Vikram Solar, Phalanx Impact Partners and Das & Co. have formed a new United States joint venture and majority U.S.-owned and operated company – VSK Energy LLC. The partnership plans to invest up to $1.5 billion to develop a vertically integrated solar manufacturing operation in the U.S.

With two planned projects, VSK brings Vikram Solar’s 17 years of solar manufacturing experience to the U.S. with financial support from sustainability-focused private equity firm Phalanx Impact Partners and Das & Co.’s extensive network and expertise in the solar industry in the U.S., India and emerging markets.

As part of its planned investment, VSK Energy is dedicated to developing a resilient American solar panel and equipment supply chain and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign suppliers who currently dominate the solar market.

The first phase consists of a $250 million outlay to develop an American solar photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturing facility in a recently completed building, owned by Mortenson Properties and Hyde Development, in Brighton, Colo.

The new factory is expected to create more than 900 direct jobs with an average salary of more than $70,000 and over 200 construction jobs. VSK Energy expects the facility to commence operations in 2024 with an initial capacity of 2 GW in solar PV modules and planned expansion of up to 4 GW.

The second phase of investment would complete VSK’s vertical integration of the solar manufacturing process. VSK will develop a factory in a southern U.S. state to produce solar ingots, cells and wafers with a planned annual capacity of 4 GW.

VSK intends to invest up to $1.25 billion in the new factory, which is expected to commence operations in 2025 following the evaluation and finalization of available federal, state, regional and local incentives for the project. The new factory is expected to create over 1,500 direct jobs and over 1,000 construction jobs.

Mortenson, a solar engineering, procurement, construction and commercial contracting firm, will oversee the engineering and construction of both phases of VSK Energy’s planned investment. Mortenson has nearly 70 years of experience building large, complex facilities and has been in the renewable energy space for over 25 years. The company has has installed solar projects across 17 states in the U.S.

“This investment is more than a financial commitment; it’s a testament to our belief in the transformative power of sustainable technologies and the solar industry,” says Alex Hung, partner and co-founder of Phalanx Impact Partners. “With this VSK project we are not only helping to shape the clean energy future of the United States, but also positively influencing the communities where these facilities will operate.”

Law firm Dentons represented Vikram Solar, McDermott Will & Emery represented Phalanx Impact Partners, and Reed Smith represented Das & Co. with the joint venture formation for this transaction.

Continue reading

Connecticut-based Altus Power has committed to developing Hawaii’s first large-scale community solar project to date. A local medical facility, its employees and residents of Oahu will soon be able to receive electric power at a discount by subscribing to Altus Power’s Community Solar Partnership Program. Subscribers could save up to $500 annually, compared to their local utility bills.

Upon completion of the 5 MW array expected this summer, Altus Power will sell approximately 60% of the clean electricity generated to a non-profit company that operates a medical facility and the remaining 40% of the electricity will be available to benefit the homes of employees and other local residents. Altus Power will own and operate the ground-mounted solar farm in Kapolei and deliver the power into the Hawaiian Electric grid.

“We’re excited the shared solar program is taking root and opening up to residential customers who haven’t been able to install private rooftop solar,” says Lani Shinsato, co-director of customer energy resources, Hawaiian Electric. “Providing customers with options is critical, and shared solar projects like this will allow subscribers to reduce their energy bill and take part in the state’s clean energy transition.”

Altus Power currently serves more than 20,000 community solar subscribers nationwide. Community solar provides homeowners and renters of diverse income brackets access to the benefits of clean energy and power bill savings without the expense of mounting solar panels on their roofs. Once a subscriber has applied to a community solar program and is approved, no upfront cost or special equipment is necessary to begin receiving credits.

Photo by Ethan Robertson at Unsplash.

Continue reading

Panasonic Corp. of North America is releasing a new generation of the EVERVOLT Home Battery System: a modular residential storage system that supports both DC and AC coupling, making it a versatile solution for both new and existing solar installations.

