US Congress made quick work of waving through the legislation. Image: Wikimedia user Bjoertvedt

It caught even seasoned clean energy industry veterans by surprise when West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a deal had been struck on the US Inflation Reduction Act. It includes what’s been described by President Joe Biden as the biggest-ever investment in climate protection and energy security, a US$369 billion package to support and progress clean energy with supply-side and demand-side measures. The swiftness with which the act has been sent through the Senate and then Congress prepares the energy storage industry to become a key pillar of the US energy transition, writes Andy Tang, VP for energy storage and optimisation at Wärtsilä Energy.

It is a monumental day in climate. Congress just passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes an investment tax credit (ITC) for energy storage that will unlock US energy independence, put more Americans back to work, infuse investment into local economies, and advance climate goals. 

Energy providers are looking to incorporate more renewable energy sources into their portfolios, but they won’t do it without insurance that customers will be able to turn on their lights when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

Battery energy storage provides that insurance, thereby accelerating renewable energy deployments. According to the American Clean Power Association trade group, the US needs 100 gigawatts (GW) of energy storage by 2030 to meet its climate goals. Today, we have just 3GW.

Annual demand for lithium-ion batteries is set to surpass 2.7 terawatt-hours by 2030, according to analysts at BloombergNEF.

Until recently, the energy storage industry was enjoying nearly three decades of battery cost decline and was on track to meet that demand. But spiking commodity and shipping prices have crushed this trajectory.

The cost of nearly every commodity required to manufacture lithium-ion batteries––including aluminum, copper, and nickel––has reached new heights as mines struggle to keep up with market growth, and insiders estimate a two-to-three-year dislocation on lithium.

The ITC for energy storage in the Inflation Reduction Act has never been more critical. This small carrot incentivises battery investment in the US, offsets high costs caused by temporary supply chain issues, and gives investors much-needed certainty.

It ensures affordable electricity bills for all Americans, creates and preserves hundreds of thousands of good paying clean jobs, generates meaningful local revenues from renewable energy development, and will help clinch a leading global position in the next generation’s biggest economy.

Energy providers across the country––from red to blue, urban to rural, east to west––applaud our federal leadership on their decision to advance a reliable, sustainable, and affordable energy future. 

About the Author

Andy Tang is Vice President of Energy Storage & Optimization for Wärtsilä Energy Business and works directly with utilities and power producers to facilitate the shift towards a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä Energy Storage & Optimisation (ES&O) supplies products and technologies to the global power industry, integrating end-to-end grid solutions that build a resilient, intelligent and flexible energy infrastructure.

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Porsche Cars North America Inc. (PCNA) has signed a contract with Cherry Street Energy LLC, a non-utility provider of solar energy in Georgia, to build and operate a solar power microgrid at One Porsche Drive, the site that combines PCNA corporate headquarters with the Porsche Experience Center Atlanta.

The solar power project will contribute to PCNA’s sustainability goals as the campus adds major new facilities. One Porsche Drive is currently undergoing a $50 million development that includes building a second driver development track for the public, due to be operational in early 2023.

“Powering our North American home and our Taycan fleet through harnessing Georgia sunshine makes perfect sense and is a great demonstration of our commitment to sustainability,” says Kjell Gruner, president and CEO of PCNA. “This solar project contributes to the overall sustainability targets of Porsche AG. In 2030, Porsche aims to be CO2 net neutral across the entire value chain and life cycle of newly sold vehicles.”

Cherry Street Energy estimates the array of solar panels on the headquarters campus will generate 2,050 MWh of electricity annually. Installation of the solar microgrid will start in September and is expected to be completed in 2023, kicking off a 25-year operating agreement between PCNA and Cherry Street Energy.

