A rendering of FREYR’s planned US gigafactory in Georgia. It is one of several to have accelerated plans in the US since the Inflation Reduction Act, although is going full steam ahead with its European projects too. Image: FREYR.

Some companies which were previously considering Europe for lithium-ion gigafactory projects are now looking to the US instead, executives working in site selection and design have told Energy-Storage.news.

As Energy-Storage.news has written extensively, over the course of 2022 the picture changed significantly for Europe and the US’ respective gigafactory investment climates.

Post-Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), growth in planned US production capacity started to outpace Europe’s, leading major EU policymakers to call for action to ‘to prevent an outflow of investment’ from its battery ecosystem.

What hasn’t been as concretely clear is whether these are due to respective ramping up and down of existing plans or the US taking investment away from its North Atlantic neighbour, but experts working in site selection and evaluation for gigafactories tell us this is definitely happening.

One of those is David Werner, executive VP for Industrial Market, i.e. manufacturing, at architecture and engineering firm Gresham Smith.

“One client that we’ve been helping with a gigafactory site evaluation process was initially looking at doing a project in Europe and that transitioned to now doing a project in North America. I don’t think it means the European project is off the table, it’s just the order of precedence has been reversed,” he said.

“That client saw the Inflation Reduction Act coming and shifted gears. I have had a lot of conversations with clients who are accelerating their plans in the US.”

Another is JLL, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate companies, which recently did the site selection for Turkish firm Kontrolmatik’s US gigafactory, which will be focused on the energy storage market.

Energy-Storage.news asked JLL’s International Director Meredith O’Connor if the firm was starting to see interest from companies which previously were looking at launching projects in Europe, but have pivoted to the US in light of the Act and lower power prices.

“Yes, we have a global EV steering committee, so we often compare the amount of projects in each country. There has been a rapid increase in battery and solar related projects since this summer. Our JLL team is working on several of them across the United States,” she said.

High power prices in Europe were cited as a reason for a potential delay to the third gigafactory from Northvolt, one of the leading companies in Europe’s gigafactory drive, which at the start of the year looked miles ahead of the US’.

JLL estimates a 25-35% increase in the volume of gigafactory projects since the Act was passed, in line with figures from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence provided to Energy-Storage.news at the start of December 2022. Benchmark then pegged Europe’s 2031 planned annual lithium-ion battery production capacity at 1,186.2GWh versus 992.6GWh/957.6GWh for North America/US.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the eighth annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 22-23 February 2023. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

A month later Solar Media will host the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 28-29 March 2023 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.

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RWE’s solar-plus-storage system at one of three lignite mines it operates in NRW, Germany. Image: RWE.

RWE commissions solar-plus-storage system at lignite mine in NRW

Multinational energy firm RWE has commissioned a solar-plus-storage project at its Inden lignite mine in the district of Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany.

The bifacial solar PV array has an output of 14.4MW while the attached battery energy storage system (BESS) will provide 9.6MWh of energy storage capacity, and around 4.8MW of power.

The BESS will be used to optimise the solar PV’s discharge into the electricity grid. The project has come online several months later than initially expected.

RWE is building two similar units in another nearby lignite mine, Garzweiler, as reported by Energy-Storage.news recently, which will total 10.6MW/21.1MWh of energy storage.

It is aiming to deploy a minimum of 500MW in the Rhenish lignite mining district, an area with three large lignite mines it operates in NRW, by 2030.

Grid-scale battery storage deployments in Germany last year most likely eclipsed 200MW in total, a record for the market and the second-highest deployment figure in Europe after the UK, which deployed around 760MW (figure from Solar Media Market Research’s UK Battery Storage Project Database Report).

Rabobank invests in Dutch system integrator GIGA Storage

Rabobank has taken a minority stake in GIGA Storage, a developer that recently commissioned the largest BESS project in the Netherlands to-date, provided by Wärtsilä.

Rabobank said the investment will allow GIGA Storage to expand its network of large-scale energy storage projects.

