POWER August 2020 - 12

GLOBAL MONITOR
separate gas power from other divisions,
while Siemens this April made progress in
spinning off of its energy business.
-Sonal Patel is senior associate
editor for POWER.
2. Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction
employees working on the final assembly of
the 270-MW large gas turbine model that will
be demonstrated at the 500-MW liquefied
natural gas-fired Gimpo Cogeneration Plant in
South Korea in 2023. Courtesy: DHIC
bined cycle power plant model, " he said.
The company's efforts, for now, are
rooted on the DGT6-300H S1. Developed
with advanced technologies-including ultra-heat-resistant
alloys and precision casting,
the 270-MW model has more than
40,000 parts, including 450 blades (Figure
2). It features " axial compressor technology
that compresses a large volume of
air to up to 24:1; a combustor technology
that minimizes exhaust gas; and a system
integration technology for assembling the
core components of the compressor, combustor,
and turbine. " These efforts have enabled
a combined cycle efficiency " of more
than 60%, " the company said.
DHIC completed final assembly of the
270-MW model in September 2019, and it
is now testing the machine at an $83 million
full-speed, full-load, sensor-loaded test
center at its headquarters in Changwon
before it heads to Gimpo. Plans then entail
development of a 380-MW model " with
the latest specifications to preemptively
reflect the market changes, " as well as a
100-MW mid-sized model that is designed
to cater to renewable intermittency.
In efforts to broaden its market prospects,
meanwhile, DHIC has also opened
offices in Florida and Switzerland. As significantly,
in 2017, it acquired Doosan Turbomachinery
Services, a company that
" carries out the entire service business
including maintenance, parts replacement,
and performance improvement of the core
parts of gas turbines in the United States. "
It is unclear whether this will be enough
to set the company on a competitive course
with other established OEMs, however. In
the first half of this year, a cutthroat battle
for advanced gas turbine market share intensified
with historical market leader GE
facing stiff competition from MHPS and
Siemens. To allay business risks from what
the gas turbine manufacturers point to is
weakened demand for large gas turbines,
GE in 2018 restructured its power unit to
12
UK Banks on Energy Storage
The market for energy storage is growing
quickly in the UK, with investment companies
helping develop projects and noting
it could help spur the power sector's
recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Though the COVID-19 outbreak is pushing
some installations into 2021, there is still
plenty of storage capacity in the pipeline
and several groups expect to have construction
underway by the end of the year.
Recent analysis from Solar Media Market
Research says there are 1.3 GW of
ready-to-build battery storage projects in
the UK, most with 30 MW to just below
50 MW of power output. The group also
said the total pipeline of battery storage
projects in the UK has reached 13.5 GW,
including 5.7 GW " with planning permission
(but without approved grid connection), "
and another 6.5 GW of proposed
or planned projects.
Renewable UK, the country's leading
trade association for renewables, in a recent
report said that " While the majority
of current projects are a combination of
gas plants with storage to take advantage
of grid connections, we are seeing
an increase in applications for solar projects
combined with batteries in England
and a growing interest for onshore wind
collocated projects in Scotland and offshore
wind as well. " The group said major
players in the market include EDF, Pivot
Power, Statera, and RES, " with each company
active in several power supply and
flexibility markets, providing services to
National Grid, Distribution Network Operators
(DNOs), as well as operating in the
wholesale energy markets. "
Companies such as Siemens and Highview
Power are developing ammonia, hydrogen,
and compressed air technologies
for storage, and Renewable UK said the
country has more than 600 MW of liquid
air or compressed air storage projects in
development. Other companies in the
space include Gravitricity (gravity-based
storage), OXTO Energy (flywheels in energy
storage), and RheEnergise, which is
developing dense liquids as an alternative
to pumped storage.
The Intelligent Land Investments (ILI)
Group, a Hamilton, Scotland-based renewable
energy developer, in late June
announced it-along with fellow owners
The Abbey Group and Yoo Capital-had
www.powermag.com
completed the first sale of one of its
12 energy storage projects in Scotland.
ILI sold a 50-MW facility at Ferrymuir in
Fife to Gore Street Capital Energy Storage
Fund. Gore Street will now manage
the project's construction and expects to
bring the facility online in 2022.
Mark Wilson, CEO of ILI, which is involved
in three pumped storage hydro
(PSH) projects in Scotland, in an interview
with POWER said, " You can't have
renewables without storage, and PSH is
the most efficient, most environmentally
friendly, most proven technology for
providing storage. "
ILI's three PSH projects, with a total
2 GW of capacity, include the Red John
Project at Loch Ness (Figure 3). " That
project is going to be 450 MW, with 50
MW of battery [storage] alongside it, "
Wilson said. " And we have two other projects,
both up to 800 MW, so potentially
2 GW in the pipeline. Working with AECOM,
we've looked at 130 sites across
the country over the past few years, and
we've whittled it down to what we think
are the best three projects. Scottish government
is very pro-renewables, very
pro-pumped storage. The UK government
also has been extremely positive with renewables,
and starting to recognize the
need for energy storage. "
Wilson started ILI in 2004 as a company
focused on finding " strategic land in
Scotland for housing. " Its business model
was to work with private investors rather
than big banks to fund those projects, and
then pass them over to a major developer.
Wilson said that after the 2008-2009
crash of the housing market, " we took the
same model and moved it to renewable
energy, " where ILI focused on onshore
wind, putting " small-scale wind turbines
on farmers' land. " He said that when the
UK began phasing out coal-fired generation,
and adopted a subsidy scheme for
renewables, " that was what brought us
to storage. We thought if we could do
that in volume it would be quite interesting.
We didn't see ourselves being in wind
long-term ... with those coal plants closing
down, and all the intermittency [from
renewables] coming online, we saw that
there was a real need for energy storage.
" We looked at compressed air, at salt
caverns, we looked at hydrogen, we
looked at lithium battery, we looked at
pumped storage. Scotland has the topography,
and it's a proven technology. When
we were on the journey with wind, we
saw how hard it was to get money for
new technology. Pumped storage [as a
proven technology] checked that box, and
POWER | August 2020
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POWER August 2020

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