Invinity’s vanadium flow battery tech at the Energy Superhub Oxford. Image: Invinity Energy Systems.

High cost and material availability are the main non-technical barriers to energy storage deployment at the scale needed, according to a new report from MIT.

The report, ‘Battery deployment in the U.S. faces non-technical barriers’, explored why this is and what steps can and are being taken by the industry to mitigate them and ensure enough energy storage assets are deployed.

Unlike other battery markets like consumer electronics or EVs, grid-scale applications require much lower cost solutions to compete with incumbent, fossil fuel-generating assets, author Kara E. Rodby wrote.

Although lithium-ion battery cells have fallen enough in cost over the last three decades to be viable for such applications, new battery technologies like vanadium redox flow batteries (VFRBs) or metal air batteries (MABs) need to be deployed in greater numbers to achieve long-term deployment goals.

Yet, while these newer technologies possess long-term cost benefits over lithium-ion thanks to things like an open architecture (both) or a decoupling of the power and energy components (VRFBs), up-front cost has remained prohibitively high.

Part of this is due to a lack of demand for long-duration energy storage solutions from the grid, Rodby wrote. Another is the fact that the technologies are only really economically viable for large, grid-scale applications and so have not benefitted from a ‘beachhead market’ like EVs to drive down costs.

This means it is unclear if the private sector alone can drive down costs and improve performance enough for when demand does arrive, and government intervention may prove essential in getting there. The Long Duration Energy Storage Council recently set out a roadmap for what governments can do, and how long they may need to do it for.

One thing that (currently) small long-duration energy storage companies could do is use contract manufacturing from companies that already make similar products at scale, rather than source and build solutions themselves, as this would be cheaper. The largest pure-play lithium ion battery energy storage system (BESS) integrators Fluence and Powin do this.

And even if you can’t outsource your entire production process, centralised parts of the industry could lead to cost reductions. For example, if all VRFB, MAB, fuel cell and electrolyser companies sourced their stainless steel end plates, Teflon gaskets, graphite bipolar plates and current collectors (which all use) from one third party, economies of scale could be realised, although concern around intellectual property is a barrier to this solution.

The VRFB industry is exploring other cost reduction initiatives including vertical integration into system deployment by primary vanadium suppliers like Largo Incorporated, Bushveld Minerals and new incumbents too. Another solution is to lease electrolyte to project owners instead of selling it, which removes some of the upfront capital cost. Avalon, which became Invinity Energy Systems through a merger, started this business model.

A solution to the shortage of critical materials, the other of the report’s non-technical barriers to energy storage deployment, is to pivot to chemistries which require less expensive and rare materials. But, it may be necessary to deploy solutions that are ready now, regardless of cost, to help accelerate the deployment of new chemistries which will use the same supply chains.

Read the full report from MIT here.

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Diagram explaining VFlowTech’s current pilot project in South Korea integrating VRFBs with electric vehicle charging. Image: VFlowTech.

VFlowTech, a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) manufacturer based in Singapore, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with global liquid storage logistics group Advario.

The potential partnership would seek opportunities to deploy VFlowTech’s systems at Advario terminal facilities, leveraging Advario’s land and renewable energy infrastructure like rooftop solar PV systems for projects.

Advario would also test the technology out and help select appropriate storage tanks for the batteries’ electrolyte, leveraging its own experience in storage infrastructure and operating systems.

VFlowTech was partly spun out of Singapore’s Nanyang Technical University, holding IP developed by the academic institution and incubated by its accelerator programme. Its modular flow batteries are designed to be durable over a 25-year lifetime and offer cost-effective long-duration energy storage (LDES).

“We are delighted to partner with Advario on this important initiative to expand flow batteries for terminal usage. Advario brings great experience of handling chemicals, which is one of the key requirements to scale flow batteries,” VFlowTech co-founder and CEO Dr Avishek Kumar said.

Kumar noted that the company’s VRFB technology has been selected among three projects for test deployment on Singapore’s Jurong Island, which is home to much of the nation state’s industrial infrastructure and is being positioned as an energy and industrial park. Singaporean infrastructure group Sembcorp recently said it plans to build 200MW of lithium-ion battery storage on Jurong Island.

