The installed capacity is consistently rising each year, attributable to a notable upsurge in both submitted and approved planning applications.
Similarly, energy storage that is co-located with solar farms in the UK is following a similar trend, with 312MW/465MWh currently in operation. It is anticipated that this capacity will increase to over 1GWh by the end of 2024.
Planned energy storage co-located with solar PV projects in the UK
The graphic below displays the total planned capacity (including projects from screening/scoping to under-construction) in MWh of energy storage in the UK by year, with the capacity co-located with solar shown in yellow.
During the initial stages of the planning process, many developers only provide quotes for the megawatt (MW) capacity being developed. Therefore, we have estimated that most of these projects will have a duration of at least 2 hours. However, it’s important to note that as energy storage technology advances, these estimates could end up being higher.

The total planned capacity for energy storage projects in the UK is 85GW/175GWh, with 20% of this coming from storage capacity co-located with solar sites. Image: Solar Media Market Research
Looking at the graph above, the energy storage market saw initial activity in 2015, followed by a surge of applications in 2017. Subsequently, there was a slowdown for a couple of years; but since 2019, there has been a significant year-on-year increase.
The surge in 2017 can be attributed to the successful EFR (Enhanced Frequency Response) auction in 2016, which encouraged developers to submit applications. The recent growth is driven by the successful approval and completion of previous projects, as well as by the increase in average project size.
The total planned capacity for 2023 is almost 60GWh. This year-on-year increase is expected to continue into 2024, as large-scale projects – including those already in the TEC register – are being submitted into planning.
The total planned capacity for energy storage projects in the UK is 85GW/175GWh, including any submissions to local planning authorities, whether they are full applications or scoping/screening applications.
Of this total, 20% comes from storage capacity co-located with solar sites, with the proportion of this increasing each year. In 2023, over 25% (15GWh) of the total capacity comes from storage co-located with solar sites.
Additionally, in 2023, Innova Renewables submitted a project (co-located with 49.9MWac of solar), with a storage capacity of over 1GW (and likely to have a duration of at least 2 hours). This is the largest co-located storage project submitted so far in the UK.
Submitted, approved, and built UK capacity
The next graph (below) illustrates the cumulative submitted, approved, and built capacity of energy storage systems co-located with solar. The submitted capacity represents projects that have submitted a full planning application.

The operational capacity for energy storage co-located with solar is currently 312MW/465MWh with a large pipeline to follow. Image: Solar Media Market Research
Currently, the total operational capacity for energy storage in the UK stands at 4.6GW/5.9GWh, and this is anticipated to double in the next couple of years, with 4.9 GW/10GWh of projects under construction.
Of the operational capacity, 312MW/465 MWh is from storage co-located with solar sites, with 430MW/680MWh currently under construction.
Applications for these types of projects mainly started in 2014, but substantial growth in capacity began in 2016. Significant market activity was observed in 2019 as the capacity started to increase rapidly each quarter.
The submitted capacity for storage co-located with solar has exceeded 20GWh, with the approved capacity now at 11.5GWh, and 3GWh of this capacity approved so far in 2024.
There is a clear correlation between the submitted and approved capacity. However, it is anticipated that the built capacity will start to surge soon, similar to the rapid increase in deployment levels witnessed in the total energy storage market.
Build closure status of energy storage projects co-located with solar PV
The graphic below illustrates the status of the construction for energy storage facilities located alongside solar projects, based on their capacity in MWh.

The total market capacity for storage co-located with solar amounts to 43GW/86 GWh. Image: Solar Media Market Research
Most of the early-stage projects – particularly those in the “Pre-application” stage, and “Speculative” projects – are estimated to have a 2-hour duration, which is likely to increase as technology advances. The “Speculative” projects primarily consist of sites from the Transmission Entry Capacity (TEC) register, and many of these projects have connection dates scheduled for 2030 and beyond. It is uncertain which of these sites will actually proceed to the construction phase.
The total market capacity for storage co-located with solar amounts to 43 GW / 86 GWh. Excluding the “Speculative” projects, the capacity comes to 22 GW / 45 GWh, representing projects that are either in the planning process or construction phase. Until now, most of the operational capacities for storage with solar have been less than 50 MWh, with the majority coming from projects with capacities less than 5 MWh.
Projects in the “Application Approved” phase showcase a variety of sizes, with some ranging from 5 to 20 MWh. However, capacities in the earlier stages of development, including “Application Submitted” projects or “Pre-application” projects, are almost all larger than 100MWh.
At present, 380MW/600MWh is already under construction, with a substantial amount of additional capacity to follow, including 5.2GW/11GWh that has been approved in planning. Given that it takes 2-3 years from application approval to final commissioning, it can be expected that this operational capacity will increase significantly in the future.
Ireland’s co-located energy storage and solar
Moving on to Ireland, the next graph shows the capacity of energy storage co-located with solar in the country, segmented by project size and quarter. The submitted capacity in 2023 was the highest since the market began.

