Maria Klutey

Activate Renewables, an acquirer of real estate and royalty interests in wind, solar and energy storage, has closed on the purchase of a renewable energy real estate portfolio owned by Alchemy Renewable Energy. The portfolio consists of the real estate related to five solar projects located across North Carolina and Texas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are pleased to support Alchemy’s business goals with this initial transaction,” says Maria Klutey, president of Activate Renewables. “We look forward to a continued relationship, whereby Alchemy can enhance its capital efficiency by selling real estate interests to Activate.”

Activate works with developers to purchase land, leases or purchase options associated with renewable projects. Activate is funded by D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), with permanent capital that is lower in cost than equity and comes without the restrictions of debt.

“By separating the cost of the land, Activate was able to assist us with improving both our returns and tax efficiency on this project,” states Lacie Clark, CEO of Alchemy Renewable Energy. “We look forward to working with Maria and her team in the future to help us optimize our economics by financing the real estate separately from the project itself.”

Activate’s purchase process supports the goals of developers, while providing customer service to individual landowners involved in large-scale solar and wind projects. To date, Activate and its affiliates have acquired or signed agreements to fund acquisitions totaling more than 8,800 solar acres and 62 wind turbines directly supporting more than 2.8 GW of existing or planned renewable power generation across 20 states.

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Noble Solar and Storage Project, located in Denton County, Texas

National Grid Renewables has started commercial operations at its Noble Solar and Storage Project in Denton County, Texas. Noble is a 275 MW solar and 125 MWh energy storage project located in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market that began construction last year.

“With the start of operation at our Noble project, National Grid Renewables brings online our first utility-scale energy storage project, as well as our largest solar energy project to-date,” states Blake Nixon, president of National Grid Renewables. “Clean energy projects like Noble are tangible examples of how National Grid Renewables’ commitment to doing the right thing benefits local and global communities both economically and environmentally.”

The Home Depot and NRG Energy Inc. have each executed individual 100 MW solar power purchase agreements (PPA), and The Hershey Company has contracted for a 50 MW solar PPA for Noble.

“The Home Depot is proud of our efforts to reduce our carbon emissions,” says Ron Jarvis, chief sustainability officer for The Home Depot. “This partnership will further our renewable energy capacity, as we work towards our pledge of producing or procuring 100 percent renewable electricity equivalent to the electricity needs for all Home Depot facilities by 2030.”

“Power plays a significant role in decarbonizing our economy, and we are proud to stand together with other corporate leaders as we bring new renewable developments online,” states Robert Gaudette, executive vice president of NRG Business. “We look forward to bringing more energy solutions to our customers and our communities as we all embark down a more sustainable and resilient path.”

“Noble and similar solar projects make a meaningful impact toward achieving our ambitious science-based targets,” says Leigh Horner, vice president of global sustainability and corporate communications at The Hershey Company. “Through continued investment in solar energy and other initiatives, we’re on track to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by more than 50 percent and Scope 3 by 25 percent by 2030.”

Noble utilizes next-generation Series 6 thin film solar modules developed and produced by First Solar Inc. Recently, First Solar and National Grid Renewables announced a 2 GW supply of solar modules scheduled for delivery 2024-2025.

“As America’s solar company, we’re proud that our technology will power this project, which, in turn, will power businesses and communities in Texas,” comments Adam Smith, First Solar’s vice president of global business development. “This is yet another milestone in our journey with National Grid Renewables, and we thank them for their continued trust in our technology.”

Noble also utilizes Fluence Energy’s sixth-generation Gridstack product for energy storage and was constructed by Signal Energy.

“We are honored to be a part of National Grid Renewables’ first utility-scale solar plus energy storage project to help deliver clean and reliable energy in the ERCOT market,” says John Zahurancik, SVP and president of Americas at Fluence. “This project is a great example of how solar plus storage deployments deliver impactful environmental benefits and reliable energy. We are proud to stand alongside leaders like National Grid Renewables, working shoulder to shoulder with energy users and suppliers to support the clean energy transition.”

“The Noble project is a great example of what can be accomplished with the right partners that share the same vision,” adds Ryan Johnson, president of Signal Energy. “Signal is truly humbled to be a part of this monumental project that helps create a sustainable energy future.”

