-duction and distribution that is truly needed to propel the industry forward. Hybrid energy is changing the energy equation.

Hybrid Energy Innovations 2015 provides a unique platform for partici-pants to:• Gain special insights into the innova-

tive tools, techniques and strategies that are revolutionizing the energy industry

• Learn more about successful and far-reaching examples of hybrid energy products, projects and technologies

• Network with a wide range of key players in hybrid energy

• Help shape the future of this dynamic market

Contactwww.hybridenergyinnovations.com/attendee-registration/Michael Mascioni, conference director, Hybrid Energy Innovations, (212) 688-4781, [email protected] O’Connor, Sponsor and Exhibit Sales, (203) 262-4670, ext. 235, [email protected]

Next Generation Batteries 2015San Diego, USA • April 21-22

The Knowledge Foundation’s Next-Generation Materials, Chemistries & Technologies conference track showcases several of the more promising chemis-tries and materials that are hoped to be in production and commercially viable in coming years. We discuss optimal align-ment of these technologies with applica-tion and address challenges such as cell to system, supply chain and manufactur-ing that need to be met as we proceed.

Choose from three concurrent tracks, or register for all Access and “track hop” between talks:• Next-generation materials, chemis-

tries and technologies• Lithium battery safety• Grid-scale energy storage

ContactJay Mulhern, business development managerTel: +1 [email protected]://chidb.com/register/KnowledgeFoundation/15/ngb/reg.asp

Returning to Rome, the 8th Energy Storage World Forum will allow you to meet the industry’s movers and shakers in person and benefi t from their extensive connections — an incredible networking experience. This year’s forum will feature speakers from over 25 utilities/TSOs/DSOs from around the world.

Our forums are carefully tailored to attract all stakeholders of the industry. You will rub hands with fi gures from utilities, DSOs, government regulators, manufacturers, operators, EPCs, and many more.

The four conference days include the 2nd Residential Energy Storage Forum.

We believe in dialogue and partnerships, and our precisely manicured program refl ects that. Our forum is designed to facilitate communication through coffee breaks, luncheons, visits to exhibitions, drinks reception, and interactive group discussions, resulting in no less than 10 hours of contact time for attendees to meet and greet.

ContactSingapore + 65 6243 0050London: +44 20 8090 1613USA: +1 978 263 9931www.energystorageforum.com/europe/register-now

Rome, Italy • April 27-30

8th Energy Storage World Forum

JUNE 10–12, 2015MESSE MÜNCHEN

www.ees-europe.com

MEET THE LEADING ENERGY STORAGE COMPANIES

EUROPE’S LARGEST ENERGY STORAGE EVENT CONNECTS WITH THE WORLD’S LEADING SOLAR EVENT IN MUNICH!

290 ENERGY STORAGE EXHIBITORS | 40,000 VISITORS | 150 NATIONS

EES EUROPE | INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION FOR BATTERIES, ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMSAND INNOVATIVE PRODUCTION

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS


Battery Conference 2015Aachen, Germany • April, 27-29

The 7th Advanced Battery Power Conference with the proceeding Bat-tery day NRW which takes place in the Eurogress in Aachen will be three days packed full of insights into battery competence.

Advanced Battery Power has devel-oped into one of the leading events in the battery technology sector. Its signif-icance to the trade extends well beyond just the use of batteries in automobiles, making advanced battery power a must for all engineers, researchers and developers involved in energy storage devices in general, new materials, grid integration or battery recycling.

Contactwww.battery-power.eu/en/registration.html

Large-scale Solar UK Bristol, UK • April 28-30

More than just a solar event, Large-Scale Solar UK kicks off with our sell-out Planners’ Workshop, designed to highlight the broader socio-economic benefi ts of solar programmes and dis-cuss best practice planning.