The total operational energy storage capacity in Ireland is over 700MWh, with only 36MWh coming from storage capacity co-located with solar sites. Image: Solar Media Market Research
In Ireland, the planning process does not require pre-applications; as such, the graph above represents only full applications submitted.
The graph uses MW instead of MWh because it’s still early days for Ireland, making it difficult to estimate the duration of the projects.
Currently, the total operational energy storage capacity in Ireland is over 700MWh, with only 36MWh of that coming from storage capacity co-located with solar PV sites.
The fluctuations and random spikes in the graph are due to larger-than-normal projects being submitted at different times. Despite this, the graph still indicates a trend of increasing yearly submitted capacity, with 2023 showing the largest amount.
Ireland is following a similar trend to the UK in terms of storage co-located with solar, with 20% of the total planned energy storage capacity in Ireland being allocated for sites co-located with solar.
46.4GWh of co-located storage in UK and Ireland’s combined pipeline
In conclusion, the energy storage market in the UK and Ireland is rapidly growing, and this growth is expected to be followed by an increase in energy storage projects co-located with solar energy facilities.
In the UK, the storage co-located with solar market has a pipeline of 22GW/44 GWh (excluding speculative projects), with most of this expected to be operational by 2030. In Ireland, the storage co-located with solar market has a pipeline of 1.5GW/2.4GWh, and this is steadily increasing.
All data and analysis shown in this article comes from our in-house market research at Solar Media Ltd. Full details on how to subscribe to our UK Battery Storage Project Database Report and Republic of Ireland Battery Storage Project Database Report can be found here.

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While LG ES has been, and continues to be, a major supplier of batteries and racks to the industry, with a major focus on the US grid-scale market, the 2022 acquisition of system integrator NEC Energy Solutions (NEC ES) gave the company downstream capabilities, too.
LG ES’ plans for its new system integrator arm had been a topic of speculation and discussion for some time following the acquisition.
Jaehong Park, who has been in the battery and energy storage space since 2010, was appointed the company’s CEO in 2022. Speaking to Energy-Storage.news Premium for an exclusive interview, Park said the strategic move to acquire NEC ES came about as the parent company realised that “energy is not just a commodity.”
While the hardware to store the energy is obviously essential, controls, data science and analytics are also “key technologies” in increasing the efficiency of energy storage systems, Park said.
As a pureplay hardware provider, LG ES did not have the visibility into asset performance and lifetime it wanted and that, ultimately, the company felt its customers wanted.
“Being a battery supplier would not help us collect that data and would not help us address the customer’s pain points,” Park said, adding that the acquisition of the system integrator business enabled LG ES to become a “solution provider, rather than just a commodity provider”.
‘Taking care of the asset for its entire lifespan’
LG ES Vertech had already signed contracts or entered contract negotiations for 10GWh of BESS projects with US-based customers as of mid-December last year.
On the upstream side of the equation, LG ES is building what is thought to be the US’ largest dedicated BESS battery cell production line, with 16GWh of annual production capacity in construction in Queen Creek, Arizona.   
When the system integrator launched at RE+ 2023, the company said that its longstanding experience in LFP cell production would be a competitive advantage, while making its products in the US would qualify them for higher rate investment tax credit (ITC) incentives as qualifying domestic content. The Queen Creek production line will be co-located with electric vehicle (EV) battery cell production.
Meanwhile, NEC ES’ technologies, which included the machine learning and artificial intelligence-driven controls platform AEROS, give Vertech software that can perform key tasks, such as degradation analysis and system cost analysis, and revenue optimisation in different market scenarios.
“The most important value of the vertical integration is [creating] one single contract, and the energy storage system (ESS) is not a product that we deliver, and it’s done. We need to take care of this asset for 15 years or 20 years, for its entire lifespan,” Park said.
“In the past, what happened was that when an issue happened at the site, the battery supplier, PCS supplier and system integrators sit down together, to figure out how it is not their problem, rather than trying to figure out what the root cause is and how to solve it, how to repower the asset as soon as possible,” Park said.