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Led by tech and retail giants, American companies are installing record-levels of solar to power their operations and now account for 14% of all installed solar capacity in the United States, according to the Solar Means Business 2022 report released today by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

The report, which tracks and analyzes commercial solar adoption, named Meta, Amazon, Apple, Walmart and Microsoft as the top five corporate solar users in America.

Through June 2022, U.S. businesses have installed nearly 19 GW of on-site and off-site solar capacity, which is double the 9.4 GW installed through 2019. This recent growth is due to the rapid expansion of off-site corporate solar procurement which now represents 55% of all commercial solar use.

“About half of all corporate solar has been installed in the last two and half years,” says SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. “Solar Means Business highlights the incredible flexibility of solar, whether it’s installed on a warehouse roof, on a carport or at an off-site facility, showing the various ways that companies are meeting their needs with clean, affordable energy. From data centers to industrial freezers, the most energy-intensive business operations are turning to solar as the most reliable and affordable way to power their infrastructure.”

Meta dramatically increased its installed solar capacity from 177 MW in early 2019 to 3.6 GW today and now has the largest corporate solar portfolio in the United States. Target remains the top onsite corporate solar user, while Microsoft leapt into the top 10 by installing 479 MW of new capacity since 2019.

“We are proud of the work we have done to add new solar energy to the grid, bringing additional investment to rural areas and helping support the transition to renewables,” said Urvi Parekh, Head of Renewable Energy at Meta. “As we continue to fulfill our goal to support our global operations with 100% renewable energy, we look forward to working with others, including SEIA, to facilitate the energy transition and support a sustainable, affordable and reliable electricity grid.”

Walmart’s diverse set of on-site and off-site solar has kept them in the top five for the last decade.

“Solar energy is a key part of Walmart’s commitment to become a regenerative company, powered by 100 percent renewable energy by 2035,” states Vishal Kapadia, senior vice president of energy transformation at Walmart. “Our onsite and offsite solar projects have helped us deliver strong progress toward our goal, with 46 percent of our global electricity needs supplied by renewable energy as of 2021.”

Companies like Intel, Google, Switch and Digital Realty are all using solar energy at data center facilities, which help to power critical information and data infrastructure. In addition, food and beverage giants like Ab Inbev and Starbucks, health care companies like Kaiser Permanente and DaVita, and other top brands like Home Depot and T-Mobile are all top 25 corporate solar users.

“We are honored to be recognized for our on-site solar generation efforts,” states Susan Uthayakumar, chief energy and sustainability officer at Prologis. “This is only the beginning as we work toward our goal of 1 gigawatt of solar by 2025. We’ve long been an industry leader in solar. It’s an area we have and continue to invest in for two reasons – it makes good business sense, and it is good for the planet.”

There are now 23 U.S. companies that have installed at least 100 MW of solar capacity, up from 11 companies in 2019. Eighteen of the top 25 companies ranked in this report are pursuing 100% renewable energy or carbon neutral goals.

The full report tracks over 47,000 corporate solar installations nationwide, which combined generate enough electricity to power 3.2 million homes and offset 20.4 million metric tons of carbon annually.

“As the world’s largest temperature-controlled industrial REIT and logistics solutions provider, Lineage Logistics has dedicated itself to limiting our impact on the environment as we play a crucial role in the global food supply chain,” says Chris Thurston, director of energy and sustainability at Lineage Logistics. “As we live out our purpose of eliminating food waste and helping to feed the world, we are proud of our team’s efforts to do so in a way that will have a positive impact on our planet. Our hope is that the findings from the Solar Means Business report motivate other companies to adopt solar energy usage and join the effort of ensuring future generations will have a cleaner, healthier planet.”

In addition, the report now tracks commercial solar projects that are paired with battery storage, which is particularly helpful for businesses that provide essential services or supply critical information or data infrastructure.

Total commercial solar installations are expected to double again over the next 3 years with nearly 27 GW of off-site corporate solar projects scheduled to come online by 2025. This represents nearly a third of the total contracted solar pipeline.

