Mark Birk

Ameren Missouri, a subsidiary of Ameren Corp. and a provider of electric and gas service for central and eastern Missouri, intends to acquire or build approximately 550 MW of solar energy, continuing the company’s planned addition of 2,800 MW in new renewable generation by 2030.

Consisting of four projects that are capable of producing enough energy to supply more than 95,000 average-sized residential homes, the facilities are targeted for completion in stages between next year and 2026.

“These projects support our ongoing generation transformation toward more clean energy while maintaining the reliability, resiliency and affordability our customers expect,” says Mark Birk, chairman and president of Ameren Missouri. “In addition, we are taking advantage of new federal incentives that will help us provide renewable energy to our customers at a lower cost.”

Projects in order of targeted in-service date, include:

Cass County Solar, 150 MW, based in Cass County, Ill., targeted in-service date of 2024, to be acquired by Ameren Missouri from Savion.

Vandalia Renewable Energy Center, 50 MW, based in Vandalia, Miss., to be developed by Ameren Missouri, target in-service date of 2025.

Split Rail Solar, 300 MW, based in Warren County, Miss., targeted in-service date of 2026, to be acquired by Ameren Missouri from Invenergy.

Bowling Green Renewable Energy Center, 50 MW, based in Bowling Green, Miss., to be developed by Ameren Missouri, target in-service date of 2026.

“Bringing new jobs and opportunities to these communities is an incredibly rewarding part of our work,” Birk says. “It’s part of the multiplier effect projects of this scale will have.

“Solar facilities do so much more than create energy,” adds Birks. “We’ve seen in other communities across the state that by their presence alone, they create interest and open career paths into entirely new fields.”

Continue reading

The convertible note is a debt instrument that can convert to equity on pre-agreed terms. Northvolt raised a comparatively larger, US$1.1 billion one this time last year, talking of “cautious capital markets” in comments provided to Energy-Storage.news.

Northvolt is building numerous lithium-ion battery production facilities, including cell production, cathode production, recycling and an energy storage system (ESS) assembly facility. The company completed construction on the latter, in Poland, earlier this year, and started shipping its first battery cells from Sweden last year.

The company is targeting mainly the EV market as well as the ESS space, and has also been developing more niche solutions like large EVs (trucks etc) as well as aviation battery systems.

The announcement did not mention an IPO, but there are strong rumours the company has been in discussions this year about a public listing which could value it at more than US$20 billion.

There were also reports in May that Northvolt is eyeing Canada as a possible site for its first North American gigafactory, which Energy-Storage.news has asked the company to comment on and will update this article in due course.

The company’s management said in November communicated some doubts over whether its third gigafactory, Northvolt Drei in Germany, would go ahead, due to high energy prices. National subsidies agreed since have helped the company ultimately decide to press on according to reports.

This is within the context of the US’ Inflation Reduction Act drawing investment interest away from Europe’s lithium-ion ecosystem, as reported extensively by Energy-Storage.news. As of very recently, the US now has more planned production capacity than Europe, a far cry from the situation one year ago.

The Northvolt deal is not IMCO’s first foray into energy storage in Europe. It acquired UK developer Pulse Clean Energy (called Green Frog Power at the time), one of the most active in the country’s battery storage space, in 2021.

Continue reading

Altus Power Inc., an independent developer, owner and operator of commercial-scale solar facilities, has obtained an incremental $47 million in capital from Blackstone. This incremental debt will provide long-term fixed rate financing for 35 MW of operating assets in Altus Power’s portfolio. The use of proceeds includes payoff of the $15.8 million outstanding under Altus Power’s construction facility with the remainder as net cash proceeds available to be reinvested in its business.

This incremental financing is an expansion of the $204 million facility initiated in February 2023. The additional $47 million will carry the same interest rate and terms as the initial borrowings: a fixed interest rate of 5.62% for the tenor of the facility and the option to refinance the debt without penalty after three years.

“Altus Power is fortunate to be positioned with access to capital that enables our company to invest in and own our assets for the long-term,” comments Dustin Weber, CFO of Altus Power. “These long-term contracted assets meet the needs of our clients seeking high-quality, long-duration investments,” adds Robert Camacho, co-head of asset based finance within Blackstone’s Structured Finance Group. “Blackstone Structured Finance has significant capacity to invest and is focused on finding additional opportunities like those that Altus Power continues to originate.”

