Image: FREYR Battery.

Battery manufacturing startup FREYR Battery has signed a series of agreements that bring its plans for gigafactories in Europe and later the US closer to fruition.

Norway-headquartered FREYR Battery is targeting 50GWh of annual lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery manufacturing capacity by 2025 and quadruple that by 2030, with its first facility set for construction in the town of Mo I Rana in its home country.

The company is one of dozens developing and constructing very large battery manufacturing plants around the world, with plans to also expand into the US, as well as to build another northern European plant in Finland.  

However, it is one of the few, along with the likes of fellow Scandinavian startup Northvolt and China’s CATL – the world’s biggest lithium battery manufacturer – that have said production capacity will be set aside for stationary energy storage systems (ESS) as well as for the electric vehicle (EV) sector.

In an interview with Energy-Storage.news a few months ago, CEO Tom Einar Jensen told the site that this could equate to as much as half of total production capacity by 2030. The company has already signed multi-year off-taker deals with companies in the ESS space.

These include publicly announced deals with Honeywell for 19GWh of batteries, Powin Energy for 28.5GWh over six years and, most recently, Nidec ASI for 38GWh of supply by 2030 that includes an option to upscale to 50GWh.  

This week, FREYR announced that it has signed a cathode supply deal with Taiwan-headquartered LPF cathode maker Aleees.

FREYR will get licensing to produce and sell LFP cathode material based on Aleees’ technology, while the Taiwanese company’s techniques and know-how will be leveraged in the construction of FREYR production facilities. Aleees will also provide services and support to FREYR on an ongoing basis.

FREYR’s Mo i Rana gigafactory complex, called Giga Arctic, will be the first beneficiary of the cathode material agreement, but FREYR said some volumes could be deployed for its US factories too.

The battery manufacturer plans to build an LFP cathode plant to feed Giga Arctic by 2024, and believes that it is important to establish a localised, low carbon production and supply value chain in the Nordic region, the company said. FREYR has signed a renewable energy supply deal for Giga Arctic with Statkraft.

Notably, Aleees is also a supplier already of cathode material to 24M, the US battery tech startup which has developed a manufacturing platform for what it calls ‘Semi-Solid’ lithium batteries, with thicker electrodes than other devices. That design means batteries could be produced more cheaply and quickly, 24M has claimed, and FREYR is one of its partners too.

The agreement with Aleees follows a process of negotiation that began earlier this year, FREYR CEO Jensen said.

“With the licensing agreement now signed, I’m pleased to say that we are in a solid position to keep momentum on our journey to localise and decarbonise battery cell production and their supply chains in the Nordic region. LFP cathode materials comprise 40% or more of the cost of a battery cell and currently account for more than 45% of the projected full-cycle supply chain carbon footprint of cells.”

In September, the manufacturer signed and announced a few other key deals.

Norwegian project developer and general contractor HENT AS was announced as planner, project manager and construction partner for the 120,000 square-metre Giga Arctic factory complex towards the end of last month.

A couple of weeks prior, UK company Mpac Group was contracted to supply automated casting and unit cell assembly equipment, with Mpac a pre-qualified vendor to 24M, while a few days before that, Italian industrial automation company NTE Process agreed to supply an integrated drying and power-handling system to Giga Arctic.

FREYR took the investment decision to proceed with the Giga Arctic factory project a few months ago and anticipates the start of production in the first half of 2024, slightly later than an originally announced H2 2023 start date.

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Thierry Breton

The European Commission is formally endorsing a new Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance, with the aim of scaling up manufacturing technologies of innovative solar photovoltaic products and components. This will contribute to accelerating the deployment of solar power across the EU and improving the resilience of the EU’s energy system.

The alliance is one of the concrete initiatives of the EU Solar Energy Strategy, adopted in May 2022 as part of the REPowerEU Plan, which will help the EU reach over 320 GW of newly installed solar photovoltaic capacity by 2025, and almost 600 GW by 2030. This endorsement paves the way for a call for membership in the Alliance to be published in November.

“To meet Europe’s renewable energy objectives – and avoid replacing a dependency on Russian fossil fuels with new dependencies – we are launching an industrial alliance for solar energy,” says Commissioner Thierry Breton, responsible for the Single Market. “With the alliance’s support, the EU could reach 30 GW of annual solar energy manufacturing capacity by 2025 across the full PV value chain. The alliance will foster an innovative and value-creating industry in Europe, which leads to job creation here. Europe’s solar industry already created more than 357,000 jobs. We have the potential to double these figures by the end of the decade.”

