EVs and ESS use different types of battery but ultimately compete for many of the same raw materials. Image: Sigma Lithium.

The construction of battery cell factories catering specifically for stationary energy storage means competition for supply with the electric vehicle (EV) sector will cool off in the next couple of years.

That’s according to Cormac O’Laire, senior manager of market intelligence at Clean Energy Associates (CEA), who said a recent uptick in energy storage system (ESS) battery factories in China will ease the current situation.

EVs are on the rise around the world, with even the US now at a 5% rate of adoption for new car sales. Many governments are encouraging or mandating the phaseout of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and the growth in demand means battery suppliers often prioritise higher volume long-term contracts with the automotive industry over ESS sector customers.

However, with renewable energy also growing rapidly around the world signaling a need for more stationary storage on the grid, CEA has tracked plans for Chinese manufacturers to add more than 200GWh of annual ESS-specific battery production capacity.

This is likely to be enough to meet global demand in 2025, O’Laire said, and competition between the EV and ESS sectors for cell supply is expected to ease from 2024 onwards.

There is also about 5 million tonnes of LFP cathode active materials (CAM) production projected to come onstream in China by 2025, equivalent to more than 2TWh, which could far exceed expected demand. There is even a possibility that LFP could be a surplus market by 2024, according to CEA research.

That could alleviate current supply issues experienced by the sector, such as unfulfilled or cancelled supply agreements.

There are also various ESS-specific battery cell production plans progressing in Europe and the US, but to a much lesser extent, and not yet enough to meet demand expected even in the next three years.

After an ESS fire at a site in Beijing, China has banned the use of NMC cells in stationary grid-scale storage installations – as well as sodium-sulfur (NAS) batteries.

That decision will positively impact stationary storage manufacturing scale, because with prismatic format LFP cells now the de facto technology of choice for lithium-ion grid ESS, suppliers to the Chinese market “can focus on one format and single cathode chemistry”.  

“For the international market, I anticipate China will predominantly export LFP based battery energy storage systems (BESS) moving forward,” O’Laire said, although CEA did not anticipate other countries following China’s lead and banning NMC, “unless it’s determined NMC is inherently dangerous for BESS applications”.

‘Woefully underfunded’ upstream industry

Cormac O’Laire pointed out that the technical needs of EV and grid storage applications are quite different. Even with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry batteries, which are used by manufacturers and integrators in both sectors, the cathode active materials (CAM) inside them differ in material performance, cell capacity and charge/discharge rate as well as electrolyte formation.

As such, cells “tend not to be used interchangeably,” the CEA analyst said, but ultimately both industry segments are competing for the same raw materials, particularly lithium carbonate equivalent, which represents a higher proportion of an LFP battery’s bill of materials than in higher power cell types such as nickel manganese cobalt (NMC).

The problem is that investment in battery raw materials mining projects is “woefully underfunded,” and CEA found that at current rates, only about US$5 billion will be invested in that area worldwide in 2022.

That compares very unfavourably to a projected need for US$15 billion lithium mining investment per annum required that O’Laire quoted from research by Battery Materials Review’s Matt Fernley to meet need from the EV sector alone.

CEA does think it likely that non-lithium battery technologies will be of growing interest for the BESS industry. Driven by high raw materials prices and limited availability, as well as other factors like safety concerns and changing technical requirements for longer-duration, more rugged energy storage systems, the industry is considering alternative technologies such as sodium-ion (Na-ion), flow batteries, NAS and others.

In the shorter term, O’Laire highlights that prices stabilised for some key battery metals during the second quarter of the year, and that big price spikes of the type seen in 2021 and earlier in 2022 for lithium, cobalt and nickel are unlikely for the time being. Lithium prices right now are relatively flat, although continuing supply-demand imbalances might drive prices up again towards the end of this year and into Q1 2023.  

Cormac O’Laire is among contributors to an article on mitigating supply-demand mismatches in the battery storage industry, to be published in the journal PV Tech Power (Vol.32), for publication in September. Subscribe and access forthcoming and previous editions of PV Tech Power here.

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A sonnen home energy storage system. Image: Sonnen.

German home energy storage and virtual power plant (VPP) company sonnen and solar contractor ES Solar are expanding a Utah and Idaho VPP programme to include up to 35MWh of residential batteries by the end of the year.

