In the UK, Field has a number of BESS projects currently under or near construction, with a combined capacity of 210MWh. These are situated in Newport, South Wales, Blackburn, Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire and Auchteraw in the Scottish Highlands.

Field’s first BESS asset in the UK, a 20MW project situated in Oldham, Greater Manchester, became operational towards the end of last year.

Field’s stated goal is to rapidly build battery sites across the UK, targeting 1.3GWh of operational assets by 2024. In April the company revealed plans for an expansion into the Italian market, as reported by Energy-Storage.news.

“Our partnership with DIF Capital Partners will enable Field to accelerate the buildout of battery storage in the UK and across Europe. And it will help us build, develop and operate the storage we need to create a more reliable, flexible and greener grid,” Field CEO Amit Gudka said.

To read the full version of this story, visit Solar Power Portal.

Continue reading

The Energy Finance group at First Citizens Bank, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., served as sole lead arranger on $211 million in financing for the 200-MW Oak Solar power plant in Gaston, N. C.

Commercial solar developer SunEnergy1 LLC, based in Mooresville, N.C., plans to build the solar power facility in two phases, with 100% of the power being sold to the McDonald’s Corp. under a 17-year power purchase agreement. The financing package included a term loan, letter of credit and a bridge loan.

“We are pleased to develop another major contribution to North Carolina’s clean energy infrastructure, while also driving investment and economic growth,” says Kenny Habul, president and CEO of SunEnergy1. “The Oak Solar project will avoid many tons of carbon emissions and improve the sustainability and diversity of the state’s power-generation capabilities.”

First Citizens’ Energy Finance business, part of the CIT division, leverages its deep industry knowledge and expertise to offer comprehensive financing solutions for renewable and conventional power generation. The unit manages a large, diverse portfolio that includes investments in all asset classes across the energy sector.

Continue reading

Corre Energy US Development Company LLC, a North American subsidiary of Netherlands-based Corre Energy B.V., has entered into an exclusive agreement to acquire a 280 MW / 4.2 GWh energy storage project from Contour Energy, a Texas-based energy storage infrastructure developer. The buyout transaction is expected to close before the end of this year.

Located in the West Texas region of ERCOT, the utility-scale storage project will be capable of continuously discharging 280 MW of electrical power for up to 15 hours, equating to 4.2 GWh of fully dispatchable electric energy storage capacity. The venture is targeted to achieve financial investment decision (FID) stage in 2025 ahead of full commercial operation.

Technology for the project is based on compressed air energy storage (CAES), a fully commercial technology that can use clean and low-cost renewable energy to compress air into underground salt caverns when the demand for electricity is low and wholesale electricity prices are cheap. When wholesale electricity demand and prices escalate, electricity is then released to the grid, enhancing its stability, reliability and security.

“We’ve reached a pivotal moment in the earth’s climate crisis. Now is the time to deliver impact and invest in long-duration energy storage,” says Keith McGrane, CEO of Corre Energy, B.V. “CAES is a proven storage technology that can time shift electricity on a bulk basis for very long periods at a fraction of the cost of other commercial energy storage technologies.”

Corre Energy US Development Company LLC was established at the beginning of 2023 to acquire early-stage projects and build others on a greenfield basis. Highly favorable government policies – notably the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and similar financial stimulus in Canada – have created unique opportunities to expand Corre Energy B.V.’s project portfolio.

Continue reading

Thornova Solar, a United States-based provider of bifacial TOPCon and PERC solar modules, is now manufacturing at volume in its Vietnam facility. The company has the capacity to produce 1.5 GW of modules for immediate deployment on utility-scale, commercial and residential projects in the U.S.

Thornova offers high-performance TOPCon modules and PERC modules with power outputs ranging from 415 Wp to 615 Wp. The products come with a 15- to 25-year product warranty and a 30-year performance guaranty.

TOPCon modules feature n-Type solar cells, with virtually no light-induced degradation (LID), which increases power production significantly over time. The 156-cell bifacial, dual-glass modules can produce up to 615Wp of clean power, and have a temperature Coefficient of -0.30 %/℃ Pmax.

PERC modules are available in bifacial, dual-glass options, generating up to 560Wp output. Thornova also offers all-black modules, with maximum power output of 460 Wp.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Thornova is building a strong U.S. presence with local operations, technical support and sales teams. The company also has plans to open a U.S. manufacturing site in 2024, which will produce both solar cells and modules, enabling buyers to take full advantage of U.S. tax credits for solar modules made with domestic materials.

