Pulse Clean Energy CEO Matthew Mendes. Image: Pulse Clean Energy.

Following last year’s acquisition, independent power plant developer Green Frog Power has rebranded as Pulse Clean Energy and unveiled a target of 1GW+ of energy storage assets in the UK.

The company was bought by Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO) in October 2021. Matthew Mendes and Trevor Wills have been appointed as chief executive officer and chief operating officer respectively, and will now take on the responsibility of growing a substantial battery storage pipeline.

Pulse Clean Energy has already invested in nine diesel generation sites, which will be decommissioned and repurposed as grid-scale battery energy storage sites.

“Through innovation in energy storage and optimisation, it is our ambition to enable the smooth transition to a zero-carbon energy network,” said Mendes.

“We pride ourselves in doing this differently, as our approach is rooted in data and insight to ensure a seamless collaboration across the energy system.”

Additional senior appointments announced include former CEO of RWE npower, Paul Massara as chairman of the board and former group general counsel and company secretary for National Grid Plc Alison Kay as non-executive director.

IMCO’s managing director and head of infrastructure Tim Formuziewich and head of infrastructure funds and asset management Polina Sims will also join as non-executive directors.

“The rebrand is a reflection of the new path Pulse Clean Energy is taking and we are thrilled to welcome Paul, Alison, Tim and Polina to our board and are looking forward to working with our team of highly talented experts to make this vision a reality,” added Mendes.

This story first appeared on Solar Power Portal.

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Trina Storage commissioned and tested the 50MW/56.2MWh battery system. Image: Trina Storage

Trina Storage has completed the supply of its first UK battery energy storage system (BESS), the 50MW/56.2MWh fully integrated grid-scale battery energy storage system owned by SMS plc, a smart metering services company which has diversified into the energy storage space.

The BESS is in Burwell, a village in Cambridgeshire in east England. It was constructed by Ethical Power. Trina Storage, meanwhile, supplied, commissioned and tested the system, which is to provide balancing services to electricity system operator National Grid ESO following its start of commercial operations.

Consisting of lithium-ion battery racks, PCS and transformer units, Trina Storage said the BESS was designed to maximise system performance as well as increase battery life. It has also been equipped with modular, flexible and scalable Power Plant Controller (PPC) and SCADA to control, monitor and optimise system performance. 

A flexible capacity warranty covering full system supply, including commissioning and standard product warranty, as well as preventive maintenance is also provided.

Trina Storage, which was launched in January 2021 by vertically-integrated solar PV company Trina Solar, said that by forging an end-to-end partnership with SMS and third parties it reduced complexity and project delivery times with its supply chain expertise.

To read the full version of this story visit Solar Power Portal.

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Bill Gates founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures and is its chairman. Image: UK Department for International Development.

Thermal storage startup Antora Energy has raised US$50 million from a group of investment firms including Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures to accelerate the development of its heat-based carbon block energy storage system for heavy industry. 

The investment is being provided by Breakthrough, Lowercarbon Capital, Shell Ventures, BHP Ventures, Grok Ventures, Trust Ventures, Overture VC, Impact Science Ventures, and existing investor Fifty Years VC. 

Antora says the money, which follows US$5 million of grants from US government bodies in 2020, will help the company “build out their first customer-sited projects and speed up hiring.”

The technology

The California-based firm’s technology works by absorbing electricity from wind and solar into heat blocks of carbon. These are heated to as much as 2000°C.

The carbon blocks can then provide heat, by heating up tubes containing steam or hot air, or they can even generate electricity from their glow being directed onto modified solar PV modules, the company has claimed. Antora says these two discharge modes are operated completely independently. 

In a recent Medium article, the company’s CEO Andrew Ponec wrote that thermal beats all other storage types it looked at in its early stages – hydrogen, batteries, gravitational storage, compressed air, flywheels – by virtue of being cheap, simple and infinitely scalable. 

He claims that carbon blocks are amongst the cheapest storage materials in the world and that the firm has a ‘world-record-breaking solid-state heat engine that converts radiant heat into electricity with only a few micrometres of material and no moving parts’, solving thermal storage’s two main problems. He also reckons carbon blocks have the same energy density as lithium-ion batteries.