New for 2015 is our closed-door Energy Managers’ Forum, designed to show large energy users how their businesses can benefi t from lower-cost power through solar. Also new for 2015 are several discussion topics. They include:

Grid - Capacity remains and the cost to upgrade is being brought down; hear what the DNOs are doing to incorpo-rate increasing DG

Storage - The best and brightest in stor-age; a timeline of when will storage be-come economically viable and a discus-sion of how can you prepare in advance

Contacthttp://largescale.solarenergyevents.com/

Batteries, Super Capacitors, Fuel Cells & EVs SeminarWezep, The Netherlands • April 30-May 1

The seminar program focuses on pres-ent and future needs of portable and stationary electrochemical energy sources and highlights the latest tech-nological developments designed to satisfy application requirements.

Primary, rechargeable, reserve batter-ies, fuel cells, ultra-capacitors systems and their accessories are covered.

The seminar program reviews typi-cal cycle life aspects of designing and manufacturing energy source solu-tions: from application energy require-ments, power source electrical and mechanical design, cells selection, cells evaluation tests, battery prototype, ac-ceptance tests, design and manufactur-ing techniques, testing, mass produc-

tion, safety issues, transportation, use and disposal.

Topics include military batteries, thermal & reserve batteries, lithium re-chargeable cell manufacturing process, grid storage, EV batteries, fuel cells and metal air systems and EV charging in-frastructure.

ContactShmuel De-Leon Energy, LtdEmail: [email protected] Ten [email protected]: +31-06-20619140

4th China International Energy Storage Station Congress (ESSC 2015)Shenzhen, China • May 10-12

To catch up with the pace of develop-ment of the Chinese energy storage in-dustry as well as the opportunities and challenges this entails, the 4th China International Energy Storage Station Congress (ESSC 2015) will be held in Shenzhen.

As the most prestigious energy stor-age conference in the domestic indus-try, the organizer is inviting experts

Members of the battery industry are recharging their business energy at Battery Council International’s 127th Convention and Power Mart Expo. Join us on May 3-5 in Savan-nah, Georgia as we discuss topics in the foreground of energy storage today.

At the 127th Convention and Power Mart Expo, you can expect to gather in-depth knowledge on the latest technologies and environmen-tal issues, learn about the impact of global economy on the battery mar-ketplace, network with renowned industry experts, share experiences and challenges with your peers, hear about worldwide regulatory and leg-

islative issues affecting the manufac-turing and distribution of batteries, and so much more.

The Power Mart Expo provides a complete display of the battery in-dustry’s newest technologies, prod-ucts and services. This premier forum is specifi cally designed so attendees can see product demonstrations and pose questions to company experts, allowing you to get the knowledge you need to stay ahead of your com-petition.

Contacthttp://batterycouncil.org/?127Convention+1 (312) [email protected]

Savannah, Georgia, USA • May 3-6

BCI’s 127th Convention and Power Mart Expo

Shenzhen, home to 4th China International Energy Storage Station Congress

5th Annual Knowledge Foundation

REGISTER TODAY

■ Next-Generation Materials, Chemistries & Technologies

■ Lithium Battery Safety

■ Grid-Scale Energy Storage

KnowledgeFoundation.com/Next-Generation-Batteries

April 21-22, 2015 | San Diego, CA

KEYNOTE PRESENTERS

Jeffrey P. Chamberlain, Ph.D. Argonne National Laboratory

Yi Cui, Ph.D.Stanford Universityy

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS


in the energy storage fi eld including the National Energy Administration, Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission Energy Research Insti-tute, State Grid Corporation of China, China Southern Power Grid and other relevant enterprises.

The event is expected to gather over 800 professionals of authority in ener-gy storage to attend and share views on relevant policies and standards, market trends and investment advice, techni-cal bottlenecks and solutions, project demonstration and experience sharing across hot topics.

Join ESSC 2015, you can enjoy the workshop, keynote speech, thematic interactive discussion, case study, cock-tail party and one-to-one meetings. We are looking forward to meet with you on ESSC 2015!

[email protected]

Renewables & Mining Summit and ExhibitionSantiago, Chile • May 6-7 2015

Chilean mines are seeking new energy solutions to reduce and secure energy costs for grid-connected and off-grid operations. With energy accounting for 20-40% of operating costs, reducing electricity expenditure is a now a major operational and strategic goal for the Chile’s mining leaders and renewables is set to play a signifi cant role in meet-ing this aim for remote and grid-tied mines.