The top 25 corporate solar users in 2022 include Meta, Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Microsoft, Target, Cargill, Kaiser Permanente, AB Inbev, Evraz North America, Digital Realty, Switch, Prologis, Starbucks, Google, Allianz, Intel, Home Depot, Fifth Third Bank, T-Mobile, Davita, Lineage Logistics, L3Harris Technologies, Solvay and Corning.

Read the full report here.

Image: Mariana Proença on Unsplash

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A render of Kontrolmatik’s US gigafactory, planned to start production in 2024. Image: Kontrolmatik Technologies/Pomega Energy Storage Technologies.

Turkish company Kontrolmatik Technologies expects over US$900 million in incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act to 2032 for its US lithium battery gigafactory, with Powin one of its first offtakers.

The engineering and project management company announced in a stock market filing yesterday (28 November) the establishment of a US subsidiary with an initial capital of US$40 million, as the vehicle for the establishing and operation of its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery gigafactory.

The factory will produce battery cells and packs specifically for the utility and industrial-scale stationary energy storage sectors, with 280-305 Ah range LFP batteries.

It expects the factory to start operating in 2024, though is still waiting for the result from the regional authority application for the chosen site.

As Energy-Storage.news recently reported, the day after Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law, Kontrolmatik announced plans to increase its planned capacity by 50% to 3GWh a year.

The firm also said the new subsidiary is part of progressing a 7.5GWh framework offtake agreement with Oregon-based battery energy storage system integrator Powin, first announced in June. Kontrolmatik said that the framework agreement involves Powin buying 0.5GWh of battery cells in 2024 rising to 2GWh annually from 2026 to 2028.

“Powin is a big supporter of cell OEMs building capacity here in the US,” CEO Geoff Brown told Energy-Storage.news when asked to comment on the deal.

Kontrolmatik has also spelt out the amount of IRA incentives it expects to benefit from over 2024-2032, namely from a US$35/kWh tax credit for battery cell production and US$10/kWh for battery pack production. It expects a total of US$912.8 million by 2032.

See the firm’s schedule in the infographic below using data from its stock market release. It plans to start operations in the US factory with a greater proportion of battery cell production, which will pivot over the decade to a greater emphasis on battery back production.

In August, Kontrolmatik USA CEO Bahadir Yetki denied to Energy-Storage.news that it had delayed the opening of its 2.25GWh annual capacity Turkish LFP gigafactory, which will begin commercial production in the second quarter of next year.

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Grid-scale battery storage project in the Philippines. Image: Wartsila.

The Philippines Department of Energy (DOE) and regulators are considering changing rules governing ownership of grid-connected energy storage systems.

The current classification of energy storage as generation could be hindering investment in an asset class the Philippines needs to see more of to ensure stable and cost-effective operation of its electricity networks.

According to a report by the Manila Bulletin newspaper in the Southeast Asian country this week, the chair of the Philippines’ Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said the classification is being studied by DOE and the regulator.

Generation companies in the Philippines are prohibited from owning more than 30% of the installed generation capacity on each of the island country’s grids, or from owning more than 25% of installed capacity across the country.

With major generation companies now also becoming the first Philippines-based investors in large-scale battery storage, they could be discouraged from deploying battery storage if it means that threshold would be crossed.

ERC chair Monalisa Dimalanta said battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity “is counted fully in determining market share limitation,” under the current DOE classification as generation.

Meanwhile, the Manilla Bulletin noted that many in the Philippines energy sector believe a more fittingly up to date definition of energy storage is required.

The debate has echoes of developments in more mature energy storage markets around the world: German regulators only adopted a regulatory definition of energy storage as separate to generation last year after sustained industry pressure.

In the UK, a definition of energy storage was also adopted last year, as part of generation, but as a distinct subset with specific rules.

In both markets, the lack of regulatory definition had meant investment uncertainty and other barriers to investment in energy storage. In Germany, as in much of Europe, energy storage being classified simultaneously as both a consumer and producer of energy meant asset owners were levied fees for using the grid twice – once for charging and again for discharging – known as double-charging.