Panels will be mounted on new and existing buildings, the roofs of staging areas by the two tracks where customers start their drives, and on a new 950-foot covered walkway from the parking garage to the headquarters building. Cherry Street Energy will own, operate and maintain the microgrid, selling the power to PCNA. “The Cherry Street Energy team welcomes the opportunity to partner with Porsche on this innovative infrastructure program, leading the transition to reliable, renewable electricity,” states Michael Chanin, founder and CEO of Cherry Street Energy.

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Vehicle-to-grid solutions specialist Nuvve became a publicly listed company in March 2021. Image: Nuvve.

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) company Nuvve grew its MW under management by 10% in quarter two 2022 and is eying applications for school buses and the marine sector.

The San Diego-headquartered company provides an energy management system (EMS) platform and bidirectional charging infrastructure to allow electric vehicles (EVs) to provide power to the grid. Its EMS aggregate fleets of vehicles into virtual power plants (VPPs) which can then provide power and ancillary services in the same way as a utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS).

The company has released its latest financial results amidst a host of partnerships to rollout its tech, which holds huge potential considering the size of the EV market, across multiple sectors and geographies.

Financial results see net loss balloon for Nuvve

Revenue for the three months to June 30 stood at US$1.3 million, a 32.6% increase year-on-year. The bulk of this, US$1.12 million, was products and services revenue: the sale of its bidirectional charging infrastructure contributing US$1 million, grid services contributing US$50,000 and engineering services revenue coming in at US$30,000.

However, net loss grew from US$6.2 million in Q2 2021 to US$47.2 million in Q2 2022, a 760% increase. Selling, general and administrative expenses totalled US$8.1 million, research and development expenses were US$2.2 million while US$43.5 million in costs was attributed to ‘other income (expense)’.

The latter comprises interest expense, impairment of deferred finance costs, change in fair value of private warrants liability and derivative liability. Some of this may be related to a stock market listing in March 2021 through a business combination with Newborn Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Operational highlights and new partnerships

Its MW under management reached 16.1MW by the end of Q2, a 10% increase quarter-on-quarter, and it announced several new partnerships.

One of those is a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Maine Maritime Academy to create a framework of V2G clean-energy solutions across various maritime applications. The work will be carried out at a new ‘Center for Maritime V2G’ at the Academy’s headquarters.

Nuvve COO Ted Smith said the Center would serve to demonstrate the application of Nuvve’s V2G technology in maritime use cases at ports, islands and waterways.

“Integrating Nuvve’s patented V2G technology into maritime infrastructure enables electrified transportation – including marine vessels – to become valuable grid resources,” he said.

The company has also partnered with energy company Vistra to help school districts modernise bus fleets by easing their access to available grant funding. The two have already helped districts apply for more than US$4.5 million in grant funding to replace diesel-powered buses with electric school buses (ESBs).

The ESBs would then hold significant potential as V2G assets as Gregory Poilasne, CEO of Nuvve, explained: “With large batteries on-board and predictable operation times, ESBs are a perfect use-case for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, especially in those markets where energy costs have shown significant volatility.”

Alongside the bidirectional charging and EMS platform making this possible, Nuvve’s technology also allows districts to ensure their buses have enough energy to complete daily routes through its smart fleet-management tools. The tool helps monitor battery levels and intelligently schedule bus operation times.

Vistra is known in the energy storage sector for being the project owner of the 400MW/1,600MWh Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California, the largest BESS in the world, and it expects to have 1,213MW of operational storage by 2026.

Nuvve’s existing partnerships

The deal with Vistra is similar to one the company struck with Californian utility SDG&E last month. The cooperation will see ESBs equipped with V2G charging infrastructure through Nuvve’s platform to provide energy to the grid during emergency load reduction events.

The Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) was kickstarted by the California Public Utilities Commission in October 2021 to allow electricity users to reduce usage to help avoid grid outages during peak summer season.

In April, Nuvve gained the right to provide ancillary services in Japan using its platform while the month before it, along with a host of other groups in the space, signed an MOU with the US Department of Energy to accelerate the commercialisation of V2G technologies.

