Powin strikes 800MWh Borrego deal for US battery storage projects

Powin’s Centipede hardware allows customers to combine multiple Stack 750E units. Image: Powin Energy.

US large-scale solar PV and energy storage project company Borrego has chosen Powin Energy as supplier of battery storage, with the pair signing an 800MWh supply agreement.

It follows an announcement in February from Powin of framework agreements signed with four other developers for 5.8GWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) to be supplied in 2022-2024. 

Between those deals and the latest Borrego agreement, Powin’s contracted pipeline for delivery is now more than three times the 2,000MWh of BESS the Oregon-headquartered manufacturer and systems integrator has built in the near-decade since its business launched. 

Powin’s Stack750E battery storage stack product will be used for Borrego’s projects. Stack750E is Powin’s modular stack solution, which fits into the company’s Centipede hardware platform — a way of combining multiple battery storage units.

Up to 200MWh of storage can be packed into a single acre footprint using Centipede, Powin claimed as the platform went onto the market last November, while the Stack750E is particularly well-suited to two-hour to four-hour duration applications. 

Borrego will use the Stack750E at utility-scale US projects featuring either standalone BESS or hybrid solar-plus-storage.

The developer, which also has operations and maintenance (O&M) and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) arms to its business is perhaps better known for its activities in solar PV, but has also since 2016 got 490MWh of utility-scale and commercial and industrial (C&I) battery storage in design, construction or already in operation. 

Powin referred to large multi-year supply agreements it has in place with China-based battery cell manufacturers CATL and EVE Energy as evidence of the robustness of its supply chain in the face of ongoing global challenges. 

The system integrator recently also said that Centipede hardware will be manufactured by OEM company Celestica out of facilities in Mexico, which brings the battery storage integrator’s assembly and testing much closer to some of its major demand centres in North America.

Slimmed down strategy for Powin and rivals

Powin Energy was ranked fifth worldwide in a survey of energy storage system integrators for its projects completed and planned during 2021, by analysis group IHS Markit. 

In a recent interview with Energy-Storage.news, IHS Markit analyst Oliver Forsyth said that the launch of Centipede is a sign that Powin, like many of its rivals in the industry, is bringing out hardware platforms that simplify the project design and installation process and bring down costs with their modularity and standardisation.

Among those are Fluence, which brought out its Fluence Cube, Wärtsilä has Gridsolv Quantum, and now Powin has Centipede, Forsyth noted. 

“We’re seeing these slimmed down solutions, really trying to optimise space, manage how much balance of plant you need per battery module, making sure that your fire suppression systems is maximised across as many solutions as you can.

“Trying to minimise the containerisation and really trying to slim down on the amount of metal you’re using there, to really try to optimise costs.”

That trend is expected to continue, the analyst said, adding that with its announcement of placing manufacturing in North American territories, Powin will continue to try and minimise costs by building solutions “as locally as possible. 

A competitive advantage Powin Energy has that other system integrators and new entrants to the market may also try and follow is that the Oregon-headquartered company has its own battery management system (BMS) technology, Forsyth said. 

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MMEX Acquires Additional Acreage in Texas for Solar Development

Jack W. Hanks

MMEX Resources Corp., a development-stage company focusing on planned hydrogen and ultra clean fuel projects with carbon capture, has completed additional site acquisitions of 632 acres for its West Texas projects, bringing its total land ownership to 1,082 acres.

“We announced on February 22, 2022 that, along with Polaris Engineering, we had completed significant milestones on the technology timeline for our UltraClean Refinery project, and we have received permit approval for the project by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on February 18, 2022,” says Jack W. Hanks, president and CEO of MMEX Resources Corp.

The acreage will enable the company to source its solar complex as well as have the space for MMEX Resources Corp.’s ultra clean fuels refinery and green hydrogen project. The company estimates it can potentially build another 97 MW DC of solar power with extra 632 acres, Hanks adds.

