Rutgers Will Research New Jersey Energy Storage Path

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

With just six days left until SolarWakeup Live! New Jersey, the topics are set – but attendees might be forgiven if they have a few off-topic questions that they might decide need to be addressed.

Take, for example, the announcement by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities that Rutgers University will be studying the state’s energy-storage needs as the regulatory board prepares to shepherd through Governor Phil Murphy’s aggressive plans to have 2 GW of energy storage by 2030.

The contract with Rutgers, announced yesterday and covered by the Press of Atlantic City, will last six months and cost $300,000.

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“The ability to store energy is critical for our future,” NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso told The Press. “Energy storage systems will provide emergency back-up power for essential services, offsetting peak loads, and stabilizing the electric distribution system, which ultimately will benefit the ratepayer.”

Under the contract, Rutgers will study whether renewable energy storage will promote EV use in the state and what effect it will have on renewable energy production in the state, as well as doing a full cost/benefit analysis of the expansion of storage options.

Governor Murphy made expanding renewable energy in the state – and solar in particular – a centerpiece of his campaign. Earlier this year, he signed two bills into law that, combined, established the state’s community solar program (later bolstered with provisions to encourage the development of community solar in low-income neighborhoods), reformed the state’s important (but flawed) solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program and established a new renewable portfolio standard of 50% by 2030.

Murphy succeeded former Governor Chris Christie, who had vetoed the RPS expansion on his way out the door and had created a difficult market for the solar industry under his leadership. During his tenure, the state dropped from being the No. 2 solar state in the country to much lower in the Top 10. Murphy hopes to return New Jersey to its place of prominence within the solar community.

While New Jersey has fallen, other New England states like New York and Massachusetts have grabbed the majority of the headlines – but with its strong renewable energy and storage provisions, New Jersey

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N.J. regulator contracts with Rutgers for energy storage analysis

Duke Energy Plans To Invest $500 Million In Energy Storage

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

It may not seem like much. After all, it only works out to 37.5 MWh per year. But Duke Energy’s decision to invest $500 million for energy storage in conjunction with its solar portfolio in the Carolinas is still big, given the utility’s ongoing love/hate relationship with solar energy.

The investment will take place over 15 years and will increase battery capacity in North Carolina from its current 15 MW capacity and in South Carolina, well – right now you need a microscope to see its battery storage, so any increase would be immense.

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“Duke Energy is at the forefront of battery energy storage, and our investment could increase as we identify projects that deliver benefits to our customers,” said Rob Caldwell, president, Duke Energy Renewables and Distributed Energy Technology. “Utility-owned and operated projects in North Carolina and South Carolina will include a variety of system benefits that will help improve reliability for our customers and provide significant energy grid support for the region.”

This week, the company filed for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity with the North Carolina Utilities Commission for a solar facility in the Hot Springs community of Madison County as part of a microgrid project.

The Hot Springs Microgrid project will consist of a 2-megawatt (AC) solar facility and a 4-megawatt lithium-based battery storage facility. The microgrid will provide a safe, cost-effective and reliable grid solution for serving the Hot Springs area, and provide energy and grid support to all customers. The project will defer ongoing maintenance of an existing distribution power line that serves the remote town.

The Hot Springs project is part Duke Energy’s Western Carolinas Modernization Project, which involves on-going conversations with community partners to help advance a cleaner energy future for the region. It includes closing a half-century-old, coal-fired power plant in Asheville in 2019. The plant will be replaced with a cleaner natural gas-fired plant and distributed energy resources like solar power and battery storage.

Duke Energy’s long-term solar strategy has traditionally been a “solar for me but not for thee” formulation, building large-scale utility solar farms it controls while both subtly (and not-so-subtly) undermining rooftop solar in the Carolinas.

DoE Grants Aim To Find Longer-Duration Batteries

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Utility Dive (UD) had an interesting piece on the recent Department of Energy (DoE) grants that are aimed at finding longer-duration batteries, which are important as more renewables join the grid.

Right now, according to UD, lithium ion batteries don’t provide enough storage capacity (typically four hours) to really be a sufficient for the widespread battery storage that is necessary as renewables increase their penetration throughout the country.

As they should, the DoE is now investing government funds in research-and-development (R&D) to find alternatives.

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UD reports:

Last month, the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) awarded just over $28 million to 10 projects that aim to push the limits of energy storage duration. ARPA-E’s Duration Addition to electricitY Storage (DAYS) program aims to push the duration of energy storage systems out to 100 hours.

One hundred hours, just a little more than four days, is an exponential leap from current durations but the role of ARPA-E is to focus on early stage technologies that are not yet commercial or quite ready for the private sector.

“Wind and solar will clearly be the cheapest forms of electric energy in the future,” Paul Albertus, the director of the DAYS program, told Utility Dive. So, “it is pretty clear that over the next 10 years or so” the need for longer duration energy storage is going to grow, he said.

What’s most interesting, however, is a point made later in the article about the grid. People tend to forget that until battery storage catches up, the grid is still the “storage device” of choice for most renewable energy users. As Alex Eller, senior research analyst at Navigant Research, told Utility Dive:

“It comes back to the fact that grid is built on plants that can run forever, given enough fuel. Until they are not there anymore, that is your long term storage,” Eller said.

More:

DOE energy storage grants look to the day when renewables rule the grid

SB700 Signed By Governor Brown, Extends SGIP 5 Years

By Yann Brandt, Managing Editor

Governor Jerry Brown has signed SB700, the bill also known as the ‘Sun Shines at Night’. The bill, which had passed the legislature in early September, will extend and fund the popular energy storage incentive called SGIP.

“If we are going to get to 100% clean energy, we need to be using solar power every hour of the day, not just when the sun is shining,” said Senator Scott Wiener, author of SB 700. “This bill will protect clean energy jobs while also protecting consumers from ever rising energy bills.”

The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) backed SB700 as the signature legislation for 2018 and with over 200 solar professionals pushed for its passing at the annual lobby day. Yesterday, CALSSA called for emergency outreach to the Governor’s office to ask for the bill to be signed.

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“By signing this bill, the governor is making the sun shine at night!” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, the 500-member clean energy business group that championed SB 700 for the past two years. ”Energy storage is critical to achieving our ambitious climate change goals by allowing massive deployment of solar energy and giving everyday consumers another reason to be green.”

SB 700 re-authorizes the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) for five years, extending rebates for consumers through 2025. It would add up to $800 million for storage and other emerging clean energy technologies, resulting in a total investment of $1.2 billion for customer sited energy storage. Boosting energy storage will help California achieve its goal of generating 100% of its electricity from renewable resources, as called for in SB 100 (de Leon), which was signed into law on September 10th. A summary of SB 700 with more details about the SGIP program can be found here.

SB 700 won broad, bipartisan support in the California legislature in August with a 25-12 vote in the Senate and a 57-18 vote in the Assembly. It was signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on September 27, 2018. The new law will take effect January 1, 2019.