Some of the old mining infrastructure at Pyhäsalmi, Finland. Image: Wikimedia user usv.

The European Commission (EC) has given the green light for state aid to contribute to the development of a large-scale pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) in Finland.

The €26.3 million (US$27.5 million) investment grant will go towards construction and installation of a 75MW/530MWh PHES at a disused metal mine site in Pyhäsalmi, about 470km north of the capital Helsinki.

The PHES facility is being developed by SEVO, a subsidiary of Finnish energy company EPV at what was until its recent closure Europe’s deepest base metals mine. SEVO aims to have the project commissioned by the end of 2025.

The EC said earlier this week that the project satisfied criteria for state aid under its rules, finding that the PHES plant implements an innovative electricity storage technology, would facilitate economic activity, and create an incentive for private investment in a project of public interest.

The Commission also found that its impact on competition and trade within the European Union (EU) would be limited, particularly as it would enable increased utilisation of renewable energy, a shared EU goal.

Meanwhile the amount of grant funding approved covers only an initial portion of costs, while the project would create jobs and yield other societal benefits, and overall, the EC found any distortive effects on EU competition and trade to be outweighed by positive impacts.

SEVO will convert the mine into its PHES plant, using it to participate in electricity spot markets as well as in balancing markets. The EC said its seven hours of stored energy can directly replace gas-fired balancing units on the system.

Using power generated cheaply from abundant renewable energy sources like wind during times of off-peak demand to charge the system and then discharging to help the network meet peak demand at later times, will also save money versus fuel costs for gas power plants.  

It’s the latest energy storage-friendly state aid ruling from the European Commission.

Romania’s government a few days ago launched a scheme to provide €103.48 million state aid for the deployment of battery energy storage systems (BESS), including funds unlocked by the EU’s post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Plan.

In September the EC approved €20 million state aid for a Croatian energy storage operator, IE-Energy, for a pipeline of energy storage projects to support the transmission network.

And perhaps most significantly, earlier that month, Energy-Storage.news reported that the EU approved €341 million support for a Greek government plan to deploy 900MW of energy storage around Greece by the end of 2025.

Despite this recent state aid support however, there has been a view in the industry that the EU’s support for energy storage currently falls short. Advocates have argued that the bloc also needs to encompass the creation of market structures and regulatory frameworks that offer batteries, PHES and other energy storage technologies a more level competitive playing field.

Meanwhile back in Finland, the government Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment a couple of months ago granted €19.5 million state aid towards the expected total €314.8 million cost of a hybrid power plant project combining solar PV, wind and 25MW/50MWh of BESS.

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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Community solar owner and operator Summit Ridge Energy (SRE) is partnering with 548 Enterprise (548), an end-to-end sustainable development company, and Ecademy, a clean energy career school and Power52 company, to develop a Sustainability Hub in West Side Chicago to train over 10,000 local residents over the next 10 years. The clean energy training targets veterans, returning citizens and high school educated residents from underserved communities. Upon completion of the 13-week (450 hours) program, participants will have the opportunity to complete their on-the-job training at one of SRE’s community solar projects in Cook County, Ill., as well as other clean energy projects throughout the state.

“I’m excited to participate in the clean energy job training program with 548, Ecademy, and SRE. The 13-week program will fast-track my career in a fast-growing industry and set me up with a good-paying job for years to come,” says Chris Davis, a program participant and West Side Chicago resident. “The Sustainability Hub will help bring thousands of good-paying jobs to the West Side and I’m proud to be part of it.”

During an event held earlier in December in Chicago, 548 and Ecademy announced their campaign to raise $20 million to support curriculum development, program resources and credentialing services for prospective clean energy professionals. SRE has committed $600,000 in seed capital over the next two years to launch the effort.

“Our $600,000 commitment recognizes the need to invest in workers on the front lines of the renewable energy transition and demonstrates our company’s mission to expand access to clean technologies,” states Steve Raeder, CEO of SRE. “By empowering hundreds of workers with the tools needed for a successful and fulfilling career in clean energy, we’re also providing a sustainable stimulus to Illinois’ economy.”