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New Jersey Solar Market Exceeded 150,000 Installed Systems in 2021

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) reports that the state’s solar market surpassed 150,000 installed systems in 2021. Despite ongoing challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, over 13,800 solar installations commenced commercial operations in New Jersey in 2021, totaling more than 305 MW DC and contributing to a statewide cumulative capacity exceeding 3.8 GW, providing power for over 150,000 New Jersey homes and businesses. A record of over 1.6 GW of projects in the pipeline provides assurances of continued strong development over the coming year.

“After a tremendous year, the future is especially bright for solar energy in New Jersey, and that’s because of our emphasis on working collaboratively with stakeholders to develop policies that advance our ambitious clean energy goals while supporting overall market health,” says Joseph L. Fiordaliso, NJBPU’s president. “By modernizing our solar programs over the past year and maintaining our focus on ratepayer affordability, we are ensuring the strength and long-term viability of New Jersey’s thriving solar industry. We are also looking ahead to the development of new programs for grid-scale and dual-use solar, as well as a permanent program for community solar.”

New Jersey’s solar market achieved various major policy milestones throughout 2021, including transitioning from the state’s legacy Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) market to a new long-term incentive through the Successor Solar Incentive (SuSI) Program. The SuSI Program is comprised of a competitive incentive for grid supply and net-metered projects greater than 5 MW, and a fixed incentive primarily for net-metered projects under 5 MW and community solar projects. Board Staff will continue its stakeholder engagement over the coming months to define the competitive process. Once fully implemented, the SuSI Program is anticipated to provide incentives to twice the amount of annual installed solar, at approximately half the per-MWh cost to ratepayers.

The Transition Incentive (TI) Program, which closed to new registrations on August 27, 2021, set a new record with over 12,570 projects in the pipeline seeking incentives for over 1,600 MW DC of capacity. This includes the 105 new community solar applications granted conditional approval to participate in Program Year 2 of the Community Solar Energy Pilot Program. These community solar projects represent 165 MW DC in planned capacity, more than twice the amount of capacity approved in Program Year 1.  Additionally, 18 “subsection (t)” projects proposing to construct more than 365 MW DC on brownfields and landfills submitted applications for conditional certification before the August 27 deadline. The board will consider these applications for approval into the TI Program pipeline in 2022.

In 2021, the board also initiated a Grid Modernization Proceeding to engage stakeholders on current distribution grid interconnection policies and processes, and to solicit ideas for potential improvements to enable faster grid modernization and higher levels of distributed energy resource (DER) integration.

Staff expects another busy year in 2022 as the board works to develop and launch several new solar programs, including the SuSI Program’s Competitive Solar Incentive (CSI) Program for grid supply and large net-metered solar, a Dual-Use pilot program, and a permanent community solar program.

In July 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy signed both the Solar Act of 2021 (Solar Act, L. 2021, c. 169), which sets a framework for ongoing growth in the grid supply, net-metered and community solar markets, as well as the Dual Use Solar Act (L. 2021, c. 170), which directs the board to establish a pilot program for installing solar on unpreserved farmland while maintaining active agricultural or horticultural operations. Throughout 2022, and in close collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the board will conduct robust stakeholder engagement to gather input from New Jersey solar market participants on the implementation of both laws.

The board anticipates future stakeholder engagement and program rollout, including the Competitive Solar Incentive Program with Staff Straw Proposal in spring 2022 and the first solicitation planned to occur prior to the end of the year. For the Solar Siting Criteria for CSI Program, the Staff Straw Proposal is expected in spring 2022 while the Permanent Community Solar Program will have the Staff Straw Proposal in spring 2022 and planned permanent program established in 2022. Finally, the Dual-Use Solar Pilot Program will have the Staff Straw Proposal in summer 2022 and the first solicitation anticipated to occur prior to the end of the year.

