Computer-generated image of Hydrostor’s 4GWh Willow Rock project in California. Image: Hydrostor.

Compressed air is stored in hard rock caverns dug deep underground. Image: Hydrostor.

The project will be built in California’s Kern County. Image: Hydrostor

Advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) company Hydrostor has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for one of its flagship large-scale projects in California.

Central Coast Community Energy, one of California’s several dozen Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) non-profit energy suppliers, has signed a 200MW/1,600MWh energy storage PPA with a 25-year term with Toronto-headquartered Hydrostor for its Willow Rock Energy Storage Center.

That’s just under half of the output and capacity of the planned 8-hour, long-duration energy storage (LDES) facility, which is designed to be 500MW/4,000MWh. This is its first offtake deal, but the company is in discussion for others to take the rest of the plant’s available resource.

Hydrostor is aiming to bring it online by 2028, connected to the main California Independent System Operator (CAISO) grid as well as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s (LADWP’s).

The Canadian company holds the IP for its technology and develops projects internationally, having delivered one commercial-scale demonstration project in its home country. It is currently working on large-scale projects with around 9GWh storage capacity in total across two sites in California as well as another in Australia.

Together with Willow Rock in Kern County, Hydrostor is developing the 400MW/3,200MWh Pechos Energy Storage Center in San Luis Obispo County, California, and the 200MW/1,500MWh Silver City Energy Storage Center in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.

In an interview with this site at the start of 2022, Hydrostor CEO Curtis VanWalleghem explained that the A-CAES technology differs from its ‘non-advanced’ existing compressed air counterpart in eliminating the need for thermal power to heat up the compressed air to push it through turbines.

Instead, rock caverns dug deep underground are flooded with water which maintains the pressure of the air when stored. That also means it requires less space and has higher roundtrip efficiency than compressed air.

That’s still only around 65% efficiency, but when the planned projects are so large and set to be placed in largely unpopulated but grid-connected areas of the US and Australia and have an expected operational lifetime in excess of 50 years, Hydrostor is hoping to prove it can be competitive.

The company’s utility-scale trio of projects are at different stages of development. Applications for Certification (AFC), the process by which all electricity generating units get licenses to provide power, have been filed for the two California projects.

In the case of Willow Rock, the California Energy Commission (CEC) is thought to be close to making a decision, having confirmed Hydrostor’s application was complete in July last year. In August 2022, Hydrostor appointed construction company Kiewit to carry out engineering and design studies for it.

Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) and California’s other CCAs give their member-customers the choice of where their energy comes from, and CCAs have become prolific in procuring clean energy resources in the state. 3CE has about 440,000 customer accounts.

That’s been largely solar PV and more latterly solar-plus-storage and standalone lithium-ion battery storage of up to 4-hour duration, but recently a group of California CCAs held one of the first long-duration storage solicitations in the world, and in fact 3CE signed contracts in late 2021 for three vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) projects totalling 32MW/226MWh, due to come online in 2026.

“We continue to support and press for new technologies to eliminate dependence on fossil fuels in our communities. In doing so, we are also helping to clean California’s grid and developing a pathway for other areas to follow,” 3CE chief operating officer Robert Shaw said.

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.

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Orsted’s Permian Energy Center solar project in Texas

Ørsted is building the 471 MW AC Mockingbird Solar Center in Texas. Covering an area of 4,900 acres, Mockingbird will be able to generate enough renewable energy to power more than 80,000 homes annually, making it the largest solar PV project in Ørsted’s portfolio to date.

Ørsted has taken final investment decision (FID) on Mockingbird and will start construction of the project this month. Completion of the project is expected in 2024.

“Adding almost half a gigawatt to our portfolio, the decision to build Mockingbird represents an important milestone for our onshore business and for our expansion in solar PV,” says David Hardy, CEO of Region Americas at Ørsted. “We look forward to building Mockingbird and for this project to start producing clean energy at a large scale. Mockingbird will achieve this while doing so in a way that prioritizes conservation and our deep commitment to the communities we serve.”

Almost 1,000 acres of land adjacent to Mockingbird Solar Center will be donated to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to protect native prairie in north-east Texas. Less than 1 % of the original tallgrass prairies of Texas survive today, and less than 5 % remains nationally. The Ørsted-TNC conservation effort will be the largest preservation effort on record for this type of native prairie.

“We need to deliver green energy for this generation while protecting natural habitats for the next. That’s why we’ve prioritized the Smiley-Woodfin Prairie in Texas as our first biodiversity initiative in the United States,” states Daniel Willard, biodiversity specialist at Ørsted. “We want to thank The Nature Conservancy for working with us on this conservation effort. Drawing on both internal expertise and outside guidance, we’ll continue to look for opportunities to protect the prairie and ensure that native plants and pollinators thrive.”