“Leading this initiative is a logical next step for 548 as we look to expand our community impact,” adds A.J. Patton, managing partner and CEO of 548 Development. “And ultimately, being able to leverage the expertise of SRE and Ecademy, to advance our mission of investing in underserved communities with renewable energy will let us do just that.”

“We are thrilled to expand our international footprint by bringing clean energy training to historically underserved communities right here in Chicago,” comments Rob Wallace, president and CEO of Ecademy, and co-founder of Power52. “We look forward to partnering with SRE and 548, to provide clean energy training to prepare our graduates for a green career. Not only will the trainees come from these underserved communities, the graduates will be designing, constructing, and maintaining the solar solutions that will provide clean, renewable, and stable power to their communities. For the community by the community!”

The first cohort of program participants will begin training in January of 2023.

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Average lithium battery pack prices, with 2023 forecast and the US$100/kWh threshold forecast to be reached in 2026 on far right hand side. Image: Solar Media with BloombergNEF data.

Lithium-ion battery pack prices have gone up 7% in 2022, marking the first time that prices have risen since BloombergNEF began its surveys in 2010.

The finding that average pack prices for electric vehicles (EVs) and battery energy storage systems (BESS) have increased globally in real terms to US$151/kWh confirms the consequences of what the industry has been confronted with in recent months. It follows years of consistent declines of close to 10% every 12 months.

Widely reported challenges have come from global battery supply chain constraints causing material and component cost rises, logistics issues caused by COVID-19 and soaring inflation.

It comes just two years after the research group reported finding pack prices at sub-US$100/kWh benchmarks and made a prediction that averaged costs would fall to US$101/kWh by 2023.

In fact, from 2010 to 2021, average costs fell by 89%, to US$137/kWh across the EV and stationary battery storage markets worldwide. Last year, the drop was just 6%, to US$131/kWh.

BloombergNEF (BNEF) pushed back its prediction made in 2020, forecasting instead that pack prices would fall below the US$100/kWh threshold in 2024.

The firm again revised that prediction, and said it now expected cost declines to start to be observed again from 2024, reaching that sub-hundred-dollar mark by 2026.

BNEF noted today that, in EVs at least, cells now comprise a much higher portion of total cost than before. Traditionally, a 70:30 split has been observed between cell and pack costs but the dynamic has been shifting gradually and in 2021 was about 74:26. Cells now represent close to 83% of the average EV battery pack cost, with cell costs particularly sensitive to material and component cost volatility.

“Raw material and component price increases have been the biggest contributors to the higher cell prices observed in 2022,” Evelina Stoikou, the lead author of the report and an energy storage associate at BNEF, said.

As with last year’s edition, the cheapest packs were found in China, at just US$127/kWh, unsurprising given BloombergNEF’s consistent ranking of China first among all countries involved in the lithium battery supply chain. Meanwhile packs in the US cost about 24% more and in Europe about 33% more on average.

Prices to remain ‘slightly elevated’ in 2023

Over the past few years, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) has emerged as a popular alternative to nickel manganese cobalt (NMC), for shorter range EVs and for BESS applications. Reasons include a higher tolerance of physical abuse and rises in temperature, but also key to its selection is its historically lower cost than NMC, as well as its decoupling from supply chains that can be problematic such as for cobalt.

However, as noted in recent months, LFP has a higher portion of lithium carbonate as a raw material input than NMC, and costs of lithium carbonate have risen significantly, impacting the cost of LFP cells disproportionately highly.

That said, wider adoption of the lower cost cathode chemistry helped arrest slightly the increase in weighted average prices, according to BNEF. At the same time, LFP, which continued to cost less than NMC, on average about 20% less, still saw its cell costs go up 27% from 2021 figures.

For next year, average pack prices will remain “slightly elevated” at US$152/kWh. The good news is that the rising demand for lithium batteries has signalled to investors that it’s worth taking a bet on supporting raw materials extraction and processing facilities, as well as factories to produce finished products. The only problem is that it will take some time for those new upstream resources to come online.

“Amidst these price increases for battery metals, large battery manufacturers and automakers have turned to more aggressive strategies to hedge against volatility, including direct investments in mining and refining projects,” Evelina Stoikou said.

