Joseph L. Fiordaliso

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has established the Competitive Solar Incentive (CSI) Program, a new program designed to promote grid-scale solar generation in New Jersey. CSI is a key part of the state’s Successor Solar Incentive initiative (SuSI), which was enacted by the board in 2021, and is expected to significantly increase the state’s solar program at a lower cost for ratepayers.

The new CSI program has a goal of incentivizing at least 300 MW of solar annually until 2026. The CSI program will primarily cover large projects, including all types of grid supply projects and net-metered, non-residential projects greater than 5 MW.

“The CSI program is a vital component of our new SuSI program and will play a major part in helping us meet our solar goals while decreasing costs to ratepayers,” states NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso. “Our growing solar program, which not only includes CSI and ADI but also community solar, is one of the core programs in achieving Governor Murphy’s goal of a 100 percent clean energy future.”

In addition to CSI, the SuSI program consists of the Administratively Determined Incentive (ADI) Program, which has been open for registrations since the beginning of the SuSI program on August 28, 2021. The ADI program set incentives for net-metered residential projects, net-metered non-residential projects of 5 MW or less, and community solar projects.

The CSI program is designed to provide maximum benefit to ratepayers at the lowest cost; support the continued growth of the solar industry; meet Governor Murphy’s commitment to 50% class I RECs by 2030 and 100% clean energy by 2050; provide insight and information to stakeholders through a transparent process for developing New Jersey’s long-term solar incentive program; and fully comply with the Solar Act of 2021.

The new program structure has separate categories, or tranches, to ensure that a range of solar project types, including those on preferred sites, are able to participate despite potentially different project cost profiles. The board has approved four tranches for grid supply and large net metered solar and an additional fifth tranche for storage in combination with grid supply solar.

Tranche 1 is open to basic grid supply with a procurement target of 140 MW, while Tranche 2 is for grid supply on the built environment with an 80 MW target. Tranche 3 is for grid supply on contaminated sites and landfills for 40 MW, Tranche 4 for net metered non-residential installations larger than 5 MW with a target of 40 MW, and Tranche 5 for storage paired with grid supply solar for 160 MWh.

After receiving an award in the solicitation, CSI projects will have three years to come on-line. 

The CSI program design has siting requirements that apply to all projects eligible for the CSI program, regardless of whether they actually seek an incentive. These siting requirements follow stipulations laid out in the Solar Act of 2021 and establish construction requirements designed to uphold the mandate to “minimize, as much as is practicable, potential adverse environmental impacts.”

Solicitations will take place annually, and all projects that meet pre-qualification requirements will compete on price only. The first solicitation is scheduled to take place early 2023, with bids due on March 31, 2023.

Read the full board order here.

Continue reading

Rendering of the planned project, with construction due to begin this coming Spring. Image: Wärtsilä.

Technology group Wärtsilä Energy has signed an additional contract with EDF Renewables UK for a 50MW/100MWh lithium-ion energy storage facility in Sundon, Bedfordshire in southern England.

The project – due to begin construction in spring 2023 – will increase intermittency management and renewable energy integration, as well as strengthening the resilience of the electric system, and balancing supply and demand by charging and discharging automatically.

The Sundon facility will also support electric vehicle (EV) charging and the electrification of public transport.

The contract includes Wärtsilä’s GridSoly Quantum system and GEMS Digital Energy Platform. The GEMS technology delivers data and insights for trading parties and performance for comprehensive asset management.

EDF Renewables UK and Wärtsilä previously partnered on a 50MW transmission-connected battery storage system in the history university city of Oxford, which went live in June last year and the 50MW/50MWh battery storage system in Kemsley, Kent, which went live in October last year. 

To read the full version of this story, visit Solar Power Portal.

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.

Continue reading

Australia’s energy ministers gathered today, with Chris Bowen in centre speaking. Image: Chris Bowen via Twitter.

Australia will launch a scheme to incentivise investment in the right mix of low-carbon energy sources and energy storage.

At a meeting led by federal minister for energy Chris Bowen and attended by the country’s state and territory energy ministers, it was decided in principle that tenders for dispatchable energy will be held via a Commonwealth Capacity Investment Scheme.

The scheme aims to “put downward pressure on wholesale energy prices” as well as support the continuing transition away from fossil fuels. The need is especially acute and urgent in light of the ongoing global energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war on Ukraine, a communique from the meeting said.

That said, the fundamental reform to energy markets the scheme’s launch represents has been a topic of discussion in Australia since 2019 as a lever for decreasing coal and gas use while increasing investment in renewables.

