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Energy
Building
Energy storage systems are used to store available energy that is not immediately needed for later use. With storage, energy can be used when needed. The goal is to create a reliable and environmentally friendly system. As the share of renewable energies increases, so does the need for storage.
Affordable And Clean Energy
Industry, Innovation And Infrastructure
Sustainable Cities And Communities
Description
Global energy demand has risen sharply over the past decade. The reasons for this include economic growth, population growth and the industrialisation of developing countries. Such energy demand must be met in the most stable and sustainable way possible, using renewable energies (Proton OnSite, 2016).
Variable electricity generation is a common phenomenon when dealing with renewable resources e.g. wind and sun. Thus, there can be a mismatch between the energy generated and the consumption patterns, leading to the fact that the energy is not necessarily produced at the time it is needed. Furthermore, due to the decentralised and widespread energy generation by renewable sources, the energy is not necessarily produced in places with demand.
Indirect by increased renewable energy integration:
Fossil-fuel energy production
Carbon emissions
Detrimental air quality
Fossil-fuel dependency
Directly through storage solutions:
Voltage and frequency regulation
Grid instability
Geographical imbalances
Peak shaving
Efficiency of renewables
Utilisation rate of renewable production
Benefits
Benefits show tangibly how implementation of a Solution can improve the city or place.
The main goal of Energy Storage Systems is to ease the usage of renewable energies. It saves energy and thereby balances out differences in generation and consumption time. Whereas some benefits are likely to be fulfilled with a basic implementation of the solution, the fulfillment of the potential benefits depends on the functions implemented in a specific project.
Main benefits
Improving energy usage efficiency
Increased PV self-consumption
Demand Charge Reduction
Efficient integration of renewables
Backup power
Resource Adequacy
Reducing use of fossils
, Reducing fossil fuels pint
Increasing share of renewables
Increasing energy autarchy
Potential benefits
Enabling new business opportunities
Enhances grid stability
Reducing energy bills
Improving life quality
Reducing local air pollution
Functions
Functions help you to understand what the products can do for you and which ones will help you achieve your goals.
Each solution has at least one mandatory function, which is needed to achieve the basic purpose of the solution, and several additional functions, which are features that can be added to provide additional benefits.
Mandatory functions
Storing energy
Thermal or electric storage for posterior utilisation
Decoupling demand from production
Sufficient storage capacity for peak shifting
Management of energy
Ability to manage energy according to demand and production
Potential functions
Visualizing energy consumption
Display of energy demand of the system powered
Stabilization of microgrid
Against increased voltage and frequency fluctuations, and changing of power flow patterns
Control of energy market participation
Acute controlling for time periods of low and high market prices
Variants
A variant is generally something that is slightly different from other similar things. In the context of Solutions, variants are different options or possibly sub-fields/branches by which the Solution may be implemented, e.g. different technological options.
There are different possibilities to classify energy storage systems to create comparability. The best known are classifications according to physical, energetic, temporal, spatial and economic properties. The energetic classification distinguishes into the superordinate categories of power and energy, the temporal into short-term and long-term, the spatial into central, decentral, stationary and mobile, the economic into markets, capital costs and operating costs. Due to the popularity, the high number of categories and the technical understanding, the different storage systems are classified and explained physio-energetically (Sterner, Stadtler, 2017).
Description
Mechanical storage systems use the energy that a medium has due to its position (potential), velocity (kinematics) or thermodynamic state (pressure). They are mainly secondary energy carriers.
Since the use of energy from renewable sources is most economical when used in forms of electricity, electrical storage is an obvious option. The advantage of not having to convert electrical energy into other forms of energy and thus being able to avoid high conversion losses in some cases. This is offset by the disadvantage of extremely low energy densities in terms of both volume and weight - and exorbitantly high costs (Sterner, Stadtler, 2017). For this reason, their application is currently merely limited to niche applications. (Kurzweil, Dietlmeier, 2015)
Capacitors are used for decentralized short-circuit current supply and use for applications with the highest demands on reaction times (e.g. voltage quality).