All Thornova products are CSA-certified to UL standards. The company has selected its suppliers for solar panel components carefully and follows the SEIA Solar Supply Chain Traceability Protocol to ensure complete supply chain traceability for its modules.

Continue reading

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has secured 279 MW DC of advanced thin-film solar panels from First Solar for its planned Lawrence County Solar Project in Lawrence County, Ala., which is expected to begin commercial operation in 2027.

The project reflects TVA’s growing emphasis on solar in the region. By 2025 the area is set to become the home of one of the largest fully vertically integrated solar manufacturing facilities in the United States, when First Solar commissions its fourth American factory.

“As America’s Solar Company, we’re pleased that our technology will power the Lawrence County Solar Project,” says Georges Antoun, CCO, First Solar. “As we scale our manufacturing footprint and supply chains, it is vital that the communities we operate in benefit from our creation of jobs, economic value, and clean electricity produced by our solar technology.”

Arizona-headquartered First Solar is investing approximately $1.3 billion in expanding its United States manufacturing footprint from over 6.5 GW DC of annual nameplate capacity currently, to approximately 10.9 GW DC by 2026.

In addition to the $1.1 billion being invested in the new 3.5 GW DC Lawrence County facility, the company has also embarked on a $185 million expansion of its existing manufacturing footprint in Ohio. First Solar, the largest solar manufacturer in the Western Hemisphere, also announced an investment of up to $370 million for a dedicated research and development (R&D) innovation center in Perrysburg, Ohio, which is expected to be completed in 2024.

Photo courtesy First Solar Inc.

Continue reading

“By investing in energy storage, we are helping to improve the reliability of the power grid, advancing the clean energy economy and providing some much-needed financial relief to our customers,” said SDG&E CEO Caroline Winn. “Securing federal tax credits for these storage assets is a key part of SDG&E’s affordability strategy to reduce energy costs while improving climate resiliency.” 

SDG&E said that it will be claiming the credits on the selected eight projects in 2024, which could result in roughly US$215 million in savings for its customers across California from 2025. It explained that for every US$100 million in price reduction for projects, end consumers see a ~3% reduction in electricity rates.

The ITC also includes a domestic content tax adder, which would provide project developers with an additional 10% credit if their projects are built with at least 40% of the material cost coming from US-made products. Energy-storage.news spoke with industry representatives who described the guidance on domestic content as ‘aggressive’, particularly the requirement for manufacturers to disclose the entire component-by-component cost of their storage systems to qualify.

Our sister site, PV Tech Premium, examined the domestic content adder as it applies to the Solar PV industry.

Last year, SDG&E released a study showing that California would need to quadruple its energy storage capacity by 2045 if it is to hit its decarbonisation targets.  Earlier this month, the utility commissioned two BESS projects totalling 171MW in San Diego and Imperial Valley counties.

California’s main grid operator CAISO recently highlighted that it has surpassed 5GW of energy storage deployments on its network as the state works to meet growing demand for electricity amid retirements of thermal generators, and reach its renewable energy and net zero targets.

Continue reading

“One of the key findings of the A-LEAF modelling is that the Railbelt system will need both short- and long-duration energy storage in the future,” said Vladimir Koritarov, director of the Center for Energy, Environmental and Economic Systems Analysis in Argonne’s energy systems and infrastructure analysis division.

“That storage will balance the operational variability of wind and solar generation and provide reliability and backup capacity for longer periods.”

Delivering grid reliability

Investing in PHES could significantly improve the reliability of the Alaskan grid, considering the state’s extreme variations in weather. The town of Utqiagvik, for instance, on the state’s northern coast, receives an average of zero hours of sunlight per day between December and January, and an average of 24 hours of sunlight per day between June and August.

These fluctuations have been particularly severe in the last 12 months, with hurricane force winds hitting Alaska and leaving five inches of rain along the coast south of the city of Anchorage last September. Earlier this month, Shishaldin Volcano, on the Aleutian Islands chain, erupted, sending ash and steam into the air above Alaska.

Such conditions make large-scale solar and wind installations without accompanying storage systems impractical. The researchers noted that, according to the A-LEAF modelling, the ideal capacity of a PHES system would be between 300-600MWh, and they noted the potential importance of PHES in Alaska.

“In Alaska, pumped storage hydropower has the potential to integrate more wind and solar into the power grid by storing excess renewable energy to balance intermittent periods of weather,” said Koritarov. ​“We are not assuming that projects will be developed on all 1,800 sites, but there are plenty of locations available for potential development.”