The land to be preserved will be transferred to TNC before the solar farm enters into operation and begins delivering renewable energy to the community.

In 2021, Ørsted signed a 10-year corporate power purchase agreement with Royal DSM, which will be purchasing a share of the power from Mockingbird.

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Signing of the MoU in Guwahati, Assam. Image: ONGC.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by a subsidiary of India’s state-owned Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for a large-scale battery storage project in Assam.

ONGC Tripura Power Company, founded in Tripura to leverage ONGC gas reserves in the northeastern state, has signed the MoU with Assam Power Distribution Company Limited (APDCL), which is the state of Assam’s power distribution system operating company, or Discom.

Signed on 11 January, the pair will create a joint venture (JV) to develop a battery energy storage system (BESS) project with up to 250MW rated power output and 500MWh capacity, ONGC said in an announcement.

The project would require around INR20 billion (US$245 million) investment in Assam.

ONGC Tripura Power Company’s (OTPC’s) managing director said the BESS will contribute to managing peak loads on the distribution grid. That will enable greater utilisation of renewable energy by matching energy production with demand more closely, and improve the reliability of the grid, Sanil C. Namboodiripad said.

Nandita Gorlosa, Assam’s Minister for Power, Mines & Minerals attended the MoU’s signing, later tweeting about its expected benefits and making a statement that the project will contribute to raising Assam’s status in India’s renewable energy transition.

India as a whole is targeting the installation of 450GW of new non-hydro renewable energy capacity by 2030, having already passed the 150GW mark. Energy storage has widely become seen as key to enabling that, whether in terms of large-scale pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), or lithium-ion BESS.

ONGC is owned by the government of India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and is claimed to be the country’s largest crude oil and natural gas company. It set up its Tripura subsidiary with the government of that state as a minority shareholder and owns and operates a 726.6MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant in the state, with further involvement from parties including the US’ Global Infrastructure Partners investment group.

Regular readers of Energy-Storage.news will note from our coverage that another major Indian state-owned energy sector group, National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), has been tendering for large capacities of energy storage. It recently awarded contracts to a large-scale PHES project in a technology-agnostic solicitation, while it also holds technology-specific reverse auctions for BESS.

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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On Monday, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) released interim guidance for analyzing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change impacts of major federal actions undergoing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review.

The guidance allows for less detailed lifetime GHG emissions analyses for renewable energy projects, but it also emphasizes new angles of analysis, such as the impact of ground disturbance on biological carbon stocks, a topic environmental groups have often raised over large-scale solar energy projects.

Overall, solar developers and their consultants should take care to observe CEQ’s climate change guidance when preparing GHG studies for NEPA documents.

The interim guidance builds upon CEQ’s 2016 NEPA guidance that was rescinded by the previous administration. The purpose of the guidance is to provide a uniform approach for federal agencies to consider both the impacts of a project on climate change and the impacts of climate change on a project.

The guidance takes effect immediately while CEQ considers whether to revise or finalize it based on public comments received before March 10.

There are several key components of the interim guidance that federal agencies, developers and consultants should keep in mind:

First, Environmental Assessments (EAs) and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs) should quantify GHG emissions wherever possible, both over the project’s lifetime and on an annual basis.

The guidance points to tools for doing so on the CEQ’s GHG Accounting Tool website. In accordance with recent federal case law, the guidance asserts that comparisons and fractions alone are insufficient to assess the impacts of GHG emissions: “NEPA requires more than a statement that emissions from a proposed federal action or its alternatives represent only a small fraction of global or domestic emissions.”

Reed McCalib

Instead, NEPA documents should include some form of absolute, quantitative GHG emissions estimate for the proposed project and each alternative, including the no-action alternative, except for the “rare instance” in which quantification is not possible.

Second, in addition to quantifying GHG emissions, federal agencies should contextualize them such as by monetizing emissions using the social cost of carbon metric (i.e., the estimated economic costs associated with each additional metric ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere); placing emissions in the context of applicable climate action goals and commitments; or providing common equivalents (e.g., comparing emissions to a number of households, cars, or gallons of gasoline burned).

The social cost of carbon in particular has been the controversial subject of federal court decisions in recent years. The rule that has emerged and is now reflected in CEQ’s interim guidance is that the social cost of carbon is an appropriate metric to analyze climate change impacts under NEPA, but it is not strictly required as long as emissions impacts are otherwise contextualized using comparisons, common equivalents or foreseeable real-world effects.

