A ten-hour duration system using ESS Inc’s (full name ESS Tech Inc) iron and saltwater electrolyte long-duration energy storage (LDES) technology will be commissioned at the site in 2027. The firm offers durations generally of 6-12 hours.

The system is expected to become a standardised building block in LEAG’s plan to deploy 2-3GWh of energy storage as part of the transformation of its legacy power plants. The process will also involve the deployment of 7-14GW of renewable energy generation and 2GW of green hydrogen production, although the announcement did not say how much was planned for the Boxberg site specifically.

The project still requires definitive agreements and normal financial close which are anticipated to conclude in the third quarter of this year. LEAG and partners plan to invest €200 million with further support anticipated from additional investors and stakeholders, the announcement added.

LEAG and ESS Inc have also joined the Energy Resilience Leadership Group (ERLG), an initiative led by Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy and Siemens Energy, founded at the 2023 Munich Security Conference to enhance Europe’s energy resilience by bringing clean energy tech to scale. LEAG and ESS Inc’s project is one of those that the ERLG is working to accelerate.

“A key requirement for our transformation into Germany’s Green Powerhouse is the deployment of cost-effective Long-Duration Energy Storage. We are energised to demonstrate the value of iron flow battery technology at scale,” said Thorsten Kramer, CEO of LEAG.

“The Energy Resilience Leadership Group and Breakthrough Energy have provided an ideal framework to drive rapid technology development and deployment to meet emissions goals as soon as possible.”

Eric Dresselhuys, CEO of ESS, added: “The deployment of renewables and long-duration energy storage will not only deliver reliable, clean energy to effectively replace the baseload power currently provided by coal, it will deliver economic opportunity and a cleaner environment for Germany.”

If it goes ahead it will be by far the company’s largest deployment to-date. It is fairly early on in its path to large-scale commercialisation, with just under US$1 million in revenue last year and recent projects in the kWh range. It finished 2022 with a production capacity of 800MWh.

LEAG until recently had the largest battery energy storage system (BESS) operational in Germany, the 66MW Big Battery Lausitz.

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The firm noted in March that during 2022, almost as much energy storage was deployed in the country as in the preceding two years combined. Around 4.8GW of installations were recorded in 2022, the US market’s biggest year to date, while 2020 and 2021’s totals added up to 5GW.

“We are seeing the effects of supply chain issues and interconnection queue backlogs hinder market growth. This is the first consecutive quarterly decline we have seen in the energy storage market since 2015 when installations were much smaller in volume and more unpredictable,” Wood Mackenzie senior energy storage analyst Vanessa Witte said.

In the report’s Q2 2023 edition, just published, Wood Mackenzie said the US storage industry added 778MW and 2,145MWh in the first quarter of the year. That represents a 26% decline from Q4 2022, and that drop was largely driven by delays impacting the grid-scale segment.

Grid-scale still retains the largest share of output and capacity additions by a long way, with 554MW/1,533MWh recorded in the segment in the first three months of 2023. While that was enough to bring cumulative grid-scale installations in the US above 10GW for the first time, at 10.4GW, as a quarter it was the lowest amount of activity seen since Q2 2021.

More than 1.8GW of projects expected to come online during Q1 were delayed and pushed into commercial operation start dates later in the year. The industry is experiencing “rolling delays”, Wood Mackenzie found, with 80% of Q4 2022’s delayed projects delayed once again from rescheduled commissioning dates in Q1 2023.

The majority of delayed projects, 1.4GW, are expected to come online in Q2, and another 0.2GW in Q3, which means the Q2 pipeline of expected capacity additions looks strong.

Image: Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.

Stronger second quarter ahead

In other words, the good news is that although Q1 was a challenging quarter, as Witte said, deployment volumes are consistently much higher now that just a few years ago, but perhaps more importantly, battery storage system prices have begun to trend downwards once more, as demand from the EV sector has softened.

Battery prices appear to have peaked in late 2022, although a drop in lithium raw materials costs has not been relayed back to module prices.

