Mark Stewart

Stellantis and DTE Energy have added 400 MW of new solar projects in Michigan through DTE’s MIGreenPower voluntary renewable energy program. With its participation in MIGreenPower, Stellantis will be able to attribute 100% of its electricity use at 70 southeast Michigan sites (manufacturing and non-manufacturing) to solar by 2026, which will reduce the company’s carbon emissions in North America by 50% and across its manufacturing facilities by 30%.

Earlier this year, Stellantis announced aggressive goals to achieve carbon net zero globally by 2038 as part of its Dare Forward 2030 strategic plan, beginning by cutting CO2 emissions in half by the end of the decade, using 2021 metrics as the benchmark. The company’s push to net zero addresses all sources of greenhouse gas emissions, from vehicles to supply chain to industrial sites, with energy efficiency being a cornerstone of Stellantis’ approach.

“While this day and this historic agreement are about clean and efficient power, I’d like to suggest that today is also about the power of partnerships in this new era of sustainable mobility,” says Mark Stewart, COO of Stellantis North America. “Our success – indeed our survival – will depend more and more on how completely we embrace the values of collaboration and partnership as strategic imperatives that help us achieve breakthrough business outcomes. This agreement is an outstanding example of how truly great companies like DTE Energy and Stellantis can unleash their passion and expertise to shape a more sustainable world for our customers and our communities.”

DTE’s MIGreenPower program is among the largest voluntary renewable energy programs in the country. To date, the company has more than 800 businesses enrolled in the program, along with more than 75,000 residential customers. On an annual basis, MIGreenPower customers have enrolled 4 million MWh of clean energy in the program.

“We want to thank Stellantis for being a great partner, for joining MIGreenPower and for supporting the development of new solar energy projects here in Michigan,” states Jerry Norcia, chairman and CEO of DTE Energy. “Investments like this accelerate our state’s transition to clean energy, create jobs and strengthen our state’s economy. Adding 400 MW of new solar for Stellantis will result in a cleaner environment for Michigan families, communities and businesses, and create hundreds of jobs during project construction.”

“DTE Energy and Stellantis are working together to boost Michigan’s energy capacity and position us as a national leader in job-creating, cost-reducing climate action,” states Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “This collaboration is the second largest renewable energy purchase through a utility in American history, second only to another announcement right here in Michigan earlier this year. With our innovative companies and the MI Healthy Climate Plan, we are taking immediate, tangible steps in Michigan to face climate change head-on, shore up our energy independence, and create and support good-paying jobs. We are the number one state for energy sector job growth and we will keep our foot on the accelerator to bring more investment and opportunity to Michigan.”

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For the development of next-generation, high-performance solar cells and modules, Meyer Burger Technology AG has signed multi-year cooperation agreements. Together with CSEM from Switzerland, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg and the Institute of Photovoltaics at the University of Stuttgart, the company is working on the industrialization of perovskite tandem technology, which is expected to allow the industrial production of solar cells with efficiencies in excess of 30% in the future. In keeping with the company’s protected business model, the development of these new production technologies is to be used exclusively for Meyer Burger’s own manufacturing.

“With a long tradition of proprietary development, Meyer Burger has an extensive portfolio of processes, technologies, and production techniques at its disposal for the potential mass production of tandem solar cells and modules in-house,” says Marcel König, head of research and development at Meyer Burger. “This includes the essential manufacturing processes and machinery for silicon-based perovskite tandem solar cells, as well as corresponding solar modules with Meyer Burger’s proprietary SmartWire connection technology. In conjunction with the skills of our academic partners, this is a unique recipe for success.”

The work with the new consortium is based on existing collaborations for the development of heterojunction silicon solar cells. In the past, Meyer Burger already entered into collaborations to research perovskite technology, including with Oxford PV, and has therefore already developed its own proprietary technological solutions.

Together with its partners, Meyer Burger is already achieving some initial successes when it comes to the industrialization of perovskite technology,” states Professor Christophe Ballif, director of sustainable energy at CSEM. “For example, CSEM and Meyer Burger have achieved a record efficiency of 29.6 percent for a 25-square-centimeter perovskite tandem solar cell. To achieve this, the Swiss researchers combined heterojunction silicon cells with perovskite structures. “This outstanding result demonstrates the potential of silicon perovskite tandem cells to achieve high efficiencies. Although we still have a lot of work ahead of us, the industrialization of solar cells with an efficiency of over 30 percent is on the right track.”

