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Renewable Research Enlivens NREL Presentation

November 30, 2017/in Energy Connections Articles/by CREA Admin

Dr. Martin Keller, director of the National Renewable Energy Lab, presented to a full room at CREA’s 2017 Energy Innovations Summit October 30. NREL is all about innovation. It has made advances in generating solar, wind, bio energy, as well as in transportation and grid integration. It has received 147 U.S. patents since 2011, and […]

Is Energy Storage Going Mainstream?

November 30, 2017/in Energy Connections Articles/by CREA Admin

The electric industry’s “Holy Grail” is storage technology that can reliably and affordably store energy to complement intermittent renewables. A panel of experts from NREL, the Electric Power Research Institute and Tesla came together at the closing session of CREA’s Energy Innovations Summit in October to discuss how the storage industry is progressing. Moderator Jeff […]

Renewable Research Enlivens NREL Presentation

November 30, 2017/in Energy Connections Articles/by CREA Admin

Is Energy Storage Going Mainstream?

November 30, 2017/in Energy Connections Articles/by CREA Admin

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Renewable Research Enlivens NREL Presentation

November 30, 2017/in Energy Connections Articles/by CREA Admin

Dr. Martin Keller, director of the National Renewable Energy Lab, presented to a full room at CREA’s 2017 Energy Innovations Summit October 30.

NREL is all about innovation. It has made advances in generating solar, wind, bio energy, as well as in transportation and grid integration. It has received 147 U.S. patents since 2011, and has 749 active partnerships with industry, universities and local governments.

Dr. Keller noted that renewables are the new normal in the United States. The costs for using renewables are falling and will continue to fall, and yet the US is barely scratching the surface for renewable resources.

According to Dr. Keller, NREL research shows that 80 percent of the electricity the U.S. will need in 2050 can be sourced from renewable technologies. Solar research shows that the cost of solar has gone down 96 percent and grown by more than 50 percent each of the past five years. It makes up 1 percent of all U.S. power generation. NREL wind research shows that innovations have driven down the cost of wind as much as 98 percent between 2009 and 2016. Wind supplies 6.2 percent of U.S. electricity.

Dr. Keller did add that the increase in the diversity of renewables on the grid does require storage options since storage can make renewables dispatchable. And he said that in our modern energy systems, the grid can handle more renewable generation than originally thought. Electric markets were not originally designed for variable renewables, but they can be adapted, he said.

“The old system is going through a tremendous change,” he said, and the challenge is how to develop this new model. He explained his grid modernization vision, noting that the grid of the future must be reliable, resilient, secure, affordable, flexible and sustainable.

Is Energy Storage Going Mainstream?

November 30, 2017/in Energy Connections Articles/by CREA Admin

Moderator Jeff Ackermann, chairman of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, opened the session with the statement that historically “Civilized and grounded society comes from storage.” He continued by saying that “We are on the cusp of transformable storage.”

Electric Power Research Institute’s Haresh Kamath noted that the cost of technology has plummeted over the last two years, “reaching an interesting level” so that storage technology is applicable in niche applications such as peak shaving that can lead to asset deferral. He recognized that gaps to storage implementation include performance data, and understanding the value and the organizational adaptations of these new technologies.

Bob Rudd, director of utility and microgrids with Tesla, talked about how in the storage marketplace there are technologies that help developers achieve future applications and move the industry forward. He gave several examples of operational, real-world storage technologies, such as the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative project and the Neoen Hornsdale wind farm.

Ackermann closed the session by saying that storage is on the “same trajectory as other technologies.” CREA was pleased to have this panel present this cutting-edge research and development and will continue to monitor the progress of this fast-moving technology.