Surplus generation at mid-day calls for long-duration energy storage.
Ed Cazalet is Vice-President and Co-Founder of MegaWatt Storage Farms, Inc. In 2004 he was appointed by California Governor Schwarzenegger to a three-year term on the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator, and served previously as CEO of APX (Automated Power Exchange).
David MacMillan is President and Co-Founder of MegaWatt Storage Farms, Inc., and served previously as President (North America) of Deeya Energy, a developer of electricity storage systems.
Goals and mandates for renewable are growing by leaps and bounds. One hundred percent for Hawaii by 2045; seventy-five percent for Vermont by 2032; fifty percent for California by 2030;1 eighty percent for Germany by 20502 - all are in place. And these long-term goals are supported by interim goals for 2020, 2025, etc. Many other countries and U.S. states have adopted renewables goals nearly as aggressive.
Improving market economics also are in play in driving rapid solar adoption. We've seen utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects with contracts for less than four cents per kWh ($40 per MWh).3 This price undercuts even the total operating and capital costs for fossil generation fired by natural gas. Sometimes it runs less than just the operating cost of gas generation.