PROJECT TITLE: Storing Renewable Energy in Flow-Battery for Grid Use I. PROJECT STATEMENT Our project team proposes to implement a rural, community-scale project, investigating how a large flow-battery in combination with solar and wind generation can simultaneously improve the stability of the electrical grid and enhance the resilience of rural communities. On a cost-per-unit-energy basis, Minnesota's wind and solar resources now outcompete traditional fossil fuel generation. However, in the absence of energy storage technology to address the temporal mismatch between generation and demand, the intermittency of sun and wind has strongly constrained progress towards inexpensive, carbon-free electricity. Storage battery technologies have advanced greatly in recent years, both in technological and economic terms, such that integrating intermittent wind and solar generation with storage solutions has now become a highly promising avenue of investigation. Flow batteries hold the greatest potential for large-scale storage, as they use less expensive materials than lithium-ion batteries, need significantly less energy for ventilation and cooling, perform better at low-temperature, and can cycle continuously without degradation. This proposal adds a 1MW/4MWh flow battery and 500 kW of solar PV generation to UMN Morris's existing unique, renewable-energy-intensive microgrid, in a research/demonstration project aimed at accelerating the pace of Minnesota's transition to clean, reliable, and local energy. UMN Morris, as a nexus of research, implementation and outreach in renewable energy, is an ideal host site for this project. The campus has experience working successfully with various federal funding agencies (e.g., Department of Agriculture, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and the State of Minnesota, as well as with private partners, to help fund a vigorous energy research program. The UMN Morris microgrid implementation is an ideal test bed with which to explore optimization of battery charging and dispatch as part of a dynamic, intermittent system, the efficiency of which will be a major determinant of the economic viability of an installation. The campus is a member of the award-winning community initiative called the Morris Model, designed to enhance energy efficiency and community resilience and inspired in part by our close alliance with the carbon-negative village of Saerbeck, Germany. Other Morris Model partners include the City of Morris, UMN West Central Research Outreach Center, Morris Area School District, Stevens County, Stevens Community Medical Center, and Otter Tail Power Co. There is large potential in rural microgrids for islanding and balancing power, but the information requirements for operating such systems may introduce more uncertainty than communities are willing to bear. This demonstration project is situated to resolve much of that uncertainty, and to provide rural communities with the data to move new projects forward. II. PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND OUTCOMES Activity 1: Install, test and analyze flow battery initial performance ENRTF BUDGET: $ 1,300,000 Description: UMN Morris and OTPCO will select, install, and test the initial performance of a flow battery at UMN Morris, which has the capacity to implement a Request-For-Proposal process to solicit competitive bids for equipment, meeting bi-weekly during the planning and install, moving to monthly meetings in the test/analysis-phase. Outcome Completion Date 1. Project Planning, Acquisition of Flow Battery December 2020 2. Installation and Commissioning of Flow Battery June 2021 3. Flow Battery Testing and Initial Experimentation December 2021 Activity 2: Install, test and analyze solar PV system and initial performance ENRTF BUDGET: $ 1,250,000 Description: 500kW of solar PV will be installed at UMN Morris. The system scale will allow for research into how wind and solar work integrally with battery storage. Wind is stronger at night and solar is strong in the daytime, allowing battery storage across a 24-hr period. Outcome Completion Date 1. Project Planning, Acquisition of Solar PV system December 2020 2. Installation and Commissioning of Solar PV system June 2021 3. Solar PV Array Testing and Experimentation December 2021 Activity 3: Flow-battery and renewable integration research, optimization, and report production ENRTF BUDGET: $ 141,000 Description: A large-scale demonstration of a flow battery will be the first of its kind in Minnesota. The team will analyze the performance of the combined system (battery/solar/wind), conduct an economic analysis of the combined system, prepare a final report, and disseminate the report broadly. The Energy Transition lab has capacity to help disseminate this information across MN. An Energy Transition Lab led delegation to California and Washington visited microgrid/battery installations and leadership at the California Public Utilities Commission and California ISO. Like MN, CA regulators work with universities and utilities to support pilot projects to increase regulatory confidence as new technologies are integrated into their regional grid. Outcome Completion Date 1. System Analysis (of combined battery/solar/wind integration) June 2022 2. Economic Analysis (of combined battery/solar/wind integration) December 2023 3. Final Data Analysis and Report completed -- dissemination to public/presentations June 2023 III. PROJECT PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS: A. PROJECT PARTNERS RECEIVING ENRTF FUNDING Name Title Affiliation Role Bryan Herrmann Vice Chancellor, Finance and Facilities UMN Morris Project Manager Arne Kildegaard Professor of Economics UMN Morris Economic Consultant TBD Project Engineer UMN Morris Project Engineer B. PROJECT PARTNERS NOT RECEIVING ENRTF FUNDING Name Title Affiliation Role Jason Grenier Manager, Market Planning Otter Tail Power Company Utility Partner Ellen Anderson Director, Energy Transition Lab University of Minnesota Project Consultant Blaine Hill City Manager, Morris Model Team City of Morris Project Consultant David Heim Chief Strategy Officer OATI/USA Microgrids Controls Partner IV. LONG-TERM IMPLEMENTATION AND FUNDING: This 3-year project is another step in a multi-stage project, testing the feasibility and performance of flow batteries in a Minnesota climate and how they can integrate with renewable energy sources, resulting in a thorough, publicly available cost-benefit analysis and system integration study. V. TIME LINE REQUIREMENTS: This 3-year project will begin July 1, 2020 and end June 30, 2023.