Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility came back online this quarter while a 350MW expansion to the project is under construction. Image: Vistra Energy.

Vistra Energy will have more than 1,213MW of battery storage in operation in its portfolio by 2026, the US power generation company has claimed.

Vistra currently owns and operates the world’s largest battery energy storage system (BESS) project to date, the 400MW/1,600MWh Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California. Along with two large-scale BESS projects in Texas’ ERCOT market, the company has 670MW of battery storage in operation so far.

However, it is poised to add significant resources in other regions, with nine projects under development across the US’ MISO and PJM grid areas, as well as a 43.5MW project in development in California and a 350MW expansion phase at Moss Landing, which is already in construction.

Vistra discussed its project portfolio and pipeline in development as it released its latest quarterly financial results. The battery projects fall under the Vistra Zero initiative, through which the power company wants to commit to low-emissions energy projects.

Vistra has a 2,300MW nuclear facility, Comanche Peak, that went into service in Texas in 1990 and a portfolio of three operational solar PV projects and 10 in development that count towards Vistra Zero along with the BESS projects.

By 2026, Vistra expects to have around 7,300MW of that low-emissions portfolio online, including 1213.25MW of BESS. At present, its zero emissions fleet totals about 3,300MW, with the majority coming from Comanche Peak. By 2028, the company intends to have retired about 8,000MW of fossil fuel generation.

During the quarter just gone, Vistra celebrated Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility coming back online after several months out of action as the project experienced overheating issues at both the 300MW/1,200MWh Phase 1 and 100MW/400MWh Phase 2 systems.

Not far from Moss Landing, Vistra is also hoping to build a 600MW project in California’s Morrow Bay, although the company offered no firm updates on that project in its latest announcements.

It also brought online DeCordova Energy Storage, a 260MW/260MWh BESS in Texas, as well as two Texas solar PV plants, the 50MW Brightside Solar Facility and 108MW Emerald Grove Solar Facility. DeCordova is the largest BESS project in Texas to date.

Like the rest of the US industry, Vistra is waiting to see what the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act would be, if and when it passes into law soon, to assess if that will create additional opportunities for Vistra Zero investments. The Act includes a 30% investment tax credit (ITC) for standalone battery storage among its US$369 billion of commitments to tackling the climate crisis and energy security issues.

One region where it is already investing is Illinois, a historically coal-dependent state, where state authorities have enacted a plan to replace coal with solar and battery storage, a stance Vistra has previously applauded publicly.

With eight Illinois PV-plus-battery projects in MISO and one in PJM, Vistra has said Illinois lawmakers’ leadership is a strong example of how the post-coal energy transition can be facilitated.

Vistra makes its money from power generation and retail activities. In the second quarter, it recorded a net loss of US$1,357 million and net loss from ongoing operations of US$1,312 million. However the group delivered Q2 2022 ongoing operations EBITDA of US$761 million, which it said is in the upper range to deliver its guided EBITDA in ongoing operations for the year of US$2,810 million to US$3,310 million.

At the end of June 2022’s reported period, the company’s total available liquidity stood at around US$3,439 million.

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Solar tracking provider FTC Solar is collaborating with solar contracting company AUI Partners on a new offering for the distributed generation (DG) market. With faster delivery and installation times for smaller projects, FTC Solar’s DG Solutions Business Unit with AUI Partners will provide solar tracking services for sites under 20 MW.

This new collaboration will help FTC Solar’s customers achieve energy optimization by utilizing FTC Solar’s Voyager+ 2P solar tracker and AUI’s experience in site design and construction. The partnership will leverage a sourcing strategy and inventory capabilities with the goal of providing delivery lead times of as short as eight weeks – based on project specifications.

“Despite the growth in DG as a result of federal and state-wide pushes for increased solar projects, there is still a shortage of comprehensive solutions that give customers what they need in a timely manner,” says Mario Carbone, partner at AUI Partners. “By combining FTC’s resilient and versatile Voyager tracker and optimization software with our lead generation, design, delivery and installation services, we are able to offer customers an innovative design-through-installation service that ultimately benefits developers by reducing the number of project partners they need to commission.”

FTC Solar and AUI Partners are targeting multiple segments for this offering, including commercial and industrial (C&I), community solar programs, projects for independent power producers (IPP), and smaller one-off projects for sectors such as agriculture. FTC Solar and AUI Partners will utilize proprietary automation technology to provide a fast turnaround time on project quotes. The partnership is available throughout the United States.