Regular readers of this site will note that Philippines power companies have been building out large-scale battery storage assets over the past couple of years. San Miguel Corporation has already seen more than 500MW of BESS installed at thermal power plant sites it owns, with the same amount again in development or construction. Aboitiz Power recently announced the completion of a 49MW BESS project at a floating diesel power barge.

In both cases the companies involved are major generation asset owners in the various regions of the Philippines they operate in, meaning DOE and ERC rule changes could impact their future plans.

Big power companies in the Philippines are competing against each other to establish operational efficiencies at their power generation fleets, which is driving the battery storage market forwards, George Garabandic, a principal consultant on energy storage for DNV told Energy-Storage.news.

Global BESS players like Fluence, Wartsila and ABB have provided systems for SMC and Aboitiz, for example. They are being used to provide ancillary services to balance the grid, which they have always been contracted to do with their existing fleets of coal, hydro and other power plants. Like stakeholders in grids all over the world, they are finding they can do it quicker – and cleaner – with BESS.

“They compete between themselves, and they know that the battery technology is a lot more efficient way to conduct the business of ancillary services,” Garabandic said.

The power companies are competing “to have the most efficient technology and be the best in providing the services,” including who can install the most battery storage.

“They all are now going towards batteries within their portfolios and because these are big companies, you have to understand the level of risk exposure is fairly shy,” Garabandic said.

“But all of them are getting into batteries, and all of them are looking at batteries as a potential means to improve their bottom line, their expenditures, their OpEx, their performance, and then eventually scaling that massively throughout asset portfolios.”

The first co-located grid-scale battery and solar project in the Philippines, which went online at the start of 2022. Image: ACEN.

Beyond that, as the Philippines targets making renewable energy 35% of the national energy mix by 2035 and 50% by 2040, and a 75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2020 and 2030, the need for energy storage as a renewable energy enabler will continue to grow.

As of the end of 2020, only a fifth of the country’s energy was renewables, including nearly 4GW of hydropower, just under 2GW of geothermal and about a gigawatt of solar and smaller shares of wind and other sources. The rest came from natural gas and coal, the latter of which the Philippines has committed to a moratorium on building new plants for burning.

The country’s first-ever large-scale hybrid solar PV and battery storage power plant went online towards the beginning of this year through a subsidiary of major Philippine holding company Ayala Group. That project features a 120MW solar PV array with a 40MW/60MWh BESS.

In June, infrastructure group Prime Infra said it is planning a solar-plus-storage project in the country which would be the biggest project of its type anywhere if built today and likely rival almost any plant in the world for scale by the expected 2026-2027 completion dates. It could combine between 2,500MW and 3,500MW of solar PV with a 4,000MWh to 4,500MWh BESS.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 1st Energy Storage Summit Asia, 11-12 July 2023 in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.

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Formerly known as the National Thermal Power Corporation, NTPC is tendering for the battery storage at its subsidiary’s Khavda RE Park. Image: NTPC.

A subsidiary of India’s biggest state-owned power generation company NTPC has invited bids to deploy battery storage at a large-scale renewable energy park in Gujarat.

NTPC Renewable Energy issued an invitation for bids (IFB) on 25 November for battery energy storage system (BESS) projects with minimum 250kW output and 1,200kWh capacity to aid solar-powered construction at the site.

Systems would be deployed at the company’s Khavda Renewable Energy Park (Khavda RE Park) in the state of Gujarat, where NTPC Renewable Energy’s plans include a 1,200MWh solar PV power plant, which it is also presently tendering for.

Winning bidders would be responsible for design, engineering, manufacturing, supply and logistics, installation, testing and commissioning of a standalone battery system.

The 250kW/1,200kWh nameplate output and capacity must be available for at least three years from commissioning and providers will be responsible for operations and maintenance (O&M) activities for three years.

NTPC Renewable Energy has certain specific requirements for system equipment and configuration, for the project or projects to deliver various applications.

Power conversion systems (PCS) must have 250kW capacity and be capable of performing black start functions for bidirectional inversion and/or charging of batteries, as well as provide voltage reference for solar inverters.

The BESS will be coupled with solar PV at the AC output bus and be capable of standalone operation off-grid in island mode, continuing to deliver load to motors and other heavy equipment.