This fully integrated energy storage solution combines a hybrid inverter, lithium-ion battery and new EVERVOLT SmartBox – an all-in-one home energy management device. Compact and sleek, this system can be installed indoors or outdoors, mounted to either the floor or wall.

The new EVERVOLT Home Battery System offers maximum 18 kWh lithium-ion battery capacity, allowing homeowners to store excess solar power for power outages. Up to four EVERVOLT Home Batteries can be stacked to a single EVERVOLT SmartBox to achieve up to 30 kW of power and 72 kWh of usable energy, providing maximum power and meeting even the heaviest demands.

“With the increased focus on clean energy, the EVERVOLT Home Battery System provides homeowners with an enhanced solution for energy management,” says Mukesh Sethi, director, solar and energy storage, Panasonic Eco Systems North America, a division of Panasonic Corp. of North America.

Additional features of the new EVERVOLT Home Battery System include:

Up to 15,200 W of solar modules can be connected to three maximum power point trackers for higher yields and flexible design.

Up to 7.6 kW of continuous backup power in a single EVERVOLT Home Battery System.

Multiple operating modes, including back-up mode, self-use mode, time-of-use mode

and custom modes which can be set through the mobile app.

Wi-Fi monitoring system with an easy-to-use app.

UL9540A unit level thermal runaway certification.

Black-start functionality to restart your system with solar power after a long outage.

Compatible with generators of up to 125A for long power outages.

Complete 12-year product warranty.

Homeowners also have peace of mind thanks to the Panasonic EVERVOLT Battery certification program, which is designed so homeowners receive high-quality installations. This certification ensures that skilled installers are fully trained on EVERVOLT technology, enabling them to provide reliable and efficient work.

Continue reading

All Energy Solar, a solar installer in five states, has added a sixth state to the company’s service areas. In 2023, Illinois joins the list with other midwestern states Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New England states Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Brothers Michael and Brian Allen founded All Energy Solar in 2009 in their solar-friendly home state of Wisconsin. As the solar installation company grew, the nearby states of Minnesota and Iowa were added as service areas. Largely due to favorable solar policies on the East Coast, the company then expanded service to Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

“Illinois has an appreciation for solar, and the state has been friendly when it comes to solar policies,” says Michael Allen, CEO and co-founder of All Energy Solar, about the move. “Since the beginning, we have wanted to spread the benefits of solar to more people and positively impact the world. Growing into new markets is an excellent way to carry out that mission, so it made sense to bring our solar skills to Illinois.”

Initially most of All Energy Solar’s work in Illinois will be focused on the northern part of the state, which is easily accessible to existing installation crews dispatched from the company’s home base in Wisconsin.

Incentive programs such as Illinois Solar for All, Illinois Shines, the state’s net-metering policies or even the utility-specific rebates available have demonstrated wide local acceptance of solar energy.

“The excitement from the company is felt all around as employees look forward to the new opportunities and challenges that will come from working in a new state,” says Allen. “I have full confidence that through the hard work and dedication of our team, this transition into Illinois will go smoothly.”

Image by frimufilms on Freepik.

Continue reading

Ingeteam, a power conversion technology specialist, provided the power conversion systems for both portions which are now complete. It also provided the power plant controller (PPC), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) monitoring system and communicating equipment for collecting and moving information from the substation to the central telecontrol station.

The technology for the solar PV and BESS have not been revealed. It will ultimately reach 1GW of solar PV and 190MW of energy storage, totalling US$1.6 billion of investment and the fourth, final state of construction expected to be completed in 2028.

The project in Sonora is being developed by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) of Mexico, and will provide power to the states of Sonora and Baja California.

José Luis González, Ingeteam’s Sales Manager for the Solar PV, BESS & Green H2 sector, commented: “This project fits in very well with our role as a technology partner, where we accompany the customer throughout all the phases of the project, providing them with a wide range of solutions in all of them.”

“The fact that our technology has been chosen at a time when no new photovoltaic plants are being developed in Mexico is a confirmation of our good position in the country, where we have a strong local presence”.