The Wattsmart programme from utility Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) was approved by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission in April this year. The programme gives home battery owners the option to give RMP some control of the battery system to support the grid, in exchange for an upfront incentive and ongoing bill credits.

RMP has direct control over the batteries enrolled and can dispatch it on demand to meet grid conditions with daily solar time shifting and load curtailment, as well as frequency response services and directed solar grid injection when the grid needs power the most.

ES Solar expects to bring up to 35MWh of grid-interactive battery capacity online in 2022 via the Wattsmart programme. The company said that sonnen energy storage sales are reaching over 6MWh a month, thanks to the programme.

RMP has in recent years ended its solar net metering subsidy scheme to shift focus towards a model of home solar-plus-storage with the Wattsmart programme. The model, it claimed, is helping build the largest network of utility dispatched smart residential batteries in the US. ES Solar was the first contractor in Utah to deploy the model.

ES Solar said it has a 98% smart, utility-controlled battery attachment rate on new solar PV sales as part of the Wattsmart programme, with over 2,000 batteries enrolled already. It is on track to reach an estimated 1,500 additional customers by the end of 2022 and more than 5,000 in 2023. It is mainly targeting existing solar owners to retrofit batteries.

ES Solar team is the first contractor to have access to sonnen’s newest technology, the stackable sonnenCore+ System, which ES launched in July 2022.

Blake Richetta, Chairman and CEO at sonnen, commented: “As Rocky Mountain Power’s battery programme grows, ES Solar is succeeding in overcoming the complex concepts and challenges associated with effectively integrating residential solar-plus-storage into the broader energy system.”

“As this radical model expands into thousands of new homes, so does the use of batteries for the betterment of individuals, society and the environment, which is the ultimate purpose of a solar battery.”

The programme is one of several high-profile VPP projects to be making headways in the US market.

Last week, California utility PG&E’s CEO tweeted a significant update about a VPP programme it launched with Tesla in July, covered by Energy-Storage.news. Patti Poppe said that nearly 2,500 PG&E customers delivered up to 16.5MW of solar power to the grid as the system was activated.

Yesterday’s #FlexAlert saw the first activation of the @PGE4Me + @Tesla Virtual Power Plant; and the world’s largest distributed battery sure did put on a show! Nearly 2,500 PG&E customers delivered up to 16.5 MW of clean solar power when it was needed most! #VPP https://t.co/9JOQ1VBVOk— Patti Poppe (@poppepk) August 19, 2022

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Manish Nayar

OYA Solar has rebranded to OYA Renewables, reflecting OYA Renewable’s broadening scope and scale as an energy transition solutions platform. With a track record as a solar developer, OYA has developed over 1,440 MWDC and has a pipeline of 6 GW of utility-scale, distributed, and community solar projects across North America. OYA anticipates placing an additional 1 GW in operation and reaching 15 GW in our pipeline by 2026.

“Our rebranding is both an affirmation of what we have accomplished to date and what we are firmly focused on achieving in the near future,” says Manish Nayar, founder and chairman of OYA Renewables. “As OYA Renewables continues to execute against its strategy of leading the renewable energy transition in North America, we expect to integrate other renewable energy solutions and expand our portfolio to include other clean technologies. Most corporations, municipalities and other organizations now urgently recognize the need to accelerate their path to net zero and are increasingly looking for a partner with the capabilities to support all their renewable energy objectives.

“At OYA, we are doing just that,” continues Manish. “Whether it is through electric vehicle charging solutions, developing solar energy storage, building large-scale solar, or providing access to clean energy for underserved communities, we are deepening our footprint in the renewable energy industry.”

OYA also has a pipeline of over 6 GW across 14 states.

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AMTE already assembles battery cells in Thurso, Scotland, but aims to build a 0.5GWh facility dubbed the ‘Megafactory’ in Dundee (also Scotland). Image: AMTE Power.

AMTE Power, a UK-based manufacturer of batteries, has said its new sodium-ion cells are close to being ready to send out into the field for testing and validation by select customers.

The company makes battery cells aimed at higher value market segments such as high-performance vehicles from an existing site in Scotland but is currently developing a new factory with 0.5GWh annual production capacity.

Due to it focusing on higher value cells for demanding applications, the company believes production lines at its planned ‘Megafactory’ can be as profitable if not more so than the dozens of much bigger gigawatt-hour scale ‘gigafactories’ producing battery cells around the world.