Potential bidders have until 20 December to download bidding documents and until 9 January to submit techno-commercial and price bids.

NTPC is looking for companies with a proven track record in BESS projects of a similar scale, with the company to finance projects from its own resources.

It’s the latest energy storage tender from NTPC or its subsidiaries. At the beginning of November, the group launched its first long-duration energy storage (LDES) tender, seeking expressions of interest (EOI) in delivering projects in the range of 1MW to 6MW with eight-hour duration of storage (8MWh to 48MWh).

A few weeks before that, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd (NVVN), a power trading subsidiary, launched a tender for projects that could deliver “round-the-clock” renewable energy.

The parent company meanwhile launched an ongoing 250MW/500MWh battery storage solicitation earlier this year. As a group, NTPC is targeting for 30% of its energy generation to come from renewable sources by 2032.

Also in Gujarat, the state’s electricity board launched a tender for 500MW/1,000MWh of BESS in August.

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An aerial view of the 230MW PV, 32MWh energy storage project in the Atacama desert. Image: Colbún S.A.

Utility Colbún has inaugurated a solar-plus-storage project with a 32MWh battery energy storage system in the Atacama region, the first of an 800MW deployment target.

The Diego de Almagro project is a 330-hectare site comprising 470,000 solar panels totalling 230MW of power and a 8MW/32MWh BESS allowing for four hours of full power discharge.

Finland-headquartered energy technology company Wärtsilä was awarded the energy storage system integrator contract a year ago and provided its GridSolve Quantum utility-scale BESS product (pictured below) along with its GEMS Digital Energy Platform to manage and optimise the system with the solar PV.

The overall project totalled US$150 million of investment of which the BESS was US$11 million.

The project is Colbún’s first operational energy storage unit, the largest solar PV park in the Atacama region and also the “debut of this type of technology” there, the company claims.

Wärtsilä’s GridSolv Quantum battery energy storage system. Image: Colbún S.A./Wärtsilä.

Note however that the Atacama region only covers a portion of the Atacama desert, widely known as the sunniest place on earth, which is spread across the region of Antofagasta too. In fact, the first large-scale lithium-ion BESS deployed anywhere in the world is found there. AES’ ‘Los Andes’ 12MW/4MWh BESS was inaugurated in 2011 in Copiapo.

Colbún has plans to deploy 800MW of energy storage overall in Chile including a five-hour, 240MW/1,200MWh co-located unit it proposed for the northern region of Arica and Parinacota in August. That project is currently undergoing an environmental impact assessment (EIA).

The firm plans to have 4,000MW of renewable capacity online by 2030, having moved away from a model of procuring renewable energy from other companies. Energy-Storage.news’ sister site PV Tech spoke to the firm’s CEO José Ignacio Escobar for a piece in the most recent edition of quarterly journal PV Tech Power.

“Today, being renewable or having green energy is not enough. We have to find ways for this investment in clean energy to be well done, with timely information and involvement of the communities, and developing productive chains that generate local value”, Escobar added in a press release announcing the Diego de Almagro project.

Chile recently passed a major piece of legislation to incentivise the deployment of stationary energy storage systems (ESS) by allowing standalone units to receive income on the country’s electricity market.

But even before that, a handful of huge energy storage projects have been announced this year, including Colbún’s, AES’ plans to convert a coal plant into 560MW of molten salt-based energy storage, Canadian Solar’s recent tender win to deploy solar-plus-storage with 1GWh of battery storage and 425MWh BESS order for Mitsubishi Power.

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Awardee Sunamp makes thermal ‘heat batteries’. Pictured is CEO Andrew Bissell at the company’s premises in East Lothian, Scotland. Image: Sunamp.

The UK government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has provided £32.9 million (US$39.67 million) to five energy storage projects to support the development of new technologies such as thermal batteries and liquid flow batteries.

The funding has been provided to the winners of the second phase of the Longer Duration Energy Storage (LODES) competition which aims to scale innovative new energy storage technologies and increase the nation’s capabilities.

“Accelerating renewables is key to boosting our energy resilience. Energy storage helps us get the full benefit of these renewables, improving efficiency and helping drive down costs in the long term,” said Minister for Climate Graham Stuart.