Meanwhile, the queue for grid interconnection continues to grow, with 430GW of projects waiting, but at least – in part due to the queue already being “bloated” – during Q1 this didn’t grow much.

“While the market has faced challenges, we do anticipate a stronger second quarter, as many project CODs have been pushed, but are still very viable,” Vanessa Witte said, adding that Wood Mackenzie’s outlook for the industry “is still bullish, with projected growth strong through 2027”.

“Near-term we will see some challenges, but we expect them to be corrected and activity to increase as more renewable generation will drive the need for storage,” Witte said.

Wood Mackenzie’s solar industry analysts have forecast that the US’ solar PV installations will reach 20GW this year, a considerable increase from 13GW in 2022, which as Witte implied will support energy storage’s growth too.

The US’ two leading state-level markets, Texas and California, accounted for 84% of project activity in Q1 2023, but delays in both states as well as other big regions Arizona and Hawaii also contributed to that quarterly decline.

Interestingly, in the market segments for residential energy storage and community, commercial and industrial (CCI – previously categorised as ‘non-residential’ in Wood Mackenzie reports) storage conversely enjoyed strong performance in Q1.

Residential enjoyed its highest-ever first quarter figures, with 155.4MW/388.2MWh, versus 141.5MW/340MWh in Q1 2022, although it did record a decline from Q4 2022 – marking the first time in six straight quarters there has been a quarter-on-quarter drop.

CCI meanwhile continues to be the smallest segment by far, but in Q1 2023 saw the first increase in installations after four straight quarters of lower-than-average numbers. In the first quarter of this year, 69.1MW/203.3MWh of CCI deployments were recorded.

Wood Mackenzie is expecting growth in all segments of the market, forecasting close to 75GW of installations from 2023 to 2027. Grid-scale storage will represent about 81% of that total.  

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More than 80,000 registrants are expected to attend Smarter E, across solar, energy storage, e-mobility and adjacent industries. That large number is not just relating to the fact that after more than three years of a global pandemic, the industry is returning to its old self, but also speaks to the rapid growth of clean energy as a business, and as a strategically important political, social and environmental concern.

We kick off our blog today with a quick look at some insights from industry experts, on the topics framing the conversation.

DNV survey: Solar-plus-storage is crucial to energy transition

“Global emissions are continuing to rise; the good news is that we have the technologies to prevent further increase of emissions. Combining solar and storage also opens a wide range of possibilities to provide 100% renewable energy for society in a reliable and cost-efficient way.”

Those are the words of Ditlev Engel, CEO of energy systems at DNV. According to a survey of industry professionals conducted recently by the standards and certification group, 92% said that solar-plus-storage is a powerful tool to increase efficiency and resiliency of global energy networks.

Called ‘Trilemma and Transition,’ the 50-page survey covers a wide range of topics, with views of more than 1,300 senior industry workers canvassed from energy generation and solutions providers to large end-users.

The trilemma referred to, by the way, is the need to increase energy sustainability, affordability and security, all at the same time. DNV found that while policy and regulatory changes are needed all over the world to better tackle this convergence of priorities, businesses are for their part developing new business models and working together.

“It’s important that we act fast for the collective good, remove barriers for clean energy and plan for long term progress,” Engel said.

The DNV Industry Insights survey is conducted alongside the publication of the group’s Energy Transition Outlook series.

Making energy industry forecasts out to the mid-21st Century, DNV is predicting that not only will solar PV markets grow 20 times over by 2050, but that solar uptake increasingly goes hand-in-hand with energy storage over that time.

For example, within 10 years, about 20% of all new solar will be coupled with energy storage, and by 2050, that figure will be closer to 50%.

One really interesting insight is that while adding energy storage does of course increase the cost of investing in solar PV, the added value of storage in solar capture price is already tangible. Being able to store energy generated during daylight hours for sale when demand rises will by 2038 mean that “capture price advantage” will outweigh the cost of the storage system.

With solar PV plants expected to last about 25 years in operation and battery storage systems roughly 10-15 years, planning for that scenario already needs to be ongoing.