The factory in Dundee, eastern Scotland, could see revenues of about £200 million (US$235.6 million) from the 8 million cells it is projected to churn out each year, AMTE Power claimed.

Meanwhile, although the company’s main focus is expected to be on the automotive market, it is also targeting stationary energy storage systems too and has been developing its sodium-based cell with a view to commercialising it for battery energy storage system (BESS) customers.

AMTE Power’s ‘Ultra Safe’ sodium-ion cell development is nearing completion, the company said yesterday in a trading update. AMTE’s development team have achieved a targeted 140Wh/kg energy density specification.

Production is expected to begin later this year at the company’s existing manufacturing facility, with cells to be sent to customers for initial evaluation as well as project and supply validation.

AMTE has signed one offtake deal for 1,000 cells to be used by UK manufacturer AceOn in a portable energy storage device, but the company anticipates more deals will be signed as the Dundee factory’s final investment decision nears.

AMTE believes the technology could be appealing for stationary storage at all scales, from home energy storage brands to grid-scale storage manufacturers and integrators. US-based BESS system integrators Fluence and Powin Energy have both said they will be testing and trying out sodium-ion – among other technologies – at their respective new testing facilities.

Big players, startups alike eye promise of sodium-ion, and other technologies

AMTE is by no means alone in identifying sodium-ion as a possible alternative to lithium-ion for stationary applications.

China’s CATL is among the biggest names bullish on the technology’s potential, and another UK company developing sodium cells, startup Faradion, has been acquired by Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries’ solar energy subsidiary.

In the US, manufacturer Natron Energy has been working on sodium batteries for a decade, becoming the first to go through UL 9540A fire testing with its devices and recently said it plans to open a factory in Michigan. In northern Europe, Swedish manufacturer Altris said it will open a 1,800 square metre production facility early next year. Energy-Storage.news reported on both of those companies’ plans in May.

Sodium-ion cells are promising in that they use a combination of cheap and abundant materials, without copper or cobalt which can be expensive and problematic to source from a sustainability perspective. They would also allow the BESS supply chain to be decoupled from the lithium-ion supply chain which has seen volatility and price spikes in the last couple of years, as well as a shortage of everything from raw materials to finished product.

They offer less energy density than most types of lithium-ion, which largely rules them out of automotive applications, but this matters much less for stationary storage.

The fact that it doesn’t appeal to automakers might be one of the technology’s strongest suits. At the moment, many of the delays and supply chain constraints experienced by the energy storage industry are largely influenced by the fact that BESS and EV sectors are competing for battery cell supply.

Other potential advantages include the ability to store and transport sodium cells discharged to zero volts, lowering the risk of thermal runaway. Faradion claimed that its sodium battery has 92% round-trip efficiency, broadly putting it on a par with lithium.

Many commentators have said it is likely there will be multiple different electrochemical energy storage technologies that compete with, or complement, lithium-ion in the coming years. Some of those, such as flow batteries, have been widely covered as they have been pushed towards commercialisation for some time, but other newer alternatives include Enervenue’s nickel-hydrogen battery and a number of companies also trying to commercialise potassium-ion batteries.

In a recent interview with this site, potassium-ion startup Group1 CEO Alex Girau said that lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries represent the benchmark in performance and cost to try to equal or beat.

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The company’s new vice president of operations US. Image: FREYR.

Gigafactory company FREYR Battery is making moves in the US market with the establishment of a technology centre in Boston and the appointment of a VP of operations there.

The Norway-based startup, which is developing advanced lithium-ion battery cell gigafactories in Norway, the US and elsewhere, has opened the centre in Boston. Boston is also where the company’s technology provider 24M is located, and the centre is ‘in accordance with’ FREYR’s expansion strategy, the company said.

The firm, which listed late last year, has also announced the appointment of Michael J. Brose as the newly created position of Vice President of US Operations.

FREYR plans to have 50GWh of annual battery cell production capacity by 2025, 100GWh by 2028 and 200GWh by 2030, double initial targets. The next gigafactory after its first in Norway will be one in the US being launched in partnership with a Koch family-controlled investment vehicle, which is likely to benefit from incentives provided by the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act.

Speaking to Energy-Storage.news in a recent interview, CEO Tom Jensen said: “We were confident that there would come something (from the goverment).”