The revenue underwriting scheme would be available across all jurisdictions nationally, and ministers believe it can “bring on the right mix of zero emissions dispatchable generation and storage, to meet the needs of the system into the future, at maximum value to communities and consumers”.

Only zero emissions technologies and energy storage will be eligible for the tenders and will be integrated with any existing state-level schemes to avoid duplication or market confusion. The scheme will however be tailored to meet various state’s individual energy transition frameworks, such as the New South Wales Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap that sets out that state’s long-term power system planning.

“After years of talk, Australia’s energy ministers today decided on the capacity scheme to unleash billions of dollars of investment in dispatchable renewable energy,” Bowen tweeted today.

“Thanks to my state and territory colleagues for unanimously agreeing to get on with the renewables job.”

In addition to the Capacity Investment Scheme, which it is hoped can be introduced by mid-2023, the ministers also apparently agreed to introduce a small-scale Renewable Energy Storage Target.

Although this wasn’t mentioned in the communique explicitly, it was referred to by various sources that commented on today’s meeting, including the Smart Energy Council trade association. The council and various other groups in Australia have advocated for a storage target scheme similar to the country’s successful Renewable Energy Target.

The Smart Energy Council called today “a landmark day for renewable energy and renewable energy storage,” which followed nine years of inaction on climate change by successive federal governments.

The national plan now introduced by the Labor Party government, led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese could take Australia to “82% renewables and beyond,” the council said in a statement sent to media including Energy-Storage.news.

“The Smart Energy Council looks forward to working with all governments on the implementation of the Capacity Investment Mechanism and calls on all governments to now turn their attention to the development and implementation of a national Small-scale Renewable Energy Storage Scheme,” the group said.

Ministers today also discussed a range of other topics, such as a commitment to create a National Renewable Energy Supply Chain Action Plan on manufacturing opportunities by the end of next year, and the progression of a First Nations Clean Energy Strategy. Ministers also emphasised that preparing road and energy networks for electric vehicles should be a priority.

In related news, the state government of Victoria recently stood for re-election successfully on a platform that included ambitious renewable energy and emissions reduction targets, as well as what would be one of the world’s biggest energy storage deployment targets.

The Victorian Labor government led by Premier Daniel Andrews said during election campaigning that it would introduce a 6.3GW energy storage deployment target by 2035.

More to follow…

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.

Continue reading

Michael Stein

Genie Energy Ltd. says its Genie Solar subsidiary has obtained a notice to proceed for its first company-owned project, a 4 MW community solar farm in upstate New York.

Construction of the ground-mount project is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023. Once construction is completed, the start of generation will be contingent upon testing of the interconnection and final approval from the regional utility.

Genie Solar has also completed a Coordinated Electric System Interconnection Review (CESIR) for a second company-owned community solar project in upstate New York and expects to achieve the NTP in early 2023. This 6 MW community solar project is also slated for construction in 2023.

“Community solar plays to Genie’s strengths as an integrated solar provider,” says Michael Stein, CEO of Genie Energy. “In our first two projects, we not only obtained control of the sites and are overseeing permitting, we are also financing and managing the construction of the projects. We’ll utilize our own designed and manufactured solar panels, and our retail arm will identify, enroll and manage the projects’ customers.”

Continue reading

Peter Ford

Freepoint Solar LLC and Freepoint Energy Solutions LLC say they have commenced residential and small commercial solar service for customers in Greene County, N.Y., from their 7 MW solar facility in Coxsackie, N.Y., and completed pre-construction development for their 5 MW solar project in Richmond, R.I.

The Coxsackie project, which has been developed on a 32-acre parcel of land southwest of town, will serve approximately 650 residential and small commercial customers across Central Hudson’s service territory. Annual payments totaling approximately $1 million will be distributed to the Coxsackie-Athens Central School District, with portions also paid to Greene County and the Town of Coxsackie.

Woodville Solar will comprise approximately 12,600 solar panels installed on an abandoned turf farm. The project has received all required permits for construction and operation of the facility, and it will participate in the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Growth Program, administered by Rhode Island Energy.

“The Coxsackie and Woodville projects are a subset of our 300 MW advanced development portfolio serving wholesale, utility and mass market customers throughout the Northeast,” says Peter Ford, managing director of Freepoint Solar. “We are pleased to provide our Central Hudson mass market customers with renewable energy service, in addition to guaranteed savings off their utility bills.”

Continue reading

V2G/V2X holds great potential but many are sceptical of how far it can be used in the consumer EV space. Image: SWTCH, a Canada-based firm providing EV charging infrastructure with the option of V2G.