Storage technologies:
Capacitors and coils
Super conductor magnetic energy storage
Supercapacitor energy storage
Supporting City Context
Short- and long-term storage
Presence of low-carbon energy generation assets
Co-located with other generation assets (PV & Wind)
Description
Electrochemical storage systems consist of electrodes that are chemically connected. Electrical energy is transferred through chemical reactions during loading and unloading. There are electrochemical systems that can only be discharged. These are called primary batteries. Systems that can be charged and discharged repeatedly are called secondary batteries (accumulators). Chemical storage, on the other hand, involves material energy sources such as hydrocarbons or energy-carrying substances. The energy can be stored in gaseous media (hydrogen, biogas), liquid media (fuels such as ethylene, methanol) or in solid media (biomass, coal). The charging processes occur in nature (photosynthesis) or are technically converted (power to gas, power to liquid). Discharge is realized through combustion processes or conversion of thermal into mechanical or electrical energy.
Function: Chemical storage functions as long-term storage for the power sector, but also as a fuel supplier for mobility and heat.
Solution for re-purposing Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries. EV taxis of the private company OU Takso in Tartu will be partially recharged based on renewable energy that is produced on-site with PV panels and stored in used EV batteries improving the yield of the batteries.
There are three main types of thermal energy storage systems –sensible, latent and thermochemical. While the sensible energy storage works through a temperature change, the latent energy storage works due to a phase change of the used material. In thermochemical storages a chemical reaction with high energy involved is used to store energy. Sensible thermal storage has a high level of development but low energy density and thermochemical storage vice versa. Latent storage is in the middle for both parameters.
Storage technologies:
Sensible thermal storage
Solid
Liquid
Latent thermal storage
Solid liquid
Liquid gaseous
Solid-solid
Thermochemical thermal storage
Sorption
Chemically reversible
The storage solution molten salt, mentioned in the grid flexibility solution, falls under the category of sensitive heat storage.
Function:
Sensible thermal storage functions as short-term to seasonal storage, ranging from low-temperature level for domestic hot water heating to high-temperature storage in electricity generation (molten salt for solar thermal power plants), mobile and stationary applications.
What supporting factors and characteristics of a city is this Solution fit for? What factors would ease implementation?
The composition of the electricity price can influence the economic performance of an energy storage system.
Legal regulations have a huge influence and can promote or inhibit storage systems in countries, regions, and cities.
Since electricity storage is mainly related to renewable energies, proximity to a renewable energy plant ensures a holistic approach to maximise emission savings within the drawn boundaries. For example, the electricity generated by a wind turbine or photovoltaic system can be stored in a storage system.
Supporting Factors
Prevalence of local renewable energy sources (wind/solar/CHP operated with renewable energies)
Grid modernisation, such as the transition to smart grids, helps to integrate electricity storage systems
Local regulations that support energy storage systems (see Government Initiatives)
Government Initiatives
What efforts and policies are local/national public administrations undertaking to help further and support this Solution?
The economic performance of many energy generation and storage technologies depends heavily on the regulatory framework, especially concerning taxes and levies. Climate policy and CO2 price implications have the potential to push low carbon emission technologies. Then, the allowance price is added to the variable costs of each fossil-based technologies. For example, several European countries have a carbon tax. Portugal, Sweden, Spain and Poland are just a few examples (taxfoundation, 2020).
There have been several EU initiatives on batteries, such as Batteries Europe, SET Plan action, BRIDGE projects on batteries or the BATSTORM project (European Commission, 2020).
Most countries in the EU lack a specific support mechanism for energy storage systems, although some have implemented specific measures. In Germany, for example, there is a subsidy program for distributing battery storage systems. It aims to ensure that solar PV systems have a greater benefit to the overall system by smoothing their export. While some energy storage solutions are commercially viable without subsidies, larger infrastructure-heavy projects, such as larger-scale pumped storage plants, currently struggle to attract investment due to the high revenue risk (cms, 2018).
Stakeholder Mapping
Which stakeholders need to be considered (and how) regarding the planning and implementation of this Solution?
Stakeholder Map Energy Storage
Stakeholder Map of an energy storage system (BABLE, 2021)
Market Potential
How big is the potential market for this Solution? Are there EU goals supporting the implementation? How has the market developed over time and more recently?
