While that remains a fairly low sounding figure, company leadership emphasised in presentations and an earnings call with analysts that this represents the start of an ongoing upward trend. For the full-year 2022, revenues stood at US$894,000.

ESS Inc also said it has around US$100 million cash and equivalents on hand, which CFO Anthony Rabb said “should last us well into 2024,” with the company continuing to manage its cash burn rate “effectively”.

CEO Eric Dresselhuys said ESS Inc had been able to reduce the direct costs of its next generation flow battery by 30% and reduce build time by 29% during the second quarter alone.

With those cost reduction and efficiency gains playing a major part, ESS Inc expected its flagship Energy Warehouse (EW) flow battery product to be profitable on a non-GAAP gross margin basis in the second half of 2024, CFO Rabb said. The company had made “tremendous progress with our revenue recognition process,” the CFO claimed.

Energy Warehouse comes in 75kW containerised units with 500kWh peak energy capacity and 400kWh rated energy capacity. Designed for 25-year lifetime of operation and more than 20,000 cycles, it was first deployed in 2015, but the latest Generation II design came out in 2020.

Meanwhile, ESS Inc is preparing to launch a larger front-of-the-meter (FTM) product, Energy Center. Production is expected to begin in Q4 2023. Available in 145kWdc increments, Energy Center will allow for 8MWh of rated capacity per megawatt installed, or 10MWh of peak capacity per megawatt installed.

The long-duration energy storage (LDES) provider is the only manufacturer in the world of the flow battery, which uses an iron and saltwater-based electrolyte. Other makers’ flow batteries use different electrolyte solution, with vanadium pentoxide the most commonly used.

ESS Inc now has a total of 238 patents granted, pending or in application, the CEO said. That includes 10 new patents granted and 13 more filed in the second quarter alone.

“We feel confident that the moat around our IP portfolio will safeguard our iron flow technology approach for years to come,” Dresselhuys said.

Tailwinds take time

Whereas in Q1 2023 the company only delivered two units, recognising its US$400,000 revenues for the quarter, Dresselhuys had talked up ESS Inc’s prospects in energy storage markets both in the US and abroad enjoying tailwinds such as the US’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Europe’s raised renewable energy ambitions.

It would take time for those tailwinds to result in revenue growth for ESS Inc, the CEO had said in Q1, which was reiterated on the conference call that took place yesterday.

Referring to the US market, ESS Inc was continuing to “actively engage in the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and various state-level initiatives to accelerate the deployment of energy storage”.

“These are large initiatives and the pace of activity isn’t as fast as I’d like,” Dresselhuys said.

However, ESS Inc was encouraged by the recent publication of guidance on domestic content requirements to get adders to IRA incentives from the IRS, as ESS Inc will be manufacturing its battery modules on US soil. Dresselhuys also said recent funding support for long-duration energy storage from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for its Energy Storage Grand Challenge was encouraging.  

Three key deals

The company mentioned some recent deals as highlights of its Q2 activities, such as its agreement to deploy a 50MW/500MWh system with German energy firm LEAG, which is looking to develop a large net zero emissions baseload energy network using renewables, energy storage and hydrogen electrolysis.

While ESS Inc said the initial deployment is expected to result in a deal to provide a flow battery-based “standardised building block” for LEAG’s planned 2-3GWh LDES rollout, the contract is still due to be finalised this quarter (Q3), while deployments will not begin until 2027.

Elsewhere, Energy-Storage.news readers may have noticed a few days ago that ESS Inc’s partner and technology licensee in Australia, Energy Storage Industries Asia-Pacific (ESI), is being awarded funding for a pilot project in the state of Queensland.

While details of that project have not been specified, it will receive AU$12 million (US$7.85 million) of grant funding from Queensland’s government. ESI is building a factory in the state based on ESS Inc’s IP, and will distribute and manufacture iron flow batteries for the Australia, New Zealand and Oceania markets.

The US company claimed the partnership could be good for 1GWh of flow battery deliveries over the next seven years, although longer term the systems will be manufactured locally in Australia.

The third and perhaps most significant customer deal ESS Inc management referenced in its results presentation and earnings call is with California’s Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).