Following sell-out events in Toronto and Johannesburg, the 4th Renewables and Mining Summit & Exhibition will showcase the latest renewables-mining projects from Chile and address the key challenges for additional projects including innovative fi nance solutions. The Summit marks the fi rst time Chile’s mining leaders will gather with global renewable energy solutions providers and project fi nance experts to discuss solutions that directly address the en-ergy challenges affecting the competi-tiveness and growth of the sector.

ContactDelegate and general questions: [email protected], +1 613 627 2787Speaker questions: [email protected], +1 613 680 2482Sponsorship and exhibition questions: [email protected], +1 613 680 2483

The Guangzhou International Lithium Battery New Energy Fair 2015Guangzhou, China • May 16-18

With the strong support of domestic

and overseas exhibitors, visitors and media, and the collaboration of the or-ganizer, “The Guangzhou International Lithium Battery New Energy Fair ” was successfully held in Guangzhou in June 2014.

According to the requirements of ex-hibitors, “The Guangzhou Internation-al Lithium Battery New Energy Fair 2015” (BNEF CHINA 2015) will be held at Guangzhou Pazhou Poly World Trade Expo Center in China from be-tween May 16-18.

The organizing committee will con-tinue to provide exhibitors with a high-quality international trading platform where they can expand business, con-duct technology exchange, display new products and fi nd cooperative partners, and will provide more cooperation op-portunities for global Lithium Battery

The exhibition has an exhibition area of 67,000m2 and over 3,000 standard booths.

ContactMiss LiTel: +86-20-8922 0050 / 8922 0105E-mail: [email protected]

ESA’s 25th Annual Conference and ExpoDallas, Texas, USA • May 27-29

For more than two decades, the ESA has hosted the forum for industry en-

gagement and advancement, and the annual conference has drawn rapidly increasing attendance in recent years.

Due to this growing interest, ESA’s 25th Annual Conference and Technol-ogy Expo is set to be on May 27-29, in Dallas, TX at the Hyatt Regency — opening up more space for the expand-ing exhibition hall and even more room for keynote sessions and panels.

Oncor Electric Delivery Company will be the host utility for this year’s event, giving attendees the added ben-efi t of visiting sites to see energy stor-age systems in action and learn about the company’s bold proposal for as much as 5GW of energy storage to be deployed across the state.

Contacthttp://annual-conference.energystorage.org/about

2015 Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition Sydney, Australia • June 3-4

Changes in the clean energy industry and the growing importance of NSW to the market have prompted Exhibi-tions & Trade Fairs (ETF) to bring the event to Sydney.

The event will focus on the energy storage industry at all levels — for utilities, energy businesses, building

Sydney, home to 2015 Australian Energy Storage Conference and Exhibition

SEPTEMBER 15 – 17, 2015THE EXPO FOR ADVANCED BATTERIES RETURNS TO NOVI, MI, USA IN 2015

WWW.THEBATTERYSHOW.COM [email protected]

JOIN THE INDUSTRY’S LEADING EXHIBITION AND CONFERENCE!CONTACT US TODAY TO SECURE YOUR PRIME EXHIBITION BOOTH LOCATION

Follow us @thebatteryshow

Join the groups on LinkedIn

Watch us - TheBatteryShow

450+ EXHIBITORS AND 5000+ ATTENDEES EXPECTED!

Co-located with

“There was constant traffic and bandwidth from both the domestic and international customers at our booth. I found this an excellent platform for networking, evaluating options and gaining a sound insight for future development. And…yes we are committed with a larger booth and additional staff next year!”

Peter J. Gunia, BD & Sales Manager - Americas, Saft Batteries, Vehicle Business Unit

FORTHCOMING EVENTS


management and the emerging electric vehicle markets. Following the success-ful 2014 event in Melbourne, Austra-lian Energy Storage Exhibition will continue its focus on the latest state-of-the-art energy storage technologies, but also expand to incorporate ‘Lighting & Building Automation’ and ‘Emergent Business Technologies’ zones to offer trade visitors the most comprehensive energy solutions for their businesses.

