News & Events

Oct. 9, 2023, CEC Final Public Workshop "Understanding the Role of Long Duration Energy Storage in California’s Evolving Energy System"

The California Energy Commission (CEC) hosted a workshop to share capacity expansion modeling results from the project “Modeling of Long-Duration Storage for Decarbonization of California Energy System” awarded to The Regents of the University of California, Merced (UC Merced) under the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC) program. This presentation assessed the role of energy storage, including long-duration energy storage (LDES), in meeting California’s clean energy goals.
Link to CEC website with the recording and slides
Slides available for download

Jun. 11-16, 2023, Presented a papers and a poster in the IEEE PVSC 2023 Conference, at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Zabir Mahmud and Sarah Kurtz, "Effect of solar mounting configurations on California zero-carbon grid", IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2023. 

Mariela Colombo and Sarah Kurtz, "Oxy-combustion: A threat or an opportunity for solar?", IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2023. 

Nov. 1-4, 2022, Presented 2 papers in the IEEE VPPC 2022 Conference, at UC Merced. 

Farzan ZareAfifi and Sarah Kurtz, “Analytical analysis of stationary Li-ion-battery storage-system efficiency on a large scale" IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC), 2022. On line 

Zabir Mahmud and Sarah Kurtz, “Impact of EV Charging Schedule on Storage Requirements for a Renewable-driven Grid in California" IEEE Vehicle Power and Propulsion Conference (VPPC), 2022. On line 

IEEE VPPC 2022 Conference

Jul. 12, 2022, CEC Public Workshop: "Proposed Final Scenarios to Assess the Role of Long Duration Storage Workshop"

California Energy Commission hosted workshops to receive comments on research activities for the project “Modeling of Long-Duration Storage for Decarbonization of California Energy System” awarded to The Regents of the University of California, Merced (UC Merced) under the Electric Program Investment Charge (EPIC).  Slides and event recording. Builds upon the previous workshop on Nov 17, 2021 listed below.

Apr. 26, 2022, New paper published in Applied Energy

P.A. Sánchez-Pérez, Martin Staadecker, Julia Szinai, Sarah Kurtz, Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, "Effect of modeled time horizon on quantifying the need for long-duration storage" Applied Energy, 2022 Article

Mar. 23, 2022, Two New papers published in IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics and AIE Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Russell K. Jones and Sarah Kurtz, “Optimizing the Configuration of Photovoltaic Plants to Minimize the Need for Storage" IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 2022. Open access

Z. Mahmud, K. Shiraishi, M. Abido, D. Millstein, P. Sanchez, and S. Kurtz, “Geographical variability of summer- and winter-dominant onshore wind"Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Volume 14, 023303, 2022. Open access

Feb. 17, 2022, New paper published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews
"R. Shan, J. Reagan, S. Castellanos, S. Kurtz, and N. Kittner. "Evaluating emerging long-duration energy storage technologies" Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,
Volume 159, 2022. Article 

Nov. 17, 2021, Study on long duration energy storage presented at California Energy Commission (CEC) workshop to solicit feedback.

Draft Storage Technology Summary

Draft Electricity Generation Technology Summary

Presentation: Strategies to Model Long Duration Storage.

Oct. 20, 2021, New article published in Joule on Cross-Sector Storage

Kittner, N., Castellanos, S., Hidalgo-Gonzalez, P., Kammen, D. M., & Kurtz, S. (2021). Cross-sector storage and modeling needed for deep decarbonization. Joule, 5(10), 2529-2534. Article 

Oct. 14-15, 2021, Presented 5 posters at Global Climate Leadership Council, run by University of California Office of the President

Understanding the Impact of Consecutive Days for Energy Storage Modelling 

Utilization of Energy Storage in California's Electrical Grid 

Evaluating Emerging Long-duration Energy Storage Technologies 

Seasonal Challenges for a California Renewable Energy Driven Grid 

Geographical Variability of Summer and Winter Dominant Onshore Wind

Sept. 20, 2021, Paper published in IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics. "Global Progress Toward Renewable Electricity: Tracking the Role of Solar"

N. M. Haegel and S. R. Kurtz, "Global Progress Toward Renewable Electricity: Tracking the Role of Solar," in IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 1335-1342, Nov. 2021, doi: 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2021.3104149. Article

Jul. 21, 2021, Q&A Panel on Technologies for Renewable Energy Storage. Hosted by California Council on Science and Technology

Expert briefing and Q&A discussing topics such as avaialbe technologies, system resiliency, policy gaps, load managment, equity in deployment, and various challenges to increasing storage capacity in California. Recording of Q&A panel on Youtube Link to one pager on the expert briefing

Jun. 20-25, 2021, IEEE 48th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC). Paper submitted on the economic impact fo demand shifting.

A. Leilaeioun, R. Jones, R. Sinton, and S. Kurtz, “Demand Shifting as a Profitable Strategy for Solar Plant Operators" 48th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2021. PDF Article

Jun. 18, 2021, Article published in IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics on challenges facing a solar dominated grid and the need for seasonal storage.

M. Abido, K. Shiraishi, P. Sanchez, R. Jones, Z. Mahmud, S. Castellanos, N. Kittner, D. Kammen, and S. Kurtz, “Seasonal Challenges for a Zero-Carbon Grid in California" 48th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2021.PDF Presentation 

Jun. 11, 2021, Issues in Science and Technology publishes article on the need for a broader consideration of long duration energy storage.

S. Kurtz, N. Kittner, S. Castellanos, P. Hidalgo-Gonzalez, and D. Kammen, “For Cleaner, Greener Power, Expand the Definition of "Batteries"" Issues in Science and Technology, 2021. Article 

Dec. 3, 2020 CEC-hosted Public Workshop on Modeling of Long-Duration Energy Storage

UC Merced and E3 presented their plans for modeling long-duration energy storage and answered questions. UC Merced's presentation is posted below. A recording is available here.