Lightsource bp, together with the Alabama Municipal Electric Authority (AMEA), have opened the 130 MW DC / 100 MW AC Black Bear Solar project for operations, which will serve AMEA’s 11 member municipal utilities. Located 15 miles from AMEA’s headquarters, Black Bear will deliver solar energy to AMEA under a 20-year power sales agreement from Lightsource bp.

“AMEA is saving money with a home-grown, renewable resource that helps us provide dependable, economical power to our communities,” says Fred D. Clark, Jr., president and CEO of AMEA. “Combined with a fixed price contract for electricity from Black Bear Solar for the next 20 years, we’re building more long-term stability and diversity into our energy portfolio.”

Black Bear Solar was built using more than 280,000 ultra-low carbon solar panels manufactured by First Solar, solar trackers manufactured by Array Technologies and foundational piles on which the trackers sit manufactured by Attala Steel.

“This project is a great example of how solar is a job engine for Americans,” comments Kevin Smith, CEO of Lightsource bp Americas. “Black Bear Solar created hundreds of U.S. jobs across the supply chain, supporting domestic manufacturing and helping build long-term careers for our clean energy future.”

The Montgomery County Commission and Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce were partners to both AMEA and Lightsource bp, helping to bring this project to realization.

“We are grateful to AMEA and Lightsource bp for their significant announcement in Montgomery and congratulate them on the completion of this important project,” says Montgomery County Commission Chair Doug Singleton. “This project will provide considerable support to Montgomery County schools, dollars the school system otherwise would not receive. This is a major economic development project for the rural part of our county with our strong corporate partner in Lightsource bp.” 

“The Montgomery Chamber congratulates AMEA and Lightsource bp on this groundbreaking endeavor,” adds Cedric Campbell, 2022 chair of the Montgomery Chamber. “Innovative collaborations among public and private sector partners like this will power business and economic prosperity for the region for years to come with clean, low-cost, and low-impact renewable energy.”

The Black Bear Solar project is in commissioning and currently generating electricity into the grid and will be fully operational in November 2022.

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UK Battery Industrialisation Centre director Jeff Pratt (left) with business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg inspecting battery production lines. Image: BEIS.

A competitive funding initiative launched by the UK government to support battery research and development will make £211 million (US$235 million) available over the next three years.

The money will be targeted at advancing technology development and capabilities to scale-up manufacturing for batteries that can be used in applications like stationary energy storage and electric vehicles (EVs).

The UK government’s department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) launched the Faraday Challenge in 2017, named after 18th Century scientist and inventor Michael Faraday, who made key contributions to the understanding of electrochemistry.

Administered by groups including non-departmental public body UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) and research institution The Faraday Institute, BEIS claimed that a total £541 million has been put into the initiative since its founding.

A UKRI document with details of some of the 140 projects funded to date is available here from the body’s website, published in September 2021.

They include a project to explore the feasibility of direct extraction of lithium from geothermal brine in Cornwall, southwest England, thermal control and thermal runaway suppression systems for lithium batteries, scaling up advanced battery materials and many more.

BEIS said the direct funding from the Faraday Challenge has to date stimulated a further £400 million in private investment. It has also enabled the Faraday Institution to team up with 500 researchers from 25 universities, and various spin-out companies have been created from research projects.

One example of that is specialist battery insurance technology (insurtech) company Altelium. Altelium claims its data-driven approach to battery warranties can help de-risk investments. Co-founder Charlie Grimston recently wrote an article for Solar Media’s quarterly journal PV Tech Power, calling data-driven insurance for batteries an “unsung hero of the energy transition”.

The latest funding will be disbursed between this year and 2025. Longer-term, BEIS believes its support can foster the creation of 100,000 related jobs in both battery gigafactories and the wider supply chain by 2040.

“Safe and powerful batteries are central to our plans to grow the industries of the future,” UK business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, who heads up BEIS, said.

“From our world leading renewables industry to our growing electric vehicle sector, secure supplies of batteries are key to delivering jobs and prosperity.”

It mirrors the approach taken by the US government to some extent. Earlier this week US president Joe Biden announced nearly three billion dollars of funding awards to 20 companies, unlocked by his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law legislation.

From a technology perspective, the Faraday Challenge’s R&D funding is targeted at lowering the weight of batteries as well as their cost, increasing energy density and power output, as well as making them as reliable and recyclable as possible.

From a business point of view, it wants to further collaboration leading to innovation in the UK battery sector, developing the network of companies and skilled workers required.

Additionally, through the £130 million UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UKBIC), which is the national battery manufacturing development facility, it will promote battery manufacturing scale-up and skilling up of the workforce.