Photo by JComp at Freepik.

Continue reading

Below is a vaguely categorised list of some of the things they’d have been able to learn more about. Last week in Part 1, we took a look at what some experts were saying about the show and the European market, which you can read here (Premium access).

Large-scale solutions

Ampt, JONSOL: Integrated DC-coupled energy storage for PV modules

US-headquartered DC power optimiser specialist Ampt has teamed up with German PV module manufacturer JONSOL to create what the pair claimed is the first optimised string inverter-based DC-coupled solar PV-plus-storage solution on the global market.

It combines Ampt’s DC-DC conversion String Optimizers, performing maximum power point tracking (MPPT) on every string of PV modules, with a bi-directional battery inverter and JONSOL modules.

Intilion: German manufacturer signs insurance deal with Munich Re

During the trade fair, Dr Sebastian Scholz, product lead for energy storage at insurance group Munich Re, signed a cooperation agreement with Dr. André Haubrock, CEO of energy storage solutions provider Intilion.

Under the long-term agreement, Munich Re provide Intilion with insurance against customer claims made under its solutions’ Product and Performance Warranty Insurance. Haubrock described it as “a seal of approval for the quality and longevity of our product,” which Munch Re offered “after a very rigourous testing process”.

“We are proud that the respected re-insurer has agreed to offer insurance covering the five-year warranty and 10-year performance guarantee that INTILION provides to its customers. This long-term approach gives our customers the necessary security and planning capability when using our large-scale storage solutions of up to 100MWh,” Haubrock said.

Intilion is a subsidiary of German battery company Hoppecke, producing battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions for segments including commercial and industrial (C&I) and large-scale. It recently won a 60MWh order from Deutsche Telekom subsidiary PASM Power and Air Condition Solution Management GmbH (PASM).

Distributed energy storage: residential, commercial and industrial (C&I)

While there were lots of large-scale solutions on show, most have been seen previously at other trade events, notably at SNEC 2023 in Shanghai, China. On our sister site, PV Tech, you can see exclusive video interviews and product showcases with many of the providers of those BESS solutions.

At ees Europe, while many of those were also there alongside large-scale solutions from many other companies, there was a big emphasis on serving the growing distributed storage market, as we can see below.

Sungrow: C&I solution wins award

Solar PV inverter and energy storage system provider and integrator Sungrow won this year’s ees Award with its PowerStack liquid cooled energy storage system for the C&I market.

Hosted by the Smarter-E show’s organisers, Solar Promotion, the ees Award 2023 was open to innovations across the entire energy storage value chain, from components to products up to business models and complete solutions.

Sungrow’s PowerStack is available with battery capacity ranging from 527kWh up to 1146kWh, for 2-hour and 4-hour applications. It includes integrated power conversion system (PCS), energy management system (EMS), fire suppression system, and of course lithium-ion batteries.

One of a growing number of liquid cooled systems now on the market, PowerStack also features AI-assisted cell monitoring, as well as four layers of overcurrent protection and anti-arc protection.

Sungrow’s ees Award 2023 winning PowerStack C&I solution. Image: Sungrow.

JinkoSolar launches HV residential battery

Vertically integrated PV module manufacturer JinkoSolar launched its second generation high-voltage energy storage battery for the residential and small commercial segments at the show.

JinkoSolar’s JKR-B1250~2750-A product includes the company’s own HV battery, boasting a single pack capacity of 3.84kWh capable of up to 6,000 daily cycles at room temperature. Scalable up to 134kWh, battery packs are connected wirelessly, with parallel connection between racks.

Kehua ‘all-in-one’ C&I system

Power management and inverter solutions company Kehua Tech launched an integrated ‘all-in-one’ C&I battery storage solution at the show in Germany.

Called S³-EStore, the system is liquid cooled, with Kehua claiming it can limit temperature variations in battery packs to within 2℃. It also has a perfluoro fire protection system, while the containerised version comes with built-in fire extinguisher.

Using LFP cells, the S³-EStore comes with 43kWh battery pack configuration, and energy capacity up to 215kWh per unit. Kehua claims it has one of the smallest footprints in the business, at just 1.3 metres squared.

Battery analytics

Regular readers of this site will have noticed a recent focus on battery analytics across our online, print and webinar offerings, as the industry rapidly wakes up to what analytics can do to ensure healthy, safe systems perform at their maximum potential.

