Kristin Westover

Secure Solar Future has signed a 25-year solar PPA with Mountain Empire Community College to develop a 777 kW solar power system on its campus in Big Stone Gap, Va. 

Secure Solar Futures will install a total of 1,679 panels manufactured by Jinko Solar at two locations. Dalton-Cantrell Hall will host 117 kW of solar capacity, covering 47% of the building’s electricity demand. Five buildings located near each other will host an additional 659 kW of solar capacity, covering 29% of power demand in those facilities. 

In its first year, the project will produce 1,032,400 kW hours of electric power, enough energy to power 142 average homes while avoiding the equivalent of more than 732 metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution, says the company.

After installation, Secure Solar Futures will own, operate and maintain the solar equipment and sell the clean energy produced to MECC for the term of the PPA. At the conclusion of the PPA term, MECC will take ownership of the solar power system at no additional cost, producing its own energy for the remainder of the equipment’s expected 35- to 40-year productive lifespan. 

“This initiative is not just about energy sustainability; it’s a significant stride towards creating meaningful educational and career opportunities in our community,” says Kristin Westover, president of MECC. 

“By integrating solar technology with workforce development, we’re not only contributing to environmental conservation but also paving the way for future generations to pursue rewarding careers in the energy sector in SWVA, the heart of energy production.” 

Organizations and initiatives that helped develop the project included the Southwest Solar Workgroup, and the Solar Finance Fund, along with the feeder school districts and Career and Technical Education programs in Wise and Lee Counties. 

MECC is a comprehensive two-year college serving residents of Lee, Scott, Wise, and Dickenson Counties, and the City of Norton.  

Continue reading

It takes the form of a public-private partnership with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), which chose and appointed the pair through a competitive solicitation. Both partners will be responsible for the fund’s technical and economic decision-making.

TMG will contribute an initial 2 billion (US$13.63 million) to invest. Itochu will also put money in, while other private investors are also being sought to take part. Investments will be focused on projects in the Kanto region, which comprises the Tokyo Metropolitan area and six surrounding prefectures.

Much of the new investment fund’s remit is around establishing a new “green financing model” for investments in utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) assets in Japan, Gore Street said.

Its partner Itochu, active in areas including raw textiles, machinery, metals, fashion labels to real estate, food, insurance and financial services to energy, is one of the market leaders in sales of residential battery storage systems in Japan with around 55,000 units sold as of the start of this year.

Itochu has also already made its entrance into the large-scale BESS sector. It announced its first 11MW/23MWh project in Osaka Prefecture, west Japan, in partnership with utility Osaka Gas in June. The company also entered a partnership with Australian developer Akaysha Energy for utility-scale BESS projects in Japan a while back, which it announced in September.   

Fundamental need for storage in Japan

Japan, like Britain, is an island country with relatively little interconnection to neighbouring states. That means it needs to balance and manage volatility within its own grid networks, and energy storage is a key technology to enable that, especially as rising shares of renewable energy will increase that volatility.

Similarly, like the UK, Japan has seen deregulation of electricity markets as an important means to enable greater competition of supply and services. However, unlike the UK, energy storage is yet to take off in Japan.

This is partly because historically the Japanese electricity sector has been a series of top-down regional monopolies, administered and owned by powerful generation companies that also operate the grid in their respective regions. In the UK, various competitive market opportunities exist for grid-balancing ancillary services like frequency response, for example.

Japan’s efforts to deregulate its markets and remove those monopolies are still at an early stage. Efforts to create fertile markets for energy storage meanwhile have received a significant boost in the past year or so, but remain at a relatively early stage.

Barriers being removed

In an article for our quarterly journal, PV Tech Power (Vol.34) earlier this year, Chris Wilkinson, analyst at Rystad Energy, wrote that Japan needs a “fully developed” BESS industry in order for developers to be able to, “avoid curtailment, earn revenue and further promote development of not only solar but all renewables”.

As implied by Itochu’s move to involve itself in the sector, and similar moves by other major players in Japanese corporate life like financial services group Orix, and oil company Idemitsu, a market is gradually developing. Technology providers NGK, Sumitomo Electric, CATL and Gotion are also behind recent market entries or scale-ups.

Regulations enabling energy storage to participate in wholesale energy trading through spot markets on the JEPX power exchange were put in place last year, offering a potential revenue opportunity for BESS and leading to the first BESS units to trade on JEPX to go into operation through solar PV developer Pacifico Energy mid-2023.

Meanwhile, markets for ancillary services – the gateway opportunity that opened up the UK market for Gore Street and others in 2016 – will be rolled out next year.

