The rate mechanism was negotiated by partners including Electrify America, which runs this charging station in New York. Image: Electrify America.

California utility PG&E has received approval to establish the US’ first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) export compensation mechanism for commercial EV charging customers in its service area.

The V2G export rate is the first dynamic export rate for EV charging customers to-date. PG&E said this will promote EV adoption and encourage vehicles to export power back to the grid during peak periods of demand.

It is hoped the new rate will increase participating in V2G programmes by school buses and other EVs in response to grid conditions. It will also will be available to charging stations which are paired with stationary energy storage systems (ESS).

The agreement was formulated through discussions between advocacy group Vehicle-Grid Integration Council (VGIC), EV charging station network operator Electrify America, and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which adopted it on 20 October.

A press release said that PG&E’s service area account for one in six EVs in the US, around 420,000, and that large vehicles like school buses and commercial fleets could serve as crucial, flexible grid resources in future.

Ed Burgess, VGIC policy director, said: “As ever-greater numbers of EVs hit the roads, this innovative rate option will allow EV owners to further benefit from their investment in clean transportation.”

“Leveraging the capability of EVs as a grid resource will help integrate more clean energy into our power system, reduce energy bills for all utility customers, and support California’s ambitious decarbonisation goals.”

As Energy-Storage.news has reported when covering the topic of V2G, many industry observers see buses and commercial EVs as much more fertile ground for scaling up V2G programmes than the consumer EV space. This is because of larger battery sizes, more predictable usage schedules and a less atomised pool of customers.

School and transit buses in particular are being touted as a particular opportunity, and have also electrified much faster than the consumer EV space in the US, according to figures provided to Energy-Storage.news by a spokesperson for The Mobility House, a Germany-based one-stop-shop EV charging and V2G solution firm.

Out of 100,000 public transit buses, some 3,500 are electric (3.5%) while 12,000 out of the 500,000 (2.4%) school buses have made the switch to-date, the data shows. Compare that to less than 1% of consumer vehicles according to most data sources, including a Reuters infographic report from February this year.

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Leclanché exhibiting LeBlock, its modular grid-scale BESS solution, at a trade event earlier this year. Image: Solar Media.

Anil Srivastava has vacated his position as CEO of Leclanché with the European battery and energy storage system manufacturer and integrator announcing other leadership changes.

“When I decided to accept this position eight years ago, it was because of the reputation and the exceptional potential of Leclanché,” Srivastava said.

“Today, after all this time with Leclanché, I must say that I am proud of the work I have done together with all employees.”

Leclanché’s chief technology officer (CTO) since 2006, Pierre Blanc, takes over as CEO, and is also the chief technology and industrial officer of subsidiary Leclanché e-mobility. Newly appointed chief sales and development officer Phil Broad is now CEO of the e-mobility division, where he has worked since joining the group in 2018.

Pasquale Foglia, an experienced finance professional who was made interim CFO at the company earlier this year, has been appointed permanently as CFO.

The changes come after a reorganisation of the group’s management structure and the appointment of a new board of directors at the end of September. At that time the group’s owners including main shareholder SEFAM agreed to the conversion of debt owed to it into equity shareholding, and Leclanché noted that this and other measures had enabled the company to finance its development.

The Switzerland-headquartered company makes its own battery cells as well as manufacturing and integrating complete energy storage solutions with its own and third-party cells, for stationary and mobility applications, from grid-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) to marine propulsion.

The company claimed it has strong customer demand which the capital raised by SEFAM will enable it to meet from its factory in Willstätt, Germany.

Leclanché launched LeBlock, the newest iteration of its containerised BESS solution for utility-scale applications, in 2021. The product is claimed to be modular and easy to transport and install, featuring combi-blocks that allow for the stacking of multiple 745kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) units.

In April it was awarded a contract to provide an 11.9MWh BESS for installation at the site of a solar PV plant in Germany, which will play into frequency regulation markets through an automated bidding software platform.

Other projects Leclanché has underway include a solar-plus-storage power plant on the Caribbean island of St Kitts and Nevis on which construction began in June and features a 44.2MWh lithium-ion BESS paired with a 35.6MW solar PV plant.

In August, the company said it had made a breakthrough for battery storage safety when it unveiled a fire-retardant additive for lithium electrolyte that it claimed could reduce the risk of a thermal event by nearly 80%.

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FRV’s 34MW/68MWh Contego Bay BESS project, developed in partnership with developer Harmony Energy. Image: Harmony Energy.

