Rendering of Hydrostor’s proposed large-scale project in Broken Hill, Australia. Image: Hydrostor.

In the first half of this year, energy storage companies raised almost as much corporate funding as in the whole of 2021, according to Mercom Capital.

The latest edition of the market research group’s quarterly funding and M&A report for energy storage, smart grid and energy efficiency found that US$15.8 billion of corporate funding was raised in H1 2022 in energy storage.

In 2021, that figure stood at US$9.6 billion at the half-year mark and at US$17 billion at the end of the year. That annual sum had been a 159% increase over the previous year’s pandemic-depressed US$6.5 billion and was the highest recorded since 2014.

With Mercom CEO and lead analyst Raj Prabhu having said in January that 2021 was the first year in which “funding activity reflected the significance of battery energy storage in the energy transition,” this year is on track to be bigger.

That said, Q2 was relatively quiet after a strong first quarter. Of the US$15.8 billion half-year total for 2022, US$12.9 billion was recorded in Q1.

A trend Mercom noted this time out was that the profile of investors is shifting from venture capital (VC) to increasing shares of public and debt financing, with several energy storage companies having listed publicly in the past year or so.

VC funding in the energy storage sector in H1 2022 was down 34% year-on-year against the same period of 2021, at US$2.9 billion across 45 deals versus US$4.4 billion from 34 deals. There was a quarter-on-quarter increase from US$1.1 billion in Q1 2022 across 21 deals, to US$1.8 billion in Q2 of this year from 24 deals, but again, compared to US$3.4 billion across 20 deals in Q1 2021 was a significant drop.

Corporate funding for the first half of this year was almost equal to 2021’s total and more than double what was raised in 2020. Image: Solar Media, sourced from Mercom data.

Venture capital funding into energy storage has decreased while debt and public financing become increasingly prevalent. Image: Solar Media from Mercom Capital data.

Mercom – which appears to use the terms ‘energy storage’ and ‘battery storage’ somewhat interchangeably in its reporting – said that there is a wide diversity of technologies and companies raising funding. These include lithium-ion battery companies, fuel cells, compressed air energy storage, zinc-based batteries, flywheels and many other technologies classifiable as energy storage, or more loosely, battery storage.

Energy storage and renewable energy investor Eolian raised US$925 million VC funding during the reported period, making it the single biggest dealmaker in the sector. Eolian got funding from investors including major banking groups MUFG and Banco Santander and its portfolio includes the development pipeline of an energy storage developer it acquired, Able Grid.

In second place was Group 14 Technology a group developing and commercialising advanced lithium-silicon batteries, while in third place was advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) company Hydrostor, which raised a long-term US$250 million investment commitment earlier this year from Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

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The Finland-based company gets over half of net sales from its Marine segment. Image: Wartsila.

After falling by more than two-thirds in quarter one 2022, energy storage order intake increased 19% in quarter two for marine and energy solutions company Wärtsilä.

The Finland-based company said that the global inflationary environment has resulted in higher quotation prices, slower customer decision-making, and considerable uncertainty in the investment environment for energy storage during 2022 (as well as liquid and gas fuelled power plants). Its VP energy storage & optimisation Andy Tang recently told Energy-Storage.news that the BESS cost base has gone up 25% year-on-year.

This was clearly felt in the first quarter of the year, when energy storage order intake fell 68% to 260MW. But in Q2, it jumped 19% to 618MW. Overall, energy storage order intake for the first half of the year was still down by 34%, to 878MW.

Wärtsilä derived 45% of its €1.4 billion (US$1.42 billion) Q2 sales from Energy, a segment covering gas power plants, hybrid solutions, energy storage and optimisation technology including the GEMS energy management platform, with the Marine segment making up just over half.

Company-wide H1 sales grew 27% to €2.6 billion while operating result was €61 million, up 112%.

Håkan Agnevall, president & CEO, said: “The energy market continued to be volatile. However, the demand for balancing power is growing, and we received important orders for both thermal power and energy storage solutions. The service business in Energy performed very well, and is further supported by the recent launch of our Decarbonisation Services.”

Order intakes for its fossil fuel-generating Energy segments, gas and oil, also contrasted substantially quarter-on-quarter, growing 51% and 377% respectively in Q1, but just 6% and 7% in Q2.