The government also rolled out a subsidy scheme with about US$100 million in initial funding to directly support battery storage projects over 10MW with up to half their construction costs, while there is also a new capacity market for decarbonised power supply that will enable BESS with durations over 3-hour to take part and secure 20-year contracts.   

Gore Street has one of the more internationally diversified BESS portfolios in the world. It has around 1GW in operation in the UK, as well as assets in Ireland, Germany and Texas’ ERCOT market, as well as a 200MW/400MWh asset in construction in California’s CAISO market.

In a recent appearance on specialist podcast Redefining Energy, Gore Street CEO Alex O’Cinneide said that on average, Gore Street Energy Storage Fund’s assets earned about £19/MW (US$24/MW) throughout the past year. Spreading its investments across different markets enables much higher revenues, O’Cinneide said, with average revenues in the UK at about £6/MW for the same period.

O’Cinneide, who was selected by judges for the Outstanding Contribution award at this year’s Energy Storage Awards, hosted by our publisher Solar Media, said in a statement today that this international experience and grounding as an early mover in the UK market would be an advantage in the new Tokyo Metropolitan Government fund.

“We have developed a specialist platform offering the full range of technical expertise needed to successfully monetise energy storage assets throughout their lifetime, from acquisition and construction, asset management and commercialisation all the way through to decommissioning and recycling,” the CEO said.

“We look forward to bringing this experience to Japan, alongside our partners at ITOCHU, to deploy the energy storage capacity needed to accelerate the country’s clean energy transition to a low-carbon and sustainable future.”

Continue reading

Although trade group Solar Energy UK welcomed the boost for the domestic manufacturing of batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) presented by the Strategy, the trade association expressed concern that the document “appears to underplay” how fast the BESS sector is growing.

The strategy stated that BESS demand is set to rise from 10GWh in 2030 to 20GWh by 2035, Solar Energy UK noted that the current pipeline suggests that this growth may be even faster.

In November alone an impressive number of BESS plans have been announced, such as Statera’s 300MW/600MWh BESS facility in Essex and  Sungrow’s 100MW BESS asset which recently grew in storage capacity from 260MWh to 330MWh.

November also saw construction begin on the UK’s “largest under-construction BESS” – SSE Renewables’ 320MW/640MWh asset in North Yorkshire.

“Solar Energy UK is further aware of a 400MW project in the pipeline,” added the trade association.

Additionally, the grid connection process for BESS is expected to be accelerated following the National Grid’s recent unveiling of plans to streamline 10GW of BESS capacity currently waiting for grid connection.

Referring to the section within the Battery Strategy discussing strengthening electricity networks to support the growing electricity demand, Solar Energy UK pointed out that the role BESS can play in balancing the grid, providing frequency support and reducing renewable energy curtailment was “sadly neglected.”

Behind-the-meter storage

Domestic storage could maximise the value of roof-mounted solar panels, allowing consumers to store cheap solar energy during the day when it’s not needed and use it at night. However, at present, there is a 20% VAT imposed on retrofitted BESS when fitted to solar installations; a VAT that new solar and storage installations are exempt from.

Solar Energy UK stated it had expected the “anomaly” to be resolved in the recent government Autumn Statement following its own calls for the removal of the VAT for retrofitted BESS’ and a consultation on the matter.

“UK is leading the rest of Europe in the deployment of utility scale batteries and there are several UK manufacturers of residential batteries expanding their operations,” said Solar Energy UK in conclusion.

“By overlooking this rapidly expanding part of the clean energy sector, the Government is missing half the picture with its Battery Strategy.”

This story first appeared on Solar Power Portal.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

Continue reading

EnerVenue says its ESVs can cycle two to three times a day without rest, have a 30-year, 30,000 cycle lifetime and 2-12 hour discharge rates, which if true makes it three to five times more durable than lithium-ion batteries – and with none of the thermal runaway risk of lithium-ion. Its Energy Racks are now available to order with shipping in 2024.

Randall Selesky, CRO, EnerVenue, said: “Stationary energy storage customers want easily scalable battery architecture, straightforward installation, and a high-density solution that takes up a minimal footprint.”

“The EnerVenue Energy Rack addresses these market needs head-on, offering a pre-engineered and assembled design that maximizes energy density while reducing integration and onsite installation labor costs. Our customers get complete flexibility to install and connect as many fully assembled Energy Racks as their energy storage use cases require—simple as that. We’re looking forward to the accelerated pace at which customers will be able to implement new energy storage operations and scale existing installations with our stackable rack units.”

