Meyer Burger Technology AG, an industrial manufacturer of solar cells and modules, headquartered in Switzerland, is opening a high-performance solar cell manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs, Colo. With an initial capacity of 2 GW of solar cells per year, the new plant will exclusively supply Meyer Burger’s solar module production in Goodyear, Ariz., supporting the North American market.

The company will convert a former semiconductor fabrication plant to serve as its solar manufacturing facility and has entered into a long-term lease agreement. Production is planned to begin in the fourth quarter of 2024 and will create more than 350 direct jobs. The investment is supported by a tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act and related measures, as well as support from the State of Colorado and the City of Colorado Springs.

By expanding its strategy to “Made in USA” solar cells, Meyer Burger is responding to market requirements resulting from new regulations in the United States: Recently, the U.S. Treasury Department announced guidelines for the qualification of domestic content. These regulations allow an additional 10% bonus investment tax credit (ITC) for U.S. solar projects.

“Meyer Burger strongly believes that domestically manufactured solar cells will bring additional value to our customers, both in relation to using best-in-class high performance solar products ‘Made in USA’ and in terms of qualifying for additional tax credits,” says Gunter Erfurt, CEO of Meyer Burger.

With an initial targeted production of 2 GW of solar cells and modules in the U.S., Meyer Burger is potentially eligible for tax credits of up to $1.4 billion from the start of production in 2024 until the end of 2032.

As part of Meyer Burger’s decision to locate the solar cell facility in the U.S., Meyer Burger receives a substantial financial package beyond the IRA tax incentives: The City of Colorado Springs and the State of Colorado are supporting the facility with almost $90 million, mainly in the form of tax credits, direct support and discounted electricity and water rates. In addition, prepayments from module offtake partners and a loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) of more than $300 million are also anticipated to contribute to financing of Meyer Burger’s growth in the U.S.

The accelerated manufacturing schedule in the U.S. is made possible by redirecting production equipment originally intended for the previously announced 2-GW solar cell expansion at the Thalheim site in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany. This equipment will be installed at the Colorado Springs facility to meet the planned completion date for the cell factory in 2024.

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NineDot focuses on distributed “community-scale” battery energy storage system (BESS) projects which provide flexibility to enable electrification and decarbonisation in urban environments, which it said can reduce the need for polluting thermal ‘peaker’ plants.  

NineDot is developing sites of up to 5MW each, with 4-hours duration of energy storage. It said the funding from NYGB, a division of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), would be used to finance grid interconnections of its projects.

An initial 14 sites will benefit from the lending, but NineDot said it could stretch to support around 40 sites of a total 400MW/1,600MWh portfolio the developer wants to bring online by 2026.  

The company said the loan brings its total amount raised to date to US$150 million since its founding in 2015 through the Urban Future Lab at New York University. That included a strategic investment worth more than US$100 million from investment group Carlyle made in August 2022.

NineDot became the first developer to deploy Tesla Megapack battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions in New York last summer, as its 3.08MW/12.32MWh project Gunther went online.

For that project in the Bronx borough of New York City, NineDot picked a “barely used sliver of land,” which was at the ideal intersection of existing energy infrastructure and growing energy demand – a strategy it said it employs for all of its projects.

Gunther includes a solar PV canopy and infrastructure to add bi-directional electric vehicle (EV) charging points – the latter being one of those expected sources of growing demand through electrification. NineDot got a US$1.2 million grant from NYSERDA for that project through NYSERDA’s Retail Energy Storage Incentive Program, set up to incentivise investment in BESS projects of up to 5MW that benefit the New York grid.

At the beginning of last year, NineDot Energy selected energy storage systems and services provider Stem Inc to work on 110MWh of New York projects, including Gunther, which would participate in the state’s Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) programme. Under VDER, distributed energy resources (DER) like battery storage systems are paid higher rates for energy sent to the grid at times when it is most needed.

Meanwhile, although NY Green Bank has provided financing for more than US$2 billion of projects to date, mobilising US$5.5 billion of private investment in the process, and has funded solar and solar-plus-storage projects, the transaction with NineDot marks its first pureplay energy storage investment.

NY Green Bank and NYSERDA are also tasked with supporting the state in getting to a targeted 6GW of energy storage deployments by 2030. This is a key pillar of New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which calls for 100% clean electricity by 2040 and full decarbonisation including transport and buildings by 2050.

To support large-scale energy storage systems over 5MW, defined as “bulk storage” in the Energy Storage Roadmap plans co-authored by NYSERDA, tenders are expected to be rolled out from early 2024. At the same time, NYSERDA and other public agencies are seeking to support energy storage at smaller scales, for commercial and community-scale (“retail storage”) and households (“residential 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.

