An existing ‘community battery’ system in Western Australia. Image: Western Power.

An AU$120 million (US$81.34 million) government funding round has opened in Australia for community battery energy storage projects.

Defined as battery facilities of between 50kW to 5,000kW nameplate output, connected to the distribution network, grant funding in the range of AU$3 million to AU$20 million per successful application will be available.

Proposals must deploy at least five battery storage systems each, with batteries sharing a grid connection point or co-located to be counted as one facility.

The money is coming from a total pot of AU$200 million allocated through the federal budget for 2022/2023 to fund 400 community battery installations across the country from Australia’s Housedhold Solar Budget.

Of that pot, AU$171 million was allocated to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), to fund at least 342 of those batteries. The money announced today represents Round 1 of that allocation, with projects funded from it to inform projects in a future round.

Community batteries, which store surplus solar-generated energy for later use, aim to maximise the benefits of Australia’s high uptake of rooftop solar PV, even for those households that can’t afford or are otherwise unable to host it on their own roofs.

Another term to describe them, coined by a team from Australian National University (ANU), is ‘neighbourhood batteries’. Writing in a technical paper for our journal PV Tech Power (vol.29) last year, the ANU experts said their preferred monicker comes from the fact that the word ‘community’ implies a degree of local community ownership of the facilities, which is not always the case.

‘Neighbourhood’ instead implies that the benefits of the battery energy storage system (BESS) technology will be shared by a community, even if the ownership isn’t. Either way, the ANU authors wrote that while the medium-sized battery installations do indeed offer numerous benefits to networks and their operators and users, more work needs to be done to establish a business case for them.

The purpose of ARENA’s community battery funding is to determine whether the systems can be a “missing link” in Australia’s energy storage needs, the agency wrote on its corporate blog today. The funding round aims to “fix the knowledge gap” on what is currently still a fairly rare technology set, it said.

“Not everyone is able to install rooftop solar, but by storing electricity close to the point of consumer demand, we can reduce network costs and alleviate constraints in areas with high solar penetration. This will ultimately reduce electricity costs for all consumers,” ARENA CEO Darren Miller said.

Round 1 is split into two streams with AU$60 million available for each. Stream A is for community battery projects by, or to be owned by, distribution network service providers (DNSPs) and installed in front-of-the-meter. Stream B is for project proposals from non-DNSP entities that can be installed behind-the-meter on distribution networks.

ARENA has produced an expression of interest (EOI) which details eligibility and other criteria, which can be seen here.

Some neighbourhood or community battery programmes are also underway by individual Australian states. For example, the state of Victoria in June last year offered funding from a pool of just under AU$11 million for projects that can demonstrate the multi-use benefits of such BESS installations. In February this year, Queensland committed AU$10 million for the deployment of 35 systems in the city of Ipswich.

ARENA meanwhile noted that the funding round follows its pledge of financial support for large-scale BESS projects equipped with advanced inverters. The aim of that programme is to establish how BESS can provide inertia to maintain stability of the grid, which traditionally has been a role played by thermal power plants. In December 2022 ARENA announced AU$176 million funding towards eight projects totalling 4.2GWh through that programme.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 1st Energy Storage Summit Asia, 11-12 July 2023 in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.

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Eric Spigelman

EDF Renewables North America says it reached two agreements with Indiana Michigan Power (I&M), a subsidiary of American Electric Power, by which I&M will add 554 MW DC (425 MW AC) of solar energy to its clean energy mix. 

I&M will purchase the 236 MW DC (180 MW AC) output from Sculpin Solar under a 30-year power purchase agreement, and will purchase 100% of the equity interests (318 MW DC or 245 MW AC) in Lake Trout Solar following the completion of construction activities.

“We are very pleased to partner with I&M and to contribute to its goal of delivering carbon-free energy to its customers,” says Eric Spigelman, senior director, origination and power marketing at EDF Renewables. “Indiana and its farmers are taking the lead to decarbonize the energy sector, while also revitalizing the local economy with jobs, vendor contracts, taxes and lease payments.”

Combined, these two projects are expected to generate approximately 880,000 MWh of clean energy annually. This is equivalent to avoiding over 624,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually which represents the greenhouse gas emissions from over 135,000 passenger vehicles driven over the course of one year.