We are pleased to confi rm our as-sociation with the California Energy Storage Alliance (CESA), which is a group committed to advancing the role of energy storage through policy, edu-cation, and research. Although Austra-lia shares many traits with California, we are being left behind by technology, so there are many things we can learn from California’s experiences and the progress and knowledge of the CESA.

The two day conference will feature over 40 speakers who will discuss the most recent trends and developments in energy storage. This is the only event of its kind in Australia and we invite everyone involved in the energy storage and allied industries to attend.

Contactwww.australianenergystorage.com.au/conference

EES — International Exhibition for Batteries, Energy Storage Systems and Innovative Production (co-located with Intersolar 2015)Munich, Germany • June 10-12

Electrical Energy Storage, the interna-tional exhibition for batteries, energy storage systems and innovative produc-tion, is the industry hotspot for suppli-ers, manufacturers, distributors and us-ers of stationary and mobile electrical energy storage solutions. It takes place annually with Intersolar Europe, the world’s largest exhibition for the solar industry, in Munich, Germany.

Covering the entire value chain of innovative battery and energy storage technologies — from components and production to specifi c user applica-tions — EES is the ideal platform for all kinds of stakeholders in the rapidly growing energy storage market. The focus at EES is on energy storage so-lutions suited to energy systems with increasing shares of renewable energy sources.

A conference track of several days, co-organized with Intersolar Europe Conference, is accompanying EES 2015. The energy storage sessions cov-er the entire spectrum of energy storage related aspects stretching from global market analysis, to technologies, from small and large-scale applications, to second-hand use concepts and the recy-cling of batteries. In addition, issues re-

Energy Storage China 2015 will be the unique energy storage confer-ence and expos in China not only to motivate and infl uence policy mak-ers, experts, decision makers and a and manufacturers in the renewable energy and energy storage industry in China, but also serve as a deal making and business development platform.

Energy Storage China will be the top class networking event to syn-chronize the energy storage business in China with a global reach. The event will focus on applications, solutions and projects for renewable energy integration, power transmis-sion and distributions, smart grids, microgrids, off grid and decentral-ized energy, cost effi ciency and bankability etc

Face-to-face networking to explore your demands on advanced technology from China will be your key to localize the business with onsite Chinese solution providers. Energy Storage China 2015 will welcome more than 700 visitors enjoying presentations from over 60 speakers from home and abroad.

Key reasons to attend• Get INSIGHTS into all relevant

areas of energy storage: Applica-tions including grid integration of renewable energy, energy storage solutions including chemical, thermal, mechanical and power to gas, political scenarios, future energy supply, global energy storage market trends and issues concerning the fi nancial and eco-nomical framework

• NETWORK– the Energy Stor-age China provides the perfect platform to network during the conference, the accompanying trade fair and the exclusive net-working dinner

• LEARN from the key stakeholders how your company can gain com-petitive advantage from recent in-dustry and market developments in China and globally

• MEET top decision makers from the energy storage and renewable energy industries, policy makers and other key stakeholders includ-ing leading research institutions

• DISCUSS the important issues related to the advancement of energy storage in China and globally

Energy Storage China 2015 will think globally and break industry boundaries to exploit the com-mercial potential of energy storage applications. We will invite lead-ing experts in energy storage from home and abroad in a bid to present a fantastic Energy Storage China 2015 for you!

ContactTed He, Messe Düsseldorf (Shanghai)Unit 1209, Landmark Tower I 8 North Dongsanhuan Road, Beijing 100026,People’s Republic of China

Tel: +86-10-6590-7101Mobile: +86-18500-288-499Email: [email protected]/[email protected]

Beijing, China • June 2-5

Energy Storage China 2015

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

www.energystoragejournal.com Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2015 • 59www.energystoragejournal.com Energy Storage Journal • Spring 2015 • 59

To discover the advantages of being a presenter, see the Call for Paperspage at www.battcon.com or contact [email protected].

REGISTER ONLINE NOW! BATTCON ALWAYS SELLS OUT. REGISTER EARLY!