Once set up, the alliance will bring together industrial actors, research institutes, consumer associations, NGOs and other stakeholders with an interest in the solar PV sector. It will deliver an action plan for the solar industrial value chain in Europe and engage with the EU and member states on issues ranging from research and innovation, technology, industrial supply chain, raw materials, access to finance, off-takers, and international partnerships as well as global supply chain resilience, circularity, sustainability and skills. The launch of the Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance is expected by the end of the year.

The commission will work with EITInnoEnergy to establish it, building on the track record of the Batteries Alliance. For instance, the Battery Alliance has played an essential role in ensuring that Europe can meet up to 90% of its demand with batteries produced in Europe by 2030. The European Clean Hydrogen Alliance is boosting hydrogen production capacities in Europe.

Image: European Parliament from EU, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Walburga Hemetsberger

In the context of critical EU solar deployment and energy security targets, 12 CEOs from leading PV manufacturers, and the CEO of SolarPower Europe, wrote to the European Commission to call for urgent action to support the redevelopment European solar manufacturing..

The letter welcomes the recent REPowerEU and EU Solar Strategy, while pointing to international measures that are accelerating the global competition for solar PV value chains outside of Europe. The U.S.’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) benefits for Operating Expenditure (OpEx) and Capital Expenditures is resonating with investors, while in India, innovative auction design is providing similar clarity to the industry. Signatories highlight the recent IEA Special Report on supply chains, raising concern about the dominant concentration of supply chains in a single geography.

To ensure Europe’s competitive participation within a globally diversified solar supply chain, and echoing President von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech last month, signatories are calling on the commission to replicate the EU Chips Act’s success for critical solar PV technology, and promote solar PV production in the National Resilience and Recovery Plans. This translates to accelerated financial support for large-scale manufacturing projects, and competitive OpEx support, particularly for energy-intensive polysilicon and ingot/wafer production. The letter signatories include Matthias Taft, CEO of BayWa r.e.; Salvatore Bernabei, CEO of Enel Green Power; Mark Widmar, CEO of FirstSolar; Elisabeth Strauss-Engelbrechtsmüller, CEO of Fronius; Joachim Goldbeck, CEO of Goldbeck Solar; Udo Möhrstedt, CEO of IBC SOLAR; Xabier Viteri, general manager of Iberdrola Group’s Renewable Energy Business; Dr. Gunter Erfurt, PMP, CEO of Meyer Burger; Gøran Bye, CEO of Norwegian Crystals; Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Reinert, CEO of SMA Solar Technology; Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of SolarPower Europe; Dr. Armin Froitzheim, chief technology officer and managing director at Solarwatt; and Dr. Christian Hartel, CEO of Wacker Chemie AG.

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SimpliPHI 6 kW Inverter

SimpliPhi Power, now part of Briggs and Stratton, has released the SimpliPHI ESS, which is composed of a 6 kW inverter, 4.9 kWh batteries, and the EnergyTrak gateway and mobile app. All components use closed-loop communications to allow for quick commissioning, remote monitoring and firmware upgrades, and better performance. In this training we will detail:

The specifications of the SimpliPHI 6 kW Inverter and 4.9 kWh battery, functionality of the EnergyTrak gateway and associated mobile app, and system sizing and installation guidelines will be reviewed on a SimpliPHI Fully Integrated ESS training on October 13 at 10:00 a.m. PDT (register for recording). In addition, the training will cover scaling systems to meet large energy storage or power demands, common applications and system layouts, and other technical support and requirement aspects of the SimpliPhi’s Elite IQ (Installer Qualification) Training Program.

The SimpliPhi Elite IQ Installer Training Program keeps installers up to date with the latest in energy storage technology, applications and integration requirements for critical backup and savings. 

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Ameresco Inc., a clean technology integrator specializing in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and Bright Canyon Energy, a developer of energy infrastructure, have begun construction for the Kūpono Solar Project. This combined solar and battery storage system will be built at the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam West Loch Annex in Hawai‘i. Once operational, the project is designed to deliver 42 MW of renewable energy to Hawaiian Electric’s (HECO) grid on the island of O‘ahu.

Using approximately 131 acres of federal land, the Kūpono Solar Project will feature the installation of a 42 MW photovoltaic solar array and 42 MW/168 MWh (four-hour duration) of lithium-ion battery storage system.