“By ensuring materials are readily available for these projects, DG Solutions will deliver faster than many other providers in the market, which can require more than six months,” comments Sean Hunkler, CEO of FTC Solar. “We see tremendous growth potential for this market over the next few years. However, for it to grow successfully, resilient turnkey solutions are imperative, and working with the team at AUI Partners will help us complete these projects quickly, which is a win for both the customer and the planet.”

FTC Solar unveiled its Voyager+ product in September of 2021 to optimize for large-format modules, withstand wind speeds up to 120 mph and provide tracking solutions for complex sites. To optimize the Voyager+ tracker, FTC offers a variety of software solutions, including its SunPath platform, which will also be available for DG projects.

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Largo Clean Energy’s VRFB product, VCHARGE±. Image: Largo Clean Energy.

Largo Clean Energy, part of vanadium primary producer Largo Resources, and Ansaldo Green Tech are exploring the potential of a joint venture (JV) for deploying vanadium flow batteries.

The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with each other to negotiate the formation of a JV for manufacturing and deploying vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). The two highlighted Europe, Africa and the Middle East as potential target markets for the JV, which would be based in Italy.

Both have agreed not to engage in talks with any other third party for the purpose of deployment or commercialisation of VRFBs in those geographic markets for a period of 150 days. If successful, they said the JV could address identified needs in the European energy sector, although cautioned that a definitive agreement was not a certainty.

Nasdaq-listed Largo Resources is one of the three main primary vanadium producers in the world, along with Glencore and Bushveld Minerals. Primary production accounts for around 20% of the world’s vanadium supply with most of the remainder coming from the processing of industrial metal waste or ‘slag’.

It formed Largo Clean Energy in 2020 as a vertically integrated energy storage solution provider, acquiring 12 patient families from VionX Energy Corp and investing US$150 million in its VRFB technology. It clinched its first order with Enel Green Power in August 2021, for a 1.22MW/6.1MWh (five-hour duration) system in Spain set for commissioning in Q4 2022.

Ansaldo Green Tech is part of Ansaldo Energia, a global power engineering solutions firm which is exploring other long-duration energy storage partnerships alongside the work with Largo. The Italy-based firm signed a commercial licensing agreement with ‘CO2 battery’ firm Energy Dome recently to commercialise its technology across its core markets.

There are several companies commercialising utility-scale VRFB-based energy storage systems alongside Largo Clean Energy, including Invinity Energy Systems and CellCube. The main challenge the sector faces in displacing lithium-ion is a minuscule supply chain for VFRBs compared to today’s battery chemistry of choice.

Speaking to Energy-Storage.news in May, CellCube CEO Alexander Schoenfeldt reckoned the vanadium battery supply chain outside China totalled just 30MW of annual production capacity. Within China, the first phase of a 800MWh VRFB system, by far the largest in the world, was commissioned last month.

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The facility will help Fluence better serve US projects, like this one in California delivered by its predecessor AES Energy Storage, an arm of the big power firm which later created Fluence through a joint venture with Siemens. Image: Fluence / AES.

Global battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator Fluence is setting up a new contract manufacturing facility in Utah to serve the US market.

The facility will start shipping Fluence Cubes from September 2022. The Cube is the building block of its Gridstack, Sunstack, and Edgestack energy storage products and uses LFP-280LC (lithium iron phosphate) battery modules from supplier CATL, according to a datasheet.

Capacity of the facility will start at 75 Cubes per week with plans to rise to 150 per week. The company said the launch will expand its production beyond Asia, better serve delivery to the US market and address ongoing supply chain constraints.

Fluence’s competitor Powin Energy also recently opened a local contract manufacturing facility with Celestica to serve the US market, in Mexico. Fluence has not revealed the manufacturer it has partnered with for the Utah site.

Lead times for project deliveries across the energy storage sector have increased substantially in the last 18 months due to supply chain constraints, including massive delays unloading at US ports, and localising assembly is a way to get around this.

“At a time when the energy storage industry has seen increased supply chain disruptions, this production hub will be particularly important in strengthening business continuity and improving flexibility for meeting customer needs,” said Fluence SVP & chief supply chain and manufacturing officer Carol Couch.

The company, which IPOed late last year, has also created ‘spare parts hubs’ in Utah and Ireland which are already operational. It said these will support ongoing operations and maintenance of its customers’ energy storage assets through a new service called Fluence Spares Direct, and are strategically positioned near large storage markets. The company is very active in the Irish market but also the rest of Western Europe.

Alongside these, the system integrator is opening a new product testing lab in Pennsylvania in August which will provide system-level testing of its energy storage products.

