FlexGen would buy up to 10GWh of Hithium battery capacity in that time, while the Chinese manufacturer would use FlexGen’s energy management system (EMS) in a combined 15GWh of projects. In each instance, the capacity of each other’s hardware or software to be used could include direct purchases, or indirect through customers’ projects.

The cooperation agreement is therefore “bidirectional,” FlexGen chief commercial officer Yann Brandt told Energy-Storage.news.

“We’re going to support them as they venture out to try to get 10GWh focused in the Americas. So it’s not a master supply agreement (MSA), we’re not buying the product, but we’re helping them get into the market share,” Brandt said.

In return, Hithium can help FlexGen expand its footprint, which is currently almost entirely US-based, further afield.

“They have a great product, so it makes sense, but also they are helping us. We’re getting close into systematising our EMS into their solutions for 15GWh on a global basis,” Brandt said.

Hithium was only founded in 2019, but has already supplied around 11GWh of battery products worldwide. One of the few major Chinese manufacturers to focus on the BESS market, the company shipped 5GWh in its home country in 2022, and is currently ramping up annual production capacity to 70GWh by the end of this year, targeting 135GWh of production capacity in total by 2025.    

In late 2022, a 200MW/400MWh standalone BESS project in Ningxia, China, came online using the company’s cells and claimed to be the largest project of its type in the country.

Half a year later in June 2023, Hithium launched a European base, shortly before closing financing worth US$620 million. Its forays into the US market officially began earlier this month through a 1GWh supply deal with developer Perfect Power.

The manufacturer’s products include a 3.44MWh containerised BESS solution featuring its 280Ah lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cell, while it is also bringing to the market a 5MWh container using a new 314Ah prismatic LFP cell that it claimed has a 12,000 cycle lifetime.

FlexGen meanwhile is a heavily software-focused integrator with a large portfolio of assets in Texas’ booming ERCOT market. The company has long claimed the software piece, and in particular its HybridOS operating system software and controls as well as its EMS, are its key differentiators.

In a feature interview with Energy-Storage.news, published last month, CCO Yann Brandt talked about FlexGen’s ambition to be “the Microsoft Windows operating system of energy storage,” with battery storage systems around the world running on its platform.

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The nearly 50GW of battery storage that could be online by 2037 will increase the wholesale market revenues for wind and solar assets and thereby reduce the amount of subsidies payed to those assets out of general taxation through the EEG (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz/Renewable Energy Sources Act) scheme, which is similar to the UK’s contracts for difference (CfD).

The EEG scheme guarantees renewable energy assets a minimum price for their power, currently around 6-8 euro cents per kWh. If the wholesale electricity market price ends up being lower, the difference is covered from general taxation, and the amount paid will be over €10 billion 2024 according to Germany’s transmission system operators (TSOs).

By increasing demand during settling periods in wholesale electricity market trading, energy storage will increase the prices that renewable energy assets like wind and solar receive for their power, reducing the gap between that price and the EEG minimum price, Eco Stor managing director Georg Gallmetzer explained to Energy-Storage.news.

The mechanics of this are based on the ‘merit order’ principle of electricity markets, which applies in Germany. All demand and supply of power is aggregated and ordered based on price. The cheap generators are in the front of the order queue and the more expensive ones in the back. The last asset that is needed to cover all the demand sets the price for everyone, and any suppliers after that fall out of the market.

“If you have 50GW of batteries in the market by 2037 as forecasted that will impact the price, and that will mean the EEG account is better filled as the gap becomes smaller,” Gallmetzer said.

The report, available in German only, is called ‘Influence of battery expansion on the funding needs for renewable energies’ (Einfluss von Batterieausbaupfaden auf den Förderbedarf Erneuerbarer Energien).

The residential and commercial energy storage market in Germany is Europe’s leading by some way, thanks to subsidies for small-scale solar installations driving demand for energy storage to increase self-consumption.

The country’s grid-scale market has also started to pick up in the past few years, thanks to various factors explored in an edition of Solar Media’s quarterly journal PV Tech Power last year.

In the past fortnight developer Kyon Energy claimed the “largest approved” battery storage project in Europe while German lawmakers extended an exemption for grid fees for battery storage systems coming online by three years, to 2029.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 21-22 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.