“We’ve always said that when the US really gets moving on the energy transition, it would move harder and faster than anyone else, with target incentives to achieve exactly what they want. That’s just the nature of the US market.”

“Global annual production capacity for lithium-ion batteries in 2030 is anyone’s guess but the estimates range from 2.5TWh to 9TWh. If it was, say, 4TWh, our 200GWh would give us a 5% market share. That’s a decent ambition!”

As Energy-Storage.news reported last week, its first gigafactory on home soil is set to start production in the first half of 2024, slightly later than initially planned.

In the third of three back-to-back announcements, FREYR has also said it has entered into strategic partnership with South Korea-based Hana Technology. The two will jointly develop equipment and automation solutions for FREYR’s Customer Qualification Plant in Mo i Rana, Norway, as well as for FREYR’s planned gigafactories globally.

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The SunnYparc site in Vaud, Switzerland, where the project is being launched. Image: Eaton.

Power management company Eaton is helping to build a microgrid pilot project trialling vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications in Switzerland.

The project comprises EV charging stations on the Y-PARC industrial and commercial site in Yverdon-les-Bains, a municipality in the Canton of Vaud.

It will explore several modes of controlling power flows and pricing in order to demonstrate the potential that V2G technology has to relieve pressure on the Swiss grid at times of high demand, and help the integration of more renewable energy sources.

Eaton, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, will provide the charging stations, starting with 25 of which five will be bidirectional with long-term plans to increase the total number of charging stations to 250 and install a solar PV array.

The connected EV batteries will be aggregated into a single energy storage unit to support the grid. The algorithms controlling the microgrid will manage the flow of energy between the EVs, the photovoltaics and the nearby buildings to dispatch available energy to where it is needed, when it is needed, and make excess energy and energy storage capacity available to the grid if required.

A press release said that the Swiss regulatory framework is unique in Europe in that it allows the privatisation of parts of the electricity network into microgrids within which flexible electricity pricing is authorised.

“Developing mechanisms to synchronize the electrification of end-markets with the decarbonisation of power generation is a challenge for grid operators everywhere. As the number of EVs increases, it is easy to see how large volumes of parked EVs can provide the flexibility needed, hence the importance of this type of project,” said François Randin, project manager for Eaton.

If the project eventually reaches 250 aggregated bi-directional charging stations, that would be one of the largest V2G projects in Europe. One launched in Italy, south of Switzerland, two years ago combined 700 EVs. That project won the right to provide 25MW of grid services shortly after.

V2G technology holds massive potential considering the number and combined size of EV batteries operational today, but complex regulatory, logistic and financial modelling challenges remain. One of the leading players, US-listed Nuvve, still only has around 10MW of combined EV batteries under management as per its recent quarterly results.

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Fluence has to-date assembled all of its energy storage solutions at a contract manufacturing facility in Vietnam, pictured. Image: Fluence.

Fluence’s new Utah facility is part of a wider move by the company to regionalise its manufacturing closer to customer markets across the globe, the company has told Energy-Storage.news.

Peter Silveira, senior director of manufacturing for Fluence, explained that its new contracted manufacturing facility in Utah, US, will be a ‘value-add’ facility for BESS modules en route to US customers.

That means that its existing contracted manufacturing facility in Vietnam will continue to produce the base, modular 6th generation Cube units – the building block of all Fluence’s energy storage solutions – which will then be sent to the US site for customisation and configuration in line with the customer’s needs.

The Vietnam facility will continue to provide the full-build solutions for the Asia-Pacific and Europe markets, he said. Regionalising the final part of assembly to the US gives three main benefits for serving that market.

One is a greater ability to customise BESS solutions within the same schedule. Two, it decreases the impact of supply chain disruptions by moving the final assembly closer to the market. Three, it gives the company more control over costs.

Sending the company’s base modular concept instead of fully-formed and customised BESS solutions to the US increases the company’s choice of charters, vessels and logistics companies for transportation, too. A large part of this is because a fully-formed system is classed as ‘dangerous goods’, unlike the base concept.

Silveria has been senior director of manufacturing for Fluence since August 2020 and reports directly to Fluence SVP & chief supply chain and manufacturing officer Carol Couch.