Order intake across its whole Energy segment during Q2 2022 was up 51% while net sales grew similarly at 52%, to €633 million. For the entire first half of the year, order intake growth was slower at 25% while sales increased 66%, to €1,168 million.

Recent large energy storage orders for the company (although not all falling within these reporting periods) included 2GWh for Clearway Energy Group’s co-located PV facilities in Hawaii and California and a 50MW/100MW system for a project in the UK.

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Tesla Megapack battery storage units at the pair’s completed Contego project. Image: Harmony Energy.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV) and UK developer Harmony Energy have announced the initial construction works of the Clay Tye battery energy storage system (BESS), which they claim is the UK’s largest in construction. 

Clay Tye is in Essex, southeast England, and will be a two-hour duration system with a power rating of 99MW and an energy capacity of 198MWh. It will use 52 Tesla Megapacks and the EV giant’s optimisation platform, Autobidder.

Some readers may be confused by this announcement coming 10 months after Harmony announced that work had “started immediately” on the project. That signified the start of overhead line work, after which there was a short delay with an announcement on 18 July signifying the official start, sister site Solar Power Portal was told by a source close to the project. 

To read the full version of this story, visit Solar Power Portal.

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EDP’s floating PV plant (in background) at the hydropower dam in Alqueva, Portugal. Image: EDP

Portuguese utility EDP is to add energy storage to a hybrid floating solar and hydropower project after it was energised earlier this month.

EDP completed the installation of a 5MW floating solar array at a hydropower dam in Alqueva. The FPV facility occupies around 4 hectares of space – equivalent to less than 0.02% of the reservoir area – and the solar aspect of the power station is expected to produce around 7.5GWh of power each year.

Now having completed the installation, which involved a total investment of €6 million (US$6.07 million), EDP is to next add a 1MW/2MWh battery energy storage system. Once complete, all three technologies will share a single grid connection point, which EDP said would promote “asset optimisation and efficiency while reducing environmental impacts”.

Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade, CEO at EDP, labelled the project an “example of innovation and sustainability” and hailed floating solar as a “landmark leap” in the expansion of renewables.

“[The] bet on hybridisation, by combining electricity produced from water, sun, wind and storage, is a logical path of growth in which EDP will continue to invest – it allows us to produce cheaper energy, optimises resources and with minimal environmental impact.”

The Alqueva project uses floats made from recycled plastic combined with cork composites, a method of producing floats for FPV which is being trialled for the first time. They have been produced in partnership with composites firm Corticeira Amorim and Spanish engineering business Isigenere.

The floats are 15% lighter than previous designs and reduce the carbon footprint of the project by about 30%.

The hybrid floating solar project also precedes a considerably larger FPV installation set for Alqueva, a 70MW array awarded to EDP in Portugal’s floating solar auction earlier this year.

EDP said this 5MW array had helped to accelerate investment in floating solar and was “opening doors” in further auctions.  

Floating solar installations are increasing globally, driven by a mix of land scarcity, falling project costs and developers, planners and financiers becoming altogether more familiar with the technology. Synergies with hydropower facilities are also strongly expected to emerge, with a number of developers and utilities having already identified the potential for hybrid power projects.

This story first appeared on PV Tech.

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Tim Rosenzweig

Dan Venuti has joined PivotGen, formerly Pivot Power Management, a renewable energy development and repowering company, as vice president of development. He will lead the development of the company’s repowering vertical.

Prior to joining PivotGen, Venuti was a director at NextEra Energy, with responsibilities including origination and early-stage development. Earlier in his career, he held various leadership positions at NextEra Energy Resources and Florida Power and Light with a focus on commercial origination and multi-technology renewable development. Prior to his time at Nextera, Venuti held various finance, strategy and development roles at both ExxonMobil and the 7-Eleven Corp. He has led teams responsible for the development and origination of over 3 GW of wind and solar projects including 1.6 GW of wind repowerings, deploying roughly $3 billion of capital across multiple markets.

“Following the recent launch of our repowering partnership, we are excited to welcome Dan to drive this key area of our business,” says Tim Rosenzweig, PivotGen’s CEO.

PivotGen recently announced a partnership with the Ayala Corp. and UPC Solar & Wind Investments LLC to acquire U.S. wind projects with the purpose of extending the lives of those projects through repowering.