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Winners receive a Long-Term Energy Service Agreement (LTESA) through AEMO Services, a financial support contract for which competitive bids were placed. The LTESA contracts have been designed in such a way that the state pays a revenue top-up to replace projects’ ‘missing money’, in the form of annuity payments.  

Their design means that New South Wales electricity consumers pay far lower levels of subsidy than under other more commonly used financial support structures, AEMO Services said.

Eligible resources in the most recent round included battery energy storage system (BESS) technology, demand response, gas generators and pumped hydro energy storage (PHES). It followed a first round in which three generation projects and one BESS project were selected.

That BESS project was an 8-hour duration lithium-ion (Li-ion) project submitted by RWE, with 50MW output to 400MWh capacity, as reported by Energy-Storage.news in May.

980MW/2790MWh of BESS, 95MW of VPP win contracts

This time out, there were no long-duration energy storage (LDES) winners. Instead, two of the three selected BESS projects were 2-hour, and the third a 4-hour duration resource. Total output of winning BESS projects was 980MW and capacity 2,790MWh. The winners can be seen in the table below

Project nameProponentTechnologyOutput (MW)Capacity (MWh)Duration (hours)Liddell BESSAGLLithium-ion50010002Orana BESSAkaysha EnergyLithium-ion41516604Smithfield BESSIberdrolaLithium-ion651302

AGL is one of Australia’s biggest generator-retailer (‘gentailer’) entities. Its winning Liddell project is thought to represent some or all of the planned BESS for which the company got approval at the site of its Liddell coal power plant, which was retired this year.

Akaysha Energy meanwhile is the developer backed by investment firm Blackrock currently delivering the 850MW/1,650MWh Waratah Super Battery project, also in New South Wales, as well as a 150MW/300MWh project in the state of Queensland. According to the company, its winning Orana project will support the integration of capacity at the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), one of several multi-gigawatt REZ developments the government of NSW is looking to get built.

Rounding out the three is major Spanish power company Iberdrola. Its winning Smithfield BESS project will be co-located with one of the company’s existing open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) peaker plants of the same name.

In addition, a demand response virtual power plant (VPP) project by the digital energy services arm of Enel Group, Enel X, was also successful. Enel X Australia’s project comprises three individual VPPs, one of 50MW, another of 25MW and of 20MW, for a total of 95MW. The VPP will have a minimum 2-hour dispatch duration.

All New South Wales tenders oversubscribed so far

The forecast LTESA cost of the winning bids, on capacity weighted average basis, was AU$32,000 (US$20,900) present value (PV)/MW/year, while the annuity payment cap was AU$40,000PV/MW/year.

All projects must be operational by December 2025, and as with the previous tender round, project bids were judged on a number of non-financial criteria, such as commitments to hiring local workforce or contributing to community schemes, deliverability and organizational capability, as well as financial criteria.

“Firming capacity is a key aspect of the energy transition as the state’s coal generation exited the industry,” AEMO Services chair Paul Moy said.

“This tender is a first step in meeting this challenge at a reasonable cost to consumers. Combined, the projects in this tender will have the equivalent capacity to supply of 8% of the total 2023 NSW summer peak demand.”

AEMO Services said the contract design, which Moy referred to as “innovative,” mean

Each of the tenders held so far has been oversubscribed. In Round 2, the NSW government had been seeking around 930MW of resources to firm up growing renewable energy capacity.

This was an expansion from an initial 380MW indicative tender size, and it was boosted due to financial support from Australia’s Commonwealth government under its Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) – the new national tender scheme for dispatchable clean energy which many have said will encourage big levels of investment in energy storage.

“AEMO Services has conducted three tenders over 12 months, two for generation and long duration storage infrastructure and one for firming infrastructure, each of these tenders has been oversubscribed,” AEMO Services executive general manager Paul Verschuer said.

Results from a third round, seeking generation and long-duration storage resources, are due before the end of 2023, while a fourth round for generation infrastructure opened in October.

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Max Johnson

GameChange Solar will be supplying their Genius Tracker to Sabanci Renewables’ Oriana Solar, a 232 MW DC project located along Texas’ Gulf Coast in Victoria County.

The tracker uses GameChange Solar’s proprietary weather technology to help protect integrated systems from damage during severe weather events that may include the hurricane-force winds, floods and hail experienced in the Gulf Coast, says the company. The Genius Tracker has undergone wind-tunnel speed tests up to 155 mph with CPP Wind.