“The markets we serve have unique use cases, customer needs and regulatory requirements, and these new facilities are an expansion of the ongoing regionalisation of our operations,” said Couch.

It also recently set up a tech centre in India where a team of experts will work on engineering of enclosures, batteries and inverters, software quality assurance and product management.

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When partnered with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the next generation of battery energy storage systems (BESS) will give rise to radical new opportunities in power optimisation and predictive maintenance for all types of mission-critical facilities.

Undeniably, large-scale energy storage is shaping variable generation and supporting changing demand as part of the rapid decarbonisation of the energy sector. But this is just the beginning.

Here, Carlos Nieto, Global Product Line Manager, Energy Storage at ABB, describes the advances in innovation that have brought AI-enabled BESS to the market, and explains how AI has the potential to make renewable assets and storage more reliable and, in turn, more lucrative.

It is no surprise that more industrial and commercial businesses are embracing green practices in a big way. With almost a quarter (24.2%) of global energy use attributed to industry1, its rapid decarbonisation is a critical component of our net zero future and remains the subject of new sustainable standards and government regulations across the world.

Adding further pressure is an increasingly eco-conscious consumer, demanding the companies they spend with go the extra mile to be as environmentally friendly as possible. This is seen in a recent analysis of the stock market which revealed a direct link between pro-sustainability activity and positive stock prices impact2.

More than ever though, going greener isn’t just about ticking the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) boxes, but an issue of energy security. For years, traditional fossil-based systems of energy production and consumption – including oil and gas – have become increasingly expensive.

Add to that the current energy crisis, and businesses now face historic energy price highs not seen since the early 70s3 and widespread supply issues. For energy-intensive industrial and commercial premises where continuous power supply is often mission critical, this places an even greater onus on sustainability to mitigate the risks of escalating fuel prices and market volatility.

The result is a profound shift in the energy landscape, as more companies move away from the entrenched centrally run energy model and transition to self-generation for a more sustainable and secure future.

Decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation: Benefits and challenges

As with most aspects of the highly complex energy category, this transition is not necessarily a simple one.

To understand why, we must first consider what are widely established as the key drivers of this change – decarbonisation, decentralisation, and digitalisation. While they each bring their own set of benefits, they also bring challenges too.

In terms of decarbonisation, global industry continues to make progress toward reducing emissions and, in turn energy costs, by ramping up the pace and scale of renewable investments. But, while this shows progress, the reality is that the inherent variability of wind and solar poses some limitations.

Solar, for example, will only generate electricity in line with how much sunshine there is and will not match the same profile of the electricity that a site is using. Used in silo, companies are left with having to top-up with electricity from the grid or waste any excess generated.

Adding further complexity is the opportunity for decentralisation. The decentralised nature of renewable generation holds the potential for power users to not only produce much of the electricity they need locally, but to transition to an independent energy system, such as a microgrid, for the ultimate in self-sufficiency.

One of the major benefits of a microgrid is that it can act as part of the wider grid while also being able to disconnect from it and operate independently, for example, in the event of a blackout. Of course, this presents a huge advantage for mission critical applications, where even a moment’s downtime can entail huge operational and financial implications.

But this also brings challenges. Although a decentralised approach makes for a more resilient and secure system, it must be carefully ‘synced’ to ensure stability and alignment between generation and demand, and the wider central network.

Achieving this and meeting decarbonisation goals requires digitalisation. This will lead to a shift towards advanced energy management software which allows real-time automated communication and operation of energy systems. Such software will allow businesses to optimise the generation, supply, and storage of renewable generation according to their requirements, the market and other external factors.

In the future, it is predicted that companies could even go beyond self-sufficiency and leverage a lucrative new revenue stream by reselling excess generation, not just back to utilities but even direct to consumers or other businesses.

But for now, we need to focus on what the most suitable framework is for delivering this new layer of next-generation intelligence for the evolving energy system.

Artificial Intelligence can take BESS to a new level of smart operation

The answer to this and many of the other key challenges facing this energy transition lies in BESS.

‘Behind-the-meter’ BESS solutions already form a central part of decarbonisation strategies, enabling businesses to store excess energy and redeploy it as needed for seamless renewable integration.

When partnered with an energy management system (EMS), monitoring and diagnostics, the BESS allows operators to optimise power production by leveraging peak shaving, load-lifting, and maximising self-consumption.

Another big advantage is that these systems can provide critical backup power, preventing potential revenue losses due to production delays and downtime. But there’s more.