More than two-thirds of solar industry professionals surveyed said they already have revenue-generating business interests in the storage sector, and more than half expect to increase their storage investments within the next year.

However, worker and skills shortages, and uncertainty over public policy direction remain the biggest threats perceived to the rapid uptake of solar and storage, while permitting and licensing processes were cited by 87% of solar industry respondents as critical to achieving net zero targets.

Apricum: Clean energy finance expert’s take on top trends

The EU’s recognition of the importance of energy storage, standardisation of system integrator offerings, progress in lithium and alternative battery technologies and the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) are among topics set to frame conversations at ees Europe, according to Florian Mayr, partner at Apricum – The Cleantech Advisory.

The clean energy finance expert highlighted six trends to look out for at the show in a recent blog post on Apricum’s website.

In short, these are:

System integrators continue to play a core role, and their strategies and technology choices both follow and set directions the industry takes. Mayr noted that two key trends shaping that direction today include a greater degree of system standardisation from major players like Fluence, Tesla and Wartsila, and an increase in the “comprehensiveness” of their offerings. The big players’ battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions are increasingly delivered to customers as modular, easily replicable factory-produced products, rather than heavily customised project-to-project systems seen in the past. At the same time, system integrators are more frequently offering turnkey BESS solutions, incorporating hardware and software from power conversion systems (PCS) to transformers, while many now also include EPC and O&M services in their suite.

With the recent European Union (EU) Electricity Market Reforms, currently in their draft stage, the union has included energy storage as a key flexibility resource. Its proposals include removing or lowering grid fees for storage, making storage eligible for capacity markets, and the need for regular assessments of the pace and scale of storage adoption in Member States. Alongside that, there is also the Net-Zero Industry Act, described as comparable to the US’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in promoting the manufacturing value chain for clean energy, including energy storage.

An increasing interest in alternative technologies has been observed, Florian Mayr wrote, partly because of lithium-ion supply chain challenges, but also because of new tech that could deliver on applications such as long-duration energy storage (LDES) that lithium traditionally has not been considered for. Sodium-ion could be an immediate competitor or successor to lithium if it can find scale and the technology meets market demands, but other battery tech, from sodium-sulfur and flow batteries to zinc, plus thermal and mechanical storage technologies, could all find a place – if cost reductions can make them competitive.

AI-powered software is quickly enabling asset owners to increase renewable energy penetration, improve efficiency, reduce cost and maximise revenues from market participation, according to Florian Mayr. For energy storage, the two key areas where this is being achieved are in optimising the dispatch of assets, and in providing predictive maintenance.

The commercial and industrial (C&I) segment of the market is largely “dormant”, Mayr wrote, and this is being played out not just in Europe but in other markets like the US too. Low energy prices and relatively high storage system costs have for a long time rendered most C&I use cases economically unviable, but the events of the last year or so, resulting in “sky-high” electricity prices is changing the dynamic, according to Florian Mayr. Corporates are also seeing energy storage as a key enabler for onsite renewable energy consumption.

According to the Apricum partner, the past 18 months have been “exciting” for developers of large-scale storage, due to an “abundance of equity for financing grid-scale storage,” from an increasingly diverse set of backers. That said, Europe’s biggest and fastest-growing energy storage market to this date, the UK, is seeing a saturation of key markets for ancillary services and Florian Mayr said this is precipitating a shift towards financiers moving into continental markets in Europe. Mayr pinpointed four countries as emerging leaders: Italy, Belgium, Germany and Poland, but with the ongoing European policy, regulatory and fiscal shifts to support clean energy, it seems likely the whole of Europe will see an uplift in activity. However, Apricum has concerns that only a small number of lenders are making credit available for storage, that lending structures are often fairly localised and may not support European uptake uniformly across the continent and that while developers and transmission system operators (TSOs) favour larger projects, this is not always the case with lenders.

Data & images: Rystad Energy’s Battery Solution analysis service.