Additional lithium supply coming online in 2024 could ease supply chain constraints, BloombergNEF head of metals and mining Kwasi Ampofo said, but the biggest short-term source of uncertainty for battery metals prices is “geo-politics and trade tension”.

Other factors that could bring prices down are improvements in manufacturing processes and production capacity expansions, as well as the adoption of next generation technologies which could include batteries with silicon anodes or solid-state electrolytes.

At the RE+ 2022 trade event in California in September, BNEF analyst Helen Kou offered a short preview of the reports’ findings and noted that while high prices could dampen US enthusiasm for battery storage in the short-term, the long-term demand for BESS was clear to see.

The company’s latest forecasting of the global BESS market, published a couple of months ago, highlighted that rising demand is being seen outside the US too. BNEF revised its 2030 global deployment forecast upwards from 358GW/1,028GWh to 411GW/1,194GWh.

BNEF’s head of energy storage, Yayoi Sekine reinforced that message in a statement on the latest report, noting that “battery demand is still reaching new records each year,” despite the cost increase “setback”.

“Demand will reach 603GWh in 2022, which is almost double that in 2021. Scaling up supply at that rate of growth is a real challenge for the industry, but investment in the sector is also rising rapidly and technology innovation is not slowing down,” Sekine said.

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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KORE Power’s gigafactory in Buckeye, Arizona is an example of capacity buildout by a US player. Image: KORE Power.

Planned lithium-ion battery gigafactory capacity in the US has grown twice as fast as in Europe since the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, Benchmark Minerals Intelligence told Energy-Storage.news.

As Energy-Storage.news reported at the start of the year, Europe’s push to onshore lithium-ion battery production was much further ahead of the US’. Both regions are seeking to reduce reliance on China, which dominates the space today.

But since then, a double-whammy of high power prices in Europe and the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) tax credits for EV battery purchases with US-manufactured batteries, domestic battery module and pack production and standalone battery energy storage system deployments have changed the picture.

Evan Hartley, analyst for Benchmark Mineral Intelligence working on its Gigafactory data, said that since the Act was passed, there has been a 35% increase in announced capacity in the US compared to a year ago, versus a 17% increase in Europe. That doesn’t mean it’s caught up yet, however.

“Looking at 2022 as a whole the two markets are roughly on par in terms of growth and Europe is still around 200GWh ahead in terms of expected 2031 capacity,” Hartley said.

Benchmark currently pegs Europe’s 2031 planned annual production capacity at 1,186.2GWh versus 992.6GWh/957.6GWh for North America/US. Europe’s growth rate has been steady over 2022 while the US’ has shot upwards since the Act was passed having seen minimal growth in the first half of the year.

Numerous EV-focused projects have been expanded or accelerated while Turkish firm Kontrolmatik has increased its planned US gigafactory size and Norway-based FREYR is accelerating its plans, both of whom are energy storage market-focused.

That is in contrast to reports of delays to projects in Europe, including amongst some of the bigger names, but it’s too early to speculate that the US is actually taking capacity away from Europe, Hartley added.

“We’re not immediately seeing producers shifting plans from Europe to the US. The producers announcing new capacity in the US primarily had significant existing plans there, they’re just increasing them in light of the IRA.”

“One thing to note is the IRA disfavours Chinese companies, and most of the companies we’ve seen announce new capacity in Europe since it passed are Chinese. Many of the producers taking advantage of the IRA with new US-based plans are South Korean and Japanese.”

The extent of state support contained within the IRA has reportedly irked European policymakers. Numerous media reports this week have quoted the chair of EU parliament’s trade committee Bernd Lange as saying it should file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the basis that the IRA is incompatible with its rules.

Lithium-ion battery packs from the US and Europe are currently 24% and 33% more expensive than in China, where the average price sits at US$127/kWh according to BloombergNEF’s annual battery price survey, covered in a separate piece by Energy-Storage.news today.

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.

A month later, Solar Media will put on 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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Deb Haaland

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Laura Daniel-Davis are supporting solar energy development with new efforts on public lands across the West. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will develop an updated plan to guide responsible solar energy development on public lands through an updated Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), which will help accelerate and continue momentum for the clean energy economy. The BLM is also initiating reviews of three proposed solar projects in Arizona that could add 1 GW of clean energy to the grid.

