Leeward Renewable Energy LLC (LRE) has completed construction of its 100-MW Oak Trail Solar project near Moyock, N.C., and the facility has reached commercial operation. Verizon Communications has supported the development of Oak Trail Solar through a long-term virtual power purchase agreement.

LRE hosted a ceremonial ribbon-cutting event, in partnership with the American Clean Power Association (ACP), at the project site to celebrate the start of operations and the benefits Oak Trail Solar will bring to the local community. LRE officials as well as guests from ACP, Verizon and Currituck County attended

Jason Allen, LRE’s CEO, comments: “Oak Trail Solar is another example of how LRE seeks to meaningfully contribute to the communities where we live and operate. Our engagement goes well beyond job creation, economic investment and the generation of clean, renewable energy. We strive to build lasting partnerships with civic leaders, property owners and community members while preserving and protecting the environment.”

Oak Trail Solar created approximately 300 jobs at peak construction. It will provide long-term renewable energy jobs and significant property tax contributions to Currituck County. As part of LRE’s commitment to land stewardship, 30% of the project acreage will be filled with native vegetation and wildflowers that will be utilized for a pollinator habitat, screening and other ecological benefits.  

LRE projects are managed across the full project lifecycle with environmental, social and cultural considerations foremost in mind. The company prioritizes U.S.-made products and looks to partner with companies that share its vision of establishing a resilient domestic renewable energy industry.

Oak Trail Solar utilizes First Solar photovoltaic solar modules, which use less energy, water and semiconductor material in their manufacturing and are designed to have a longer lifespan than other alternatives. The project also employs Nextracker’s solar tracker and software technology, which optimizes energy capture and reliability features to protect solar panels and mitigate the adverse effects of extreme weather.

Continue reading

A week prior to that, vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) manufacturer Stryten Energy was visited at its offices and factory in Georgia by US Representative for Georgia’s 6th congressional district, Rich McCormick.

In both cases, the companies involved manufacture their products within the US: ESS Inc’s factory in Wilsonville, Oregon, already has an annual production capacity of 800MWh, while Stryten Energy – which also makes advanced lead acid and lithium devices – has just cut the ribbon on a project featuring the first-ever VRFB made at its Georgia site.

“What I saw here at ESS only reinforced the importance of the clean energy provisions that I fought to get passed in the Inflation Reduction Act — strengthening domestic supply chains and supporting clean technology innovation,” Wyden said during his visit to ESS Inc.

Regular readers will recall the rocky road to finally getting the IRA across Joe Biden’s desk for the president to sign it into law. Once it passed, one of the more celebrated aspects, as far as energy storage is concerned, was the introduction of investment tax credit (ITC) incentives for standalone storage facilities.

However the legislation was also aimed at stimulating domestic manufacturing and development of those technologies as well as downstream deployment, including higher rates of ITC and other tax credits for energy storage projects that utilise domestically produced components.

According to the American Clean Power Association (ACP), a total of US$270 billion in clean energy projects and manufacturing have been announced, and 85GW of planned manufacturing facilities, in the year since the IRA passed.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news yesterday, research by the national trade group found that 14 manufacturing facilities relevant to utility-scale storage, from lithium hydroxide and battery cell production to complete system integration, are included among those investments.

While naturally the most activity is to be found around lithium-ion, the main incumbent technology for both energy storage and electric vehicles (EVs), the US Department of Energy (DOE) and by extension the government have long talked about the need for cost-effective long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies.

Flow batteries are among those technologies, and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm has previously talked up the potential of flow batteries for grid storage, and in fact has previously also visited ESS Inc’s headquarters.

“Expanding the domestic manufacturing and global deployment of innovative new clean energy technologies, such as iron flow batteries, were key goals of the Inflation Reduction Act. American clean technology manufacturers are already delivering against these goals, creating jobs and secure supply chains here in the US to build the global clean energy future,” Dr Christopher Saldaña, director of the DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), who also visited ESS Inc, said.