In November 2021, Energy-Storage.news reported that VFlowTech’s PowerCube VRFB technology is being trialled for use in combination with electric vehicle (EV) charging at existing gas station sites in South Korea. In that pilot project, a 150kW/500kWh system will support intelligent DC fast-charging infrastructure. VFlowTech is partnering with Seoul National University of Science and Technology (SeoulTech) and Korean energy tech group CompanyWE Inc on that project.

VFlowTech is targeting the microgrid, commercial and industrial (C&I) and utility-scale market segments.

The company is billed as Southeast Asia’s only vanadium flow battery maker, but interest in flow batteries from a customer and investor perspective has been expressed in the region recently.

Energy-Storage.news reported last week that Malaysian company Reservoir Link had signed an MoU with an unnamed US flow battery provider – thought to be ESS Inc due to the use of a proprietary iron electrolyte developed by the Oregon-headquartered company referred to in MoU documents – for the deployment of >200MW of systems for projects in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia.

In July last year, Thai renewable energy group BCPG committed to make a US$24 million investment in vanadium flow battery company VRB Energy. VRB is headquartered in Canada and owned by minerals exploration company Ivanhoe Electric. The company is currently involved in one of the world’s largest flow battery projects, a 100MW/500MWh demonstration system in Hubei Province, China.

Elsewhere, major European energy groups Equinor and Uniper committed to investment in and a pilot project for flow battery technologies in the past couple of weeks. Meanwhile a specialist energy industry lawyer told Energy-Storage.news that in the US, the Inflation Reduction Act’s incentive programmes for energy storage, and standalone energy storage projects, could benefit flow batteries.

Morten Lund, a partner at law firm Stoel Rives, said the discount on project capital expenditure offered by the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) could see utilities and investors overlooking some of the cost limitations of flow batteries in favour of their various technical advantages.

In June, analysis group Guidehouse said that it expected demand for vanadium redox flow batteries to rise significantly in the next decade, equalling nearly 33GWh a year of deployments by 2031.

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Energy Renaissance claimed its lithium battery solutions are designed and built with deployment in the heat and humidity of Australia and much of the wider Asia-Pacific region in mind. Image: Energy Renaissance.

Pilot production has been established by an Australian company aiming to manufacture lithium-ion battery storage solutions specifically designed for hot climates.

Energy Renaissance wants to manufacture batteries and battery systems for stationary storage and transport applications from a gigafactory site in Hunter, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The company wants to serve markets in its home country as well as export to Asia.

In collaboration with the Australian national science agency CSIRO, Energy Renaissance has developed a proprietary plug and play battery solution based on prismatic format cells called superPack and superRack.

Coupled with a CSIRO-developed battery management system (BMS), they form superStorage, Energy Renaissance’s battery energy storage system (BESS), which it is claimed will change the way batteries are deployed in hotter and humid countries.

Another Australian government-established group, the non-profit Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) announced last week that ‘Apollo,’ a pilot production plant with up to 4MWh monthly battery manufacturing capacity, has gone online in the Hunter region village of Tomago.

From there, Energy Renaissance wants to prove out the technology and use Apollo’s pilot production as a step towards scale-up and the eventual development and construction of Renaissance One, which would initially have 300MWh annual production capacity and scale up to 5.3GWh.

Energy-Storage.news first covered the company back in 2017, when Energy Renaissance said it planned to build Renaissance One in Australia’s Northern Territory, with 1GWh annual production capacity.

However, when we picked back up the thread three years later in 2020, Hunter in NSW had been selected instead. Energy Renaissance managing director Mark Chilcote said at the time that reasons included the abundance of solar energy in Hunter as well as other natural resources and availability of skilled workers.

‘92% domestic content’

Australia has a lot of the raw materials used in the production of batteries but currently either exports them unprocessed, mostly to China, or has left them in the ground. AMGC pointed out that Energy Renaissance products could be built with 92% of their content sourced domestically in Australia.

AMGC also said that with the integration of CSIRO’s Renaissance BMS, the company’s products monitor, benchmark and self-diagnose battery performance, although human intervention is also possible.