TWAICE adds new models to battery simulation

Cloud-based battery analytics specialist TWAICE has expanded the scope of its battery simulation software to include electric-thermal ageing models. These are based on the German company’s own database of battery parameters, supplemented with data from customer testing as well as manufacturer data sheets.

The battery simulation model is aimed at enabling all-scenario tests of how battery cells will behave and perform. In addition to the simulation offering, TWAICE also provides support for customers throughout the lifetime of their BESS asset’s operation, as well as during commissioning – see our recent webinar with the company on the role of ‘digital commissioning’ for more on that.

ACCURE’s new features for Safety Manager solution

Fellow German predictive battery analytics company ACCURE has added various new features to Safety Manager, its “flagship” solution for battery safety, which it exhibited at ees Europe.

The solution accurately predicts problems with batteries well in advance of them escalating, ACCURE claimed, using cloud computing to process large amounts of battery data. More than 20 different anomalies relevant to safe operation can be detected and monitored, using what the company described as physics-based modelling as well as AI.

New features added include a “safety scoring system,” assigning batteries a safety score based on operational anomalies and associated patterns of errors. Safety Manager benchmarks those against historical data from systems operating in the field globally, representing these and other metrics in a visual interface ACCURE claims is user-friendly.

Other new features include the ability for the software to make recommendations based on the safety ratings gathered. These could include suggestions for planned maintenance scheduling, advance notice that a battery should be shut down, and more. Also added to the suite is a system of alerts.

E-mobility and energy storage

ADS-TEC: battery-integrated EV charging

German energy storage and e-mobility solutions company ADS-TEC showcased a number of new products at this year’s show, spanning the Power2Drive e-mobility exhibition as well as ees Europe and Intersolar Europe.

That range included another all-in-one C&I storage solution, as well as two energy-storage based fast charge solutions, called ChargeBox and ChargePost.

Both are claimed to offer ultra-fast charging capabilities, with integrated battery storage, power electronics and two charging points apiece. ChargePost can support charging for electric vehicles (EVs) with 1x 300kW or 2x 150kW charging, whereas ChargeBox has two separate 320kW ports, both of which can be split down to 2x 160kW.

ADS-TEC claimed both can be quickly and easily connected to existing grids without requiring grid upgrades, while ChargePost can hold storage capacity in reserve for connection and use in combination with other distributed energy resources (DER), such as solar PV systems.

Additionally, both solutions can be used to buffer electricity demand peaks for various other types of resource as well as, or instead of, EVs.

SolarEdge bi-directional EV charger

Solar PV power optimiser and energy management solutions provider SolarEdge showcased its DC-coupled EV charger, which can charge a vehicle simultaneously from solar PV, home batteries or AC grid at up to 24kW.

Meanwhile its bi-directional charge capability means it can provide vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging. Based on SolarEdge’s own DC-coupling architecture, the solution can charge an EV directly from solar without conversion losses, and can be used with the company’s energy optimisation system, ONE, to charge and discharge in sync with dynamic utility pricing patterns.

Continue reading

The most important takeaway is that the NREL estimates that BESS costs will start to fall this year in its ‘low’ and ‘mid’ cost projections, with an increase over the next few years forecast in its ‘high’ scenario, visualised in the graph above.

This broadly matches up with recent analysis by BloombergNEF which found that BESS costs have fallen 2% in the last six months, as well as anecdotal evidence of reductions after spikes in 2022.

Compared to 2022, the national laboratory says the BESS costs will fall 47%, 32% and 16% by 2030 in its low, mid and high cost projections, respectively. By 2050, the costs could fall by 67%, 51% and 21% in the three projections, respectively.

These declines would result in costs of US$255/kWh, US$326/kWh, and US$403/kWh by 2030 and US$159/kWh, US$237/kWh, and US$380/kWh in 2050.

NREL cautioned that the 2022 cost starting point from which these figures are calculated is most likely on the higher end compared to the sources it analysed, which include BloombergNEF. It illustrated these in the graph below.

A big driver of the fall in BESS costs will be a decline in the costs of the battery cells and packs themselves, which can make up half the cost of a lithium-ion BESS. Research firm Fastmarkets recently forecast that average lithium-ion battery pack prices using lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells will fall to US$100/kWh by 2025, with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) hitting the same threshold in 2027.

