Element Energy named Cohort Ventures, Drive Catalyst, FM Capital, AFW Partners and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) as new investors in the equity funding, alongside ‘one of the largest clean energy generation companies in the U.S’, which was not named.

They join existing investors LG Technology Ventures, the investment of the electronics and battery giant LG, utility Edison International, and investors Prelude Ventures and Radar Partners.

The Series B investment is likely to be the same one the company announced back in December 2022, as it is led by the same companies, though the latest investment is nearly three times larger than originally announced (US$28 million). Energy-Storage.news has asked for clarity on this and will update this article if and when a response is received.

MHI is part of the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi, and is the subsidiary which is also a large battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator through Mitsubishi Power Americas.

Element Energy has developed proprietary hardware and software algorithms, which it says are applicable to both first and second life BESS and improve visualisation, safety and efficiency. CEO Anthony Stratakos discussed this in more detail in an interview with Energy-Storage.news at the start of the year in which he explained how its BMS is the result of over a decade of research.

The technology is being validated with a 50MWh BESS project expected to be completed in 2024, at a wind farm operated by renewable energy developer and independent power producer (IPP) NextEra Energy Resources.

Element Energy says its BMS is not only for second life, and is working to deploy its software as a service for a battery operations and maintenance (O&M) provider and is considering its application for EV batteries too.

In May, Energy-Storage.news reported that the company’s 50MWh project – and over 2GWh of battery modules procured – was comprised of LG batteries recalled from electric vehicles (EVs) over the last few years. The company did not deny this at the time, saying only that it would never reveal the source of its batteries.

The fundraise is the second major announcement within the second life energy storage space this week, after B2U announced a 12MWh system comprising Honda EV batteries had gone online, also in California.

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S-5!, a provider of solar mounting solutions for metal roofs, recently partnered with solar developer Spear Commercial & Industrial of Texas to install a 53 kW array on S-5!’s new corporate headquarters outside Colorado Springs.

Using the company’s own PVKIT direct-attach solar mounting solution, the PV system will provide 84 MWh annually and – together with energy saving lighting and climate controls – up to 75% of the facility’s power.

Featuring just three components, the PVKIT enabled solar installers to mount the Trina solar panels directly onto the metal roof. The PVKIT’s pre-assembled components considerably reduce installation time and cost for PV mounting by eliminating the need for an elaborate rail system, while also providing better load distribution into the roof and substructure.

“In terms of aesthetics, it was a challenge to blend rustic with modern; homelike but industrial; pragmatic but functional with old country-style appointments. This was executed as a team effort, between me, my wife Robyn, and local interior designer Candace Wilcken,” says S-5! owner and CEO, Rob Haddock.

The project team also included PWN Architects and Planners Inc., Construction Management Group of CO and Weathercraft. Enphase provided microinverters for the installation.

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It follows SUSI Partners’ recent announcement that its Italian renewable energy platform will turn its attention to opportunities in Italy’s battery storage market, while the institutional investment manager already has investments in battery storage in other markets including the UK and US.

The hybrid solar PV and battery plants in Chile will have a combined PV generation capacity of 232MWp while the pair will feature “up to” 900MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) resources across the two sites.

Construction is due to begin in 2025, and the development agreement continues a working relationship between SUSI Partners and BIWO that has seen the Swiss fund manager and the developer secure financing for a portfolio of distributed solar assets. That deal marked SUSI’s entry into the Latin American market.

BIWO’s leadership team has put 4,000MW of wind, solar and storage assets into operation globally, about a quarter of which is in Chile. The company’s website claims it has just over 800MW of projects currently in development, listed as 594MW of solar PV, 117MW of wind projects and 100MW of battery storage.

As with the projects included in that prior deal between the pair, the newly announced power plants are located close to electricity demand centres and offer better conditions for brokering off-take deals, as well as being at reduced risk of curtailment.

That risk of curtailment is certainly real in Chile – a national renewable energy association, ACERA, found earlier this year that 735GWh of renewables were curtailed from injecting power to the grid during the first five months of 2023.

