Francesco La Camera

Short-term interventions addressing the current energy crisis must be accompanied by a steadfast focus on mid- and long-term goals of the energy transition. High fossil fuel prices, energy security concerns and the urgency of climate change underscore the pressing need to move faster to a clean energy system, says World Energy Transitions Outlook 2022.

Launched by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, the agency’s Outlook sets out priority areas and actions based on available technologies that must be realized by 2030 to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century. It also takes stock of progress across all energy uses to date, clearly showing the inadequate pace and scale of the renewables-based transition.

The outlook sees investment needs of $5.7 trillion per year until 2030 including the imperative to redirect $0.7 trillion annually away from fossil fuels to avoid stranded assets. But investing in the transition would bring concrete socioeconomic and welfare benefits, adding 85 million jobs worldwide in renewables and other transition-related technologies between today and 2030. These job gains would largely surpass losses of 12 million jobs in fossil fuel industries. Overall, more countries would experience greater benefits on the energy transition path than under business as usual, according to the Outlook.

“The energy transition is far from being on track and anything short of radical action in the coming years will diminish, even eliminate chances to meet our climate goals,” says Francesco La Camera, director-general of IRENA. “Today, governments are facing multiple challenges of energy security, economic recovery, and the affordability of energy bills for households and businesses. Many answers lie in the accelerated transition. But it’s a political choice to put policies in place that comply with Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Agenda. Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure will only lock-in uneconomic practices, perpetuate existing risks and increase the threats of climate change.”

Renewables would have to scale-up massively across all sectors from 14% of total energy today to around 40% in 2030. Global annual additions of renewable power would triple by 2030 as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). At the same time, coal power would have to resolutely be replaced, fossil fuel assets phased out and infrastructure upgraded.

“It is high time to act,” La Camera adds. “Recent developments have clearly demonstrated that high fossil fuel prices can result in energy poverty and loss of industrial competitiveness. Eighty percent of the global population lives in countries that are net-importers of fossil fuels. By contrast, renewables are available in all countries, offering a way out of import dependency and allowing countries to decouple economies from the costs of fossil fuels while driving economic growth and new jobs.”

The outlook sees electrification and efficiency as key drivers of the energy transition, enabled by renewables, hydrogen and sustainable biomass. End-use decarbonization will take center-stage with many solutions available through electrification, green hydrogen and the direct use of renewables. Notably electromobility is seen as driver of energy transition progress, growing the sales of electric vehicles (EV) to a global EV fleet 20 times bigger than today.

However, a comprehensive set of cross-cutting, structural policies covering all technological avenues and just transition objectives is needed to achieve the necessary deployment levels by 2030. Increasing ambition in the National Determined Contributions (NDC) and national energy plans under the Glasgow Climate Pact must provide certainty and guide investment strategies in line with 1.5°C.

Particularly the world’s largest energy consumers and carbon emitters from the G20 and G7 must show leadership and implement ambitious plans and investments domestically and abroad. They would need to support the global supply of 65% renewables in power generation by 2030. Climate finance, knowledge transfer and assistance would have to increase for an inclusive and equal world.

Finally, enabling a rapid transition that complies with climate and development goals requires political commitment to support the highest level of international cooperation. Achieving sustainable development goals and universal access to modern energy by 2030 must remain a vital pillar of a just and inclusive energy transition, the outlook emphasizes. A holistic global policy framework can bring countries together to enable international flow of finance, capacity and technologies.

Read IRENA’s World Energy Transitions Outlook 2022 here.

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Assembly Solar I

The Assembly II and Assembly III solar projects have reached commercial operation (COD), states D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) in partnership with Ranger Power, a Chicago-based utility-scale solar development company and the largest independent solar developer in Michigan.

Assembly Solar II is a 110 MW AC solar facility and Assembly Solar III is a 79 MW AC solar facility, both of which are located in Shiawassee County, Mich. The Assembly II project reached commercial operation in December 2021, while the Assembly III project reached commercial operation in March 2022.

“We are very pleased to reach COD at Assembly II and III and to continue to invest in cost-effective clean energy in Michigan,” says David Zwillinger, CEO of DESRI. “It was a pleasure to work with all of our business partners including our offtakers, lenders, tax equity investors and development partners at Ranger Power.”