“This administration is committed to expanding clean energy development to address climate change, enhance America’s energy security and provide for good-paying union jobs,” states Secretary Haaland. “Our review of these proposed projects in Arizona, and a new analysis of the role public lands can play in furthering solar energy production, will help ensure we keep the momentum going to build a clean energy future, lower costs for families and create robust conservation outcomes on the nation’s lands and waters.”

“We take seriously our responsibility to manage the nation’s public lands responsibly and with an eye toward the increasing impacts of the climate crisis. The power and potential of the clean energy future is an undeniable and critical part of that work,” adds Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Daniel-Davis. “The Bureau of Land Management is working diligently to ensure that its processes and pace maintain the momentum we are seeing from industry.”

In 2012, the BLM and the Department of Energy issued a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Solar Energy Development in six southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The 2012 Solar PEIS identified areas with high solar potential and low resource conflicts in order to guide responsible solar development and provide certainty to developers. A decade later, in light of improved technology, new transmission and ambitious clean energy goals, the BLM is updating the 2012 Solar PEIS. As part of this update, the BLM is considering adding more states, adjusting exclusion criteria and seeking to identify new or expanded areas to prioritize solar deployment.

A notice to update the BLM’s 2012 Solar Programmatic EIS will be published in the Federal Register. This will begin a 60-day public comment period, with interested stakeholders invited to submit written feedback or participate in one of many upcoming in-person and virtual public scoping meetings. Following the public scoping period, the BLM will develop a draft programmatic environmental impact statement for public review and comment.

Secretary Haaland also celebrated initial reviews for new, major solar projects proposed on public lands in Arizona. First, the scoping meetings will soon be announced for environmental analysis of the proposed Jove solar project, which would produce up to 600 MW of utility-scale renewable energy from solar photovoltaic modules on 3,495 acres of public land located in southeastern La Paz County. Second, there will be a two-year segregation of more than 4,400 acres of public land associated with two proposed utility-scale solar energy projects. The segregation action supports review of the proposed 250 MW Pinyon Solar project in Maricopa County, and the proposed 300 MW Elisabeth Solar project in Yuma County.

BLM is also issuing updated guidance to improve consistency in processing rights-of-way for utility-scale solar projects under the variance process established by BLM’s 2012 Western Solar Plan, which is used for solar projects outside of Solar Energy Zones.

Across the West, the BLM is currently processing 65 utility-scale onshore clean energy projects proposed on public lands. This includes solar, wind and geothermal projects, as well as interconnect gen-tie lines that are vital to clean energy projects proposed on non-federal land. These projects have the combined potential to add over 31,000 MW of renewable energy to the western electric grid. The BLM is also undertaking the preliminary review of more than 100 applications for solar and wind development, as well as nearly 50 applications for wind and solar energy testing.

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The integrated green hydrogen and battery storage facility will be built for a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands. Image: Princess Amalia Wind Farm by Ad Meskens.

Engineering firm KBR will work with Shell to design an energy storage facility combining green hydrogen and battery storage at a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands.

KBR announced yesterday (5 December) that it had won a contract to provide engineering services for an energy storage project at the Hollandse Kust (north) wind farm off the Dutch coast. The project is being developed by CrossWind, a joint venture (JV) entity between Shell and Dutch utility company, Eneco.

The offshore energy storage system is being described by the project partners as a ‘baseload power hub’ (BPH) for the wind farm.

KBR and Shell will together design and develop facilities that integrate lithium-ion battery storage and green hydrogen production at a megawatt scale, a press release said. Hydrogen will be produced during periods of high power production and converted to electricity via a fuel cell during periods of lower power production.

That means the project is opting for a use case of green hydrogen, power-to-X-to-power, which is widely agreed to have a round trip efficiency too low to be economical. Most green hydrogen projects outside of transportation are planning to produce it as a feedstock for industrial processes (especially ammonia production) or to blend it with natural gas in conventional gas power plants (including the world’s largest in Utah).

The release added that ‘electricity’ will be stored during the periods of high production but didn’t say whether this was in the form of electrochemical energy storage via the lithium-ion batteries or in the form of stored hydrogen.

