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Achieving net zero energy emissions by 2050 will require meeting electricity demand with low-carbon generation in the face of increasing demand for electrifying buildings, vehicles, and industrial processes. But there are challenges ahead, said energy sector executive Hugh McDermott.
Hugh is the senior vice president for business development and sales for ESS Inc., a provider of long-duration energy storage (LDES) solutions for commercial and industrial (C&I), utility, microgrid, and off-grid applications. In today's podcast, he explains the critical issue impeding our quest for a clean, green future.
Hugh said we'll only decarbonize the grid by mid-century if we have adequate energy storage "in some shape or form."
"We can build and have all kinds of generating technologies that can be carbon-free, but we can't go through the night without energy storage," he said.
He suggests LDES — defined by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a system that can store energy for more than 10 hours —is the lynchpin for solving intermittency issues with renewable energy production.
ESS, founded in 2011, aims to accelerate global decarbonization by providing safe, sustainable LDES that can power clean, renewable energy anytime and anywhere it's needed. LDES supports reliable and resilient electric grids even when the sun goes down and the wind grows still, he said.
Frost & Sullivan, a New York-based consulting firm, recognized ESS. with the 2021 North American Technology Innovation Leadership Award for pioneering the design, development, and manufacturing of environmentally friendly LDES. ESS technology uses iron, salt and water to deliver environmentally safe solutions that provide up to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications.
Unlike conventional lithium-ion or Li-ion batteries, ESS's iron flow battery offers minimal capacity fade or degradation over an operating life of more than 20 years. Notably, the battery is substantially recyclable and uses safe, earth-abundant materials that do not negatively impact the environment during sourcing or production.
"The technology we developed is called a flow battery because we push liquid electrolytes through the battery modules to either charge or discharge that module, depending on the mode of operation. Then the liquid exits the battery, and it goes through a tank or some other process," Hugh said.
ESS pushes iron saturated in salt water through the battery, which Hugh said is "built like a sandwich." Each sandwich layer has a carbon plate, and iron is released as the liquid passes over the carbon plate during the charge cycle.
"We're just building up the thickness of pure iron, literally food-grade iron. And when we want to discharge the battery, we reverse the polarity. So as fast as you can flick a switch — we're not changing the flow or anything, just the polarity — the iron wants to dissolve back into the saltwater.
"We're creating iron, creating rust, creating iron, creating rust, creating iron, and reversing that process. That's the basic lay description."
What makes this unique is ESS has figured out a way to make the process theoretically reversible for more than 10,000 cycles with no loss of performance. "So that makes it a very long-life battery," Hugh added.
The U.S. Department of Energy has invested heavily in flow batteries, multiple startups have commercialized flow battery technology, and notable industry titans like Lockheed Martin and Japan's Sumitomo Electric Industries want to bring the technology to market.
ESS approaches the concept from a different chemistry and a different approach. Hugh said the ESS battery's longer duration, long life and "workhorse nature" set it apart, along with the fact it is a water-based battery. "Nobody's worried about it catching fire or blowing up. And it's one of the easiest batteries to get permitted," he said.
Hugh has a long history in the energy industry and shares many good insights today. Before joining ESS, he was a VP for Silver Spring Networks, where he led the company's market-building presence and partnership development for Smart Grid and Smart City business across the Asia-Pacific region. Before that, he was global head of business development at Better Place, leveraging networked electric vehicle charging infrastructure to provide dynamic load management and energy storage services to utilities, grid operators and energy traders.
He said doing business the right way is essential to success.
"Your credibility, your integrity, how you conduct yourself are the things you should most jealously guard in any industry. The longer you stay in the industry, the smaller the crowd becomes. You know everybody and everybody eventually knows everybody else. If you're a good guy, karma pays. You don't know when but it just pays. That's been my experience, and it's advice I give regularly."
NOTEWORTHY QUOTEs:
“To put it in perspective. 100,000 vehicles is a 350 megawatt power plant. And so 100,000 vehicles that you could throttle up or down the meaning how fast you charge them, they’re not taking energy out of them yet, looks like I’ve got a 350 megawatt gas fired power plant that I can throttle up or down on the grid with zero emissions.”
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ABOUT THE HOST OF SUNCAST:
Nico Johnson is the creator and host of SunCast, consistently rated a top solar podcast in the clean energy sector. The content of the show is geared towards listeners looking for insights on where the markets are headed, how to position themselves or their companies, and what today's market leaders do to stay ahead of the pack.
Nico is an Investor, Executive Coach, and 16-year veteran of the solar industry, having led development in the US and Latin America for global companies like Trina Solar and Conergy.
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