Be Empowered

9 5 4 . 6 2 3 . 6 6 6 0 E X T 2 3 8 0 | W W W . B A T T C O N . C O M

T H E 1 9 T H A N N U A L B A T T E R Y C O N F E R E N C E A N D T R A D E S H O W

“Technically oriented for the seasoned battery expert and the novice user.”

M A Y 1 2 - 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

T H E H I L T O N O R L A N D O B O N N E T C R E E K | O R L A N D O , F L

Presentations and panel discussions relevant to your field

Technological advances presented concisely and clearly

Trade show vendors offering the products and services you need

Interactive breakout workshops and seminars that provide solutions

Industry-specific education and networking found nowhere else

±±±±±“Where the data center, telecom, and utility sectors come together!”

lated to safety and battery production technologies are presented.

ContactSabine KloosTel: +49 7231 [email protected]

Advanced Automotive & Industrial/Stationary Battery ConferenceDetroit, Michigan, USA • June 15-19

Join us at the leading international fo-rum where automakers and energy stor-age system developers discuss the recent progress in advanced battery technology and its implementation in automotive, stationary, and industrial applications.

The 2015 Advanced Automotive & Stationary Battery Conference will fea-ture two parallel technology focused symposia and two parallel application focused symposia.

Technology focused symposia: Large Lithium Ion Battery Technology & Ap-plication (LLIBTA)• Chemistry track: cell materials and

chemistry• A thorough examination of material

development and advanced high-en-ergy cell chemistries

• Engineering track: cell and battery

engineering• An inside look at cell, module, and

battery design, as well as electrical, mechanical, and thermal compo-nents and integration for modules and packs

Application focused symposia• Automotive symposium• A review of the expanding xEV and

xEV-battery technology and markets and of competing technologies

• Industrial/stationary symposium• A focused look at the emerging mar-

ket for advanced batteries in utility, telecom and industrial applications

Contact+1 (530) [email protected]

International Flow Battery Forum Glasgow, Scotland • June 16-17

The meeting place for fl ow battery de-velopers, suppliers and users.

Our next planned IFBF 2015 will be the sixth conference in this series.

It always is a great opportunity for all those interested in fl ow battery re-search, development, manufacture, op-eration and commercialization to meet and discuss almost everything about fl ow batteries.

The 2015 programme and other information will be available soon at: www.fl owbatteryforum.com/

Glasgow, next meeting point for the International Flow Battery Forum

HEROES OF THE GRID: FURUKAWA


It was an unusual background for an unusually gifted man. Jun Furukawa, Japan’s battery research giant, was born on April 14, 1957 into an inter-national context. His father, Kiyoji Furukawa, worked for a US bank in Yokohama, while his mother Chieko and two aunts were fervent Catholics. The result was that the entire family was raised as Christians, uncommon in Japan.

His education was also very differ-ent from the norm. During the 1970s, Furukawa was schooled at The Eiko Gakuen, a prestigious Catholic pre-paratory and High School in Kam-akura City in the Kanagawa Prefec-ture.

Although many Eiko Gakuen gradu-ates enter Japan’s top universities, his all-consuming passion for tennis led to his neglecting his studies entailing his entering the Chemistry Depart-ment at Aoyama Gakuin University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering in April 1976.

“In my university days, I spent too much time doing part-time jobs, which led to my having trouble graduating without doing another year,” he says. “However, an encounter with profes-sor Osamu Matsumoto, in charge of graduation work through my senior year, completely changed my attitude. He was a prominent scholar for his studies into electrochemistry and plas-ma-chemistry, and also known for his educational enthusiasm and sternness.

To get a passing grade for his gradu-ation work, Furukawa could hardly take time off during his senior year. “I needed to devote all my time do-ing research.” His work paid off, and on Matsumoto’s recommendation, Furukawa obtained a job in the R&D department of the Furukawa Battery Co — a coincidence of fate since Jun Furukawa is entirely unrelated to the family that ran the company.

Jun Furukawa — taking lead acid to new heights

Although CSIRO’s Lan Lam can be credited with a great deal of the R&D in the development of the UltraBattery, he could not have achieved it without the innovative assistance of Jun Furukawa of Japan, holder of more than 100 patents for alkaline and lead acid storage batteries. His UltraBattery is now key to deployment of lead acid in many smart grids.