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The project is subject to a final investment decision with Carlton currently in advanced talks with companies to finance, build and operate the BESS.

Should this go ahead as planned, Carlton anticipates construction to begin in early 2024 with commercial operations to start in the final quarter of 2025.

Planning permission for the BESS was granted by Trafford Council, the local planning authority.

“Carlton Power acquired the former coal fired power station in 2008 to redevelop the site for new energy projects,” said Keith Clarke, founder and chief executive of Carlton Power.

“With the approval of the BESS, this brings the total investment value of the site to £2 billion, which will deliver significant economic benefits to the Greater Manchester region and help to deliver the regional net zero targets. The investment in the Trafford Low Carbon Energy Park over the next 2-5 years demonstrates Carlton’s long-term vision and commitment to re-energising the Trafford site.”

Trafford Low Carbon Energy Park will consist of multiple renewable and low-carbon projects with the aim to accelerate the North West’s route to net zero. This includes Carlton’s separate project, the 200MW ‘Trafford Green Hydrogen’ scheme. The first phase of this project (15-20MW) is also set to enter commercial operation in the final quarter of 2025. 

Councillor Tom Ross, the leader of Trafford Council and Green City-Region lead for Greater Manchester, said: “The Trafford BESS, alongside the Trafford Green Hydrogen scheme, places Trafford and Greater Manchester at the forefront of the UK’s energy transition. The two schemes will help address our climate crisis – one of Trafford Council’s corporate priorities – and will support our region’s plan to reach a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2038. I applaud Carlton Power’s long-term vision in developing the Trafford Low Carbon Energy Park.”

Although the project’s size would make it the largest in the UK, eclipsing the UK’s current largest BESS – Harmony Energy Income Trust’s 98MW/196MWh Pillswood battery asset – it still falls behind some global schemes, as covered by Energy-Storage.news.

In June 2022, an infrastructure group owned by billionaire Enrique K Razon proposed building a solar-plus-storage project in the Philippines with a 4,000-4,500MWh of battery storage capacity.

Razon’s Prime Infrastructure Holdings (Prime Infra) would oversee the project which would combine the BESS with 2.5-3.5GW of solar PV.

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At the end of 2022, the three top slots in our Top 10 news stories featured the world’s biggest battery energy storage system (BESS) project at Moss Landing in California going offline after a mid-February overheating incident, the world’s first large-scale ‘sand battery’ thermal storage plant going online in Finland, and the results of an investigation into the fire that happened during testing of Australia’s largest BESS project, Victorian Big Battery.

We’re happy to report that both the Moss Landing and Victorian Big Battery facilities are very much back in action. You can read our list of 2022’s Top 10 news stories here.

Our H1 2023 most-read list, from the beginning of January to the end of June 2023, runs as follows. It’ll be interesting to see if any of these break into the Top 10 at the end of the year as well:  

10. Construction starts at Form Energy’s first factory for 100-hour duration iron-air batteries 30 May 2023

Form Energy, the US startup which believes its proprietary iron-air battery technology can be the missing link for multi-day energy storage applications, began construction on its first factory, in Weirton, West Virginia. US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and West Virginia senator Joe Manchin were among dignitaries to visit the site for its ground-breaking.  

9. Terra-Gen: Faulty sprinkler system forced the decommissioning of stolen Valley Center LG batteries 9 March 2023

A curious incident early this year saw decommissioned battery packs stolen from a large-scale project in California. As noted at the time, it’s unlikely the thieves would know what to do with such highly specialised equipment, let alone sell it on. Perhaps equally as interesting was the confirmation by project developer Terra-Gen that the packs in question had been taken out of action due to a faulty sprinkler incident.

8.  Texas: Market saturation and new ERCOT rules to hit BESS finances 26 June 2023

Large-scale battery systems have helped Texas’ ERCOT grid through some trying times, not least of all heatwaves earlier this year. With the help of experts at Gridmatic and Modo Energy, we picked through what BESS owners, investors and operators can expect in ERCOT including new rules around required minimum state of charge (SoC).

7. Is the ERCOT battery storage market going to saturate next year? 18 April 2023

Texas’ ERCOT market had around 2GW of batteries online in Q1 this year, but is set to soar to 8GW by the end of 2023. The implications that will have on revenue expectations for both existing and future BESS developments was a key point of discussion at Energy Storage Summit USA 2023, as we heard in this story.