Rystad: 18GW annual market in Europe by 2030

Energy industry analysis group Rystad Energy has forecast that by 2030, annual BESS installations worldwide, across all scales, will total 110GW and 400GWh.

Of that megawatt figure, Europe will be the third biggest market, after Asia and North America, with Rystad Energy forecasting 18GW of annual installations on the continent.

The European market for residential storage looks particularly strong, due to incentives and high grid electricity prices, while the European Green Deal Industrial Plan will support BESS developers as the policy package seeks to support the European economy’s transition to sustainable and low-carbon industry.

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John Hensley

The recently released U.S. Energy Storage Monitor report, by the American Clean Power Association (ACP) and Wood Mackenzie, states that across all segments of the industry, in the first quarter of 2023, the U.S. energy storage market added 2,145 MWh, marking a 26% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2022.

The grid-scale segment installed 1,553 MWh in the first quarter of 2023, recording the second-straight quarterly decline and falling 33% below first quarter of 2022 installations, the report also notes. California and Texas continue to drive the energy storage market, accounting for 84% of activity in the first quarter, but project delays contributed to the diminishing environment.

“The recent energy storage market slowdown illustrates how storage development is already interwoven with new solar and wind projects – and how trade and policy issues in those sectors affect storage deployment,” says John Hensley, ACP’s vice president of research & analytics. “It’s crucial we continue to tackle supply chain and interconnection hurdles.”

Wood Mackenzie has slated forecasted 2023 additions from the grid-scale project pipeline at 8.9 GW and 10.5 GW across all segments. While the forecasted capacity for 2023 decreased slightly quarter-over-quarter (QoQ), total additions for all segments are still expected to double by end-of-year 2023 from 2022.

“This is the first consecutive quarterly decline we have seen in the energy storage market since 2015 when installations were much smaller in volume and more unpredictable,” observes Vanessa Witte, senior analyst with Wood Mackenzie’s energy storage team.

Community, commercial and industrial (CCI) installations bounced back in the first quarter of 2023, after four consecutive quarters of lower-than-average activity. In total, the CCI market installed 203.3 MWh for its second-highest quarter on record and 145% above year-over-year (YoY) numbers.

Residential storage recorded its second-highest quarter on record at 388.2 MWh but there was a decline from the fourth quarter of 2022 installed capacity. This marked the first QoQ decline for the residential sector in nearly two years.

Market declines are a cause for concern but seem to be merely temporary, notes ACP’s Hensley: “The forecast through 2027 is encouraging and we remain confident in the long-term growth trajectory of the sector. The need of energy storage will continue to grow as more clean energy technologies are added to the grid.”

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The non-profit CCA pays the IOUs on the customer’s behalf for electricity delivery, while the CCA takes responsibility for the electricity generation.

According to the California Community Choice Association, which represents the groups, around 11 million people in the state are served by 25 different CCAs.

Many that sign up with CCAs often choose them because they pledge to supply higher shares of low-carbon energy and as regular readers of Energy-Storage.news will know, several CCAs have become prolific adopters of renewables and latterly energy storage.  

Classified as load-serving entities under California energy market rules, CCAs need to provide resource adequacy (RA) to the CAISO grid, which means that, like IOUs, they need to procure storage resources with at least 4-hour duration. Some CCAs have gone further and begun contracting for long-duration energy storage (LDES), including 8-hour duration lithium batteries, and vanadium redox flow battery projects.

Sonoma Clean Power’s latest deal is with Idemitsu Renewables, the US solar and energy storage developer-power producer subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Idemitsu Kosan.

The pair have signed a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) for Idemitsu’s 84MWp solar PV, 38MW/152MWh Azalea project in California’s Kern County, home to many of the state’s solar farms as well as many of its fossil fuel extraction sites.

Azalea is expected to go into commercial operation during 2025 and will serve Sonoma Clean Power’s customers, who are in Mendocino and Sonoma Counties.

Sonoma Clean Power claims its electricity is roughly the same price as IOU Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), but is much cleaner: in 2020, PG&E’s power mix was 31% renewable, versus 49% renewable power sold by Sonoma Clean Power. The CCA is in PG&E’s service area.