Energy Renaissance claimed its superStorage design amplifies and expands heat mitigation at systems level. At larger configurations it can house up to 1.8MWh of storage capacity per 20ft enclosure, the company said.

Over the first five years of operation Renaissance One could generate around AU$97.5 million (US$66.21 million) revenues, creating more than 700 jobs even at its initial 300MWh yearly production capacity.

Very large volumes of lithium battery manufacturing capacity are coming online globally in the next few years, particularly in China and in Europe. While most of those volumes are expected to serve the transport industry, factories producing cells and systems for both EVs and BESS or dedicated to BESS are rarer.

China is however expected to bring online more than 200GWh annual production of cells specifically for BESS by 2025, according to market intelligence group Clean Energy Associates. What is claimed to be the first “pure homegrown” battery gigafactory in the US recently came online in Upstate New York, through iM3NY, serving both EV and BESS sectors. Currently at the quality assurance stage, that project could eventually ramp up to 38GWh annual production.

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U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo (Photo: Rodney Choice/AP Images for US Census)

President Biden has unveiled the 21 winners of the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. Funded by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan and administered by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), the regional economic development competition provides each award winner funding to rebuild regional economies, promote inclusive and equitable recovery, and create thousands of good-paying jobs in industries of the future such as clean energy, next-generation manufacturing and biotechnology.

Awardees span 24 states and will receive between $25 million and $65 million to execute transformational projects and revitalize local industries. Projects include developing workforce training programs and connecting workers to jobs; providing support to family-owned manufacturers to transition from traditional automotives to electric vehicles; establishing a digital finance sector to support small businesses in Tribal communities; providing digital resources to small farms; renovating and repurposing industrial buildings for new businesses; rebuilding pharmaceutical supply chains in the U.S. to lower drug costs; building advanced manufacturing centers for testing and training; deploying solar energy on former coal land; and more. Additionally, private sector companies and local organizations are investing an additional $300 million in these local projects.

“Since day one, President Biden has been laser-focused on ensuring that economic opportunity is delivered to all Americans, especially communities that have grappled with decades of disinvestment or suffered economic distress exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic,” states U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “As we invest and grow critical industries in the U.S., we want to create industry hubs in diverse communities across the country. These grants will provide critical and historic funding directly to community coalitions to invest in new infrastructure, research and development, and workforce development programs while creating good-paying jobs, supporting workers, and prioritizing equity.”

Equity was a key consideration for project finalists, with a focus on rural, Tribal and coal communities, as well as communities facing high and persistent poverty. Funding awards include $87 million to two primarily Tribal coalitions and, as part of EDA’s $300 million Coal Community Commitment, over $150 million for projects serving energy communities impacted by the declining use of fossil fuels. These grants will support 236 rural counties, 136 persistent poverty counties and 121 counties that include Tribal areas.

Project winners brought together employers, labor unions and worker organizations, state and local governments, institutions of higher education, and community-based organizations for their applications and will work together on implementing projects. With this funding, projects will create jobs directly in their community that offer supporting wages and career stability. Over $270 million of the funding will be allocated to develop workforce training and development programs and place workers in jobs.

“EDA is proud to ignite the bold visions of these 21 regional coalitions to craft ambitious and regionally driven plans to rebuild their communities,” says Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Y. Castillo. “EDA asked communities directly what they needed to attract industry and workers to their region, and these grants are a direct response to their needs. Not only will the projects offer clear pathways to good jobs and competitive wages, but they will ensure that economic-based prosperity reaches all pockets of this country.”

The Build Back Better Regional Challenge winners include The State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton (New York) with $63.7 million for New Energy New York to advance energy storage technology.

The 21 BBBRC winners were chosen from 60 EDA-designated finalists that each received approximately $500,000 in funding and technical assistance to continue developing their cluster strategies. The funding for each coalition is approximate, with awards to be signed later in September. Those 60 finalists were chosen from a Phase 1 applicant pool of 529 applications, which exemplifies the tremendous demand for transformational regional economic development approaches. EDA will continue to support all 60 finalists with the creation of a community of practice that will provide technical support, foster connectedness with peer regions, and build capacity.