“I’m really excited about the opportunities ahead of us at PivotGen. With a strong financial commitment and a sound investment thesis, I expect great things lie ahead,” states Venuti. “The company’s commitment to a clean energy future through investments in existing asset infrastructure is appealing and unique in the space. I’m looking forward to help grow this important initiative.”

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GameChange Solar (GCS) has received three new Genius Tracker system orders with the aggregate total of 400 MW, making GCS’ current Texas sales to over 3.5 GW. The orders were placed by Bridgelink Engineering, based in Fort Worth, Texas.

These solar power plant locations are strategically placed next to major urban cities, Houston and Dallas. Once completed, these three systems will produce energy for over 65,000 homes when needed most on the hottest or coldest days in Texas.

“Securing these additional projects further advances GameChange Solar’s foothold in this booming market, and we have no plans on slowing down as many more systems are in the process of being finalized and ordered this summer with immediate shipments later this year and early Q1 2023,” says Max Johnson, director of business development at GameChange Solar. “We look forward to competing to become the market share leader in Texas with our top valued solutions for utility scale solar that is widely preferred by owners, operators and EPC’s alike.”

“We chose to go with GameChange Solar because of their local presence, unbeatable customer service, excellent product price point, and preassembled parts that lower our install cost,” adds Cord Johnson, CEO of Bridgelink Engineering. “We plan on being long term partners and continue to grow together with GameChange.”

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A bird’s eye view of Greenbacker’s 2.3 MW solar farm on a capped landfill

Greenbacker Renewable Energy Co. LLC’s (GREC) Mt. Arlington Landfill solar project has started commercial operations. The 2.3 MW DC solar farm produces cheaper clean power for the Borough of Mt. Arlington, N.J.

“Congratulations to all the folks at Greenbacker for completing this project, and to Mt. Arlington for converting a dump into something that can help save our economy and help save the planet,” says U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ 7th District). Malinowski is co-author of the America COMPETES Act, a bipartisan proposal to help boost domestic manufacturing of essential materials, including solar panels and other clean energy components.

“The energy transition isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have,” states Mehul Mehta, CIO of GREC, emphasizing the importance of investing in renewable energy projects. “We’ve hit a critical juncture where it’s essential to scale the energy transition with projects like this sooner rather than later.”

Greenbacker purchased the solar farm from developer HESP Solar in late 2021. HESP and local officials spent several years coordinating efforts to make the land suitable for redevelopment and transform it into a functioning solar farm.

“This was a blighted property that was turned into a magnificent project to the benefit of our residents,” comments Mt. Arlington Mayor Michael Stanzilis. “It brings clean energy to the people in our borough, and it puts money back into taxpayers’ pockets.”

Since the solar energy project began producing power for the borough – with whom Greenbacker has a long-term power purchase agreement – it has generated over 1.3 GWh of clean energy, abating 971 metric tons of carbon. That’s roughly equivalent to the emissions from consuming 110,000 gallons of gasoline or burning 1.1 million pounds of coal.

Over the last few years, Greenbacker has partnered with HESP on 17 renewable energy projects. Ten of them are in New Jersey.

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Pivot Energy’s community solar capacity in Illinois now stands at 51 MW. One of these projects includes a 2.8 MW system in Kankakee, Ill.

Pivot Energy, a national renewable energy provider, has started construction of 10 new community solar projects in Illinois that will provide low-cost electricity to households and businesses across the state. The portfolio of projects represents 17.1 MW of capacity through the Illinois Adjustable Block Program across Ameren and Commonwealth Edison utility service territories.

“We are fiercely dedicated to providing equitable access to community solar,” says Garrett Peterson, senior vice president of project development of Pivot Energy. “By offering solar energy to those who need it most, we are empowering individuals and expanding the benefits to entire communities in the form of cleaner air, lower electricity bills, and jobs.”

Pivot Energy previously developed a 34 MW portfolio of community solar projects across Illinois in early 2021. With the new portfolio, the company’s community solar capacity now stands at 51 MW.

The portfolio is expected to produce 80 million kWh of electricity per year, offsetting the equivalent of more than 60,000 tons of carbon emissions according to the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalency Calculator.

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Slate, a large-scale solar-plus-storage plant in California, from which community energy groups are buying clean power. Image: Recurrent Energy.

A power purchase agreement (PPA) has been signed for the output of a large-scale solar-plus-storage power plant in Arizona by a group of municipal utilities and local authorities in the US state.