And in March, it partnered with Swell Energy which also has a VPP network but uses distributed energy resources (DERs) like rooftop solar PV and home energy storage. The pair are investigating how EVs and associated infrastructure and hardware can participate in Swell’s VPP network.

Nuvve is listed on the Nasdaq and has a market capitalisation of US$80.6 million at the time of writing.

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The headquarters of GUVNL, in Gujarat, India. Image: GUVNL.

The electricity board of the Indian state of Gujarat is tendering for 500MW/1,000MWh of standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS).

Electricity market regulation board Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVNL) issued a Request for Selection (RfS) document for what it described as pilot projects, dated 10 August. GUVNL is also the holding company for the state-owned generation, transmission and distribution companies (discoms).

GUVNL said the projects would be utilised on an ‘on-demand’ basis according to the requirements of the discoms.

Though not spelt out, it appears they need to have a discharge duration of two hours, which increases the ability to provide load shifting services (versus ancillary services where duration is less important than nameplate MW power). The tender requires them to be available for two full operational cycles (charge and discharge) per day with an availability of at least 95%.

GUVNL will enter into a Battery Energy Storage Purchase Agreement (BESPA) with the successful bidders, who will be required to set up the BESS projects on a build-own-operate model.

Projects in development or construction are eligible but not those that have been commissioned already, and projects must dedicate all offtake to the requirements of the tender/discoms.

The BESS units must have a minimum size of 40MW/80MWh and the land needed, all in the vicinity of the state’s substations, will be leased by the Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporate (GETCO), the transmission system operator (owned by GUVNL).

This latest tender by India’s most westerly state comes three months after it launched a separate tender for 500MW of renewable energy resources to be paired with energy storage, as covered by Energy-Storage.news.

Alongside state-led initiatives, significant amounts of energy storage is being added to India’s grid through central government tenders. Two of these, from the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) and another from state-owned power group NTPC will add 1GW/4GWh of energy storage.

The authors of a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) described tenders like these as marking the beginning of an ‘energy storage revolution’ in the country.

And more recently, the government enacted legislation which means that the percentage of total energy consumed from renewable resources with or through energy storage should be set at 1% in the 2023-2024 timeframe and rise to 4% by 2029-2030. This added to a similar existing one for renewable resources.

Concurrent with the legislation, a government thinktank predicted in July that demand for BESS would reach around 180GWh by 2030.

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Nick Gazzolo

SolRiver Capital, a national renewable energy investment fund, has made a large development capital commitment to Korsail Energy. The investment enables Korsail to drive its 2 GW of rural community solar and storage projects to completion. SolRiver forged the development capital partnership based upon Korsail’s large pipeline of upcoming projects, strong track record and experienced team.

“Korsail has an impressive portfolio of high-quality solar and storage projects under development in various markets, which are a great fit for SolRiver’s investment platform,” says Nick Gazzolo, partner at SolRiver Capital. “Moreover, we’re backing Korsail’s passionate team that has over 500 MW of successful clean energy projects under their belt.”

Korsail focuses on developing community-oriented clean energy systems with landowners, utilities and the community that assist the local grid.

“SolRiver’s co-development partnership with Korsail provides the perfect example of value-added capital. Korsail will be able to tap into SolRiver’s extensive network across the country, and benefit from the SolRiver team’s deep expertise in complex energy markets,” explains Don Buchholz, VP of development at Korsail. “In addition, SolRiver’s investment provides Korsail the capital to fund the major development expenses and corporate overhead required to succeed with our transformative portfolio of projects.”

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Image: Mitsubishi Power.

California investor-owned utility (IOU) San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) has chosen Mitsubishi Power as supplier of battery storage to four microgrids in its service area.

Mitsubishi Power announced the deal today, in which SDG&E has ordered utility-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) equipment totalling 39MW/180MWh for deployment across the four sites.

