https://www.energy-storage.news/news/iowas-first-large-scale-pv-plus-storage-project-installed-at-university-use
[In my opinion, this sort of technology is why electric vehicle
batteries are not going to become a mainstream source of energy storage
for grid supply (vehicle-to-grid or V2G in the cute industry jargon).
1) It provides additional functions than grid supply (e.g., relatively
inexpensive, long-term energy storage for intermittent zero-carbon sources).
2) It is available to the grid / system operator 24/7. It won't be
stuck in traffic when the demand for power occurs.
3) It supports peak-shaving, so surplus power on the grid can be
captured for later use.
4) It does not require 'negotiation' between an EV owner and the utility
regarding selling price, at those infrequent times when utilities want
to buy power from small, intermittent producers.
5) It does not require metering at vehicle charging points to record the
amount of electricity put into the grid from a specific vehicle.
6) It does not require a massive financial verification and
reconciliation system to figure out how much money is owed to a vehicle
owner for a specific sale transaction, or changes to utility billing
systems to reflect money going to a customer (this will be a HUGE deal
for most utility billing systems).
7) It will be less expensive at a system level per kWh stored and
retrieved than the depreciation of batteries used for V2G and the cost
of the electricity the vehicle owner bought to charge the vehicle
battery in the first place.
While I remain a V2G skeptic, I still see potential for V1G and V2B
markets, mostly because they avoid the need for new metering and
financial systems. V1G is the use of electric vehicles as sinks for
electrical energy at times of low demand on the grid, helping utilities
improve capacity factor on their infrastructure and lengthen the life of
some system components, but not receiving electricity back from the
vehicles. V2B is Vehicle to Building, where an EV battery is used to
provide power to a building or house (aka V2H) in the event of a grid
outage or grid request to reduce energy consumption at peak demand times.]
Iowa’s first large-scale PV-plus-storage project installed at
university, uses flow battery
Fairfield, Iowa’s Maharishi University of Management has completed and
powered up a new solar power plant in mid-December. Designed and
installed by Ideal Energy, it is the first system of its kind developed
within the mid-western US state.
The installation features both single-axis tracking and vanadium redox
flow battery energy storage. The 1.1MW EXTracker NX Horizon single-axis
tracking array uses motors and a predictive algorithm to rotate solar
panels throughout the day, following the sun's path, generating around
15% more energy on a yearly basis than a fixed-tilt array of similar
size. Nextracker NX Flow Avalon batteries are utilised at the site.
The project also includes a 1.05 MWh battery energy storage system,
which helps to cut energy costs by peak shaving i.e. reducing the amount
of power drawn from the grid at expensive peak times, which can
significantly reduce non-residential electricity costs and has thus far
been the biggest impetus in the US for commercial and industrial (C&I)
energy storage deployment.
The university's new solar and storage power plant, along with two
smaller PV arrays and a small wind turbine, will bring the university's
renewable energy share to 43%. These installations will cover 33% of the
campus’ total electrical needs.
Iowa congressman Dave Loebsack said: “One of the more exciting things
about this particular project is the battery storage aspect. This is
leading us to the point where solar can be part of our base load
capacity. If we can not only generate electricity throughout the day,
but also store it so that we could use solar energy 24 hours a day, then
it is by definition part of base load. And that is really exciting."