There are many projections for the future energy storage market. Some of these differ significantly, but one statement can be found in all projections: the energy storage market will grow. A study by Deloitte (2018) identifies various drivers for this growth:
Decreasing costs for storage technologies
Improving performance
Grid modernisation and grid complexity will increase
More renewable energies will be installed (regional to global)
Participation of storage systems in wholesale electricity markets
Financial incentives that support the use of storage technologies will be put in place
Low or declining feed-in-tariffs (FITs) for renewables rise incentives for self-consumption of produced electricity
Rising desire for self-sufficiency (energy autarchy), resilience or independence among consumers
National regulations and policies promoting storage solutions to tackle specific challenges such as import dependency, fill gaps in generation mix, move toward environmental goals and de-carbonisation targets
Energy storage will also likely benefit from broad policy mandates linked to urbanisation and quality-of-life goals in developing nations
In 2019, the global demand for energy storage systems amounted to 194.32 GW (Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020). According to Bloomberg NEF, the energy storage market will cumulatively grow to 943 GW or 2,857 GWh by 2040. From 2018 to 2040, $620 billion will be invested in energy storage. By 2040, energy storage is expected to grow to account for 7% of total global installed electricity capacity. Initially, much electricity storage will be installed behind the meter, but by the mid-2030s, the majority of storage is expected to be in the utility-scale sector. The development of the market in the individual countries can be seen in the following figure (BloomberggNEF, 2018).
Figure: Projected global cumulative storage deployment by country 2018-2030 (Deloitte, 2018)
Cost Structure
The costs for storage capacities are crucial for an energy system based on significant shares of renewable energy. The figure below presents an overview with specific prices per kWh for various electricity storage technologies in recent years. This incorporates battery systems, power to X technologies (electrolysis in brown colour), and pumps storage plants (pumped hydro in yellow colour) as the currently most utilised solution. The dependency between price and cumulative installed capacity is shown on the horizontal axes. Thus, a correlation between the installed capacity and cost reductions can be observed.
In addition to the historic reduction of specific costs of electrical storage capacities, further cost reductions are expected. Studies project that Levelised Cost of Storages (LCoS) will reduce at least by one-third to one-half by 2030 and 2050. Moreover, it is expected that lithium ion will likely become more cost efficient for nearly all stationary battery applications from 2030 onwards (Schmidt, Melchior, Hawkes, & Staffell, 2019). The effect of cost reductions is not solely caused by economy of scale but also by the maturity-level of the technologies. A projection about the development of LCoS is given in the following figure.
2016 – Clean Energy for all Europeans Package – among other things switch to clean energy and electricity markets are opened up for energy storage (European Comission, 2017)
2019 - Electricity Market Design Directive (recast): aims to reduce barriers to energy storage, and mandates non-discriminatory and competitive procurement of balancing services and fair rules in relation to network access and charging (Official Journal of the European Comission, 2019)
2020 – Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning batteries and waste batteries: part of European Green Deal (European Comission, 2020), status February 2021: European Parliament, 2021
Energy Transition Law: sets ambitious 2030 targets for renewable energy in France, energy storage as a necessity to achieve environmental policy objectives
The creation of this solution has been supported by EU funding
Use Cases
Explore real-life examples of implementations of this Solution.
Energy
Mobility
Reusing EV Batteries for Energy Storage
Solution for re-purposing Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries. EV taxis of the private company OU Takso in Tartu will be partially recharged based on renewable energy that is produced on-site with PV panels and stored in used EV batteries improving the yield of the batteries.
Energy Storage in Espoo's Positive Energy District
Thermal energy is stored in the ground (boreholes), where excess thermal energy is returned to and stored in the ground. An electric battery in Lippulaiva is used to optimize electricity usage and participating in electricity reserve markets.
Approximately one-quarter of the energy price is owed by the transportation of the energy. The implementation of a local energy system can shift the energy production from a centralised system to a decentralised system.
According to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in the EU.
The majority of public funding for energy efficiency within the EU is proposed in the building sector. The federal funds for energy efficiency in residential buildings added up to €97 million in 2019. A Smart Home System is one possibility to improve residential energy efficiency.
The supply of energy to households, public buildings and services accounts for the majority of GHG emissions in the majority of municipalities. Municipal Energy Saving Systems represent punctual solutions to optimise energy consumption.
VPPs are a response to the growing number of distributed energy resources (DER) making their way onto the grid, as VPPs allow their production to be pooled to achieve the flexibility and scale needed to trade in the electricity market; unleashing gains for prosumers, aggregators, and grid operators.