LG Energy Solution provided battery racks to Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility, California, the biggest battery storage system in the world at 3GWh capacity. Image: LG Energy Solution.
“One single contract with a bankable solution provider is really quite significant to the customer.”
“That’s the number one value that we can deliver as a vertically integrated company. Some customers can take care of the integration themselves, some of the big customers who have the capability, but most of the customers really value the ‘one throat to choke,’ for the entire lifespan.”
Combining ‘top-down’ LG manufacturer perspective with ‘bottom-up’ Vertech integrator perspective
For the solution provider too, having control over the entire system from the cell upwards offers the opportunity to combine a “top-down” upstream manufacturer’s perspective with a “bottom-up” downstream integrator’s perspective, which also has advantages, Park claimed.
“When we developed the products, our approach was: ‘Okay, we have a battery cell, how can we design the battery module to improve the density, to ensure the safety, and then how we can design the battery pack, how we can design the battery container?”
“That was the way of thinking as a battery cell manufacturer, but being a system integrator we see from the top down,” Park said.
“What does the project look like? What does the system look like? What kind of things do we need to do to help our EPC partner reduce their labour and time spent in the field? How can we help make maintenance easier?”

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What was once a little-known industry has emerged today as a titan of the energy transition, helping underpin intermittent renewables to drive decarbonisation across the country.
While the trendlines are unequivocally positive, there remain significant challenges facing the battery storage sector that are cause for concern, including raw materials competition, newly introduced tariffs, and a looming election.
As a result, many battery storage developers have opted not to fully commit to the legislation’s provisions — a missed opportunity for business and climate action.
To navigate this ongoing instability, prudent battery storage companies need to find an effective middle ground between the benefits of leveraging domestic incentives and ensuring supply chain diversification.
A comprehensive understanding of global supply agreements, including knowing how and if companies are shielded in the event of potential price fluctuations and tariff increases, is also important.
Recently announced tariff increases from 7.5% to 25% on Chinese lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries beginning in 2026, although expected, will force many parties to re-calculate the economics of the planned projects and consider the timings of those carefully. This change will also put pressure on increasing the domestic Li-Ion battery supply.
The coming months and years will shape our collective energy future and as critical players, battery storage providers must be prepared to confront these obstacles.
If they aren’t, billions of dollars worth of capacity and capital investment could be at risk, jeopardising renewable deployments and grid stability at a precarious point in history.
Battery storage is just beginning to scale in the US; capacity is on track to double in 2024, with nearly 15GW planned, second only to utility-scale solar, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). In fact, battery storage deployments now exceed those of onshore and offshore wind energy, showcasing the speed at which the technology has achieved liftoff thanks to favorable economics and the IRA.
Additionally, annual battery manufacturing is expected to grow to more than 115GWh by 2030 as suppliers race to shore up battery plants and scale up production. This manufacturing boost is spurring fierce competition for raw materials and equipment supplies and leading to potential shortage concerns in the process.
Supply chain risks and rewards
The interconnectedness of the battery supply chain, being critical to both battery storage systems and electric vehicles (EV), adds another challenge, as fluctuations in EV market capacity can negatively impact materials availability. And for domestic producers, an adequate supply of materials is necessary to comply with ambitious domestic content requirements stipulated by the IRA.
To effectively manage risks and optimise benefits amid regulatory, economic, and political uncertainties, battery storage companies should adopt strategic measures to diversify their operations and secure reliable supply chains. Due diligence and erring on the side of caution in selecting the right partners is essential, as companies with prior experience in comparable supply chains offer greater value and more reliable contractual performance.
Battery storage growth is nothing short of a modern marvel, but it’s not impervious to bottlenecks or disruption. Legislation kicked the sector into gear, and now, companies need to maintain it by mitigating uncertainty and risk through proactive and thoughtful supply chain diversification and a commitment to operational agility and collaboration.
About the Author
Rauni Jaskari is director of supply management at Wärtsilä Energy Storage & Optimisation, where she manages both the strategic sourcing of main equipment direct materials, as well as supplier development and quality. Rauni holds a degree in industrial engineering and management from LUT University of Technology in Finland, and has over 20 years of experience in strategic sourcing, supplier relationship management and supply chain management.