The announcement comes only a couple of days after a report by the Financial Times newspaper that one gigafactory hopeful, Britishvolt, is in financial difficulty and seeking extra funding urgently.

However, Ian Levy, a local politician in the northeast England region of Northumberland where Britishvolt wants to build its factory, was quoted by regional press outlet ChronicleLive as saying the company’s management is “pursuing several opportunities” that would help them continue with plans, a day after the Financial Times report.

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Myles Burnsed

EDF Renewables North America and Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) have started construction on 22.5 MW of local solar projects representing the first phase of projects across the ODEC member service territories in Virginia and Delaware. The total portfolio will add approximately 50 MW to several ODEC member communities while at the same time providing regional and energy diversification to the cooperative’s generation portfolio.

ODEC entered into an agreement with EDF Renewables in 2019 to develop a portfolio of local solar projects across the territories of ODEC’s 11 retail distribution cooperative members. The energy generated will be purchased by the cooperative at a fixed rate through power purchase agreements (PPA).

The 2.8 MW DC Monroe Solar is interconnected with Mecklenburg Electric Cooperative, 4.2 MW DC Randolf Solar with Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative, 6.5 MW DC Hemings Solar with Northern Neck Electric Cooperative, 3.2 MW DC Small Mouth Bass Solar with BARC Electric Cooperative and 5.8 MW DC Diamond State Solar with Delaware Electric Cooperative.

“ODEC is thrilled to announce the commencement of construction for the first phase of our local solar projects,” says Marcus Harris, ODEC’s president and CEO. “We look forward to adding these clean energy projects to our portfolio as we work to achieve our carbon reduction goals while providing reliable and affordable power to the rural communities we serve.”

“Our unique partnership with ODEC allows for the optimal siting of distribution-scale projects that can deliver maximum savings for ODEC’s members through locally sourced clean energy,” adds Myles Burnsed, vice president of strategic developments for distribution-scale power at EDF Renewables. “We look forward to completing this first phase and are excited to continue our joint efforts to bring distributed solar to ODEC’s members.”

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The battery system will provide grid services for EirGrid and SONI. Image: ABO Wind.

Renewable energy developer ABO Wind has commissioned its first standalone battery energy storage system (BESS), in Kells, Northern Ireland. 

The Germany-based firm has commissioned the 50MW/25MWh BESS unit which it claimed is one of the fastest storage systems globally, with a response time of less than 150 milliseconds.

It is also the largest BESS ABO Wind has ever connected to the grid, with the company having done industrial microgrids and hybrid systems paired with solar PV to date in Germany. 

The BESS will provide grid balancing services to grid operators EirGrid and SONI to help cope with the fluctuating renewable energy from wind farms. Both Ireland and Northern Ireland aim to have 70% of their electricity mix from renewable energies by 2030.

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

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Darin Green

National Grid Renewables has started construction on its Copperhead Solar & Storage Project, a 150 MW solar and 100 MWh storage project in Falls County, Texas. National Grid Renewables has also announced a 140 MW power purchase agreement (PPA) with The Hershey Co. for Copperhead, marking the second PPA between The Hershey Co. and National Grid Renewables after The Hershey Company’s Noble solar PPA was announced in 2021. Edison Energy, a global sustainability and energy advisory firm, worked with The Hershey Company on its environmental initiatives and selection of National Grid Renewables’ Copperhead.

“Together with customers like The Hershey Co., National Grid Renewables is helping to build a clean, fair and affordable energy future,” states Blake Nixon, president of National Grid Renewables. “Projects like Copperhead promote sustainability and economic vitality at both global and local levels. Communities like those in the Falls County, Texas area can anticipate economic benefits for years to come as a result of welcoming renewable energy projects. With Copperhead, our commitment to the state of Texas and the ERCOT market remains strong, and we look forward to bringing this project to commercial operation to benefit local and statewide residents.”

“We have ambitious goals to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by more than 50 percent and Scope 3 emissions by 25 percent by 2030 as part of our science-based targets,” says Mark Kline, director of commodities and specialty procurement at The Hershey Co. “We’re making great progress toward achieving those goals thanks to projects like Copperhead and the great work of National Grid Renewables.”

Copperhead will utilize next-generation Series 6 thin film solar modules developed and produced by First Solar Inc., a 100 MWh Fluence Gridstack battery energy storage system by Fluence Energy Inc., and is being constructed by TIC–The Industrial Co., a subsidiary of Kiewit and an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor.