Stage of commercialisation and target opportunity

In an interview in January, Ponec said that Antora has a workhorse prototype system of a few hundred KWh but was ‘working hard’ on a delivering a 100MWh pilot system to Wellhead Electric, a developer of natural gas, solar and storage plants in California. 

The company is targeting heavy industry which is the single-largest source of carbon emissions at 30% and has found it difficult to decarbonise due to high heat and power requirements. One example is steel production, which requires temperatures of about 1,500°C.

“Our investors look at this and see a US$1 trillion/year opportunity. We look at it and see a 10 gigaton/year opportunity,” he said.

Other players in the space

This fundraising round is the largest seen in the space since EnergyNest secured €110m (US$130m) in April last year for its similar technology based around concrete, as reported by Energy-storage.news. 

In fact, the nascent thermal energy storage space comprises a variety of materials upon which solutions have been based. US startup Malta Inc uses a molten salt-based storage solution, Swedish group Azelio’s is based around aluminium while Scotland-based Sunamp uses a phase change material (PCM) for its proprietary technology, albeit that one is a lower temperature storage tech aimed primarily at the residential hot water heating market.

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DG+Design’s latest New Jersey Solar Market Report shows that the state installed a record 3.8 GW of new capacity during 2021. Despite overcoming challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic, including supply chain issues, New Jersey now faces a significant grid interconnection backlog and incentive uncertainty. The state saw a massive spike of new solar projects in Q3 2021, followed by a drop-off of installed capacity during Q4.

At a January meeting of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, members discussed reducing state incentives for solar development, despite the rocky road ahead as the state works to hit 37% solar power by 2050. New Jersey’s strong incentives have made it a leader in solar development over the last 10 years, with a good track record of rooftop community solar development.

While decisions about state incentives will be determined within state borders, the looming danger of grid interconnection delays threatens projects in New Jersey and beyond. PJM Interconnection (PJM), a large power grid stretching along the Eastern United States, is facing an interconnection backlog of over 1,200 projects, many in New Jersey. In light of the massive backlog, PJM is seeking a two-year pause on reviewing projects in the queue, with new projects likely to face even longer wait times. Such delays stand to substantially threaten the development of solar in New Jersey.

However, there are hopeful signs, particularly for the state’s commercial solar sector. In July of this year, a New Jersey law will go into effect requiring newly constructed warehouses over 100,000 square feet to be “solar-ready,” with measures like reserving roof space for solar panels and utilizing solar water heating systems.

Additionally, due to the success of New Jersey’s community solar pilot program first launched in 2019, Gov. Phil Murphy has instructed the NJBPU to make the program permanent. The release of a stakeholder input process is expected in February of 2022.

“Interconnection queue delays produce extended project timelines and greater financial risks, which in turn can cause a further hesitation to invest in new solar projects,” says Kathleen Gill, director of clean energy at DG+Design. “Given the extended backlog of PJM’s queue, it is unclear if New Jersey will be able to maintain its high rate of solar development in 2022, which could impact its ability to reach its long-term renewable energy targets.”

In Q4 2021, commercial sector installation capacity dwarfed residential installation capacity by a 3:1 ratio, with solar development especially concentrated in PSEG territory. For the calendar year 2021, New Jersey’s largest residential solar developers were Vivint Solar (acquired by Sunrun), Trinity Solar and Vision Solar. In the commercial sector, EnterSolar led the pack, followed by Distributed Solar Operations and Smart Citizens LLC. Community solar development was led by Solar Landscape, Altus Power and CEP Renewables.

“Consistent incentive offerings have been key to ongoing growth of solar in New Jersey, allowing it to outpace many surrounding states,” comments David Ganske, CEO of DG+Design. “As state incentives decline in the coming years, it will serve as a test of New Jersey’s solar sector, and perhaps as a harbinger of what’s to come as other states consider cutting incentives.”

Read the full report here.

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LGES said the takeover enables it to achieve a high level of vertical integration in the stationary ESS space. Image: NEC ES

LG Energy Solution, the battery technology arm of South Korea’s LG Group, has completed its acquisition of 100% ownership in battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator NEC ES.