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Duke Energy’s 9MW BESS project in Asheville (pictured) was commissioned in 2020 and until the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune project came online was the state’s biggest. Image: Duke Energy.

US utility Duke Energy has brought online a 11MW/11MWh battery storage project which despite its modest size is thought to currently be the largest project of its type in North Carolina.

The company announced the start of commercial operation of the battery energy storage system (BESS) last week, on land leased within Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina’s Onslow County.

Using lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry battery cells, the system is co-located with an existing 13MW solar PV plant with which it shares a connection point to the grid via a Duke Energy substation.

OCI, a subsidiary of the global construction and engineering firm Black & Veatch, was primary engineering, construction and procurement (EPC) contractor.

Details of how the system will be operated were not shared in the statement, but North Carolina state president for Duke Energy Kendal Bowman said pairing the BESS with the solar PV system – which has been in operation since 2015 – “helps strengthen the reliability of our energy grid and makes better use of our existing solar generation”.

Director of public works at the Marine Corps Base Navy Commander Ross Campbell said the base had been able to make “an important investment in the pursuit of energy security inside the fence-line”, through an enhanced use lease (EUL) for the 1 acre plot of land the battery system occupies.

“Integration of the solar plant with a battery energy storage system, unthinkable a decade ago, presents the installation with a number of opportunities to achieve energy resilience objectives,” Campbell said.

“These systems are part of the ongoing collaboration with the Department of Defense and its utility providers to ensure energy security at federal facilities.”

Duke has long way to go to meet 2029 goal

Duke Energy has been criticised by some industry sources in the past for being slower to embrace battery energy storage than many other large utility companies in the US, although it completed its first megawatt-scale plot project, a 36MW/24MWh BESS using lead acid batteries, back in 2012 at a wind farm in Notrees, Texas.

Built with costs shared 50:50 with the US Department of Energy to test the use of batteries for delivering ancillary services, energy shifting and reducing curtailment of the wind farm’s output, that project has since been repowered with lithium-ion batteries.

Duke also built North Carolina’s previous holder of the largest BESS title, a 9MW project in the city of Asheville switched on in 2020. The group, comprising various utilities in its holdings, has about 90MW of battery storage in operation in three US states, most notably in Florida, where it has now switched on a 50MW portfolio, including three projects totalling 34MW/58MWh that came online just over a year ago, as reported by Energy-Storage.news.

Going forward, the company said it plans to have 1,900MW of BESS online in all territories by 2029. This could include 1,000MW of standalone battery storage as well as 600MW of batteries at solar-plus-storage plants in the Carolinas, 1,700MW of pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) and a mix of other resources like 3,400MW of peak demand reduction through energy efficiency and demand response, announced as part of the company’s proposed carbon reduction plan for North and South Carolina in May 2022.

Duke Energy said the carbon reduction plan, which called for the deployment of 5.9GW of renewable and clean energy technologies, could enable a 70% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and set a path to carbon neutrality by 2050. The company also said it would retire all of its coal plants in the neighbouring southern US states by 2035.

North Carolina governor Roy Cooper signed an executive order in January 2022 setting a 50% emissions reduction target by 2050 against 2005 emissions levels, with Duke Energy claiming its Carolinas Carbon Reduction Plan would be aligned with that goal.

According to North Carolina-based non-profit consulting firm Advanced Energy, in 2022 coal still accounted for 13% of that state’s utility generation mix, with 41% coming from natural gas, 32% from nuclear and just 14% from combined hydro, wind and solar renewable generation.

The larger battery storage sites it did already have in 2022 comprised 15 utility-scale installations and 13 microgrids, mostly for municipal utilities and cooperatives, although Duke Energy completed a solar-plus-storage microgrid with 4.4MW of BESS technology capable of powering the entire town of Hot Springs in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier this year.

In December, system integrator FlexGen said it had completed the first project in a 40MW BESS buildout across various locations for NC Electric Cooperatives, which collectively represents non-profit utilities serving around 2.5 million people in the state. The new fleet adds battery capacity to the group’s portfolio of 14 solar-plus-storage sites which total 23MW of solar PV and 53MWh of BESS, as well as a number of smaller microgrids.

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Rob Edinger

Opis Renewable Services, a firm that assists renewable energy developers, project owners and stakeholders, says it began operations in Chicago. 