Image: Photo by Nuno Marques on Unsplash

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Hybrid projects enable 50+% renewable energy use at remote Australian locations

The hybrid renewable power station at Jabiru. Image: EDL.

Two recently completed hybrid projects in Australia have enabled a gold mine and a remote township to run at 50% or more average penetration of renewable energy. 

In both instances, the integration of battery energy storage systems (BESS) has been key to achieving the high threshold of solar and wind use and at times will enable the mine and township to run at 95% – 100% renewable energy.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) said last week that the microgrid at Agnew Gold Mine in Western Australia, has been successfully operating since it went online in November last year.

The project received AU$13.5 million (US$9.87 million) funding support from ARENA, which has also supported similar projects elsewhere in the country — at Weipa, a bauxite mine owned by Rio Tinto and DeGrussa, a copper and gold mine owned by Sandfire Resources. 

The first example of a remote microgrid at a mining site in the country to incorporate wind turbines as well as solar PV, 18MW of wind turbines are now paired with a 4MW solar PV plant at Agnew Gold Mine. Also on site is a 13MW/4MWh BESS, along with some gas and diesel generators (21MW) which remain in standby mode to provide backup.

As Energy-Storage.news reported when initial phases of the project went into operation in September 2020, the BESS was supplied by French battery manufacturer and system integrator Saft, a subsidiary of energy major TotalEnergies.

Saft’s Intensium Max 20-ft containerised BESS equipment was used, integrated with power conversion system (PCS), transformers and MV switchgear in separate containers. The batteries help maintain power quality to mining operations while also providing spinning reserve to maintain the microgrid’s stability, which further minimises the need for thermal generators to keep running. 

Stuart Mathews, executive VP of Gold Fields, which owns the mine, described the project as a “testament to what can be achieved by taking courageous decisions and demonstrating true leadership in how we can sustainably energise our mines in remote environments,” and added that it could provide a framework for similar projects. 

Sustainable energy project company EDL carried out the project. The company’s CEO James Harman said it had been brought online on time and on budget despited bushfires and pandemic-related issues.

EDL said the microgrid is achieving its required 99.9% reliability criteria, enables between 50% and 60% renewable energy penetration. At times that figure is as high as 95%.

Northern Territory township runs 100% on solar in daytime

EDL also announced in February the completion of a solar-battery-diesel power station project in the township of Jabiru, a remote area in Australia’s Northern Territory. 

It has a 3MW/5MWh BESS and 3.9MW solar PV plant with 4.5MW diesel generators. 

Jabiru is aiming to become a sustainable tourism and services hub for the region and the project will support those aims. During the daytime, the hybrid system draws 100% on renewable energy, with the battery kicking in from the evening, supported by diesel backup, Harman said. 

This means that over the course of a year, Jabiru will run on 50% renewables — in line with the Northern Territory’s state government target to reach 50% renewable energy by 2030. 

EDL said it has now done four hybrid renewable projects of this type and the Jabiru project in particular leaned on what the company had learned from its project for Coober Pedy, a town in remote South Australia which is off-grid.

Coober Pedy runs on an average of 75% renewable energy since completion of EDL’s project and has on one occasion since 2017 run on 100% renewable energy for four consecutive days.

The Jabiru project was supported with funding from the Northern Territory government. 

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Greenbacker and Aypa Power acquire US battery storage projects

Greenbacker Capital solar project under construction in Washington. Image: Greenbacker Capital via Twitter.

Greenbacker Renewable Energy Company and Blackstone-owned Aypa Power have acquired pre-operational battery energy storage system (BESS) developments totalling 110MW of power.

Greenbacker has purchased a portfolio of two standalone lithium-ion BESS sites and two solar porfolios of up to seven projects, all pre-operational, from developer Borrego.

It marks the renewables asset manager’s first direct entry into the standalone BESS market, two months after it invested in storage-focused developer Delorean Power and two years after it bought the rights to a portfolio of behind-the-meter storage systems from Stem Inc.