ESS Inc is among a number of energy storage-focused companies to have listed its shares publicly following a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger in the last couple of years. Like some of the others, it has seen its share price plummet since going public, as noted in a special report from Energy-Storage.news today (Premium access required).

However, the company said in reporting its most recent financial results that it has sufficient funding to stay in business, and that it has dramatically improved its revenue recognition ability as orders and deliveries start to stack up. It also claimed the IP it holds for the iron flow battery will be safe “for years to come”.

Stryten’s first Georgia-made VRFB

On Representative Rich McCormick’s visit to Stryten Energy’s HQ in Alpharetta, Georgia, the politician made similar remarks commending the company’s battery development being “100% domestic” and for being a “large employer of hard-working men and women right here in Georgia’s 6th district”.

A few days before McCormick’s visit on 9 August, Stryten Energy and utility company Snapping Shoals EMC cut the ribbon to inaugurate a VRFB energy storage demonstration project. The project was announced at the beginning of this year.

It is relatively small, at 20kW/120kWh. It was designed that way specifically to fit the needs of the utility so that the pair can conduct testing of the VRFB to deliver applications requiring more than 6-hour durations of storage, a Stryten Energy representative told Energy-Storage.news.

Ribbon-cutting for the Stryten Energy-Snapping Shoals EMC demonstration project. Image: Stryten Energy.

The system can simulate “almost any operating schedule,” to be gauged for its compatibility to meet DOE National Laboratory definitions of the tech’s compatibility with renewable energy integration and front-of-the-meter (FTM) and behind-the-meter (BTM) applications alike.

“The project at Snapping Shoals EMC is testing a wide range of applications such as energy cost control, peak shaving, avoiding curtailment and renewable integration,” the spokesperson said, adding that although the experimental nature of the demonstration means the VRFB will be tested for both FTM and BTM applications, “future batteries of this scale would be mostly applied behind-the-meter”.

Stryten Energy, one of the few vanadium flow battery providers in the US market – Invinity Energy Systems is probably the most high profile other, with a range of companies such as ESS Inc or Redflow providing flow batteries with different electrolyte chemistries.

“The Department of Energy has indicated that flow batteries particularly match up to the needs of long-duration energy storage because the discharge times from a few hours to a few days can be achieved simply by adjusting the electrolyte volume to meet the application’s needs,” the spokesperson said.

“VRFB systems support a near-infinite cycle life with proper maintenance and high-capacity stability, lasting more than 20 years without the electrolyte losing energy storage capacity. With such a long lifespan, these battery systems can match the lifetime of the renewables they are paired with, thus providing a sustainable energy storage solution for on-demand power needs.”

Last August, a few days after the IRA’s passing, Energy-Storage.news posed the question ‘Will the US Inflation Reduction Act boost demand for flow batteries?’ in an Editor’s Blog.  

Our publisher Solar Media is hosting the 10th Solar and Storage Finance USA conference, 7-8 November 2023 at the New Yorker Hotel, New York. Topics ranging from the Inflation Reduction Act to optimising asset revenues, the financing landscape in 2023 and much more will be discussed. See the official site for more details.

Continue reading

The national laboratory defined hybrid plants as those combining two or more resource types, whether multiple types of generation or generation and storage, using a single point of interconnection. They don’t necessarily need to feature coordinated operations of the hybrid/co-located resources, i.e. the storage charging from the solar.

Solar PV plus storage is the most popular type of hybrid project, LBNL said, show the distribution between different combinations below.

The organisation added that by GW capacity, PV-co-located and standalone storage capacity are roughly at par, around 4GW, while PV-co-located projects are larger by GWh capacity – 12.5GWh versus 10.4GWh.

It also said that its research showed that storage assets co-located with PV are mainly providing capacity firming services and energy arbitrage while those co-located with wind resources are primarily targeting the ancillary service markets.

LBNL added that it the figures in its analysis do not include the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act’s investment tax credit (ITC) for standalone energy storage, but it expected a continuing trend towards co-located projects for other reasons.

