critical power

Japan’s Itochu Corporation is to sell an electrical storage system for offices and retail businesses priced at about half that of currently available systems.

The system uses Samsung SDI’s lithium-ion batteries that are much cheaper than Japanese batteries. Using the Samsung products will help cut cost below US$51 000, Itochu claims.

The unit slated for initial sale has a capacity of 16.8 kWh. Itochu targets sales of 200 units in fiscal 2014.

By partnering with Samsung SDI, Itochu intends to meet demand for cost-saving backup devices for less than US$3 000 per kWh of capacity, much less than the US$7 000 per kWh offered at present.

The domestic market for stationary electrical storage systems is expected to double between fiscal 2012 and 2015 to 1.26m kWh, according to Yano Research Institute.

The UK’s Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) has announced the winners of its energy storage innovation competition, several months after the announcement was due. REDT and Moixa Technology will receive a share of more than £5m (US$8m) to support continued research and demonstration of their innovative energy storage ideas.

REDT has developed a vanadium redox flow battery to store energy generated by wind turbines. The company is ready to design, build and demonstrate a 1.26MWh utility scale system of its grid scale flow battery technology. It has received £3.6m (US$5.7m) to continue in the pre-commercialisation of its system.

The system will be located in the Scottish island of Gigha, which has limited aging electricity connections.

London-based Moixa Technology Ltd has developed small battery storage units for installation in people’s homes to store power for use at peak demand times. The system shifts DC loads to the battery, which can be charged at low tariff times, to reduce peak grid demand and reduce energy bills.

Moixa will use their funding from DECC to install and demonstrate their storage units in about 300 homes across the UK. Moixa has been awarded a contract for approximately £1.5m (US$2.4m) to carry out its demonstration project.

Three more companies won a share of £0.9m (US$1.4m) to continue research and material development to improve energy storage systems for the UK electricity networks. Kiwa GASTEC at CRE was awarded £0.4m (US$0.6m) to investigate safety issues surrounding the use of hydrogen for energy storage; Sharp Laboratories received £0.4m (US$0.6m) for its work on residential and community battery storage systems; and EA Technology Ltd received £0.1m (US$0.15m) to develop a good practice guide on electrical energy storage for use in and with UK electricity networks.

Phoenix Contact has released a compact uninterruptible power supply with an integrated battery. Called the STEP UPS, it provides standby power for short-term power losses in low-current applications.

It has a three-amp output current, and corresponds with the STEP power supply with 4.2 A nominal current. The narrow UPS (108mm) requires minimal space on the DIN rail.

It comes in both 24 V DC and 12 V DC versions with an integrated lithium-polymer rechargeable battery.

The 24 V version has an input range of 22.5 to 29.5 V DC, while the 12 V version operates between 10 and 16.5 V DC.

The amount of back-up time available depends on load currents connected to the buffer module, but can range between 12 and 53 minutes.

The modules contain status LEDs indicating the unit’s operational condition; the status of which can be communicated to a supervisory control system via the integrated status contacts. The battery runtime can be adjusted via a rotary dial to prevent over discharge.

Intelligent Energy has raised US$51m to finance the next phase of development for its fuel cell systems.

The money, the most raised since the company started operating, will be used to enable the commercial start-up of its consumer electronics and stationary back-up power systems, the Loughborough, UK-based company said in a statement.

The stationary-power unit will be located in India, it said.

The company’s fuel-cell technology uses hydrogen to generate clean electricity. It can be integrated into portable electronic devices, to generate heat and power for domestic and distributed generation and also in vehicles.

Henri Winand, Chief Executive Officer, said: “We have raised this finance at a time when we are making significant strides in our principal market sectors.”

Intelligent Energy and Suzuki in February last year started a joint venture to develop and make fuel-cell systems for a range of industries including car manufacturing.

Connecticut, US-based FuelCell Energy has installed the UK’s largest fuel cell – a 300 kW molten carbonate system – in central London.

The fuel cell is part of a CHP system serving The Crown Estate’s £400m (US$640m) Quadrant 3 regeneration scheme in Regent Street. Edinburgh’s Logan Energy designed and integrated the fuel cell CHP installation, which runs on natural gas.

The heat from the installation will be used for facility heating and cooling. Its overall efficiency is estimated at 83%, but with a higher electrical contribution than other types of distributed generation.

The fuel cell will also emit 38% less CO2 than using electricity from the grid and heat from efficient gas-fired boilers, Logan Energy said.