“DESRI is thrilled to see Assembly II and III come online; these two solar projects have brought new construction jobs to Shiawassee County and have marked important contributions to DESRI’s portfolio in Michigan,” adds Chris Clevenger, COO of DESRI. “We appreciate the efforts of McCarthy and our other contracting partners for a smooth construction process.”

Assembly Solar II has two 25-year power purchase agreements (PPA) for a total of 110 MW AC with Michigan Public Power Agency (MPPA) and its largest member, Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL). These PPAs are incremental to the two 25-year PPAs for 50 MW AC MPPA and BWL executed with Assembly Solar I that reached COD in 2020.

“It’s important that our solar projects are a win-win for communities, and we’re proud that the Assembly Solar Project will contribute to the economic growth of Shiawassee County and the region,” states Paul Harris, president of Ranger Power. “During the construction phase of Assembly II and III, our partners at McCarthy hired nearly 400 local workers – from entry-level laborers to journeyman electricians and their excellent work on this project will generate clean, renewable energy for decades to come.”

“The BWL is committed to being the cleanest utility in the State of Michigan by continuing to grow our renewable portfolio and invest in cleaner energy options,” comments Dick Peffley, general manager of Lansing Board of Water & Light. “This project allows us to continue providing our customers the clean energy they demand.”

“Public Power is thrilled to make this commitment to the residents and businesses we serve throughout the state of Michigan,” mentions Patrick Bowland, CEO of Michigan Public Power Agency.

Assembly Solar III has a 25-year PPA with DTE Energy. The facility is expected to generate enough clean energy to power approximately 15,800 homes each year, according to metrics provided by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“DTE Energy is excited to be part of Assembly Solar,” said Brian Calka, director of renewable solutions for DTE Energy. “We now have more than 50,000 residential customers, 460 business customers and 36 industrial customers enrolled in our MIGreenPower voluntary renewable energy program. Our participation in Assembly Solar will help us meet clean energy commitments from these customers.”

McCarthy Building Companies served as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor (EPC) for both phases. In addition, Novasource Power Services will provide ongoing operations and maintenance services.

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Electric vehicles, stationary battery energy storage systems (BESS) and consumer electronics will push India into huge demand for batteries in the coming years. Image: Manz AG.

India will not be able to meet its aim of becoming a global leader in battery manufacturing unless it establishes a value chain that embraces recycling and proper end-of-life treatment as well.

A new report from environmental think tank Rocky Mountain Institute India (RMI India) highlights the need, opportunities and challenges for creating a sustainable battery manufacturing industry in the country.

It has been published a few days after India’s government announced the award of funding under its Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) for manufacturers of advanced chemistry cell (ACC) batteries to build 50GWh of annual production capacity in the country. Four different manufacturers’ gigafactory proposals were selected, including renewable energy company Reliance New Energy Solar, of Reliance Industries.

RMI India, together with Indian government technology and innovation think tank NITI Aayog published a previous report together in the same series, which explained the drivers for creation of a domestic battery making industry. 

That report, out in February, identified demand for batteries across India could reach between 106GWh and 260GWh by 2030 from all sectors including transport, energy and consumer electronics.

With India targeting 500GW new renewable energy capacity additions by that date, the need for stationary energy storage is likely to be a significant source of demand, albeit the majority will be accounted for by electric vehicles (EVs). India’s Central Electricity Authority has modelled the need for about 27GW/108GWh of stationary storage to integrate that mostly wind and solar capacity.

India could see fastest growth in demand

The sustainability report highlights that as well as ethical and environmental concerns over battery supply chains, there will also be scarcity issues for materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel. 

This is already happening worldwide, with one US-based expert having told Energy-Storage.news that supply chain issues are reaching a “crisis point” today, largely based on soaring lithium carbonate prices. 

RMI India quoted BloombergNEF research, which identified India as the region with the most expected demand growth for lithium-ion batteries from 2020 to 2030, even above bigger markets in China, the US and Europe. However, while India has ample reserves of magnesium and iron, it has minimal and insufficient reserves domestically of other key materials like lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel. 

The country’s first lithium deposit was discovered in early 2021 and even with the other resource challenges, RMI India found that India will need to grow its domestic manufacturing capability to meet its storage needs and minimise energy security risks posed by being overly reliant on imported fossil fuels. 

Because of this, in order for India’s push to create a domestic battery manufacturing industry to succeed, circular economy principles need to be implemented, RMI India said. 