News of major project acquisitions in another busy week for the UK battery storage market.

28 October 2022: Fotowatio Renewable Ventures buys another 100MW of UK BESS projects

Developer Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) has acquired two new battery energy storage projects, with a combined capacity of up to 100MW, from RE Projects Development Limited (REPD).

The lithium-ion battery storage projects collectively cover a little over one hectare, and are expected to reach the ready-to-build phase during the third quarter of 2023.

Developer Tyler Hill Renewables sourced the acquisition opportunity for FRV – which is part of Abdul Latif Jameel Energy – and will assist in the development process.

FRV has been working to build out its portfolio of assets in the UK. It currently has five battery energy storage projects in operation, under construction and in development. Collectively these have a capacity of 340MW, including projects it is developing together with Harmony Energy (pictured).

Additionally, FRV signed a £1 billion (US$1.15 billion) partnership with Tyler Hill Partners earlier in October, to create a platform dubbed RV TH Powertek Limited to develop, build and operate up to 1GW/2GWh of battery energy storage system projects in the UK over the next five years.

By Molly Lempriere.

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

31 October 2022: Gore Street Capital’s energy storage fund makes biggest acquisition to date

Gore Street Energy Storage Fund has acquired a 200MW battery storage project in development by Kona Energy.

It marks the stock exchange-listed energy storage investment fund’s single largest project acquisition to date, bringing its total portfolio of contracted or operational battery energy storage system (BESS) assets to 898MW.

The project is in Heysham, Lancashire, and will be connected directly to National Grid’s transmission network. Kona Energy got planning approval in May this year and at the time said the BESS will help increase utilisation of energy from six offshore wind farms, which connect to the grid nearby.

The developer said the asset will also perform reactive power services and provide inertia to support the stability of the local grid. Grid connection and land rights have also been secured and it is expected to be connected to the grid no later than the fourth quarter of 2026. However, Gore Street Capital wants to accelerate that start date, provided that doesn’t bring up the EPC costs of the Heysham BESS.

Gore Street Capital reported surging revenues for its 2021 financial year, as reported by Solar Power Portal in late July. Gore Street Energy Storage fund’s EBITDA went up to £23.3 million as of 31 March 2022, from £2.9 million in the previous year.

It said revenues for battery storage had been more than 68% higher on average in the 2022 fiscal year than in 2021 and O’Cinneide said Gore Street Capital’s strategy of optimising Capex of its portfolio was working to increase “both performance and profitability”.

The CEO, who spoke with Energy-Storage.news about Gore Street’s international expansion in April, also said today that the portfolio benefits from diversification across the four key high-growth markets, adding that the “strategy of avoiding country single risk is clearly of benefit to our shareholders given recent events”. In addition to the Great Britain and Ireland markets, the fund has projects in Europe and the US.

By Andy Colthorpe.

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

31 October 2022: NextEnergy Solar Fund acquires 250MW ‘strategic portfolio’

NextEnergy Solar Fund has acquired a “strategic portfolio” of battery storage development projects located in a grid-congested area in the East of England.

The solar PV and energy storage investment vehicle said today that it has acquired the 250MW portfolio of two-hour duration (500MWh) battery projects from an undisclosed developer. The value of the deal was disclosed however, at £32.5 million.

With planning permission and grid connection agreements in place, NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) gets the development rights, permits and grid connection work for the standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) projects.

NextEnergy Solar Fund (NESF) intends for the 250MW/500MWh project portfolio to be online in 2025. It is expected to perform grid-balancing services, and is also located, like the 200MW project Gore Street Capital’s energy storage fund announced the acquisition of today, in a place on the grid where it can be used to charge from and absorb wind power at times of abundance.

By Andy Colthorpe

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

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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Pioneer Natural Resources Co. is participating in two renewable energy projects that will supply low-cost, renewable power to the company’s Permian Basin operations and the Texas electric grid.

Pioneer is a participant in the 160 MW Concho Valley Solar project through Targa’s power purchase agreement, which commenced delivering renewable electricity during October 2022.

Pioneer is also working with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources LLC to develop a 140 MW wind generation facility on Pioneer-owned surface acreage in Midland County. This project is supported by a power purchase agreement with Pioneer, in which Targa Resources Corp. will participate and is expected to be operational in 2024.

The renewable electricity sourced from these projects will provide a portion of the power required to operate Pioneer and Targa’s jointly owned Midland Basin natural gas processing infrastructure, as well as Pioneer’s field operations, enhancing each company’s emissions reduction initiatives through renewable electricity purchases and credits. Participating in these projects exemplify the commitment of Pioneer and Targa to be industry leaders in reducing emissions throughout the Midland Basin.