The company’s battery design is based on a technology in use by NASA and others for outer space power applications.

The company last year claimed 5GWh of customer orders and this year started building a gigafactory in Kentucky, US, with an initial capacity of 1GWh rising eventually to 20GWh. Multi-state utility Dominion Energy recently announced plans to deploy EnerVenue’s tech in a pilot project.

Continue reading

PowMr has launched its SOLXPOW Energy Storage Inverters series, designed for both residential and commercial scenarios. 

The X1 residential series are available in variants ranging from 3 kW to 8 kW, with a 97.6% maximum efficiency, 15A PV input current, and a 30A charge/discharge capacity, says the company. 

The X2 residential series, with options from 4 kW to 12 kW, has a 98.2% maximum efficiency, per the company, and a 110% unbalanced output capability.

The X3 commercial series, available in 10 kW to 20 kW, offers a 98.4% maximum efficiency and a powerful 40A charge/discharge capacity, says PowMr. The X4 commercial series ranges from 25 kW to 50 kW, with an impressive 98.8% maximum efficiency and a 100A charge/discharge capability. These models are equipped with a three-phase function and up to 4 MPPTs.

“This launch marks a milestone for PowMr, reflecting its commitment to providing sustainable, efficient, and reliable energy solutions,” says Tony Zou, PowMr’s founder and CEO. 

SOLXPOW inverters support both grid and PV input, and are compatible with high voltage batteries capable of handling significant power for large home appliances. The SOLXPOW series also allows users to sell excess power back to the grid.

Continue reading

Marina Minic

Five Chicagoland counties, nonprofit advocates and solar professionals have joined to educate consumers on how they can install discounted solar panels, the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) says.

The Solar Switch program, formerly called Grow Solar Chicagoland, is a partnership among Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will counties, along with nonprofits CUB and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA). This year, the program has added the expertise of iChoosr, a company that manages and administers solar group-buy programs globally.

Solar Switch is a “group-buy” program, which means it secures volume discounts for quality solar installations, based on how many residents of those five counties, along with residents of Kendall and McHenry counties, participate. The program selects installers through a competitive vetting process and then runs a reverse-auction to secure a low base-price.

“Solar Switch gives consumers an introduction to solar power, and it offers a safe and reliable process to connect interested participants with qualified, vetted and affordable solar installers,” says Marina Minic, CUB’s solar programs coordinator. “As a watchdog we are concerned about education and consumer protections, and that’s why we promote this program.”

“Combined with the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy incentives, Solar Switch Chicagoland makes solar more accessible than ever,” adds Taylor Ball, solar program manager for the MREA.

Continue reading

The investors are Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a sustainable energy tech venture capital platform funding large-scale demonstration projects and investing in first-of-a-kind commercial-scale projects, and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

As might be inferred from the name, Breakthrough Energy Catalyst is part of the Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy group. The platform is providing a project-level grant worth €35 million. The European Union’s EIB has committed the remaining €25 million in Venture Debt financing.

The funding is being made available through a direct partnership between the EU and Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, and is subject to certain conditions being met.

‘Cheaper than lithium-ion’

The Italy-headquartered startup has developed a so-called CO2 Battery thermo-mechanical storage device in which carbon dioxide (CO2) is adiabatically compressed and then liquefied to charge with energy, then evaporated to dispatch it. Heat created during the process is also stored, and when the system discharged, used to expand the evaporating CO2, which then drives a generator.

A 2.5MW/4MWh commercial demonstration project is already in operation in Sardinia, having gone online in mid-2022 after a construction phase that took just over a year. The new project will also be located in Sardinia.

Energy Dome called the new investment “an endorsement” of its “ready-to-be-deployed, long-duration energy storage proposition,” in an announcement sent to media including Energy-Storage.news.

Energy Dome claims its CO2 Battery can be delivered cheaper than many alternative long-duration technologies and can be even cheaper than lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries at scale, made using abundant materials and manufactured using a combination of processes and even components already used in established industries.  

“As the EU climate bank, the EIB is committed to building public and private partnerships to support the development of disruptive green energy technologies and to enable these to grow to scale in the short-term,” EIB vice-president Gelsomina Vigliotti said, calling the CO2 Battery “an inspiring example of game-changing technology that we need more of in Europe and worldwide”.

While it can do short-duration applications and multi-day applications as well, the technology’s intended sweet spot is energy shifting over 8-hour to 24-hour durations, Energy-Storage.news heard in an interview with Energy Dome SVP for strategy, corporate development and investor relations Ben Potter earlier this year.