In June last year, Energy-Storage.news reported as Sonoma Clean Power signed a PPA for an 11.6MW solar PV plant with a 8MW/32MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), with financing company Luminia, located within Sonoma County. Alongside solar, its other low-carbon resources include geothermal energy.

CPA launches multi-source procurement RFO

Sonoma Clean Power is also among CCAs exploring options in long-duration energy storage (LDES). Another is Clean Power Alliance (CPA), which recently contracted an offtake deal with NextEra for an 8-hour duration lithium-ion battery storage system and has regularly featured on this site for various solar-plus-storage and standalone energy storage procurements.

Clean Power Alliance this month launched a Request for Offers (RFO) seeking large-scale energy resources including renewables, energy storage and dispatchable thermal energy.

The RFO opened on 9 June and submissions are due by 19 July, with shortlisted entrants notified in mid-to-late September this year, and contracts to be negotiated from then until January 2024.

CPA has hired energy consulting firm Ascend Analytics to administer the RFO process. Resources in five product categories are being sought, with most stipulating a project size of at least 5MW and up to 500MW each.

They include:

Renewable generation-only contracts

Renewable generation-plus-storage

Standalone energy storage

Resource adequacy-only contracts

Dispatchable thermal generation with RA contracts, including gas-fired projects using green hydrogen or renewable biogas blend

Energy storage resources in the applicable categories have to be 4-hour duration, and in the case of storage paired with renewables, capacity must not exceed 100% of the nameplate generation capacity. Contracts with the CCA for the first three categories will be for 10 to 20 year terms, while the latter two have shorter terms.

Read more of Energy-Storage.news’ coverage of the Community Choice Aggregator space.

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In partnership with Ampt, a DC optimizer company focused on large-scale PV systems, JONSOL, the German manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) modules, has become the first module and system supplier worldwide to offer an optimized PV plus DC-coupled energy storage solution. JONSOL has been working with Ampt to develop a much-needed string inverter-based DC-coupled PV+storage solution that delivers cost savings through flexibility, scalability and simplicity.

The pre-engineered JONSOL solution is comprised of JONSOL modules, Ampt string optimizers and a bidirectional battery inverter to provide a flexible PV+storage design block that scales from small microgrids to larger industrial-sized PV systems that can be deployed on rooftops, in the field or floating on water.

The JONSOL solution can be operated in parallel on the DC side to connect several bidirectional inverters to a single high-capacity battery. The solution is compatible with lithium-ion batteries and other commercially available battery types to provide flexible storage capacity and durations to meet specific application needs like peak shaving or ancillary services. The inverters can also be connected in parallel on the AC side in unlimited numbers for a wide range of system sizes.

Ampt string optimizers are DC/DC converters that perform maximum power point tracking (MPPT) on each string of PV modules. With Ampt, the PV array is connected through the optimizers and directly to the DC bus between the battery system and inverter. Ampt optimizers also include V-match technology, allowing the optimizers to deliver full available power from the array while automatically matching the DC bus voltage as it changes with the battery state of charge. In addition, Ampt optimizers capture the energy that would otherwise be lost to increase the lifetime production of the system.

By pairing the bidirectional battery inverter and Ampt power management components together, the JONSOL PV plus DC-coupled energy storage solution eliminates the need for a dedicated PV inverter to save on equipment costs and improve the system’s round-trip efficiency. The string inverter-based design using a battery inverter also achieves higher uptime to improve lifetime performance. It has fewer conversion losses, better reactivity, and faster response times compared to other systems on the market. When combined with JONSOL modules, customers benefit from a fully compatible and integrated solution.

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Announced earlier this year following the launch of a concept model in 2021, the Renault 5 urban electric “Supermini” is due to go on sale in 2024. Named in tribute to the Renault R5 popularised in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Renault, it will be largely based on the same technology as its existing ZOE EV, which has a 50kWh battery pack.