Recycled materials could meet more than 20% of India’s lithium-ion battery needs by 2030, if there is accelerated uptake of electric vehicles in the years leading to then, while even in a base case EV adoption scenario, around 5% of the essential minerals like lithium, nickel and cobalt used in India-made batteries could come from recycled materials.

Efficiencies for commercial recycling of lithium batteries are already very high at around 95% or even more, but the supply chain and circular economy strategies are not widely in place. Obtaining recycled minerals could potentially also be a lower carbon process than extracting them new.

Second life battery storage — BESS made with repurposed electric vehicle batteries — could also be a good way to reduce the cost of batteries, which usually make up about 40% of the total cost of a battery energy storage system. 

Reusing larger battery packs from e-buses as well as from passenger and commercial vehicles could provide for about 5% of the required BESS capacity India needs by 2030.

135% annual increase in recycling capacity needed to meet targets

India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEFCC) introduced draft rules for management of battery waste in 2020, having identified that existing management and handling policy was inadequate for the expected huge volumes of batteries to come by the end of this decade. 

The rules would apply to all kinds of batteries and call for collection of 30% of all end-of-life batteries by weight within two years of the policies being introduced, with the target increasing to 70% in the seventh year after implementation. 

RMI India said that meant if the 30% target were to be enacted in 2023, that would represent between 20,000 and 102,000 tonnes — or between 2.4GWh and 11.7GWh — of batteries being collected.

India’s annual recycling capacity would need to grow by at least 135% each year from 2021 to 2030 to succeed — a “substantial build out” of capacity — even in the think tank’s base case scenario for EV adoption.

Europe is currently seeking to adopt rules of its own on battery sustainability and supply chain security, mandating a gradual introduction of recycled content and carbon footprint labelling over a number of years. The European Union’s Battery Directive is at the stage of being negotiated with individual Member States to take its final form. 

While the EU’s Battery Directive has been broadly welcomed by the industry for its intent, some groups have expressed concern that over-regulation could risk hampering the continent’s international competitiveness. 

The MOEFCC rules could reduce upstream battery production emissions by 50,000 to 180,000 tonnes by 2030. RMI India acknowledged the importance of the policy, but made several recommendations for bettering the draft rules:

Labelling and transport: the draft rules lack clear guidance on labelling for lithium batteries of various kinds, which could result in lithium battery and lead-acid battery waste becoming commingled. This could present a health and safety threat and standardised labels should be decided. 

Battery reuse: the draft rules only contain rules on battery collection, not reuse, and also mandate that collected items should go to designated recyclers. This does not afford room for EV batteries, many of which will often still be usable for stationary storage after a period of use for transport, to be given a second life. Meanwhile there are no standards or certifications for safe use of second life batteries, which should be introduced.

Performance standards and warranties: similarly, there is a lack of a transparent system for assessing used battery health or warranties ensuring performance standards for second life batteries, as there are for new systems. The industry should be able to make the choice of using second life batteries safety, RMI India said. 

Ways to pay for recycling efforts need to be determined that are fair and do not affect the competitiveness of the EV industry against internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by passing on costs. 

Consumers should be incentivised to comply with battery rules: for example, rebates for returned batteries or deposit systems. 

Enforcement: the rules need to be enforced and penalties applied when they are broken, but through a transparent and fair system. 

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CLOU Electronics’ energy storage system container. Image: CLOU Electronics.

Listed company Shenzhen CLOU Electronics says it has secured a contract with a “famous American energy company” to supply an energy storage system totalling 485MWh in South America.

It did not reveal the buyer or precise location but said that the project consists of 168 sets of its 20-feet energy storage container solution. It will be a 1500V system compliant with UL 9540A.

It said the American energy company has over 2,000 engineers working in power generation, energy storage systems and digital energy solutions and supplies solutions worldwide. CLOU became a qualified supplier to the company in 2021.

The two have already partnered before with agreements to supply a 3MWh system in December 2021 and a 69MWh one in January 2022, both in the US, the company added.

The company’s share price on the Shenzen Stock Exchange opened 10% higher on Monday, March 28, the first day of trading after the South America project announcement on Saturday.

The announcement was made by its CLOU Global segment which calls itself a ‘Comprehensive Energy Services Provider’ and says its product portfolio includes storage, electric meters and their accompanying infrastructure including testing equipment, enclosures and data acquisition solutions.