The microgrid BESS projects were given the approval of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in late June and are scheduled to go online in the middle of next year.

They will be connected to the grid in San Diego in the communities of Elliot, Clairemont, Paradise, and Boulevard, and will provide capacity and strengthen grid resiliency, particularly during peak electricity demand periods in summer.

California’s energy system comes under most stress during those summer months and CAISO, the operator of most of the state’s grid network and wholesale electricity market has long emphasised the important role energy storage is starting to play in mitigating the risks to energy supply.

Mitsubishi Power will deploy its Emerald energy storage solution, which includes an integrated plant control consisting of energy management system (EMS) and SCADA which oversee real-time BESS operation and provide a monitoring/supervisory control platform.

“We live in a time when growing threats from climate change and extreme heat waves can increasingly impact grid reliability. By expanding our energy storage portfolio, we are helping our region and critical community facilities become more resilient,” SDG&E’s director of advanced clean technology, Fernando Valero, said.

In March, SDG&E also ordered a 10MW/60MWh system from Mitsubishi Power for the utility’s Pala-Gomez Creek Energy Storage Project, which the technology provider said at the time would be its eighth California battery project.

Meanwhile, other recent energy storage activities for Mitsubishi Power include the company’s entry into the European market with four projects in Ireland adding up to 371MWh of capacity and an order for 425MWh of BESS co-located with solar PV plants in Chile from developer Innergex. Mitsubishi Power is also working on a 300GWh green hydrogen storage project in Utah, US, which will get US$504 million of loan funding from the government Department of Energy towards its cost.

In an interview with Energy-Storage.news in April, Thomas Cornell, Senior VP Energy Storage Solutions at Mitsubishi Power Americas discussed the company’s approach to the energy storage market, including views on technologies, business strategies and how it expects the market to develop in the coming years.

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ESS Inc’s Oregon factory premises hosted visitors including US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm a few days ago. Image: Business Wire.

Iron flow battery company ESS Inc has recognised revenues for the first time since it publicly listed, while also closing in on its targeted annual production capacity of 750MWh.

Alongside its latest quarterly financial results release yesterday, the Oregon, US-headquartered technology provider also announced a major deal for up to 12GWh of its systems to be deployed in a new partnership.

ESS Inc listed on the New York Stock Exchange in late 2021 after a SPAC merger. Having said from the outset that it would likely be a couple of years before it would be able to reach profitability, it has also not been able to recognise revenues until this quarter.

It registered revenues of US$686,000 for Q2 2022, relating to the sale and installation of three of its Energy Warehouse systems, which are behind-the-meter commercial and industrial (C&I) devices of 400kWh capacity each.

ESS Inc is the only manufacturer and holder of patents on its flow batteries, which use an iron and saltwater electrolyte in rugged systems that can deliver long-duration energy storage (4-12 hours’ duration) over many years without the degradation that lithium-ion batteries experience with use, in particular from frequent and deep cycling.

The company also talks up the fact that its electrolyte is non-toxic and uses more abundant raw materials than other flow batteries in their manufacture, with other providers tending to opt for vanadium dissolved in sulfuric acid, or in some cases, zinc-bromine. Alongside Energy Warehouse it also offers a grid-scale unit, Energy Center, which is a 3MW system.  

CEO Eric Dresselhuys said in a call with analysts to explain results that the iron flow battery units were deployed in collaboration with the customers and learnings from the installation process can be carried into future projects.

The CEO then talked up progress in a microgrid project for California investor-owned utility (IOU) San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), which will enable key community facilities to operate independently from the grid, in a region where the utility has had to enact Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) to limit damage potential from wildfires.

A couple of other customer deals were referred to by Dresselhuys in a company press release, including a solar-plus-storage project with utility Tampa Electric Company which it contracted for in the second quarter, and an Energy Warehouse delivered to installer Terrasol Energies for deployment at Sycamore International, a recycling company in Pennsylvania, US.