Again, announced as a partnership with multi-gigawatt-hour potential which is starting off with a number of smaller deployments, ESS Inc will supply SMUD with up to a targeted 2GWh of battery storage by 2028 as the utility pursues an aggressive decarbonisation agenda to the end of this decade.

Deliveries to SMUD’s first project have already begun and six flow battery units have been shipped and are now entering their commissioning phase.

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.

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The main driver of revenues was its US projects, which cover battery storage, its gravity technology and green hydrogen – CEO Rob Piconi discusses these and more in a lengthy interview with Energy-Storage.news in June (Premium).

It had a GAAP gross margin of 9.9% but a net loss of US$26.2 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of US$18 million. It reaffirmed full-year guided revenue of US$325-425 million, a gross margin of 10-15%, and an adjusted EBITDA loss of 50-70 million.

Quarter highlights included a License and Royalty Agreement in the US market with a locally-based renewable energy developer for multiple named states. The license-only portion of the contract will generate revenue of US$33 million along with project royalty streams of 90% or greater gross margin tied to all future project deployments within the named states, the company said.

The Agreement encompasses a new application of its EVx gravity energy storage technology which will be ‘unveiled in more detail later’, something Piconi alluded to which he claimed would deliver the “lowest cost of storage in the world”.

It also started commissioning its first gravity storage project in Rudong, China, which was deployed through a similar licensing agreement with a company called Atlas Renewables.

On the US battery storage side, Energy Vault said it continues to progress projects with developers Jupiter Power and NV Energy for commercial operation dates (COD) in Q3 and Q4 this year and has received a new 400MWh contract with Jupiter Power for deployment in 2024.

Furthermore, Energy Vault claimed a that a ‘major southeast Asian sustainable energy company’ has awarded it two energy storage projects totaling 500MWh which will be booked in the second half of 2023 as part of a framework to procure a minimum of 2,700MWh of energy storage over the next three years.

That project will be fulfilled by Energy Vault’s portfolio of short duration (batteries), long-duration (gravity) and multi-day (green hydrogen) technologies integrated into its Energy Management System (EMS) platform. It is currently building a microgrid in California encompassing all three, for utility PG&E.

Commenting on the results, Piconi said: “Our technology-agnostic software platform coupled with deep domain, operational and project implementation expertise of our team is showing well as we begin system commissioning and final project turnover on our first systems.”

“These strengths and unique technology portfolio form the foundation that allows us to craft distinctive solutions for energy storage across short, long, and ultra-long duration needs throughout our global customer base. We will continue our obsession with serving customer needs with the best technology, talent and ‘fit for purpose’ approach that has allowed Energy Vault to be a global leader in energy storage within such a short period.”

The company’s gravity energy storage technology has had its fair share of critics and criticisms and Energy-Storage.news put some of these to Piconi in June’s interview.

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In the past couple of years, it has committed just over half a billion dollars to a green hydrogen storage hub in Utah, provisionally agreed a US$850 million loan to battery and energy storage system (ESS) manufacturer KORE Power, as well as loaning US$375 million to battery recycler Li-Cycle, US$2 billion to another, Redwood Materials, and inviting zinc-air battery manufacturer Eos Energy Enterprises to apply for a loan, to name some examples most relevant to readers of Energy-Storage.news.

Meanwhile, Nostromo makes a thermal energy storage technology designed to increase the efficiency and reduce costs of cooling commercial buildings. Nostromo’s ‘IceBrick’ was described by the company’s CTO as a “water-based behind-the-meter (BTM) energy storage system” designed to be put on rooftops and replace the chiller compartment of conventional air conditioning systems.

In 2021, founder and CTO Yaron Ben Nun told Energy-Storage.news that the tech has a round trip efficiency above 85% and can handle a 94% depth of discharge in every four-hour cycle. Basically, electricity is used to freeze water when the system charges, and the ice thaws to discharge the stored energy as required.

Nostromo manages its units in the field from a cloud-based management system, enabling them to also be aggregated into virtual power plant (VPP) type resources and provide demand side flexibility to local energy networks.

As might be expected, there are several stages to applying for a LPO, which the likes of Tesla have used successfully in the past to accelerate commercialisation.