Fluence also recently announced its Fluence Spares Direct service through two spare parts hubs in Ireland and Utah, although Silveira said these have been operational for over a year, pre-dating its regional manufacturing initiative. The main aim of these is to reduce downtime for operational BESS projects, he said.

The hubs mainly stock components which the company can predict will be ‘troublesome’, and can ship these to sites in 24 hours, versus two weeks from Vietnam.

When asked about the company’s roadmap to regionalising its manufacturing to the European market, where it is very active, Silveira said the company plans to take a similar approach to what it’s done in the US in terms of Vietnam producing the base unit, which can then be customised closer to delivery.

“We’re actively pursuing partnerships there from a contract manufacturer perspective. Our goal is to complete that in the latter part of 2023, with expectations to go live in 2024. So following the same methodology that we have in Americas, we will carbon copy that for our European contract manufacturer,” he said.

He added that with Europe’s substantial gigafactory push, additional battery cell capacity will come online potentially allowing Fluence to move even more of its production there. There are pros and cons to having battery supply closer to markets, Silveira said, but “we see more pros”, he said. He cited the partnership the company has with Northvolt in Europe.

He reckons Fluence will be able to get to a situation where 70% of the commodities (by value) it procures to produce its solutions come from local markets – i.e. where its customers are – and 30% from elsewhere.

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Aerial view of the completed Wandoan South BESS project. Image: Vena Energy.

A 100MW/150MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) has been brought online in Queensland, Australia, by developer Vena Energy.

Vena Energy said this morning that it has commenced commercial operation of the Wandoan South BESS project in Queensland’s Darling Downs agricultural region, about 400km from Brisbane.

The Singapore-headquartered developer, which focuses on renewable energy and storage assets in the Asia-Pacific region, signed a 15-year contract to hand over operational dispatch rights for the battery system to major Australian energy generator-retailer AGL in January 2020.

At that time, AGL CEO Brett Redman said that with the signing of the deal, construction and could proceed over an expected 15-month period, Energy-Storage.news reported. Including commissioning, in total the process has taken 18 months.

Towards the end of 2020, Vena achieved financial close, citing the project’s expected total cost at AU$120 million, while naming South Korean company Doosan GridTech as the Wandoan South BESS project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partner.

The battery system will enable AGL to leverage surplus solar PV and wind generation from Queensland, storing it and then releasing it at times when generation from renewables isn’t as high, as well kicking in when other forms of generation are offline too. It is connected to the Wandoan South substation of transmission operator PowerLink.

“This is important for providing security to the energy market and avoiding system constraints, particularly in areas like the Darling Downs with a large local load and the potential for a high renewable energy build over the coming decade,” AGL chief operating officer Markus Brokhof said.

“Now that it is fully operational, we’re very pleased to be able to offer our customers secure, reliable, clean energy with the addition of the Wandoan South BESS. Storage projects like the Wandoan South BESS will enable AGL to leverage excess solar generation in Queensland and provide capacity when the AGL’s Cooper’s Gap Wind Farm in Queensland is not generating or when the energy market needs it.”

While it is now home to one of Australia’s largest battery projects (the largest at the time of writing is the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery in Victoria), Queensland was third among Australian states for hosting commercial and grid-scale BESS capacity according to market consultancy Sunwiz in a report published in March.

It was fifth of the seven states for total battery storage deployments including the residential segment and Sunwiz noted much lower rates of attachment for storage to solar PV in Queensland.

Historically the country’s highest emissions state, Queensland is however now targeting more aggressive reductions goals than before, 30% reductions against 2005 levels, while also aiming to reach 50% renewable electricity by 2030.

In June, the state government announced it would be helping to fund a “blitz” of battery storage buildout, including 12 individual systems of 8MWh each and one 200MW/400MWh project. A few months before that, Queensland government-owned power generation company CS Energy said it is developing a 100MW/200MWh battery project at a former coal power plant site in the Western Downs administrative region, not far from the Wandoan South project.

At the time the latter project was announced, Queensland Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen Mick de Brenni said the state government needed to step in and invest in clean energy including batteries where the national government had failed to do so. That administration, led by Scott Morrison of the Liberal Party, has since been ousted in a general election and replaced by new prime minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Party, which ran partly on a platform of ending government level climate change denial, as the Liberal stance was perceived.