NREL also highlighted that the energy and power components of a BESS have different long-term cost projections and so it is critical to cite duration when talking about project costs. On a US$/kWh, longer duration batteries have a lower capital cost while on a US$/kW basis shorter duration batteries come out cheaper. Both of these points are visualised in graphs below.

Continue reading

The two headline announcements are provisions for ‘elective pay’ (or ‘direct pay’) and ‘transferability’, both of which are credit delivery mechanisms intended to broaden the scope of eligible recipients under the IRA.

They are the final two aspects of the new tax credit incentives effective in January that the industry has been waiting for clarity on. The new tax credit options include an investment tax credit (ITC) for standalone energy storage, having previously only applied to generation units and their co-located storage.

Under the elective pay proposal, tax-exempt and government entities are eligible to receive up to 12 payments direct from the IRS for the clean energy tax credits – including the ITC and Production Tax Credit (PTC) for generation included in the IRA – to go towards their clean energy projects.

The Treasury said this provision will allow State, Local and Tribal governments, US territories and large non-profits greater access to renewable energy deployment. By their tax-exempt nature they were previously unable to take advantage of the tax-based incentives.

Some industry figureheads believe that elective pay, sometimes called direct pay, will make tax-exempt entities the largest type of owner of renewable energy assets in the US.

Transferability will allow smaller entities, or any without sufficient tax liability to reap the benefits of IRA credits, to transfer all or part of 11 tax credits to a third party in exchange for immediate, tax-free funds.

The Treasury’s full guidance included legal and eligibility requirements for businesses and government organisations.

“The Inflation Reduction Act’s new tools to access clean energy tax credits are a catalyst for meeting president Biden’s historic economic and climate goals. They will act as a force multiplier, bringing governments and nonprofits to the table,” said secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “More clean energy projects will be built quickly and affordably, and more communities will benefit from the growth of the clean energy economy.”

Earlier this year, the Treasury released guidance on the benefits for traditionally coal-producing communities under the IRA, incentivising investment into these areas with US$10 billion in available funding.

Then in May, it provided the criteria for projects to benefit from a 10% ‘domestic content’ adder to the ITC. As Energy-Storage.news explained in its coverage, the criteria for energy storage should mean that projects can benefit from the adder whilst still procuring battery cells from abroad.

Reports on the impact of the IRA suggest that it will change the face of US electricity generation. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in March published predictions that solar and wind will account for 60% of US electricity output by 2030 as a direct result of IRA incentives and funding.

Another report from the BlueGreen Alliance found that the IRA could see US solar alone cut the costs of the country’s power by 60%.

Small-scale, local community solar, which market segment has been forecast to more than double in the US by 2028 as a result of the IRA, could be further spurred on by these credit mechanisms.

Final comments on the Treasury’s elective pay and transferability proposals – which you can read in full here – are due by 14 August, public hearings scheduled in the following days.  

The original version of this article appeared on PV Tech.

Continue reading

In terms of the broad suite of diverse technologies involved, potential customers could have many options to choose from in the coming years, and flow batteries have long been part of that conversation.

But when we talk about flow batteries, we tend to largely mean vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs), which tend to be considered the frontrunner, with perhaps the iron electrolyte flow battery made by ESS Tech Inc somewhere in the mix too.

Zinc-bromine electrolyte, as chosen by Australia-headquartered Redflow to pursue when founded as far back as 2005, is less often considered, but the company believes that its time has come. The company launched its third generation device, the ZBM3, in mid-2022.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news, Redflow’s battery tech was recently selected for a 20MWh installation at a renewable energy microgrid in California. Aimed at helping the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians indigenous community increase its resiliency against grid power disruptions, the project is being financially supported with a grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC).

You can read more about the project itself here in our report from the beginning of this month.

In our interview with CEO Tim Harris, we hear that the microgrid represents a “culmination of a journey” for Redflow, from primarily serving small businesses as well as large residences, to rolling out distributed flow battery systems for telecoms providers, to now serving up LDES at multiple megawatt-hour scale.

While the company’s heritage is in smaller systems, Redflow realised that “to get scale and accelerate, you really need to kind of be playing in that multi-megawatt-hour system [space],” Harris says.

‘Springboard of bigger projects and market validation’

The first step into that space came a couple of years ago, with a first California project at the site of bioenergy company Anaergia’s Rialto Bioenergy Facility waste-to-energy plant. At 2MWh, and also supported with CEC funding, Harris said as it came online in late 2021 that it would provide a “high visibility reference” for what the technology could do at that megawatt-hour scale.