A recent photo of Furukuwa in front of his laboratory



His duties were varied when he started in the spring of 1980 — his fi rst task was the research and de-velopment of lead acid batteries for electric buses of the Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau. The following year, he researched a method of man-ufacturing a Pb-Ca-Sn alloy strip for lead acid batteries through continu-ous cast rolling and its application to batteries.

But life didn’t consist of just work and in May 1982 he married Ranko Miyoshi, at his regular church, the Yamate Sacred Heart Cathedral in Yokohama. His fi rst child, a son, Yuki was born in 1985 and his daughter Saki was born in 1988.

But early on in Furukawa’s career it was clear that his research would be played out on a larger more interna-tional stage.

In April 1983, Furukawa was as-signed to the Space Technology De-partment, where he was involved in the fabrication of a fl ight model in the de-velopment of the space Ni-Cd battery (commissioned by the National Space Development Agency of Japan) and in its qualifi cation tests at NASDA’s Tsukuba Space Center. The developed batteries were loaded on satellites such as the MOS-1 and the ETS-5.

Just over a year later, he worked on the R&D of a ceramic seal terminal by the Active Metal method (Ti-Ni al-loy) for space alkaline batteries such as Ni-Cd and Ni-H2 (commissioned by NASDA). This was a joint devel-opment with Toshiba’s Metallic Mate-rial Division and, afterward, put into practical use by Toshiba.

The next challenge was to occupy three years of Furukawa’s investigative mind: the development of the space high-capacity Ni-Cd battery (also commissioned by NASDA) and the re-search and performance improvement of a Ni slurry sintered plaque for Ni-Cd batteries, as well as the develop-ment of manufacturing processes and equipment. “Our achievements were applied to consumer batteries and are still used,” he says.

From April 1988 to March 1993, Furukawa, now based at his compa-ny’s R&D centre in Iwaki city, led a Ni-MH Battery Development Group.

Having developed a mischmetal-Ni hydrogen storage battery, with its negative electrode being a modifi ca-tion of spherical nickel hydroxide, a positive electrode, and a separator, the Japanese team developed sealed Ni-MH batteries integrating these com-ponents and processes for manufac-turing electrodes and batteries.

Having succeeded in putting small consumer Ni-MH batteries into pro-duction, Furukawa was transferred to a commercialization team.

During this period, Furukawa and his associates had co-developed Laves phase alloy with professor Wakao at Tokai University’s Faculty of Science. He also had to deal with the response to domestic and international prob-lems concerning intellectual property rights.

From April 1993 to March 1999, Furukawa stayed with nickel metal hydride. These were frustrating years as solid improvements were made during a deteriorating commercial environment. “As a development di-rector for performance improvement of Ni-MH batteries, I’d been working to improve the positive and negative electrodes and the battery structure, and successfully achieved, for exam-ple, an increase in the capacity of dou-ble A-sized batteries by about 30% from 1100mAh to 1400mAh.

“However, we decided to withdraw from the business because our com-petitors had increased production and Li-ion batteries, made smaller and

His fi rst work was the research and development of lead-acid batteries for electric buses of the Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau

We had continued the test with a doubled target of 100,000 miles and also achieved this target in Janu-ary 2008.” This was a fi rst in the history of lead-acid batteries.

In May 1982 he married Ranko Miyoshi, at his regular church, the Yamate Sacred Heart Cathedral in Yokohama

Much of his early research work was involved in designing better battery support for Japan’s space programme.



lighter than Ni-MH, had led to a drop in prices.

“It was bitter for me to step away from the Ni-MH battery business in which I had been engaged between 1988 and 1999. We launched the de-velopment of new Ni-MH batteries in 1988 and I was in charge of the de-velopment. Sanyo, Matsushita (now Panasonic), and Toshiba had already started their development nearly fi ve years earlier, but we also managed to commercialize our products two years after the commercialization by these three leading companies.

“During our development, we spent a lot of time avoiding infringement of these leading company’s patents, but we could not bypass all of them and had to enter into licensing agree-ments. Payment of these licensing fees imposed a heavy burden on our busi-ness.”

