Move Over, Lithium Ion: Vanadium Flow Batteries Finally Become Competitive for Grid-Scale Energy Storage.
The factory sprawls over an area larger than 20 soccer fields. Inside, it’s brightly lit and filled with humming machinery, a mammoth futuristic manufactory. Robot arms grab components from bins and place each part with precision, while conveyor belts move the assembled pieces smoothly down production lines. Finished products enter testing stations for quality checks before being packed for shipping.
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Opened in early 2017, in the northern Chinese port city of Dalian, this plant is owned by Rongke Power and is turning out battery systems for some of the world’s largest energy storage installations. It’s on target to produce 300 megawatts’ worth of batteries by the end of this year, eventually ramping up to 3 gigawatts per year.
The scale of this “other” gigafactory may be impressive, but the core technology it makes is even more compelling. The Dalian factory produces vanadium redox-flow batteries, a specialized type whose time has finally come. The VRFB was invented decades ago but has emerged only recently as one of the leading contenders for large-scale energy storage.
How large? VRFBs are being touted for grid-scale uses in which they would store up to hundreds of megawatt-hours of energy. In these applications, they may be charged by large baseload power plants, which generate electricity cheaply but are too sluggish to accommodate sharp increases in demand during peak hours. Or they may be charged by renewable sources like wind farms, whose generation doesn’t always align well with demand. Like most batteries, VRFBs can deliver power nearly instantaneously, so they can stand in for the traditional means of meeting peak demand: fossil-fueled “peaker” plants that, in comparison with batteries, are costly to maintain and operate and not as fast.
Lithium-ion batteries, too, have been proposed for grid-scale uses. But here they are no match for VRFBs, which have longer lifetimes, can be scaled up more easily, and can operate day in, day out, with no significant performance loss for 20 years or more.
Soon this technology will be the cornerstone of the largest battery installation in the world: a 200-MW, 800-megawatt-hour storage station being built in Dalian. The first 100 MW will be installed by the end of this year, with the remainder coming on line in 2018. The station will help balance supply and demand on the Liaoning province power grid, which serves about 40 million people, filling the same function as a peaker power plant but without using scarce water. Furthermore, if the batteries are charged by the wind-generated power that’s abundant in northern China, no fossil fuels will be burned. Should demand spike or the supply dip suddenly, the battery station will be able to dispatch all or just part of its 200 MW within milliseconds.
The result will be a stable grid that can integrate more renewable energy. At times, wind generation in Liaoning province tops 7 GW, or about 15 percent of total generation. But much of that power isn’t used because other sources already meet grid demand. Earlier this year, the amount of wind power in Liaoning that was curtailed, or wasted, reached 15 percent; in the neighboring province of Jilin, it was 30 percent. The Dalian site will store that wasted energy for later use, adding up to a few hundred gigawatt-hours per month.
The Dalian site is just one of several big VRFB installations being built in China, so its reign as the world’s biggest battery may be short. Meanwhile, other countries are adopting VRFBs. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s global energy storage database, since 2014, more than 30 VRFB projects in 11 countries have been deployed or begun construction; these range in power from a few tens of kilowatts up to Dalian’s 200 MW. While these projects reflect the surging interest in all forms of energy storage, what’s driving the renewed push toward VRFBs are important technological distinctions.
Read more at It’s Big and Long-Lived, and It Won’t Catch Fire: The Vanadium Redox-Flow Battery
Platooning might make the economics reasonable for short-haul electric trucking.
Ever since Elon Musk announced his ambitious plan to roll out the electric Tesla Semi last summer, industry observers and battery experts have openly wondered how the company could make the plan work.
Researchers have long asserted that current lithium-ion batteries are too heavy and expensive to meet the demands of heavy-duty trucking. But a Reuters report in August raised an interesting possibility: correspondence between Tesla and regulators in the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles suggested the company hoped to test multiple trucks driving in a platoon formation, relying on autonomous-driving technology.
The basic concept behind platooning is that trucks driving in close alignment significantly reduce aerodynamic drag, boosting the overall energy efficiency of the fleet. Tesla is set to unveil its electric truck at an event next month, which promises to shed more light on the company’s strategy.
But following the Reuters report, battery researchers at Carnegie Mellon University decided to take a close look at this possibility. They concluded that platooning could make heavy-duty trucks more cost competitive, at least with enough semis, according to a study in ACS Energy Letters published Thursday. The sweet spot appears to be seven vehicles driving together on trips shorter than 300 miles, which would reduce aerodynamic drag by 50 percent. Longer hauls, on the other hand, would still face exorbitantly high costs.
So how do the economics change when you string together seven electric trucks?
If they only need to travel a range of 300 miles, the required battery pack drops from 1,100 kilowatt-hours to 880 kilowatt-hours, and the cost of the pack falls from about $200,000 to $158,000, “which is quite cost competitive,” Viswanathan says. As a bonus, the potential cargo payload actually increases over the average cargo weight, from 16 tons to 25.5 tons.
By way of comparison, the total cost of an average diesel-powered truck is about $120,000, and the vehicle can run for about 1,000 miles on a single fill-up.
But the economics still don’t seem to work for long-haul electric trucking, even with extended platooning. A semi with 900 miles of range in such a scenario would require a 2,600-kilowatt-hour battery pack that would cost around $420,000.
Why can’t the 300-mile trucks just stop and recharge more often? Charging electric trucks takes a lot more time than refilling diesel tanks, increasing idling periods and undermining delivery economics. Making 300-mile trucks competitive in long-haul scenarios would probably require battery-swapping facilities, which employ robotics to quickly trade fresh batteries for spent ones, the researchers say. Tesla previously explored that option for its cars before settling on Supercharger stations.