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) can be utilised to maximise the utilisation of the green hydrogen electrolyser by ‘firming’ the power supplied to it, for example. One recent project to pair batteries and green hydrogen is the Pilbara Green Hydrogen Hub in Australia, being developed by Engie. It will pair a 10MW electrolyser, 18MW of solar PV and an 8MW BESS. However, the green hydrogen from that project will be used at an ammonia production facility.

Jay Ibrahim, president of KBR Sustainable Technology Solutions, said: “To solve the current global ‘energy trilemma,’ the world needs an energy mix that relies more on wind, solar and nuclear power. With our deep expertise in engineering and energy solutions, KBR is positioned to help our valued customers — partners like the CrossWind JV —drive the energy transition.”

In a similar piece of news, last week saw the announcement that a facility manufacturing integrated green hydrogen and battery storage electrolyser equipment will be built at the Port of Rotterdam, by Battolyser Systems.

The company said its Battolyser can produce hydrogen from solar and wind when prices are low and provide electricity to the grid when prices are high.

It will have an annual production capacity of 1GW and will open in the second half of 2024, with a total investment of €100 million (US$105 million). However, it still requires more funding to get the final go-ahead.

“The factory allows us to deliver Battolysers at industrial scale and affordable prices. We are in constructive conversation with the Dutch government and EU institutions, and we are confident that together we can secure the required funding,” said Mattijs Slee, CEO, Battolyser Systems.

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.

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A rendering of FREYR’s planned US gigafactory in Georgia. Image: FREYR.

Norwegian lithium-ion gigafactory firm FREYR has raised over a quarter of a billion dollars and completed the previously-announced JV with Nidec Corporation to develop energy storage solutions.

New York-listed FREYR closed a public offering of 23,000,000 ordinary shares at US$11.50 each, resulting in gross proceeds of US$264,500,000, on Monday (5 December). The offering was initially going to be for 13,500,000 shares before being upsized to 20,000,000 plus a 3,000,000 greenshoe option for underwriters, which was fully exercised.

The money will go towards the continued construction of its lithium-ion battery gigafactories in the Nordics (Giga Arctic), development expenditure for the Georgia, US facility, as well as general corporate purposes.

The company is building gigafactories using semi-solid electrode technology developed by US company 24M and is targeting 50GWh annual production by 2024 and 200GWh by 2030. CEO Tom Jensen told Energy-Storage.news earlier this year that as much as half of its capacity could go to energy storage.

The share issue comes a few weeks after media reports said that it was in talks to raise double that amount from private equity firm KKR, which FREYR declined to comment on at the time.

FREYR has also completed the formation of its previously-announced downstream joint venture (JV) with Nidec Corporation. The new entity, Nidec Energy, will build and sell battery energy storage system (BESS) solutions and is targeting 8GWh of production by 2025 and 12GWh by 2030. The module production will be integrated into FREYR’s Giga Arctic operations.

It also has an offtake agreement with Nidec’s existing energy storage system integrator division Nidec ASI, which it increased to 50GWh when it announced the JV agreement in August.

Laurent Demortier, president of Nidec’s Energy & Infrastructure Division, said: “For us, FREYR is a natural partner with clean energy and sustainability ambitions. They also bring expertise and resources related to battery cell design and manufacturing, which includes the market-leading 24M SemiSolid lithium-ion battery cell technology.”

At the time of the KKR reports, FREYR announced it had chosen and purchased a site in Coweta County, Georgia, for its US gigafactory, and that it was accelerating its plans in the US in light of benefits provided by the Inflation Reduction Act.

The facility will open with an initial 34GWh annual production capacity requiring US$1.7 billion of investment, although didn’t give a year of commercial operations, only saying a second phase would increase total investment to US$2.6 billion.

Read all previous Energy-Storage.news coverage of developments at FREYR here.

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.

A month later, Solar Media will then 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.

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How it works. Image: LDES Council.

Quidnet, a company developing a proprietary mechanical energy storage technology, has been selected to receive funding from the US Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).

ARPA-E is part of the federal Department of Energy (DOE) and as the name suggests, promotes and funds R&D into advanced and innovative energy technologies.