The front-of-the-meter storage assets are both in New York and have a combined power/capacity of 10MW/40MWh, with scheduled delivery date of H1 2023. They will participate in New York’s Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) programme for BESS which credits operators for electricity they discharge into the grid. The state has a target of 6GW of energy storage deployed by 2030.

Brendan Neagle, EVP of Project Finance at Borrego commented: “While we have been the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor of record on many Greenbacker projects, this is the first time Greenbacker has bought a significant group of assets from Borrego’s development portfolio.”

The VDER pays out different amounts depending on how valuable the energy is to the network, which is determined by when and where it is generated and fed into the grid. Electricity from solar, storage and other distributed energy resources (DER) is rewarded at an hourly aggregate rate. It favours front-of-the-meter projects which can deliver energy to the grid when most needed without having to consider onsite needs.

Aypa Power buys 100MW project in Virginia

Aypa Power, a Blackstone portfolio company since 2020, has concurrently announced an agreement with developer East Point Energy to buy its 100MW Yadkins project in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Aypa is a battery-storage focused investment company, and has built a 10GW pipeline in North America since entering the sector in 2018.

At the time of Blackstone’s acquisition the firm was called NRStor C&I but has since rebranded. It has not replied to Energy-storage.news’ request for clarification on the system’s duration or underlying battery technology at the time of writing, nor revealed the project’s delivery date. It says the project will help Virginia attain one of the goals of the Virginia Clean Economy Act of reaching 100% clean energy.

That policy includes a 3.1GW target for energy storage to be deployed by utilities in the state by 2035.

“We are excited to develop the Yadkins project,” said Aypa Power CEO, Moe Hajabed. “Demand for renewable generation continues to grow in Virginia, and storage is needed to provide flexible capacity to better integrate such renewables into the grid.”

Canada-headquartered Aypa Power formed a partnership to work on 300MW – 400MW of North American battery storage projects with engineering and automation technologies firm Honeywell in 2019 when it was still operating under the NRStor name.

Solar portion of Greenbacker’s deal

The solar portion of Greenbacker’s acquisition comprises four distributed community solar projects totalling roughly 12MWdc in northern Illinois, also scheduled for H1 2023, and three in Maine totalling 17MWdc slated for delivery later this year.

Half of the Illinois sites’ offtake will go to small subscribers and participate in the Illinois Shines solar incentive program, which gives subscribers credits on their power bills for using the projects’ solar energy.

The Maine portfolio has been pre-approved for the state’s Net Energy Billing programme which allows consumers to offset their electric bills by the net amount of clean energy they generate on their property or use from community systems.

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Eni New Energy buys 400MWh Texas battery storage project from Baywa r.e.

Baywa r.e. solar PV plant in Japan. Image: Baywa r.e.

Eni New Energy US has bought a large-scale battery storage project in development in Texas from developer Baywa r.e., along with a utility-scale solar PV plant nearby.

The 200MW/400MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project is at a late stage of development and scheduled to go into operation before the end of next year.

Called Guajillo, the BESS plant will share interconnection to the ERCOT grid with the solar farm, Corazon I, a 266MWdc/200MWac facility which already went into operation in August 2021. 

Baywa r.e. had acquired Corazon I at an early stage of its development back in 2019 and signed a credit agreement for up to US$216.1 million with a consortium of lenders including the North American Development Bank (NADB) to finance its design, construction and commissioning. 

Electricity and renewable energy credits from the solar plant are being sold to retail energy provider Direct Energy through a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) and it also trades in the ERCOT wholesale market.

Guajillo BESS will be charged with energy from the grid at times of high renewable generation and output back to it when demand peaks and renewable production is low. 

Italian energy major Eni has spun out its natural gas and renewable energy arm, Eni gas e luce, and rebranded it Plenitude, with Plenitude’s US division operating Eni New Energy US.