Indeed for a while after the com-mercialization, the fi rm’s Ni-MH bat-tery business had been successfully growing and, at one time, it had even

p r o d u c e d

four million batteries per month and a market share of nearly 10%.

“Our business then focused on mov-ing into the black, which was not long before the big three, Sanyo — Matsu-

shita, and Toshiba — boosted their production several times,” he says. “In addition, Li-ion batteries began to be produced on a commercial ba-sis. This resulted in the market price of Ni-MH batteries dropping to al-most half and hence our business be-coming unprofi table rapidly.

“In March 1999, we fi nally had to withdraw from the Ni-MH bat-tery business. As it turns out, I was both creator of our Ni-MH batteries and also witness to the demise of our

Ni-MH battery business. We managed to overcome this diffi culty but it took years to recover from this.”

With the growth in demand for Li-ion batteries, all battery manufactur-ers except Sanyo and Matsushita were forced to withdraw from their Ni-MH battery businesses.

At this point, arguably, some of his most important research work was to happen by his switch away from

Ni-MH. “While most of researchers and developers who had been engaged in their Ni-MH battery businesses moved into the research and develop-ment of Li-ion batteries, I was charged with the research and development of lead acid batteries, which were at the

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Since 2004, in collaboration with CSIRO, in Australia Jun Furukawa has been part of the team questing for that Holy Grail: the UltraBattery. Here pictured with Lan Lam, the guiding force behind the project

“In March 1999, we fi nally had to withdraw from the Ni-MH battery business. As it turns out, I was both creator of our Ni-MH batteries and also witness to the demise of our Ni-MH battery business. We managed to overcome this diffi culty but it took years to recover from this.”

“The in-vehicle test had started at the end 2006 and gone smoothly to achieve our original target of 50,000 miles in just a half year. We had continued the test with a doubled target of 100,000 miles



opposite extreme of state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries, though one of our key businesses, where I had a chance to encounter the UltraBattery.”

The next few years, until 2006 saw the Japanese battery innovator turn his mind to the challenge of the day: valve regulated lead acid batteries.

He was assigned to the Technology

Development Department and ap-pointed the leader of MV Team and Iwaki Development Centre’s Second Group. The challenge was the im-provement of 36V VRLA for next-generation 42V-system automobiles, which meant examining positive and negative electrodes, battery structure, evaluation test methods, and heat

dissipation mechanisms. “With a view to enhancing the high-

temperature durability, we had also co-researched and developed Pb-Ca-Sn-Ba alloy for positive electrode sub-strates with Toho Zinc and successful-ly achieved 1.5 times longer life than before and put it into practical use.”

Next in this glittering chain of re-

• Over a period of several years to 2006, Furukawa switches research efforts and attention from Ni-MH to lead acid, initially VRLA technology, improving 36V valve-regulated lead-acid batteries for next-generation 42V-system automobiles.

• Work during this period includes focusing on strengthening mechanisms for a Pb-Ca-Sn-Ba alloy, in collaboration with Iwaki Meisei University, as well as a method of suppressing sulfation of lead-acid batteries and BCM, a lead-acid battery and supercapacitor module.

• In 2004, in collaboration with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientifi c and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Furukawa joins the team behind the UltraBattery, in which an ultracapacitor-based electrode is incorporated in a negative electrode of a lead-acid storage battery to achieve a much higher operational durability under PSOC conditions, previously considered to be diffi cult with conventional lead-acid storage batteries.

• In mid-2006, in collaboration with CSIRO’s Lan Lam, the UltraBattery’s inventor, Furukawa completes a prototype of the battery for motorcycles.

• At the end of 2006 the UltraBattery participates in the ALABC’s in-vehicle test project on a Honda HEV, achieving the original target of 50,000 miles in just a half year, and going on to achieve 100,000 miles, early 2008, a fi rst in the history of lead-acid storage batteries.

• In 2008 East Penn Manufacturing, one of the top lead-acid battery companies in the US, licenses the UltraBattery.

• In March 2009, Furukawa and Lan Lam win the 2009 Technical Development Award of the Electrochemical Society of Japan for the Development of the UltraBattery.