Dresselhuys also addressed the US Senate’s passing last Friday of the Inflation Reduction Act, which he called a “groundbreaking piece of legislation”.

The Act includes tax credits for standalone energy storage, extends tax credits for solar installations including when paired with storage, and offers tax incentives for domestic manufacturing, all of which could be applicable to ESS Inc or its customers. US President Joe Biden is expected to sign the act into law imminently.

Production capacity at ESS Inc’s factory was doubled during the quarter to 500MWh, with the ramping of the company’s second semi-automated production line.

The path to profitability remains a climb, with ESS Inc incurring operating expenses of US$24,862,000 during the quarter, meaning loss from operations stood at US$24,176,000 for the three months ending 30 June. For the first half of the year, that loss from operations figure stood at US$46,365,000, up from US$18,438,000 for H1 2021.

Overall net loss for H1 2022 was however considerably lower than in the same period last year: US$21,297,000 versus US$245,360, albeit much of that H1 2021 loss was associated with the costs of the SPAC merger transaction and redemption of warrants.

Yet the company still held total assets worth US$216.124 million at the end of Q2, a modest depletion from just over US$250 million at the end of last year.

CFO Amir Moftakhar said the company’s non-GAAP operating expenses were in line with expectations and cost reduction efforts were also going well, with the cost of manufacturing Energy Warehouses expected to be reduced by 80% by the end of the year.

The addition of a fully-automated production line in Q4 of this year will bring production capacity on an annual basis up to the targeted 750MWh, Moftakhar said.

ESS Inc expects its non-GAAP operating expenses to come in at about US$100 million by the end of the year, and to have “ample liquidity to run the business,” and end 2022 with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments in excess of US$120 million.

Distribution and manufacture deal with Australia-based ESI

As mentioned earlier, ESS Inc also officially announced its strategic relationship with Energy Storage Industries Asia-Pacific (ESI).

Energy-Storage.news reported in early July that Australia-headquartered ESI is building an iron flow battery factory in Queensland, Australia.

At that time, Sword and Stone Capital Management, the investment group behind ESI, said that it had evaluated different technologies from different providers for more than four years before selecting ESS Inc’s iron flow battery.

The flow battery company said today that the partnership covers distribution and manufacture of devices using ESS Inc technology in Australia, New Zealand and the Oceania region. ESS Inc will deliver 70 Energy Warehouse units of 750kW/500kWh each during the rest of this year and in 2023.

At the same time, ESI will progress its construction of its own factory in Maryborough, Queensland, which will conduct final assembly of flow batteries from 2024, with targeted annual production capacity of 400MW by 2026. ESI has previously said that up to 80% of components could be sourced from within Queensland.

ESS Inc claimed the deal could result in the deployment of up to 12GWh of its technology.

“ESS is an ideal technology partner to meet the extraordinary demand for long-duration energy storage in Australia and the region. Safe and non-toxic ESS iron flow batteries are perfect in Australia’s harsh environment and the ability to locally source electrolyte provides insurance against supply chain risks and price escalation,” ESI managing director Stuart Parry said.

“The transition to clean energy requires new long-duration storage solutions and we look forward to working with ESS to meet the needs of an increasingly renewable energy grid.”

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Garrick Rochow

Consumers Energy and the State of Michigan have pledged to power 1,274 publicly owned government buildings exclusively with clean energy, a visible commitment by the state’s government and its largest energy provider to protect the planet.

“Consumers Energy and the State of Michigan are working together to power Michigan’s clean energy transformation,” says Garrick Rochow, Consumers Energy’s president and CEO. “This commitment will accelerate our already industry-leading Clean Energy Plan to develop carbon-free energy sources here in Michigan.”