The battery project acquisition marks a big step up for Eni New Energy US. The only operational battery project in its portfolio so far is a 6.6MWh system in Massachusetts. That project was acquired from another Italian company, Falck Renewables, with which Eni New Energy US formed a joint renewable energy and storage development platform in late 2019. 

The platform is called Novis Renewables, and is targeting the development of at least 1GW of onshore wind, solar PV and energy storage by the end of 2023. In creating Novis, Falck handed over a 49% share of 112.5MW of already operational facilities in its portfolio, in North Carolina and Massachusetts. 

Novis led the two transactions with Baywa r.e. 

“These transactions mark a huge step forward in the growth of our renewable capacity in the US market, adding two high value assets to our portfolio,” Plenitude’s CEO Stefano Goberti said.

“The combination of solar plants and utility-scale battery storage is an accelerating new trend that will generate value and support the further penetration of renewable energy into the market.”

Goberti added that Novis is on track to achieve that 1GW goal and highlighted Plenitude’s long-term goals to reach more than 6GW of installed renewable capacity by 2025 and more than 15GW by 2030 worldwide. 

Baywa r.e. will manage operations of Guajillo and Corazon I through its operations services arm. CEO of its US development group Baywa r.e. Solar Projects Fred Robinson said the deal with Eni allowed Baywa r.e. “to reinvest capital in the company’s development pipeline across the country, including projects in ERCOT”.

The rapidly growing US renewables market will “continue to thrive as we see the increasing implementation of utility-scale solar together with storage,” Robinson said. 

Part of the German industrial conglomerate Baywa Group, Baywa r.e. is planning to develop more than 1GW of solar and wind plants worldwide in 2022, with a heightened focus on subsidy-free projects. It has a potential pipeline of 5GW of solar, wind and storage in the Americas, our sister site PV Tech reported this week. 

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SB Energy Contracts with First Solar for PV Module Supplies

SB Energy Global LLC, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., has placed a multi-year order for 1.5 GW of First Solar’s advanced, ultra-low-carbon, thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar modules. SB Energy will deploy these modules across its 4 GW solar and storage development pipeline in the U.S. This order follows SB Energy’s original procurement of 1.7 GW of First Solar modules for five utility-scale projects in Texas and California, which began construction in 2020, expanding SB Energy and First Solar’s partnership to a cumulative 3.2 GW of U.S. solar projects.

SB Energy’s team has reached commercial operations on 1.3 GW across projects in Texas and California in the last six months. The remaining 0.4 GW of projects from the original 1.7 GW procurement are expected to reach commercial operations in the first half of 2022.

“Providing flexible, renewable energy at scale is central to SB Energy’s mission to accelerate the clean energy transition,” says Abhijeet Sathe, co-CEO of SB Energy. “First Solar’s partnership and the incredible work of our team enabled us to bring 1.3 GW of new solar projects to commercial operations in 2021, making us the second largest in terms of new solar capacity added to the grid. We’re excited to expand our partnership with First Solar as we enter our next phase of growth and continue to develop cutting-edge climate infrastructure and technology solutions.”

“At First Solar, we value long-term relationships based not simply on our ability to deliver a competitive, high-quality product that is a hedge against pricing and supply volatility but on trust and a shared vision,” states Georges Antoun, chief commercial officer for First Solar. “We thank SB Energy for its trust in our technology and for investing in responsibly-produced American solar as they grow their platform in support of our country’s march towards a sustainable energy future.”

All 1.5 GW of the modules in the order will be produced in First Solar’s Ohio manufacturing plant and support SB Energy’s plans to achieve 10 GW of renewable energy and storage projects in operation or under construction by the end of 2025.

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UK listed fund Gresham House reveals expected revenues from Capacity Market contracts

The investor-developer got contracts in both the T-1 and T-4 Capacity Market auctions. Image: Gresham House.