The company’s two deployments so far total 57MWh of energy storage but the firm claims it has developed a project pipeline of 12,500MWh in both Belgium and the Netherlands, with 420MWh to be built in the near-term.

“GIGA Storage is a pioneer in the large-scale energy storage industry in the Benelux. We are proud to further shape our partnership with GIGA as an investor. This allows them to substantially grow both their battery projects and the self-developed IT platform in order to facilitate the further integration of renewable energy into the Benelux electricity grid,” said Francis Quint, global head of Rabo Investments.

Read more Energy-Storage.news coverage of the energy storage market in the Netherlands here. As we reported, the largest system being built was recently announced by the BESS division of Rolls-Royce.

Swiss Canton looks to energy storage

AEW Energie, the utility serving the Swiss Canton of Aargau, is adding a 5.5MW/10MWh BESS unit to its grid to help shore up energy security and decarbonise.

Hitachi Energy has been contracted to provide the system although its press release was unclear about whether the system has only been ordered or brought online already. A spokesperson said it was most likely the latter and Energy-Storage.news will update this article when confirmation has been received.

The BESS order includes Hitachi Energy’s intelligent automation software, the e-mesh portfolio which provides advanced analytics, software, and digital capabilities.

AEW will use the BESS as a learning platform to enhance grid stability and add distributed energy resources (DERs) to its operations. Looking ahead, it also wants to use energy storage to optimise EV charging, introduce virtual power plants (VPPs) and trade energy.

René Soland, head of Business Unit Grids AEW Energie AG, said: “What is exciting is that the BESS can give us new ways to orchestrate, optimise, and manage our existing infrastructure, as well as a path to the future, especially with more renewable power and the expected increase in electrification across many industries.”

Switzerland has been relatively quiet in the energy storage news world, but last year it did commission a 20GWh pumped hydro plant in the Valais mountains, one of the largest systems brought online anywhere in the world. See all other coverage of the Swiss market here.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the eighth annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 22-23 February 2023. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers from across Europe all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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The City of Grinnell in Iowa is partnering with Alliant Energy on a solar project to be established on a Brownfield site and soon-to-be owned city land. Upon ownership of nearly 32 acres, the City of Grinnell plans to enter into a lease agreement with Alliant Energy and proceed with the development of the solar project on 5-7 acres at 400 6th Avenue West in Grinnell.

“Our partnership with Alliant Energy to develop a 1.59 MW solar energy system demonstrates our commitment to renewable clean energy generation,” says Russell Behrens, Grinnell’s city manager. “The project will revitalize an underutilized manufacturing property, generate meaningful revenue for community projects and allow the school district to recoup their investment in this property. This would not have been possible without the bold leadership demonstrated by the school district when addressing this long-time nuisance property.” 

Alliant Energy is currently conducting land surveys and studying power grid connection opportunities in the identified project location. If the studies confirm the expected positive results, Alliant Energy will design, construct, own, operate and maintain the solar project. The City of Grinnell will receive annual fixed lease payments over the next 20 years. 

The project is part of Alliant Energy’s Customer-Hosted Renewables Program, which enables customers with available land to host solar facilities and receive lease payments and renewable energy credits. The project also furthers Alliant Energy’s goals to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity it generates by 2050.

“We are excited to work with the City of Grinnell as we strive toward a more sustainable future together,” states Amanda Accola, key account manager for Alliant Energy. “The project aligns with our mission-driven purpose to have a role in strengthening communities while providing the opportunity to enhance community exposure to renewables as well as the consideration of how renewables can integrate with community planning and development.” 

The City of Grinnell and the Grinnell School District are currently working on a purchase agreement for the land on which the solar project will be built. 

Construction could begin in late-2023 and become operational in late-2024. The timeline, as well as final approval of the project is contingent on field study results, design, permitting and equipment availability.