In January, Nostromo said it had been invited to submit an application under the LPO’s Title XVII Innovative Clean Energy Loan Guarantee Program. Getting the loan, said to be worth up to US$189 million at the time, was contingent on Nostromo, which is listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, raising a capital contribution.

Yesterday, the company said the LPO had reviewed its application, determining it to be “highly qualified and suitable” for a loan guarantee under the programme, inviting Nostromo into the next stage of due diligence and term sheet negotiations.

The loan will be used to fund IceBrick projects at 120 buildings, claimed to represent 100MW/275MWh of energy storage. The installations will be offered to host building owners under energy-as-a-service contracts, whereby Nostromo will own the equipment and solutions, and get paid a regular service fee based on the IceBricks reducing the buildings’ energy costs.

Nostromo has done a handful of pilot deployments to date, including an IceBrick system at California’s famous Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria hotels. The company said it is also registering to be eligible for resource adequacy (RA) credits in California from next year.

Thermal storage potential for half of global emissions

Thermal energy storage, for heating or cooling, has great potential to contribute to global decarbonisation. Heat processes account for roughly half of global emissions and according to a 2022 report from the Long Duration Energy Storage Council (LDES Council) trade group, thermal storage tech could comprise a roughly similar proportion of all energy storage deployments by 2040.

However, perhaps because thermal energy storage is a very broad definition, picking winners in the space has to date been difficult.

For example, the term encompasses everything from very high temperature devices designed to decarbonise sectors with very hard-to-abate emissions such as steel-making, to storing energy as heat in sand for district heating and hot water, technologies that promise to output both heat and electricity for renewable energy integration, and more.

Nostromo is fairly unusual in focusing on making air-conditioning – cooling – more efficient and manageable, rather than heating. In some ways, it could be considered a successor to Ice Energy, which had a technology that froze water at night using off-peak electricity ad used that for cooling during the daytime, but went into bankruptcy in early 2020.

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.

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A total of 165MW of BESS projects won awards in the auction, Hynfra founder and CEO Tomoho Umeda said. The largest winning projects were 21MW of capacity from a 50MW/100MWh project by Sweden-based developer OX2 and a 120MW/500MWh project from Colombus Energy.

For the upcoming one in December, 16GW of BESS got preliminary registration to the capacity market, the first step to participating in the auction, he added, of which 580MW is Hynfra’s, through its Hynfra Energy Storage arm.

“Not all will make it,” Umeda said, but Hynfra is “doing all it can” to put its 580MW in, and plans to submit 2GW for next year’s.

The Polish market is starting from a low base but looks set to pick up as renewable deployments increase and with it, opportunities for energy storage.

The grid is still 70-75% powered by coal which has skyrocketed in price since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to increased renewable energy targets and 50GW of renewable capacity targeted by 2030 (and 88GW by 2040). Most of this will be solar PV due to restrictive rules for onshore wind projects.

“Local municipalities are at the forefront of actual decarbonisation, not central Government. While coal is still pretty expensive local governments operating coal powered CHP’s are facing financial pressure. Renewables require spatial planning which is local governments exclusive domain,” Umeda said.

The local municipalities are also aware that industry will start to leave if it cannot source clean energy, as large companies will have to decarbonise their supply chains starting in 2028-30.

The current heavy reliance on coal means energy arbitrage is an attractive near-term revenue stream for BESS, as Umeda explained: “With this duck tail curve of renewables, we witness substantial imbalance in the energy market when solar/wind generation is not available and conventional assets need to step in. It usually means that late afternoon (evening) hours, when power demand peaks, the price on spot market skyrockets. This makes price arbitrage it’s also an interesting business in Poland for storage systems.”

He also said that integrating BESS with electromobility hubs to optimise their charging patterns could be another revenue stream as logistics will increasingly need to electrify their fleets because of EU taxonomy rules.

The energy storage pipeline figures for Poland should perhaps be taken with a note of caution: Umeda claimed some developers submit projects as battery storage in order to get a connection quicker, when in reality they intend to develop renewables.

The largest battery storage project in the country Energy-Storage.news aware of is a 200MW/820MWh BESS being developed by state-owned power company PGE Group which aims to have completed the project by 2030.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the inaugural Energy Storage Summit Central Eastern Europe on 26-27 September this year in Warsaw, Poland.