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“The construction of storage facilities is key to the efficient balancing and management of the power system,” said energy minister Vladimir Malinov. “The successful implementation of this procedure will guarantee the security and stability of the power system. An opportunity to integrate the electricity produced from renewable sources on the market in the country and the region will also be provided.”
The Bulgarian Ministry of Energy funding is part of the country’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), a series of projects implemented across the EU in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic to help improve the financial and environmental sustainability of Europe’s economies.
The EU initially granted Bulgaria grant funding of around US$6.6 billion (€6.2 billion), which was later lowered to around US$6.1 billion (€5.7 billion), and 57.5% of this money was earmarked for investments into Bulgaria’s green transition. Earlier this year, Greek renewable power developer Mytilineos and utility PPC Group announced plans to construct 2GW of new solar PV assets in a number of south-eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, and the national government has already used some of the EU funds to expand the country’s storage sector.
Last October, the government launched a public consultation for renewable energy generation and up to 350MW of new storage capacity, and earlier this year, the government committed US$298.2 million (BGN535.1 million) to new renewable power and storage projects in the country.

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It is unique in that the China-headquartered company manufactures its own lithium iron phosphate (LFP) lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cells for the product as well as racks, cabinets and enclosures, making it the only BESS provider in the US market to do so at present, Trina Storage said.
“Trina Storage handles everything from developing core cell technology to providing a fully wrapped and integrated solution to our customers ensuring they meet their energy storage goals,” Trina Storage US president Terry Chen said.
In an interview earlier this year with Energy-Storage.news Premium, Helena Li, executive president at Trina Solar, said that using an in-house developed and manufactured LFP cell enables higher levels of quality control over the full supply chain, components and integration of Trina Storage’s second-generation BESS products, which also include the standard 4MWh Elementa 2, 20-foot containerised solution.
Trina’s cells include 306Ah and 314Ah large-format prismatic LFP cells, currently manufactured outside the US, but the company said Elementa 2 Elevate’s supply chain is integrated in alignment with North American market requirements.
The company aims to ramp up its total energy storage manufacturing capacity to more than 20GW by the end of 2024, with two main cell production facilities in China.
“The Elementa 2 Elevate is a competitive offering in the storage marketplace due to its fully wrapped solution approach. Trina Storage delivers unmatched cost advantages while setting a new standard for efficiency and sustainability in energy storage solutions,” Trina Solar US president Steven Zhu said.
It will be interesting to see where the company goes next in terms of establishing more localised supply chains for the US market, with Section 201 tariffs on batteries imported from China recently increased, while the use of US-made domestic content is being incentivised through tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  
35MWh deal marks Trina’s entry into German grid-scale market
Trina Storage’s first few gigawatt-hours of booked BESS orders had largely come from two markets: China and the UK.
However, along with its push into the US, the system integrator is seeking to grow its footprint in continental Europe and has signed its first deal in Germany.
The company has signed a contract to provide 35MWh of its first-generation Elementa cabinets, power conversion system (PCS) technology from manufacturer Power Electronics and associated software and controls, to a project owned by investor Obton.
Located in the town of Tangermünde in the Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany, about 120km from Berlin, Obton acquired the 15.8MW/35MWh project from developer Kyon Energy as part of a 600MW framework deal announced in June 2023.
The acquisition of the Tangermünde development was closed later that year along with deals for three other projects totalling 195MW.
Trina Storage said the project will be due for commissioning in the fourth quarter of this year, and the system will perform a combination of applications including energy arbitrage/trading and ancillary services including primary and secondary frequency response.
Kyon Energy, which is developing some of the largest projects in Germany including a 137.5MW/275MWh in Lower Saxony which was approved by regulators just before the end of 2023, will stay on at the Tangermünde to provide general contracting services including commissioning.
Germany was Europe’s leading market for BESS deployments in 2023, according to research from trade group SolarPower Europe, with a 34% share (5.9GWh) of the total 17.2GWh of systems installed in the continent last year.
Most of that was in the distributed residential storage segment, but grid-scale battery storage has also seen a reemergence, driven by increased national and European Union-level renewable energy targets. Ernst & Young (EY) recently ranked Germany as the fifth most attractive country for investment in battery storage in a top 10 of global markets, alongside its Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI).
More favourable regulations for storage are being created by German lawmakers, but a source at developer Baywa r.e. warned ESN Premium this week of potential unintended consequences.  