“We are taking significant strides to strengthen our state’s energy security and resilience, and thanks to the ‘Ewa community, Navy, Hawaiian Electric, Ameresco and Bright Canyon Energy, we are now steps closer to reaching Hawai‘i’s renewable energy vision of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2045,” states Lt. Governor Josh Green. “Kūpono Solar is a landmark initiative for us that will not only benefit our state’s economy but will also bolster our sustainability efforts and local communities through stable, affordable energy, innovative technology and job creation.”

Ameresco and Bright Canyon Energy established a joint venture in 2021 known as Kūpono Solar Development Company LLC to advance the Kūpono Solar Project, which is the first project of the joint venture. In support of the Department of Defense’s long-term energy security initiative to increase clean energy reliability and military capabilities, and the state’s goals of renewable energy and decarbonization, Kūpono Solar has a 37-year land lease agreement with the Navy to provide critical energy resiliency upgrades for O’ahu.

“The Department of the Navy is proud to partner with the Kūpono Solar team and Hawaiian Electric as we enhance mission and community resilience and move purposefully towards Hawaii and Navy’s energy goals,” comments Meredith Berger, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Energy, Installations and Environment. “This is a great example of climate action, building access to clean, reliable energy sources inside and outside the fence line.”

Kūpono Solar will own and operate this solar and battery project under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Hawaiian Electric.

“The start of this project comes at a time when the need for consistent energy security and independence is at an all-time high,” adds Nicole Bulgarino, executive vice president and general manager of federal solutions at Ameresco. “The solar and battery storage solutions that are being implemented will deliver clean, renewable energy to the grid and benefit businesses and residents across Hawai‘i.”

“Through our strategic relationships with the Navy, Hawaiian Electric and the community, we are able to leverage clean technology and infrastructure upgrades to help the state of Hawai‘i reach its renewable energy goals and the Navy achieve its climate and energy resiliency objectives,” concludes Jason Smith, general manager of Bright Canyon Energy. “It’s energizing to work with a group of partners committed to bringing this key energy infrastructure to O‘ahu and its residents.”

Construction on the Kūpono Solar Project is expected to be completed in early 2024.

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The Luna / LAB battery storage project in California. Image: AES / Fluence.

Global battery energy storage system integrator Fluence is using its intelligent bidding software solution to optimise the trading activity of a 508MWh system it recently completed for AES in California.

As Energy-Storage.news reported, AES brought the 127MW/508MWh Lancaster Area Battery (LAB) online on September 2, the second portion of a combined 908MWh site.

Fluence has now made its own announcement about the project and revealed that the LAB system will employ Fluence’s Mosaic platform for intelligent bidding in the state’s wholesale market, operated by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO).

Mosaic’s cloud-based platform will integrate directly with Gridstack, Fluence’s physical energy storage product. This will allow it to process operating constraints and parameters in real-time and employ advanced machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to generate bids that maximise LAB’s market earnings, the company said.

Both LAB and the Luna battery storage system, which makes up the other 100MW/400MWh of the project, will use Fluence’s operational services packages for performance guarantees and maintenance support.

“By utilising several solutions from our ecosystem of products, customers can craft tailored commercial and operational packages that align to their needs,” said Fluence President, Americas, John Zahurancik.

He also said that the units came online at “…just the right time when extreme heat caused spikes in electricity demand and stressed the state’s power grid”.

Fluence’s digital services segment is a small but fast-growing part of the business. In its most recent quarterly results, ‘assets under management’ for its ‘digital projects’ segment grew 310%, versus 95.7% for ‘energy storage services’ and 62.7% for ‘energy storage product’ deployments. It was also the only segment of the three where orders grew, as covered by us at the time.

AES co-founded the company along with technology and engineering firm Siemens and both companies together still hold a majority of its shares after its IPO in late 2021.

Read more Energy-Storage.news coverage of Fluence here, including its deal to build a 250MW ‘Grid Booster’ battery in Germany, an interview with its head of commercial Kiran Kumaraswamy and an analyst’s view on what the appointment of new CEO Julian Nebreda means for the company’s direction.

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The company currently sells mainly to the X, X and X sectors. Image: Dragonfly Energy Corp.

Dragonfly Energy Corp, a battery tech company with a patented solid state battery technology, has completed a listing through a merger with a SPAC.