Mobilize and The Mobility House will roll out the V2G service for the new car next year. In addition to the bi-directional V2G technology, the company’s smart charging software, ChargePilot, will enable users to charge their vehicles with low-carbon energy and to minimise their charging costs by selecting off-peak times at which to draw power from the grid.

The pair’s joint offering bundle includes EV and bi-directional charger, Mobilize’s bi-directional charging station, and an energy contract through The Mobility House which guarantees carbon-neutral energy supply for charging and covers the sale of electricity back into the grid.

By using that electricity as a flexibility asset for the network, helping integrate renewable energy and managing peaks in demand, delivering various grid-balancing services, drivers will be able to lower their cost of EV ownership, the companies claimed.

In August last year, The Mobility House announced that it had joined EPEX SPOT SE, an exchange for power spot markets across 13 countries in Europe, on which it would begin trading 100MW of power from 4,500 EV batteries.

V2X aggregation is like virtual power plants, but with cars

The company’s Aggregation Platform works like a virtual power plant (VPP) aggregator, taking a fleet of EV assets and playing them into energy market opportunities. At the time, The Mobility House said its platform was already active in Germany, France and the Netherlands, with launches in the UK and US planned.

For example, the company participated in a 2020 vehicle-to-grid demonstration project with European grid operator TenneT and the German Ministry for Energy and Economic Affairs, where a number of Nissan Leaf EVs with 40kWh battery packs aided the integration of renewable energy onto the grid.

In November last year, The Mobility House raised US$50 million financing in a Series C round, from investors including Mercedes-Benz. The company has also been building up its US activities, including a project in California to aggregate stored energy in public transit buses which can then be used to provide energy to community buildings in the event of power outages.

As has been noted by this site previously, vehicle-to-grid, as well as vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging, vehicle-to-buildings (V2B) for commercial premises (often all bundled under the catch-all vehicle-to-X terminology) are all technically feasible use cases.

However, barriers to adoption include regulatory and market issues: most EVs aren’t being designed with V2X in mind, and aren’t warrantied as such, to give one example. Another is that many consumers considered their next car purchase are either unaware of vehicle-to-grid or unconvinced it will offer them sufficient benefit. Meanwhile, most electricity markets are not configured to factor in bi-directional power flows to and from the grid.

In a recent interview with our UK-focused sister site Current±, energy and mobility expert Claire Miller said that the next step in unlocking the huge potential of V2G is in the hands of manufacturers to enable, as well as politicians and regulators to recognise it and value it accordingly.

The Mobility House CEO Robert Hienze said the partnership with Mobilize would bring V2G to the “mainstream”.

Other carmakers to make recent announcements around V2X technologies include BMW, Volvo and General Motors (GM) while V2G tech company Nuvve recently said it will aggregate 40MW of EV chargers and batteries to play into frequency regulation markets in Nordic countries.  

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Construction began on the privately funded 150MW/150MWh battery system in December 2021, as reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time. Funding has come from French utility group ENGIE, and Macquarie Asset Management-owned Green Investment Group (GIG).

GIG launched developer Eku Energy last November, just under a year after construction began. Eku Energy took over GIG’s development interests including the Hazelwood project and a 40MW BESS project in the UK. With GIG claiming a 3GWh development pipeline at the time, Eku Energy was created to develop, build, own and manage its BESS projects going forward.

For Fluence, it marks the company’s first deployment of its GridStack sixth generation BESS solution in Australia. Fluence will also provide operations and maintenance (O&M) for the system.

An official inauguration event was held for Hazelwood BESS this morning, attended by dignitaries including Victoria’s minister for energy & resources, Lily D’Ambrosio, and executives from ENGIE, Eku Energy and battery system supplier and integrator Fluence.

It is sited in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. It’s a region known for its areas of natural beauty, but has also been home to both coal mines and adjoining coal power stations that for about 100 years have provided most of the state’s electricity.