HZB has achieved efficiencies in excess of 31% for laboratory tandem solar cells in combination with heterojunction and perovskite. Now, in collaboration with Meyer Burger and its partners, it is to apply the results to the manufacturing of commercial products in industry.

“By manufacturing in Europe, Meyer Burger creates high-quality jobs while making use of technologies developed in Europe,” comments Professor Rutger Schlatmann, director of the Competence Center Photovoltaics Berlin PVcomB at HZB.

The success of perovskite/silicon tandem technology is highly dependent on the presence of a stable industrial production process and modules that offer a high level of reliability.

“The aim is for perovskite/silicon modules to meet the high standards of reliability and longevity set by classical silicon PV technology,” says Professor Andreas Bett, director of Fraunhofer ISE. “To this end, Fraunhofer ISE will act as a committed partner as part of the collaboration with Meyer Burger, leveraging its long-standing expertise in the upscaling of PV production processes and the production and certification of modules.”

The Institute for Photovoltaics at the University of Stuttgart is carrying out intensive research into the properties of the new materials for the new solar cell technology. Perovskites are a new class of semiconductors that emit and absorb light across the entire visible and infrared range. They are made up of inexpensive, abundant individual components.

“Only with a strong team will it be possible to convert perovskite semiconductors into a sustainable and competitive product,” says Professor Michael Saliba, director of the Institute for Photovoltaics (ipv) at the University of Stuttgart. “Meyer Burger is playing a key role in this process at the European level by pursuing a long-term vision that combines the latest research with mass production. Only in this way will it be possible to establish PV production that is ‘Made in Europe’.”

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Lithium battery cell produced by European gigafactory startup Northvolt, supported by the European Commission’s European Battery Alliance. Image: Northvolt.

Rules on battery sustainability, performance and labelling will become more stringent within the European Union (EU), after the bloc provisionally agreed the direction new regulations should take.

The European Parliament and Council reached the provisional agreement on Friday (9 December), covering all aspects of battery lifecycle, with new requirements for treatment of batteries at end-of-life, carbon footprint labelling and design for ease of replacement among the new rules.

The EU proposed the new directive back in late 2020, arguing the need for an industry that produces sustainable, safe, and high-performance devices, using materials obtained without violating human rights.

From those initial proposals to the agreement made last week, a few changes have been made. For instance, batteries that use cobalt must use at least 16% recovered cobalt, which is an increase of 2% from targets set previously. Similarly, the EU has increased by two percentage points the amounts of recovered lithium and nickel to be used, from 4% each to 6%.

The agreement must now be formally agreed by the Parliament and Council before it comes into force and is expected to be phased in over a few years. Carbon footprint labelling is expected to be mandatory from mid-2024, while minimum recycled content rules may not come in until the end of this decade.

Of course, with batteries used widely across different industries, the regulations will impact different sectors in different ways. Carbon footprint declaration and labelling will be required for batteries of 2kWh capacity and over, while those batteries will also have to have a ‘digital passport’ – perhaps the most radical of the new regulations.

The Battery Passport scheme would see all components and materials that go into making batteries traceable and tracked in a central ledger. Information about their carbon footprint, safety certification and supply chain due diligence would be among metrics stored.

While the passport has broadly been welcomed, with a few companies anticipating its introduction already working on the technologies and administrative processes involved, trade organisation Flow Batteries Europe has argued the exclusion of flow batteries from its scope is a mistake.

The regulation focuses only on batteries with internal storage, like lithium-ion. That could lead to an unfair competitive advantage and distort the market for flow batteries, which store energy in external tanks, FBE has argued.

‘Implementation is uncertain’

Another trade group, RECHARGE, representing the European advanced rechargeable and lithium battery industries, said it had a number of “critical concerns” about the implementation of the new rules, which will replace the existing EU Battery Directive implemented in 2006.

RECHARGE had welcomed the proposal to introduce the rules in late 2020, but at the time warned against introducing a “high level of complexity” to regulations. Nonetheless, the organisation’s president Patrick de Metz said accountability for due diligence and carbon intensity were long overdue and their introduction to be applauded.

Last week, ahead of the Friday meeting of EU policymakers, RECHARGE said it had outstanding concerns about the details of how the regulations would come into effect.

Notably, there was ambiguity in EU language around recycled content over whether products would be accountable at model level or at production batch level. RECHARGE argued strongly against batch level declarations, which it said could result in unnecessary duplicate labelling of thousands of devices.