The first phase of the project covers 240 hectares out of a total 2,000 hectare site and Ingeteam said it will be the largest solar PV complex in Latin America.

Discussing it in January, the managing director of Mexico City-based battery storage system integrator Quartux told Energy-Storage.news the project represents “..the government’s shift towards saying that energy storage is something it can trust and is very interested in.” The wider Latin American market has been fairly slow to gather pace, as we’ve written.

Quartux, as of October 2022, was deploying a 25MWh system which it said would be the largest in the country, a title which is likely to be taken by the Sonora project one it reaches its next stages.

Returning for the second edition in Santiago, Chile, the Energy Storage Summit Latin America will explore opportunities in countries such as Chile, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Join Solar Media on October 17-18 to meet with investors, policy makers, developers, utilities, network operators, technology providers, EPCs, consultants, law firms and more to make sure you are a part of the rapidly evolving storage landscape in Latin America.

Continue reading

The energy, stored in 11 Tesla Megapacks, will be used to maintain stability of the local electricity network, as well as being dispatched by Con Edison into the wholesale market of network operator New York ISO, serving various grid-balancing functions determined to be required by the ISO.

It’s perhaps important to note that the 7MW/30MWh BESS is the biggest of its kind in New York City, although not in the state. That title is thought to be held by the 20MW/45MWh project KCE NY 6, inaugurated at the beginning of this month by developer Key Capture Energy in Buffalo, Upstate New York.

Another relatively large project was brought online recently by Convergent Energy and Power as a non-wires alternative (NWA) to distribution infrastructure upgrades for utility Orange & Rockland (itself a subsidiary of Con Edison parent company Consolidated Edison) in rural Upstate New York. However, while that was described as a 12MW/57MWh BESS project, it comprises three separate smaller systems.

The siting of BESS projects almost entirely outside the city is due to the fact that to date, siting large-scale battery storage within densely populated, urban New York City has been a difficult proposition.

Part of that challenge is in finding suitable land and grid connections, which has led to numerous plans for BESS projects on the sites of decommissioned or existing thermal generation plants within the city. Another facet is that New York City has some of the world’s most stringent rules and codes on fire safety and buildings, as regular readers of Energy-Storage.news will likely be aware.

Con Edison spoke to both of these challenges in announcing the inauguration of its Staten Island project, noting that the BESS has been constructed on land the utility already owns. It also said that the BESS used underwent a safety review by the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) that the utility said had been “rigorous”.

The City of New York Fire Department also has a list of battery energy storage equipment approved for installation in its jurisdiction. PowerTitan, a liquid cooled BESS solution made by the energy storage arm of PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow was added to that list very recently, bringing that list up to just four approved vendors with eligible products including Tesla.

Utility needs to play catch-up

New York State has one of the most ambitious energy storage deployment targets in place in the world, seeking 6GW by 2030 to support its goal for 70% of its electricity to come from renewable sources by that time, and to achieve carbon neutrality across its economy by 2050.

Within that, Con Edison and the state’s other major utility companies have been handed targets of their own to contribute to that total.

There has been some frustration from the clean energy industry and climate advocates that the utilities have not moved quickly to achieve their goals. Con Edison was tasked with enabling 300MW of deployments from the state’s first-ever Energy Storage Roadmap, published in 2018, but hardly any of that has yet been installed.

A major reason for that, Energy-Storage.news heard a while back from developer Kelly Sarber, CEO of Strategic Management Group, and analyst Vanessa Witte of Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, is that prices Con Edison was willing to pay through solicitations weren’t high enough to entice developers.

Sarber said that a 100MW/400MWh project Strategic Management Group is working to develop with Hanhwa Group subsidiary 174 Global Power is the only one so far of its scale to have a contract in place with Con Edison.

Witte said meanwhile that there was “definitely frustration” among developers that opportunities had not materialised through Con Edison holding solicitations.