“As America’s solar company, we are proud that Copperhead will be powered by our responsibly produced, ultra-low carbon photovoltaic solar technology, designed and developed here in the United States,” comments Darin Green, senior director of business development at First Solar. “Our thin film solar technology has the lowest carbon and water footprint of any commercially available PV technology today, while our integrated manufacturing process and tightly controlled supply chain allow for industry-leading transparency and traceability.”

“We are honored to work alongside National Grid Renewables and The Hershey Co. on their second utility-scale solar plus energy storage project in the ERCOT market,” said 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, along with local economic workforce development. Projects like this position us to influence global sustainability and provide tangible local community impact.”

“We are proud to be a part of the Copperhead Solar & Storage Project and ready to get to work in designing and building the system,” says Mike Gammill, vice president of solar operations for TIC. “National Grid Renewables is making tremendous strides in advancing solar power generation, bringing a clean, reliable energy source to Falls County, Texas that will have a positive lasting impact on the community.”

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Another Greenbacker Renewable Energy Co. LLC solar project in Washington

Greenbacker Renewable Energy Co. LLC, an investment manager and independent power producer, has purchased, through a wholly owned subsidiary, a portfolio of up to nine pre-operational solar projects from Norwich Solar. When completed, the Vermont projects will lower power bills for local farmers and give new life to brownfield sites restricted from most uses.

The projects have long-term net metering agreements in place with over 30 agricultural offtakers – local farms and dairies across the state. The net-metering aspect of the portfolio means that the utility will reduce the offtakers’ power bills by the amount of clean energy the projects supply to the grid. Each solar project is expected, on average, to save local farmers approximately $500,000 on energy costs over the lifecycle of the projects.

The portfolio represents Greenbacker’s first transaction with Norwich, a developer and designer as well as engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) provider of clean energy projects throughout New England. Norwich will continue to perform EPC services for the portfolio.

Along with the clean energy and economic benefits these solar projects provide, three project sites will also transform previous brownfields into sources of cheaper renewable power. The Andover project is located on part of a reclaimed gravel pit no longer in operation, and the Thetford Post Mills and Putney Green Acres projects are located on an abandoned landfill and former paper sludge disposal site, respectively.

Each project will have a clean power–production capacity of approximately 840 kW DC, for a total portfolio capacity of up to 7.6 MW DC. Five of the projects are slated to reach commercial operation by the end of 2022, with the other four projects expected to enter operation by the second quarter of 2023.

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6K Inc, got a US$50m grant, to which it will add US$107m of its own funding, to investigate LFP cathode production techniques using a patented microwave plasma process. Image: 6k Inc.

Awardees of US government grants worth a total US$2.8 billion to support and develop the domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) and the electric grid have been announced.

The funding results from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by the Biden-Harris Administration late last year as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The first awards, announced yesterday, will go to 20 manufacturing and processing companies in 12 US states. They were selected on a competitive basis from more than 200 applicants in a process which opened up in February.

Giving a speech, President Biden talked about his industrial strategy “to bring America back manufacturing and industries of the future: semiconductors and clean energy”.

A key part of that is to invest over US$7 billion into battery supply chains to bolster US capacity for processing, manufacturing, and recycling of critical minerals, including lithium, nickel and graphite.

According to the president, the first US$2.8 billion of grants will generate more than three times that amount in economic benefits from the commercial-scale battery production and processing facilities they will help build.

At the same time, Biden launched the American Battery Materials Initiative, which aims to coordinate federal government efforts and work with private and public sector organisations, unions, different communities and governments abroad.

It will be led by the White House, administered by the US Department of Energy and supported by the Department of the Interior in leveraging and growing the battery materials supply chain. Biden noted that it will help “secure America’s electric vehicle battery supply chain and clean energy future”.

A lot of recent energy storage industry optimism in the US has been buoyed by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and how it will unlock valuable tax credit incentives for standalone energy storage projects from a total US$369 billion package of support for clean and distributed energy.

However, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that came a few months before the IRA is designed to be the engine behind that accelerated deployment of battery storage, not least because the IRA’s investment tax credit (ITC) will be paid out at much higher rates of 30% for projects made with requisite locally produced content and local unionised labour, versus just 6% for those that do not.  

Funding for lithium extraction, cathode production, R&D and more

The money will go to a broad range of companies in the upstream battery sector. It combines the scaling up of US production of existing mature technologies, like lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathodes and graphite anodes, which are currently almost exclusively sourced from Chinese imports, with R&D funding for more innovative technologies at earlier stages of commercialisation, like silicon anodes and advanced battery production techniques.