This event will bring together the region’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place, as the region readies itself for storage to take off. Visit the official site for more info.

Hynfra Energy Storage’s managing director Piotr Czembor will be speaking in the ‘Best Practice Developer Session’ Keynote Panel on Day 2.

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Maryland-based Standard Solar, a developer, funder, operator and owner of commercial and community solar assets and a subsidiary of Brookfield Renewable Partners, has acquired a community solar project in Forestville, Md. from New Columbia Solar.

Located at FCP’s Holly Spring Meadows apartment community, the 800-kW carport array and a 921-kW rooftop array project, along with 24 other projects owned by Standard Solar in the state, will help Maryland achieve part of its Renewable Portfolio Standard of generating 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

The solar arrays at Holly Spring Meadows, a 224-apartment unit community, will generate a combined 2,120 MWh of clean energy annually, which is equivalent to the annual electricity use of nearly 300 homes. Approximately 50% of the energy produced on-site will be allocated to individuals of low- to moderate-income households.

“It means a lot when you acquire a project in your backyard that not only promotes community involvement, fostering a sense of unity, but also brings the benefits of solar power to a broader audience, and that will also help your home state reach its renewable energy goals,” says Mike Streams, chief development officer for Standard Solar.

The Holly Spring Meadows community solar project stands as a great example of how solar energy can truly make a difference. By allowing individuals to subscribe to a shared solar array, this project enables access to affordable energy for those who may not have the resources or suitable rooftops for installing solar panels.

The Holly Spring Meadows project is complete and operating. Subscriptions are being managed by Arcadia.

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MCE, a not-for-profit renewable electricity provider in Northern California, continues to expand its local renewable energy portfolio with two new solar projects in Contra Costa and Napa counties.

The 1 MW Byron Hot Springs Solar project in unincorporated Contra Costa County has a 20-year term with Renewable Properties, a commercial solar energy developer. Located on top of a storage facility, Napa Self Storage 2 will supply 0.65 MW of solar power over its 20-year term with Shorebreak Energy Developers.

“Projects like these are helping us secure a carbon-free future,” says Shanelle Scales-Preston, chair of MCE’s board of directors. “All renewable projects – including roof-top, community solar and utility-scale projects – are necessary. We need all of the above to meet our growing needs.”

To help incentivize local renewable projects, MCE purchases electricity at an above-market rate through its Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program. The FIT program is crucial to expanding local renewable energy projects that provide quality jobs with family-sustaining wages.

“We are thrilled to support the growth of MCE’s energy portfolio, allowing both parties to supply renewable energy while positively impacting California’s residents, businesses and environment,” says David Firestone, owner of Shorebreak Energy Developers.

The two new projects started commercial operation in June 2023; were constructed with prevailing wage labor with 50% of labor hours coming from within MCE’s service area; and increase MCE’s total FIT projects to 18.

In total, MCE has nearly 48 MW of local, renewable energy across 23 projects serving just under 20,000 homes in its service area.

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Gov. Andy Beshear

Nucor Corp., a North Carolina-based manufacturer of steel and steel products, has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for 250 MW of renewable energy from Sebree Solar LLC, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources LLC.

Sebree Solar is an innovative two-phase solar project in Henderson County, Ky., which will have a capacity of up to 400 MW of energy. The project’s first phase – Sebree Solar I – is set to begin construction in fall 2023.

“Nucor’s success in Kentucky has grown significantly in recent years, with major new investments and jobs helping to expand the reach of its steel products,” says Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. “I look forward to Nucor’s continued success here and am happy to welcome NextEra Energy Resources to the commonwealth for what we hope will be another long and prosperous relationship.”

The steel for Sebree Solar I will be sourced from Nucor Steel Gallatin in Ghent, Ky. The Kentucky-produced steel will be used for the racking system which supports the project’s solar panels. 

Sebree Solar I is anticipated to begin commercial operation in December 2025. Over its 30-year lifespan, it will contribute approximately $20 million in additional tax revenue to Henderson County, which can be used for roads, schools, and other public services.