From there to the latest 20MWh project, it’s been a relatively fast ride, but one that’s been enabled by years of groundwork by Redflow, both under the stewardship of Harris and his predecessor as CEO, Australian tech entrepreneur Simon Hackett.

Although quite well known in Australia, Redflow has largely flown “under the radar” in North America, Harris says. That’s starting to change, not just with its recent projects, but also reflected in deals and agreements with the likes of Black & Veatch, and Ameresco.

“It’s a culmination of a journey that Redflow has actually been on for many years. In terms of when I joined the company five years ago, but [accelerating] over the last couple of years, where we’ve orientated ourselves towards bigger systems and set some of the foundations for long-term growth, and build some foundations so that the pathway forward is good and exciting.”

With funding coming from California’s efforts to fund scale-up, reference points and learnings in long-duration energy storage, Redflow joins a “reasonably limited number of other technologies” that the CEC is funding.

“Hopefully, that sets us up as a springboard of bigger projects and market validation, and proves to be a really strong reference point for us in the US, but also in other markets as well,” Harris says.

Why zinc-bromine?

Long time readers of this site may recall Redflow making a push in its home country towards larger systems some years ago under Simon Hackett, where the system size created by stacking up 10kWh flow battery units reached 450kWh in a containerised system, for a project in Adelaide.

Harris says the 2MWh system for Anaergia built on this foundational effort, with one key difference being that the voltage had to be stepped up to 48V for the larger-scale project. At the same time, Redflow’s options in terms of inverter providers comfortable with working alongside that has grown in the past few years, making it far less challenging than may have been first thought.

One question it’d be reasonable to anticipate readers asking, is: when most of the flow battery industry is focused on different electrolyte chemistries, why zinc, why bromine and why zinc-bromine?

“Zinc is the fourth most abundant metal in the world, it comes from some very benign places, and it’s reasonably stable in terms of its pricing. And we use bromine that comes from the Dead Sea, but we can also source that from other places in the world, including the US,” Harris says.

“What that also provides us with is much higher energy and power density. So when you look at the power energy density of our zinc bromine battery versus other flow batteries, notably vanadium and iron, we’re about 1.8 volts per cell, I think those other ones are about sort of 1.3, 1.4. So you automatically get a density advantage. We don’t see any other chemistry, at that kind of commercially proven level that we do, that has the same energy density outside of lithium.”

Redflow CEO and managing director Tim Harris with ZBM2 batteries, the previous iteration to its now-third generation ZBM3. Image: Redflow

That potential for higher energy and power density gives Redflow a perceived three-way advantage, Harris says.

“For the first project with Anaergia they looked around at other flow batteries, because they had a very set footprint around it, and vanadium and iron couldn’t fit onto that concrete pad that they already had.”

“But you also get lower balance of system costs when you’re dealing with energy density that has that advantage and so that goes to your overall balance of plant systems.”

Harris claims it also means Redflow batteries can be sent to project sites with electrolyte already inside, where they can be simply put down and wired to plug and play.

Besides the difference in electrolyte material, the core design of the Redflow battery is that of a hybrid – which plates and deplates zinc in a perhaps similar way to EOS Energy Enterprises’ aqueous zinc cathode battery, but paired with liquid electrolyte.

“Our core design means that the way that we’ve designed the battery, and plating zinc, is that we believe that we can control the chemistry a lot better, and our ability to charge and discharge the battery, vary discharge duration between 2-hours up to 12-hours.

“We also have a ‘hibernation mode’, where we can prepare the stack, have a battery at 100% and then put that battery into hibernation mode without any self-discharge. It takes about 30 seconds to speed up the pumps after you take it out of hibernation mode. So it gives you lots of flexibility. If you’re looking at a natural weather event where you want to have the maximum backup power available, you can sequentially put each of our batteries into hibernation mode and bring them out again,” Harris says.

California: ‘The place to be for long-duration storage’

Those characteristics were among the factors that led to Redflow’s selection for the CEC-funded project with the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians. To be clear, vanadium redox flow batteries, and ESS Inc’s iron-saltwater flow batteries have also been chosen for other projects in the programme, so the diverse technologies will likely be complementary to one another as much as competitive.