Major US co-located projects Energy-Storage.news has reported on in the last few weeks include an offshore wind proposal containing a 253MW storage option in New Jersey, a solar-plus-storage project acquisition with a 50MW battery in New Mexico, and the start of construction on another in the state with 100MW of energy storage.

Our publisher Solar Media is hosting the 10th Solar and Storage Finance USA conference, 7-8 November 2023 at the New Yorker Hotel, New York. Topics ranging from the Inflation Reduction Act to optimising asset revenues, the financing landscape in 2023 and much more will be discussed. See the official site for more details.

Continue reading

New investors joining them were Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, mining giant Rio Tinto, chemicals firm SABIC, Saudi Aramco’s investment arm Aramco Ventures, investors SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust (SEEIT) and individual John Doerr.

Rondo’s product is a refractory brick that can be heated to as high as 1500°C (2732°F) and retains the heat to then be used either in heat form or for conversion back to electricity. The heat can be discharged over durations that span hours or days.

As part of the deal, Rio Tinto, Aramco Ventures, SABIC, SCG, TITAN, and SEEIT all joined Rondo’s Strategic Investor Advisory Board.

“We are honoured and excited by this opportunity to go faster by working with these leaders. Our Strategic Investor Advisory Board will help Rondo focus on the simplest, fastest ways to power their operations with low-cost clean energy and shape our priorities for ongoing research and development.” said John O’Donnell, CEO of Rondo Energy.

Industry accounts for a substantial chunk of global greenhouse gas emissions, with figures varying but it could be as high as 36% according to Rondo’s media release which called the electrification of industrial heat “the next trillion dollar market”.

The fundraise from Rondo comes a few months after it announced plans to build a production facility to manufacture its technology with an eventual annual capacity of up to 90GWh, it claimed.

The thermal energy storage sector has received a lot of interest in recent weeks. Last week, Energy-Storage.news reported on two other technology providers Kraftblock and MGA Thermal raising a combined US$27 million to commercialise their technology.

Continue reading

Numerous ESS companies have used them as a route to going public but the most high-profile have been gravity-based energy storage firm Energy Vault, zinc-hybrid battery firm Eos Energy Enterprises, iron-flow battery firm ESS Inc and lithium-ion ESS system integrator Stem Inc.

However, as Energy-Storage.news shows in the infographics above and below, the four have severely underperformed since going becoming publicly listed via a SPAC merger, with their share prices down by an average of c.80% at the time of writing.

This led one source we spoke to to call them an “unmitigated disaster for investors.”

Below are the companies’ weekly closing share prices starting on the Monday after the mergers were completed through to the time of writing (15 August). Eos is on the NASDAQ while Energy Vault, ESS Inc and Stem Inc are on the NYSE, so we’ve included the latter’s index as a reference (itself divided by 1000 in order to be able to compare it).

Hover over a line to track the company or NYSE index over time.

The four companies’ long-term outlook is bright, with proprietary technology and software offerings positioning themselves well to take advantage of market tailwinds only furthered boosted by the US Inflation Reduction Act.

However, their financial performance has lagged behind forecasts given during analyst presentations around the time of their SPAC listings. Energy-Storage.news looked at this in some detail earlier this year and their latest revenue figures compared to their previous forecasts are summarised in the table below.

This underperformance ultimately has much more to do with the companies’ suitability or timing for SPAC listings rather than their underlying business case and model, which is fundamentally strong.

Ultimately, the demand for long-duration energy storage has not come as soon as some had hoped. Energy Vault CEO Rob Piconi has told us this was why it had pivoted into short-duration battery energy storage system (BESS) technology in a recent interview.

Energy-Storage.news was not able to find forward forecasts from Stem Inc while ESS Inc has not released updated revenue guidance for 2023. The figures are all in US$ millions and the earlier forecasts can be found in company presentations or stock market filings from ESS Inc, Energy Vault and Eos.