The company has completed a merger with Chardan NexTech Acquisition 2 Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), and has started trading on the Nasdaq under the DFLI ticker symbol. At the time of writing, the share price sits at US$17.38.

The transaction generated a committed capital of US$250 million in gross proceeds consisting of US$25 million in equity, a US$75 million senior secured term loan facility from Energy Impact Partners, and the post-closing availability of a $150 million Chardan Equity Facility.

Dragonfly said the transaction will accelerate the company’s mission to “…create a more sustainable, reliable smart grid through the future deployment of the Company’s proprietary and patented All-Solid-State-Battery technology and increase market penetration of its existing business”.

As Energy-Storage.news previously wrote, Dragonfly has to-date focused on selling batteries to the recreational vehicle (RV), marine and off-grid solar sectors but has long-term plans to expand in the grid-connected battery energy storage space.

It went through this strategy, how the solid state battery fit into it and the risks associated with it – including significant engineering challenges of the solid state battery technology – in a pre-listing prospectus.

Dragonfly Energy expects US$115 million in revenue in 2022, up 47%, with negative EBITDA of US$18.1 million and adjusted EBITDA of US$12.2 million. For 2023, it expects revenues to more than double to US$255.1 million and unadjusted EBITDA to become positive at US$39.1 million.

Dr. Denis Phares, Chief Executive Officer of Dragonfly said: “Becoming a public company is an important and exciting step forward for us. The proceeds from this transaction and our relationships with key partners, bring us closer to making safe, affordable energy storage a reality by facilitating the development and large-scale deployment of our All-Solid-State-Battery technology, while also helping us grow our existing core business.”

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Brandy Giannetta

Ontario Minister of Energy Todd Smith has directed the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to proceed with procuring up to 2,500 MW of new energy storage and other non-emitting resources to meet the province’s rapidly growing energy system needs. 

“Energy storage will help to enable more effective integration of the province’s generation resources while enhancing energy system resiliency and flexibility, and it can be quickly and safely deployed exactly where it can offer the greatest locational value to the grid,” says Brandy Giannetta, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association’s (CanREA) vice president of policy, regulatory and government affairs. 

With the province’s supply of critical minerals, a growing battery manufacturing sector, and companies and institutions at the forefront of energy storage research and innovation, Ontario is poised to be a leader in energy storage for many years to come. 

“As Ontario’s electricity demand continues to grow over the coming decade, we must ensure that energy storage capacity is able to charge from low-cost, non-emitting electricity,” states Giannetta. “As the lowest-cost generation technologies, new wind and solar generation will be key to meeting future supply needs affordably while protecting Ontario’s clean electricity advantage.” 

Ontario’s electricity demand is projected to increase by approximately 15% over the next decade, reaching 168 million MWh by 2032. This sustained increase is driven by strong economic and population growth, coupled with the rapid electrification of transportation and industry.

At the same time, the upcoming retirement of the Pickering nuclear plant (approximately 14% of the province’s electricity supply) means that after many years of sufficient supply and stable demand, Ontario will soon need a significant volume of new generation capacity to maintain a safe and reliable electricity system.  

Today, the Ontario electricity supply is approximately 90% non-emitting, thanks to the contributions of hydro, nuclear, wind and solar power. Maintaining this clean electricity advantage into the future will be essential, both to achieve the province’s emissions reduction objectives and to ensure that Ontario businesses remain globally competitive, and that Ontario continues to attract new investment in key sectors.  

In a 2022 survey of over 300 of Ontario’s largest energy consumers, 85% reported either having implemented or planning to implement corporate clean electricity targets.

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Cutaway of EnerVenue’s containerised energy storage system, filled with 1.2kWh metal-hydrogen ‘Vessels’. Image: EnerVenue.

A warranty covering 20,000 cycles has been launched by Enervenue, the US startup commercialising a nickel-hydrogen battery based on technology used for outer space applications.

The company, headed up by former solar PV and flow battery industry executive Jorg Heinemann, has developed a version of the space age tech, as seen on the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station, that aims to be lower cost and made with more abundant materials than lithium-ion batteries.

Each Enervenue battery is comprised of ‘Vessels’, each with 1.2kWh capacity and filled with multiple electrode stacks. These can be stacked, whether in series or parallel, and configured for anything from residential to utility-scale applications. Although it uses nickel, CEO Heinemann told this site previously that it uses a small enough amount per unit that sourcing sufficient nickel is unlikely to be a challenge.