A recently completed large-scale BESS in Texas’ ERCOT market, which is projected to reach 8GW cumulative installs by the end of 2023. Image: Eolian

6. Non-lithium battery storage tech from Invinity, BASF deployed in new markets 4 April 2023

Entry into new markets for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) company Invinity Energy Systems and chemicals company BASF – the latter distributing NGK Insulators’ sodium-sulfur (NAS) battery – with deployments in Hungary and Australia respectively. Both companies are targeting opportunities for medium to long-duration energy storage.

5. Manchin urges investment in non-lithium energy storage, Jigar Shah predicts 1GWh orders in 2023 7 February 2023

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who found himself the kingmaker in negotiations for the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, led a bipartisan group of colleagues this year in urging investment into a broad variety of energy storage technologies. Around the same time, industry veteran and Department of Energy Loan Programs Office head Jigar Shah made the prediction that 2023 would be a substantial inflection point year for non-lithium technologies.

4. EU announces its own ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ for renewables and energy storage 19 January 2023

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the European Union would be bringing in measures to support the energy transition in much the same way the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has turbocharged clean energy investment in the US. It came after senior policymakers expressed concerns the IRA could lure potential investment away from Europe.

3. US’ tax credit incentives for standalone energy storage begin new era 5 January 2023

Tax credit incentives for standalone energy storage projects went into effect at the beginning of this year. Marking the end of years of campaigning from the industry and its advocates, the investment tax credit (ITC) scheme was extended to include energy storage projects not directly paired with renewable energy generation.

2. Europe’s largest transmission-connected BESS begins ‘world first’ reactive power services contract 13 February 2023

A 100MW/107MWh BESS project in Capenhurst, England, began delivering reactive power services in what was described by developer Zenobe Energy as the first contract of its kind in the world. The largest battery storage project directly connected to the high voltage transmission network in Europe will help reduce the curtailment of wind energy in the north-west UK, and reduce the need for gas-fired balancing of supply and demand on the grid.

1. World’s largest pumped hydro plant project progresses in Queensland, Australia 9 June 2023

Queensland’s state government awarded key contracts to work on the 5GW Pioneer-Burdekin pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) plant. The 24-hour duration project forms a key part of the Australian state’s AU$62 billion package to invest in the clean energy transition and its future energy security.

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Energywell Community Solar LLC – d/b/a Think Community Solar  and a subsidiary of energy technology company Energywell LLC – will partner with a national independent power producer (IPP) to expand community solar initiatives throughout Maine.

“We are thrilled to bring the benefits of community solar to Maine residents,” says Steve Condon, vice president of community solar at Think Community Solar. “Through our seamless enrollment process, participants are saving up to 10% on their electric bills for up to 20 years, all while supporting local solar projects and making a positive impact on the environment.”

Energywell believes that, alongside its subsidiary, Think Energy LLC, a licensed retail electricity supplier that sells 100% clean electricity with fixed rates and no cancellation fees, community solar subscriptions are a perfect match to provide customers with additional value through long-term savings.

“Our goal is to drive significant environmental impact and create a sustainable future for Maine,” emphasizes Michael Fallquist, CEO of Think Energy. “By connecting participants’ utility accounts with local solar farms, we enable clean electricity generation, job creation and long-term cost savings for our customers.

The impact of community solar extends far beyond individual households. By collectively embracing renewable energy, Maine residents are playing a vital role in mitigating climate change and creating a sustainable future for generations to come.

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Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corp., a designer, developer and manufacturer of advanced robotic systems, solutions, and software, and Blattner Co., a provider and installer of renewable energy, have entered into a collaboration agreement. The arrangement focuses on developing and refining Sarcos’ autonomous mobile robotic system in order to optimize employee safety and enhance efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) module installation in utility-scale solar projects.

“Like many industries, the solar construction industry is experiencing significant worker shortages post-COVID and has not yet recovered,” says Laura Peterson, interim president and CEO, Sarcos. “Our autonomous robotic solar construction system is expected to ease these workforce challenges.”

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), annual solar installations will need to increase by 60% through 2030 in order to meet climate targets. Nearly 800,000 new solar workers would be needed to meet this goal. Robotics holds the promise of mitigating labor pressures in this market while improving on-the-job safety.

This dual effort will build upon the Sarcos Outdoor Autonomous Manipulation of Photovoltaic Panels (O-AMPP) project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and aims to streamline the process of solar field construction.

The O-AMPP robotic system is being designed and developed to deliver, detect, lift and place PV modules in the field with the goals of:

Improving worker safety and productivity: A smaller team will be able to install modules at a substantially higher rate while optimizing safety.

Improving construction speed: Often the most labor-intensive task, installation of PV modules will be done more quickly.