Company2022 forecast revenue2022 actual revenue2023 forecast revenue2023 latest guidanceH1 2023 actual revenueEos Energy Enterprises268.617.9735.530-509.1Energy Vault148146535325-42550ESS Inc370.9300/2.9

It remains to be seen how fast the companies can scale up and achieve the forecasts they made around the time of their listing.

The SPAC trend is not yet over either, with energy storage and energy management solutions provider Electriq Power and battery technology company Dragonfly Energy Corp recently going public via SPAC deals.

Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) firm CellCube is also now partially owned by a SPAC, along with mining firm Bushveld Minerals, after a series of complicated transactions covered by Energy-Storage.news.

Continue reading

Alinta Energy said yesterday that it will build a 100MW/200MWh (2-hour duration) BESS at Wagerup Power Station, a dual-fired 380MW gas and distillate generation facility which acts as peaking capacity to Western Australia’s power grid, the South West Interconnected System (SWIS).

The site is about 120km from Perth, and construction is set to commence “immediately,” Alinta said, with commissioning scheduled to begin in the second half of 2024. The project will be connected to existing high voltage transmission infrastructure at Wagerup Power Station.

The appointment of key contractors Shanghai Electric Power Design Institute (SEPD) Australia, a local subsidiary of SEPD, which is in turn owned by Power Construction Corporation of China (POWERCHINA), and Australian solar PV and battery provider Sunterra, was also announced.

Western Australia is home to a thriving mining and metals industry centred around the Pilbara, driving strong demand for electricity, while at the same time, the SWIS is a self-contained grid without interconnection to other states’ grids.

It is outside of the National Electricity Market (NEM) which covers much of the more populated eastern and southern states in Australia.

All of this means the state is likely to need a significant installed base of energy storage resources in years to come as the transition to renewable and low-carbon energy sources continues and accelerates.

The Western Australian government welcomed the start of commissioning of the first large-scale BESS within its borders in May. Delivered by state-owned utility Synergy in Kwinana, a local government area near Perth, the project is also 100MW/200MWh, and is being followed up with another BESS at the same site, supported through the 2023-2024 state budget which included AU$3 billion of clean energy investments.

Those projects were deemed critical to help Western Australia (WA) integrate high shares of rooftop solar PV into the SWIS by premier Mark McGowan and energy minister Bill Johnston. It appears Alinta Energy’s BESS will instead help the grid cope with industrial and mining loads, although a statement from the company only referred to its applications being to stabilise and backup the grid in southwest WA.

Alinta Energy has been privately owned by Hong Kong-based Chai Tow Fook Enterprises since 2017. However the owner is reported to have been looking to offload its investment for just over a year, with all of its assets in the Pilbara part of a sale that has drawn the attention of major investors and mining companies.

Within Western Australia, the utility is currently also building a 35MW/35MWh BESS at a hybrid solar-plus-storage project aimed at helping decarbonise operation of the local iron ore export industry. That asset will also be built at the site of a dual-fired power plant Alinta Energy owns.

Continue reading

Recurrent Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc. focusing on global project development and power services, has secured a 20-year tolling agreement with Arizona Public Service company (APS) for Papago Storage, a 1,200 MWh energy storage project under development in Maricopa County, Ariz. Construction of Papago Storage is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2024 with planned commercial operation in the second quarter of 2025. Once operational, Papago Storage will be the largest standalone energy storage project in Arizona.

The tolling agreement award for Papago Storage comes as Arizona, and states across the U.S., face record electricity demand. The energy storage capacity provided by Papago Storage will complement Arizona’s growing solar energy capacity and will also help the state meet surging electricity demand.

Recurrent Energy is one of the world’s largest and most geographically diversified utility-scale solar and battery storage platforms, with a track record of delivering 9 GW of solar and 3 GWh of battery storage power plants now in operation across six continents. In 2022, Recurrent Energy brought online 2 GWh of energy storage in the U.S., making it one of the largest energy storage developers in the country. 

Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO, Canadian Solar, comments: “This landmark project (Papago Storage) will give Arizonans more renewable energy every day. We look forward to growing our partnerships with APS and other utilities that are adding record amounts of energy storage in their service areas.”