• During this period, Furukawa is appointed the leader of 1st and 2nd Groups, Technology Development Department in April 2006 and, afterwards, of Development Department 1 in 2009.

• Today, Furukawa is engaged as a director in the development of lead-acid storage batteries for automobiles and industrial applications as well as development of the UltraBattery for next-generation automobiles and smart grids. At the same time, he has led the UltraBattery commercialization project team from 2011, negotiating with automakers and energy-related companies.

JUN FURUKAWA’S ROLE IN THE ULTRABATTERY’S DEVELOPMENT



search achievements, Furukawa concentrated on strengthening mechanisms for Pb-Ca-Sn-Ba alloy (collaborating with the Iwaki Meisei University) as well as a method of suppressing sulfation of lead acid bat-teries and BCM, a lead acid battery and super capacitor module.

Since 2004, in collaboration with CSIRO — Australia’s national science agency (Commonwealth Scientifi c and Industrial Research Organisa-tion) Furukawa has been part of the team questing for that Holy Grail: the UltraBattery.

The UltraBattery is a revolution-ary technology invented by Lan Lam from CSIRO, in which an ultracapac-itor-based electrode is incorporated in a negative electrode of a lead acid storage battery to achieve a much higher operational durability under the PSOC conditions, which had been considered to be diffi cult with conven-tional lead acid storage batteries.

This technology paved the way for the practical realization of storage batteries for next-generation hybrid automobiles and smart grids.

“CSIRO’s Lan Lam and I had start-ed our collaborative development and completed a prototype UltraBattery FTZ12-UB with a size of lead acid battery for motorcycles in mid-2006, just a little more than one and a half year into the collaboration,” he says. “We then participated in the ALABC’s in-vehicle test project on a Honda HEV known as the Insight.

“The in-vehicle test had started at the end 2006 and gone smoothly to achieve our original target of 50,000 miles in just a half year.

“We had continued the test with a doubled target of 100,000 miles and also achieved this target in January 2008.” This was a fi rst in the history of lead acid batteries.

In March 2009, Furukawa and Lan Lam won the 2009 Technical Devel-opment Award of the Electrochemical Society of Japan for the Development of the UltraBattery.

In 2008 the UltraBattery was licensed to East Penn Manufacturing one of the top lead acid battery companies in the US.

During this period, Furukawa was appointed the leader of 1st and 2nd Groups, Technology Development Department in April 2006 and, after-wards, of Development Department 1 in 2009.

Furukawa is engaged as a director in the development of lead acid storage batteries for automobiles and indus-

trial applications as well as develop-ment of the UltraBattery for next-gen-eration automobiles and smart grids.

At the same time, he has been the leader of the UltraBattery commer-cialization project team from 2011, negotiating with automakers and en-ergy-related companies.

Now in his late 50s, Jun and his wife Ranko live in Iwaki City, Fukushima prefecture. In March 2011, Fukushi-ma made world headlines because of

the huge Tohoku earthquake, Tsuna-mi and nuclear power plants accident. It was a worrying moment for Furu-kawa as the R&D centre is only 30 miles from the nuclear power plants.

The Furukawas continue to worship at the Catholic Church in Iwaki City. Jun is still a member of the Iwaki Vet-eran Tennis Club and Iwaki Chuou Tennis Club, after 40+ years, he plays every Saturday and Sunday for about three hours. ■

The antidote to too much work — Furukawa is a gifted and committed tennis player

“As a development director for performance improve-ment of Ni-MH batteries, I’d been working to improve the positive and negative electrodes and the battery structure, and successfully achieved, for example, an increase in the capacity of double A-sized batteries by about 30% from 1100mAh to 1400mAh.”

Next in this glittering chain of research achievements, Furukawa concentrated on strengthening mecha-nisms for Pb-Ca-Sn-Ba alloy (collaborative with the Iwaki Meisei University) as well as a method of sup-pressing sulfation of lead-acid batteries and BCM, a lead-acid battery and super capacitor module.

Energy Storage Journal — issue 8 Spring 2015

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Transcript of Energy Storage Journal — issue 8 Spring 2015