London Stock Exchange-listed energy storage investor Gresham House Energy Storage Fund expects to earn more than US$144 million (£108 million) revenues from contracts awarded in recent Capacity Market auctions in the UK.

The battery energy storage company was awarded 112.0MW of de-rated capacity in the T-1 auction for 325MW of projects, which is expected to add £8.4 million in revenues over one year between 2022 and 2023.

It was also awarded 180.4MW of de-rated capacity in the T-4 auction for 463MW of projects, which is expected to add approximately £100 million over the 15-year period, assuming CPI at 2%.

“The Capacity Market is a vital tool for National Grid to ensure sufficient dispatchable generation to meet demand requirements as renewable generation expands, intermittency rises and as battery storage installations continue to lag renewable deployment,” Ben Guest, lead fund manager and managing director of Gresham House New Energy said.

Both the T-1 and T-4 auctions closed at record high prices due to capacity constraints. A total of around 1GW of battery storage assets were awarded contracts across the two.

The T-1 auction closed in the first round at £75/kW/y, with 4996.224MW of de-rated capacity across 226 pre-qualified Capacity Market Units (CMUs) securing contracts on 15 February.

The T-4 Capacity Market auction cleared in the ninth round at £30.59 /kW/year, with a total of 42,364MW of capacity securing contracts on 22 February.

Both were impacted by the closure of coal and nuclear power plants in the UK, straining the available capacity.

Additionally, the volatility in the energy market currently driven by high gas prices impacted the T-1 auction in particular.

To read the full version of this story, visit Current±.

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Ameresco’s 2.1GWh California battery contract drives 36% uplift in project revenues

US Military facility fitted with renewable energy, storage and energy efficiency solutions by Ameresco. Image: Ameresco.

The award of contracts by utility Southern California Edison (SCE) for 537.5MW/2.150MWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) has enabled a significant rise in revenues for Ameresco’s project business.

The US clean energy solutions company, which is involved in everything from energy efficiency upgrades to microgrids, renewable energy generation with and without energy storage, standalone battery storage and renewable natural gas, reported its latest quarterly financial results this week. 

Covering the fourth quarter of 2021 and full-year results, Ameresco recorded full-year revenues of US$1.2 billion, an 18% increase on 2020 figures, US$152.7 million of adjusted EBITDA, a 30% increase.

Quarterly revenue and EBITDA figures of US$415.9 million and US$48.5 million were reported, up 32% and 36% respectively from Q4 2020. 

President and CEO George Sakellaris described it as a year of outstanding performance for the company, which demonstrated the strength of its diversified business model. He noted however that revenue growth was led by the company’s Projects business, largely due to the SCE project, which is the biggest contract in Ameresco’s history. 

The contract award was announced in October last year. The three separate four-hour duration BESS projects, each connected to a distribution network substation pocket, will help address electricity network reliability issues for the California investor-owned utility (IOU).

Q4 2021 project revenues were US$333 million, versus US$244.8 million for Q4 2020, a 36% increase. 

With revenues starting to be recognised for the SCE contract, which will see BESS installed at three sites in SCE’s service area, Sakellaris said that “despite the well-publicised global supply chain challenges, we are pleased to report that the design/build project is proceeding as expected”.

“Importantly this contract is representative of the types of the projects that are emerging as the power industry addresses grid stability and reliability. Our track record of execution on projects of increasing size and complexity puts Ameresco in a distinct competitive advantage to capture similar opportunities in the periods ahead,” the CEO said, calling it an excellent example of the “ever expanding addressable market”.

‘Several other large opportunities’ in battery storage being pursued

On those supply chain shortages, the company’s technology agnostic approach has enabled it to “go out shopping,” and Ameresco’s flexible strategy gave it a “tremendous competitive advantage” on the SCE project, Sakellaris said in reply to an analyst’s question.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) deal with SCE almost doubled the company’s project backlog sequentially to US$1.5 billion, while the company is pursuing “several other large opportunities” that it expects to win. 