To date it has backed dozens of energy storage and renewable energy commercialisation projects for players including semi-solid electrode company 24M, and various companies and academic institutions working with flow batteries.

Quidnet claims the Geomechanical Pumped Storage technology it has developed is widely deployable at low cost and offers several advantages over pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), the legacy technology it most closely resembles.

Unlike conventional pumped hydro which requires two large reservoirs of water, one at a higher elevation to the other, Quidnet drills deep into subsurface layers of rock and creates an underground reservoir beneath an above-ground body of water.

At times of abundant generation when electricity demand is off-peak and low, water is pumped down into the body of rock from the pond above through a well. The closed loop well then keeps the water stored between the rock layers under pressure.

When the system discharges, the pressurised water is passed up the well through a turbine to generate electricity. As it does that, it refills the upper pond, ‘recharging’ the system. The vertical design also means a significantly smaller land use requirement than conventional PHES, Quidnet said.

The company claims this design uses many existing techniques and technologies from the hydroelectric and other power generation industries, theoretically offering lower cost of long-duration energy storage (LDES) than other technologies and competitive with gas peaker plants in a modular and replicable design.

Quidnet was selected to get US$10 million from ARPA-E as part of the agency’s programme, Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP).

The funding will be used towards the cost of Quidnet’s project with municipal utility CPS Power in San Antonio, Texas.

Quidnet aims to scale its technology for a 1MW/10MWh, 10-hour duration energy storage facility for CPS Power. The project could assist CPS in meeting carbon emissions reduction and renewable energy goals, with the utility targeting 80% emissions reduction by 2040. Quidnet will get the opportunity to bring its system design up to commercial scale from its current pilot stage.

Quidnet was the only energy storage company selected among eight recipients of ARPA-E’s SCALEUP programme funding for its 2021 cohort, announced late last month. Other winners include companies working in fields like sustainable aviation, floating offshore wind turbines and decarbonisation of paper recycling.

Technologies and companies selected for SCALEUP are ones that ARPA-E has previously worked with and helped to fund and that have been determined by the agency to have a good probability of scaling up for commercial success, hence the name. Quidnet got ARPA-E funding worth just under US$3.3 million back in 2018.

In the previous 2019 SCALEUP cohort, winners included sodium-ion battery company Natron Energy, 24M Technologies, silicon anode company Sila Nanotechnologies and AutoGrid Systems’ virtual power plant (VPP) technology.

The Quidnet-CPS project’s stated objective is to lower costs associated with LDES by 50% to 75%. The two companies announced the project in March as they signed a 15-year agreement.

“Meeting the President’s goals of cutting greenhouse gases by 50% by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 will require an acceleration of private sector investments across the clean energy and transportation sectors,” US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said as funding was announced last month.

“These projects will catalyse the commercialisation of promising technologies so that they are available to be broadly deployed across the country in support of reaching our clean energy future.”

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Yallourn power plant, scheduled for closured in 2028. Image: Wikimedia user Stephen Edmonds.

Utility EnergyAustralia has filed planning applications for Australia’s first four-hour duration large-scale lithium battery energy storage system (BESS), in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.

The energy retailer-generator said last week that it has submitted documents to the state’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for the 350MW/1,400MWh BESS.

Called Wooreen Energy Storage System, the project is being built in part to replace EnergyAustralia’s 1,450MW Yallourn coal-fired power station, scheduled for retirement in mid-2028.

Yallourn burns around 18 million tonnes of coal annually, contributing about 22% of Victoria’s electricity demand, but also contributing about two-thirds of EnergyAustralia’s total emissions and costing millions to run. The utility is targeting net zero emissions status by 2050.

EnergyAustralia announced the battery project in 2021. As reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time of that announcement, the company expects to have it in service before the end of 2026 to help maintain reliable electricity supplies and the stable operation of the grid.

Wooreen Energy Storage System will be built at the site of another EnergyAustralia thermal power plant, the 460MW Jeeralang gas peaker plant in the vicinity of Hazelwood North, a small town in the Latrobe Valley.