The takeover will see NEC ES relaunched as LG Energy Solution Vertech Inc and will give its new parent company a broader set of offerings in the BESS space, LG Energy Solution (LGES) said today in a release sent to Energy-Storage.news. 

The Massachusetts, US-headquartered energy storage subsidiary of Japan’s NEC Corporation was widely considered a leading player in the battery storage space when its sudden exit from the industry was announced in mid-2020. 

The company had packaged up battery cells and other components into complete BESS solutions, coordinated with NEC ES’ proprietary AEROS controls and software platform.

It had delivered just under a gigawatt (986MW) of BESS across 141 grid-scale and commercial & industrial (C&I) projects since NEC had itself acquired the business in 2014 from Chinese automotive tech company Wanxiang.

LGES noted in today’s release that NEC ES had achieved annual growth of 60% on average between 2018 and 2020 and posted US$207 million revenues in the latter year. It was however widely reported that it had not yet achieved profitability and it appears NEC Corporation was not prepared to give it any more time, although a deal had already been on the table from a prospective buyer at around the time the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the WHO. 

NEC ES committed to carrying on with long-term O&M activities that had already been contracted for its projects, but no longer committed to or sought out new projects. 

Then in September 2021, LG ES said it would be acquiring NEC ES. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

At that time investment banking advisor BDA Partners — which had advised LGES on the proposed transaction — said the deal would position LG Energy Solution as a kind of ESS sector one-stop-shop, giving it a high level of vertical integration within the space, from its upstream supply of battery cells to downstream system integration and other deployment services. 

An NEC ES commercial ESS project in Massachusetts, US. Image: NEC ES.

In today’s announcement LG Energy Solution highlighted the ongoing growth in global demand for standardised and fully-integrated energy storage systems that NEC ES’ experience and technologies could enable it to deliver. 

With battery cells the most critically important component of ESS systems and comprising a major portion of their costs, LGES said bringing together that end-to-end solution from cell to system will give it an advantage in the industry and benefits to customers in both capital equipment and site installation costs. 

It will be offering AC-coupled and DC-coupled energy storage systems as well as operations services from installation and remote monitoring to scheduled maintenance. 

The acquisition will enable LGES to leverage NEC ES’ operational data as well as its technologies. This will drive improvements in system-level performance and reliability, including the ability to monitor and acquire data from inverters and power conversion system (PCS) components. 

“Through the deal, LG Energy Solution will accelerate its energy storage business and ultimately better provide our clients with a more comprehensive ESS program that meets the growing demand,” LGES CEO Younsoo Kwon said.

“We are confident we can expand on the ESS business by escalating our competitiveness in terms of quality and ultimately become a leading global player within the industry.”

LGES floated a US$10+ billion IPO in late January, through which it said it aimed to expand manufacturing production capacity significantly in Europe, the Americas and Asia.

Its first financial results disclosure a couple of weeks ago included little mention of its ESS business and how the NEC ES acquisition would fit into its strategy, but sources close to the company have said it is enthusiastic about its prospects in the stationary storage sector. 

It will be interesting to see if direct vertical integration between cell production and system integration can ease some of the supply chain issues that are currently thought to be impacting on BESS technology providers and their ability to secure sufficient battery components and materials and keep reducing costs.  

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Chris Beam

Appalachian Power has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for up to 150 MW of solar energy resources with the option to include a battery energy storage system. The company seeks to acquire the solar facilities through one or more purchase and sale agreements from developers who meet certain economic and operational criteria. 

Project bids must be at least 50 MW in size, located in West Virginia, and interconnected to PJM, the independent regional transmission organization that manages the electric grid in 13 states, including West Virginia. Projects must be operational by no later than December 15, 2025, and qualify for the Federal Investment Tax Credit.

Appalachian Power issued the RFP as part of the provisions of West Virginia Senate Bill 583, passed in 2020 to further the development of renewable energy resources and renewable energy facilities for solar energy. Preference will be given to submissions located on eligible sites as defined by the legislation. These sites include property previously used in electric generation, industrial, manufacturing or mining operations to include brownfields, closed landfills, hazardous waste sites, and former industrial or mining sites.

“The RFP issued today is our company’s second request for bids following the West Virginia legislation,” says Chris Beam, Appalachian Power’s president and COO. “Our first request resulted in a signed contract for a 50 MW solar project in Berkeley County, and we are ready and eager to build on that success.”