It has been among factors creating a rapidly emerging market for energy storage in the country, with solar PV developers in particular seeking to add BESS to their assets. As reported by Energy-Storage.news, more than 2GWh of such projects were proposed or announced in September alone.

Other factors driving the market include changes in regulations which allow energy storage assets to participate in capacity market and energy trading opportunities, as discussed in this Energy-Storage.news Premium interview with developer Flexen.

Our publisher Solar Media hosted the second annual Energy Storage Summit Latin America in Santiago a few weeks ago, and while the event focused on the whole region, it was clear Chile is the market people think about most often when it comes to energy storage in Latin America today.

Chile presents opportunities for increased storage duration

Chile’s energy market has extreme price spreads and volatility, which again make it ripe for energy storage to capitalise upon.

Those drivers also mean that storage system durations are rapidly increasing: an inauguration was held last month for a 50MW/250MWh (5-hour) BESS at a solar PV plant in the country by developer Innergex, one of two large-scale 5-hour duration systems the company is deploying; while a new report from trade group Long Duration Energy Storage Council (LDES Council) highlighted that Chile has committed US$2 billion in funding for energy storage tenders, including long-duration tech, meaning it ranks higher than the likes of Spain, the UK and US in terms of its financial support for LDES.

Indeed, Chilean utility and transmission operator Colbún was revealed this week to be considering a new form of pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) technology developed by a UK company, RheEnergise, for a potential 10MW/100MWh project.

RheEnergise calls its tech ‘High-Density Hydro’. The main difference, or advancement, from regular pumped hydro is that the company’s systems utilise a more viscous fluid than water, meaning that it could require much less space and geoengineering to provide similar benefits. It also requires much less water, meaning that it could be a good fit for water scarce regions.

Schematic of how a ‘High-Density Hydro’ project for Colbún would work.

Colbún innovation manager Diego Garcia (left) with RheEnergise business development manager Lizzie Gold. Images: RheEnergise.

“Innovation is key for the energy transition. Technological advances in solar and wind power makes them the leading sources of green energy in many parts of the world,” Colbún innovation manager Diego García said.

“Now, we need new storage solutions to cope with the intermittency of renewable energy, and the technology that RheEnergise is developing could have a key role in this regard.”

A 12-month feasibility study now begins, with RheEnergise hoping it will lead to a first project getting underway by the end of this decade.

Colbún is also in the midst of building out large-scale lithium-ion battery storage facilities of its own, in co-location with solar PV, completing work on a first 8MW/32MWh project of an 800MW portfolio in December last year.

Shortly before that was announced, an article in our quarterly journal PV Tech Power (Vol.32), ‘What the future holds for solar PV in Chile,’ published in September 2022, analysed the Chilean PV market through interviews with leading figures including Colbún’s chief executive, José Ignacio Escobar.

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The project uses modules built in Ohio by First Solar, NX Horizon trackers developed by Nextracker and batteries produced in a Tesla factory in California, as the developers looked to take advantage of tax benefits offered to new clean power projects that rely on equipment and components made in the US.

The news follows the commissioning of other battery storage projects in the state – the US’ largest with nearly 7GW online today – such as B2U Storage Solutions’ 3MW/12MWh project in New Cuyama yesterday, while last week Aypa Power secured financing for a 100MW/400MWh project in the state.

To read the full version of this story, visit PV Tech.

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Proterra is a US-based provider of battery packs for industry, electric buses and EV charging infrastructure and is in a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process, with the transaction expected to close in 2024. Volvo Group will inherit a development centre for battery modules and packs in California and an assembly factory in South Carolina.

The announcement coincided with one from Volvo Group’s power solutions subsidiary Volvo Penta, that it was providing its BESS sub-system to to companies providing EV charging infrastructure-integrated BESS solutions.

That includes a partnership with TecnoGen, part of diesel powered generators manufacturer Bruno Generators Group, whereby the pair will collaborate to support charging infrastructure for electric heavy vehicles. An example solution is pictured above.