The new company, led by industry veteran Rob Edinger, offers a range of services for wind, solar and energy storage facilities to meet the needs of project owners and OEMs. At its new facility, Opis will offer training for the wind and solar sectors along with high voltage training. It will provide operational services and support to the wind, solar and Bess divisions as well. 

This will allow Opis to provide OEMs, developers and project owners with qualified and trained technicians for long or short-term support, regardless of if the company needs support on scheduled or unscheduled maintenance.

“Our team at Opis is excited to launch and train technicians with exceptional service,” said Robert Edinger, CEO of Opis Renewable Services. “We are committed to delivering high-quality operational and maintenance services for the renewable energy industry, and we are confident that our new facility will help us achieve that goal.”

Opis begins operations at its 20,000 square foot training center conveniently located just ten minutes from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport and 20 minutes from downtown Chicago.

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A JA Solar farm

JA Solar, a manufacturer of solar power products, signed a cooperation agreement with Mexican distributor Exel Solar and agreed to establish a long-term partnership for the distribution of its products in Mexico. 

Both parties will work together to provide customers with high-efficiency modules and quality services while contributing to the sustainable development of the Mexican PV market.

Since entering the Mexican market in 2016, JA Solar has established a fruitful cooperative relationship with Exel Solar, a local PV module distributor, enabling both parties to jointly promote the application and development of PV technologies in the market. 

In recent years, both parties have signed distribution cooperation agreements to continuously increase JA Solar’s module shipments in the local market. 

Distributors play an important role in JA Solar’s global sales ecosystem. With more than 10 years of experience in the Mexican PV market, Exel Solar has provided support to promote JA Solar’s products in Mexico. 

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Batteries, whether in vehicles or on the grid, will be a technology that defines the 21st Century, but the scale of that expected demand means a fundamental rethink of the supply chain is required, writes Greg Pitt, VP of battery materials at Worley.

Although demand trajectories vary, experts agree that the energy transition will be hindered by a structural shortage of critical minerals – particularly lithium, graphite, nickel, copper and cobalt – as early as 2025.

Further, as countries accelerate their efforts to achieve net zero, that shortage will only deepen as a result of the increased mineral inputs required by fossil fuel alternatives such as electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.

A typical electric car, for example, requires six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car and demand for battery electric vehicles is set to grow with the UK and European governments phasing out the sale of new diesel and petrol engine vehicles in the next decade.

While theoretically there are sufficient mineral quantities in the ground to meet the requirements of the energy transition, a structural deficit exists along the entire battery supply chain.

From mining and extraction from brines, through materials processing to cathode and anode manufacture, the region´s limited domestic industry simply does not have the resources, financial nor human capital, to ramp up supply in time to meet demand. Indeed, the almost collapse of the would-be car battery manufacturer Britishvolt as a result of cashflow issues shows just how difficult it is to develop the supply chain.

While researchers are rapidly innovating new technologies that reduce our dependence on certain minerals, it will be several years before these innovations filter through to product lines.

As such, to keep the energy transition on track, we must seek to address the battery supply chain’s structural deficit by expanding production in new and creative ways.

We don’t have time for bespoke design

There are several challenges to increasing mineral supply, but the most pressing is how to condense typical project timelines to bring new mining, processing and manufacturing capacity online more quickly.

Historically, we’ve been hooked on bespoke infrastructure design which can take a decade or more to deliver. For context, according to the IEA, between 2010 and 2019 it took an average of 16.5 years to take a mining project from discovery through to first production, with construction taking up to five years!

Similar constraints are evident at all stages in the battery supply chain with each production or processing facility requiring complex engineering, investment in the region of half a billion to a billion pounds, and several years to build.

Given the very short runway the industry has to increase supply chain throughput to support the region’s transition to net zero, we need to rethink the traditional bespoke approach to infrastructure delivery.

Design one, build many

Worley’s response to this is to innovate modular designs from which we can build many plants. Much like the trusty Lego block, while each modular block will be different, they will all share common interconnection points.

This has the combined benefit of being quicker to construct but flexible enough so that new technologies and upgrades can be readily assimilated into the plant as they become available in the future. It will also reduce the barriers for the industry when adopting new technologies to help address future market changes such as the declining quality of ore, increases in the use of recycled materials and heightened sustainability standards.