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Zvi Lando

SolarEdge Technologies Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the entire share capital of Hark Systems Ltd. Founded in 2016 and based in Leeds, U.K., Hark offers a highly flexible Software as a Service (SaaS) Internet of Things (IoT) platform that allows enterprises and asset operators to connect, analyze and optimize industrial assets and energy in their commercial sites. Hark’s technology enables rapid deployment and commissioning across multiple sites. Hark’s customer base is comprised of diverse industries, including some of the largest supermarket chains in the U.K.

The acquisition of Hark is expected to enable SolarEdge to offer its commercial and industrial (C&I) customers expanded capabilities in energy management and connectivity, including identification of potential energy savings, detection of anomalies in assets’ energy consumption, and optimization of energy usage and carbon emissions through load orchestration and storage control.

“Hark’s SaaS platform will enable us to grow our extensive commercial and industrial energy management portfolio and offer additional services to our C&I customers,” says Zvi Lando, CEO of SolarEdge Technologies. “Coupled with our smart energy solutions, Hark’s advanced technological capabilities can provide enterprises with greater transparency and control of their energy usage and carbon emissions.”

“SolarEdge has revolutionized how solar energy is harvested and managed and has deployed millions of smart energy management systems globally,” states Jordan Appleson, CEO and co-founder, Hark Systems. “We are excited to be able to be a part of the SolarEdge offering and join their global infrastructure to assist enterprises in the C&I market  to manage their energy in a more efficient and sustainable way.”

The acquisition is subject to certain customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals and is expected to close during the second quarter of 2023.

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Swell will aggregate home solar and battery systems into the VPP in Sacramento, the capital city of California. Image: Basil D Soufi / WikiCommons.

Virtual power plant (VPP) specialist Swell Energy will aggregate home solar and battery systems in a new programme from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).

SMUD’s My Energy Optimizer Partner+ programme, a residential customer-driven VPP initiative, will launch enrolments in quarter one this year and start operations in April. The initiative will allow customers to have their systems’ operated in combination with others in return for both upfront and ongoing compensation.

There are around 600 customer-sited energy storage systems in SMUD’s service area and another 400 in the interconnection process, Swell said. Home battery capacity generally ranges from a few kWh to 10kWh at the higher end.

Suleman Khan, CEO of Swell Energy, said: “Our collaborative virtual power plant will provide real-time energy management and synchronised battery dispatch across SMUD’s customer base, enabling large-scale renewable deployment and minimising the need for conventional power plants in the region. We believe this model is a beacon for how municipal utilities and other publicly owned utilities can achieve scale and value with distributed energy resources.”

SMUD is a community-owned not-for-profit utility serving the city of Sacramento, the capital of California. It was recently in the headlines of the energy storage world after a bold multi-year agreement with iron electrolyte flow battery company ESS Inc for the latter to deploy up to 2,000MWh of its systems in its service area.

Swell’s deal with the utility comes a few months after it secured US$120 million in funding from investors including Softbank Vision Fund 2 towards its VPP programmes across the US, covered by Energy-Storage.news at the time. The company has been developing and productising its VPP solutions offering since 2015.

See CEO Khan’s interview with Energy-Storage.news from April 2021 here and all coverage from across developments in the VPP space here.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 28-29 March 2023 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.

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Solar Alliance’s VC1 solar project in New York

Solar Alliance Energy Inc. has completed the construction of the company’s first two solar projects in New York; both are now in operation.

VC1, a 298 kW project located in the Village of Cazenovia, and US1, a 389 kW project located in the Village of Union Springs, have both received permission to operate and are now generating clean, renewable electricity under long-term power purchase agreements with the local communities.

“Solar Alliance is now the proud owner of two operating solar projects in New York as we wrapped up 2022 by achieving commercial operation on US1 and VC1,” says CEO Myke Clark. “These two projects represent proof-of-concept for our asset ownership strategy and represent a solid foundation to aggressively grow our portfolio of assets under ownership in 2023 and beyond.”