Businesses seeking to submit a proposal can access criteria, required forms and other specifics online. Proposals must be submitted by March 31, 2022. Any solar project selected by Appalachian Power through the RFP process is conditional upon and subject to approval by the required regulatory authorities.

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The two projects (pictured) are sited at a Southern California Edison substation in Santa Ana, California. Image: Convergent Energy + Power.

Convergent Energy + Power has celebrated the successful commissioning and start of commercial operations at two battery energy storage system (BESS) projects with a combined capacity of 60MWh in California, US. 

The energy storage developer said yesterday that the two storage systems it financed and developed in California’s Orange County are online, one of 9MW/36MWh and the other 6MW/24MWh. 

The pair are both at a substation belonging to California investor-owned utility (IOU) Southern California Edison (SCE) in the city of Santa Ana.

Convergent has contracted with SCE for them to provide resource adequacy (RA) to the utility — the mechanism through which load serving entities on California’s CAISO electric grid must ensure there is sufficient capacity for reliable delivery of electricity to their customers. 

Resource adequacy needs to be delivered in four hour blocks and often covers the evening peak when solar production tails off, making four-hour duration battery storage systems in California an increasingly commonly deployed asset all over the state. 

For these energy storage systems in particular, there is a strategic locational benefit. Santa Ana is one of the cities in the Los Angeles basin, where much of California’s highest electricity demand is experienced, while most of the power it uses is generated elsewhere. BESS such as Convergent Energy + Power’s can ease the challenge of delivering that power where it’s needed, when it’s needed. 

The developer said both systems will utilise the company’s proprietary energy storage software, called PEAK IQ, which is based on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques to establish optimal dispatch and storage of energy.

In an increasingly crowded and competitive space, energy storage developers, system integrators and asset owner-operators are pointing to the strengths of their software offerings to differentiate them for their customers. 

“Modernising our electricity grid is critical to the future of energy and mitigating the climate crisis. Energy storage is essential to reducing our dependency on fossil fuels and Convergent is proud to continue demonstrating its value to customers and communities through innovative partners like SCE in strategic California locations at the forefront of change,” CEO Johannes Ritterhausen said. 

It’s Convergent Energy + Power’s second completed project announcement in California that Energy-Storage.news has reported already this year. In January, a 10MW/40MWh project by the company was brought online for East Bay Clean Energy (EBCE), one of California’s Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) energy suppliers.

The developer also has projects under development in territories including New York, its home state, and has been among those providing large-scale industrial behind-the-meter (BTM) BESS in Ontario, Canada, a market that has been thriving for a couple of years given that industrial consumers of electricity in the province can save big money on their electricity rates through peak shaving.

California continues to be the US’ leading state for battery storage, with gigawatts of four-hour installations already in service or underway in the service areas of the three major IOUs as well as its CCAs. Just in the last few weeks Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has sought approval for 6.4GWh of third party energy storage contracts and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has had three projects totalling 664MWh that it will own and operate approved.  

Last week the state’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a US$49 billion clean energy plan, which included the build-out of just under 15GW of BESS.

California is targeting 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045. That’s already one of the most ambitious policy targets in the world, but some individual cities and local authorities are even targeting dates as early as 2030. The role of energy storage in that journey is widely recognised, although much more is being done to foster large-scale BESS than distributed customer-sited BTM storage. 

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Five months after the passage of Illinois’ landmark clean energy law, solar businesses have installed enough renewable energy to power 30,000 homes and are building a more diverse workforce with the help of job training programs. Data provided by members of the Solar Energy Industries Association, Illinois Solar Energy Association, and the Coalition for Community Solar Access and the Illinois Power Agency found 2022 is on track to be one of the biggest years for solar energy in Illinois’ history. The renewable energy industry plans to complete more than 8,400 additional solar installations and increase its workforce by nearly 50% in 2022.

The progress is due in large part to the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) that was enacted on September 15, 2021. CEJA sets the long-term goal of 100% clean energy in Illinois by 2050 but also provides immediate steps that help accelerate the renewable energy transition that’s already underway in Illinois.