CLOU also has a separate website, CLOU Energy Solutions, which says the company has supplied utility-scale energy storage solutions across the US, as well as Costa Rica, Cabo Verde and Haifeng in China. It also details commercial & industrial site deliveries in China and microgrid solutions provided across Asia and one in Rwanda.

South America has not had a great deal of utility-scale deployments of energy storage to-date. This project from CLOU represents by far one of the largest ever to have been announced on the continent.

US-based energy infrastructure group AES Corporation’s Chile arm AES Andes started building a 112MW/560MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in November 2020 and a year later announced plans to increase the country’s storage capacity to 300MW by 2023 in partnership with the government.

Much of South America’s other big news in storage has been in Chile too. Late last year, Statkraft announced it had won a tender in Chile to develop wind farms with up to 1GWh of BESS attached shortly before global system integrator Wärtsilä won its first battery project on the continent there.

The Chilean government is also set to launch a power auction later this contracting 5,250GWh/year for 15 years, which will involve storage paired with renewables.

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SDG&E’s 30MW lithium-ion BESS at Escondido, the largest in the world when it launched in 2017. Image: SDG&E.

Investor-owned utility SDG&E is turning its first lithium iron phosphate-based battery energy storage system (BESS) online today, while Stanford university says it has hit 100% renewable electricity with the offtake from Goldman Sachs’ recently-commissioned Slate solar-plus-storage project.

SDG&E adds first LFP BESS to grid

San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) will today (29 March) cut the ribbon on the Kearny Energy Storage in north San Diego. The 20MW/80MWh BESS is the first energy storage project by the utility to use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry-based batteries.

The BESS is the latest in SDG&E’s pipeline which will bring its total storage portfolio to 145MW by the end of 2022. It recently ordered a six-hour BESS solution for one of its sites from Mitsubishi Power.

Its BESS projects are in response to the various mandates by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to procure more energy storage to mitigate the risk of near-term capacity shortages and help the state’s transition to a zero-emissions grid by 2045.

Seth Hilton, partner in the Energy Development practice of law firm Stoel Rives, told Energy-storage.news that very few projects will meet their deadlines of 2023 and 2024 due to interconnection issues on the California ISO grid and wider supply chain issues.

“I think a lot of energy is being focused on that very near-term procurement, but there’s a lot of difficulty in terms of there just not being enough projects to kind of meet some of that need and what you see now is projects getting shortlisted for multiple load-serving entities’ procurement,” he added.

California has three large investor-owned utilities. SDG&E andSouthern California Edison (SCE) have opted for owning their own BESS projects while the third Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has tended to procure power from sites owned by other developers.

The direct ownership approach has, however, proved slightly controversial amongst independent developers according to a Hilton.

“So, SCE originally took the path of: “we’re going to develop our own projects,” primarily because of interconnection issues. So the deal with Ameresco (2.1GWh) was a way of getting around the interconnection issues,” he told Energy-storage.news.

“And there were some significant developer concerns about the fact that SCE was in a position where they could get around interconnection issues, and developers aren’t in a similar situation and how that should be appropriately handled. There were a lot of protests of what SCE was doing in terms of that Ameresco agreement.”

Stanford University’s offtake from Goldman Sachs project enables 100% renewable electricity transition

Stanford University has revealed that the 63MW of offtake it secured from the Slate solar-plus-storage project in Kings County, California, has completed its transition to 100% renewable electricity.

The project was completed and turned online by owner investment bank Goldman Sachs earlier this month. It comprises 300MW of solar PV paired with a 140MW/561MWh BESS and was bought by Goldman Sachs Renewable Power from Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy just before construction started in January 2021.

“As this new solar plant comes online, Stanford will achieve the important milestone of producing enough renewable electricity to exceed what the university consumes,” said President Marc Tessier-Lavigne.

Stanford’s portion of Slate, the Stanford Solar Generating Station #2 (SSGS2), is its second major solar power site after the Stanford Solar Generating Station #1 in Rosamond, California, came online in 2016. The year before, the university campus was entirely powered by natural gas.

The university still needs to electrify its campus vehicle fleet, hospital water heating systems, its natural gas and steam appliances and its heating systems to achieve 100% renewable energy.

The other offtakers of the Slate project’s power are the San Francisco rapid transit system operator Bay Area Rapid Transit, electric utility Power and Water Resources Pooling Authority, and Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Central Coast Community Energy (formerly Monterey Bay Community Power).