At that time, Potter said CapEx required for the first 20MW/200MWh project would be in the order of “under 50% of a 4-hour lithium-ion project capex, EPC-installed, down to medium voltage with our margin. So we are pricing at €220 per kWh with EPC, with margin,” Potter said.

The Energy Dome SVP added that the manufacturing of the CO2 Battery is a highly standardised and replicable process, and therefore projects that follow this first-of-a-kind system can come in much cheaper. That could translate to a 44% reduction in CapEx if between 30 to 50 units are being fabricated, Potter claimed.

Energy Dome did not disclose names of customers or offtakers, nor the applications the asset will perform in a release this morning (1 December). The company did however say the asset is expected to be online in Q3 2024, implying that construction work has already begun. Energy-Storage.news has requested details on the above points from Energy Dome and will update this article in due course if the company is able to answer.

Danish energy company Ørsted is known to have been carrying out a feasibility study into an Energy Dome CO2 Battery project of 20MW/200MWh, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the pair in September of last year.

Energy Dome raised €60 million through an extended Series B funding round earlier this year, while the US Department of Energy (DOE) shortlisted a proposed project using its technology for a share of US$325 million funding towards commercial demonstrations of various LDES technologies.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

Continue reading

BESIPPPP is being run by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), which issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the procurement seeking five 4-hour BESS projects back in March this year. Four out of five projects have now seen a party given preferred bidder status with a fifth ‘to be appointed’, the South Africa state body said on the same day as Scatec’s announcement, though the companies behind them have not been revealed.

All five will be located at various substations run by grid operator Eskom and will provide it with capacity, energy and ancillary services, specifically Instantaneous Reserves, Regulating Reserves, Ten Reserves and Supplemental Reserves.

The ones to have a preferred bidder status are Agganeis (77MW), Mookodi (77M) Nieuwehoop (103MW) and Scatec’s at the Ferrum substation, with the largest, Garona (153MW) still to be announced.

Eskom has struggled to prevent regular blackouts from occurring in South Africa, and is aiming for large-scale BESS projects to help increase resiliency and stability on the grid.

“This marks another significant achievement for Scatec in South Africa and for the renewable energy transition in the country. Today’s award reaffirms our standing as a leading renewable energy player in South Africa. We applaud the South African government’s commitment and dedication to the battery storage procurement programme,” says Scatec CEO Terje Pilskog.

The firm, controlled by the Norwegian state, is already building solar-and-storage projects in South Africa awarded through a separate procurement, the Risk Mitigation Power Procurement Programme (RMIPPP) programme.

BESIPPPP’s minimum round-trip efficiency (RTE) requirement of 70% for the energy storage technologies provoked some debate over where flow batteries would be eligible. Analysis given to Energy-Storage.news by consultancies Clean Horizon and Harmattan Renewables suggested they wouldn’t, to which integrated vanadium producer Bushveld Minerals – which has a stake in vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) firm CellCube – swiftly responded in disagreement.

Both BESIPPPP and RMIPPP are separate from another procurement which has awarded contracts for 1,440MWh of BESS capacity, with the first system from that scheme coming online last month.

In its BESIPPPP announcement, the DMRE also said a new RMIPPP project award has been granted, for a 75MW solar and BESS project in De Aar, Northern Cape, though didn’t say which company was behind that.

Continue reading

The figures come from the Q3 2023 edition of the national Clean Energy Council’s ‘Renewable projects quarterly report’. The findings on energy storage feature alongside similarly low-key showings for the utility-scale solar PV and wind sectors, indicating that despite Q2’s success for big batteries, it has been a “challenging year” for renewable energy, according to the trade group.

During Q3, only 161MW of generation capacity from two solar PV projects was added to the country’s installed base of utility-scale renewables, while the total financial commitments added up to AU$150 million – in both cases representing the fourth-lowest quarterly totals since CEC began tracking project data in 2017.

Just one large-scale standalone battery storage asset, the 250MW/250MWh Torrens Island BESS in South Australia, reached commissioning in Q3, and just one began construction, the 200MW/800MWh Kwinana Big Battery 2 in Western Australia.

While looking at the year as a whole, commissionings of new BESS projects are at an all-time high and represent roughly ten times the amount of money invested into the technology as was seen in 2022, investment decisions on those projects will likely have been made at least a year to 18 months ago.