A coal mine at Hazelwood closed in 2017 after 60 years in service. ENGIE, the mine’s owner and operator, has been working to decommission the mine’s infrastructure and restore the land. For the BESS, the project partners have been able to benefit from Hazelwood Power Station’s 1,600MW transmission network connection.

Back in August 2021, ENGIE Australia and New Zealand CEO Augustin Honorat said that having begun as a power station operator in Hazelwood and the Latrobe Valley, the company became an investor in a multi-million dollar project to rehabilitate the site.

It is now “the builder and owner of a new energy asset that helps with the decarbonisation of the energy system,” Honorat said.  

Aerial views of the 150MW project. Images: ENGIE, Eku Energy, Fluence.

Historic Latrobe Valley’s coal sites turning to BESS

As noted by the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), two other significant coal power plant and mine sites in the Latrobe Valley are undergoing rehabilitation.

Utility EnergyAustralia will cease electricity production at its Yallourn coal power station by 2028, and another, AGL, has committed to closing its Loy Yang A power station by 2035 – although it is licensed to continue running the associated Loy Yang coal mine until 2048, to feed the existing Loy Yang B power plant.

Energy-Storage.news has reported on BESS projects planned to help replace and aid the decommissioning and repurposing of Yallourn and Loy Yang.

In March 2021, EnergyAustralia said it would be building a 350MW, 4-hour duration (1,400MWh) battery storage facility at Yallourn, to come online by 2026.

The company said that although the 1,450MW Yallourn coal power plant generates about 22% of Victoria’s electricity and about 8% of electricity in the National Electricity Market (NEM), it costs between AU$200 million and AU$300 million a year to run, and taking it offline would lower EnergyAustralia’s emissions by 60% relative to 2021 figures.

In December last year, EnergyAustralia filed planning applications for the project, called Wooreen Energy Storage System. While it won’t be located at the actual site of Yallourn – which would be tricky given that it is scheduled to come online before the plant’s full closure – it will be located at another thermal power plant site, the 460MW Jeeralang gas peaker plant in the Latrobe Valley’s Hazelwood North region.

Meanwhile, AGL, which like EnergyAustralia is a utility generator-retailer, received state government planning approval in late 2021 to put a 200MW/800MWh BESS at the site of Loy Yang. A few months after that, AGL also got approval in the state of New South Wales for a 500MW/2,000MWh BESS project proposal at the retiring Liddell power station.

“Victoria is leading the nation in delivering battery and energy storage projects, with our ambitious energy storage targets ensuring that Victoria continues to attract industry investment and collaboration opportunities like this,” minister D’Ambrosio said today.

“The Latrobe Valley has been the home of Victoria’s energy generation for decades and new investment in technologies like energy storage will help solidify its role in our renewable energy future.”

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.

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Figures from industry advocate SunWiz suggest more than 47,000 residential batteries were installed across the country last year, a 55% leap on the previous year.

It was also recorded in 2022 that one battery was installed for every seven solar systems added to the network, compared with one for every 12 new solar installations the year before, with around 180,000 Australian households now having a battery system.

The desire for energy self-sufficiency has become a prominent driving force for homeowners to adopt battery storage systems. While solar energy offers numerous benefits, batteries offer consumers a sense of independence. While transitioning to renewable energy aids in reducing electricity expenses, the advantages extend beyond that.

By diminishing reliance on the traditional power grid and moving to stored energy, home owners attain a sense of empowerment and control over their electricity supply.

Following recent announcements, such as the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) decision to levy a fee on solar users, families throughout the country are bracing themselves for additional financial strain, and solar users are searching for a way to retake control of their power.

Energy providers such as Ausgrid have presented proposals to regulators that would result in households being charged between 0.94 cents (US$0.0064) per kilowatt hour (c/Kwh) and 3.6 c/Kwh for exported energy, surpassing established thresholds.

Despite the Australian Energy Market Commission clarifying that the solar export tariff is designed to ease ‘traffic congestion’ through a two-way pricing mechanism, there is still a lack of transparency surrounding the precise amount of the fee hike for solar users.