Energy-Storage.news interviewed Penta’s VP product management for its Industrial Business Prabhakaran Sundaramurthi in May, shortly after it announced the launch of its BESS sub-system.

A sub-system comprises the battery system, battery management, monitoring, thermal management, power distribution box and cabling and technical integration expertise but not an energy management system (EMS), SCADA platform (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) or container design.

The sub-system uses the battery technology that Penta has developed in-house for its electrification solutions, and with Volvo Penta being a relatively small part of Volvo Group (4% of revenues in 2022) it is not clear whether any of the integration of Proterra will affect or benefit its BESS activity. Some 86% of Volvo Group’s revenues last were were from the sale of trucks and construction equipment.

Another subsidiary of Volvo Group, Volvo Energy, has made forays into second life energy storage. In September it signed a letter of intent to jointly develop a BESS using batteries from Volvo’s vehicle line with UK firm Connected Energy. 

Proterra was among the companies that had holdings with Silicon Valley Bank before the institution’s untimely demise earlier this year, although all deposits were protected by the US government.

Rolls-Royce launches BESS-integrated EV charging

Penta’s move into EV charging-integrated BESS came at the same time as one from Rolls-Royce Holdings, which has supplied three mtu EnergyPacks to system integrator Eigen Energy for Shell EV charging stations in Singapore (mtu is a brand and subsidiary of Rolls-Royce).

The BESS units will help integrate electricity from PV systems in to the charging patterns while also offsetting peak energy loads, as well as providing electricity back to the grid when needed.

It’s important to note that both Volvo Group and Rolls-Royce Holdings are entirely separate companies from those which manufacture and sell the consumer vehicle products which have their respective brand names. Volvo Group sold Volvo Cars in the 1990s while Rolls-Royce vehicles have been manufactured and sold by BMW since 1998.

Rolls-Royce Holdings develops and delivers complex power and propulsion solutions for industries across air, land and sea. The company has been delivering BESS solutions for several years now through its Power Systems division, including mtu.

Last year it announced it was deploying a 63MWh BESS in the Netherlands, the then-largest announced project in the country until a 68MWh one was announced by system integrator Alfen.

Energy-Storage.news reported on Volvo Cars’ (now listed independently on the Stockholm Nasdaq) own foray into the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) space last week.

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The latest in a series of reports commissioned by the LDES Council global trade association, the paper finds that LDES could enable wider uptake of renewable sources for electricity and industrial heating, arguing that the technologies are “viable, cost-efficient and readily appliable” to those processes.

That would require a combination of electrical and thermal energy storage, including long-duration storage paired directly with wind and solar PV for off-grid industrial applications, and in electrifying heating for processes that require temperatures of 500C or below.

For example, around 20% of the cost of abating emissions from low to medium temperature heating for food or chemicals production could be cut by those technologies, even without carbon incentives.

Meanwhile, industries such as cement and steel production, which require much higher temperatures, will be more challenging to find low-carbon alternative processes for. However, even in those instances there are technologies of promise emerging, such as multi-day energy storage through novel battery technologies, while cement or steel producers could still leverage LDES tech to enable round-the-clock renewable energy use and use thermal storage technologies for the lower temperature steps used.

The report notes a number of big names in global industry that are already piloting long-duration technologies, such as Microsoft, metal companies ArcellorMittal and TataSteel, and mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto.

However, for long-duration technologies to find their rightful place in the decarbonisation of industry, “policy and market support” is required, the authors wrote.

That includes the wider adoption by industrial entities and supportive governments. Pilot and demonstration deployments already happening today will likely seed the market for further uptake. Government policies to support the space could include direct subsidies for adoption, taxes or more stringent carbon pricing schemes.

Australia opens industrial decarbonisation funding round

The full report carries calculations of industrial energy demand and decarbonisation opportunities, analysis of the different challenges from technical and market standpoints, as well as explanations of how the different benefits are spread across environmental, social and economic metrics.