Data from the Illinois Power Agency shows that 8,052 waitlisted solar projects have moved forward and are expected to be approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission in February. In addition, 250 MW of new community solar projects have been approved; when completed, these projects will allow an estimated 35,000 families to lower their electric bills without installing solar panels.

A survey of solar businesses in Illinois found that more than 2,000 rooftop and community solar projects have already been installed. Illinois businesses will complete more than 8,400 rooftop and community solar projects by the end of 2022. Businesses are hiring rapidly and the workforce in the state is expected to increase 47% by the end of this year.

Renewable energy businesses reported that they have already expanded their work on diversity, equity and inclusion by recruiting from solar job training programs, creating internal committees focused on diversity and hiring consultants and recruiters to guide their diversity efforts.

The Illinois Power Agency maintains an online map of solar projects that participate in the state’s adjustable block program here – roughly 25,000 solar projects have been completed since the program launched in 2017. The agency is currently developing its long-term renewable energy plan that will establish the path for renewable energy growth for coming years. The plan will establish an equity eligible contractor certification and an equity accountability system in the next 12-18 months.

Image: Photo by Chelsea on Unsplash

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Soltage LLC’s Iris capital vehicle with Harrison Street has invested in a 31 MW portfolio of one project in Illinois and four projects in South Carolina. The electricity generated from these projects will be sold to municipal, commercial and residential community solar customers, as well as local utilities.

This is the most recent deployment from Soltage’s Iris capital vehicle with Harrison Street, a $250 million partnership announced in March 2021 to deploy 450 MW of solar and storage projects across the United States. This announcement brings the total investment deployed through the Soltage Iris vehicle to 16 total solar facilities and over 60 MW.

“We are proud to announce this investment, building on our 15-year track record of developing and investing in renewable energy assets to serve our diverse base of electricity consumers,” states Jesse Grossman, Soltage’s co-founder and CEO. “Portfolio execution on this scale involves a host of dedicated partners, both local and national, and we are grateful to them as we work to assist the U.S. in its clean energy market transition.” Soltage has raised and invested over $1 billion into clean energy infrastructure since its founding in 2005. The company has developed over 100 clean energy projects and has more than 450 MW total distributed generating capacity under construction and management across the country.

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The CPUC said the state’s transmission system would be able to accommodate the increased solar capacity with only minimal upgrades. Image: SJCE / Terra-Gen.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has unanimously approved plans to add more than 25.5GW of renewables and 15GW of storage in the state by 2032 at a cost of US$49 billion.  

Approved last week (10 February) by the CPUC, the plans will see the state add 18,883MW of utility-scale solar, around 6,700MW of wind power, 14,751MW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and 1,000MW of demand response resources.

Taken together, these resources would cost US$49.3 billion and would produce a levelised cost of energy of US$18.6c/kWh in California.

The plan adopted a 35 million metric ton (MMT) 2032 electric sector GHG planning target (38 MMT by 2030), which is more stringent than the 46 MMT GHG target that was adopted previously. If realised, it would see renewable resources account for 73% of the state’s energy mix by 2032.

Source: CPUC.

“Today’s decision provides direction for procurement of an unprecedented amount of new clean energy resources. It keeps us on the path toward achieving our state’s ambitious clean energy targets, while ensuring system reliability,” said CPUC commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen.

The CPUC said a preliminary analysis indicates there is “sufficient space for all of these new resources on the existing transmission system, with only limited transmission upgrades needed by 2032”, adding that utility-scale battery storage projects were identified as alternatives to transmission upgrades at a lower cost to ratepayers.

“This finding will be validated at a more granular level by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) in its 2022-2023 Transmission Planning Process (TPP),” CPUC said.

At the start of this month, however, CAISO released a report, which CPUC was involved in making, that said the state would need a US$30.5 billion investment in its transmission system to accommodate the expected 53GW of solar PV that will exist on its network by 2045.

Around the same time, the CPUC decided to indefinitely delay its decision on controversial changes to the state’s net metering laws after widespread criticism of the plans, dubbed NEM 3.0.

Research organisation Wood Mackenzie warned the changes, proposed by the CPUC in December 2021, would severely reduce residential PV’s value proposition in California, cutting its solar market in half by 2024.

This story first appeared on PV Tech.

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