Opportunity in Green Energy Battery Storage Systems in the 21st Century
Oil fueled the 20th Century—its cars, its economy and its geopolitics. Today fossil fuels are still the ultimate source of 85% of the world's energy, but as we all know, this system creates dirty Energy and accounts for two thirds of greenhouse-gas emissions.
The world is currently in the midst of an energy shock that is speeding up the shift to a new order. As the public, governments and investors wake up to climate change, the clean-energy industry is gaining momentum. Capital markets have shifted: clean-power stocks are up by 45% this year.
As covid-19 struck the global economy earlier this year, demand for oil dropped by more than a fifth and prices collapsed. Since then, there has been a jittery recovery, and a return to the old world is very unlikely. Fossil-fuel producers are being forced to confront their vulnerabilities. Exxon Mobil has been ejected from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, having been a member since 1928. Petrostates such as Saudi Arabia need an oil price of $70-80 a barrel to balance their budgets. In 2020 Oil was scraping along at just around $40. There have been oil slumps before, but this one is different. With interest rates near zero, politicians are backing green infrastructure plans. America’s new president Joe Biden, wants to spend $2trn decarbonizing America’s economy. The European Union has earmarked 30% of its $880bn covid-19 recovery plan for climate measures, and its president, Ursula von der Leyen, used her state-of-the-union address this week to confirm that she wants the EU to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 55% over 1990 levels in the next decade. Europe this year collectively signed agreements to make Green Hydrogen gas the default fuel for Europe's future. The 21st-century energy system promises to be better than the oil age—better for human health, more politically stable and less economically volatile.
A picture of the new Energy system is emerging. With bold action, renewable electricity such as solar and wind power is projected to rise from 5% of supply today to 25% in 2035, and nearly 50% by 2050. Oil and coal use will drop, although cleaner natural gas may remain central (infused with Green Hydrogen Gas). This architecture will ultimately bring huge financial benefits to the renewable Energy Market. Most important, decarbonizing energy will avoid the chaos of unchecked climate change, including devastating droughts, famine, floods and mass dislocation. Once mature, it should be more politically stable, supply will be diversified, geographically and technologically.
Due to growing concerns about the environmental impacts of fossil fuels and the capacity and resilience of energy grids around the world, engineers and policymakers are increasingly turning their attention to energy storage solutions. Indeed, energy storage can help address the intermittency of solar and wind power; it can also, in many cases, respond rapidly to large fluctuations in demand, making the grid more responsive and reducing the need to build backup power plants.
Energy storage is not new. Batteries have been used since the early 1800s, and pumped-storage hydropower has been operating in the United States since the 1920s. But the demand for a more dynamic and cleaner grid has led to a significant increase in the construction of new energy storage projects, and to the development of new and better energy battery storage solutions.
Fossil fuels, partly due to their transportability and the practicality of their stored form, allows power generators considerable control over the rate of energy supplied. In contrast, the energy generated by solar and wind is intermittent and reliant on the weather and season. As renewables have become increasingly prominent on the electrical grid, there has been a growing interest in systems that store clean energy
Energy storage can also contribute to meeting electricity demand during peak times, such as on hot summer days when air conditioners are blasting or at nightfall when households turn on their lights and electronics. Electricity becomes more expensive during peak times as power plants have to ramp up production in order to accommodate the increased energy usage. Energy storage allows greater grid flexibility as distributors can buy electricity during off-peak times when energy is cheap and sell it to the grid when it is in greater demand.
As extreme weather exacerbated by climate change continues to devastate U.S. infrastructure, government officials have become increasingly mindful of the importance of grid resilience. Energy storage helps provide resilience since it can serve as a backup energy supply when power plant generation is interrupted. In the case of extreme weather, where there is minimal energy storage and grid flexibility, it can take approximately a year for electricity to be restored to all residents.
Today, we must escape silos and think in terms of comprehensive systems. We now have to manage a wide range of assets: central and distributed generation facilities, substations, electric-vehicle charging points, intelligent “prosuming” buildings, behind-the-meter solar generation, campus-based storage solutions and microgrids, critical infrastructure, and commercial and industrial sites. And Energy Storage will ensure that the ongoing transformation will continue at a fast pace.
Volterra’s advancements in Battery Technology, has placed us in a unique position to take advantage of the new green energy market by providing an exclusive and innovative Volterra Battery Energy Storage Technology, (“VBEST”) solution. An advanced Lithium-ion Battery technology (LIB) set of IP’S developed by our World renowned scientists and professors proving Storage and Management of Green Energies exceeding todays battery storage offerings in the key critical areas of battery storage specifications: High energy density, low production cost, fast charging, high power, high thermal stability, decreased cost and high cycle life.
Our immediate objective consists of manufacturing our primary and initial battery technology product and continued development of future battery IP’s (being the Volterra Battery X, consisting of our current lithium battery and future non Lithium technologies that offer advanced performance and sustained IP innovation).
We recognize solutions and actions aimed at achieving Canadian green energy objectives have to take regional approaches into account because economic strengths, resource endowments, needs and challenges vary by region and community. As such, Volterra will work with Government and private entities to identify where our technology can provide the best solutions to current and future energy problems.
As a solely Canadian entity, Volterra will aim to elevate the Canadian technology innovation sector that will affect communities across Canada. We believe now is the time to invest in communities across Canada and will help make them more sustainable. One area we are extremely interested in is supporting and uplifting are our Aboriginal communities, through employment opportunities, training and infrastructure development.
The cost of battery storage has fallen sharply (by 19% per year over the past 10 years) to reach a market average at $156/kWh range of $175-234/kWh. According to BNEF ’s forecast, prices are projected to fall to around $100/ kWh by 2023. Mega-factories are expanding, as of December 2019, the number of lithium ion battery mega-factories in the pipeline has reached 115 plants, (88 of which are planned in China) amounting to 564 GWh capacity addition to a global total of 2,068.3 GWh or the equivalent of 40 million EVs by 2028.
Tesla is getting ready to introduce lower-cost, longer-lasting batteries for its electric vehicles in China in late 2020-2021. This battery is being co-developed with Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd (CATL). Its cost should be as low as $100/kWh, which would allow Tesla and other automotive manufacturers to make EVs far more accessible. General Motors is also trying to match Telsa performances. Once the market price of battery storage is close to or below $100/kWh. There is no economic advantage or reason to using Oil to produce energy or use it to produce a combustible fuel for transport vehicles.
There is no turning back.
