JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd., a solar module manufacturer, has unveiled its Second Generation Tiger Neo panel family. The upgraded Tiger Neo family includes three series with up to 445 Wp for 54-cell, 615 Wp for 72-cell, and 635 Wp for 78-cell and module efficiency up to 22.27%, 23.23% and 22.72% respectively.

This generation of Tiger Neo panels are available with up to 23.23% efficiency at the module level, and 615Wp power output for the 72-cell panel in 182″ format. With up to an 85% bifacial factor, it can push a higher generation on the rear side panel and allow for 15-20% more yield compared to conventional bifacial panels. The further optimized temperature co-efficiency is down to -0.29%/℃.

“We are once again raising the standard of N-type performance with the latest generation of our Tiger Neo panels, which deliver better system performance – even through the most demanding conditions,” says Gener Miao, CMO of JinkoSolar Co. Ltd. “This panel, combined with an industry-leading N-type partner ecosystem and new solutions like ESS, will show what’s truly possible with the solar PV experience going forward.”

Continue reading

SolarEdge Technologies Inc. and Sunnova Energy International Inc., a U.S. Energy as a Service (EaaS) provider, have expanded their long-standing partnership with the addition of the SolarEdge Home Battery to the Sunnova EaaS portfolio. The expansion of the partnership will enable Sunnova’s network of dealers to offer the SolarEdge Home Battery.

The SolarEdge Home Battery’s highly efficient DC-coupled design requires just one power conversion when consuming PV stored energy, compared to three with AC-coupled batteries. This can add up to 10 days of saved energy for every year of use when compared to a typical 10 kW PV system in self consumption mode. In addition, the SolarEdge Home Battery provides continuous power, enabling consumers to power more and larger devices, such as washing machines and HVACs, for longer periods of time.

“Homeowners’ energy demands are increasing at a time when utility bills are skyrocketing and grid instability is becoming more frequent,” says William J. (John) Berger, founder and CEO of Sunnova. “The addition of the SolarEdge Home Battery to our Energy as a Service offering marks an important next step forward in our mission to deliver highly robust, industry-leading solutions that meet homeowner demand to live in a more energy-efficient and energy-independent way.”

“Sunnova’s extensive network of dealers now have access to our highly efficient, high-power DC battery that will enable homeowners to take even greater control of their energy usage and power more of their lives with clean, renewable solar energy,” comments Zvi Lando, CEO of SolarEdge Technologies. “We look forward to building on our successful relationship with Sunnova to help unlock the full potential of solar power for additional homeowners across the U.S.”

Each SolarEdge Home Battery provides 9.7 kWh of backup capacity and up to nine batteries (three per inverter) can be stacked on a single backup system, for up to 87.3 kWh of backup capacity and 30 kW of continuous power. The battery is compliant with the UL9540A advanced safety standard. It is also designed to meet installer demand for a residential solution that is fast and cost effective to install. Accessible cable management and wireless communication speed up installation and decrease commissioning times.

Continue reading

Sitetracker, a deployment operations management software for critical infrastructure providers, has implemented its Quickstart for residential solar companies. This process gets residential solar companies implemented with Sitetracker’s set of workflows in just a matter of weeks so they can realize operational efficiencies sooner and deploy assets faster.

Sitetracker enables critical energy infrastructure companies to manage their large-scale deployments and solve issues like program funding, asset management and field resources. Now, with Sitetracker’s residential solar Quickstart, these companies can implement the software quickly and easily so they can realize benefits including reduced project turnaround time through streamlined site discovery, deployment and ongoing maintenance.

“Amplified by unprecedented demand, residential solar providers are facing a slew of challenges like skilled labor shortages, permitting, and overall installation cycle times, so they need a powerful tool that they can implement quickly and that gives them the best-of-the-best when it comes to process, intelligence, and strategy of deployment operations,” says Parjanya Rijal, Sitetracker’s head of energy products. “The new Residential Solar Quickstart gets them up and running quickly, so they can deploy solar at the speed and scale that today’s rapidly growing market requires.”

Sitetracker’s Quickstart for residential solar comes in three versions: standard, plus and advanced. Sitetracker’s Quickstart solutions for residential solar, EV charging and Sitetracker Telecom help accelerate the deployment of critical infrastructure. Sitetracker plans to continue expanding the Quickstart library in 2023.