California utility PG&E has invited residential and commercial customers to enrol onto three vehicle-to-everything (V2X) programmes using EV batteries for a range of use cases.

The programmes will offer customers financial incentives for integrating their bidirectional EV charging technology that will allow them to use their vehicle batteries to provide power to the grid (vehicle-to-grid or V2G) and to their homes or businesses.

The utility is seeking to enrol around 1,000 residential consumers, 200 commercial consumers and 200 microgrid-connected consumers in three respective pilot programmes. It has launched pre-enrolment websites with full enrolment occurring next year.

The pilots will include both the ability to use the EV battery as backup power source as well as provide stored energy to the grid in times of high demand. Participants will be paid an upfront bonus of up to US$2,500-3,000 for the residential and commercial pilots, and up to another US$2,175 or US$3,625 for providing energy to the grid for each programme, respectively.

Microgrid programme participants will be reimbursed up to US$3,750 for providing energy to the grid, and can further stack incentives with the residential or commercial programmes. The microgrids will be located in select high wildfire-risk areas.

“Bidirectional EV charging is a game-changer for both the energy and transportation sectors. These pilot programs will help determine how to maximize the cost-effectiveness of bidirectional charging technology in providing a variety of customer and grid benefits,” said Aaron August, PG&E’s Vice President, Utility Partnerships and Innovation.

The utility aims to have up to three million EVs on the roads in its service area by 2030 with two million of them V2X/V2G-enabled. Based on an average EV battery size of 40kWh (a figure which is constantly growing), that would equate to 80GWh of flexible capacity. The programmes being launched by PG&E are in addition to previous V2X/V2G pilots it has announced.

A longtime leader in energy storage, California is also becoming a hotbed of experimentation in using EVs to support the grid.

In October, a trio of projects were announced in the state in the space of week. Then at the end of the month, PG&E established the US’ first V2G export compensation mechanism for commercial EV charging customers in its service area, to promote EV adoption and encourage the use of V2G.

However, many industry observers are sceptical of how far V2X or V2G can be used in the consumer EV space. One big challenge is relying on users to ensure EVs are plugged in when a discharge is needed while another is ensuring remuneration makes the additional cost of infrastructure economical for the end-user.

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

Continue reading

Official unveiling of the BESS in late October. FlexGen made its announcement yesterday. Image: NC Electric Cooperatives.

FlexGen has completed the first project in its 40MW buildout for a set of electric cooperative utilities in North Carolina.

The energy storage system integrator and controls software specialist, itself headquartered in the southern US state, announced yesterday that its project for Randolph Electric Membership Corporation (Randolph EMC) has been commissioned.

Connected to Randolph EMC’s Five Points substation, the system was officially switched on in late October by Ted Budd, US Representative for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District and state Senator Dave Craven.

While the sizing, including output and capacity of the Randolph EMC, has not been disclosed, the project is one of 10 in total that FlexGen has contracted to provide for NC Electric Cooperatives, a group of 26 member-led non-profit utilities that provide energy for about two-and-a-half million people.

Construction of the projects began in January this year, with one other BESS being installed at a Randolph EMC site and the rest for other cooperatives in the group. The systems are being put in rural parts of the state that have weak or distant connection to centralised grid infrastructure.

They will boost the reliability of that connection, while also being used to store cheap, off-peak energy to manage loads on the network. That would not only lower the carbon intensity of the coops’ electricity usage, since peak energy tends to be generated on the grid from gas, but also lower their running costs.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news as the projects got underway, FlexGen’s system integrator expertise is also being leveraged to aid the integration of distributed energy resources (DER) like electric vehicles (EV) and chargers or smart thermostats.

FlexGen has an energy management system (EMS) and software controls platform called Hybrid OS, which will enable the coops to flexibly monitor and coordinate the DERs on their networks.    

“Randolph EMC’s Five Points project is the first of its kind, integrating a standalone battery energy storage system into North Carolina’s cooperative electric grid. The battery will not only support Randolph EMC’s efforts to supply affordable energy to its members, but it is also capable of enhancing the reliability and resiliency of the cooperative electric grid,” NC Electric Cooperatives executive VP and CEO Joe Brannan said.

The projects add more clean energy resources to NC Electric Cooperatives existing portfolio, which includes 14 solar-plus-storage sites totalling 23MW of solar PV and 53MWh of BESS, as well as a handful of rural microgrids.

Collectively, the cooperatives are pursuing a 2050 target date for achieving net zero emissions status. Their fuel mix is already at more than 60% carbon-free and only 5% reliant on coal. Across the US, more than 42 million people get their electricity from a cooperative.

Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2021, renewable energy capacity at coops more than tripled from 3.9GW to more than 13GW, according to NRECA, the national association of US electric cooperatives.

In October, FlexGen signed a 10GWh battery storage supply deal with Chinese manufacturer CATL, live on-stage at the RE+ 2022 trade show in California. At the time, FlexGen CEO Kelcy Pegler said the multi-year agreement would put its customers at the front of the queue for supply constrained battery storage kit.

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

Continue reading

Concept rendering of the integrated microgrid combining fuel cells, hydrogen generator and ZincFive battery cabinet. Image: Kaizen Clean Energy.

ZincFive, a US company developing nickel-zinc battery technology for stationary storage applications including data centre UPS solutions, has closed a Series D financing round.

The round closed with US$54 million raised, Oregon-headquartered ZincFive said yesterday, bringing the company’s total funding raised since its founding to US$139 million.

ZincFive has claimed its batteries’ nickel-zinc (NiZn) electrochemistry is high power density, fully recyclable with a low carbon footprint and nonflammable.

Another claimed advantage is that even depleted or weakened nickel-zinc cells remain conductive, meaning strings of battery modules continue operating for longer before parts need replacement or maintenance.

The company is targeting high power, short duration applications, generally requiring less than an hour of storage, but that require high discharge rates of which its battery is capable. That means applications like UPS (uninterruptible power systems), starting up heavy industrial equipment or vehicles, or behind-the-meter peak shaving.

Venture capital firm Helios Climate Ventures, an existing investor in ZincFive, led the Series D round, joined by a mix of other existing investors like investment advisor Senator Investment Group and new investors including specialist climate investor OGCI Climate Investments and Japan Energy Fund, which seeks promising energy tech with potential to scale in the Japanese market.  

The nickel-zinc startup is among a number of energy storage companies looking to commercialise zinc-based electrochemical systems. Thomas Edison invented the first NiZn battery at the beginning of the 20th Century, but like sodium-ion batteries, the technology has been limited by poor cycle life, a problem ZincFive claimed it has overcome.

ZincFive is currently working to install NiZn batteries for backup power at a Wyoming data centre. The project, which got underway this summer, will see an undisclosed number of ZincFive 37kWh to 39kWh BC Series battery storage cabinets deployed to support the management of 30MW of critical IT loads.

In May the company also launched an integrated microgrid solution combining electric vehicle (EV) charging, hydrogen refuelling and backup power, in partnership with hydrogen generator manufacturer Kaizen Clean Energy and fuel cell maker PowerCell.

ZincFive said the new funding will be used to accelerate its efforts to scale up in markets like data centre UPS and heavy industrial equipment power solutions that it is already targeting, but will also use the cash as growth capital to explore other potential high power application market segments.

The funding will also help it get closer to its goal of building high volume production facilities amid what the company claimed is “rapidly growing customer demand”.

Versatility of zinc

What’s interesting is that there appears to be some divergence in terms of technologies among the different zinc battery players, and therefore also in applications or market segment they are targeting.

For instance, Eos Energy Enterprises is likely the furthest commercialised, with the Pennsylvania-headquartered company producing an aqueous zinc hybrid cathode battery technology. Unlike ZincFive, Eos’ tech comprises units that store up to three hours each, but which can be stacked together to meet durations of up to 12 hours or more.

Another company similarly named to ZincFive, called Zinc8, has a zinc-air battery technology that is currently being piloted for use at a New York apartment complex, with up to 15-hour duration of storage. A 100kW/1.5MWh Zinc8 battery system is being paired with a CHP (combined heat and power) plant, with the project assessing the economics and reliability of the technology.  

Then there are also companies using zinc in flow battery electrolytes, like Australia’s Redflow, which has a zinc-bromine flow battery technology, and Chinese company WeView, which is working on a zinc-iron flow battery tech developed by now defunct US company VIZn Energy and itself recently raised US$57 million.

In February, Dr Josef Daniel-Ivad from the the Zinc Battery Initiative industry group wrote a Guest Blog for this site, highlighting the different attributes of zinc that mean it could play a bigger role in the energy transition than it does today.

Along with the technical attributes, zinc battery supply chains could be westernised, reducing the US – and global – industry’s reliance on existing lithium-ion supply chains, which are largely concentrated in Asia and in China in particular, Daniel-Ivad wrote.

Continue reading

A render of American Battery Factory’s first facility. Image: American Battery Factory via corporate video.

American Battery Factory, a new firm planning a network of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery manufacturing facilities in the US, has chosen a site in Arizona for its first.

American Battery Factory (ABF) CEO Paul Charles and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced the 267-acre site in Pima County’s Aerospace Research Campus in Tucson, yesterday (6 December).