The Build Back Better Regional Challenge is one of EDA’s many programs aimed at building strong regional economies and supporting community-led economic development. EDA was allocated $3 billion in supplemental funding under the American Rescue Plan to assist communities nationwide in their efforts to build back better by accelerating economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and building local economies that will be resilient to future economic shocks.

As a part of this funding, EDA allocated $300 million through a Coal Communities Commitment to support coal communities in pandemic recovery and help them create new jobs and opportunities, including through the creation or expansion of a new industry sector. Specifically, EDA has dedicated $100 million of its Build Back Better Regional Challenge funds and $200 million of its Economic Adjustment Assistance funds to directly support coal communities. Grantees for EDA’s full suite of American Rescue Plan programs will be awarded on a rolling basis through September 30, 2022.

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William J. (John) Berger

Sunnova Energy International Inc., an energy-as-a-service (EaaS) provider, has applied to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to develop a solar+storage-focused “micro-utility” in California. Sunnova formed a wholly owned subsidiary called Sunnova Community Microgrids California LLC (SCMC) to own and operate EaaS offerings in new communities including energy generation, storage and distribution infrastructure.

SCMC seeks to develop largely self-sustaining micro-utilities by equipping new home communities with solar and storage to provide consumers with a better energy service that allows them to live in a more resilient home and community with latest-generation energy infrastructure. SCMC will focus on newly constructed homes, allowing the company to work with developers to design and implement distributed solar-powered microgrids for communities that will benefit from improved sustainability and clean, resilient and reliable power​. These communities will be known as Sunnova Adaptive Communities.

“Community microgrids are the future as they offer the unique ability to share excess electricity, putting the power in the hands of homeowners and significantly enhancing the resiliency of communities,” says William J. (John) Berger, founder and CEO of Sunnova. “Sunnova is breaking new ground by expanding its distributed energy service platform from homes to whole communities. We see a future where communities, neighborhoods, and businesses can operate independently from the legacy grid with sustainable energy sources that provide uninterrupted power.”

“We believe microgrids address a strong need in the market for more robust energy solutions and better connectivity,” adds Berger. “The Sunnova Adaptive Community will provide consumers with the ability to produce, share, and deliver power when it’s needed most. SCMC’s application highlights the relief that the existing transmission and distribution system will experience given that most of the power that will be consumed by these communities will be generated locally from renewable resources. We hope the CPUC moves expeditiously to approve our application so that we can begin serving new communities.”

SCMC took formal steps before the CPUC to qualify as a “micro-utility” and to request a certificate to construct and operate microgrids under Section 2780 and Section 1001, respectively, of the California Public Utilities Code. By submitting its application to the CPUC, SCMC seeks to be the first solar and storage “micro-utility” company in California to be certificated to own and operate nanogrids (behind the meter) and community assets, including the distribution infrastructure (front of the meter), as part of integrated microgrid communities. SCMC community assets will include complete distribution infrastructure and energy assets including solar, battery storage and emergency generation.

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A 2021 visit to Eos Energy Enterprises’ facility from US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. Image: Eos via Twitter.

Another edition of our news in brief from around the world in energy storage, this time featuring Generac Grid Services, Eos Energy Enterprises and Malta Inc.

Generac Grid Services chosen by Dominion Energy Virginia

The business division set up by Generac to tap the virtual power plant (VPP) market has won a contract with utility Dominion Energy Virginia.

Generac Grid Services’ Concerto software platform has been selected as the distributed energy resources management (DERMS) control solution for Dominion Energy Virginia’s programmes of aggregating energy resources both behind-the-meter and in front-of-the-meter to provide services to the grid.

Generac Grid Services was launched after US generator and portable power solutions company Generac acquired distributed energy resources (DER) aggregation software provider Enbala. Generac also has its own range of battery storage systems.

Concerto will enable Dominion Energy Virginia to directly control DERs, including home battery and solar systems, electric vehicle (EV) charge units, smart thermostats and other customer-sited devices to serve as capacity resources. The utility will also use it to manage interaction of large-scale solar and storage with the grid.

The state of Virginia is targeting 100% renewable and emissions-free energy by 2045, in the process aiming for 3.1GW of energy storage by 2035 along the way – one of the US’ most ambitious targets – with Dominion Energy tasked with deploying or procuring a portion of that storage as one of Virginia’s major load-serving entities.