The group had a couple of other concerns. One was that end-of-life responsibility under the new rules would be placed on the producer of the batteries, which RECHARGE argued would be unlikely to be able to effectively trace and take back spent equipment or materials. Instead, the “economic operator” of the batteries should be responsible rather than the manufacturer.

RECHARGE general manager Claude Chanson said the Batteries Regulation, “is expected to play a significant role in setting rules for a new type of competition based on sustainability, but a successful implementation is uncertain”.

In an interview with Energy-Storage.news in July last year, Hans Eric Melin, managing director at consultancy and research group Circular Energy Storage, said there was also some risk that setting too high a bar for European manufacturers to meet, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.

A global approach might be better, Melin said, but described the EU regulation as a “great foundation for that”. Decisions taken in the next few years could define the industry “for many years after that,” the analyst said, with Circular Energy Storage’s work focused on tracking recycling and sustainability of batteries.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 8th 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.

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Artist’s impression of the 250MW Grid Booster project Fluence will execute for German grid operator Transnet BW. Image: Fluence / TransnetBW.

Fluence has reported its highest quarterly and yearly revenue figures to date and forecast adjusted gross profits of between US$60 million and US$100 million for next year.

The global energy storage technology provider published its financial results yesterday. In the three-month period ending 30 September – the company’s fourth quarter of its financial year – Fluence earned US$442 million revenue, for a total of US$1.2 billion revenues over the full year passed.

That means it beat the US$1.1 billion revenue guidance offered in August, and was within the US$1.1 billion to US$1.3 billion range given before that. Meanwhile its quarterly revenues for Q4 had been forecast at about US$345 million, and GAAP gross margin swung from -2% in Q3 2022 to 2%.

The company has been established for some time as one of the leaders in the energy storage system integrator space and moving towards a role as provider of modular hardware and digital energy asset optimisation.

As such, it has deployed, contracted, or has under management more than 5GW of energy storage, participated in 205 projects and is active in 44 different markets.

However, as noted in September by research analyst James West of Evercore ISI Research, the company’s focus under former CEO Manuel Perez Dubuc was to “land and expand” – i.e., carving out market share in key territories.

Incoming CEO Julian Nebreda, who took over in the middle of that month, would be more focused on turning that head start into profits, West said, a view pretty much confirmed at the time by Fluence’s investor relations VP Lexington May, who said the company was “making a primary focus on profitable growth”.

Commenting on the most recent results, CEO Nebreda said Fluence expected “robust” demand for the company’s products and services in the US to be “amplified” by the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), while in Europe the ongoing energy crisis demonstrated “the need for energy security and independence, which provides additional opportunities for energy storage,” Nebreda said.

Fluence CFO: ‘Headwinds now largely behind us’

However, while yearly GAAP gross margin improved considerably from -10% from fiscal year 2021, it was still negative, at -5%. Adjusted gross margin was approximately -0.2% for FY2022, versus 2.2% for last year.

In the previous quarter’s results, Fluence had said industry headwinds continued to be confronted, including logistics issues caused by COVID-19 and the almost equally well-documented supply chain constraints and raw material price rises in the lithium battery industry.

At that time, former CEO Dubuc said those impacts had been tough on the company – and the industry – contributing to a 14% fall in revenues in Q3, but that progress was being made in mitigating headwinds while some of their causes, such as shipping delays, were become less of a problem.

Yesterday CFO Manavendra (Manu) Sial, also recently appointed after being recruited from SunPower, said Fluence was now “confident the impact of the headwinds experienced during 2022 is largely behind us as a result of the improvements made to our supply strategy and overall project execution”.

“During the fourth quarter we showcased our ability to improve our margins into positive territory and ended the quarter with total cash in excess of US$500 million. We will continue to focus on improving near-term margins while positioning Fluence for sustained returns by growing our recurring revenue through our digital and services businesses,” Sial said.

During the fourth quarter, Fluence booked US$560 million of orders, including a contract worth just under half that sum with German transmission operator Transnet BW for a so-called ‘Grid Booster’ project.

A 250MW battery energy storage system (BESS) will essentially play the role of a virtual transmission asset, increasing hosting capacity and redundancy of high voltage transmission lines. The BESS will be commissioned in 2025.

The company also referred to a contract worth about half a billion US Dollars with Danish power company Ørsted that was booked in November, after the reported period ended, as evidence it can provide “highly complex solutions” for customers.