As with a growing number of large-scale battery projects in Australia and other markets like the US, where legacy thermal power plant sites have been identified as optimal locations, EnergyAustralia said it will be leverage existing electrical infrastructure at the gas power plant, including grid interconnection point and associated transmission and distribution infrastructure.  

At 350MW/1,400MWh, it would be close in size to the world’s biggest BESS today, Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California, which is 400MW/1,600MWh. Australia’s biggest BESS to date is the 350MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery, although other larger projects are in development, such as the Waratah Super Battery in New South Wales. Just a few days ago developer-investor Equis said it plans to build a 1.2GW/2.4GWh BESS, also in Victoria, at a large-scale mixed technology renewables hub.

Wooreen is certainly a step-change up in duration for the Australian market, with the market only recently starting to see two-hour duration battery storage after a buildout period of one-hour and shorter duration projects.

This echoes the trend seen in leading BESS adoption markets like California or the UK and Ireland. In those markets, project durations have lengthened as more battery systems come online, eroding the share of the market that high power, short duration application systems can corner.

Meanwhile the project also aims to revive the economic fortunes of the Latrobe Valley and wider Gippsland region of Victoria. The Latrobe Valley has numerous power generation sites that have stood for many years – Yallourn itself was built in the 1970s but a power plant has stood on the site since 1921.

Another major retailer-generator, AGL, has said it wants to build a 200MW large-scale BESS in the valley at the site of Loy Yang, a 2,225MW coal power plant. Yallourn and Loy Yang are both sited adjacent to mining operations that fuel the plants.

AGL got planning approval from the Department of Environment, Water, Land and Planning for its project, which would also be four-hour duration (800MWh), in November 2021. AGL is now assessing the economics and viability of its project, meaning it and EnergyAustralia could be locked in a race to call the first four-hour grid-scale project in the country their own.

In October, EnergyAustralia said it is planning a 500MW BESS at Mount Piper, a 1,400MW black coal power plant it owns in New South Wales (NSW), which again the company hopes can be commissioned before the end of 2026.  

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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The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced preliminary determinations in a recent circumvention case tied to solar cells and modules originating from China, finding that some companies have been attempting to dodge U.S. trade laws.

Auxin Solar had initiated a complaint alleging that eight solar companies that manufacture solar cells and modules are manufacturing components in China and then sending those cells and modules to Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand or Vietnam for minor processing before being exported to the U.S.: actions that Auxin Solar says are an effort to evade existing antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on solar cells and modules from China.

The Commerce department’s preliminary determination found that Canadian Solar, BYD Hong Kong, Trina Solar and Vina Solar are all circumventing U.S. law, attempting to bypass U.S. duties by performing processing in another country before shipping to the U.S.

The department notes that some companies in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam did not respond to Commerce’s request for information in the investigation and will, in turn, be found to be circumventing.

Commerce is making a “country-wide” circumvention finding, which designates the country as one through which solar cells and modules are being circumvented from China. This determination does not constitute a ban on imports from those countries. Companies in these countries will be permitted to certify that they are not circumventing the AD/CVD orders, in which case the circumvention findings will not apply.

New East Solar, Hanwha, Jinko Solar and Boviet Solar were all found to have not been circumventing AD/CVD orders. Commerce intends to take no action, as long as their production processes and supply chains do not change.

The department notes that the findings are preliminary. As a next step, Commerce will conduct in-person audits in the coming months to verify the information that was the basis of its finding.  Furthermore, all parties will have an opportunity to comment on Commerce’s finding, which the department will fully consider before issuing its final determination, which is currently scheduled for May 2023.

The American Clean Power Association (ACP) says the determination is “a step backward.”

“This decision upends a decade of precedent that Commerce itself established, undercutting any sense of business certainty that American companies rely on to continue investing in America’s clean energy future and impacting our ability to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources,” comments ACP Interim CEO and Chief Advocacy Officer JC Sandberg.

“American solar companies are making critical 2024 procurement decisions now,” Sandberg explains, saying that Commerce’s decision “casts greater uncertainty about the future of the solar industry in the U.S.”

“It could also undermine the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, harming domestic manufacturing and endangering good-paying jobs across the country,” he adds.

“Installing solar panels” by OregonDOT is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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