“The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S. is driving increased investment opportunities for the projects Solar Alliance is developing and these New York projects are a prime example of the benefits of the legislation. Combined with the growing revenue stream from our installation division, the energizing of these projects is a key catalyst for the next stage in our growth,” concludes Clark.

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Burns & McDonnell believes workforce shortages will be a big challenge for the industry. Image: Burns & McDonnell.

US-headquartered construction firm Burns & McDonnell supplies answers to the first in our series of Q&A blogs looking back at 2022 and looking ahead to this year in energy storage.

Burns & McDonnell has worked on over 40,000MWh of battery storage projects including the world’s largest at Moss Landing in California, and has a team experienced with a diverse range of other energy storage technologies.

We asked the company for its views at the start of last year too, and various members of its technical, executive, and business development teams contributed views and predictions for the future. You can read that entry from last year here, but to offer the briefest of recaps, senior VP of renewables Doug Riedel said that in 2021, energy storage engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects Burns & McDonnell worked on grew significantly in size from previous years and forecast that trend to continue.

Process technology director Tisha Scroggin-Wicker said interest in long-duration energy storage (LDES) would increase in 2022 – and it did – even though in most regions of the world, the market design to attract investment in these technologies would still not be present, which Scroggin-Wicker also predicted correctly.

Meanwhile, energy storage director Chris Ruckman and storage EPC director Matt Domeier predicted supply chain issues would persist and costs, largely tied to logistics as well as soaring materials prices, would increase.

So how did the company see the industry in 2022 and what does its clean energy team think we might see in 2023?

What did 2022 mean for your energy storage business, and how did it compare with the year before that?

In 2020 the market dealt with COVID-19 impacts, and in 2021 we saw a lot of supply chain issues. In 2022, it became the year of inflation and how to deal with it. The past few years have taught us to be flexible and incorporate variables into the way we execute projects. The market has forced us to refresh pricing frequently and keep a pulse on the market to help our clients navigate the uncertainty and market fluctuations.

Matt Domeier, energy storage EPC

The projects we’re building are also getting bigger. We’re in the middle of construction on a 350MW battery storage facility and are starting to see many more mega-scale battery energy storage facilities being deployed. Utility-scale battery storage projects are projected to grow 4x by 2026. At Burns & McDonnell we’ve seen continued growth both in the industry and internally.

Chris Ruckman, VP of energy storage

In 2022, we also saw an uptick in interest in long-duration storage technologies. With the increase in pricing of lithium and incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), we’re seeing more interest in alternative storage technologies and we expect to see a lot more opportunities being looked at in 2023 as grant applications are submitted and approved.

Tisha Scroggin-Wicker, process technology director

In a year in which we saw the passing of a monumental piece of legislation in the IRA it is almost hard to compare it to [the] previous year. I think we will talk about before and after the passing of IRA for decades to come.

Adam Bernardi, renewables EPC sales and strategy lead

To support the energy storage industry here in the US, the market has shifted further upstream in the total value chain. Industry in the US is transitioning to produce more of the critical minerals and derivative chemicals that support the manufacturing of the batteries, which is important for the energy security of the country.

Kevin Syphard, chemicals director

What were some of the biggest gains and steps forward made by the industry, including your company, during the last 12 months? 

We think the IRA will prove to be one of the biggest steps forward the industry has seen in many years. We’ve been working with clients that have projects in-flight to help them figure out how to apply the tax credits and other incentives unlocked by the IRA. Helping them explore and understand the difference between investment tax credits and production tax credits for solar has only been one aspect of the process. The ability to take advantage of direct-pay and opportunities to sell tax credits is also creating a market allowing a range of players to leverage these incentives.

This is exactly what we need as an industry to build the amount of storage we’ll need to successfully navigate the energy transition and meet decarbonisation goals, while providing reliable power.