In February, it was announced at Solar Media’s Energy Storage Summit 2022 that a total of 24 projects had received £6.7 million funding via the LODES Programme by that point.

It was stated the awards had been split into two streams: Stream 1 is for demonstration projects of technologies considered close to commercialisation and aiming to accelerate that process so that they can be deployed on the UK energy system. Stream 2 seeks to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative projects through building “first-of-a-kind” prototypes of full systems.

To read the full version of this story including details of winning projects, visit Current±.

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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3D rendering of a Gravitricity energy storage plant. Image: Gravitricity.

A UK-based company has received funding to explore potential sites in India for a demonstration project of its proprietary gravity energy storage technology.

Gravitricity’s technology uses large weights suspended in deep underground shafts to store and release kinetic energy, by lifting and lowering them on a system of pulleys.

By using underground spaces that already exist, like disused mine shafts, the company believes it can achieve a low cost of storage for either high power short duration applications or longer duration energy-heavy applications, without degradation over a 50-year lifetime.

At full scale, that could mean 800 metre lifts and drops for a total 12,000 tonnes of weights.

The company has built a 250kW functioning demonstration project in Scotland, where it is headquartered, and is exploring opportunities elsewhere, including a site in Czechia.

Gravitricity announced last week that it has secured £194,000 (US$233,800) funding from the UK’s government towards finding a suitable demonstration site in India.

Over the next 12 months, Gravitricity and local partner Panitek Power will identify a shortlist of potential demonstration scheme sites. That will include assessing the availability of local supply chain firms capable of providing equipment and components.

The money for the study is coming via national innovation agency Innovate UK, under a funding opportunity through its Energy Catapult accelerator programme. Innovate UK is working with a UK government fund that will invest up to £20 million in total in energy access programmes for Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the Indo-Pacific regions.

As regular readers of this site and PV Tech will know, India is targeting a massive deployment of renewable energy, which is already well underway. More than 150GW of solar and wind have been installed, as the country targets 500GW of non-fossil fuel generation by 2030.

That is leading to a growing recognition of the need for energy storage, with the government of India keen to support the technologies. This and interest from private companies from home and abroad has largely been focused on lithium-ion battery storage to date.

However, as with other countries, there is likely to also be a desire to diversify the energy storage resource base in India, particularly as lithium battery supply chains are constrained by the huge amount of demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and dependency on imports from abroad, mostly from China.

Gravitricity said its mechanical energy storage technology could be well-suited to India’s needs.

“India has very few fossil fuel resources and is committed to adopting renewables to fuel its economic growth. Solar power is extremely cheap in such a sunny country but brings with it a need for energy storage to meet peak morning and evening demand, both of which typically occur during the hours of darkness,” Gravitricity project development manager Chris Yendell said.

“With the introduction of renewable energy generation at this scale, new flexible storage services will be essential to ensure the grid continues to operate in a stable manner. Gravitricity’s versatile technology is ideally placed to deliver the balancing services required to achieve this stability.”

Yendell added that the technology is “relatively simple”.

“It doesn’t rely on any rare earth metals, and has a very long lifespan, meaning it can be manufactured and deployed locally alongside vast amounts of new grid infrastructure which will also be required to meet the rapid growth in demand.”

Panitek Power’s chief commercial officer Parag Vyas said it made sense for many parts of India which have little or no access to the grid “to integrate energy storage within their evolving infrastructure to cope with intermittent generation” from renewables.

“In addition, as a country’s share of renewables rises, this can cause frequency and voltage disturbances in the existing grid due to mismatch of load demand and generation. Gravitricity’s technology has a response time of less than one second and can be cycled thousands of times, making it ideally suited to grid balancing and rapid frequency response services,” Vyas said.

Australia’s Green Gravity in MoU with engineering group GHD

Meanwhile in Australia, Green Gravity, another firm looking to repurpose disused mine shafts into gravity storage sites, has formed a partnership with major engineering services company GHD.

The pair’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), announced by Green Gravity earlier this month, aims to develop new applications for the company’s technology and accelerate its commercialisation.

Developing engineering design processes and governance for the technology, GHD and Green Gravity will look at technical engineering, policy and regulatory topics and how best to connect assets to the electric grid.

