VanWalleghem said there is room to reduce costs as the company gains experience with these first few plants. The expected lifespan of the energy storage system is about 50 years, which is an important data point when comparing it to battery systems, which have a much shorter lifespan, he said.
BloombergNEF analyst Yiyi Chou said Hydrostar is one of about 100 companies focused at least in part on developing long-term energy storage.
Hydrostor stands out because its technology is “relatively mature” and it is one of the most successful companies in the space in raising funding from investors, she said. .
BloombergNEF reported that as of September last year, there was a total of 1.4 gigawatts and 8.2 gigawatt hours of long-term energy storage worldwide, excluding pumped storage. His average duration, calculated by dividing gigawatt hours by gigawatts, was 5.9 hours.
For comparison, the two Hydrostor projects under development have a combined capacity of 0.9 gigawatts, more than half of the total global capacity currently online.
According to BloombergNEF, the long-term storage technologies most likely to be deployed this year and next are compressed air storage technology and flow batteries. (I wrote an explanation of flow batteries in 2022.)
This part of the clean energy economy is finding it difficult to tackle because there is a huge gap between what has been developed and what is in some stage of planning. There are many opportunities for projects to be interrupted or disappear midway through.
With this in mind, I’ll be watching to see if Hydrostar can start construction on time in Australia and get through the regulatory approval process for a factory in California.
The California project has undergone some major changes. At one time, Hydrostar had two proposals in the state, but withdrew one due to challenges in the permitting process, including issues with building on sites overseen by the California Coastal Commission. The remaining project, Willow Rock, also underwent design and location changes in response to feedback from the local community and regulators.
The California Energy Commission paused its review of Willow Rock last fall, giving Hydrostar time to provide details of its updated plans. The review process will begin again in March and could be completed as early as this time next year.
One factor to keep in mind is that the California state government and the California Energy Commission have made it clear that they are looking to build long-term energy storage facilities. The state estimates it will need 4 gigawatts of long-term energy storage capacity to reach its goal of 100% clean electricity by 2045.
Hydrostar and state officials hope to get the project up and running. If it comes to fruition, it could be the centerpiece on which many other products are built.
“We’re looking forward to growth. We’ll build these projects and then we’ll start doing more, five and 10 at a time,” VanWalleghem said.