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Clients HMS has worked with include Connected Energy, which creates stationary storage systems using second life EV batteries. Image: Connected Energy / Umicore.

Energy-Storage.news proudly presents this sponsored webinar with HMS Networks, looking at technologies and methods to bring all of the different elements together safely to ensure device protection at every step and intelligently connect battery energy storage systems (BESS) to the grid.

Today’s BESS often combine a variety of different devices, from different industries, within a single application. Flexibility in the selection of components and the resulting modular approach makes the whole system future-proof, flexible, and secures investment. Operational costs can be minimised and dependency on specific components or suppliers can be avoided.

This webinar looks at topics including:

– An overview of all aspects of networking in BESS applications

– How to use cost-effective and proven products from other industries in your BESS application

– What you need to consider when networking components inside your BESS application and into smart-grid environments

– Specific topology and protection requirements in CAN based networks

– How to bring data to the cloud and enable SCADA and Smart Grid applications

– Enabling remote data access to all system and device levels, while considering cybersecurity requirements

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You can also register to view the on-demand version and download presentation slides here.

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Like other ‘agrivoltaics’ projects springing up around the world, the land at Blind Creek will continue to be used for sheep farming. Image: Rob Davis / Agrisolar Clearinghouse via Flickr.

Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and Octopus Group have followed up their recent development deal for a mixed renewables hub, announcing a utility-scale solar and battery project in New South Wales. 

The national CEFC and Octopus Australia said earlier this month that their joint venture (JV) is developing a 1.5GW renewable energy hub to help replace Victoria’s soon-to-retire Yallourn coal power plant. 

As reported by Energy-Storage.news, the hub, Gippsland Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) will be one of six of its kind in the state and could include solar, wind, battery storage and possibly green hydrogen electrolyser technology.  

Last week, the pair said they will jointly develop Blind Creek Solar and Battery Project in Bungendore, New South Wales. CEFC is committing up to AU$5 million (US$3.75 million) investment into it. 

Blind Creek will feature a 300MWac solar PV plant. It is on a location between major load centres in Sydney and Canberra and Octopus Investments said it can be built and integrated into the electricity network without major transmission works being required. 

Sonia Teitel, co-head of investment and development at Octopus Investments, told Energy-Storage.news that the sizing and configuration of the battery energy storage system (BESS) is underway.

The BESS could be up to 300MW/600MWh, based on the area available. The system will be available “for the typical revenue streams in Australia, which include load shifting, ancillary services and network services,” Sonia Teitel said. 

In a statement, Teitel called it a “huge opportunity in large-scale storage in NSW,” while it will support the state’s energy transition and grow Octopus’ renewables portfolio. 

Octopus and CEFC will work together with the project’s founders, which include local landowner Dominic Osborne. Osborne said that the goal of Blind Creek is that it will colocate renewable energy generation with regenerative agriculture and carbon sequestration. Sheep grazing will continue to take place on the site. 

“The development at Blind Creek is a significant opportunity for solar and storage generation between two major load centres and in a state which will see some coal fired generation retiring in the short term, requiring significant new generation to support security and reliability,” Monique Miller, CEFC executive director, said.  

Investing in the project continued CEFC’s strategy of “closely cooperating with landowners and maintaining existing regional farming activities in conjunction with clean energy generation,” Miller said. 

Octopus Investments Australia is part of the Octopus Group, which has invested in more than US$6 billion in clean energy projects since 2000 and entered the Australian market in 2018. The group’s portfolio companies also include Octopus Energy Group which has retail and generation operations in 13 countries and largely focuses on low carbon energy. 

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Jennifer M. Granholm, Secretary of U.S. Department of Energy

The Department of Energy (DOE) has released a new issue brief that details a future for solar power, good jobs and affordable energy in the United States. President Biden’s proposed investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and Build Back Better Agenda will invest in the infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation and incentives for solar energy to grow good-paying union jobs at home, make solar energy affordable for all American families and accelerate the deployment of net-zero energy across the country.

The DOE issue brief – Investing in the Clean Energy Future: Solar Energy Research, Deployment, and Workforce Priorities – details the growth opportunities that exist in the solar energy industry for workers and families, and how investments like those proposed by President Biden can supercharge the benefits of these opportunities.