Improving installation quality: Robotic handling of modules will ensure consistent supporting and positioning as they’re picked up and placed, reducing module breakage.

Sarcos and Blattner are collaborating to evaluate and further refine the technology, functionality and safety of this system through a series of field trials. Blattner will provide funding, expertise and facilities for the research. The companies intend to test the system through varying environmental conditions across different sites in preparation for Sarcos’ commercial launch of the system, currently estimated for late 2024.

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Thomas Moller

Alfa Laval, a Swedish company specializing heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling, and Aalborg CSP, a concentrated solar power technology company, have formed a joint venture to develop Long Duration Energy Storage (LDES) solutions.

Alfa Laval and Aalborg CSP’s collaboration aims to enhance competence, product development and application knowledge in molten salt heat exchanger technology in order to drive the advancement of long-duration energy storage heat exchanger solutions.

The joint venture, that will be named Alfa Laval Aalborg Header-coil A/S, will allow Alfa Laval to expand its expertise and product offerings in molten salt heat exchanger technology. The signing of the joint venture agreement marks an important milestone in their pursuit of innovative and efficient energy storage technologies.

“By joining forces with Aalborg CSP, we are taking a significant step towards achieving our shared vision of a sustainable energy future,” says Thomas Moller, president of the energy division at Alfa Laval. “Together, we will drive the development of cutting-edge long duration energy storage solutions, in the belief that to solve some of the big challenges we are facing, we need to combine knowledge and resources.”

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Economic curtailment occurs when running costs of generators exceed wholesale electricity market prices payable for their power sold, leading operators to reduce power output or risk losing money.

Spain wants renewables to account for 81% of total electricity generation by 2030, almost double the already high share of 42% it recorded in 2022. That means an increase of 173% in installed renewables capacity between 2022 and 2030.

The new goal is set out in Spain’s National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP). As reported by sister site PV Tech in late June, that includes 76GW of solar PV capacity by the end of this decade, up from a previously set 39GW target from 2020. Of that sum, 19GW should be self-consumption solar PV systems, leaving a considerable amount of solar to be fed into the grid.

As noted by Aurora in its 89-page study, the planned target for energy storage has also gone up from 9GW in the 2020 NECP to 18GW, along with 10GW of electrolysers (up from 4GW) and 61GW of wind, up from a previous 49GW target.

Higher electrification and decarbonisation goals mean shifting of renewable energy from time generated to the time it is needed, as well as a greater need for grid services and measures to ensure security of electricity supply.

Lithium-ion batteries, currently the most widely used energy storage technology in new deployments, can effectively offer short to medium duration storage to deliver ancillary services and smooth out variability of renewables for a few hours.

However long-duration storage, defined as technologies with a storage and discharge duration of between eight hours to four days, could be a “vital” solution to enabling the race to net zero while reducing power system costs and curtailment alike, according to Aurora.

Long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies would be a cost-efficient way to reduce reliance on gas to balance the growth of renewable energy capacity on the grid to 85GW, Aurora said. It could eliminate economic curtailment by 2035, while 15GW of LDES could offer around a €1 billion “advantage” in system costs between 2025 and 2050, according to the group’s modelling.

Due to lowered natural gas use, LDES could also get Spain’s power sector to net zero five years faster than in other scenarios, and play a strong role in decarbonising the industrial sector, accounting for 40% of the energy used in industrial heat processes, which are traditionally hard to abate emissions from.

NECP targets ‘simply unfeasible’ without LDES

However, LDES, which encompasses a broad range of technologies, does not yet have a path to market in Spain. That’s a barrier common to many regions of the world today, but specific to Spain, Aurora noted that the country’s 18GW target for energy storage by 2030 does not currently include consideration of long-duration needs.

One argument sometimes leveled at LDES is that many of the technologies are still more expensive, especially on a Capex basis, than shorter duration lithium-ion. According to Aurora Energy Research, cost declines will be achieved for LDES, but will require the scale-up of manufacturing and deployment.

Aurora advisory associate Inês Gaspar said the costs of LDES will fall over time, as has been seen with solar PV and battery storage, but that accelerating cost decreases will require action now to “ensure that prospective developers have the necessary policy support and opportunities to monetise the value that these assets bring to the national power system in the long term”.

Aurora head of energy research for Iberia and Latin America Ana Barillas said that given the clear case in favour of LDES, “Spain now needs a comprehensive policy and regulatory framework that enables its deployment”.

The NECP’s ambitious renewable energy targets are “simply unfeasible without LDES and the increased electrification of industry,” Barillas said.

