New electrolysis stack technology from Canadian developer Hydrogenics offers a megawatt conversion capacity of 85%, paving the way for advanced gas power energy storage. "Creating a highly efficient link between the electrical grid and the natural gas system power to gas unlocks the massive energy storage capacity which we have already built and paid for," Daryl Wilson, chief executive at Hydrogenics told Gas to Power Journal.
UK-based research firm Highview Power Storage and GE Oil & Gas have announced a licencing and technology collaboration agreement to develop large-scale liquid air energy storage (LAES) systems. The technology is “ideally suited” for gas-fired peaker power plants, according to GE who struck the partnership to explore opportunities to improve operations of existing plants through the addition of energy storage.
Feb 19 – The German government has awarded €6.5 billion for E.ON's 5-megawatt energy storage project, named M5BAT (modular multi-megawatt multi-technology medium-voltage battery storage).
Works on the power storage will start in the autumn and E.ON said it expects the facility to start operation in 2015.
The project is a unique battery storage system, E.ON said and will focus on "renewables integration, testing of distributed regulating energy provision to promote grid stability, and power price arbitrage."
A 500 kilowatt-hour peak load shifting unit is to be installed at the Discovery Science Center in Southern California by GE as part of efforts to reduce peak demand on the grid. The GE storage and Princeton Power Systems (PPS) inverter control system is expected to shift 10-20% of daily electrical load to off-peak time periods, freeing up peakload power supply for other users.
The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has voted in legislation to mandate 1,325 megawatts of energy storage in the state in a move set fast-track expansion of the power-to-gas sector. The PUC vote mandates Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric to install extra storage capacity by 2020.
Oct 1 - The Spanish government has halted work on the Castor offshore submarine gas storage plant following more than 200 minor earthquakes nearby, off the eastern coast of Valencia.
The Castor facility is one of the country's biggest investments in gas infrastructure and is meant to cover 30 percent of Spain's daily gas consumption. It was the first European project to issue so-called "project bonds".
SoCalGas, a gas grid operator in California, is spending £1 million on the cleantech fund LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI) to develop 'renewable natural gas.' "Biogas is one source but, in the future, we expect other pathways such as 'water splitting' through solar chemical conversion and hydrogen electrolysis to provide renewable natural gas," said Jeff Reed, SoCalGas director of business strategy and development.
Italian marine classification society RINA has approved a design for a compressed natural gas (CNG) storage system aboard vessles, which is being used as gas feed at a fuel oil peaking power plant retrofitted to run on gas in Grati, Indonesia. The 300MW unit is "the world's largest CNG storage system," according to RINA.
July 30 - Samsung Electronics Co and S&C Electric Co have joined forces to develop an energy storage project that could save Britain up to £300 million annually once 2 GW of storage is installed by 2020.
The project comes at a cost of £28.5 million and will be capable of storing up to 10 MW-hours of electricity.
As part of a 'smart grid' feasibility study, energy storage company ITM Power has launched an upgrade to its hydrogen-producing HGas electrolyser on the Isle of Wight, UK to allow more solar and wind power to come on the grid safely. Sponsored by the UK government, the study examines how HGas electrolyser units produce hydrogen gas from surplus renewable power that utilities can sell as fuel to natural gas consumers and power plants.