Beyond tackling decarbonization, applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) takes BESS to a completely new level of smart operation.

As many operatives will know, energy storage operations can be complex. They typically involve constant monitoring of everything, from the BESS status, solar and wind outputs through to weather conditions and seasonality. Add to that the need to make decisions about when to charge and discharge the BESS in real-time, and the result can be challenging for human operators.

By introducing state-of-the art AI, we can now achieve all of this in real-time, around-the-clock for a much more effective and efficient energy storage operation.

This unique innovation takes a four-pronged approach: data acquisition, prediction, simulation, and optimisation. Using advanced machine learning, the system is able to constantly handle, analyse and exploit data.

This data insight is partnered with wider weather, seasonality and market intelligence to forecast future supply and demand expectations. As a final step, a simulation quantifies how closely the predictions resemble the real physical measures to provide further validation.

The result is radical new potential for energy and asset optimisation. Through predictive analytics, it will allow commercial and industrial operators to save and distribute self-generated resources more effectively and better prepare for upcoming demand. It can also ensure ‘business as usual’ in the ability to identify and address issues before they escalate and anticipate similar failures or performance constraints.

Greater intelligence is incorporated throughout the system, which allows operators to understand everything from the resting state of charge to the depth of discharge and how these factors can degrade the battery over time. This intelligence makes it easier to predict wear and tear, increases overall lifespan and ultimately the return on the investment for the end user.

There is no doubt that the energy transition is on, as decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation continue to redefine everything we thought we already knew about how to produce and consume energy.

While this brings new complexity for industrial and commercial operators, it also provides an opportunity to reimagine environmental strategy and take advantage of innovation.

With benefits that include significant energy reductions, asset optimisation and mission-critical reliability, the transition to AI-enabled BESS is an inevitable and intelligent one.

Notes:

1 Our World in Data – Emissions by Sector. September 2020.

2 Sustainability and Stock Prices. The Joint Venture Alchemist website, October 2020.

3 CNN Business article quoting World Bank. April 2022.

About the Author

Carlos Nieto is the Global Product Line Manager for Energy Storage for ABB, providing small to large scale digitally enabled energy storage systems across a variety of segments to support the decentralisation, decarbonisation and digitalisation of the electrical grid. He has dedicated more than 15 years in the electrical industry with a primary focus on medium- and low-voltage solutions, power conversion and digital control, supporting customers as they transition to the new energy future.

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Standalone storage ITC “will provide the economics to support the development of more storage projects and help offset some of the current cost pressures the market is facing,” Burns & McDonnell’s Adam Bernardi said. Image: Burns & McDonnell.

The Inflation Reduction Act took a significant step forward over the weekend as US vice-president Kamala Harris cast a decisive vote to break a 50:50 tie of Senators to pass the legislation.

Emerging late last month the deal, negotiated largely in the background by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and long-time holdout on Build Back Better, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, now goes to the House.

After that, it will reach US President Joe Biden’s desk where it can be signed into law. The House should pass the bill “as soon as possible,” and he looked forward to signing it into law, the president said.

Along with putting forward measures to limit healthcare costs and reduce the national deficit, the Act supports US-based manufacturing of clean energy technologies like solar PV and batteries and puts a total of US$369 billion into climate change-fighting measures.

Biden said it would be “the largest investment ever in combatting the existential crisis of climate change”.

“It addresses the climate crisis and strengthens our energy security, creating jobs manufacturing solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles in America with American workers.  It lowers families’ energy costs by hundreds of dollars each year.”

Despite the protestations of right-wing politicians including Texas Senator Ted Cruz that it would increase the tax burden on working Americans, Biden and other bill supporters are adamant that it would not increase taxes on anyone earning less than US$400,000 a year.

The bill’s many provisions will be paid for through levying of a standard 15% corporation tax rate.

What it means for energy storage

Chief among the impacts on energy storage is the inclusion of an investment tax credit (ITC) for standalone energy storage, including thermal as well as electrochemical storage. That could equate to around 30% reduction of capital costs of equipment purchases.

This is something the industry has of course argued the case for over the past few years and many commentators have welcomed the 10-year fixed term for the ITC as included.

A recurring theme appeared to be that the US energy storage industry is in a growth phase where many companies and investors are already active, but the Inflation Reduction Act could unlock so much more demand through giving investors a higher degree of certainty.

“We’re optimistic and excited about the potential legislation for standalone storage investment tax credits,” Adam Bernardi, renewable energy business development leader at EPC firm Burns & McDonnell told Energy-Storage.news.