“Helping companies deploy critical infrastructure as efficiently as possible is our mission, and we’re innovating at every step based on real-time customer feedback in this dynamic time,” continues Rijal. “The more we can speed the deployment of critical infrastructure, the faster the planet will benefit from us achieving our ambitious energy goals.”

Continue reading

One of Standard Solar’s community solar projects in Minnesota

Standard Solar is expanding its community solar portfolio in Rhode Island with the acquisition of a 4.9 MW project from Freepoint Solar LLC. The Woodville ground-mounted community solar project in Richmond, R.I., was developed by Freepoint Solar. Standard Solar will be the project’s long-term owner and operator. The community solar project, part of Rhode Island’s Renewable Energy Growth Program, will allow customers in the state to benefit from clean energy savings by offsetting their electricity bills with solar energy.

“Providing much-needed relief from rising energy costs to customers is critical to furthering the clean energy economy, and collaborating with partners like Freepoint Solar brings us a step closer to that goal,” says Harry Benson, director of business development for Standard Solar. “This project, which will serve hundreds in the community, plays a significant part in transitioning Rhode Island into a 100 percent renewable energy state and will help reach its goal of being the first state in the nation to do this by 2030.”

“Freepoint Solar is pleased to have teamed with Standard Solar on the Woodville Project and continues to look for opportunities in New England to support the region’s transition toward a renewable future,” comments Peter Ford, managing director of Freepoint Solar. The array is expected to produce 7,700 MWh of clean energy annually. The project is anticipated to be completed in the summer of 2023.

Continue reading

Chris Loehr

Leeward Renewable Energy (LRE) has closed approximately $260 million in construction financing and secured tax equity commitments for its Chaparral Springs Solar + BESS Facility located in Kern County, Calif.

Wells Fargo served as the administrative, green structuring agent and coordinating lead arranger on the construction financing, and MUFG and Silicon Valley Bank served as joint lead arrangers. The debt was issued under the Green Loan Principles, which aim to facilitate and support environmentally sustainable economic activity. Additionally, J.P. Morgan provided approximately $29 million of tax equity investment and committed to investing an additional approximately $114 million once the project is operational, which is expected to occur in September 2023.

The Chaparral Springs Solar + BESS Facility is currently under construction and, when completed, will provide 174 MW of renewable energy to two not-for-profit, community-owned electricity providers, Peninsula Clean Energy and Valley Clean Energy, through two 15-year power purchase agreements. Chaparral Springs will also deliver electricity to the two providers from its 88 MW, 352 MWh battery storage system, which will further improve the resiliency of the region’s clean power grid.

The financing for the Chaparral Springs Solar + BESS facility is an extension of LRE’s previously announced financing for its Rabbitbrush solar and storage project, also in Kern County, and further expands the company’s generation capacity in the county and its growing portfolio of three integrated solar-plus-storage facilities.

“We are pleased to close financing on our Chaparral Springs project and our continuing expansion of our relationship with each of these leading financial institutions as we grow our solar-plus-storage presence in California,” says Chris Loehr, senior vice president of finance. “This milestone follows the successful development and operation of our Rabbitbrush Solar project, which is adjacent to Chaparral Springs, and further demonstrates our commitment to excellence and ability to deliver on our pipeline of contracted projects. We value the continued support from our financial partners as we continue to drive our sustainability mission in all we do.”

Continue reading

The Nest Cam with floodlight, one of Google Nest’s products. Image: Google Nest.

Google’s smart home division has joined a group of companies including Ford, Sunpower and Sunrun in founding a new partnership centred around scaling the market for virtual power plants (VPP).

The companies announced the launch of the Virtual Power Plant Partnership (VP3), led by RMI, a non-profit focused on accelerating the energy transition globally.

Founding members include automotive OEMs Ford and General Motors, smart home solutions providers Google Nest, OhmConnect and SPAN, and distributed energy resources (DERs) platform and VPP solution companies Olivine, SunPower, Sunrun, SwitchDin, and Virtual Peaker.