News of the deal has raised both Ameresco’s profile and the profile of battery storage for electricity suppliers in the US, and requests from both utilities and smaller cooperatives have picked up “considerably,” Sakellaris said. 

While the company expected that most of the contracts it will win in the near term will not be as large as 2.15GWh, it would “love to tackle projects of similar size,” and the CEO said that now that Ameresco knows “much much more about this project,” its teams feel more comfortable about its execution. 

“Battery storage is a key market for us and this project puts us in a different level of competitors,” he said. 

Some of those BESS project contracts will be EPC contracts, others will be systems that Ameresco will ultimately own. Often the nature of that ownership structure is an ongoing conversation during negotiations ahead of contracts being signed, Ameresco CFO and senior VP Doran Hole said.

In other words, a mix of power purchase agreement (PPA) -style contracts for assets the company will own, as well as EPC contracts to build for the customer.  

The CFO said that for assets it has in development, for which it has a strong confidence contracts will be signed imminently, Ameresco has about 266MW of solar and battery storage, with about 60MW of battery storage in there and 45MW of standalone battery storage. Storage project durations vary, with most of either two-hour or four-hour durations, Hole said. 

Some light was shed on Ameresco’s capital expenditure and EBITDA performance expectations in response to another analyst question.

According to Doran Hole, solar PV capex and battery storage are similar, at a “couple of dollars per watt,” although battery pricing has more ups and downs to consider at present. EBITDA is likewise similar, about US$250,000 per megawatt per year, with a 75% EBITDA margin range. 

Energy storage system integrator and technology provider FlexGen was selected by Ameresco to supply the full BESS solutions for the SCE project. FlexGen CEO Kelsey Pegler spoke to Energy-Storage.news for an exclusive interview shortly after that announcement was made.

“There’s a lot of eyes on this project. California and beyond will be looking at this,” Pegler said, discussing the technologies FlexGen will be using and sharing further views on the present state and evolution of the battery storage business.

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Honeywell to provide 20MW energy storage for solar park in New Mexico

Honeywell Energy Storage Solutions will deliver the 20MW energy storage system. Image: Public Service Company of New Mexico.

Technology group Honeywell’s energy storage solutions arm will supply a 20MW/80MWh battery system for renewables group Hecate Energy’s solar farm in New Mexico, USA.

NASDAQ-listed Honeywell will deliver the battery energy storage system (BESS) combined with its energy management system (EMS), the Experion Energy Control System to the PNM Solar Direct solar farm. It will be a lithium-ion system, the company told Energy-storage.news.

The combined platform will allow for asset monitoring and distributed energy resource management allowing Hecate to optimise energy costs at the 50MW solar farm, which is located on the Jicarilla Apache Nation, north of Albuquerque, and set to open in late 2022. The city is subscribing to 25MW or half of the site’s solar off-take.

Honeywell says it is providing outcome-based guarantees around cost, uptime and revenue stacking abilities including peak shaving, backup power and demand response programs.

Honeywell is a Fortune 100 technology group whose four main segments are aerospace, building technologies, performance materials and technologies, and safety and productivity solutions. Energy storage is currently a negligible part of the company’s top line of US$34.3 billion but it has made deep inroads into the sector since entering in 2019 with clear ambitions to expand.

It has a pipeline of 300-400MW behind-the-meter storage with Canadian developer NRStor and supplied equipment for Ukraine’s first grid-scale BESS.

It has also launched its own unique 12-hour flow battery product. The company’s Sustainable Technology Solutions (Honeywell STS) vice president previously told Energy-storage.news that long duration flow batteries were a natural fit for its experience in more conventional power sectors.

Hecate Energy is a developer of solar power plants, wind power plants, and energy storage solutions. It has a 40GW-plus development pipeline of projects. Of the 25.2GW spelt out on its website, 7GW is storage, 17.1GW is solar and 1.1GW is solar and storage.

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