In March, the regulatory New York Public Service Commission (PSC) extended the deadline for utilities to achieve those procurements from 2025 to 2028, while perhaps more importantly, the second iteration of New York’s Energy Storage Roadmap, published at the beginning of this year, sets out a proposal to hold solicitations for large-scale, or so-called ‘bulk’ (facilities over 5MW) through the public-benefit corporation NYSERDA.

These solicitations could begin as early as next year and while some have voiced concerns that it leaves New York little time before its 6GW by 2030 deadline is due, the proposals, have been broadly welcomed. As things stand, NYSERDA’s solicitations would entitle developers, asset owners or investors to a steady revenue stream guaranteed by the state over several years, but would be set at a level low enough to incentivise merchant market participation, too.

Con Edison pointed out that the Staten Island project’s installation, engineering and procurement was supported by its in-house teams, and that learnings from it will be applied on future projects. So far, the utility’s own BESS projects are limited to three distributed systems on customer property, and one 2MW/10MWh project in Queens, installed in 2019 to back up a distribution grid feeder.

It also has plans to deploy New York’s first battery storage-integrated electric vehicle (EV) charging facility in the city of New Rochelle, with a 4MW/12MWh BESS to help buffer the electricity grid from the strain of outputting enough power to charge several vehicles at once. A release about the Staten Island project running through the utility’s committed-to storage projects did not mention another similar EV charger-integrated project in Brooklyn to which Con Edison said in 2021 it had appointed Centrica to deliver.

Continue reading

It is expected to come online in the third quarter of 2023, and already has a long-term power purchase agreement in place with an ‘investment-grade utility’. Although the announcement didn’t specify, this is most likely a Resource Adequacy agreement with one of the state’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs), PG&E, SDG&E and SCE.

Resource Adequacy is the framework through which grid operator CAISO ensures there is enough power to meet demand with a reserve margin, without the need for centralised auctions, the route taken by grid operators in the UK and Northeast US.

The Holtville BESS is the largest standalone energy storage project in Greenbacker’s portfolio of clean energy assets.

Transaction counsel for Greenbacker was Greenberg Traurig while Troutman Pepper served as counsel for SunCode Energy.

“Utility-scale energy storage is central to both our investment thesis and our broader mission of empowering a sustainable world,” said Mehul Mehta, CIO of Greenbacker.

“Our successful partnership with SunCode Energy on our largest BESS asset to date will lower power bills while increasing grid stability in California, and we look forward to working together on future clean energy collaborations.”

California is the largest battery storage market in the world by GW deployed and, while more was deployed in Texas in Q1, it is expected to lead deployments this year too. A recent large-scale project to come online is the 548MWh system from RWE while a 1,200MWh extension to what is already the largest project in the world is set to be completed this summer, from Vistra Energy.

These are mostly lithium-ion projects but other technologies are being deployed in longer durations with financial aid from the California Energy Commission, including a zinc-bromine 20MWh system and a 10MWh vanadium flow battery.

Continue reading

Large-scale BESS could also help with the transport of power across the grid through upward and downward dispatch, TenneT said in its corporate presentation which you can read here.

It could also provide balancing through FFR (fast frequency response) and FCR (frequency containment reserve), as well as inertia and reactive power products.

The grid-scale energy storage in the Netherlands market has yet to take off with regulatory challenges the main barrier according to one developer interviewed earlier this year. One of the country’s main utilities Eneco recently called for more action from its own government as it announced a 200MWh project in neighbouring Belgium.

TenneT said the BESS could also provide additional flexibility using bilateral contracts with network operators or through market-based congestion management, although the TSO warned it was important that batteries do not worsen grid congestion.

It illustrated how the BESS could be used, what the system benefits are, and how the BESS could be monetised in the table below.

Image: TenneT.

Alongside large-scale BESS, TenneT has also modelled the quantity of other BESS applications which could help the grid. By 2030, it forecast 2.2GW of EV batteries (presumably V2G or V2L-enabled), 4.2GW of ‘household batteries’ and 3.7GW of ‘solar PV batteries’ in order to help with grid flexibility, alongside the 9GW of grid-scale systems.