Lastly, but I think most importantly, we’re seeing the fruits of our labour in California and the storage market is being validated. As the world’s largest concentration of grid-connected lithium-ion batteries, this storage system helped CAISO avoid grid blackouts during the extreme heat wave last summer.

Chris Ruckman, VP of energy storage

Battery OEMS have increased their offering by also providing containers and in some cases the full system. This will continue to squeeze the integrator’s role in the market. The rate of change and the increase in new solutions and technologies coming to market is also telling of forecasted adoption and growth.

Jason Barmann, energy storage technology manager

The industry faced some well-documented challenges during the year, with the highest profile being supply chain constraints. How have those challenges affected the industry and how should they be confronted?  

With the demands and IRA incentives spurring more projects, we’re also forecasting that labour availability will be a huge theme. There are huge battery, EV, chip, and solar module factories being planned and all will compete for the same labour pool we use for solar and storage construction.

Matt Domeier, energy storage EPC director

The resurgence in onshoring is going to put the squeeze on labour. This squeeze will then result in higher wages and benefits packages. This should be thought of as a market issue and not a project issue, meaning if we only do what is in the best interest of the project and pay a dollar more than the next guy, that cycle could spin out of control and support more inflation, not less.  We need to remember that the same labour that is going to build these energy storage projects are also going to be used to build the factories that will supply US made batteries.

Adam Bernardi, renewables EPC sales and strategy lead

The market continues to grow at an ‘unprecedented rate’, which brings new challenges as well as opportunities. Image: Burns & McDonnell.

Which technology and industry trends would you recommend our readers keep a close eye on in 2023? 

We see lots of opportunities for the advancements of control systems. The BESS market is still relatively new, and a lot of systems installed earlier in the market cycle as well as some going in today, don’t have the same level of sophistication that traditional industrial systems have. We see an opportunity to move the market from these “home-made systems” to more sophisticated, reliable systems.  

Another interesting thing to keep an eye on is the advancements of battery technology. Instead of repurposing EV batteries we’re seeing some companies looking to develop batteries with characteristics specifically manufactured for standalone storage markets. We’re at a point where the industry is large enough and there’s enough investment in it that we start optimising production of batteries specifically for standalone storage.

Jason Barmann, energy storage technology manager

As the energy storage market continues to grow at an unprecedented rate, so will the volume of lithium-ion batteries at the end of their lives. We need to immediately start considering what to do when those times come.

Bailey Semeniuk, energy storage engineering and development manager

Historically the production of lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide has been in China, South America, and Australia, but everyone is watching the critical minerals and associated chemical derivatives market here in North America find its legs.

But close behind is the need to advance the technologies to recycle batteries and create a circularity in the energy storage market.

Kevin Syphard, chemicals manager

What are the biggest priorities for your company, and for the wider industry, in 2023 and beyond?

Reliability. Improving performance and flexibility for both lithium and non-lithium solutions.

Jason Barmann, energy storage technology manager

We’re constantly learning in this new, rapidly growing industry. Learning how to deploy and finding out which solution will be best for the use-case. What’s that next-gen technology?

Tisha Scroggin-Wicker, process technology director

Flexibility. Being able to pivot quickly on technologies, execution strategies, and navigating the IRA.

Adam Bernardi, renewables EPC sales and strategy lead

Seeing larger scale projects moving forward into bid-phases, that we hadn’t traditionally seen moving forward in the US.

Chris Ruckman, VP of energy storage

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 28-29 March 2023 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.

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Form Energy CEO Mateo Jaramillo and West Virgina governor Jim Justice, third and fourth form left respectively. Image: Form Energy.

Form Energy has chosen a site in West Virginia, US, to manufacture its multi-day iron-air battery with a total investment of up to US$760 million.

The company will partner with the state of West Virginia to build its first manufacturing facility on a 55-acre site in the city of Weirton, a former national leader in steel production located along the Ohio River.

Construction will begin this year with a 2024 target for commercial manufacturing of its iron-air battery, which is based on a proprietary technology which CEO Mateo Jamarilla discussed with Energy-Storage.news in an interview from 2021.