Southwest Public Power Agency (SPPA) collectively represents the interests of different member organisations that include regional water and irrigation districts, municipal electricity suppliers, tribal authorities and towns in Arizona.

Renewable energy power company BrightNight, which specialises in hybrid solar, wind and storage projects typically over 200MW, said yesterday that it has contracted with SPPA for output from Box Canyon, a project in Arizona’s Pinal County.

Box Canyon will pair 300MW of solar PV with a 600MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) and having completed the permitting process, should be commissioned and in commercial operation in 2025.

BrightNight responded to a solicitation for renewable energy from SPPA, which is classified as a Joint Action Agency.

The solicitation was launched via a Request for Proposals (RfP) in late 2020, and although it stated that the group’s members sought up to 200MW of gas-fired generation and up to 100MW of solar PV (including solar-plus-battery and standalone solar), the developer said it was able to offer a scope of technology in its proposal that exceeded the requirements of SPPA’s RfP configurations.

BrightNight has partnered with independent power producer (IPP) Cordelio Energy on the Box Canyon project. Canada-headquartered Cordelio owns and manages more than 1,200MW of renewable energy assets in North America including large-scale solar PV and wind.

The IPP is owned by an institutional investor, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which earlier this year made a US$25 million investment into Hydrostor, a technology and project developer for advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES).

The BrighNight-Cordelio joint venture (JV) will sell power to 21 of SPPA’s member groups.

This type of deal has been seen elsewhere in the US recently, mostly in California, where several of that state’s Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) non-profit electricity supply groups have made some fairly large collective procurements for solar-plus-storage and notably, long-duration standalone battery storage.

Arizona meanwhile is already home to significant solar PV generation capacity, and this has led to recent new PV projects including battery storage almost as standard. In a recent interview, Lucas Moller, head of energy storage at developer Recurrent Energy said that in southwestern US regions like Arizona, Southern California and Nevada, it makes more sense to add storage than to not.

So much solar energy has been added to the grids in those areas that the value of midday electricity generation is very low in “every marginal megawatt of renewable power,” so that the value in using batteries to shift that power for use at other times of day becomes compelling, Moller said.

In April, Energy-Storage.news reported that Arizona utility companies Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and UniSource Energy were seeking to procure 450MW of firm capacity resources which could be called upon to provide up to four hours of continuous energy during summer peaks in electricity demand. Those procurement drives are currently ongoing.

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Aypa acquired the Yadkins standalone BESS project from East Point Energy in March this year. Image: Aypa Power.

Blackstone portfolio company Aypa Power has closed an US$88 million construction and term loan facility for Wolf Tank, a 173MWh standalone energy storage project in Texas.

Energy storage and hybrid asset developer, owner and operator Aypa has closed the debt deal with CIT, a division of First Citizens Bank, and Siemens Financial Services.

Wolf Tank is a 173MWh standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Webb County, Texas. It will begin commercial operations in 2023 and support the delivery of dependable electricity supply in the south region of the grid operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

“As energy demands continue to grow in Texas, so do challenges with reliability,” said Aypa Power CEO, Moe Hajabed. “Wolf Tank and other Aypa energy storage and hybrid projects within our 12GW pipeline will provide flexible capacity to better meet peak load needs.”

A press release did not reveal the hours’ duration or MW of the project. But a filing with the Public Utility Comission of Texas dated 2 June, 2022, said that the Wolf Tank project would be a one-hour system with a power and capacity rating of 150MW/150MWh.

Assuming the Filing is still accurate as regards duration, the one-hour rating is noteworthy as many (if not most) projects are moving to two-hour durations as the ERCOT market increasingly moves to wholesale energy trading as a proportion of BESS revenues.

This now stands at around half of revenues according to investor Gore Street Capital which recently entered the market, with the remainder mainly from ancillary services, primarily regulation reserve service (RRS) and a sub-set of that called fast frequency response (RRS-FFR).

Just in the past month, projects brought online by Jupiter Power, acquired by Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy, and funded by US development bank NADBank have all been two-hour systems. Having said that, none are as large in MW as Wolf Tank’s (again assuming one hour) and a recent 260MW project brought online by Vistra – the state’s largest – was also a one-hour system.

Blackstone, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, acquired Aypa Power in 2020 when it was a commercial & industrial-focused (C&I) storage provider called NRSTOR C&I, before re-branding it a few months later.

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