Recurrent Energy began developing Papago Storage in 2016 and will own and operate the facility. Once operational, the project will dispatch enough power for approximately 244,000 homes for four hours every day.

APS is Arizona’s largest and longest-serving electric company, serving more than 1.3 million commercial and residential customers in 11 of Arizona’s 15 counties. The electric company has committed to serving its customers with 100% clean and carbon-free energy by 2050.

Image by vwalakte on Freepik.

Continue reading

Commercial operation has begun at the new 75 MW Electrify America Solar Glow 1 solar photovoltaic renewable energy generation project in San Bernardino County, Calif. Electrify America Solar Glow 1 is the result of a 15-year virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with developer Terra-Gen.

The project’s parent company Electrify America is the largest open network of DC fast chargers for electric vehicles in the U.S. to enter into a virtual power purchase agreement for new renewable energy generation. This brand new construction contributes to additionality, by producing new renewable energy that may not otherwise be available.

Electrify America’s Solar Glow 1 is composed of more than 200,000 solar panels and encompasses an area over one square mile. The milestone renewable energy generation solar project is expected to generate 75 MW at peak solar capacity, which is comparable to the power drawn by 500 EVs charging at once at an average speed of 150 kW. The total annual production is projected at 225 GWh.

In 2022, Electrify America powered more than 5 million customer charging sessions or 3.5 times the sessions in 2021. These sessions delivered roughly 173 GWh of electricity, enabling an estimated 493 million miles of electric driving and avoided consumption of roughly 21 million gallons of gasoline.

Continue reading

Arcadis, a global design and consultancy organization for natural and built assets, will be providing full architectural and engineering design services to solar manufacturer CubicPV for its 10-GW silicon wafer manufacturing facility in the United States. The new wafer campus represents a significant step forward in the onshoring of U.S. solar component manufacturing.

In addition to providing multi-disciplinary engineering, architecture, advanced industrial process design and project management services for the solar manufacturing facility, Arcadis will also engage with key stakeholders of the project, including construction contractors, agencies having jurisdiction and the local community. Arcadis’ experience is playing a critical role in bridging the project scoping and extensive front end engineering design work completed to date and executing the final phase of the design effort.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) represents the largest U.S. investment in clean energy to date and works to decarbonize the economy and respond to climate change. This investment includes the catalyzing of U.S. solar manufacturing and other renewables to meet the demands of the energy transition. For its part, Arcadis has played a strategic role in connecting private manufacturing clients with public sector clients around their decarbonization initiatives. 

“With the initial phases of our engineering and design work complete, we knew we needed a firm of Arcadis’ caliber to carry the work forward and make it U.S. ready,” says David Gustafson, president of Cubic Wafer. “Their familiarity in executing large global projects, industry leadership, solid record in design and consultancy and focus on sustainability were deciding factors during the selection process. It’s an exceptional fit.”

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay.

Continue reading

During a trip to Milwaukee this week, President Joe Biden stopped at the Ingeteam plant, where he took a tour and spoke briefly. Spain-based Ingeteam, an international company specializing in energy conversion, conducts business in 21 countries. On hand to welcome President Biden were Mark Obradovich, Ingeteam’s director in the U.S., along with other company officials.

Since the opening of Ingeteam’s Milwaukee plant in 2008, the company has manufactured more than 4,000 generators for the wind energy sector and has supplied 2.5 GW of solar and energy storage inverters for the U.S. market. An additional 1.1 GW of awarded contracts for solar and energy storage sector are in execution stages and scheduled to be installed by the end of the first quarter of 2024, totaling over 3.6 GW of utility-scale installed capacity.

Ingeteam expects wind turbine generator orders in the U.S. to double during the next year thanks to incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden signed into law one year ago. The passage of the legislation has begun to show a positive and significant impact on the potential growth of the solar, energy storage and electric vehicle chargers’ industry in the U.S. Ingeteam is well-positioned to meet the increasing market demand, which will result in hiring more U.S. workers for high-paying jobs.

Continue reading