It will require US$1.2 billion in investment and ABF claimed it will be built in 18-24 months and be the largest gigafactory for LFP battery cells ‘at 2 million square feet’.

In an interview with Energy-Storage.news in March when the company was formed, Charles explained that the quick construction was possible thanks to opting for ‘tension membrane’ building structures which can be built in a matter of months.

He said at the time that would focus on the energy storage, military and selected EV markets, and that its first facility would be a 3GWh annual production facility with R&D centre and pilot line with 3-6GWh expansions to it every six to 12 months. However, he said that would only require US$500 million for the first phase so the larger investment total announced yesterday indicates it is already eyeing a larger build-out to 15GWh.

The firm’s announcement comes just a day after Energy-Storage.news revealed that the US has been growing its planned lithium-ion battery gigafactory capacity twice as fast as Europe since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed in August, according to data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Announcing the first factory site, Charles said: “Batteries make shifting to an entirely green energy economy possible. With this first factory, we will secure a strategically positioned company headquarters while taking the critical first steps in making it possible to one day move the country and the entire world to 100% renewable power.”

Project partners for the facility alongside the Governor include the Arizona Commerce Authority, regional economic development authority Sun Corridor Inc., Pima Community College and utility Tucson Electric Power.

“Energy storage not only drives powerful environmental benefits for our region, but economic benefits as well. TEP was a close partner on this project every step of the way, providing critical infrastructure and competitive pricing,” said Susan Gray, president & CEO, Tucson Electric Power.

The Inflation Reduction Act provides tax credits to individual consumers for the purchase of EVs which have US-made battery components as well as to battery manufacturers for the production of both cells and packs.

Manufacturers will receive US$35/kWh for battery cell production and US$10/kWh for battery pack production. Turkish company Kontrolmatik said that in the first decade of operation for its 3GWh LFP factory – a very similar profile to ABF’s – these benefits would total a cumulative US$900 million.

Benchmark forecasts a 2031 annual lithium-ion battery production capacity of 992.6GWh and 957.6GWh for North America and the US, respectively.,

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

Continue reading

A rendering of Ingrid Capacity’s 20MW battery system. Image: Ingrid Capacity.

Developers O2X and Ingrid Capacity have started work on two battery storage projects totalling 60MW of power in Sweden.

Renewable energy firm OX2 has started work on the Bredhälla BESS (battery energy storage system) project in the village of the same name, in the southern county of Kronoberg, directly adjacent to a substation run by utility E.ON. Construction will start this month for commissioning in spring of 2024.

The BESS will deliver ancillary services to Svenska Kraftnät, the state-owned transmission system operator (TSO), while also providing load shifting to help balance the grid. It will be located near two of OX2’s ongoing wind power projects although it did not indicate these would be co-located or share any infrastructure.

“The Bredhälla project provides increased security and flexibility for the electricity supply in southern Sweden,” said Michiel van Asseldonk, responsible for system services and energy storage, OX2.

Intermittency is growing on the Swedish grid as more renewable energy sources come online, and the capacity of the country’s existing large pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) portfolio to balance this is being exhausted. Battery storage projects are being launched to make up the shortfall as the country seeks net zero by 2045.

O2X’s announcement comes a few weeks after energy storage-focused firm Ingrid Capacity announced its latest BESS project, a 20MW unit in Vimmerby in Kalmar County. It didn’t provide many details but its last BESS project used lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.

“Through energy storage, society’s transition to renewable energy is enabled. Our systems act on call to even out the difference between production and consumption in the electricity grid at the second level. If there is a deficit of electricity, the battery can discharge to the grid to compensate, and in the same way charge from the grid when there is a temporary surplus,” said Nicklas Bäcker, chief strategy officer at Ingrid Capacity.

The firm made headlines a few months ago when it announced it was building a 70MW BESS for the first half of 2024, the largest announced project in the country. The two largest operational units in Sweden are Vattenfall’s 5MW/20MWh system in Uppsala and Primrock’s 5.4MW unit in Falkenberg while Alfen is delivering a 10MW/11.9MWh system for electricity network company Ellevio in Grums, western Sweden.

Ingrid Capacity has around 500MW of energy storage projects under development in Sweden, it said. It was formed in early 2022 and counts Swedish firms Engelbrekt Utveckling, Springbacka and Neptunia amongst its main shareholders.

The Nordic country is also home to Northvolt, the lithium-ion gigafactory firm which has raised around US$8 billion to manufacture sustainable battery cells in Sweden and Germany and BESS equipment in Poland.

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

Continue reading