As well as promising low-cost energy storage, the battery systems can provide between 2-12 hours storage duration, are suitable for harsh climates and are fire safe, the company has said. It also isn’t subject to degradation or capacity fade over time and use in the way that lithium batteries are subject to.

Called the Capacity Assurance, Enervenue’s new warranty provides a 20-year, 20,000-cycle extension at a guaranteed 88% capacity, which the company said is in line with the lifetime expectations of energy storage developers, especially in the crucial early payback phase of projects.

The actual expected lifetime of an Enervenue battery system is about 30 years and 30,000 cycles, over which very little maintenance is required, even in very high or low ambient temperatures and the systems do not require HVAC.

Expected lifecycles of the different types of lithium-ion battery used in battery energy storage systems (BESS) vary but is roughly in the range of 6,000 full cycles. Typical warranties for lithium-ion systems are often complex and include provisions for augmentation as degraded cells need to be replaced over time.

Perhaps the closest recent market development to the warranty launch is the insurance cover offered by specialist reinsurer Munich RE, which made US iron flow battery company ESS Inc’s technology its first customer.

That was described as the world’s first long-term insurance plan for battery performance when it launched in 2019, offering a 10-year warranty backstop.

Meanwhile, Enervenue appears to have made big strides in commercialisation since the company emerged from stealth mode in 2020.

In July, CEO Heinemann told this site the company was ready to go into volume production and had by that stage already booked 5GWh of customer orders. In September that was followed up with a three-year, 250MWh supply deal with developer Green Energy Renewable Solutions.

Read ‘We think we can beat lithium-ion’: Enervenue bids for battery storage supremacy, our interview with EnerVenue CEO Jorg Heinemann from July, here.

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Panellists discussing the topic at ‘The Future Of V2G; Can It Provide Long Term Grid Capacity As Scale?’ session as last week’s EV World Congress. Image: Molly Lempriere/Solar Media.

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) is now a proven technology but there is still plenty of work left to do for it to scale in the consumer vehicle sector.

Panellists discussed the topic in the ‘The Future Of V2G; Can It Provide Long Term Grid Capacity As Scale?’ session last week (5 October) at the EV World Congress, a two-day event put on by Energy-Storage.news’ parent company Solar Media. The discussion was UK-focused but the challenges and barriers to adoption remain true across international markets.

“We’ve proven the technology works and it is now very easy to buy bidirectional chargers for your EV,” said Josey Wardle, innovation lead EV charging and V2G at Innovate UK. Rob Mangan, senior policy advisor at BEIS (Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) agreed but said the price needed to come down further.

John Murray, head of EVs for research firm Delta-EE, added that although the payback on the upfront capital cost was still very long, providing a back-of-the-envelope calculation of eight years. A future where people buy EVs with the surrounding infrastructure needed for V2G, with financing as available as it is today for the car, would help solve this.

And even when it comes to smart charging, which could be seen as a precursor to V2G, only a small number of people do it, said William Goldsmith, head of grid and data services at smart charging app company Ev.Energy.

“Today it’s maybe only 5-10% of EV owners,” he said. But studies have shown that in the long-term that number should reach 90% and that eventually, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) could make peak demand from EV charging on the grid a net negative. I.e., when demand for charging EVs is highest, the number of EV batteries providing power to the grid would still outweigh this.

Murray added that V2G’s impact on an EVs battery life was something that customers raise concerns about and that more needed to be done communicating the minimal impact it would have on the battery. Working with car manufacturers to ensure battery warranties were still valid when participating in V2G programmes was particularly important.

BEIS’ Mangan added that another thing vehicle OEMs could do and are doing is familiarising customers with V2G technology by implementing similar, simpler things like vehicle-to-load (V2L), whereby an EV battery charges a single appliance, like a laptop or fridge. “A lot of that hardware can be seen as a stepping stone on the way to V2G/X,” he said.

Thalia Skoufa, transport practice manager at the non-profit innovation centre Energy Systems Catapult, said locations where fleet downtime is predictable (airports, fleet bases etc) held good potential for V2G, but it was hard to assess exactly how until the market was more developed.

Others agreed that fleets of vehicles would see adoption quicker than the consumer space, because of all the challenges discussed during the session.

The original version of this story first appeared in Current±’s rolling coverage of day one of the EV World Congress.

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