VP3 will, in its own words, “…work to catalyse industry and transform policy to support scaling VPPs in ways that help advance affordable, reliable electric sector decarbonisation by overcoming barriers to VPP market growth”.

It said that VPPs can leverage EVs, smart thermostats and appliances, batteries, solar PV arrays and additional energy assets to support the grid.

RMI CEO Jon Creyts said: “Our analysis shows that VPPs can reduce peak power demand and improve grid resilience in a world of increasingly extreme climate events. A growing VPP market also means revenue opportunities for hardware, software, and energy-service companies in the buildings and automotive industries. For large energy users, VPPs can significantly reduce energy spend while providing new revenue streams.”

The new organisation will work to:

Catalog, research, and communicate VPP benefits

Develop industry-wide best practices, standards, and roadmaps

Inform and shape policy development

Find out more about VP3 here.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 28-29 March 2023 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.

Continue reading

Carlos Domenech

Enfinity Global Inc. (EG) has completed the acquisition of a 400 MW operational utility-scale solar portfolio. In September 2022, Enfinity Global signed a definitive agreement with Capital Dynamics to acquire a diversified contracted portfolio, consisting of 28 operational solar PV power plants located in California, North Carolina and Idaho, generating recurrent EBITDA of approximately $45 million per year with investment grade counterparties.

“We are thankful for the opportunity to work with Capital Dynamics with the support of our investment partners,” comments Carlos Domenech, CEO of Enfinity Global. “The U.S. alone invested over $100 billion in renewable energy in 2021. To succeed in the energy transition, sound investments need to be aligned to capital in scale.”

The portfolio reached COD within the last five years and holds long-term power purchase agreements with investment grade utility off-takers. It produces 1,175 GWh of clean electricity per year.

“We are grateful for the trust shown by our financing partners, Nomura and AB CarVal,” says Ricardo Díaz, CEO of the Americas of Enfinity Global. “We will continue to expand our presence in the U.S. market by executing our 1.6 GW proprietary pipeline of projects and pursuing further investment opportunities both in M&A transactions and agreements with renewable energy developers.”

Funds managed by AB CarVal, an established global alternative investment manager, and Nomura, a global financial institution, acted as co-financing partners to Enfinity Global.

Enfinity Global was advised on this transaction by an advisory team from CCA Capital LLC and a legal team at McDermott Will & Emery LLP. Other lenders who provided funding at closing included Bayerische Landesbank, New York Branch, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Fifth Third Bank, National Association, Zions Bancorporation N.A.

Continue reading

Workers at Arche Solar construction site in Fulton County, Ohio. (Credit: bp America)

bp’s 134 MW DC (107 MW AC) Arche Solar project in Fulton County, Ohio is beginning construction. bp has secured a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Meta for the project.

“This agreement shows how companies can create jobs, invest in the U.S. economy, and at the same time support net zero ambitions and help the world reduce carbon emissions,” says Dave Lawler, bp America’s chairman and president. “It’s another example of bp partnering to accelerate change and becoming an integrated energy company – one that can help corporations, countries and cities decarbonize.”

bp’s 50:50 joint-venture partner, Lightsource bp, developed the project on behalf of bp and is managing construction.

“We appreciate bp’s partnership in helping keep our commitment to supporting our global operations with 100 percent renewable energy,” comments Urvi Parekh, head of renewable energy at Meta. “In addition to adding new energy to the grid, we are proud that this project will bring additional jobs and investment to Ohio.”

McCarthy Building Companies’ Renewable Energy & Storage team was selected as the main contractor for the project, which will include installation of ultra-low carbon solar panels and smart solar trackers from U.S.-based manufacturers First Solar and Nextracker, respectively.

Continue reading

The battery storage project will be Neoen’s second in the Nordics, after its 30MW system in Finland, pictured, which was also provided by Nidec. Image: Neoen.

France-headquartered independent power producer (IPP) Neoen has given system integrator Nidec ASI the green light to start work on a 40MW battery storage unit in Sweden, Neoen’s first in the country.

Nidec ASI will now start work on the Storen Power Reserve, a one-hour system in the municipality of Ragunda that will provide frequency containment reserve (FCR) ancillary services to transmission system operator Svenska Kraftnät.