“An ITC for standalone storage will provide the economics to support the development of more storage projects and help offset some of the current cost pressures the market is facing. As the market continues to grow, having a 10-year ITC in place could help alleviate the ‘boom or bust’ cycles that the market has seen. Owners can make longer term investment plans in development and project selection and not worry about step-downs in the ITC every few years.”

Wärtsilä Energy’s VP for energy storage and optimisation, Andy Tang, called it a “small carrot” to encourage uptake of battery storage and a timely intervention by the government during a growing climate crisis.

“Passing the investment tax credit for energy storage has never been more critical given President Biden’s acknowledgment that we’ve entered a new state of emergency over climate change,” Tang said in a statement.

“This small carrot will incentivise battery investment in the US, offset high costs caused by temporary supply chain issues, and give investors much-needed certainty. This is our chance to ensure affordable electricity bills for all Americans, create and preserve hundreds of thousands of good-paying clean jobs, generate meaningful local revenues from renewable energy development, and clinch a leading global position in the energy transition.”

In a recent interview with this site, Tang had said the supply chain challenges of the past couple of years have increased the cost base of battery storage by about 25% year-on-year. Tang also talked in the July interview about the undoubted boost to the industry that the ITC would provide, but said then that despite it enjoying bipartisan political support, he wasn’t optimistic about it passing anytime soon.

Another recent interviewee, KORE Power CEO and co-founder Lindsay Gorrill told Energy-Storage.news a few months ago that solving the US’ battery supply chain issues had been among the chief motivations for starting up his company.

KORE Power manufactures battery cells as well as racks and complete systems and is constructing a 12GWh gigafactory in Buckeye, Arizona.

“The Inflation Reduction Act is the strongest commitment to date from the federal government to accelerate the good jobs and American innovation that can only come from a strong, domestic, clean energy manufacturing sector,” Gorrill said in a statement yesterday.

“Over the last three years, disruptions and shortages driven by the pandemic, international conflict and runaway inflation have amplified the need for a robust domestic supply chain to produce products and tools needed for a safe, clean, reliable energy future, on demand and on time.”

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Design sketch for the project, which will allow dual land use activities, with sheep grazing planned on site. Image: Wirsol.

German solar developer Wirsol Energy has received development approval for its Maryvale solar and energy storage project in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.

Located near to the city of Dubbo, the co-located project will consist of roughly 235MW of solar PV, combined with 190MWh – 270MWh of energy storage in the form of a lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS).

The project has now received planning approval and has submitted a grid connection request. It is expected to start construction in late 2023, with commercial operations beginning in early 2025.

To read the full version of this story, visit PV Tech.

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The company has raised US$450 million to-date. Image: Swell Energy.

Bank CIT will be the lead arranger of financing for Swell Energy’s pipeline of behind-the-meter commercial energy storage projects in California.

CIT, part of First Citizens Bank, is arranging the financing of the development of over 100 projects that Swell is delivering at commercial and industrial (C&I) sites across the state.

The projects benefit from California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) which provides incentives to support existing and new deployments of distributed energy resources (DERs), including energy storage. SGIP provides rebates to customers for DERs installed behind-the-meter (BTM).

Swell provides energy management solutions to aggregate fleets of DERs into virtual power plants (VPPs) that utility companies can use to help meet their peak demand or provide grid services, and it can also deploy the storage systems themselves.

The company did not clarify which specific project in California CIT was arranging financing for, or if it included all its projects in the state.

In October last year, Swell signed a contract to collaborate with California community choice aggregator (CCA) energy supplier Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) to deploy 45MWh of solar-paired BTM energy storage systems in Humboldt County.

It has also struck a deal with large utility Southern California Edison to aggregate DERs into a VPP and is working with the other big two as well, PG&E and SDG&E to enrol DER asset-owners into programs that allow them to receive compensation for providing power to the grid.

Suleman Khan, CEO of Swell Energy did give an idea of the types of businesses that fell under this CIT-funded project: “The ultra-light commercial sector represents a significant untapped opportunity for Swell to develop energy storage projects within. We appreciate CIT’s unique agility and expertise in arranging the financing to help move these innovative projects forward.”

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Dana Clare Redden

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is urging banking regulators to expand the use of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) to include financing support for solar and storage projects of all sizes. SEIA’s advocacy push centers around comments the organization submitted in response to new rules that would improve equitable access to solar energy and better align the CRA with the president’s clean energy and climate resilience plans.