A total of up to US$760 million will be invested in the site, creating 750 new full-time jobs. The state also structured a financial incentive package worth up to US$290 million to convince Form Energy to choose the site, governor Jim Justice said.

“The funds put toward this project are guaranteed, secured, and collateralised through ownership of all land and buildings by the state. The West Virginia Economic Development Authority allocated $75 million toward the purchase of land and the construction of buildings in Weirton this morning. I plan on working with the West Virginia Legislature and our federal partners to obtain an additional $215 million needed to finalise our agreement,” he added.

The manufacturing facility announcement comes a few months after Form Energy grew its total investment to US$800 million with a US$540 million Series E, reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time. The round was led by one of private equity firm TPG’s impact investment funds, the TPG Rise fund.

The company claims its battery technology can provide 100 hours of energy storage duration or more, which will help electricity grids to reliably run on renewable energy throughout the year. It is set to bring a 1MW/150MWh pilot system online this year with Minnesota utility Great River Energy while in February last year it began talks with Georgia Power for a potential 15MW/1,500MWh system.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 28-29 March 2023 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.

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The results of the European Innovation Council’s Accelerator funding round. Image: European Innovation Council.

CO2 Battery company Energy Dome has won €17.5 million (US$18.5 million) in grant and equity financing from the European Innovation Council, the maximum amount available.

The Milan-headquartered firm was one of 78 companies to win the funds through the latest round of the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) Accelerator funding programme, which received applications from over 1000.

The EIC described the payout to Energy Dome as ‘blended finance’, meaning a mixture of equity or quasi-equity through a convertible loan, as well as a grant.

The body was founded in 2017 by the EU’s European Commission with the goal of supporting the commercialisation of high-risk, high-impact technologies in the bloc. Energy Dome’s funding in this round was nearly three times the €6 million average across the 78 companies.

The EIC, through its EIC Fund, joins existing strategic investors Barclays, 360 Capital, CDP Venture Capital SGR and Novum Capital Partners. The latter have invested around US$25 million in Energy Dome while the equity portion of EIC’s participation has not been revealed.

“This strategic support by the European Commission will enable Energy Dome to accelerate the scale up of our business and the deployment of CO2 Batteries across global markets,” said Claudio Spadacini, founder and CEO of Energy Dome.

The company inaugurated the first large-scale demonstrator project for its CO2 Battery technology in June last year, a 2.5MW/4MWh facility in Sardinia, Italy.

Its technology is based on a thermodynamic cycle, which charges by drawing carbon dioxide from a ‘Dome’ gasholder, storing it under pressure, and dispatching by evaporating and expanding the gas through a turbine back into the gasholder.

Energy Dome’s technology uses a thermodynamic cycle to store and dispatch energy with a 4-24 hour duration. It ‘charges’ by drawing carbon dioxide from a large atmospheric gasholder (the Dome) and storing it under pressure at an ambient temperature, and dispatches by evaporating and expanding the gas into a turbine to generate electricity and return it back to the Dome.

A recently-signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Danish energy company Ørsted will see the pair run a feasibility study on a 10-hour, 20MW system.

The EIC’s funding was the second accelerator programme in which the company was successful last year. In early November, it received funding and networking support from San Francisco-based Elemental Excelerator, which was characterised at the time as an entry into the US market.

The EIC funded two other energy storage-related companies in the latest round. Spain-based lithium-ion battery recycling process solutions firm Circu Li-ion S.A received an undisclosed amount of blended finance, while Germany-based Reverion won a ‘grant first’ deal for its methane-based fuel cell.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the eighth annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 22-23 February 2023. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul doubled the state deployment target set by predecessor Andrew Cuomo at the start of 2021. Image: Governor Kathy Hochul official Flickr.

A new roadmap outlining how New York can meet ambitious energy storage targets has been welcomed as “comprehensive and thoughtful,” including proposals to incentivise deployment.