Third, the interim guidance directs federal agencies to analyze all reasonably foreseeable indirect climate change impacts of a project. For example, in addition to the direct GHG emissions of mining equipment and transportation vehicles used for a coal extraction project, the project’s NEPA analysis should also assess a “full burn” scenario and describe the GHG emissions that would result from downstream consumption of the extracted coal. This, too, is consistent with recent federal caselaw.

Fourth, the interim guidance calls for special consideration of the effects of a project on biological GHG sources and sinks in addition to direct ambient emissions. In fact, these “biogenic” GHG impacts are so important that the CEQ guidance directs federal agencies to “consider developing and maintaining agency-specific principles and guidance for considering biological carbon in management and planning decisions,” and points to the Forest Service’s current guidance as an example.

This could mean, for example, that where a solar energy project disturbs a carbon stock such as topsoil, the climate change impacts of that disturbance should be considered in the project’s NEPA analysis – something for which environmental organizations have long advocated.

Fifth, in addition to analyzing the impacts of a project on climate change, NEPA documents conversely should analyze the impact of climate change on a project by forecasting foreseeable environmental changes over the life of the project and considering climate change resilience and adaptation measures.

For example, agencies “should consider the likelihood of increased temperatures and more frequent or severe storm events over the lifetime of the proposed action” and include measures to address these risks.

Relatedly, EAs and EISs should consider how climate change could exacerbate the direct effects of a project. For example, “A proposed action or its alternatives may require water from a stream that has diminishing quantities of available water because of decreased snow pack in the mountains, or add heat to a water body that is already warming due to increasing atmospheric temperatures.”

Other areas of the interim guidance reiterate well-established NEPA principles, such as the need to analyze cumulative effects; the requirement to analyze interdependent, connected actions in the same NEPA document; the importance of selecting appropriate alternatives; environmental justice considerations; incorporating previous studies by reference; and implementing appropriate mitigation measures to reduce or offset GHG emissions.

Importantly for solar energy projects, the guidance emphasizes the “rule of reason” principle when analyzing GHG emissions, meaning that the depth of analysis can be proportional to the overall emissions of the project. Low-emissions projects such as solar energy facilities can have less detailed GHG evaluations: “The relative minor and short-term GHG emissions associated with construction of certain renewable energy projects, such as utility-scale solar and offshore wind, should not warrant a detailed analysis of lifetime GHG emissions.”

Overall, the interim guidance reinforces the importance of thoroughly but reasonably analyzing GHG emissions and climate change impacts in federal environmental reviews and may create new opportunities for legal challenge if agencies, developers and consultants do not take care to consider them during the NEPA process.

Reed McCalib is an attorney at Bell Kearns Ltd., a law firm specializing in the permitting of large-scale energy projects across the western U.S.

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Peter Rood

Spearmint Energy has named Peter K. Rood, former chief development officer at GlidePath Power Solutions LLC, as chief development officer. In this role, Rood will oversee the development, construction and operations of Spearmint’s battery energy storage projects.

Rood brings nearly 20 years of industry experience to Spearmint, most recently leading the creation of an energy storage pipeline of over 3.3 GW / 11 GWh across 20+ major U.S. power markets including building the team and infrastructure to support it. Having deployed over $4 billion of capital across 2.9 GW of developed capacity throughout his career, Rood will leverage his track record to advance Spearmint’s battery energy storage development pipeline.

“Peter is a seasoned battery energy storage project developer, whose proven construction management, project financing, transaction and off-take experience will play a critical role in the successful growth of Spearmint’s BESS portfolio,” says Andrew Waranch, founder, president and CEO of Spearmint. “We look forward to benefiting from Peter’s expertise managing greenfield development through construction and deep network of counterparty relationships as we build upon our robust pipeline of opportunities. We are thrilled to welcome him to the Spearmint team.”

“I am excited to join Spearmint at a defining time for the North American battery energy storage industry, as both the opportunity and demand for BESS developments continue to flourish,” adds Rood. “As a battery energy storage developer, owner, operator and trader, Spearmint is well-positioned to quickly become a market leader in helping to reduce grid volatility and increase system resiliency. Revolution is just the first battery energy storage project in what I am confident will soon become a significant portfolio of assets that help to reduce carbon emissions in a responsible and efficient way.”

At GlidePath, Rood was responsible for establishing and executing all development activities related to the company’s battery, solar, wind and gas generation portfolio in the U.S. Previously, he served as a vice president for Renewable Energy Systems (RES) Americas Inc. Rood served in development-related roles at NRStor Inc., General Compression Inc., and Acciona Energy North America.