Pioneer will continue to evaluate wind and solar developments on its extensive owned surface acreage in the Permian Basin. These projects, along with any future projects, are expected to provide an offset to Pioneer’s Scope 2 emissions through the use of renewable electricity.

Image: Chelsea on Unsplash

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Image: Engie.

French utility giant Engie has acquired 6GW of solar and battery storage projects from Belltown Power in the US, continuing to strengthen the group’s project pipeline across the country.

The 33 early to late-stage projects include 2.7GW of solar, 0.7GW of solar-plus-storage and 2.6GW of standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) spread across the country through ERCOT, PJM, MISO and WECC.

The portfolio will accelerate clean energy development across the US and “contribute to the flexibility of the grid to improve its reliability and resilience”, Paulo Almirante, senior executive VP in charge of renewable, energy management and nuclear activities at Engie said.

Engie already has 3.9GW of installed capacity in North America as of June 2022. “This acquisition is a perfect illustration of ENGIE’s strategy to accelerate our investments in renewable energy in our key markets,” Almirante said. “It is an important step towards achieving our goal of 80GW of installed renewable capacity by 2030.”

In April this year, Engie acquired fellow French developer Photosol’s US operations consisting of 17 early-stage solar and energy storage projects. The acquisition of Belltown considerably bolsters the company’s renewables pipeline in the US, pushing it into double figures after the 4GW Photosol deal.

Belltown Power had sold 14 projects amounting to approximately 2.5GW as of November last year, as reported in PV Tech sister site Energy-Storage.News. This sale speaks to a significant growth in the last 12 months for the Texas-based PV and energy storage developer, in a period when the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has seen solar manufacturing and development receive significant tax credits.

This story first appeared on PV Tech.

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A render of the project. Image: Eesti Energia.

A €600,000 (US$595 million) grant from state agencies Enterprise Estonia and KredEx has been given to a pumped hydro energy storage project planned for 2025/26 in the Baltic state.

The money will go to state-owned energy firm Eesti Energia to prepare the construction of a 225MW pumped hydro plant it announced in August, as reported by Energy-Storage.news.

The facility is planned for the industrial area of Estonia Mine in Ida-Virumaa for 2025/26 and will help provide stability to the Estonian grid as it aims to disconnect entirely from Russia’s and connect to mainland Europe’s.

Veljo Aleksandrov, project director, said the the analysis of the technical solution together with an environmental impact study will be completed at the beginning of next year, followed by the preliminary design with the necessary studies. Preliminary design should be completed by the end of 2023 and the investment decision made in the first half of 2024.

“Ensuring Estonia’s energy security and energy independence with our own assets is more important than ever before. In view of the connection to the continental European electricity system planned for 2026 at the latest, it is extremely important that the necessary energy markets and production or storage assets be created in the Baltic States to ensure the security of supply as greenly and cheaply as possible,” Aleksandrov added.

The firm has not revealed the capacity or discharge duration of the planned site, which may need to wait for further studies. Pumped hydro energy storage technology has a typical duration of between 6-20 hours, which in this case could mean somewhere between 1.35GWh and 4.5GWh of energy storage.

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Drilling works at the site, where high-grade vanadium was discovered in 2018. Image: Vecco Group.

Japanese petroleum firm Idemitsu has invested in a vanadium mining, processing and electrolyte production project in Australia, while two other major upstream projects have progressed.

Through subsidiary Idemitsu Debella Pty Ltd, the Tokyo-based company has ‘become a major investor’ in Vecco Group, which is developing the Debella Critical Minerals Project in the Queensland North West Minerals Province.

The Debella Project will establish a critical minerals mine producing vanadium, rare earth elements and alumina, as well as the first commercial-scale electrolyte manufacturing plant in Australia which will be fed by the mine.

Idemitsu said the plant is targeting production in 2024 while Vecco says ‘initial production’ will begin in 2023. It will produce a vanadium pentoxide product along with battery electrolyte for vanadium flow battery manufacturers. Stage One will see an electrolyte production capacity of 35MWh annually rising to more than 350MWh per annum in Stage Two.

Idemitsu Australia CEO Steve Kovac said: “As global demand for critical minerals and rare earths grows we will continue to invest in opportunities with a focus on battery related minerals including lithium, vanadium and cobalt. Idemitsu’s investment in Vecco Group is another exciting move for the company.”