At the same time, at federal level, US regulator FERC’s FERC Order 2222 directs grid and market operators to allow DERs to participate in wholesale markets. That includes PJM Interconnection, the multi-state regional transmission organisation (RTO) that Dominion Energy Virginia wants to play aggregated DERs capacity into.  

In August, Generac Grid Services signed a five-year contract with utility Arizona Public Service (APS) to provide capacity from energy stored in residential and commercial battery storage systems to the grid.

Eos’ zinc battery tech at industrial microgrid in California

An industrial microgrid has been inaugurated in Orange County, California, using 2MWh of zinc-based battery storage from Eos Energy Enterprises.

Microgrid developer Verdant Microgrid announced completion of the project yesterday at the site of customer ThermalVac Technologies’ metals processing and finishing facility.

The energy storage technology will allow ThermalVac to reduce its draw of power from the grid, particularly at peak times, in turn reducing a large portion of the Demand Charges that make up from roughly 25% to as much as 50% of commercial electricity bills in the US.

Four containerised Eos Znyth-brand aqueous zinc energy storage batteries adding up to 500kW of output are installed, each with four-hour storage duration.

Eos’ battery tech works by plating and replating zinc inside the cathode and the company claims that means abundant, low-cost materials that don’t include conflict minerals. The tech is aimed at markets for long-duration applications requiring between 4-12 hours storage and discharge.

Verdant noted that the Eos batteries were also eligible for California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) rebate incentive.

“The customer benefits from advanced battery technology through reduced demand charges on their site, which also provides several hours of resiliency in case of a power outage,” Verdant CEO Robert Babcock said.

“Eos’ batteries are made in America, are fully recyclable, non-flammable and provide a wide range of operating parameters that allows us to match the complicated customer load profile to minimise their demand charges.”

Eos claimed a few weeks ago in reporting its quarterly financial results that it had an order backlog as of that time worth US$457.3 million, having booked orders worth US$257.5 million during Q2 2022.

Energy-Storage.news reported this week on the completion of another industrial microgrid using non-lithium battery technology, with ESS Inc’s iron flow battery system installed at a tech waste handling facility in Pennsylvania.

DOE-backed prototype of Malta Inc’s ‘pumped heat’ storage tech

A laboratory-scale novel thermal ‘pumped heat’ energy storage system has been assembled and commissioned in a project supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE).

The system is a prototype of technology designed by Malta Inc, converting electricity into heat and storing it in molten salt, simultaneously running off cold energy which is stored in a liquid medium.

When discharging, the hot and cold energy are converted back into electricity using a heat engine powered by the temperature difference.

Applied science and tech R&D non-profit Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) has put together the lab-scale system, in a project supported with a US$2.6 million grant from ARPA-E, one of the DOE’s main centres for advancing innovation in energy.

Malta Inc’s technology, which the company calls Pumped Heat Energy Storage, could potentially be scaled up to very large scale >100MW projects with anywhere from eight hours to eight days of storage duration. The company has already attracted investment attention from the likes of Facebook founder Dustin Moskovitz, who participated in a 2021 Series B funding round worth US$50 million.

“SwRI is a leader in advanced power systems and has pursued extensive PHES research. With the potential for high system performance and its ability to be built anywhere, PHES is an extraordinarily promising energy storage technology,” SwRI machinery dept R&D director Tim Allison said.

Malta Inc believes its technology can become a low-cost solution to replacing the role of fossil fuel peaker plants at scale around the world. The next step in the SwRI pilot project will be to demonstrate the system’s operation, verify control system strategies for how to use it and to validate data to see if it does measure up to the technology provider’s expectations.

Utility Duke Energy is also currently evaluating the Malta technology, again with funding support from the DOE.

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Hydrostor’s proposed 500MW/4,000MWh Energy Storage Center in California. Image: Hydrostor.

Advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) solution provider Hydrostor has chosen Kiewit to provide engineering and design studies for its 500MW Willow Rock Energy Storage Center in California, US.

The companies announced last week (25 August) that they have entered into an agreement to advance Front-End Engineering and Design studies for the project. I is set to be an eight-hour system, providing up to 4,000MWh of energy to the LADWP and CAISO grids, and is targeting operational status by 2028.

