World Energy Storage Day - How did the World fare over the year

"How do you perceive Computers as? Really expense typewriters?

Let me ask this question again in a slightly different manner

How do you perceive energy storage as? a very expensive way of just storing energy?"....

till the time we perceive things on the basis of only one angle, opportunities will always look expensive, storage comes with much more benefits and applications than just being used for a single application. (a quote shared by Stephen Fernands during the course of the event)

I sit down to write this blog as an extension to the blog I wrote last year when we were celebrating World Energy Storage Day in Delhi on 22nd September 2019. So much changed since then, the World today is different in quite so many ways. As I write I am attending the last session of this years World Energy Storage Day Celebration on a virtual platform with a hand sanitizer placed beside me, a face mask kept ready on the table in case I want to go out of my apartment and a fear of uncertainty hovering all around. Who could have thought about this situation last year when I announced there holding the microphone on stage that lets meet again next year and discuss energy storage!

So, what about the storage revolution? Did you put a halt? Did we slow down owning to the pandemic? Did the priorities change? Well, denying the same will not be a prudent enough to do, as there has been effects which the pandemic has made us to face, but after a small glitch the Industry has again bounced back, so much so that US in Q2 recorded highest amount of storage installation surpassing even installations of the same quarter last year.

Listening through the discussions and remarks from various thought leaders across the Globe, here’s trying to summarize the main key takeaways from the day long event which saw participation from across the Globe.

Whether its Australia or Portugal or China or Canada, one point which came out in unison was that energy storage is the sector which will define the present decade. It does not only include batteries but also all those technologies which will make commercial sense too, falling under the energy storage definition. Some very interesting statements were heard, like what actually lead to the development of the Hornsdale Project in Western Australia which today stands as the largest lithium ion commissioned project worldwide (2016 Australia Blackout). It was interesting to listen from long running utilities that Energy Storage will be in the center of all those ways age old utilities will find ways to do something different to remain relevant in todays distributed generating world. The importance of local governments and the role that they play for making the growth of storage more sustainable will be crucial and the same was emphasized by many.

The growth of renewables will depend a lot on how we can make renewables more dispatchable as a power generating source. In a World which today has an interesting problem of excess power, its therefore important to understand the value drivers and demand centers rather than just expanding Renewables to meet targets, this will only lead to a Grid which has more issues than solutions. The focus therefore shifts towards having 24*7 power through Renewables; thus, the requirement of storage becomes all the more necessary. If we keep waiting for prices to drop further, we will only be missing opportunities, the time to act is NOW! The same is being shown by the statistics coming from the US Power Development Queue where 30% of projects are with storage and the tariffs have already dropped 16% when compared to 2018 levels. Another example is Portugal which saw 483 MW of its total 700 MW tender being selected as Solar with Storage. As on date energy storage as a new project is already making more sense than peaking gas plants or even new build coal plants.

The prices will keep dropping, the technological improvements will keep happening, but the rate will keep reducing (the price fall was 11% in 2019, the same is 8% in 2020). This more or less projects towards plateauing of the technology. We heard leaders projecting to costs reaching double digits by the mid of the decade, but yes along with the same we also heard that only cost should not be the criteria, the criteria to chose a technology should be more diverse, it should include safety, applications catered, safety considerations (a Liverpool Lithium Ion facility of 20 MW just faced a fire breakout on 15th Sep 2020), it should be more to look at the total value propositions in offer. The discussions of the requirement of long duration storage of around 6 to 8 hours and thus the requirement of technologies beyond lithium ion technologies was also emphasized along with the growth of green hydrogen.

Local Manufacturing is crucial, but along with the same what is important today is to keep investing on Research and Developments, and go into R&D with the thought that not every R&D product will be successful, only then can we have more innovative solutions, its useless to keep repeating available solutions in todays world. Yes, policy and regulatory support along with Government incentives is important but the same should not be seen as roadblocks, the Industry has to grow sustainably and for the same it should be as less dependable to external forces as possible. Apart from all this one thing that was pointed out was the importance of focusing on knowledge transfer and capacity building.

Electric Vehicles is one topic which goes like synonyms with energy storage and why not as it todays leads the market share of batteries for energy storage sector. But what was interesting to observe in todays discussion was the number of times the discussion on second use of batteries and recycling of batteries was raised during the EV discussions, it shows how important a pie it is in the EV circle to make the growth of electric vehicles more sustainable. Discussions on making charging infrastructure and charging as whole greener also was discussed in detail. Today the world has around 7.1 million passenger vehicles on road and the same will only grow in leaps and bounds going forward thus its important to see that we keep this growth sustainable. I am glad that rather than just discussing on market numbers what saw major discussions phasing around was the need of standards, regulations, best practices and new developments in the pipeline and the current research and development initiatives in this space which is changing every day.

So, finally let’s go back to the question I started the blog with, did we make progress? Of course, we did, else I won’t have had so much to jot down throughout the day!!! Jokes apart, the last one year actually saw progress and work moving from white boards to actual ground. The projects went on to be bigger, from MWh to GWh ranges, at the same time they also went on to be cheaper with more improved cycle life, efficiency, thermal runaway limits and safety systems. As many leaders said, we are at the cusp of a revolution which has just started, and each year will bring forward a whole new gamut of new opportunities as here is a technology which is changing every day. What is needed is much more collaboration, much more knowledge sharing as this is a world where silos wont work! The next year when I sit to write the blog on 22nd September 2021, here’s hoping we all will be fit and fine and also talk about a World which is much Greener and much more Sustainable.

2019 World Energy Storage Day Blog: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/world-energy-storage-week-debmalya-sen/

Keeping link to one of the media releases which details on specific speeches delivered by leaders during the day: https://evtechnews.in/iesa-global-conference-expo-world-energy-storage-day-report/