The good news here is that short-haul trucking does represent the majority of delivery trips, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, suggesting there could be an addressable market for a lengthy line of electric semis.
On the other hand, stringing together seven trucks would represent “some advanced platooning,” said Bryant Walker Smith, an assistant law professor at the University of South Carolina who focuses on autonomous driving, in an e-mail. That number is well beyond the two or three that most platoon developers are initially aiming for, and more than any single carrier usually has traveling together at the same time, he added.
That suggests the need for cross-carrier collaboration, as well as common standards and coordinated logistics. Lengthy platoons could also raise safety issues, especially if seven trucks all merge onto the highway at once or another driver tries to pass that many vehicles.
Autonomous-driving features are considered a necessary first step in extended platooning, enabling the vehicles to safely and consistently drive in close proximity over long periods.
Tesla, of course, has already been developing and implementing such features in its consumer automobiles. Uber, Otter, and Waymo are all working on autonomous trucking as well. Meanwhile, some vehicle manufacturers like Daimler and startups like Peloton Technology have already begun developing and testing trucks capable of platooning in limited numbers.
The Carnegie Mellon study highlighted another key benefit of platooning electric semis: the lower strains on the battery packs could extend their useful life by another 60,000 to 120,000 miles, essentially adding another year of commercial use on the high end. That plus other factors, like the lower maintenance requirements of electric vehicles, could significantly decrease the lifetime costs of these trucks.
Read more at An Electric Semi Definitely Won’t Work—But Seven in a Row Might
We’re in the middle of a new, climate-changed kind of fall — one where you ask for that pumpkin spice latte iced, please.
Southern California crushed records on Tuesday as temperatures soared over 100 degrees F. In Los Angeles, the World Series kicked off amid triple-digit heat that broke the scoreboard. The city of San Luis Obispo measured 108 degrees, tying the record for the hottest temperature seen anywhere in the United States this far into the calendar year.
When the weather is so hot that it literally melts carved pumpkins, can we even call it fall anymore?
The New York Times lamented this new “fifth season” in an essay about the East Coast’s unseasonably warm autumn weather, which averaged 6 to 8 degrees hotter than normal. “Hotumn” is “a between-time when thighs and shoulders linger a little longer, and fans of fall fashion are left sweating in their boots,” Reggie Ugwu writes.
Scientists caution against attributing this year’s sweltering Sweatember and Hottober temps to climate change alone, but the long-term trend is clear: This certainly won’t be our last hotumn.
Read more at 100-Degree October Temperatures? Welcome to ‘Hotumn.’
A multi-billion-dollar seawall is among climate adaptation options under consideration for the iconic coastal city.
As this year’s hurricanes marched across the Caribbean into the Gulf Coast or out to the North Atlantic, cities along the U.S. northeastern coast knew they were dodging bullets. If Boston gets hit by a storm like Hurricane Harvey, mayor Marty Walsh acknowledged in a radio interview, “we are wiped out as a city.”
Back in 2012, Superstorm Sandy offered a heads-up on hurricane risks, killing 43 people and causing US$19 billion of damage in New York City alone as it pulled in a surge of seawater that rose more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) above ground level in many neighborhoods. If Sandy’s remnants hadn’t missed Boston’s high tide by a few hours, a similar storm surge would have swept across low areas of the city.
Today, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) analysis suggests, a Category 1 hurricane with a few feet of surge on top of a high tide could flood a quarter of a million Boston residents. And climate change is bringing more intense storms and rising tides.
Read more at With Storms Intensifying and Oceans on the Rise, Boston Weighs Strategies for Staying Dry
Tesla announces 'first of many' solar-plus-storage projects in Puerto Rico. It's one of several efforts to repower the island with renewable energy post-hurricane.
Solar panels began filling a parking lot outside a children's hospital this week as Elon Musk's first major solar-plus-storage project in Puerto Rico took shape, demonstrating how quickly solar microgrids can be established for long-term clean, resilient power.
It's one small but telling step in a U.S. territory of 3.4 million people still largely in the dark five weeks after Hurricane Maria struck.
Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SolarCity, launched a conversation about bringing solar microgrids to the island a little over two weeks ago in a Twitter exchange with Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello. Musk suggested that pairing solar panels with battery systems had worked for other islands and could help Puerto Rico rebuild from the hurricane, too. Rossello's quick response: Let's talk.
"Hospital del Niño is the first of many solar+storage projects going live," the tech company tweeted with photos on Tuesday. CBS correspondent David Begnaud, who is in Puerto Rico, reported that the installation would generate enough energy to power the hospital during the day and store 500 kilowatt-hours of energy for power at night.
Tesla has declined to provide details about its plans in Puerto Rico, saying only to watch for updates through its Twitter channels.
While Musk has been drawing most of the attention for the solar microgrid push in Puerto Rico so far, his is just one of several efforts to bring power back to an island where some three-quarters of the population still lacks electricity.
Sonnen, a German-based battery company, said it was shipping solar-plus-storage systems to Puerto Rico to support disaster response efforts and planned to work with partners on developing microgrids there. Sunrun and other solar providers have been working together to send solar power supplies to the islands. Non-profit groups, too, have brought in installers and donated materials to help communities power up.
Restoring power to all of Puerto Rico could take at least six months to a year―more than 2,000 miles of above-ground transmission lines are knocked out, and the U.S. Department of Defense reports that 62,000 utility poles are needed. Concerns are already rising about how the government-owned utility, which was bankrupt before the hurricane devastated its infrastructure, plans to make that happen.
Read more at Puerto Rico’s Solar Future Takes Shape at Children’s Hospital, with Tesla Batteries