This appears to be the first public mention of the Ørsted deal, although company leadership might elaborate during an earnings call, to be hosted this morning (13 December).

Fluence yesterday initiated revenue guidance for the 2023 financial year in a range of approximately US$1.4 billion to US$1.7 billion, as well as the aforementioned adjusted gross profit guidance for the year of up to US$100 million.

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The cover story of PV Tech Power 33 charts industry efforts to bring more manufacturing closer to end markets. Image: Luca D’Urbino.

The Q4 2022 edition of our downstream solar journal, PV Tech Power, is now available to download, including comprehensive coverage of efforts to diversify the supply chain.

The cover story of volume 33 details how solar manufacturers in markets such as the US, India and Europe are looking to leverage policy support to scale up production and take advantage of soaring domestic module demand.

As well as looking at how solar players can benefit from various tax credits included in the US’s Inflation Reduction Act, this issue reveals how satellites can provide more reliable insights into the construction of utility-scale PV projects in the country.

As always, ‘Storage & Smart Power’, the section of the journal contributed by Energy-Storage.news returns too. Feature articles in the latest edition are:

European energy strategy must reconcile the need for flexibility

With Europe at an unprecedented crossroads in its energy system planning, now is the time to factor in the flexibility energy storage and other technologies can bring to its electricity networks and energy markets, write Julian Jansen and Lars Stephan of Fluence.

Three V2G/V2X projects getting around major challenges of consumer vehicle space

Cameron Murray talks to three companies taking a practical approach to scaling their vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-building offerings.

Second life energy storage firms position themselves ahead of EV battery boom

Using batteries from electric vehicles in energy storage systems can provide a potentially low-cost way to sidestep supply chain bottlenecks, writes Cameron Murray.

Southeast Asia’s emerging energy storage opportunities

Amid an uptick in energy storage investment in Southeast Asia, Andy Colthorpe speaks with companies working to gain a foothold in the region.

You can download your digital copy of PV Tech Power 33 via our subscription service here.

PV Tech Premium subscribers receive every copy of PV Tech Power as part of their subscription as soon as they are published, as well as exclusive content on PV Tech, weekly briefing emails and a host of other benefits.

For more details on PV Tech Premium, including how to subscribe, click here.

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CEP Renewables and CS Energy have started construction on the 10 MW BEMS community solar landfill project, located on the Big Hill Landfill in Southampton, N.J. Consisting of two co-located 5 MW solar systems that span across two utility territories, this project will utilize the ballasted solar racking solution from Terrasmart. Beyond converting previously unusable land to a clean energy generating asset, the project will also serve low-to-moderate income (LMI) residents and will enable the Township to recoup 40 years of back taxes and interest. Construction of this project is expected to be complete by May 2023.

“We are excited to be able to build upon the success of our redevelopment project in Mount Olive, New Jersey – the largest solar landfill project in North America, by utilizing a similar process with this project,” says Chris Ichter, executive vice president at CEP Renewables.

As with the Mount Olive project, the BEMS project was also purchased by way of the redevelopment and tax lien foreclosure process – a structure that was entirely unique before the Mount Olive project. The Big Hill landfill site in Southampton had been long abandoned by its former owner, resulting in the site accruing millions of dollars in tax liens. As part of the public-private partnership between CEP and the Township of Southampton, CEP acquired the tax liens from the township, paying back all past-due taxes in the process, and foreclosed on the landfill property. CEP is now the owner of this landfill site, and the township, meanwhile, has been able to recoup nearly 40 years of back taxes and interest.

“We’re proud that CEP Renewables has selected us to provide our expertise for this impactful landfill solar project due to our proven ability to complete these challenging projects safely and cost effectively,” comments Michael Dillon, director of operations at CS Energy. “We look forward to working alongside CEP Renewables to convert a previously unusable site into a solar generating field that will provide substantial environmental and financial benefits to this local community.”

This BEMS project represents just one of 16 landfill or brownfield projects that CEP currently has under development.

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Marco Terruzzin

NV Energy, Nevada’s largest public utility, has awarded Energy Vault Holdings Inc. with a project for the deployment of a short duration energy storage solution. The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), one of the largest in Nevada, is expected to start construction in Q2 2023 with commercial operation expected by the end of 2023.