Lithium-ion batteries in remote communities

The scientists also used a second modelling system, the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables, to assess the viability of small-scale PHES for remote communities. While some communities could benefit from PHES systems, Rebecca Meadows, a senior engineer at NREL, noted that such projects would have to be assessed on a community-by-community basis.

“In addition to identifying remote communities with optimal pumped storage hydropower resources and characteristics, the study included a sensitivity analysis of pumped storage hydropower capital costs and the price of diesel fuel,” said Meadows.  ​“For larger remote communities with higher diesel costs, results showed that pumped storage hydropower could be a cost-effective option depending on site-specific considerations such as renewable resources and constructability.”

The study found that, on the whole, the costs associated with PHES would be even higher in rural communities with a lack of existing energy infrastructure. It concluded that lithium-ion batteries would be more financially viable for such communities than PHES reservoirs, but would not be able to provide the same durations of storage.

There is considerable interest in new storage systems in Alaska, with the state boasting the 12th-highest battery capacity and the fifth-fastest growth over the last decade in the US, according to the Alaska Environment Research & Policy Center. The DOE’s latest research builds on this interest, and follows the start of commercial operations at the Homer Electric Association’s 93MWh battery energy storage system last November, the largest such storage system in Alaska by capacity.

Read the full Argonne National Laboratory-NREL technical report, ‘The Prospects for Pumped Storage Hydropower in Alaska,’ here.

Continue reading

We believe that continued AI advancements will result in an increase in AI utilisation across industries, including one of our company’s key sectors of focus, battery energy storage trading in Texas’ ERCOT market.

However, the widespread adoption of AI tools to optimise battery energy storage trading poses a notable risk: Will AI become the future of battery trading even though many vendor-supplied AI solutions have little-to-no transparency around the way their algorithms work?

The short answer is yes – we see the utilisation of vendor-supplied black-boxes for battery energy storage optimisation as a trend that is here to stay. However, it should be noted that AI solutions need not be black-boxes.

Before elaborating on how Spearmint approaches battery energy storage optimisation, it’s important to note that black-boxes are not inherently bad. In fact, many are integral to our day-to-day lives. For example, Americans use personal vehicles to make 957 million trips a day, yet most will never need to know the specifics of how cars function to get from point A to point B.

Similarly, you may not know which neurons in your brain were involved in any decision, movement, or word you have spoken in your life, yet you have certainly made good decisions, moved, and spoken as you intended.

In the current state of the battery energy storage industry, a multitude of technology vendors provide AI-driven optimisation solutions consisting of visually appealing software built around one or more proprietary algorithms. These algorithms are tightly guarded, making it difficult to hedge against their weaknesses.

It is hard to blame vendors for protecting their intellectual property, but the secrecy still leaves clients like us exposed to risk. All technology fails at some point, and being prepared for those failures is critical. So, how can a company feel comfortable using AI technology without knowing its weaknesses?

We are not truly “in the dark” about the mechanics of AI optimisation tools built in-house. It is true that classic statistics presents a dichotomy between model interpretability and model flexibility. It is also understandable how deep-learning models may seem hard to understand. However, there are entire fields and subfields dedicated to model explainability.

These ideas are proven, coded, and optimised in open-source code libraries and utilised heavily across numerous industries and by Fortune 500 companies. The formerly prevalent tension between model interpretability and model flexibility has been addressed to the point that it can be considered a false choice: you can have both.

‘No single path to success’

Companies can manage the risks of vendor-supplied black-box optimisation through diversification. In aviation, there is a concept called multi-engine redundancy:  if one engine were to fail during flight, the second engine can compensate for the loss of power, allowing the plane to continue flying and land safely. This redundancy greatly reduces the risk associated with engine failure.

Similarly, we pursue a multi-faceted approach to battery energy storage trading. We employ philosophies utilising ensembles of advanced, high-dimensional machine learning algorithms, coupled with the hard-won eyes of our experienced team of energy market professionals and third-party forecasting and pricing tools.

Indeed, we believe there is no single path to success, and therefore use multiple paths simultaneously to avoid a single point of failure. The result is a more robust approach to battery energy storage optimisation.

We are enthusiastic about the opportunities presented to our company and the battery energy storage industry at large driven by the accelerating deployment of AI tools in the market. However, like AI vendors who guard their IP, we too will remain guarded in our deployment of AI.

We value and strive for transparency and maintain a robust human backstop to guard against AI’s potential missteps. We believe such an approach will create significant upside for our investors and partners, while mitigating downside risk. 