“LDES can not only help avoid the curtailment of renewable generation, but also to provide key grid services that are needed when such a large portion of the generation mix is intermittent, as is the case in Spain. Further, thermal storage can make effective use of renewable energy to decarbonise industry at relatively low costs compared to other low-carbon providers of high-temperature heat.”

Similar studies have drawn conclusions in favour of market and regulatory structures to support LDES in the UK and other territories, while the LDES Council, a trade group formed to represent and promote the technologies worldwide has produced a series of global reports with McKinsey.

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The company is seeking to alleviate load constraints on its network in the Bathhurst, Orange and Parkes region of Central NSW, and the North West Slopes in the north. After considering a range of options, it has determined battery storage to be the technology best suited to mitigate the impacts of those constraints.

The first three areas named are expected to see considerable load growth off the back of increasing mining activity, as well as general load growth, while in the North West Slopes, growing industrial loads and general load growth underpin the need for new capacity and flexibility.

Transgrid will go to the market with its competitive procurement process, before awarding and finalising contracts with successful project bidders.

Batteries were found to be the best option in an assessment study concluded in 2022. Part of the reason for that was the ability to construct and commission battery energy storage system (BESS) assets much more quickly than other proposed solutions, with Transgrid’s Project Assessment Conclusions finding three BESS projects in the regions could be in operation by a 2024-2025 timeline.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news just over a year ago following Transgrid’s release of its findings, a 20MW/40MWh battery system in Parkes and a 25MW/50MWh in Bathhurst were chosen for Bathhurst, Oranges and Parkes. They beat out other third party proposals including a new 132kV transmission line and 25MVa synchronous condenser project.

For the North West Slopes, the preferred proposal included a 50MW/50MWh BESS in the locale of Narrabri and another BESS of unspecific output and capacity at Gunnedah, an existing substation site. While the North West Slopes plan included some transmission line upgrades, Transgrid said those could be done on existing lines, resulting in minimal disruption.

Transgrid found the BESS options could provide close to AU$3 billion (US$2.04 billion) of net benefits. At the time of the study’s publication, Transgrid general manager of network Marie Jordan said batteries provided the greatest overall benefit.

It was also one of the first times BESS for Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) had been found to have “outperformed other options through the regulatory test,” Jordan said.

‘Doubly significant milestone’

“This marks a doubly significant milestone because when they were compared to other options grid-scale batteries came out on top in both regions in terms of providing the biggest benefits,” Jordan commented further yesterday.

“Our grid is changing, which is why we’re going beyond the traditional poles and wires approach and embracing new technologies and business models to meet the needs of consumers and keep the system reliable.”

The competitive procurement will launch in August 2023, with a Market Forum being held online by Transgrid on 10 August.

Australia’s rapidly maturing energy storage market, rising up in tandem with the increased ambitions on renewable energy and grid modernisation put into policy by the Labor Party government of prime minister Anthony Albanese, will in the coming months be characterised by a different kind of nationally-run but locally administered tender process.

In May the Albanese Commonwealth government confirmed that tenders for firm renewable energy capacity will be held, called the Capacity Investment Mechanism scheme. A sum of funding from the 2023-2024 Federal Budget will go towards, although for reasons of commercial sensitivity, the government has not disclosed figures.

In other big BESS news from NSW this week, the state government has given approval to two projects totalling 270MW for two of the state’s Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) multi-gigawatt clean energy developments.

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Array Technologies, a provider of tracker solutions and services for utility-scale solar energy projects, entered into an agreement with Lock Joint Tube, a manufacturer of mechanical and structural-grade steel tubing, to secure supply from a new steel mill in Texas dedicated to manufacturing utility-scale solar tubing.

Located in Temple, Texas, where Lock Joint Tube has established operations, the new mill will use locally sourced steel in the production of solar tubing in response to domestic content requirements in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The collaboration between the two companies will create new manufacturing jobs and use automation technology for optimal efficiency in production.

“This investment in American manufacturing will provide jobs aligned with the renewable energy market to the local community, boost the integrity of the domestic solar supply chain and support Array’s continued expansion in the U.S., including in Texas and throughout the central U.S,” says Kevin Hostetler, CEO at Array Technologies.

Lock Joint Tube is a supplier of steel tubing for solar panels and a provider of torque tubing for tracker systems or solar tracker tube. Partnering with established steel suppliers around the globe enables Array to secure high-quality products on a regional basis to customers and mitigate supply chain challenges.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the facility was held on June 28 in Temple, Texas. Lock Joint Tube also produces tubing for Array at a steel torque tube mill in South Bend, Ind.

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