The US state aims to get to 6GW of energy storage by 2030 – equivalent to 20% of its expected peak load – helping enable it to meet 70% of electricity demand with renewable energy.

Those goals were set as part of New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act legislation. As reported by Energy-Storage.news on 22 December, the New York Climate Action Council produced a Scoping Plan to outline how the Act’s policy targets, building up to a zero-emissions electricity sector by 2040, could be achieved.

Following on from the plan’s publication, the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency (NYSERDA) and New York’s Department of Public Service (DPS) finalised and published the energy storage roadmap on 28 December, just a few days short of its publication deadline for the beginning of 2023.

NYSERDA programmes for 4.7GW procurements

Primary among six main proposals in what has been dubbed Energy Storage Roadmap 2.0 is that NYSERDA-led programmes will procure 4.7GW of energy storage for the state across three main market segments: bulk (aka utility-scale, large-scale or grid-scale), retail (aka commercial and industrial and community) and residential.

Around 1.3GW has already been contracted and committed to, meaning the new proposals should bring New York to the full 6GW.

Regular readers of this site may have seen that NYSERDA VP for distributed energy resources David Sandbank offered some hints a few months ago at a presentation on the proposed solicitations and incentive schemes.

Sandbank had said grid-scale tenders were likely to be introduced within about a year of the roadmap’s publication if approved by regulators, while existing incentives in the retail market segment would be continued.

The NYSERDA VP said meeting New York’s goals on climate crisis mitigation and air pollution reduction through transition to renewable energy and electrification of buildings and transport, requires several things to happen, from buildout and upgrades of transmission networks to retirement of fossil fuel power plants for replacement with renewables.

However, none of those other steps could really proceed without large amounts of energy storage available to leverage, because energy storage technologies would improve the efficiencies and lower costs of all those other steps, Sandbank said.

New York projects to compete for Index Storage Credits

NYSERDA and DPS proposed introducing Index Storage Credits (ISCs), a new mechanism whereby developers and their projects will take part in competitive solicitations.

NYSERDA would tender for 3,000MW of ‘bulk’ storage with up to 4 hours duration, then buy ISCs from winning projects. NYSERDA and DPS said the mechanism would provide long-term certainty for investors and bring online vital storage facilities at lowest cost to New York consumers.

In a statement sent to media including Energy-Storage.news, Key Capture Energy, a battery energy storage system (BESS) developer and independent power producer (IPP), welcomed the bulk incentive programme.

Key Capture Energy (KCE) was actually first to complete a grid-scale battery project in New York and among the first to qualify for Roadmap 1.0’s incentives.

KCE CEO Jeff Bishop said that his company put its headquarters in Upstate New York in 2017 due to the state’s commitment to battling the climate crisis. In addition to 44MW of projects already in operation or under construction in New York, KCE has nearly 1,000MW under development there too.

“NYSERDA’s Energy Storage Roadmap 2.0 will continue to move New York forward to zero emissions by 2040, as mandated by the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act,” Bishop said.

Meanwhile Dr William Acker, executive director of NY-BEST, a trade association and technology development accelerator, said Roadmap 2.0 recognised “the critical role for energy storage in meeting our climate goals and enabling an emissions-free electric grid and puts New York on a path to deploying 6GW of energy storage by 2030, reinforcing New York’s position as a global leader in energy storage and growing clean energy jobs in the state”.

“NY-BEST congratulates NYSERDA and DPS on the comprehensive and thoughtful Roadmap, and we look forward to working with our members and State partners to unleash the many benefits of energy storage on the electric grid,” Acker said.

The roadmap is available to view publicly, and comments are welcomed ahead of further decisions to be taken on it during this year. NYSERDA and DPS claimed the impact of the roadmap’s proposals on consumer bills would be limited to roughly US$0.46 extra per month.

The roadmap can be viewed here at the New York Department of Public Service website.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 28-29 March 2023 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.

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