Indeed, across all three technologies, just 509MW of grid-scale projects had been financially committed to this year by the end of September. CEC chief executive Kane Thornton noted that this is far from being on-track to enable the 6.9GW of annual renewable energy additions Australia needs to meet the Federal government’s 82% renewables by 2030 policy target.

Aerial view of the 250MW Torrens Island project in South Australia, the only large-scale standalone BESS to reach commissioning during the quarter. Image: Wärtsilä-AGL

Thornton said investment in large-scale clean energy has been declining gradually since the Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme ended in 2020. The RET had called for 33,000GWh of renewables generation to be added to the grid. It was met ahead of schedule in 2019, albeit this was perhaps at least partly due to the target having been lowered in 2015 from 41,000GWh.

“The rate of investment slowed more dramatically over the past year as a result of higher project costs, complex permitting processes, a congested grid and intensifying global competition in the race to net zero,” CEC’s Kane Thornton said.

“While renewable energy remains the lowest cost form of new generation, there is a clear role for government to facilitate the enormous levels of investment needed to transition our energy system, particularly in an era of significant global competition, due to incentive packages like the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).”

‘Strong investor interest’ looking for policy signals to match

There are clear signs the government recognises this, the ruling Labor Party having been elected in 2022 on a campaign platform strongly emphasising commitments to climate crisis mitigation through renewables.

It has just launched a contracts for difference (CfD) tender scheme for dispatchable renewable energy capacity, which will solicit investment into 32GW of clean energy, including 23GW of renewables and 9GW of storage-backed firm renewable capacity.

Based on an expansion of an existing Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), the tender launch was described recently by energy economics expert Professor Bruce Mountain at the Victoria Energy Policy Centre as: “the biggest news in Australia’s electricity policy for as long as we can remember”.

CEC’s Thornton meanwhile said the CIS and other “strong policy settings” could “unleash the strong investor interest in Australia”.

Q4 could be better for BESS at least, if not for solar and wind

That said, while large-scale solar PV and wind are likely to continue to struggle in the final quarter of the year and perhaps do so until some of those policy moves are implemented and take effect, it does appear Q4 is already shaping up to be much stronger for battery storage.

Announcements of projects reaching financial close or on which a final investment decision (FID) was made, covered by Energy-Storage.news since the end of September include a 185MW/370MWh system by developer Edify Energy in the Murray River region of Victoria, a 150MW/300MWh project by Akaysha Energy in Queensland.

State-level commitments to battery storage look pretty healthy for Q4 as well: 2,800MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) projects were awarded contracts through a tender for firming capacity hosted by the government of New South Wales, partly also supported with funding through the CIS; this week construction began on a 600MW/1,600MWh project in Victoria which is being invested in by the State Electricity Commission (SEC).

The contrasting fortunes of BESS with its solar and wind counterparts is likely due to the ability of battery storage to earn spot market revenues in the National Electricity Market (NEM), which has been experiencing extreme levels of price volatility, leading to an urgent need and also a strong business case for the time-shifting arbitrage applications BESS can provide. Separately to the NEM, spot market price dynamics in the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM), which covers Western Australia, are thought to be similarly attractive for battery storage.

A table included in the CEC report, below, shows that 2023 is shaping up for the biggest year to date for large-scale batteries in terms of commissionings and the amount of money invested that represents:

2017201820192020202120222023Number of projects 1342546Investment (AU$ millions)90128.971.6131.6373.886.9780Output (MW)10090155163431.769597Capacity (MWh)129115185198693101723Commissioned projects by year, from CEC’s Q3 report.

Continue reading

Doreen Harris

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) today announced the launch of expedited renewable energy solicitations as part of the state’s plan to bolster its large-scale renewable industry. 

The solicitations, initially announced by New York governor Kathy Hochul earlier this month, are open to all project developers. As part of these solicitations, NYSERDA included provisions from the latest rounds of renewable energy procurements such as inflation indexing and agricultural land preservation. This was done in order to maintain policy objectives introduced in prior solicitations.

“These expedited solicitations will continue to build upon our momentum toward achieving a zero-emissions electric grid,” says Doreen M. Harris, president and CEO of NYSERDA. “We welcome into this competitive process all developers who are committed and eager to participate in New York’s energy transition, and we look forward to working together to deliver significant economic, public health, and grid reliability benefits to New York State.”

NYSERDA is streamlining these expedited solicitations by selectively removing certain bid requirements that historically required substantial efforts to develop, but provided nominal value in bid evaluations. 

Final proposals for both offshore wind and land-based projects are due in January. These expedited solicitations support progress toward achieving New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goals to obtain 70% of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030 and develop 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035.

Continue reading