The completed project is set to use 425,000 bifacial panels in order to generate power for approximately 34,000 homes with zero-carbon electricity on the ERCOT grid. It aims to serve regional load centers, including Houston, Corpus Christi and Freeport.

Bechtel will design and deliver the solar project featuring a co-located 60 MW battery storage system.

“GameChange Solar is honored to supply Genius Tracker as a key component for this notable collaboration between Bechtel and Sabanci,” says GCS’ Max Johnson. “Choosing a US-based supplier reinforces their dedication to bringing clean renewable energy to the region while supporting the local economy. We anticipate working on more projects with both exceptional teams in the future.”

Construction is scheduled to start early next year and be completed in mid-2025.

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Brian Dunn

Summit Ridge Energy Inks $275M Partnership Expansion Financing With MUFG  Summit Ridge Energy and MUFG has expanded its existing partnership with the close of a $275 million financing round. 

The two new debt facilities from MUFG will support the construction of up to 15 solar projects in Illinois, adding 45 MW DC to an existing fleet of over 250 MW DC across the state. The facilities will also support construction and permanent financing of up to 15 solar projects in Virginia, positioning Summit Ridge Energy with 75 MW DC planned for construction in the state next year. Together these projects aim to provide bill credits to about 13,000 homes and businesses. 

“We are pleased to double-down on our partnership with MUFG, who we see as one of the premier financial institutions operating in this space, especially in this challenging debt market,” says Brian Dunn, Summit Ridge Energy’s COO. “We know we can count on MUFG’s ability to scale with our significant and growing pipeline.”   

“MUFG is proud to expand our partnership with Summit Ridge Energy, the leading player in the North American commercial solar market,” adds MUFG’s Takaki Sakai,. “We were impressed with Summit Ridge Energy’s capability to develop competitive and well-structured projects. We are excited that Summit Ridge Energy is aiming to play a further role in this field by scaling up the business and look forward to continuing to support its growth.”   

The upsize increases the previous $100 million partnership between Summit Ridge Energy and MUFG and creates more opportunities for job growth and economic development in both states.

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Sodium-ion battery technology is widely seen to be the most commercially mature electrochemical-based alternative to lithium-ion. For comparison, lithium-ion technology generally has a Wh/kg energy density of between 120 and 260, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its Global EV Outlook 2023.

The firms said the battery they have developed together will provide the foundation for Northvolt’s next-generation energy storage solutions. Executives from the firm discussed its approach to the energy storage market with Energy-Storage.news in a recent interview.

Its low cost and safety at high temperatures make it especially attractive for deployment in “upcoming markets” including India, the Middle East and Africa, it added.

Altris is currently series B financing to scale up giga-scale manufacturing of its patented cathode material, Altris Prussian White.

Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson commented: “Our sodium-ion technology delivers the performance required to enable energy storage with longer duration than alternative battery chemistries, at a lower cost, thereby opening new pathways to deploying renewable power generation. The potential of sodium-ion in this market alone will make a tremendous impact in the drive towards global electrification.”

The news comes as Europe’s lithium-ion manufacturing industry grapples with the ramifications of the US’ generous subsidies for clean energy manufacturing, including batteries. Northvolt’s Norwegian peer Freyr Battery recently decided to pause further investments in Europe and ‘only scale in the US’ until Europe comes up with a policy response, CEO Birger Steen discussed in an interview with us published last week (Premium access).

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 21-22 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.

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Eric Lammers

NYSERDA has awarded Swift Current Energy’s Mineral Basin Solar project a 20-year power contract as part of New York’s state investment in renewable energy. 

The 402 MW AC project, in Clearfield County, Pa., is the largest solar facility in Pennsylvania and one of the largest solar facilities in the U.S. to be sited on former mine land. Construction of the project could begin as soon as next summer  is scheduled to be online by the second half of 2026. Swift Current is set to remain the long-term owner and operator of the solar plant.

“Clearfield County and Goshen and Girard Townships have contributed to the energy economy in the form of coal mining for generations,’ says Eric Lammers, Swift Current Energy co-founder and CEO.  

“The development, construction, and operation of the Mineral Basin Solar project will continue the community’s leadership in energy production and show how former mine sites can be innovatively repurposed at scale for a new and restorative purpose in the nation’s energy landscape.”