In particular, the issue brief explains how investment in solar deployment supports the U.S. clean energy revolution. Solar will play an important role in reaching President Biden’s 2035 clean electricity goal – alongside other sources of carbon-pollution free electricity, including onshore and offshore wind, existing power plants retrofitted with carbon capture or green hydrogen, geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear. Solar is already the fastest-growing source of new electricity generation in the nation – growing nearly 4,000% in just over a decade, from about 2.5 GW DC of solar capacity in 2010 to over 100 GW DC today.

The pipeline of new solar projects in 2021 is on pace to hit record highs. To reach a largely decarbonized electricity sector by 2035, solar deployment would need to accelerate to three to four times faster than the current rate by 2030. Large scale decarbonization of the electricity sector could move solar from 3% of generation today to over 40% by 2035.

Realizing this potential for solar generation requires historic investments to accelerate deployment of residential, commercial and utility-scale solar systems, including in disadvantaged and low-income communities. The proposed clean energy investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and the Build Back Better Agenda will serve as this catalyst for jobs and economic opportunity. This includes the extension of $300 billion in tax cuts for clean electricity, including solar, making it cheaper to build, funding for new transmission and energy storage infrastructure to help deliver clean, reliable power to homes and businesses.

President Biden also proposed a new Clean Energy Accelerator to leverage private capital for community solar projects, particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities. These investments, along with the proposed Energy Efficiency and Clean Electricity Standard, can help achieve the President’s goal of 100% carbon pollution-fee power by 2035.

Solar innovation can lower costs for consumers and communities. Thanks in part to DOE investments, solar costs have declined 70% to 80% since 2010 – lowering the price of a typical 6 kW residential system by almost $30,000. While solar photovoltaic (PV) is already the least expensive electricity option in dozens of states, it is important to bring this low-cost, zero-carbon electricity to more parts of the country to save American families money.

The Biden Administration is committed to continually investing in solar innovation and lowering the cost of energy for families and communities across the country. This is why the Solar Energy Technology Office at DOE set a new 2030 goal of cutting the cost of solar (PV) to $0.02 and $0.05 per kWh without subsidies, for utility and residential scales, respectively. This would deliver nearly $14,000 in savings for a typical home system.

DOE is also celebrating the Summer of Solar 2021 to promote a new, free, web-based tool – the Solar Automated Permit Processing (SolarAPP+) – that helps local governments speed up the review and approval of permits for residential solar and solar plus storage systems. Faster permitting times will attract businesses to work in jurisdictions that use it. After implementing a similar tool to fast-track permits in San Jose, Calif. residential installations increased by 600%.

Build Back Better investments proposed by President Biden can help DOE achieve these solar cost reductions. Investments in clean energy R&D, supply chains of critical materials, and tax cuts for new and retooled factories for advanced energy manufacturing will help lower costs across the solar lifecycle. Extending the tax cuts for both utility and residential renewable energy project can help lower the upfront costs of new solar and accelerate deployment so that everyone can benefit from the economies of scale. Lower solar costs overall can put downward pressure on utility energy costs for ratepayers, and make solar more affordable for more families while reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of their energy use.

In 2020, there were over 300,000 people employed in the American solar industry – 230,000 of whom worked in solar for a majority of their time. Employment in the solar industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors over the past decade – increasing by 150% between 2010 and 2020. These workers are employed by over 10,000 solar businesses across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico – many of them small businesses. While clean energy jobs broadly were hit by the economic shutdown due to the COVID19 pandemic, they have bounced back substantially – adding back over 300,000 jobs this past year – and recovering at a rate faster than most other sectors of the economy.

A pathway to a largely decarbonized electricity sector by 2035 can add millions of new jobs across clean energy technologies, including potentially 500,000-1,500,000 people working in solar by 2035. To match this demand with supply, investments are needed to expand the talent pipeline by increasing access to training opportunities across the entirety of workforce development stakeholders, such as labor unions, community colleges, nonprofits and other training providers. This could include apprenticeship-based career pathways that contain solar work as part of a broad-based career path. The President’s agenda will ensure that these investments produce good-quality jobs with strong labor standards, including prevailing wages and the free and fair choice to join a union and bargain collectively.