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The newly installed battery system has a capacity of 450kW/1.1MWh with the council targeting 5MW of similar assets.
Community batteries are BESS resources connected to the electricity network at distribution level, and the idea is that it helps communities share the benefits of locally deployed rooftop solar PV while easing congestion on their local grid.
First revealed in 2021, the Power Melbourne initiative aims to create a network of neighbourhood-scale batteries will be coordinated to deliver sustainable energy back into the grid when it is needed most.
The BESS asset was enabled through a partnership with Origin Zero, signed in January 2024.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the project would “accelerate the city’s transition to renewable energy, while driving new investments and creating jobs”.
“Power Melbourne aims to deliver lower power bills and greener energy for businesses and residents in the City of Melbourne by capturing solar energy, storing it and feeding it back into the community,” Capp said.

Community batteries have seen a surge in popularity over the course of the past five years. In 2021, the same year the Power Melbourne initiative was announced, saw an inflection point as initial trial deployments began to be replaced with wider rollouts.
One such trial project was the Alkimos Beach Energy Storage Trial (ABEST) in Western Australia. The five-year-long project trialed the use of energy storage at a community scale in a Western Australian suburb, with the results finding an 85% reduction in energy consumption from the grid at peak times for participating households. 
Similarly to the Power Melbourne initiative, ABEST collectively used a 1.1MWh lithium-ion community BESS.
Community battery schemes are typically coordinated either by state government agencies or local distribution network providers in states including Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.
Market consultancy group Sunwiz also weighed in on the potential of community BESS in Australia, which it dubbed the “Year of the Big Battery”. The group said adding that community battery—or ‘neighbourhood battery’ projects around Australia, classified within the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment—will help drive a 50% growth in C&I installs in 2024.
In late 2023, an Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) programme to put AU$120 million (US$78.17 million) towards community battery storage received applications for more than ten times that amount, showcasing the rising popularity of the technology.
In total, AU$171 million from a pot of AU$200 million in the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s (DCCEEW’s) Household Solar Budget and its Community Batteries for Household Solar scheme will be contributed to project costs, aiming to deploy at least 342 battery installations.
The idea is that kickstarting community battery projects across Australia will “provide valuable knowledge that can be shared across Australia to fast track the implementation of these local batteries,” ARENA CEO Darren Miller said at the time.

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AEMO sought the thoughts, input, and review of more than 2,100 stakeholders representing government, industry, consumer, and community perspectives. AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman revealed this was a “record number of stakeholders”.
The 92-page 2024 edition of the ISP’s ‘Optimal Development Path’—the lowest-cost path to net zero for Australia—signals that the transition will have an annualised capital cost of AU$122 billion (US$86 billion) by 2050 and focuses on the new grid-scale generation, firming, storage, and transmission needed in the NEM.
In addition to the shift from coal to firm renewables and low-emission sources, the NEM will “triple its capacity to meet future demand and facilitate a two-way flow of electricity across the networks”, the report read. This would help connect new renewable energy generation with consumption to soar to 313TWh by 2050.
Firming capacity, including energy storage, will need to quadruple by 2050 under AEMO’s ‘Step Change’ scenario, which is considered the most likely among forecasted projections and has been adopted for system planning purposes.
Sources alternative to coal that can respond to a dispatch signal include grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) technologies, pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), aggregated resources such as virtual power plants (VPPs) and gas-fired power plants.
According to AEMO, 49GW/646GWh of dispatchable energy storage will be needed by the mid-Century point, along with 15GW of flexible gas generation.
At present, AEMO said, 3.7GW/10.8GWh of energy storage has progressed sufficiently to be anticipated to be added to the NEM to be included in its assumptions for the ISP in all scenarios.
In the previous edition of the ISP, published in 2022, AEMO had anticipated a need for 46GW/640GWh of dispatchable energy storage alongside 10GW of gas-fired peak loads.
At the Energy Storage Summit Australia 2024 held in Sydney last month, Stephanie Bashir, CEO of consultancy Nexa Advisory told Energy-Storage.news that the 2022 ISP’s ‘Step Change’ scenario had been too conservative.
While it would enable the required phaseout of coal-fired thermal plants and meet the reliability standards for electricity supply, it would not propel Australia to the international ‘energy superpower’ status that it should be aiming for, Bashir said.
To read the original version of this story, with more focus on the roles of rooftop solar and transmission investments, visit PV Tech.
Additional reporting for Energy-Storage.news by Andy Colthorpe.

