Welcome to the fourth in our series of articles featuring industry insiders highlighting the trends and technologies we can expect to see in 2023.
Here, Alan Greenshields, Director EMEA of battery energy storage firm ESS Inc, offers three in-depth predictions.
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In 2023, renewable energy will become the norm – not the exception
The past year has seen rampant inflation in fossil fuel prices as the war in Ukraine and restrictions on the gas supply from Russia have driven up costs.
The result of these stochastic shocks has been that climate change, as the primary driver to date for the transition to renewable, has been surpassed by cost and energy security.
Electricity from gas is now six times as expensive as electricity from wind in some parts of Europe.
The price disparity is driving a gold rush towards renewable energy production – especially in markets where pricing structures ensure high levels of remuneration.
California has seen some of the most innovative municipalities take major step forward towards a net-zero grid.
A good example is the Sacramento Municipal Utility District that alone is looking to deploy 200 MW / 2 GWh of storage, which when coupled with renewable energy sources, will be equivalent to removing 284,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year and provide enough energy to power 60,000 homes for 10 hours.
In Europe, the Russian war in Ukraine – and particular the use of energy starvation as a tactic – has pinpointed the need to move beyond reliance on energy from unreliable and unpredictable states.
Read more by Alan Greenshields:
Could Baltic winds and Berlin batteries power Bavaria?
While the US has shown its prescience in ensuring energy security, much of the world is now catching up.
In 2023 we will see the silver lining of the crises of 2022, as renewable energy comes to the forefront, with mainstream investment in wind, solar and energy storage.
Microgrids will go major in 2023
When US utilities decide to invest in solar and energy storage, their thinking will be as much about energy dependability as about cutting carbon emissions.
With parts of the country ravaged by wildfires, floods or other climate-driven crises, transmission from central generating facilities has become vulnerable and problematic.
The deployment of microgrids based on solar and energy storage protects against that vulnerability, while also doing its bit for net-zero grid goals.
The emergence of solar and wind microgrids has been facilitated by the arrival of low cost and reliable battery energy storage.
From TerraSol in Pennsylvania to San Diego Gas & Electric in Southern California, the trend is towards the creation of microgrids.
The San Diego Gas & Electric microgrid project that will strengthen back up critical resources in the town of Cameron Corners, California, while the TerraSol microgrid will deliver solar power for a recycling, and data destruction application.
The global grid will emerge in 2023
The surge in investment in renewable energy is matched by creativity in energy innovation; solar farms in northern Australia could soon be supplying electricity to Singapore, while plans are developing for Moroccan solar and wind farms to power British homes.
These global grid projects, while seemingly at odds with the trend to microgrids, are in fact the perfect complement.
The one-way interconnects from energy-rich to energy-needy regions will provide new energy sources that will cut costs, cut energy vulnerability and cut carbon emissions.
The Australia-ASEAN Power Link project will include a 10 GW solar park with a transmission line to supply power to Singapore. Construction is planned to start by the end of 2023 with commercial operations beginning in 2027.
The Power Link will cover nearly 20% of the electricity consumption of Singapore and dramatically reduce the country’s dependence on LNG imports.
The Xlinks project to bring solar energy from Morocco to the UK is scheduled to get underway in 2023 and is planned to provide 10.5GW of zero-carbon electricity from the sun and wind, enough to deliver 3.6GW of reliable energy for an average of 20+ hours a day.
This would provide low-cost, clean power to over seven million homes by 2030 and equates to around 8 percent of the country’s electricity needs.
These global grid projects have been enabled by breakthroughs in two key technologies: Firstly, highly efficient HVDC transmission lines needed to transport the electricity across huge distances of 4,500 km from Australia to Singapore and 3,800 km from Morocco to the UK.
And secondly, long duration energy storage to harvest the solar and wind for when it is needed with the Australian project planning for 30 GWh battery storage facility while Morocco will build 20GWh battery facility.
Don’t miss the rest of the articles in our Predictions series:
2023 predictions: renewables, hydrogen and grid connections
2023 predictions: Electric vehicle trends and challenges