About the Authors

Prudence Heck is head of research and analytics at Spearmint Energy, with previous roles at Deutsche Bank, Noble Americas Gas & Power and Elustria Capital Partners.

Andrew Young is a data engineer at Spearmint Energy, responsible for building scalable, cost-efficient data pipelines using data from a variety of platforms.

Spearmint Energy is a US-headquartered green merchant trading company developing, owning, operating, and trading around battery energy storage, solar, and wind to reduce grid volatility, increase system resiliency, and help to reduce carbon emissions in a responsible and efficient way.

Continue reading

Today, it’s the turn of our popular Guest Blogs, contributed by experts and industry players, to whom we are always grateful and happy to work with. You can read all of Energy-Storage.news’ published Guest Blogs here, including more than 20 published last year and dating all the way back to 2015.

Here, in order of the date of publication, are the 12 Guest Blogs we have been proud to feature on the site by the end of H1 2023. Click the headline to go to the blog:

800MWh of utility-scale energy storage capacity added in the UK during 2022

1 February 2023

By Mollie McCorkindale, market analyst, Solar Media Market Research

Guest Blogs from our colleagues at Solar Media Market Research are always eagerly awaited and well-received. Energy storage market analyst Mollie McCorkindale’s look back on the UK’s buildout of energy storage in 2022, as well as a look ahead to what the market could expect going forwards, was no exception.

Diversifying a US$200 billion market: The alternatives to Li-ion batteries for grid-scale energy storage

21 February 2023

By Oliver Warren, investment banking associate, DAI Magister

One topic that came up a couple of times in our retrospective look at this year’s most-read news stories is the subject of diversifying the market away from reliance on lithium-ion. Oliver Warren at investment bank DAI Magister offered a take on some of the alternative, or complementary technologies with a chance of carving out a niche.

Fire safety is crucial to the growth of energy storage in 2023

8 March 2023

The industry needs to go further on fire safety, from engaging with first responders to going beyond required standards for testing, Nick Warner and Darrell Furlong’s Guest Blog argued. Image: Wärtsilä.

By Nick Warner, Energy Safety Response Group & Darrell Furlong, Wärtsilä

Fire safety remains a vitally important topic in any industry. For energy storage, that recognition is perhaps already in place, but some of the approaches being taken fall short, argued Nick Warner of Energy Safety Response Group and Darrell Furlong at Wärtsilä.

“By being clear about the challenges we face, developing our fire safety standards and working more closely with regulators, the energy storage industry can alleviate safety concerns, streamline project development, and ensure the energy grids receive the support from battery storage that they desperately need,” they wrote.

Solving the battery supply chain’s structural deficit with modular, standardised approaches

3 April 2023

By Greg Pitt, VP of battery materials, Worley

Battery manufacturing has scaled up massively in the past few years, thanks largely to the success of electric vehicles (EVs). Beyond supply chain issues, challenges going forward in getting manufacturing to the scale needed, at the speed required to meet net zero targets, will require a rethink in design philosophy and production techniques, argued Greg Pitt, VP of the battery materials growth team at Worley.

Protecting investments in artificial intelligence for energy storage

2 May 2023

By Ben Lincoln, partner, Potter Clarkson

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning comes a need to protect the IP involved. Patent attorney Ben Lincoln of Potter Clarkson wrote about strategies to protect IP for AI innovations in the energy storage sector, emphasising the need to recognise the value of data and algorithms, and to apply several layers of protection.

Comparing the path to maturity and insurance’s role in the battery storage and wind turbine markets

17 May 2023

By Charley Grimston, executive chairman, Altelium

An interesting take on the path to maturity in clean energy technologies from Charley Grimston at specialist insurance technology company Altelium. Grimston noted that the early wind energy market was characterised by many of the same planning and permitting issues battery storage now faces, but went on to describe other ways in which the stories diverge. The common factor is that insurance has a key role to play in the bankability and maturing of both industries, according to Grimston.

Vanadium electrolyte: the ‘fuel’ for long-duration energy storage

22 May 2023

By Samantha McGahan, marketing manager, Australian Vanadium / VSUN Energy

The “elegant and chemically simple design” of vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technologies was in focus in this Guest Blog. Australian Vanadium’s Samantha McGahan wrote about the key ingredient, the electrolyte, which plays the most important role in the market growth of VRFBs.