“Hydrostor continues to reach important milestones at Willow Rock, and we look forward to working with the world-class engineering and construction teams at Kiewit to advance this critical clean energy project. Our global teams are paving the way towards achieving aggressive net-zero goals,” said Curtis VanWalleghem, Hydrostor CEO.

The Canada-based company currently has one commercially operating 2.2MW/10MWh+ system which in Ontario, online since 2019, but claims 1.1GW/8.7GWh of projects are underway, in late-stage development, in Australia and California.

Hydrostor is waiting to hear from the California Energy Commission (CEC) whether Willow Rock, which was previously given the project name Gem Energy Storage Center, will be successful in an Application for Certification (AFC) which would register the asset as a licensed electricity generator.

Its solution turns electricity into compressed air which is then stored in an isobaric underground cavern while also storing the heat generated during the compression process. To discharge, hydrostatic pressure forces air to the surface where it is recombined with the stored heat energy and expanded through a turbine to generate electricity.

Hydrostor says the storing of both air and heat is what gives it a better round-trip efficiency than other compressed air solutions.

The company has raised US$275 million in 2022; US$250 million from Goldman Sachs in January followed by another US$25 million from a Canadian pension fund in April.

In an in-depth interview series with Energy-Storage.news shortly after the Goldman Sachs investment was announced, Hydrostor CEO Curtis VanWalleghem further explained the company’s value proposition and business model, as well as giving updates on its proposed projects in Australia and California.

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One of Naturgy’s solar PV plants in Spain. Image: Naturgy.

Naturgy, a multinational energy company headquartered in Spain, has bought a large-scale hybrid solar-plus-storage project in development in Australia.

Global Power Generation, a joint venture (JV) company started by Naturgy and the Kuwait Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund in a 75:25 ownership split, has acquired the Cunderdin project from developer Sun Bred Power (SBP). Financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Located in Western Australia, near the town of the same name, Cunderdin will combine 125MWdc(100MWac) of solar PV generation with 55MW/220MWh of battery energy storage system (BESS) technology.

Connected to the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) electricity grid, it looks set to be a relatively rare early example of a large-scale hybrid plant with four hours of storage duration – most utility-scale BESS projects in the country to date have been one hour’ duration or less, with a more recent wave of 1.5 to 2 hour duration systems commissioned or in development.

The largest BESS project in Western Australia so far is NHOA’s 100MW/200MWh standalone lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery project in Kwinana, south of Perth. NHOA was awarded an EPC contract by state utility company Synergy and construction began a few weeks ago. Meanwhile the state government of Western Australia plans to deploy 1,100MW of new energy storage projects as part of a AU$3.8 billion (US$2.6 billion) clean energy infrastructure package.

Cunderdin marks Naturgy’s first entry into Australia’s solar PV market, although through Global Power Generation the company already has a portfolio of wind projects in the country, including 276MW of installed capacity in operation, a 109MW wind project coupled with a 10MW/20MWh battery system and 630MW more projects in development supported by power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Naturgy aims to invest €14 billion (US$13.97 billion) during the 2021-2025 timeframe under a long-term strategic plan. Through that, it wants to bring its global renewable energy asset portfolio to 14GW in 2025 from 5.2GW today, representing about two-thirds of the company’s investment over that time. Within Australia, the company wants to have 2.2GW of assets in operation by then.

The Cunderdin hybrid project will participate in the Wholesale Energy Market for Western Australia overseen by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). The SWIS is not connected to Australia’s other major grid networks and the battery system will enable the solar plant to support the wholesale market during peak demand periods.

The choice to go DC-coupled increases efficiency of the system by reducing conversion losses, as well as reducing the complexity and equipment cost of the whole system. BESS supplier has been selected as Sungrow, the Chinese inverter manufacturer which has been also integrating and manufacturing battery storage for several years.

Construction is scheduled to begin later this year, with the start of commercial operation targeted for the first quarter of 2024.

Naturgy is active in 20 countries, with end-to-end involvement in the natural gas value chain as well as its interests in renewables. It won 417MW of PV capacity in government auctions held in Spain during 2021, while the company entered the US renewable energy market for the first time last year as well, acquiring solar and energy storage developer Hamel Renewables.