More recently, de Brenni hailed the incorporation of emissions reduction objectives into Australia’s energy market planning, which has been agreed this month by all states will happen going forwards. Queensland’s government had been pushing for this step, the minister said, calling it “a clear and direct signal to the entire nation as well as the global community that everyone is now working together in this new energy era”.

“The energy sector is Queensland’s largest carbon emitter and has a significant role to play in accelerating our path towards net zero emissions,” de Brenni said.

“At the same time, we are continuing to keep downward pressure on power prices and driving the transition to renewable generation and storage.”  

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BRC Solar GmbH has incorporated Efficient Power Conversion’s EPC2218 100 V FETs into BRC’s next-generation M500/14 power optimizer, enabling it to have a higher current density due to the low power dissipation and the small size of the GaN FET making the critical load circuit more compact. The small parasitic capacitance and inductance of the GaN FETs creates a clean switching performance which allows good EMI behavior in the field. Another benefit of the GaN FETs is the zero reverse recovery losses.

The EPC2218 is a 100 V GaN FET, 3.2 mΩ, 231 Apulsed, with a small footprint of just 3.5 mm x 1.95 mm, offering lower losses and smaller size than comparable silicon MOSFETs for increased power density.

BRC’s previous range, the M400/12, handled currents up to 12 amps and a maximum power operation at 400 W. By changing from Si FETs to GaN FETs, the company achieved an increase of output current to 14 amps with a power rating of 500 W, while keeping the same board size. Also, the switching frequency in the M500/14 is twice as high than the previous generation allowing for passive components, such as capacitors and inductors, to be decreased in value or even completely removed.

The company’s optimizer is only active when shading on the photovoltaic module appears. The predominant case is a fully irradiated module, where the circuit goes into an inactive state. The switching FET is continuously closed in this situation. It is important that the power losses on the board be kept as low as possible. Because of that, the EPC2218 is the optimal solution for BRC’s application because of its low RDS(on). The static losses are also extremely small thanks to the conductivity of the GaN FET.

During the active mode, the switching behavior of the module optimizer leads to a small and acceptable power loss. The low parasitic components of the EPC2218 enable fast and clean switching in the application.

In both modes, the temperature rise of the FET is small and allows good thermal transfer to the board via the LGA pads of the EPC2218 even at higher ambient temperatures. Therefore, an additional heatsink is not required further saving space and weight.

“EPC’s eGaN FETs open a new horizon in the development of high-density power electronics,” says Winona Kremb from BRC Solar Gmbh. “We will watch the further applications and products from EPC and are excited to be part of the journey.”

“Working with BRC has been an exciting design-in opportunity and, together with our distribution partner Finepower, we have been able to achieve great results moving the company from silicon to GaN. Designers using GaN can now take advantage of devices that are higher performance, smaller, more thermally efficient, and at a comparable cost,” adds Stefan Werkstetter, VP of sales for EMEA.

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Emile Chammas

Sealed Air (SEE) has invested $9 million in a solar farm that is now powering its Madera, Calif. manufacturing facility. The solar panels, which sit on 11 acres of company-owned land adjacent to the facility, are expected to help reduce energy spend at this site by $1 million annually.

The 265,000 square foot plant, which manufactures Bubble Wrap brand original cushioning, Sealed Air brand Korrvu retention and suspension packaging, mailers, and other solutions, will have 98% of its electricity powered by the solar field.

“The installation of these solar panels contributes to SEE’s overarching sustainability strategy and advances our transition to net-zero carbon emissions in our operations by 2040. Through these solar panels, we are advancing our use of renewable energy, lessening the energy intensity of operations and reducing the company’s greenhouse gas emissions,” says Emile Chammas, SEE’s COO. “We are on a journey to leave our world better than we find it and the completion of this project is an important milestone in the strategic investments we’re making to achieve that goal.”

SEE partnered with TotalEnergies (which recently acquired SunPower Commercial and Industrial Solutions) to design and install the 3.5 MW ground mount solar project, which includes 8,975 solar panels, along with a 770 kW/3,080 kWh battery storage system.

“TotalEnergies is proud to be SEE’s energy transformation partner as they invest to achieve ambitious sustainability targets,” states Eric Potts, vice president of TotalEnergies Distributed Generation USA. “Renewable energy is a business priority for both of our companies, so we are thrilled that this project will deliver long-term benefits to SEE’s Madera facility while advancing global progress toward carbon neutrality.”

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