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The deal will account for a significant portion of Consumers Energy’s target to procure 550MW of BESS resources by 2040. The utility will also build 75MW of its own battery storage capacity, and contract with other third-parties for the remainder.
In the shorter term, the utility has committed to phasing out the use of coal for electricity generation by the end of next year.
While Jupiter Power’s website doesn’t carry any information about the project, according to local news outlet Coldwater Daily Reporter, the developer received planning approvals from the township’s permitting department at the beginning of this month.
The Daily Reporter said the project, Tibbits, would represent a US$110 million investment. Jupiter Power would continue to own the asset.
Jupiter Power has a portfolio of BESS assets in operation in Texas’ ERCOT market, and a pipeline of projects in development in various US states totalling more than 11GW, the company claims.   
The developer was acquired by global asset manager Blackrock from previous owner EnCap Investments in 2022, and a few weeks ago unveiled its plans to construct a 700MW BESS at a former oil depot site in Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Michigan’s adoption of energy storage is gathering pace after state governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a package of legislation that mandated a 100% clean energy standard for its utilities by 2040, and an energy storage deployment target of 2,500MW by 2030.
It became the first state in the US Midwest to set a comprehensive decarbonisation agenda in doing so. The region has traditionally been highly dependent on coal-fired generation.   
One of Consumers Energy’s fellow Michigan IOUs, DTE Energy, issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking approximately 120MW of energy storage resources in May, and earlier this month DTE began construction on a 220MW/880MWh standalone BESS project at the site of a decommissioned coal power plant.

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The two projects were selected as part of phases 2 and 3 of SCE’s Midterm Reliability RFO (MTRRFO) – released in October 2022 and February 2023, respectively – and will fulfil part of the utility’s procurement requirements as mandated by CPUC.
Along with the new RA contracts, SCE is also seeking regulatory approval of an amendment to an existing 100MW RA agreement selected as part of the utility’s phase 1 MTRRFO originally approved by CPUC in May 2022.
Second phase of AES-owned solar-plus-BESS facility
The larger of the two RA contracts covers 500MW of nameplate battery storage capacity from the second phase of AES Corporation’s Bellefield solar and storage facility located in Kern County, California.
The lithium-ion based BESS will interconnect to the CAISO grid via SCE’s Windhub 220kV substation and be co-located with a 500MW solar farm. A CAISO interconnection agreement for the project covering 500MW of both solar and energy storage capacity has been secured (queue no. 1631).
The second phase BESS is contracted to come online June 1 2026 and supply RA for a period of 15 years. It was announced last year that AES had purchased the first two phases of the Bellefield development from utility-scale solar and storage developer Avantus.
SCE has a separate agreement with AES for 500MW of RA from the first phase of the Bellefield project selected as part of a separate utility procurement approved by CPUC in March of this year.
Rev Renewables BESS
The second RA agreement covers 250MW of nameplate BESS capacity from Rev Renewables’ Commerce Energy Storage facility located in the city of Commerce, Los Angeles County.
Rev Renewables currently holds three CAISO queue positions for the Commerce development (queue no’s. 1611, 1766 and 2139), with each of the three positions designated for 250MW of storage capacity connecting to SCE’s Laguna Bell 230kV substation.
So far, the developer has managed to secure an interconnection agreement for the first phase of the project – Commerce Energy Storage 1 – which is the portion relating to the SCE RA agreement.
REV Renewables was launched as a development platform by independent power producer (IPP) LS Power in 2021. Its existing projects include the 150MW/250MWh LeConte project in California pictured above, which went online ahead of summer heatwaves in 2022.
Under the terms of the agreement, SCE will begin receiving RA from the project in June 2026 for a period of 15 years.
Delays to Arevon standalone BESS project
SCE is also seeking regulatory approval to delay the initial delivery date of 100MW/400WMh worth of RA from Arevon Energy’s Peregrine Energy Storage facility by a year from June 2024 to June 2025, in order for the “project to remain viable.”
Arevon, in collaboration with Tensaka, have secured a 200MW CAISO interconnection agreement for the lithium-ion based BESS which will interconnect to the grid via SCE’s Silvergate 230kV substation (queue no. 1670).
Arevon and Blackstone financing for California BESS
Earlier in the year, Arevon reached financial close on another one of its California standalone BESS developments as reported by Energy-Storage.News.
The two companies reached financial close on the 200MW/800MWh Condor Energy Storage facility through a US$350m preferred equity and debt financing along with the transfer of investment tax credits (ITCs).
Arevon’s Condor facility is also contracted with SCE to provide RA for a period of 15 years.
10GW of BESS already on California’s CAISO grid
SCE is one of the largest utilities in the US, providing electricity to 15 million people across a service territory of approximately 50,000 square miles. The utility is committed to carbon neutrality by 2045, in line with targets set into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom covered in Energy-Storage.News last year.
In April of this year, CAISO announced that it had surpassed 10GW of connected battery storage capacity which Governor Newsom hailed as an “energy storage revolution.”