It also provided a snapshot of what the geographical spread of the batteries would need to look like.

Continue reading

It pairs a 15.28MWp (13.2MWac) solar PV facility with a 10.2MWac/12.9MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), and was inaugurated on 2 June. It is located in Ngatpang state, on Babeldoab, the Republic of Palau archipelago’s largest island.

Developer SPEC has a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) in place with the country’s utility provider, Palau Public Utilities Corporation (PPUC), for the system to feed power into the Babeldoag grid network.

The private sector-led project’s total cost of around US$29 million was supported with financing from the Australian government’s Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific (AIFFP). AIFFP has lent US$18 million over a 17-year term to SPEC’s special purpose vehicle Solar Pacific Pristine Power (SPPP) at 4.75%, as well as making a further US$4 million grant available.

In a case study published in June last year about its investment into the project, AIFFP and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade noted that until now, over 99% of Palau’s electricity has been generated by burning automotive diesel. That means its energy sector accounts for as much as 96% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The project, which is also Palau’s first grid-scale solar PV plant, will contribute significantly to the country’s nationally self-determined contribution to meeting global climate targets as agreed in the Paris Accord. These include reaching 35% renewable energy, and reducing energy sector emissions to 22% below 2005 levels, by 2025.   

The case study also highlighted that the project was sited and designed to minimise impact on local ecology, with Palau home to Micronesia’s native forests with largest diversity of species.

Independent expert group DNV said it assisted SPEC with the project’s delivery, including design, pre-construction and construction as well as the final stages of project completion. That meant ensuring the design of the project would allow it to function as required in both generating energy and delivering a profile of solar generation to the grid in conjunction with the battery storage.

DNV also advised on the project’s scheduling and tracking its progress, as well as running the rule over the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in place. Other work at the post-commissioning stage included rectifying some issues of non-compliance with contract specifications and certifying the project as ready for handover and issuing the relevant Final Completion Certification.

“With a project in a location as unique as the Republic of Palau, the jurisdiction itself is challenging as the project engineering codes and local requirements are very specific,” DNV energy systems project manager Michael Niu said.

“As such, it was critical that a multi-disciplinary engineering team well-versed in international codes, standards and best practices was assembled.”

In March, Energy-Storage.news reported that DNV had assisted another major milestone project for the Asia-Pacific region: a 200MW BESS on Singapore’s Jurong Island, which is currently thought to be the largest project of its kind in Southeast Asia. In that instance, the DNV team worked to a challenging timeline to help get the project online in just six months from award of contracts to completion.

Read more Energy-Storage.news coverage of off-grid, island grid, microgrids and related areas.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 1st Energy Storage Summit Asia, 11-12 July 2023 in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.

Continue reading

Jim Murphy

Invenergy Renewables Holdings LLC, a developer, owner and operator of sustainable energy solutions, has received an approximately $1 billion equity investment from funds managed by Blackstone Infrastructure Partners, to continue growing its rapidly expanding business. This amount is additional to Blackstone’s nearly $3 billion investment in Invenergy in 2021 and 2022. 

Invenergy’s ownership includes Blackstone, CDPQ and Invenergy management. Invenergy management will continue as managing member of the company with day-to-day responsibility for execution of the business.

“The additional equity capital from Blackstone will help accelerate execution of our existing project portfolio and our new business initiatives,” says Jim Murphy, president and corporate business leader at Invenergy. “We greatly value our long-term relationship with Blackstone and CDPQ and look forward to continuing to lead the clean energy transition with the support of these trusted partners.”

Invenergy will leverage this additional investment to sustain the continued growth of the company in the United States and around the world, as well as its portfolio of projects which includes significant solar and land-based wind farms, advanced energy storage facilities, offshore wind projects, high-voltage direct current interregional transmission lines, clean hydrogen initiatives, solar panel manufacturing and a growing community solar business through its Reactivate venture.

Continue reading