Description

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 
Executive summary (5)
1. New regulations and initiatives discussed this month (6)
1.1. South America  (6)
1.2. Europe  (6)
2. Project updates and announcements (8)
2.1. Overview of the 2022 and 2023 markets for utility-scale energy storage projects  (8)
2.2. Projects announced or contracted this month  (8)
2.3. Projects commissioned this month  (10)
2.4. Tenders this month  (11)
3. Focus of the month: Review of DC battery products and fire security systems  (12)
3.1.1. Presentation of the different DC storage solutions  (12)
3.1.2. Comparison of the different solutions  (13)
3.2. Common trends in the evolution of the solutions (16)
3.2.1. Convergence towards 20-ft storage systems (16)
3.2.2. Convergence towards 320 Ah cells increasing product density (19)
3.3. Fire safety (19)
3.3.1. Lithium-ion batteries are vulnerable to the risk of thermal runaway (20)
3.3.2. International standards and rules have emerged to set clear fire protection frameworks (21)
3.3.3. Lithium-ion battery fires and their takeaways on how to design safer BESS (23)
3.3.3.1. The architecture of the BESS must include 3 levels of fire mitigation: prevention, detection, extinction (23)
3.3.3.2. Risk prevention is meant to prevent the inter-module and inter-rack fire propagation (23)
3.3.3.3. Monitoring measures help in the early detection of thermal runaway events (24)
3.3.3.4. Extinction equipment that effectively combats battery fires (24)

TABLE OF FIGURES

Figure 1- Utility-scale energy storage projects announced/contracted and commissioned in 2022 and 2023 (ongoing)  (8)
Figure 2 –Internal arrangement of 40-ft containers used before 2020, showing the inside space for easy employees’ intervention (12)
Figure 3 – More compact nowadays 20-ft or 40-ft container internal arrangement with employees’ intervention from outside –
now space for inside intervention (13)
Figure 4 – Compact outdoor racks structure (13)
Figure 5 - Overview of storage solutions currently available (15)
Figure 6 – The share of the different kind of the storage embedding type (container types) for the operational projects in the
energy storage solutions (16)
Figure 7 – The share of the different kind of the storage embedding type (container types) for the announced and under
construction projects in the energy storage solutions (17)
Figure 8 – The share of the different energy storage solutions (20-ft and 40-ft containers, outdoor racks, and other unstandardized
solutions or unknown types) (18)
Figure 9 - Evolution of energy density over the year by solution types (19)
Figure 10 - Numbers of utility-scale battery systems (left) and volumes of electricity affected in fire incidents (right) 20
Figure 11 - Li-ion battery fire origin patterns (20)
Figure 12 - Main chemical reactions involved in the thermal runaway process (21)
Figure 13 - Overview of recommended security features for containerized solutions (23)
Figure 14 - Safety equipment of a Fluence cube showing deflagration panels (25)
Figure 15 - Examples of safety devices 25