It is Idemitsu’s second investment in the non-lithium battery technology in the space of a month. In September, it acquired 32.22% of the IPO shares of Critical Minerals Group Limited (CMG), which owns the Lindfield Project, a vanadium mining area in the same region of Queensland.

See a map of the Debella project sites below. Idemitsu’s focus in Australia has to-date mainly been on coal but it recently announced plans to expand into critical battery minerals, including lithium.

Other vanadium projects progress

Australia’s vanadium mining and electrolyte production sector has had a busy few weeks.

Alongside Idemitsu’s deals, Richmond Vanadium Technology announced last week (24 October) that its IPO to raise up to AU$35 million (US$22.4 million) had opened. The company is offering 62.5-87.5 million shares at AU$0.40 each until 7 November, and aims to list on the ASX under the code RVT at the end of November.

The funds of the IPO will primarily be used to deliver the Bankable Feasibility Study for the Richmond Vanadium Project, which Energy-Storage.news has previously reported on.

On the same day, another Australia-based company, Neometals Ltd, announced it had received an Environmental Permit for its Vanadium Recovery Project in Pori, on the southwest coast of Finland.

The Regional State Administrative Agency for Southern Finland granted the Permit for the construction and operation of the plant, which will supply vanadium pentoxide in the European market.

The facility will use ‘slag’ from local steel producer SSAB to recover the metal and is expected to start production in 2024. Bank Aventum Partners will now lead the debt raising process.

Around 70% of the today’s supply of vanadium metal comes recovery projects while three primary producers of the chemical share another 20% of the market: Largo Resources, Bushveld Minerals and Glencore.

Energy-Storage.news recently interviewed one of the leading vanadium redox flow battery companies in the world, Invinity Energy Systems. One major issue for companies like Invinity and Austria-based CellCube, two of the most long-running companies in the space, is a small supply chain.

Upstream developments like these will increasingly allow them to develop large-scale energy storage systems to compete with lithium-ion and ultimately test whether their technology can live up to its promises at scale.

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Infinity Energy, a California-based solar and battery installer, is expanding its adoption of Enphase Energy Inc.’s Enphase Energy Systems powered by IQ8 Microinverters and IQ Batteries. Infinity Energy currently serves customers in states including California, Colorado, Texas and Florida.

“Our customers are experiencing rising energy costs and increasingly common extreme weather events leading to power outages” says Bryson Solomon, CEO at Infinity Energy. “They are more motivated than ever before to seek home energy systems that offer them peace of mind. We trust and rely on Enphase products because the company consistently delivers high-performing, reliable, and safe solar and battery technology, like the IQ Microinverters and IQ Batteries, to meet our customers’ needs.”

“Our best installer partnerships are ones in which we share a customer-first philosophy, and our work with Infinity Energy is no exception,” states Dave Ranhoff, chief commercial officer at Enphase Energy. “Together, we’re committed to ensuring that homeowners get a return on investment with their Enphase Energy System, including installation and ongoing maintenance and monitoring. Energy cost savings and the opportunity to live a more sustainable lifestyle are strong value propositions for a growing number of Americans.”

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Tesla Megapacks at SRP’s BESS project in Peoria, which went online in September 2021. Image: SRP.

Salt River Project (SRP) has signed deals for two large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) that bring the Arizona utility to 800MW of energy storage contracted or owned.

SRP said yesterday that it has contracted for Sierra Estrella, a 250MW project, and Superstition, a 90MW system with their developer Plus Power. Both will feature four-hour duration BESS technology, meaning Sierra Estrella will be 250MW/1,000MWh and Superstition 90MW/360MWh.

Targeted to come online by early summer 2024, the 1,360MWh of BESS was selected by SRP through an all-source request for proposals (RFP) which it launched in October 2021. The utility was seeking up to 400MW of new energy resources by summer 2024 and up to 1,000MW by summer 2026.

The battery storage systems will help meet peak capacity needs in summer, when demand for electricity spikes. They also support SRP’s plan to arrive at more than 2GW of utility-scale solar PV on its networks by 2025 as well as longer-term goals on decarbonisation, reducing emissions 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050, against 2005 greenhouse gas (GHG) levels.

SRP will be able to control the dispatch of the systems, determining at which times every day their four hours of stored energy can be of most benefit to help manage peaks in power demand. As with California and Nevada in the US west and southwest, this is typically in the early evenings after solar PV production tails off.

A Plus Power subsidiary will own and operate Sierra Estrella and Superstition, which are in the Arizona city of Avondale and town of Gilbert, both in Maricopa County.