It also contains some eye-opening statistics and tables. One surprising table is of announced funding support for LDES in a group of six “indicative countries”: Chile is at the top with US$2 billion of announced commitments, Hungary second with US$1.16 billion – although in both cases those commitments extend to all energy storage technologies, with long-duration energy storage included.

Meanwhile the US has committed around US$500 million, Spain US$350 million and Canada US$220 million, with the UK sixth on US$37 million. In the case of the US, Spain and the UK, those commitments are LDES-specific.

In related news, LDES Council members Malta Inc and Alfa Laval were part of a consortium recently awarded a €9 million (US$9.77 million) German government grant for industrial process decarbonisation projects.

It’s important to note that LDES’ role will be among a suite of technologies for industrial decarbonisation, with the likes of electric heat pumps, electric and green hydrogen boilers, the inevitable lithium-ion batteries and even small modular nuclear reactors (SMNRs) to play their part.

It’s the latest in a series of reports from the LDES Council, with previous reports on topics like an overview of LDES technologies, the role of thermal energy storage in net zero and opportunities for energy storage to back round-the-clock renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) for corporates.  

A graphic from the report of indicative daily production of energy and LDES dispatch for off-grid mining in Australia, using a date in July. Source: Roland Berger

The report’s publication yesterday (14 November) came a day after the Australian government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), announced the opening of a funding round for projects and technologies to reduce emissions at existing industrial sites.

Called the Industrial Transformation Stream (ITS), AU$150 million (US$97.81 million) will be made available for applications that enable decarbonisation of heating for industrial processes and off-road transport. As reported by our colleagues at PV Tech, it’s the first round of a total AU$400 million programme.

ARENA noted that in Australia, industry accounts for about 44% of all emissions, and decarbonising it will be “vital to achieving our emissions reduction goals and will set Australia up as a renewable energy superpower that will maintain jobs and economic activity in our regions and capitalise on the world’s shift to green products,” ARENA CEO Darren Miller said.

Read ‘Net zero’s missing link: Long duration energy storage’, an article by LDES Council executive director Julia Souder in Volume 35 of our quarterly journal, PV Tech Power, or read an extract on the site here.

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SolarPro is providing turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services on the project for owner Renalfa IPP, a developer-operator, and construction will start next year. The announcement claimed it is the largest BESS ‘in implementation’ in Southeast Europe.

It comes shortly after Bulgaria launched a public consultation into a grant scheme to support the deployment of up to 150MW of utility-scale energy storage in the country, with ultimate plans to facilitate the deployment of 350MW of the technology.

Hithium is one of the few companies producing lithium-ion batteries at scale with a focus on energy storage systems (ESS) rather than electric vehicles (EVs).

For this project Hithium will provide 16 containers each with a capacity of 3.44MWh capacity, comprised of the company’s 280Ah cells. The company did launch a 5MWh container product using its newer 314 Ah cells at the RE+ expo and conference in Las Vegas in September, but that does not appear to be being used for this project.

The tie-up with SolarPro in Bulgaria comes four months after Hithium launched in Europe, opening an office in Munich amidst a targeted ramp-up to 135GWh of production capacity globally by 2025. A month later it raised US$620 million in private capital.

More recently, it announced a 1GWh memorandum of understanding (MOU) with US developer Perfect Power to provide BESS there.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media is currently putting on the third edition of Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe in Warsaw, Poland 14-15 November 2023. The event focuses on Eastern Europe with a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders responsible for the build out of solar and storage projects in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and Hungary. For more information visit the event website.

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Erik Schiemann

DSD Renewables has received a $250 million strategic investment from Cox Enterprises to support DSD’s continuing mission of accelerating renewable energy deployment.

“This significant investment from Cox marks a pivotal milestone for DSD, enabling our continued evolution to becoming an influential market leader,” says DSD CEO Erik Schiemann. “Our growth, initially fueled by BlackRock’s faith in us, now enters a new chapter with Cox that will advance our position as a cleantech leader and scale our business.”