The battery system will come into commercial operation in the first half of 2024, the companies said. Neoen will own and operate the asset.

It is Neoen’s first battery storage project in Sweden and its third renewable energy project there, after the Storbrännkullen wind and Hultsfred solar projects which are under construction and set to start construction in the second half of this year, respectively.

It is the company’s second battery project in the Nordics after it enlisted Nidec ASI to build it a 30MW/30MWh unit in Finland in 2020.

Battery energy storage projects in Sweden have started to ramp up in the past year as the country’s pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) reaches the upper limit of its capacity to balance the grid.

Last month, developers OX2 and Ingrid Capacity started work on two battery storage projects totalling 60MW of power while the latter said in September that it was also building a 70MW unit, the largest in the country – all three for 2024 delivery dates.

Sandwiched in between those two announcements by Ingrid was news of what was claimed by project developer Alight to be the largest solar-plus-storage unit in the country, combining a 2MW battery system and an existing 12MW solar PV array. The company said in October that the new energy storage system would come online in two months’ time.

Nidec ASI is the Italy-based industrial solutions division of Japanese conglomerate Nidec Corporation and was ranked as one of the largest battery storage system integrators in the world in IHS Markit’s 2021 report.

It has recently signed big deals with lithium-ion battery gigafactory startup FREYR to build 12GWh of battery energy storage systems a year by 2030, and deploy 5.4GWh of battery systems by an unnamed company in Italy.

Neoen has been even busier in the last few weeks and months with several large project announcements in Australia.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the eighth annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 22-23 February 2023. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

Continue reading

Infographic on the twin BESS projects and how they will work in partnership with the run-of-river hydroelectric plants. Image: RWE.

International energy company RWE is about to take two battery storage projects virtually coupled with existing run-of-river hydroelectric plants into commercial operation in Germany.

The company announced the completion of the two lithium-ion battery storage projects in Lingen (Lower Saxony) and Werne (North Rhine-Westphalia), which total 117MW of power and 128MWh of energy storage, yesterday (9 January).

The facilities are going through a trial run and will begin commercial operation in the next few days, it added. Earlier statements provided to Energy-Storage.news by the company said the Werne facility would enter commercial operations in November 2022.

The Lingen site is the smaller of the two at 45MW while Werne is likely to be Germany’s largest operational battery storage system at 72MW, ahead of Germany utility LEAG’s 66MW Big Battery Lausitz and Netherlands-based utility Enecon’s BESS Jardelund at 48MW.

Chinese battery major CATL provided the battery cells which RWE integrated into its own proprietary battery enclosures. RWE will also manage the facilities through its energy management system (EMS). The units will mainly provide grid ancillary services, for which prices have increased dramatically in the past 18 months.

The two systems will be virtually coupled with RWE’s existing run-of-river hydroelectric facilities along the Moselle River. The company said that by doing this and selectively regulating the plants’ flow rate it can increase the total capacity of power available for grid stabilisation by 15%. Tests have been successfully carried out on this software and regular application of the coupling programme is scheduled to begin in spring.

RWE said it invested €50 million (US$54 million) into the two battery storage projects. This is significantly lower than the rough benchmark figure for lithium-ion battery systems of US$1 million per MW of power that Energy-Storage.news has observed in other projects.

Energy-Storage.news has asked the company to comment on the figure and will update this article when a response is received.

Roger Miesen, CEO of RWE Generation, said: “With the increasing expansion of renewable energies, Germany needs innovative storage solutions on an industrial scale that can step in when the wind and sun are not supplying. In terms of size and technology, we are setting benchmarks in this country with our mega-battery. The completed battery storage facilities and our hydroelectric power plants on the Moselle will work hand in hand in the future to help stabilise the electricity grid.”

Is is the latest in a flurry of battery storage projects that RWE has brought online or announced in the last few months.

Just last week, Energy-Storage.news reported on the commissioning of its 4.8MW/9.6MWh co-located project while in November it announced it would build two similar projects – all three at its lignite mines in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The same month, it announced its biggest battery projects yet – two systems totalling 220MW, also in the western state, which will be coupled with existing generation plants similarly to the Werne and Lingen units.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the eighth annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 22-23 February 2023. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

Continue reading