CEO Harris says that the project will nonetheless provide Redflow with “quite high visibility” from industry watchers and stakeholders, giving the community resilience against public safety power shutoff (PSPS) events and other causes of electricity service disruptions, but also on a day-to-day basis in offsetting power during peak demand periods.

Redflow’s 2MWh project for Anaergia went into operation in late 2021. Image: Redflow.

Redflow found working with project developer and integrator Faraday Microgrids – the recipient of the CEC funding – to be a “match made in heaven,” Harris says.

“We think quite frankly that California is the place to be for long-duration energy storage and they are absolutely leaning into developing and supporting non-lithium batteries like us.

“One aspect where we really feel like California is being a showcase to the rest of the world and actively kind of leaning into non-lithium solutions and longer duration solutions. As they realise that they’re going to need a broad portfolio of energy storage solutions around that and to meet their own needs, they need to make sure that companies like Redflow have the ability to scale up to this kind of level. So that was pretty exciting.”

Continue reading

The project will be developed in partnership with renewable energy investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) via its Flagship Funds and is planned to be situated in Coalburn, Scotland, just to the southeast of Glasgow.

Alcemi chose the project’s location to support the national transmission system by limiting the impact of network constraints. According to the group, the project has “undergone extensive environmental impact assessments to ensure it meets the highest sustainability and safety standards”. The site is also expected to benefit from landscaping measures to limit the visual impact of the project site.

Sister site Solar Power Portal previously reported that Alcemi and CIP had partnered for the development, construction and operation of a 4GW portfolio of UK energy storage assets back in March 2022. This 500MW energy storage site is the fruition of this partnership and will contribute to this growing portfolio.

This however, is not the only UK partnership CIP has sought. Earlier this year, CIP entered into a similar partnership with Amberside Energy to develop a 2GW portfolio consisting of solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects across the UK.

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

Continue reading

Atl Martinez

Holcim US, a Chicago-based company providing sustainable building solutions, will make a significant clean energy investment in northeast Michigan with a new partnership to bring the company’s largest solar project in the Midwest to its own cement plant in Alpena.

The project’s 25 MW solar array will be optimized for maximum energy yield with fixed-tilt high-performance bifacial solar panels that generate power on both the front and back sides.

NorthStar Clean Energy will implement the solar solution, which is anticipated to produce over 30 percent of Holcim’s current energy demand. The company is expected to receive approximately 35,000 MWh of clean power from the project per year under a solar equipment service contract with a minimum term of 20 years.

“The solar project on 100 acres of Holcim’s Alpena property is another powerful example of the investment we are willing to make to address sustainability with urgency,” says Atl Martinez, vice president, procurement at Holcim.

When combined with existing renewable energy efforts, the solar initiative will help the plant self-generate 75% of its electric power needs. Construction of the system will begin this year. Commercial operations are expected to begin in December 2024. “We are committed to reducing our reliance on fossil fuels,” says Michael Nixon, senior vice president, manufacturing at Holcim, “a goal that will benefit the environment as a whole and the Alpena community we have called home for more than 115 years.”

Continue reading

It is the first round of a state-led procurement programme that will see 900MW-1GW of projects funded with grants, with funding coming in large part from EU-wide clean energy-focused schemes.

Greece is part of a handful of countries that have used the money to fund energy storage, alongside Romania, Finland, Croatia, Estonia and, as reported last week, Slovenia.

Greece has an overall energy storage deployment goal of 3GW by 2030 to facilitate a 70% renewable energy target.

Projects in this round will be eligible for grants of up to €200,000 (US$218,000) per MW of installed power.

No technologies were specified, but lithium-ion batteries are the market standard for the vast majority of new energy storage projects today. Some conditions, such as a minimum round-trip efficiency (RTE) of 80%, were included.

This would most likely mean things like compressed air energy storage (CAES) would be excluded as well as most flow battery technologies which generally have at the very most an RTE of 80%.

Projects have until 10 July – in three weeks’ time – to be proposed, with a shortlist of potential winning projects communicated a month later on 3 August. Final evaluation results will be announced a week later, on 10 August.

Winning projects will need to come online by the end of 2025.

There will be two more rounds of 300MW each this year, with the next one including any capacity which is not won in the current process. This means a total of 1GW to be procured through the programme.

Swathes of projects totalling 600MW of battery storage were recently approved by the RAE as companies prepare to submit project proposals, covered by Energy-Storage.news.

You can access the RAE’s documentation relating to the announcement here, in Greek.

Continue reading