As previously announced, DOE is pursuing new policy to ensure that all innovations that are developed with taxpayer dollars through DOE’s Science and Energy Programs require awardees to substantially manufacture those products in the United States, creating good-paying domestic jobs. This change will cover more than $8 billion in clean energy and climate innovation funding requested in the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2022, as well as future fiscal year spending. DOE will implement these actions through a Determination of Exceptional Circumstances under the Bayh-Dole Act.

Read the full issue brief here.

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The McKellar Solar Farm will be similar in scale to Silicon Ranch’s Lancaster Solar Farm, which supports Meta’s renewable energy goals in Georgia.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, Meta (formerly the Facebook company), Jackson Energy Authority (JEA) and Silicon Ranch broke ground on a new 70 MW AC solar facility in Madison County, Tenn. The McKellar Solar Farm will help support Meta’s regional operations with 100% renewable energy.

Originally announced in August 2020, the McKellar facility is part of TVA’s Green Invest program, which helps customers such as Meta meet their long-term sustainability goals with new utility-scale solar projects located within the Valley.

“TVA is the nexus for reliable, economical renewable energy solutions, and we have already committed $3 billion to bring more than 2,000 MW of new solar to the Valley since 2018,” said Doug Perry, TVA Senior Vice President, Commercial Energy Solutions. “This public-private partnership with Meta and Silicon Ranch demonstrates the strength of TVA’s community energy model to attract capital investment and high-quality jobs into the communities we serve while helping businesses meet their sustainability goals.”

Nashville-based Silicon Ranch will fund, own, operate, and maintain the McKellar Solar Farm, a disciplined approach the company takes with every project it develops. Silicon Ranch expects to invest upwards of $90 million to construct the facility, and the project will contribute millions of dollars more in property taxes, which benefit all Madison County residents by supporting local government services and the local school system. As part of its commitment to the communities where it sites solar projects, Silicon Ranch plans to support additional educational outreach opportunities to help teach students about the role projects like the McKellar Solar Farm play in the energy transition.

SR EPC, LLC (SR EPC), a wholly-owned Silicon Ranch subsidiary, is the prime contractor for the project. SR EPC engaged PCL Construction as the subcontractor for the PV plant and EPC Services Company as the subcontractor for the substation. “Solar energy plays a critical role in our pathway to a more sustainable future. PLC is excited to leverage its experience in building over 50 utility-scale projects, to construct the McKellar solar facility,” said Brad Hise, PCL’s Solar Operations Manager.

Construction of the solar facility will create more than 350 construction jobs, with preference given to the local labor pool and the military veteran community. The solar farm will also provide additional employment for ongoing operations and maintenance, including ranchers and farmers to care for the land as part of Silicon Ranch’s Regenerative Energy® holistic approach to land management.

“At Silicon Ranch we believe that solar projects can create enduring value and deliver a meaningful legacy for communities, and we thank TVA, Meta, JEA, and the Jackson Chamber for making this significant investment in Madison County possible,” said Silicon Ranch Co-Founder and CEO Reagan Farr. “Silicon Ranch has been proud to partner with Meta to supply renewable energy to its data center operations in Georgia, and we’re honored to support Meta’s operations right here in the Tennessee Valley. McKellar Solar Farm is yet another innovative, customer-driven renewable energy solution made possible through TVA’s meaningful leadership in our home region.”

“We are thrilled to be partnering with TVA and Silicon Ranch to bring this new solar facility to the grid in support of our operations in the Tennessee Valley,” said Urvi Parekh, head of Renewable Energy at Meta. “The more than 850 megawatts of new solar energy we are developing with TVA is an important part of our goal to support our global operations with 100% renewable energy. We thank our partners Silicon Ranch and TVA for sharing our commitment to have a positive impact on the communities where we locate.”

Construction of the facility is expected to be completed before the end of 2022, with interconnection to the TVA grid facilitated by the JEA distribution system.

“This solar farm is the largest project to date in JEA’s service territory, reflecting our commitment to providing sustainable, reliable, and affordable power in the Tennessee Valley,” said Jim Ferrell, President and CEO of Jackson Energy Authority. “We are proud to partner with Meta, TVA, and Silicon Ranch to supply carbon-free solar power for many years to come.”