The 220 MW/440 MWh grid-tied BESS will be deployed at a site located near Las Vegas. The 2-hour energy storage system is designed to store and dispatch excess renewable energy, including wind and solar power. The BESS will be charged and discharged on a daily basis and designed to dispatch stored renewable energy at peak consumption hours to help meet the high demand during Nevada’s peak load hours.

“Energy Vault is pleased to be selected by NV Energy for a mission critical project supporting Nevada’s largest electric provider in achieving its goal of net zero emissions by 2050,” says Marco Terruzzin, chief commercial and product officer at Energy Vault. “This is Energy Vault’s first public utility customer for our short duration energy storage solutions, which furthers our strategy to be the energy storage company of choice for utilities, IPPs and large energy users. We look forward to beginning our relationship with NV Energy to help them meet their IRP needs for both short and long duration energy storage.”

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Stem Inc has grown revenues well beyond US$200 million this year and expects to become EBITDA positive in 2023. Image: Stem Inc.

AI-driven energy storage firm Stem Inc will deliver 40MW of battery storage projects in ERCOT, Texas, for independent power producer (IPP) REX, the first of US$400 million the new firm plans to procure.

New York Stock Exchange-listed Stem will deliver four standalone 9.9MW battery energy storage systems in Texas for REX Storage holdings, an IPP which is a joint venture between Regis Energy Partners LP and Excelsior Energy Capital.

REX was incorporated in Texas in March 2022 and the order from Stem Inc is the first of a US$400 million equity commitment by REX to acquire construction-ready projects from Regis’ development pipeline within the ERCOT, Texas market. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) runs 90% of the Lone Star State’s grid.

A press release said that Regis will oversee the projects’ development while Stem will provide its battery hardware Athena alongside its AI-driven energy management system (EMS) platform and long-term operational services. The initial four energy storage systems are under construction and are planned to come online in 2023.

While appearing likely, the companies did not explicitly say that Stem would provide its energy storage solution for the entire US$400 million pipeline. The four initial projects could potentially total around 10% of the overall pipeline based on a rough average cost per MW for lithium-ion battery storage systems of US$1 million, based on projects Energy-Storage.news has reported on.

John Carrington, CEO of Stem, commented: “The energy storage market in Texas represents a significant growth opportunity for leading renewable energy investors like Excelsior who recognise the rich merchant revenue opportunities in the ERCOT market.”

Daniel Senneff and Nathan Vajdos, co-founders and Managing Partners of Regis Energy Partners, added: “Distributed energy storage represents an unprecedented opportunity to rapidly modernise and strengthen Texas’ electricity grid. With the incredible amount of support and expertise provided by Stem and Excelsior, Regis has been able to execute a focused business plan centered around speed and simplicity to develop this portfolio of high-value projects.”

BESS projects under 10MW qualify for a more streamline and rapid regulatory approval process in the ERCOT market, so developers typically opt for that nameplate power rating for their first few projects before expanding power and duration further once they’ve reached a level of comfort in the market.

BESS units in the ERCOT market have historically relied on ancillary services RRS (regulation reserve service) and RRS-FFR (fast frequency response) but energy trading is a growing component of the value stack, as alluded to by Carrington.

Read previous Energy-Storage.news articles about developments in the ERCOT market 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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Adam Stotz

E Source has picked up a contract from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop the state’s Integrated Energy Data Resource (IEDR) platform. The first-of-its-kind platform will act as a secure, centralized repository of energy-related data for all electric, gas and steam utilities – as well as other non-utility entities – across the state.

Key stakeholders – including Energy Service Entities such as solar, storage and wind developers; utility customers; state agencies; and the utilities themselves – can access the platform on a self-serve basis and at a massive scale. The platform will provide the kind of data each stakeholder wants and needs to inform investment decisions, identify operational inefficiencies, monitor the effectiveness of policy objectives, promote innovation, encourage new business models, and better serve the clean energy needs of disadvantaged communities.

To develop and implement the IEDR platform, E Source will lead a development team of utility innovation companies including UtilityAPI, Flux Tailor, TRC Companies and HumanLogic. The development team will use E Source OneInform and UtilityAPI’s Green Button Connect to enable the data access, governance, querying, analysis and consent processes required to deliver the full benefit of stakeholder-submitted use cases. Flux Tailor, TRC Companies and HumanLogic will support the program by providing a mix of stakeholder engagement and training, use-case assessment, requirements development, documentation, and UI/UX design.