There are also raw materials production projects that will be supported, with lithium extraction an urgent area of focus for the battery industry around the world.

In each case, companies receiving awards, ranging from US$50 million to more than US$300 million will share the costs of their projects with significant sums of money that in some cases match or are greater than the grants.

To see a Department of Energy fact sheet detailing all the winners’ projects and their grant funding and cost share stats, go here.

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The Chicamba dam in Mozambique, where a feasibility study for the floating solar will be conducted. Image: AfDB.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a grant of a grant of US$2.5 million to the government of Mozambique for feasibility studies into a floating solar PV farm and up to 10 energy storage systems.

The grant is from the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA), which AfDB administers, and will be used to help implement the Mozambique Renewable Energy Integration Program (MREP).

The money will allow the national electricity company EDM (Electricidade de Moçambique) to support funding for a feasibility study into battery energy storage systems at up to 10 sites.

It will also go towards feasibility studies for the development of a solar floating power plant in Chicamba reservoir and how to increase the share of variable renewable energy generation more broadly, as well as capacity building for EDM’s personnel and support for tender processes.

Mozambique is a net exporter of electricity despite low access rates (57% in urban areas and 13% in rural areas) and has a power generation potential of 187GW, the most significant in southern Africa, a press release said.

Hydropower currently accounts for about 81% of installed capacity but natural gas and renewable energy sources growing their share of the country’s energy mix.

The size of the projects has not been disclosed. In July, Energy-Storage.news reported on a feasibility study for a 300MW solar plus storage project. The country’s first large-scale project combining PV and storage started construction in July last year.

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A First Solar employee inspects modules at the company’s manufacturing facility in Perrysburg, Ohio.

Independent power producer Silicon Ranch and solar manufacturer First Solar Inc. have expanded the 4 GW master supply agreement (MSA) that the partners announced in April 2022. To support its growing portfolio of contracted solar projects, Silicon Ranch has secured an additional 700 MW of advanced thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar modules, designed and developed in the United States.

The growing partnership between Silicon Ranch and First Solar dates back to 2015, when Silicon Ranch became the first owner-operator of PV plants to utilize First Solar technology on projects in the southeastern US.

Notably, this expansion represents the latest partnership development for Silicon Ranch that supports domestic infrastructure. In addition to its long-term agreements with First Solar, the company has recently announced new agreements with strategic U.S. partners, including one with Nextracker to improve the carbon footprint of its tracker supply, while supporting additional investments in U.S. manufacturing capabilities.

“One of our guiding principles at Silicon Ranch is that we choose the right path over the easier path to get the job done, and this agreement with First Solar represents the ‘right path’ for our module supply,” says Reagan Farr, co-founder and CEO at Silicon Ranch. “In recent months, Silicon Ranch has re-affirmed our leadership in supporting US solar manufacturers and decarbonizing our supply chain, and we are pleased to achieve this progress by working collaboratively with our strategic partners to deliver the best possible power plants to serve our customers and communities across the U.S.”

“Since the beginning of our relationship, it has been clear that Silicon Ranch places genuine emphasis on responsible solar development, and with the lowest carbon and water footprint of any commercially available PV technology, First Solar delivers reliable and responsibly produced modules right in line with this vision,” states Georges Antoun, chief commercial officer at First Solar. “We are pleased to expand First Solar’s role as Silicon Ranch’s trusted partner with another long-term module supply agreement.”

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The Nanotech laboratory team. Image: Nanotech Energy.

Graphene technology company Nanotech Energy will supply 1GWh or more of battery energy storage systems (BESS) to Greece through distributor Smile Energy through 2028.

LA-based Nanotech Energy announced the 1GWh+ master supply agreement with Smile Energy today (20 October).

Smile Energy, which has taken over the distribution of Nanotech products in Greece, aims to operate the first commercial, stationary BESS to several Greek islands, it said. Smile is also responsible for distributing Nanotech’s products in the Balkans, North Africa & the Middle East.

The firm has 700MWh of energy storage in development across these regions and will use Nanotech Energy’s battery technology to ‘consider’ developing BESS units for residential, commercial & industrial and marine applications.

Nanotech’s battery uses lithium-ion supported by graphene technology that the firm claims improves the electrochemical properties of both the battery anode and cathode.

The firm raised US$64 million in a Series D in August 2021, bringing its valuation to US$550 million off a total of US$95 million raised to date, it said at the time. Backers include Multiverse Investment Fund and Fubon Financial Group.

Greece recently doubled its 2030 energy storage target to 3GW in April this year and last month got state aid approval from the EU for a 900MW grid-connected energy storage pipeline.

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