POWER January 2021 - 27

2021 INDUSTRY FORECAST
2. Danville Utilities, in partnership with CS
Energy, Navisun, and TurningPoint Energy, began
construction on a 14-MWDC utility-scale
solar project in Danville, Virginia, in December
2019. In spite of delays due to COVID-19,
the project went live in August 2020. Danville
Utilities, which serves about 42,000 electricity
customers, has three solar sites in operation
and a fourth under development. Courtesy:
CS Energy
renewable energy investors remain as confident
in renewable energy growth over
the next three years, on average, as they
were in 2018-2019, " the report says. " Over
half of surveyed financial institutions plan
to increase their investment in renewables
by more than 10% in 2020 compared to
2019. " Topping the list of attractive sectors
for investment were energy storage and
utility-scale solar projects.
Energy Storage Is Budding
Like the costs for wind and solar projects,
prices for energy storage systems
have also been on a steady decline.
According to analysis released by IHS
Markit in late-September, the average
cost of a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery fell
82% from 2012 to 2020. Furthermore,
the researchers predicted the average
cost of a Li-ion battery cell will fall below
$100/kWh in the next three years, and
decline to as low as $73/kWh in 2030.
Price reductions are a key factor to wider
deployment of batteries.
" Cost is the name of the game.
Technology advances and competition
between the different types of lithiumion
batteries is driving prices down.
Ultimately, the two major growth markets-transportation
and electric grid
storage-depend upon lower costs to
make batteries more competitive with
the internal combustion engine and fossil
fuel power generation, " Youmin Rong,
a senior analyst with IHS Markit, said in a
statement provided to POWER.
In a report issued in late-October on
funding, merger, and acquisition activity,
Mercom Capital Group said corporate
funding for battery storage companies totaled
$3.5 billion in 35 deals during the first
January 2021 | POWER
nine months of 2020-a 62% increase
compared to the same period in 2019. One
company that has been attracting significant
investment is Northvolt, a European
supplier of battery cells and systems. The
company reported on July 29 having raised
more than $3 billion to date in equity and
debt to support, among other things, the
development of two Li-ion battery gigafactories
being constructed in Skellefteå,
Sweden, and Salzgitter, Germany.
" The fact that we have these worldclass
financial institutions supporting a
new industry in Europe is a clear sign of
where the markets are headed and the
opportunity that brings for sustainable
projects. This new industrial landscape
will need significant investments over
the coming years, " Alexander Hartman,
CFO of Northvolt, said in a statement announcing
the debt financing.
Potentially Game-Changing
Technologies
There are countless research and development
inititiatives in progress throughout
the energy industry. Three technologies
that have long been studied and at times
even hyped as a potential holy grail for
the power sector are hydrogen, fusion,
and geothermal energy. Although there is
still a lot of work to be done before any
of them reach their true potential, much
progress has been made in each area,
and meaningful advances could be closer
than many people realize.
Hydrogen. It seems everyone is talking
about hydrogen these days, and in particular,
" green " hydrogen. The idea of producing
hydrogen through electrolysis using
renewable energy has a lot of supporters.
However, the devil is in the details.
The method is fairly simple. Electrolysis
uses an electrical current to separate
water-H2O-into hydrogen and oxygen.
If the electricity used in the process is
obtained from renewable sources, the
hydrogen is considered " green, " that is,
produced without emitting carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere.
One problem is that electrolysis is not
a particularly efficient process. According
to Hydrogen Europe, a trade association
for the hydrogen and fuel cell industry, the
efficiency of water electrolyzers (determined
by the amount of electricity used
to produce an amount of hydrogen) is currently
in the 60% to 80% range based on
calorific value. However, research continues
to further improve the process.
There are other improvements that
could help hydrogen become a moreutilized
resource. Specifically, engineers
www.powermag.com
are working to increase the operating
life, power density, and stack size of
electrolyzer systems; reduce costs (especially
material costs); introduce pressurized
systems, which could avoid the
need for subsequent compression of the
hydrogen produced; and importantly, develop
flexible systems adapted to intermittent
and fluctuating power supplies.
Field validations of some hydrogen
technologies are showing promise. In October,
one of Europe's first industrial-scale
facilities for the production of hydrogen by
proton exchange membrane (PEM) water
electrolysis reported favorable results as
its demonstration phase concluded. The
1.2-MW HyBalance project in Denmark,
led by Air Liquide, Cummins (through its
Hydrogenics Europe business), Centrica
Energy Trading, Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik
GmbH (LBST), and Hydrogen Valley,
said the project had delivered 120 tons
of hydrogen since 2018, while demonstrating
its ability to balance the electricity
grid. In a joint statement, the companies
said, the " HyBalance electrolyser has
demonstrated that producing hydrogen to
store energy at a large scale-including
electricity from renewable sources-is
technically and economically viable. "
" The facility is already a model for
larger scale PEM electrolysers around the
world including another Air Liquide plant,
under construction, in Bécancour, Québec
(Canada) with a 20 MW PEM electrolyser.
The success of HyBalance will contribute
to making low-carbon hydrogen a key element
of the energy transition, " said Diederick
Luijten, vice president of Hydrogen
Energy Nec Cluster with Air Liquide.
The HyBalance plant reportedly had
a high availability and was able to cope
with fast power ramps both up and
down. It provided 24/7 delivery of 60
tons of hydrogen to an industrial customer
connected through a pipeline, with
the other 60 tons of production delivered
to a variety of customers including a network
of hydrogen fueling stations used
by a fleet of fuel cell taxis in Copenhagen.
The facility was certified by the Danish
energy authorities as a bidder in all
electricity markets, further validating the
technology. Although the demonstration
is technically complete, Air Liquide will
continue to operate the site and produce
hydrogen to supply its customers.
" It is a true lighthouse project to the current
multi-MW projects, where a number
of technical and electricity market issues
were faced and successfully addressed in
terms of the dynamic operation of electrolysers
for the provision of hydrogen
27
http://www.powermag.com
POWER January 2021

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