“The management team at DSD has built an impressive business with a bright future,” adds Will Thorburn of Cox Cleantech. “The way they are benefiting both business and the planet shows their ability to think innovatively and operate with purpose. We are looking forward to working with DSD to have an even larger impact in the years to come.”

The investment is Cox’s largest in the renewable energy sector to date. In addition, BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure business is currently and will remain the majority stakeholder in DSD, alongside Cox.

Since 2019, DSD has raised over $2 billion in project capital, developing and deploying over 600 MW of solar and storage projects across the nation.

“BlackRock believes strongly in DSD and the fundamental value proposition around making solar more accessible to organizations. Since we first invested in 2019, the growth of the opportunity has dramatically increased, and we are pleased to see global companies of Cox’s caliber investing in the space,” says David Giordano, global head of BlackRock Climate Infrastructure.

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Intersect Power unveiled the commercial operation of its Oberon Solar + Storage project, generating 679 MW DC of reliable solar energy and featuring 1 GWh of co-located storage.

Located in Riverside County, Calif., the Oberon project produces enough energy to power over 207,000 homes a year and aligns with the priorities of the Inflation Reduction Act by using American-made equipment and paying prevailing wages. The project was built with First Solar modules from Ohio, NX Horizon smart solar trackers from Nextracker and American-made structural steel. The co-located 1 GWh of storage was built with batteries from Tesla’s battery facility in Lathrop, Calif.

“The Oberon project is much more than a new source of clean power for California. It is also a case study in how the clean energy industry can maximize project benefits by prioritizing domestic supply chains and union labor to ensure the rewards of the clean energy transition are felt by all Americans,” says Intersect Power CEO Sheldon Kimber.

“This project demonstrates that Intersect continues to pioneer procurement standards for our industry that live up to the vision of the IRA and deliver transformative clean energy projects that move the needle on the deep decarbonization of our economy.”

The Oberon project is the first to achieve operation through the streamlined approach under the Bureau of Land Management Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. The plan was the result of six years of collaboration between the federal government, conservation groups, Native American tribes, the renewable energy industry, utilities and members of the public. It designated over 10 million acres of conservation and recreation lands in the southern Calif. desert while centering renewable energy development in designated Development Focus Areas.

Intersect secured funding for the project’s construction as part of the broader portfolio financing announced last September, when the company closed on portfolio level term debt, tax equity, and construction financing commitments.

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David B. Sewell

WestRock, a sustainable fiber-based paper and packaging solutions provider, has entered into two virtual power purchase agreements with ENGIE North America designed to add renewable energy to the U.S. energy grid.

The agreements support two of ENGIE’s solar projects – Bernard Creek, located in Wharton County, Texas, and Chillingham Solar, located in Bell County, Texas – for an aggregate of 282 MW. The projects comprise part of WestRock’s strategy to pursue a science-based target to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 27.5% by 2030.

Schneider Electric provided advisory services and strategy management for the agreements.

“We are pleased to play a role in the development of clean energy from large scale solar projects and to join forces with ENGIE and Schneider Electric to add more renewable energy to the grid,” says WestRock CEO David B. Sewell.

WestRock will contract 207 MW from Bernard Creek, a 230 MW solar project located southwest of Houston that is expected to have an annual output of approximately 500,000 MWh. The project, slated for completion in the first half of 2024, is expected to generate more than $45 million in revenue for Wharton County over its lifespan and to create more than 250 jobs during construction.

Additionally, WestRock will contract 75 MW from ENGIE’s 350 MW Chillingham Solar project. Chillingham will help support two local school districts with an estimated $70 million in revenue generated over the life of the project, of which $53 million will be paid directly to the school districts. WestRock’s share of Chillingham is expected to be approximately 200,000 MWh per year.

“We are delighted that Bernard Creek and Chillingham Solar will support WestRock’s ambitions to meet their 2030 science-based targets. ENGIE’s projects are focused on meeting the specific needs of our clients as we work together to accelerate the energy transition in North America and this agreement reflects that,” says ENGIE North America’s Dave Carroll.

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