“As governor, I am proud that the State of Michigan is leading by example to reduce greenhouse gases, protect the planet, and lower energy costs,” states Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “We are proud to announce that Consumers Energy is joining BWL and DTE in an agreement with the State of Michigan to power state buildings with clean energy. This is a critical step that will help us reach the goal I proposed in 2020 to have all state buildings run on 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2025. Let’s keep working together to fight climate change with common-sense steps that will lower taxpayer energy costs and ensure that state operations have the energy they need to succeed.”

The State of Michigan has made a 20-year agreement with Consumers Energy to use clean energy at state government buildings for all departments throughout the Lower Peninsula.

This commitment supports roughly 68 MW of emission-free renewable energy in Michigan, which is equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions produced by over 20,000 cars, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculations.

Consumers Energy is working to protect the planet, with a Clean Energy Plan to close all of its coal-fired plants by 2025 and become carbon neutral by 2040. The state government’s new commitment builds on the energy provider’s plans, and Consumers Energy will meet the state’s pledge by adding new solar power plants in Michigan over the next three to four years.

Earlier this year, General Motors agreed to power three Michigan plants with 100% green energy supplied by Consumers Energy.

“Consumers Energy is able to deliver reliable and affordable energy while protecting the planet. This partnership will further support Michigan being a leader in clean energy,” Rochow adds.

Consumers Energy’s Renewable Energy Program provides businesses a flexible, turnkey solution to use solar and wind energy to achieve their sustainability goals and protect the planet for future generations. Their enrollment not only advances greening Michigan’s grid, but also supports Michigan jobs created through building and operating renewable energy projects.

Consumers Energy, Michigan’s largest energy provider, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy.

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GAF Energy, a Standard Industries company and a solar roofing provider in North America, has launched the sales of its Timberline Solar roof to Florida residents. Timberline Solar is a system to directly integrate solar technology into traditional roofing processes and materials.

This new system incorporates a nailable solar shingle, the Timberline Solar Energy Shingle (ES), which is assembled at GAF Energy’s U.S. manufacturing and R&D facility.

“We’re thrilled to launch our Timberline Solar roof in Florida through our roofing partners in the state. Florida residents now have access to our award-winning solar roof,” says Martin DeBono, president of GAF Energy. “Solar roofs are the future of clean energy, and Timberline Solar is in a class of its own: reliable, durable, cost-effective, easy to install, and aesthetically superior. We’re excited to bring the next generation of solar to Florida.”

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Power plant developers plan to install 17.8 GW of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) generating capacity in 2022, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) June 2022 Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. Over the first six months of 2022, 4.2 GW of that capacity came online, less than half of what the industry had planned to install in those months. From January through June 2022, about 20% of planned solar photovoltaic capacity was delayed.

EIA’s preliminary data from January through June 2022 show that PV solar installations were delayed by an average of 4.4 GW each month, compared with average monthly delays of 2.6 GW during the same period last year. In most cases, reported delays are for six months or less.

Various factors could cause delays, including broad economic factors, such as supply chain constraints, labor shortages and high prices of components, and factors specific to electric generator projects, such as obtaining permits or testing equipment.

In February, the United States extended tariffs on imported crystalline silicon solar products from China, which raised the tariff-rate quota from 2.5 GW to 5 GW and excluded bifacial panels from the extension of duties. In April, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced an anti-dumping circumvention investigation of solar cells and modules imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, countries that allegedly use parts made in China that otherwise would be subject to tariffs.

In June, the President took executive action to advance the deployment of solar in the United States. He authorized the easing of import duties for a 24-month period for solar cells and modules imported from the countries under investigation and invoked the Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of solar modules. Any determination that the Department of Commerce reaches in its investigation will apply after this 24-month period ends.

In EIA’s monthly survey, they asked respondents who plan to bring generators online in the near future which stage their projects are in: testing, construction, permitting or planning. Most of the projects that will come online in the next 18 months are under construction. About 1.9 GW of solar capacity installations are projects under construction that have been delayed but are still scheduled to come online in 2022; another 1.7 GW under construction have been delayed to 2023.

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