The construction of Mineral Basin Solar will create more than 450 direct full-time construction jobs. Greenhouse gas emissions avoided as a result of this solar project is set to be equivalent to removing 110,000 gas-powered cars from the road each year.

Swift Current has partnered with Clearfield County Career and Technology Center and Clearly Ahead Development to develop renewable energy workforce training opportunities. Additionally, Mineral Basin Solar is also engaging the communities served by the Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board in western New York.

Mineral Basin Solar is the largest land-based energy project to be selected as a part of NYSERDA’s competitive solicitation.

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Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis

Earlier this month, council leaders of the Gila River Indian Community, led by Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis, signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin work on a solar-over-canal pilot project.

By constructing panels over a portion of the community’s Top Level canal, the project aims to conserve water and generate energy for tribal irrigation facilities. Phase I project costs are estimated to be $6.744 million and it is expected to produce approximately 1 MW of renewable energy. 

With the execution of this agreement, the Army Corps will now begin the project’s construction phase, with completion expected in 2025.

“I want to personally thank Assistant Secretary Connor for his vision and steadfast support for this innovative project.  Our work with the Assistant Secretary dates back decades and the Community deeply appreciates him and his support,” says Lewis.

The PPA describes the project and the responsibilities of the federal government and the non-federal sponsor in the cost sharing and execution of work.

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Tim Evans

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), on behalf of its Flagship Funds, has launched a dedicated platform for the development and realization of energy projects in Canada. 

The new platform, Horizon, builds on top of CIP’s activities in Canada to date, which includes Travers Solar (692 MW DC) as well as construction of the country’s onshore wind project, Buffalo Plains (495 MW AC).

“As part of CIP’s dedicated strategy of investing in growth platforms, we are excited about the prospects and the opportunity to create an established developer of renewable energy projects in Canada,” says CIP’s Tim Evans. “Horizon is an important step in our efforts to develop renewable energy projects in Canada that will provide local jobs and clean, renewable energy for many years to come.”

Horizon will be an independent power producer owning both operational projects as well as projects under construction or in development. Based in Calgary, the new company will assume the responsibility of the development of CIP’s Flagship Funds existing 1.2 GW of development assets in British Columbia. Horizon will primarily focus on the origination, development and implementation of solar PV, onshore wind and battery storage projects.

Horizon’s development efforts will be led by Shannon Wever, an established developer in Canada with more than 20 years of experience in renewable energy origination and development. 

“I am thrilled to join CIP and lead Horizon New Energy in Canada. Canada is in the midst of a significant build-out of renewable energy to meet Canada’s ambitions of decarbonizing the electricity grid by 2035, so I’m excited by the opportunity to leverage CIP’s industrial experience and financial capacity in Horizon’s development efforts,” says Wever.

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Stanton, a 68.8MW/275MWh (battery energy storage system), entered commercial operation earlier this month and was deployed by Energy Vault, the company better known for its gravity-based energy storage tech.

Construction on the Stanton BESS project started a little over a year ago. A list of key project partners for the project from W Power includes lithium-ion OEM Samsung SDI America, potentially pointing to the supplier of the battery cells which went into Energy Vault’s containerised BESS solution.

In our earlier interview with Energy Vault CEO Rob Piconi, he claimed the firm’s unique BESS architecture allowed it to fit 68MW into a plot of land where other project contract bidders could only get 50MW in.

Basis Climate didn’t reveal the buyer of the investment tax credit (ITC) for the Stanton project. The transferability mechanism was brought in as part of the Inflation Reduction Act to make it easier to buy and sell tax credits for clean energy projects. Prior to this tax equity investment require setting up complicated tax equity joint venture structures, narrowing the pool of potential investors to big financial institutions familiar with those structures.

Basis said it is currently working on executing more transactions by the end of 2023 and actively marketing tax credits for 2024-2025 tax years. An investment tax credit or credits can only be bought once under the new transferability rules.

Earlier this month, IPP Arevon claimed “one of the first” uses of the transferability mechanism, for a solar-plus-storage project with a 600MWh BESS, also in California, the US’ leading market for energy storage.

Energy-Storage.news interviewed law firm Shearman & Sterling partner Mona Dajani about transferability and direct pay under the Inflation Reduction Act in July (Premium access).

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