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Construction at the recently completed 900MW/20,000MWh Nant de Drance pumped storage plant in Switzerland. Image: Alpiq.

Five large-scale pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) projects have received a funding boost worth a total AU$44.84 million (US$30.46 million) from the government of New South Wales, Australia.

State treasurer Matt Kean visited an existing pumped storage facility this morning, where the announcement was made. The money will be disbursed through the NSW government’s Pumped Hydro Recoverable Grants Program, which provides grants to developers for early-stage, pre-investment feasibility studies.

“Thrilled to be at Bendeela Pumping & Power Station in Kangaroo Valley to announce $45 million to accelerate pumped hydro across the state,” Kean tweeted earlier today.

“It will deliver nearly 2 GW of electricity for NSW, helping deliver our citizens some of the cheapest and most reliable energy in the world.”

The scheme was launched in recognition that PHES is an effective form of long-duration energy storage (LDES) but comes with lengthy lead times comprising a complex development process expected to take about four years and then another four years for procurement and construction.

As such, required operational start dates for any projects is set for 31 December 2029, with grants recoverable on the achievement of financial close.

The state wants to use the programme to put in place a pipeline of up to 3GW of feasible PHES projects. These would bid for long-term energy service (LTES) agreements under legislation introduced last year called the Electricity Infrastructure Investment Safeguard, and projects would be sited within the NSW region of the National Electricity Market (NEM).

Projects with minimum 30MW output were eligible, offering at least eight hours’ storage duration, although the government expressed a preference for projects of >12 hours. Recipients would be expected to match or better the government funding contribution.

The five awarded projects, totaling 1.75GW are listed below, with further grant awards expected to be made in the coming months.

Project nameApplicantStage of developmentCapacity (MW)Duration (hours)Lake Lyell PHESEnergyAustralia DevelopmentFeasibility3358Oven Mountain PHESOMPSFeasibility60012Shoalhaven Hydro ExpansionOrigin EnergyProcurement23524Central West Pumped HydroATCO Australia Pumped HydroFeasibility3258Muswellbrook Pumped Hydro Muswellbrook Pumped Hydro (AGL and Idemitsu JV)Feasibility2508

Elsewhere in Australia, the government of Queensland also said in June that it is funding feasibility studies for at least two new PHES projects, allocating AU$48 million. Queensland is also home to what will be Australia’s first new pumped hydro plant since the mid-1980s, the 250MW/2,000MWh Kidston Stage 2 Pumped Hydro plant which is currently under construction through developer Genex Power.

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Derek Noble

Tigo Energy Inc., a Flex MLPE (module level power electronics) supplier, has named Derek Noble as the company’s new senior vice president of North America sales. He will lead the North American sales and business development teams; fortify the go-to-market strategy across the residential, commercial and industrial segments; and support the full lineup of Tigo products, from optimization to residential solar-plus-storage. Noble will be directly responsible for sales growth and continued improvement of the Tigo customer experience in North America.

“Derek is exactly the type of leader Tigo needs to take us through our current growth stage with our North American customer base, and I am delighted to welcome him to the team,” says Zvi Alon, chairman and CEO of Tigo Energy. “Derek will build on the strength of our portfolio of MLPE products for the commercial and industrial solar markets and use his vast experience and relationships in the residential market to provide our installers with the residential solar-plus-storage solutions and services they need.”

Noble began his career with Stanley Black and Decker and spent the first 10 years of his career at construction supply companies before moving to the solar industry. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of channel sales at Sunrun. Before Sunrun, Noble served as senior national sales director at the SunPower Corp. overseeing the U.S.-based commercial dealer channel.

“The North American solar markets are in a period of incredible growth, and Tigo is uniquely positioned to serve the entire ecosystem of distributors, system owners, EPCs, and installers,” states Noble. “Whether it’s Tigo’s open-system MLPE solution or a single all-in-one residential solar-plus-storage solution, this company has a tremendous offering in the solar industry. I look forward to working with my new business development team, the Tigo management team, the customers I have known for years, and the many new customers now coming on board.”

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