Ultimately, with far fewer bespoke requirements, modular designs are much easier to scale, replicate and disseminate around the world, ultimately fast tracking the industry’s response for more battery supply chain throughout.

This is not entirely new territory as it takes inspiration from the manufacturing mindset embodied by the likes of the automotive, telecommunications and aviation industries as well as our own. Boeing’s move towards standardisation within its design and production, for example, illustrate what is possible even in the face of complex engineering.

While each aircraft can be customised and modified by the end customer to suit certain requirements, much of the core engineering remains the same – the frame, the windows, the wiring looms, etc. This has allowed Boeing to make production more predictable, repeatable, and cost efficient while still being able to manufacture an aircraft from start to finish in nine days.

To make a similar approach feasible for the battery supply chain we need to reimagine the design approach to focus on utility, adaptability of standard designs and speed of delivery.

Partnerships and collaboration are critical to supply chain vision

A large part of the success of this new design philosophy relies on collaboration from the battery supply chain who will ultimately deliver it; dozens of critical vendors for 4,000+ pieces of equipment.

With the right information supported by a collaborative environment, vendors can support this vision of modularity and standardisation in their own products. By leveraging vendor’s expertise, we can streamline equipment supply by adapting designs to accommodate largely ‘off the shelf’ equipment which eliminate the time spent designing and manufacturing custom pieces.

To bring it all together there is then the need for an experienced ‘system integrator’ – an organisation that takes accountability for the overall operating performance and process design, and crafts the participation by various vendors and other parties to align and maximise the contribution by each within their specific areas of expertise.

A simple example of this are the materials handling facilities needed at the receiving and dispatch ends of many such facilities. There are particular requirements for battery materials processing relating to containment of toxic substances and protection from moisture ingress that, with close collaboration from typical vendors of this equipment, can be readily adapted and standardised for this industry – ultimately reducing the need for bespoke design efforts and shortening delivery lead times. More complex examples exist deeper into the plant process – along the same lines and with the same outcomes.

The final piece in this reimagination is to build long-term partnerships with battery material miners, processors and manufacturers to successfully bring this new concept to the UK and Europe.

This is something that must happen quickly if these markets are to successfully establish a domestic battery supply chain that will not only keep pace with short-term demand but also support the region’s medium-term ambition of phasing out new diesel and petrol engine car sales post 2030.

While we are in the midst of the sixth industrial revolution, it is increasingly clear that traditional methods of construction for chemical and mineral processing will not get us there in time. The battery industry must blaze its own trail if it is to contribute at the scale needed to meet the region’s goal of achieving net zero by 2050 and lessen the impact of climate change, at pace.

Driving innovation and leading the charge comes with risk, but with the right blend of creativity and expertise, there is always a way to solve even the most complex engineering problems.

About the Author

Greg Pitt is vice president of the battery materials growth team at Worley, a worldwide team of consultants, engineers, construction workers and data scientists working in the energy, chemicals and resources sectors. Pitt’s duties include identifying key growth areas and technology advancements within the battery materials market.

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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr cuts the ribbon to inaugurate the BESS in Limay, Philippines. Image: Government of Philippines official photo.

It is “vital” that energy storage systems (ESS) are incorporated into the energy infrastructure of the Philippines, the country’s president has said.

Speaking at the inauguration of a large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) project a few days ago, president Ferdinand Marcos Jr pointed to the technology as a solution to national energy security challenges.

In addition to energy security, storage can help the Philippines energy sector to become more sustainable and cleaner, while also making energy more affordable and creating employment opportunities, according to the politician.

“Given the increasing generation of renewable energy, it is vital then that we advance and incorporate Energy Storage Systems, or ESS, in our overall energy infrastructure,” Marcos said.

The president took part in the unveiling of a BESS project by major Philippine power company SMC Global Power, in the municipality of Limay in the Luzon island province of Bataan. The grid-scale facility is one of a combined 90MWh of BESS being built at SMC Global Power thermal power plants in the region.

That too is part of a wider buildout by the power company – it aims to complete the last of its 32 BESS projects totalling about 1,000MWh, across the country by the end of this year.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news, global energy storage system integrators ABB, Fluence and Wärtsilä were appointed to work on the portfolio under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, while Samsung supplied battery modules.