“The agreement between NextEra Energy Resources and Nucor brings together two great corporate citizens in what promises to be a connection that will benefit this region and the commonwealth,” says Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne.

“The construction of Sebree will lead to substantial orders for Nucor’s Ghent facility and millions of megawatt hours of Kentucky-generated solar energy added to our electricity grid,” Osborne adds. “I appreciate the leadership that made this deal possible and look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have for generations.”

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Asteelflash/USI, a global electronics component manufacturer, has just unveiled its manufacturing line in the U.S. for Nextracker Inc., a provider of intelligent, integrated solar tracker and software solutions used in utility-scale and distributed generation solar projects around the world.

Asteelflash has expanded its capability to include dedicated production of Nextracker’s patented self-powered controller (SPC) and high-voltage power supply. Key components of the Nextracker controller include printed circuit board assembly (PCBA), battery integration and other essential components used in the company’s solar tracking technology deployed globally.

Housed in a 197,000-square-foot facility in Fremont, Calif., the manufacturing line represents a multi-million-dollar joint investment in this first phase, creating new jobs and boosting local economic growth. Nextracker controllers are the “brain” and power supply enabling precision control of the company’s tracker systems such as NX Horizon, the company’s flagship product for large-scale solar power plants. Nextracker’s SPCs are highly reliable over a wide range of conditions and powered by a battery, allowing the trackers to still function even if grid power is down.

“Nextracker is thrilled to work with Asteelflash/USI as we continue to put in place the domestic manufacturing capacity we need to serve the rapidly growing solar market,” says Dan Shugar, CEO and founder of Nextracker. “Our expanding product manufacturing footprint brings new jobs throughout the country and enables us to better serve customers. We are pleased to add California to our production capability, with Silicon Valley having some of the best tech talent in the world.”

With these newly dedicated mechanical assembly production lines, Nextracker is further building out its supply capacity for domestic demand as well as for export, having opened over 10 new U.S. production facilities in the past year with its suppliers. In 2022, the company publicly inaugurated four new steel fabrication lines in Texas, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Illinois. In May of this year, Nextracker announced another steel tracker factory in Tennessee.

“We are excited to announce our commitment to procuring Nextracker’s U.S.-made trackers as part of Clearway’s broader domestic content strategy and pleased to see the heart of their robust tracker technology, the self-powered controllers, be manufactured here in California,” says Craig Cornelius, CEO of Clearway, which recently announced a 2-GW volume commitment agreement with Nextracker. “With Nextracker’s precise control over tracker row angles and rapid stowing capabilities in extreme weather conditions, our growing fleet will set new standards of module protection and help ensure the reliability and resilience of the solar industry.”

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Microvast has just reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2023, reporting a year-over-year growth in revenues of 16.4% to US$75 million and a backlog of orders worth US$675.9 million, an increase of 541.9% from Q2 2022.

The growth in backlog was driven by “both the rapidly expanding energy storage business in the US and strong commercial vehicle demand in Europe,” according to chief revenue officer Sascha Kelterborn, speaking on a conference call to explain results.

The launch of a new product, a 53.5Ah nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) Li-ion cell, has also been well received by both the e-mobility and stationary battery energy storage system (BESS) sectors, the company claimed. Around 80% of the orders in its backlog are for the new cell, which has a claimed energy density of 230Wh/kg.

The US currently represents the smallest portion of Microvast’s revenues by geography. In Q2 2023, Asia-Pacific accounted for 86% of revenues, 62% of that in China, Europe 13% and the US just 1%.

However, Microvast is expanding its reach in Europe and US, and lessening its focus on the Asia-Pacific region. As explained in the company’s filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microvast wants to capitalise on those new regions’ growing EV and BESS demand.

Meanwhile average selling price (ASP) for its products tend to be higher in Europe and US, while customers in those regions are more likely to choose products based on quality or technology, rather than in China where Microvast said it faces tough competition from local manufacturers that produce at low cost, often backed by state entities.

Colorado ESS factory to capture domestic content incentives

CFO Craig Webster said in the call that while US revenues rose just 1% year-over-year for Q2, Microvast expected to report a rise in US revenues later in 2023 as it begins delivering equipment to a 1.2GWh BESS project in the US for an undisclosed customer.