The CRA directs regulated banks to serve low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities and is a legislative tool for catalyzing local investment and lending sources in these communities. SEIA’s comments focus on targeted changes to the CRA that could inject new funding for sources for solar and storage projects across all market segments. This will help increase credit access, lower emissions, and create more jobs and business opportunities in communities that are disproportionately affected by climate change.

“After decades of environmental racism, we now have the opportunity to lead with equity and use community investment banks to finance new solar and storage projects in communities that need them most,” says Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. “If we expand the Community Reinvestment Act to include clean energy access, we can funnel quality jobs, cleaner air, and new business opportunities to underserved neighborhoods across the country. As we look to ramp up clean energy deployment in the Solar+ Decade, we must double down on equity and one of the best ways to do this is to target and support programs that are already reaching frontline communities.”

“If we want to address systemic inequities and deliver economic prosperity to all Americans, it starts with updating laws like the Community Reinvestment Act, which aims to serve local communities,” comments Dana Clare Redden, founder of Solar Stewards and a board member of the Black Owners of Solar Services (BOSS). “Bringing the cost-saving benefits of clean energy to all Americans is of paramount importance, especially in times of rampant climate change and rising costs. Resilient and affordable solar energy can be a game-changer for American families on a limited or fixed income and expanding the Community Reinvestment Act will only further the impact we can have on underserved communities in America.”

Regulated banks, like Community Development Financial Institutions, and state and federally chartered banks and credit unions, are required to serve the communities where they are located, and new funding options could help to bring more solar projects to low- and moderate-income communities. This could include more support for local community solar projects, new financing options for residential solar and storage projects built in urban environments, and lending and tax equity support for utility-scale solar in rural areas, SEIA states.

“At the heart of it, the Community Reinvestment Act focuses on fair and equal treatment of low- and moderate individuals in their interactions with federally regulated banks in light of redlining and other historical ills,” adds Lee Peterson, senior manager of project finance and consulting at CohnReznick. “Now, these same communities are disproportionately bearing the brunt of climate change, and CRA compliance must now entail being part of the solution in addressing decades of inequity and discrimination. SEIA’s suggestions to use the CRA to expand solar and storage use is both timely and necessary, and we hope bank regulators will adopt the industry’s recommendations.”

SEIA’s comments, submitted by the organization’s regulatory affairs experts, are in response to joint rules on clean energy and climate resiliency proposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The comments urge the agencies to go much further and expand definitions of emergency preparedness and infrastructure to account for President Biden’s executive actions on climate change and identify clean energy as a critical solution for climate resiliency in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities.

LMI communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change due to a variety of factors, including inadequate access to housing, healthcare and community infrastructure, and a lack of generational wealth, making it harder for these communities to recover from extreme weather events.

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A render of the BESS that NHOA is delivering for Synergy. Image: Synergy/NHOA.

E-mobility and energy storage company New HOrizons Ahead (NHOA) has started installation work on an LFP-based 100MW/200MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Western Australia, the state’s largest.

The Government of Western Australia said today (5 August) that the first of 600 units have been installed and the rest of the work would take two months.

The project’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract was awarded to NHOA in October by Synergy, a state-owned energy generator and retailer which also trades wholesale energy. The project, pictured, will be located in the Kwinana area, just south of Perth.

A press release said the BESS would engage in renewable load shifting, absorbing rooftop solar energy when in excess and discharging during late afternoon and evening peak periods. It is also intended to provide learnings towards other large-scale projects earmarked for the next five years.

The Government of Western Australia has plans to deploy 1,100MW of new energy storage projects as part of a AU$3.8 billion (US$2.6 billion) new renewable energy infrastructure package announced in June this year.

Premier Mark McGowan said: “I want to acknowledge NHOA – which is delivering the big battery – for their confidence and investment in Western Australia, by establishing its regional headquarters here in Perth. I recently visited their head office and thanked them for their support.

Energy Minister Bill Johnston added “The lithium-ion iron phosphate big battery will be the size of one-and-a-half soccer fields, and will be connected to the Western Power network. Synergy is also implementing a battery management system, to optimise its performance and longevity.”

It is the latest in a flurry of positive energy storage news stories coming out of Australia since a new, more energy transition-friendly government was elected earlier this year.

In the last 24 hours alone, US EPC company started work on a project pairing 400MW/4,000MWh of pumped hydro energy storage with a 200MW/200MWh BESS in Queensland, while development approval was granted to a proposed 500MW/1,000MWh BESS at a retired coal plant in New South Wales, both covered by Energy-Storage.news.

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