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Pacific Green has set itself a target of delivering 1GWh of projects in the Polish market, among a global goal of 12GWh across four global markets. The company is incorporated in Delaware, US, with its head offices in London. It recently signed a 1,500MWh BESS supply deal with Trina Storage, the energy storage arm of global solar PV company Trina Solar, and is developing projects in regions including, the UK, Italy where it bought a 500MW six-project portfolio in late 2023, and Australia where it has secured land deals including one for a site in Victoria which could host up to 1GW/2.5GWh of energy storage assets.
Majority stakes in the two projects will be acquired from an undisclosed “international developer present in the Polish market,” with the balance of ownership transferring to Pacific Green on the attainment of certain milestones.
One project is located in the region of Warsaw, the nation’s capital city, and the other in the Polish South West, with grid applications lodged for both.
Pacific Green said they are anticipated to take part in the Q4 Polish Capacity Market Auction and could reach ready-to-build status in the final quarter of this year, if successful in the solicitation.
The capacity market is expected to underpin major growth in the Polish energy storage sector. In a sponsored article for Energy-Storage.news published in December 2023, analysts from research firm LCP Delta noted that Poland “looks set to lead battery storage deployments in Eastern Europe.”
LCP Delta’s Silvestros Vlachopoulos and Jon Ferris wrote that 9GW of BESS projects had been offered grid connections by transmission system operator (TSO) PSE, while 16GW of projects had been registered for the then-ongoing round of capacity market auctions by that point.
This was despite the country only having around 10MW of battery storage connected to the grid by the end of last year.
Major reform to balancing markets had encouraged greater participation in the capacity market, and the first such auction held in 2022 had seen contracts awarded to four BESS projects totalling 150MW.   
Government-owned power producer PGE tenders for 263MW/900MWh project at PHES plant
State-owned PGE Group, which is Poland’s largest power producer by sales revenue and net profit, said earlier this month that it will open a tender for contractors to work on the country’s biggest planned BESS project to date.
PGE said 6 June that it was preparing to launch a procurement process for turnkey design and construction of a large-scale BESS facility of 263MW output and at least 900MWh storage capacity.
The plant will be located in Żarnowiec, a village in northern Poland and will be built close to ESP Żarnowiec a pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) facility in PGE Group’s portfolio.
The solicitation will be carried out as an open tender in line with Polish Public Procurement Law, and the company is planning to formally initiate it in the next few days. Conditions for eligibility and entry already published along with other information in the official journal of the European Union (EU), as well as on the PGE group purchasing website.
PGE Group board president Dariusz Marzec said the company is accelerating its investments in battery storage due to the increase in the share of renewable energy on the grid.
The Żarnowiec BESS will provide grid services to the TSO and help balance the output of wind farms both onshore and offshore in the nearby Baltic Sea that PGE wants to build. A grid connection agreement is in place as well as concessionary agreements—thought to be a first for the Polish market—and an application made for capacity market qualification.
PGE said it would apply for funding from the post-pandemic National Recovery and Resilience Fund (KPO), which is worth about €60 billion (US$64 billion) in total including just over €25 billion in EU funding and about €35 billion of concessional loans. Conditions for receiving that funding make it essential that the tendered-for project goes online on schedule, the company said.
Although the capacity market is seen as a major new source of long-term revenue certainty for BESS in Poland, a warning was sounded recently that proposed 57% de-rating factors could dampen the market’s progress (Premium access).
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 2nd annual Energy Storage Summit Central Eastern Europe on 24-25 September 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. This event will bring together the region’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place, as the region readies itself for storage to take off. Visit the official site for more info.     

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