“We’ve assembled a stellar development team, experienced in bringing data-centric innovation to utilities both in New York and across the country,” says Adam Stotz, chief technology officer at E Source. “This experience, including having our own working, scalable utility data platforms and an agile approach rooted in adapting quickly based on what works and what doesn’t, will provide NYSERDA a useful ‘head start’ in delivering the IEDR on a tight timeline while maximizing benefits for all stakeholders.”

By integrating, analyzing, and making energy data accessible, the IEDR platform will benefit New York’s key clean-energy stakeholders in many ways, across use cases, while facilitating communications among all. Clean-energy project developers and solution providers, including energy storage and solar firms, will be able to query the platform for a variety of anonymized usage data to better develop and target offerings and site projects. Utilities can use the same data to better understand needs and opportunities across their service territories; increase adoption of offerings for renewable energy, energy efficiency and distributed energy; and streamline the interconnect process, bringing more renewable-energy resources online faster.

Large commercial, industrial and institutional customers, as well as small businesses and residents, can use the IEDR platform to assess clean-energy options and analyze payback periods to make smart adoption decisions. And state, city and local agencies will be able to develop and implement new programs – for example, emissions-benchmarking services for building owners – and better monitor and manage overall program performance and results as they guide the state toward 70% clean energy by 2030.

“Our centralized IEDR platform will provide access to useful data and information to support new and innovative clean-energy business models that deliver benefits to New Yorkers,” comments Doreen M. Harris, president and CEO of NYSERDA. “NYSERDA looks forward to working with E Source and its partners to build this instrumental resource that will help to accelerate the deployment of clean and resilient solutions across the state.”

“At E Source, we’ve focused our deep research, advisory, data science, technology consulting and solutions expertise on enabling the sustainable utility, helping utilities do the hard work to become more environmentally responsible, equitably deliver safe and reliable energy, and maintain financial stability,” says Ted Schultz, CEO of E Source. “The work we’re embarking on now for NYSERDA, built on the many breakthroughs we have made for individual utilities across the U.S., epitomizes our approach and marks a major new phase in using data to accelerate clean-energy adoption.”

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Thibaut Delespaul

Independent solar power producer CVE North America has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of solar PV projects in upstate New York from Saturn Power Corp. The portfolio consists of seven community solar projects located throughout National Grid utility territory, totaling 41 MW. Saturn Power developed the projects to Notice to Proceed (NTP) status and CVE will begin construction by the end of 2022.

CVE will own and operate the portfolio and will work with third-party providers to construct the projects and acquire community solar subscribers.

The projects are set to participate in the New York Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) program, a mechanism launched by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to encourage and support energy created by distributed energy resources like solar installations. Under this program, all seven installations will be community solar projects and help subscribers, especially low to moderate-income households, save money on their utility bills.

Through community solar programs customers can enjoy the benefits of lower cost energy from renewable resources without the need of installing their own solar system.  By subscribing to local community solar farms and supporting local solar development, customers receive credits on their utility bills for their share of the power that is produced, just as if the panels were on their own roofs.

In addition to delivering clean energy locally, the portfolio will provide employment opportunities as well as community and environmental benefits. Once complete, the portfolio will produce enough clean energy per year to power approximately 8,500 homes and offset the equivalent of over 9,000 passenger vehicles’ emissions.

“These community solar projects represent a significant milestone in Saturn’s push towards creating a more sustainable environment and we are proud of the hard work that our amazing team has exhibited in originating and developing this portfolio.” says Doug Wagner, president and CEO for Saturn Power. “Saturn will continue to work closely with CVE to ensure this portfolio is successful in progressing through the next stages of procurement, and construction on through to commercial operation, ensuring long-term benefit for these local communities along with strengthening the footprint of renewable energy in North America”.

“With this acquisition, CVE is accelerating its participation in the United States’ largest and most active community solar market, the State of New York,” states Thibaut Delespaul, general manager of CVE North America. “This consolidates the company’s position as a distributed clean energy producer committed to delivering energy and environmental services to households, businesses, and municipalities. The portfolio will help contribute to a more equitable clean energy transition by expanding New York residents’ access to affordable solar power.”

The seven projects acquired are part of a broader CVE portfolio of thirteen projects in New York State totaling 73 MW, all of which will be under construction between 2022 and early 2023. These projects will join CVE’s operating portfolio of nine Massachusetts community solar projects totaling 37 MW, and its development pipeline of more than 250 MW across several states.

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