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EVLO Energy Storage Inc., a battery energy storage company and a subsidiary of Hydro-Québec, is participating in a renewable energy project in Summerland, British Columbia. EVLO is partnering with Wildstone Construction Group and solar panel installation contractor Skyfire Energy to provide the District of Summerland with its first utility-scale solar installation that combines battery energy storage system (BESS) technology to extend the system’s output into the hours when energy demand is highest. The Summerland project includes a 0.4 MW solar array as well as four EVLO 1000 battery energy storage units and its proprietary EMS control system that will provide 4 MWh of storage capacity.

The storage system will enable peak shaving, which will eliminate short-term demand spikes and lower peak loads, reducing the overall cost of demand charges. The solar installation will be geo-ballasted, meaning no ground anchors or concrete will be needed during construction of the array, helping minimize the carbon intensity of the project. More than 80% of the construction team is based locally in Okanagan.

“We are honored to support this green energy initiative that stems from the district’s vision. As our first solar plus storage installation in Western Canada, EVLO is proud to work alongside Wildstone to provide our leading energy storage solutions and industry expertise for this first-of-its-kind project for the Summerland region,” says Sonia St-Arnaud, president and CEO at EVLO. “As we celebrate our second anniversary, this project builds upon our rapidly growing portfolio as we expand into markets throughout North America and abroad.”

“Wildstone is thrilled to bring this solar plus storage project to Summerland and enter into the utility renewable energy space with our valued project partners, EVLO and Skyfire Energy,” comments Mark Melissen, president at Wildstone. “Without their industry expertise and cost-effective solutions, none of this would have been possible.”

“Summerland is one of five municipalities in B.C. to own a local electrical utility, which provides us an opportunity to generate some of our own electricity and store it for later use at peak hours,” states District of Summerland Mayor Doug Holmes. “Storage capability is the key to helping us control costs and provide a more stable and resilient grid.”

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iSun Inc.’s 6.848 MW Baldwin solar field in Maine

iSun Inc. has picked up three contracts with a total value of $9.7 million to implement solar energy solutions in communities in northern New England. The new projects result from a new partnership that iSun has formed with an integrated nationwide solar developer.

The new awards of 9 MW in total will add to iSun’s already completed portfolio of projects in northern New England.

“The three project awards from our new partner represent important wins for our team as we continue to demonstrate our ability to expand our customer base across New England,” says Jeffrey Peck, chairman and CEO of iSun. “We are working diligently to address the continued strong customer demand for solar energy in our markets, and I’m very pleased with the success of our team in cultivating long-term customer relationships for iSun. The transition to clean energy remains the most important initiative of our generation and we are proud to assist more customers throughout our markets in achieving alternative energy solutions.”

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The project in California. Image: Intersect Power.

Renewables developer Intersect Power has brought a 310MWp PV, 448MWh energy storage system project online in California.

The company announced the 22 December 2022 start of commercial operations for its Athos III solar project in Riverside County yesterday (11 January, 2023).

The solar PV can generate a maximum of 224MWac/310MWp of solar energy and the project features a 112MW/448MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), a four-hour unit.

Energy storage projects need to have a discharge duration of four hours in order to participate in Resource Adequacy, grid operator CAISO’s framework for ensuring that there is enough energy supply to meet demand.

The Athos project is part of a near-term portfolio for Intersect which totals 2.2GW of solar PV and 1.4 GWh of co-located energy storage, the remainder of which will be operational in 2023. The company secured US$2.6 billion of project financing back in November 2021, as reported by Energy-Storage.news, for the units which will all be located in California and Texas.

The Athos project, also called the Blythe Mesa solar, was built on land owned by the federal agency Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Intersect is also developing another solar-plus-storage project on BLM land, one which features a 500MW battery system, as reported by our sister site PV-Tech.

The mix of debt, tax equity and financing commitments was provided or arranged by HPS Investment Partners, Morgan Stanley Renewables Inc, MUFG, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, Cobank, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Helaba, and Nord LB.

Then in June last year, it raised another US$750 million to expand its portfolio further.

The Athos project is expected to meet the domestic content and prevailing wage requirements in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to benefit from tax credits on the energy produced. It was originally developed by RRG Renewables, from which Intersect acquired it in 2020 at early-stage development before starting construction the following year.

Another feature of the IRA which may be worth noting is its introduction of an investment tax credit for standalone energy storage, something which was previously limited to co-located projects. A big portion of large energy storage projects in the last few years have been co-located in order to benefit from this, but Energy-Storage.news has been that the extension to standalone may see fewer of these built.

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.

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Dominion Energy pilot BESS project in Powhatan, Virginia. Image: Dominion.