Filipino power generation and utility companies like SMC Global Power are locked in something of an arms race to deploy batteries at their power plants, DNV energy storage lead for the Asia-Pacific region George Garabandic said in a recent interview.

Speaking to our quarterly journal PV Tech Power (vol.33), Garabandic said that power plant operators in the Southeast Asian country are responsible for delivering ancillary services, such as frequency response, to balance the grid. Unlike thermal power plants running on gas, coal or other fossil fuels, batteries have microsecond response times.

They also don’t require fuel, which has fluctuating supplies and costs, or as much time or money spent on maintenance. In other words, they can increase the operational efficiency of ancillary services delivery and generate cost savings, Garabandic said.

Garanbandic’s team recently worked on testing and certifying the Southeast Asian region’s largest BESS project to date, a 200MW/285MWh system in Singapore, which came online just six months after project developer Sembcorp was awarded the contract by the national Energy Market Authority (EMA).

Battery storage can help ‘avert power crisis’ in Philippines

SMC Global Power is part of the Philippines conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC). Marcos said the 1,000MWh portfolio will make it one of the world’s largest grid-scale battery system operators. The BESS technology also supports a national goal of sourcing 35% of its total energy requirement from renewable energy by 2035.

“Our BESS facilities will support the country’s power grid by storing excess power from existing plants, and injecting this power back, when and where it is needed, within milliseconds – ensuring power quality is stable, and reaches users all over the country,” SMC president and CEO Raymond Ang said at the inauguration event.

Ang claimed the SMC Global Power BESS network will be largely to thank for the Philippines grids being able to integrate up to an estimated 5,000MW of renewable power.

“With battery energy storage, we can solve the problem with most renewable energy sources, which is intermittence, due to the irregularity or seasonality of solar and wind power sources,” Ang said.

The CEO also noted that the government is “working to avert a power crisis,” but that getting new generation facilities online will take time. The BESS network meanwhile is “is already here, and it can provide immediate mitigation to the power crisis,” according to Ang.

Image: SMC Global Power.

SMC was actually responsible for the country’s first-ever large-scale BESS, a 10MWh system at a power station in the municipality of Masinloc, also in Luzon, back in 2016. The company is set on expanding its rapidly-growing fleet further: of a further 2,000MW of BESS projects to have won approval from the national Board of Investments, SMC Global Power projects account for about 95%.

Earlier this year, the Philippines Department of Energy (DOE) published a set of proposed changes to rules and regulations that it hopes will ease the integration of energy storage into energy markets.

President Marcos commented at the Limay ribbon-cutting that the current rules and legislation need to catch up with technology developments, adding that his administration would extend all support mechanisms to create a mutually beneficial partnership between investors in energy storage and renewable energy, and the country.

“We will improve the policy and regulatory framework for the renewable energy (RE) industry, especially for the ESS technology, to encourage the further development of our fledgling renewables industry.”

“We will streamline and harmonise the regulatory framework, at the national and local levels, to ensure ease of doing business, to take down unnecessary regulatory burdens, and this is all part of our agenda to improve bureaucratic efficiency and sound fiscal management for a much better, more streamlined, more efficient system,” Marcos said.

The country is already the SouthEast Asian leader in battery storage, with BloombergNEF finding that more than 80% of energy storage installations in the region in 2022 were in the Philippines.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 1st Energy Storage Summit Asia, 11-12 July 2023 in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.

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Then-state premier Steven Marshall speaks at the 2018 opening of a factory in South Australia by home ESS maker Sonnen. The state accounted for 27% of market volume in 2022 and leads in per-household installations. Image: Sonnen.

The Australian market for residential battery storage grew by an estimated 55% in 2022 from the previous year, according to solar market consultancy SunWiz.

The company’s latest annual report on the battery storage market in Australia also found that about 15% of new solar PV installations are being combined with home storage, an increase from around 10% in 2021.

In all, an estimated 47,100 systems were deployed last year equivalent to about 589MWh capacity, with the market now at  around 180,000 cumulative installations adding up to about 1,920MWh of capacity installed since 2015. In last year’s edition, SunWiz totted up an estimate of 333MWh of installations during 2021, as reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time.

The average residential storage battery system capacity is 12.5kWh, and in most of the country, payback on investment can be achieved in 10 years or less, with payback in eight years in some states.