The company has also been slower to recognise US revenues than it had expected due to a pivot in strategy, executives said.

That’s partly because of a recent decision to build an energy storage system (ESS) assembly plant in Colorado, which was announced in July, as reported by Energy-Storage.news. Microvast’s 20-foot, 4.3MWh battery container product, ME-4300 ESS, will be assembled at the site.

Microvast opted for the Colorado plant due to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the incentives for producing clean energy technologies domestically within the US that came with it, CEO Yang Wu said in the call.

“Due to the rule change related to how domestic content is valued as a part of [the] Inflation Reduction Act, we have decided to locate all ESS container assembly operations in the United States,” Wu said, with Microvast no longer carrying out the work from Mexicali, Mexico, as it had been originally planning.

The site in Windsor, Colorado will have an annual production capacity for 1,000 BESS containers. The site is currently being prepared to being assembly operations and deliveries to customers are expected to begin shipping in Q4 this year, CEO Wu said.

That target is a quarter behind the originally planned Q3 start date from Mexicali. The CEO said that although this means a pushback in Microvast’s ability to recognise revenues from its ESS business, the “short-term impact on booking revenues this year is far outweighed by ensuring our assembly facility put our customers and partners in the best position to claim the domestic content bonus credit”.

Those 1,000 containerised units per year represent roughly US$1 billion in revenues, CFO Webster said in response to an analyst’s question on the earnings call.

The analyst asking that question, Sean Miligan of financial advisory Janney Montgomery Scott, went on to also ask if Microvast was waiting on “some of the domestic content revision clarity” and whether customers were waiting to see what the advice from the government would be before committing to volumes of orders.

Wu said that not only was Microvast not waiting, the company was “working so hard to increase the capacity as much as possible,” and that at present, order numbers were greater than it could fulfil with its existing 2GWh battery cell and pack factory in China. Another 2GWh Microvast cell and pack factory is on its way in Clarksville, Tennessee, US and expected to also open its doors in Q4 2023.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Wu said, while CFO Webster said the company anticipated “further upticks in our backlog through the rest of the year supported by new energy storage and commercial vehicle projects, which would lead to very high utilisation rates on our new capacity expansions”.

Microvast was recently denied application for a US Department of Energy (DOE) loan worth an expected US$200 million to build a separator plant in the country. This was due to claimed links between the company and the Chinese Communist Party, which Microvast has denied.

Conference call transcript by Seeking Alpha.

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.

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The BM is used to balance supply and demand on each half-hour trading period of the day, and an asset is ‘skipped’ if a more expensive bid or offer is taken up instead of that asset. Market intelligence firm Modo Energy said the skip rate for batteries was even higher in July 2023, at 91%.

The ESN’s letter, penned at the end of July, said these actions cost UK consumers around £150 million (US$190 million). It blamed outdated IT systems and manual processes in National Grid’s Control Room resulting in batteries consistently being skipped over in favour of larger, carbon-intensive and more expensive assets like fossil fuel gas plants.

The ESN called for ‘greater urgency and a step-up in engagement between ESO and the storage sector’ and ‘more accurate data on the dispatch of storage vs other technologies, including making the Dispatch Transparency dataset, which states ESO’s reasons for skips, more transparent’.

It comes as the UK battery storage sector saw average revenues per MW plummet in the first six months of 2023 compared with the same period last year. Energy-Storage.news has been told this anecdotally by industry sources while Modo has published numbers on it.

The firm’s Revenue Benchmark for July was £5,892/MW (US$7,500/MW), up 54% from the previous month but down around two-thirds from a year prior. Across the first half of the year, Modo’s monthly benchmark was down a similar amount.

Energy-Storage.news reported on Modo’s analysis of ancillary service Firm Frequency Response (FFR) auction prices hitting a 3-year low in May, in the “surest sign yet that saturation is starting to bite”, Modo commercial data analyst Shaniyaa Holness-Mckenzie said at the time.

The topic of market saturation has come up a lot when discussing ERCOT, Texas, where battery energy storage capacity looks set to exceed the market for ancillary services sometime next year.

Additional reporting by Current.

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