New technologies key to reliable grid in clean energy economy

As the power sector transitions to cleaner energy, companies are developing innovative technologies to help solve the challenges of integrating more renewables onto the energy grid while maintaining reliability.

As part of the kickoff for the Edison Electric Institute’s EEI 2023 conference in Austin on Sunday, Phil Larochelle, a partner with Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), participated in a panel discussion on the role of the grid in a clean energy economy along with the leaders of three companies that are developing the key technologies needed for a successful transition.

Launched by Bill Gates in 2016, BEV is an investment firm that is working to finance companies with the potential to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world. BEV has raised more than $2 billion in committed capital to support more than 90 companies. With the need to decarbonize electricity an essential component of fighting climate change, BEV has invested in more than 20 companies that are developing technologies across the electricity sector, including in energy storage, intermittent generation like solar and hydro, geothermal, nuclear fusion, transmission distribution, and grid optimization.

“The question is, how do we integrate (renewables) into the larger system and meet all the requirements of the grid that we all rely on? And then once we do that, what’s going to be the cost?” Larochelle said. “I would say an equally or perhaps even more daunting challenge is what we call the reliability challenge. So, this is not just how do you get the most kilowatt hours from renewables? But then how do you have the rest of the grid integrated with renewables, that means that the lights don’t go out, especially during these unplanned for big events?”

Panelists including Marc Borrett, CEO and co-founder of Reactive Technologies; Dane Boysen, CEO of RedoxBlox; and Justin Briggs, COO and co-founder of Antora Energy, discussed emerging technologies that can help strengthen the grid.

Reactive Technologies’ Borrett said one way to ensure stability in the grid is change the way it is monitored and measured.

“When you have generation that’s created through thermal plants, burning a fuel, you have huge turbines that spin and rotate 60 times a second for a 60 hertz power system. As those power systems are decarbonized, you have fewer of those rotating plants, and that synchronous machinery, and you end up with a much less stable grid because the inverters that are typically on a solar farm or a wind farm are not actually contributing to the stability,” Borrett said.

To solve that, stimuli sent into the grid can help determine how stable it is.

“In the UK, where we have our first system running, we are operating a 5-megawatt super capacitor… And that is sending a 5-megawatt signal, just like sonar, into the grid thousands of times a day,” Borrett said. “We’re able to then measure how much that known stimulus is able to actually physically move the grid. And then we’re able to turn that into a direct measurement of stability that then goes into the control room within the grid operator. This is helpful because it now gives a grid operator for the very first time the operational limits of their power system.”

Previously, he said, measurements of grid stability were approximated through models and were very conservative to avoid blackouts. This new technology shows that grid operators can get somewhere between 10 and 30 percent more capacity.

RedoxBlox’s Boysen said addressing challenges by looking at new materials can provide replacement solutions for energy storage and reliability. The company has developed long duration energy storage technology that will enable the transformation of natural gas power plants into renewable energy storage facilities, in addition to electricity-to-heat energy storage modules that provide carbon-free industrial heat while replacing natural gas with renewable electricity.

While the company is a few years away from integrating its product on gas turbines, he said, in the near-term future the technology could be used to move away from fuel-burning generation.

“We could take a combined-cycle power plant, retrofitted with storage, so it could still operate with natural gas if you need, but over time can start acting as a storage facility,” he said. “You get much better capacity factors from all the same hardware using all the same equipment. We feel like this is probably the nearest-term, fastest way we’re going to move away from natural gas, particularly the United States, and towards renewables and enabling deep renewable penetration.”

Giving a new look at old materials can change how energy is stored and distributed, Antora’s Briggs said.

Antora uses renewable electricity to heat low-cost carbon to over 1,500 degrees, which is then stored in a well-insulated container, he said. Under this system, the company can hold energy and then discharge it as heat energy, or convert it back to electricity.

“We’ve developed what’s called a thermo photovoltaic module or TPV for short… instead of capturing sunlight and converting that into electricity, (we’re) capturing this thermal glow coming off of the hot carbon,” Briggs said. “In this way we can charge (the carbon) with inexpensive variable electricity, store the heat in this insulated box and then deliver heat or electricity on demand.”

Because of carbon’s cost and availability, the process provides an inexpensive solution for storing and then redirecting energy, Briggs said. And when used alongside other systems in place of peaker plants, the TPV can be used as a replacement solution to costly assets like gas turbines that only run a few times a year.

Borrett, Boysen and Briggs said their solutions were scalable, given the requirements of customers. Additionally, Boysen and Briggs said their systems could be installed alongside other technology to ensure reliability. Those solutions not only provide backups but help companies gradually rely more on renewable energy.

“We have a plant in Austria, that’s a cardboard manufacturing plant… they are already using natural gas,” Boysen said. “We basically put our system in in parallel, and then we turn off the gas. If there’s an upset, they can always switch back to natural gas if they need to… We’re addressing the problem by running parallel systems, and then weaning them off the natural gas.”