While there are therefore some key differences in market dynamics from state to state, for example in state-level incentive programmes and how they are structured, SunWiz found that every Australian state and territory saw “significant growth” in battery installations in 2022.

Indeed, 2022 was a year that saw installation records smashed in every state except South Australia, partly due to that state already having a head-start that makes it the leader in per-household uptake of storage.

Australians are certainly environmentally aware and climate-focused as a society, evidenced by the high uptake of rooftop solar many parts of the country have seen for years. More recently though, the economic drivers for solar PV with batteries have become too good to ignore for many members of the public.

“Skyrocketing” electricity prices from utilities mean that Australian homes and businesses are “taking back power from the energy system by turning to cheaper, renewable sources of energy,” SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston said, with solar-plus-storage guaranteeing energy bill savings.

“Australians responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, COVID, the energy price crisis, and worsening climate fuelled disasters by installing home solar systems linked to batteries, in an effort to increase their energy independence, resilience and self-reliance,” in 2022, according to Johnston.

The results are even more striking when considering that the number of PV installations in Australia fell year-on-year, in contrast to considerable growth in energy storage system (ESS) installations, the result of both the rising cost of electricity and a trend towards self-sufficiency and resiliency that SunWiz acknowledged is an international one.

Battery-only installations comprised a very small share of the overall market, whereas a quarter of distributed ESS system installs were retrofits at existing PV installations, and 55% were installed concurrently with new PV system.

States with strong incentive and subsidy programmes, including South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Victoria had the highest attachment rates of battery storage with new PV systems. Meanwhile New South Wales remains the state with the most behind-the-meter ESS installs, about 55,000 of the national total, with Victoria the next with 44,284 installations estimated by SunWiz from compiling and analysing various data sources including government registers. Overall, Victoria and New South Wales each accounted for 27% of national market volume in 2022, SunWiz found.

However, battery storage hasn’t quite gone mainstream just yet in the way that residential PV has: taking into account the number of existing PV systems in the country as well as the total number of dwellings versus the number of home batteries installed showed that market penetration remains low, at between 1.6% to 5.3% of the total addressable market size. In some parts of Australia, around one in four or one in three homes have solar.

That implies that residential energy storage is largely the domain of the ‘early adopters’, rather than the mainstream, but the growth seen does at least mark a transition away from the ‘innovators’ who go before even the early adopters in what might be called the technology acceptance timeline.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 1st Energy Storage Summit Asia, 11-12 July 2023 in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.

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A Conger solar system built over a canal

Conger Solar Systems says it is designing and engineering the solar panel canopies that will be used to cover various sections of Turlock Irrigation District’s canals for Project Nexus in California.

Conger’s structures were commissioned by Project Nexus managers Solar AquaGrid and the Turlock Irrigation District based on the firm’s successful solar-over-canal deployments in India. 

Conger’s designs are well-suited for covering narrow and wide-span canals and the challenges posed by building over existing utility corridors while saving open land for other purposes in the process.

“After teaching an environmental design course with Buckminster Fuller at John Denver’s Windstar Foundation, I realized that the inherent efficiency of cable structures, combined with solar energy was an embodiment of Bucky’s core principles of sustainability, renewable energy, and doing more with less,” says Steven Conger, CTO/Chairman, Conger Solar Systems.

Once design concepts were patented, Conger Solar Systems designed and built its first tensioned cable solar structure over a parking lot in Los Angeles in 2011. Several projects followed, mainly in India, paving the way to the Punjab, India solar-over-canal project Conger Solar Systems designed in 2017.

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A Ferrovial PV project

Spanish water utility Canal de Isabel II has awarded an engineering, construction and commissioning contract to Ferrovial, an infrastructure developer, for a 1.7 MW floating solar plant in Torrelaguna, Madrid.

The contract is the first in Canal de Isabel II’s solar plan, an initiative promoting the generation and self-consumption of renewable energies, and represents an investment of $48.9 million.

The infrastructure will be installed during the first months of 2023 on the lower reservoir of the Santa Lucía Hydroelectric Power Plant in Torrelaguna, Madrid. It will generate more than 2,000 MWh of clean energy. The facility will also reduce the evaporation of water from the reservoir.Ferrovial launched the energy solutions division within its construction department to help carry out the Horizon 24 Plan. The plan outlines collaboration with solar and wind power plant development, energy transmission and distribution projects, and energy services.

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