The developer specialises in transmission-connected standalone battery storage and has a few projects completed under its belt, particularly in California. However, its flagship project to date, thought to be nearing the end of the installation phase, is Kapolei Energy Storage in Hawaii.

Kapolei, on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, is the state’s biggest standalone BESS project to date at 185MW/565MWh and is being built to help replace Hawaii’s last remaining coal power station, which was on Oahu and closed a couple of months ago.

Plus Power won that project through a competitive solicitation held by state utility Hawaiian Electric (HECO). The developer closed US$219 million financing for the project in late 2021.

As with Kapolei Energy Storage, Plus Power’s projects for SRP will utilise Tesla Megapack lithium-ion BESS equipment.

Lessons learned on safety

Unfortunately, a fire occurred at an existing 10MW SRP BESS project earlier this year, and in 2017 a large-scale BESS in the service area of another Arizona utility, APS, became the subject of scrutiny after a fire and explosion which injured members of a fire crew at the scene.

SRP said that the new projects will be built to updated national BESS safety codes and standards, which incorporate lessons learned from fire incidents.

One major finding from the APS fire at its McMicken project was that first responders had not been prepared for what they might find at the scene and how to tackle it; SRP said it is engaging with the Avondale and Gilbert fire departments to prepare adequate plans for emergency response and involving the first responder community in the projects’ design, construction, operation, and training stages.

BESS output will match 10% of peak load by summer 2024

Meanwhile, SRP said the 800MW of BESS that it will be able to call on by 2024 represents 10% of customers’ anticipated peak-hour electricity demand. These include a large-scale new build solar-plus-storage project, a standalone battery storage project and a battery retrofit at an existing solar PV plant, all to come online during next year.

In September 2021, the utility brought online its own biggest BESS project to date, a 25MW/100MWh system also assembled with Tesla Megapacks, at a site adjacent to SRP’s Agua Fria Generating Station thermal power plant in the City of Peoria and connected to an existing SRP substation.

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

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Sembcorp has been involved with UK BESS projects like the one pictured, which uses Fluence’s containerised battery units. Image: Sembcorp.

The Singapore Electricity Market Authority (EMA) has confirmed that the Southeast Asia region’s largest battery storage project to date is on course for commissioning in November.

The 200MW/200MWh project is being delivered by Singapore-headquartered engineering services group Sembcorp on Jurong Island, home to a large industrial park and much of the city-state’s energy generation and infrastructure.

The regulatory EMA has recognised that battery storage is a game changer for integrating variable generation from sources like solar PV, as well as providing grid stability more generally in helping manage mismatches between electricity supply and demand.

From its Accelerating Energy Storage Access for Singapore (ACCESS) programme launched in 2018, EMA welcomed expressions of interest (EOI) earlier this year from companies able to build, own and operate 200MW/200MWh of energy storage systems (ESS) in the country.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news in June, that award went to Sembcorp, which as some readers may know, has been active in battery storage projects in international territories, such as the UK. However, its project on Jurong Island is the company’s first in its home country.

It follows the switching-on in 2020 of Singapore’s first grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) project, supplied by Wärtsilä with 2.4MWh capacity.

EMA said this week that it believes the BESS, which will be split across two sites on Jurong Island and span 2 hectares, could be one of the fastest constructed to date.

Equipped with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry batteries, the fast-response BESS will be used to actively correct mismatches in energy supply and demand as well as perform various regulation ancillary services to address fluctuations on a second-by-second basis, such as those created by the introduction of large shares of solar PV to the grid.

EMA noted that LFP technology is “proven, safe and high-performing” and used worldwide to store renewable energy.

The authority continues to develop policy and regulatory conditions, as well as standards, to support and guide Singapore’s deployment of energy storage, it said in a media announcement. This could include guidelines and rules on safety of installation and maintenance for BESS, with regard to Singapore’s local operating conditions, EMA said.   

While it will be Southeast Asia’s biggest battery storage project so far, Energy-Storage.news has reported on various large-scale projects in the region recently, perhaps most notably in the Philippines and Taiwan markets.

For example, in July system integrator Fluence signed a deal for a 100MW project in Taiwan, its third in the country so far, while Philippines power company SMC Global Power was reported in July to be around halfway through a buildout of 1,000MW/1,000MWh of BESS projects.

The largest of those is thought to be around 80MW, with Fluence and other system integrators and BESS manufacturers like Wartsila Energy and ABB also contracted to deliver the pipeline.

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