This year, nearly 60% of TVA’s electricity is from carbon-free generation. To meet the region’s renewable energy needs and lower Valley carbon, TVA plans to add 10,000 MW of solar by 2035. The additional solar will help TVA reach 70% carbon reduction by 2030, about 80% reduction by 2035, and an aspirational target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The McKellar Solar Farm will integrate Silicon Ranch’s transformative Regenerative Energy® model, a holistic approach to design, construction, and operations that co-locates renewable energy production with regenerative agriculture practices. The innovative platform delivers valuable environmental, social, and economic outcomes above and beyond the significant positive impacts a solar facility alone can generate, creating additional value for the surrounding communities and project stakeholders. Through managed sheep grazing using regenerative pastureland management practices, Silicon Ranch restores the land housing each array to a functioning grassland ecosystem, while keeping each site in agricultural production.

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Azelio’s first-ever project was commissioned at a solar farm in Morocco in 2020. Image: Azelio.

Chakratec raises US$30m for ‘Kinetic Power Booster’ flywheel

A company making energy storage systems based on flywheels and aimed at supporting ultra-fast charging for electric vehicles (EVs) has raised IS96 million (US$30 million) in capital. 

Chakratec, headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, develops and markets its kinetic energy storage systems and is targeting markets in the US and Europe with its newly raised funding, having issued new shares and warrants convertible into shares. 

The company has adapted flywheels to support fast charging even in grid-constrained regions, it claimed, potentially customers saving big money on expensive upgrades to transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure. 

The latest model in its Kinetic Power Booster range, KBP100kW, can handle more than 200,000 charge and discharge cycles at high power, can be used with chargers from multiple vendors and has a 20-year lifespan, the company claims.

Funding was raised from investors including three Israeli investment houses, More, Melin Lapidot and Meitav Dash, as well as insurance company Phoenix. The round was led by Israel-headquartered infrastructure services group Afcon Holdings. 

Chakratec has a patent pending for its flywheel design. 

NREL researchers look at ESS-specific battery design

A group of experts at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is developing lithium-ion battery designs aimed at behind-the-meter (BTM) stationary energy storage systems (ESS). 

NREL’s researchers have joined the US Department of Energy’s BTMS Consortium, which largely looks at the role of batteries in enabling decarbonisation in buildings alongside energy efficiency, EV charging, solar PV and controlling building loads. 

They have been investigating the potential — and the limitations — of lithium titanate (LTO) anode and lithium-ion manganese oxide (LMO) cathode batteries for stationary storage, a market which has different demands to meet versus electric vehicles. 

LTO and LMO are free of critical materials, particularly cobalt, and offer high levels of safety and long expected lifespans. However, conventional designs of batteries using the chemistries have comparatively low energy density and they are temperature-dependent for their performance. 

By using thicker electrodes and adjusting the operating temperature of the battery, NREL researchers have attempted to identify a “‘sweet spot’ to leverage the advantages of electrode loading and increased temperatures to maximise the performance of LTO/LMO battery cells,” NREL researcher and project leader Yeyoung Ha said. 

Using electrochemical modelling, the team have verified their findings, simulating reactions at different temperatures and different thicknesses of electrodes. 

Strategies for use are also being looked at: for example researchers found that with stationary storage, electrode utilisation was significantly improved for batteries that were left to rest intermittently during discharge, as opposed to fully discharging as would be the case for batteries used in vehicles. 

Azelio looks at US certification for thermal storage technology

Thermal energy storage provider Azelio has begun work on a project which the company claimed will help open up opportunities for its technology to be used in the US.

The Swedish startup has a technology that stores energy as 600°C heat in a phase change material (PCM) made of a recycled aluminium alloy. The heat then drives a Stirling engine, which converts the energy into electricity. 

According to Azelio that makes it suitable for charging with solar energy and then to be used in long-duration energy storage applications of 10-12 hours and it is capable of daily cycling. Azelio won the first commercial order for its product, TES.POD, which is a stackable 13kW unit, in December 2020.  

Azelio said today that it will work with electrical and instrumentation contracting and technical services company MMR Group to carry out a certification project in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, US.

TES.POD units will be certified as compliant with US standards, and MMR Group will carry out necessary modifications to units shipped from Azelio’s manufacturing facility in Sweden to make sure they meet those standards. The units will also be used to train up MMR Group staff in their installation and operation. 

Azelio is one of the founder member organisations in the Long-Duration Energy Storage Council, which launched last November at COP26 and counts the likes of Microsoft and Google among its members. The company already has DNV’s verification for the performance of TES.POD systems. 

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