Therefore, Australian households are concerned about the possibility of shouldering an extra cost that could worsen the existing cost of living crisis, which is already placing significant strain on households nationwide.

Battery storage systems have emerged as a key enabler in addressing this issue. These advanced devices allow excess electricity generated by solar panels during peak production periods to be stored and used when solar energy is unavailable.

By providing a reliable and continuous power supply, battery storage systems have unlocked new possibilities for solar energy consumption and enhanced energy independence.

Benefits for consumers

The rise of battery storage solutions has empowered consumers in several ways. They enable households and businesses to maximise the utilisation of their solar energy systems by storing surplus electricity for later use. This flexibility not only reduces reliance on the grid but also helps lower electricity bills and improves overall energy efficiency.

Battery storage solutions offer backup power during grid outages, ensuring a reliable energy supply even during emergencies. This is particularly important in regions prone to natural disasters or areas with unreliable grid infrastructure.

Through battery storage, consumers can maintain essential services, power critical appliances, and stay connected, enhancing their resilience and quality of life.

Battery storage systems contribute to the overall stability and reliability of the electricity grid. By storing excess solar energy and releasing it back into the grid during peak demand periods, these systems help alleviate strain on the grid infrastructure, reduce transmission losses, and mitigate the need for expensive grid upgrades.

The future is batteries

As battery technology continues to advance and costs decline, the adoption of battery storage solutions is expected to skyrocket. Innovations such as lithium-ion batteries, improved energy management systems (EMS), and smart grid integration are enhancing the efficiency, reliability, and affordability of these solutions.

Governments and utilities providers worldwide are recognising the potential of battery storage in transforming the energy landscape. Incentives, grants, and favourable policies are being introduced to encourage the deployment of battery storage systems, making them more accessible to consumers and accelerating the transition towards a sustainable and decentralised energy system.

Battery storage solutions are revolutionising the solar energy sector, allowing consumers to harness the full potential of solar power while overcoming the limitations of intermittency. By providing energy independence, cost savings, and grid stability, these solutions are empowering individuals and businesses to actively participate in the clean energy revolution.

About the Author

Joel Power is head of battery storage and dealerships at Smart Energy, a vertically integrated solar PV solutions provider headquartered in Byron Bay, Australia and founded in 2016.

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CubicPV, a solar manufacturing and materials company based in Bedford, Mass., has secured new firm equity commitments in excess of $100 million dollars in support of its United States factory plans and tandem product roadmap.

The investment will be divided in two tranches. The first $33 million will be released immediately. The second tranche is tied to attaining specific project goals. Led by SCG Cleanergy (a wholly owned subsidiary of SCG), Cubic’s shareholder base committed the capital to further accelerate the company’s growth strategy. Hunt Energy Enterprises and Breakthrough Energy Ventures were also contributors.

The investment is a vote of confidence in Cubic’s ability to meet the expected demand for U.S.-produced wafers and lead the market transformation to tandem module technology. It continues to make steady progress toward building 10 GW of wafer production in the United States, a direct result of the long-term industrial policy contained within the Inflation Reduction Act.

Cubic has completed its conceptual design and scoping for the project, narrowed its site selection decision to two final possible locations, engaged with an industry-leading project management company and is in the process of completing the detailed design. It also remains on track with respect to financing the factory and has received indicative term sheets exceeding the required total equity for the new factory.

“With its deep experience in silicon wafer production and ownership of highly innovative proprietary technologies, Cubic is ideally positioned to play a key role in the world’s embrace of solar-powered electricity generation,” says Tim McCaffery, global investment director, SCG. “We continued to be impressed with the strength of the team, their progress against plan and their commitment to manufacturing and innovation excellence.”

Cubic has appointed David Gustafson as president of the new wafer facility. Gustafson will lead the planning, design, ramp and operation of Cubic’s factory. He brings extensive manufacturing leadership and engineering experience, most recently leading the manufacturing functions for 5,000 people, across seven states and eight U.S. factories for a Fortune 500 company. Guggenheim Securities is acting as a financial advisor to Cubic.

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