US utility Dominion Energy’s subsidiary in South Carolina has contracted a power purchase agreement (PPA) for a US$200 million solar-plus-storage power plant in the state.

Large-scale solar PV and energy storage developer Southern Current announced yesterday (11 January) that the PPA has been signed with Dominion Energy South Carolina (DESC) for the Lone Star Solar project.

It’s one of four large-scale clean energy projects featured as highlights of Southern Current parent company EnergyRe’s portfolio on its website and will include 107.8MWdc of solar PV generation capacity together with a 198MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).

Rated power output of the battery system was not given in MW. The 572-acre site in South Carolina’s Calhoun County is expected to go into commercial operation at an unspecified date next year.

EnergyRe, which gave the estimated investment cost of the project as about US$200 million, said that in addition to clean energy, the project would also generate US$10 million in property taxes paid to the state each year. Meanwhile its construction phase will create about 185 jobs, the company said.

EnergyRe acquired the project fairly recently, as part of Southern Current’s pipeline when it acquired the developer in Q3 2022. Southern Current is headquartered in South Carolina, with a 9GW solar PV and energy storage development portfolio.

Its new parent company’s other major projects in development include the CleanPath NY project, which if it goes ahead will see 3.8GW of new-build wind and solar generation capacity paired with 175 miles of underground high voltage DC transmission, to carry renewable energy to demand centres in the state of New York.

Meanwhile, the Lone Star Solar project is thought to represent Dominion Energy South Carolina’s first major investment into large-scale battery storage – it will certainly be the largest on the utility’s network to date.

Dominion Energy, active in eight different US states, has been slower to procure battery storage than some other investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in the country, but that looks set to change, especially in Virginia.

As one of the main utilities in the state, it has been ordered to fulfil a significant portion of Virginia’s 3.1GW by 2035 energy storage deployment target which became law as part of state clean energy policy at the start of 2021. The company’s first 16MW of BESS pilot projects toward that aim are up and running in Virginia. Dominion is targeting net zero emissions by 2050.  

Going back to the topic of utilities and energy storage in the Carolinas, the regional subsidiary of another major utility, Duke Energy, filed a carbon emissions reduction plan last May for its operations in the two states with regulators in which Duke said it wanted to invest in up to 5.9GW of battery storage.  

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.

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The British Virgin Islands is on overseas territory of the UK comprising a dozen islands in the Carribean. Image: Mattes / Wikicommons.

Construction has started on a solar plus storage project on the island of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands for a November 2023 commissioning date.

The announcement by the Government of the Virgin Islands on 29 December, 2022, said the project combining solar PV and a battery energy storage system has a combined capacity of 2.1MW.

Based on previous reports, this refers to the solar PV and maximum output of the plant as a whole, while the attached BESS has previously been reported as a four-hour system totalling around 1MW/4MWh (with figures varying slightly depending on the date of the report).

Deputy premier and minister for communication and works Kye M Rymer described the project as “long overdue” in the context of the climate crisis and “…one of the most revolutionary and transformative initiatives in Anegada and in the Virgin Islands as a whole. This is a major step in our transition to green and sustainable energy”.

Utility for the islands BVI Electricity Corporation (BVIEC) issued a request for proposals (RFP) in October 2019 for the combined system and a contract was executed with Power52, a US-based company which has mainly work on small solar installations to-date.

Power52 won out from a list of 30 companies which sent confirmations of intent to participate in the project, for which the contract is worth US$4,687,944.72. Expert and accreditation group DNV provided support to BVIEC on preparing the technical specifications for the project.

It was handed the contract in July 2020 with an expected commissioning date of November the following year but the Covid-19 pandemic meant the project was delayed.

Minister Rymer said: “I know what I am about to say has been said publicly by others on prior occasions, but for the sake of transparency, I want to repeat it. The economic impacts of COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have affected the price of just about everything under the sun – this project being no exception.”

“I am advised by the BVIEC that the Contract does make provisions for variations and due to the occurrence of certain changes in market conditions, including increases in commodity prices and freight costs, so there will be expected to see a variance in the completed cost of this project.”

He added that the BVIEC has been a major driving force in pushing renewable energy to the fore in the British Virgin Islands’ policy landscape, and that it had been instrumental in getting smaller grid-tied renewable energy systems deployed throughout the British Overseas Territory.

He said that the project would enable Anegada to reduce diesel-produced electricity by 90-95%, improve grid resilience and energy security and help reduce energy bills. The cost of energy is higher there because the island is not connected to the same electricity grid as the other 11 islands. The project will also help the longer-term goal of getting the British Virgin Islands to 70-80% renewable energy.

Read more about island grids 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.

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