A snapshot of Canada’s energy storage market in 2023

30 May 2023

By Justin Rangooni, executive director, Energy Storage Canada

Energy Storage Canada executive director Justin Rangooni wrote about the big developments seen in the past year or so to mobilise activity in the country’s market. Ranging from the 2023 Federal Budget’s investment tax credit (ITC) scheme announcement to major milestones recently logged in Ontario, to the future of energy storage, the blog gives a great picture of what’s going on, and what we might expect to see in Canada in 2023 and beyond.

Taking stock of energy storage in India in 2023  

5 June 2023

By  Dr Rahul Walawalkar, president, India Energy Storage Alliance

Following the 2023 edition of India Energy Storage Week, we published this blog looking back on the five-day industry event, authored by Dr Rahul Walawalkar, president of organisers India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA). From domestic manufacturing and national renewable energy targets to the need for more diversity and representation of women leaders in the energy industry, Dr Walawalkar’s blog speaks of an industry sector in an exciting phase of growth and transformation.

One in seven rooftop solar PV systems installed in Australia in 2022 included battery storage, as market uptake continues to rise dramatically. Image: Smart Energy.

Empowering Australian consumers: The rise of battery storage solutions in solar energy

14 June 2023

By Joel Power, head of battery storage and dealerships, Smart Energy

Nearly 50,000 residential battery storage systems were installed in Australia in 2022, with one battery deployed for every seven solar PV systems. Joel Power of solar PV solutions provider Smart Energy explained how batteries can give solar users a way to “take control of their power,” reducing bills while increasing energy independence.

How battery storage accelerates decarbonisation in Asia-Pacific

26 June 2023

By Hendrik Bohne, head of asset management & business development, Aquila Clean Energy Asia Pacific (ACE APAC)

Using the examples of two leading markets – Australia and Japan – Hendrik Bohne of ACE APAC showed that decarbonisation can become reality for the Asia-Pacific region when renewable energy and energy storage are combined. But it will take a lot of work, and cooperation, with Bohne imploring governments to incentivise energy storage, adopt clear guidelines for its market participation, or do both.

Delivering grid-scale battery storage as an enabler of the Philippines’ energy transition

29 June 2023

Carlos Nieto, energy storage global product manager, ABB

Our final Guest Blog of H1 2023 also looked at the Asia-Pacific region, with Carlos Nieto of engineering and automation company ABB offering a case study into a 60MW battery energy storage system (BESS) project in the Philippines. Recently visited by the country’s president Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr as it was inaugurated, Nieto described how the project protects the grid while enabling higher shares of renewable energy.

Continue reading

MITECO launched two programmes, with the first one seeking either standalone projects or thermal energy storage projects with a budget of €180 million, of which €30 million for thermal energy storage alone. The second programme is aimed at pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) with €100 million allocated for that technology. A single project can receive up to €50 million from each programme, except for thermal technology which is capped at €6 million.

Grants will cover 40-65% of the project cost depending on the size of the company applying and the technology used for the project which can be presented as a standalone, thermal or PHES to new or existing hydropower, while universities and investigation centres can have the whole project cost covered by the grant.

As is normally the case with such tenders in Spain, there are specific budgets for the overseas regions of the Canary Islands (€15 million) and Balearic Islands (€4 million).

Applications for the first programme – standalone and thermal storage – will open on 20 September 2023 until 18 October 2023, whereas PHES applications can be sent from 22 September 2023 until 20 October 2023. However, no date was specified by MITECO as to when the awarded projects will be announced. Projects will need to come online before 30 June 2026 for standalone and thermal energy storage, while PHES will need to come online before 31 December 2030.

Spain recently updated its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) which includes 76GW of solar PV capacity by the end of the decade, as reported by sister site PV Tech, while energy storage updated target was increased to 22GW by the end of 2030.

From this capacity Spain seeks to add for energy storage, it will also require to add 15GW of long-duration energy storage (LDES) in the coming years if the country seeks to avoid economic curtailment between 2025 and 2030, according to an analysis from Aurora Energy Research.

However, the main barrier for Spain to add this much LDES capacity is that this technology is not currently considered towards the NECP updated target, as LDES is still currently considered as more expensive compared to other technologies.

Eligible projects will be judged, among others, on economic viability, their capability of helping to integrate renewable energy on the grid, and the creation of local employment and business opportunities as part of their development.

MITECO also launched a similarly-sized grant scheme specifically for co-located or hybridised energy storage projects, for which proposals were due in March 2023. Enel Green Power submitted two projects during the first quarter which fit the criteria, totalling 60MWh and 38MWh respectively.

More details on the call can be accessed in full here (in Spanish).

Continue reading