“Recent escalating power prices declared in the Federal budget demonstrate how important it is for innovative Australian companies to commercialise new technology quickly,” Green Gravity CEO and founder Mark Swinnerton said.

“Green Gravity’s energy storage technology represents a breakthrough in the search for economic long-duration storage of renewable energy. By re-using mining assets, costs can be kept low. By using gravity as the fuel, we dispense with consuming the critical water, land, and chemicals which other storage technologies rely on.”

Perhaps the best-known gravity-based energy storage company today is Energy Vault, the Switzerland-headquartered developer of a proprietary technology that lifts and lowers 35-tonne weights made of a composite concrete-like material.

Energy Vault’s first 100MW large-scale gravity storage project is under construction in China, but as noted in our recent coverage of the company’s quarterly financial results, Energy Vault has also scored a number of deals to supply and integrate more conventional lithium-ion battery systems for customers which accounts for a large portion of its revenues since publicly listing and going commercial, as well as exploring opportunities in green hydrogen.

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The first BESS in Australia to deliver grid-forming capabilities, Hitachi Energy’s 30MW/8MWh project in Dalrymple, South Australia. Image: Hitachi Energy.

Work is progressing on a large-scale battery storage project which will deliver nearly AU$10 million (US$6.7 million) in annual electricity system cost savings in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT).

The state’s government announced yesterday that civil and building works have now been completed at the Darwin-Katherine Battery Energy Storage System (DK BESS), describing it as a “construction milestone” for the project.

Hitachi Energy, selected as the BESS technology provider through a competitive tender process in late 2021, is now onsite at Channel Island Power Station. The power station site is owned by Territory Generation, the NT’s main electricity producer, which is itself state government owned.   

While the total cost of the 35MW BESS project is around AU$45 million, it is projected to help reduce the costs of running and balancing the electricity grid by about AU$9.8 million every year of operation, meaning payback will be achieved in under five years.

It will provide grid-balancing services for the Darwin-Katherine electricity network that serves 150,000 people in the NT.

The system will help smooth the integration of locally generated solar power from homes and businesses. With Australia one of the world’s rooftop solar PV capitals, the Northern Territory government found that in its state, PV installations have grown by 45% each year since 2010.

To help maintain reliability of the grid as that variable generation comes onto the network, the grid needs to respond quickly to mitigate cloud cover. That role is currently being played by natural gas spinning reserve units, which have fuel and maintenance costs associated with them, as well as emissions and air pollution.

Battery storage can reduce the need for those balancing fossil fuel assets and in addition to rooftop solar, could play a role in enabling more large-scale solar PV plants to be built in the region.

A growing number of battery storage projects in Australia are using advanced inverter technology to deliver a synthetic version of the synchronous inertia provided by the large rotating mass of thermal power plants.

By responding to grid signals to adjust the supply and demand of power through charging and discharging electrons rather than adjusting the voltage mechanically, this technology is often called virtual inertia.

BESS that delivers this role is often described as “grid-forming”. Hitachi Energy was the first provider to do this application at a large-scale BESS in Australia, with its ESCRI project in Dalrymple, South Australia, a few years ago.

As with the Dalrymple project, Hitachi Energy’s grid-forming Virtual Synchronous Machine technology including advanced inverters will be used in the NT at the DK BESS.

The BESS will also be used to trial the provision of a number of other different grid-balancing services to the network, for Territory Generation and the NT government to assess the roles batteries can play.

Northern Territory chief minister Natasha Fyles and minister for renewables and energy Selina Uibo said yesterday that works have started on a new 132/11.5kV power transformer at the DK BESS site, and the first tranche of inverter enclosures installed. Early construction works had begun in late August.

“Construction of the Darwin-Katherine BESS is a huge step forward in our plan for 50% renewables by 2030. Our electricity will be more reliable and stable, whilst maintaining affordability for Territorians which is what they expect and deserve,” Uibo said.

Other large-scale battery storage systems currently under construction in Australia include the Capital Battery 100MW/200MWh project in the Australian Capital Territory and the 150MW/150MWh Hazelwood BESS in Victoria.

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