Greener Power Solutions provides mobile temporary storage solutions. Image: Greener Power Solutions.

Mobile battery storage rental company Greener Power Solutions has raised €45 million (US$45 million) from DIF Capital Partners.

Greener Power, founded in 2018, provides mobile battery energy storage solutions through a fleet of 60 batteries totalling 20MWh. It has an in-house software platform that controls the batteries to help customers manage energy consumption in a more cost-effective way.

It will use the capital from DIF to strengthen its market position in the Netherlands and internationally by further investing in hardware, software and innovation, it said. Part of it will go to R&D while an expansion of its fleet and upscaling the 25-member team is also planned.

DIF, which has over €11 billion in assets-under-management, made the investment through its DIF CIF III fund. Willem Jansonius, partner and head of the DIF CIF strategy, commented:

“Temporary energy is of growing importance due to the overloading of the Dutch power grid that we are currently seeing. Greener’s mobile energy solutions offer its customers a significant reduction in harmful emissions and therefore contribute to the realisation of the energy transition. We look forward to working together with the management to realise Greener’s ambitious growth plans.”

Greener Power’s solution uses TheBattery Mobile, the mobile storage product from Alfen, a larger energy storage and power solutions company, also Netherlands-based. In March it acquired a further 20 units of the product, which has an energy capacity of up to 422kWh.

Dieter Castelein, co-founder and CEO of Greener Power, wrote a guest blog providing a case study of its solution for Energy-Storage.news back in 2019 which you can read here. In it, he explained how its solution can help diesel generators run much more efficiently at festivals as well as provide a backup power solution during local transformer shut-offs for grid maintenance.

Commenting on DIF’s investment, Greener Power’s COO and co-founder Klaas Akkerman said that its software can now also control other power sources as well as batteries.

“Not only can we provide insight into usage from the battery, we can also control various power sources such as solar, wind and hydrogen. In this way, we connect the temporary energy market to both storage and smart technology. That is important at a time of acute capacity problems on the energy grid and a rapidly rising demand for electricity,” he said.

The Netherlands has had a lot of activity in the mobile energy storage space in recent years which Energy-Storage.news has covered.

Two years ago, renewable energy retailer Greenchoice announced it would develop mobile battery ‘dock’ solutions with German engineering startup Greener Engineering. Shortly after that, grid operator TeneT launched a project to use mobile battery storage units to provide frequency control ancillary services.

There’s been movement elsewhere more recently too. At the end of June, energy giant EDF’s optimisation platform EDF Store & Forecast launched a partnership with Forsee Power to develop mobile and intelligent electricity storage systems using second-life batteries in Europe.

Further afield, Chinese and Indian companies AmpereHour Energy and Gotion High-Tech, respectively, recently released new mobile energy storage products. Gotion’s Gendock 3000 uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries while AmpereHour has not gone further than saying that its MoviGEN solution is lithium-ion-based.

Continue reading

The project is one of the winning projects in the recent Innovation Tender. Image: Fluence.

Global system integrator Fluence and utility Münch Energie are developing a solar-plus-storage plant with 34MWh of storage in Merseburg, Germany.

Fluence will assemble a 11.7MW/34MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) for the project using its Gridstack energy storage product. The solar PV will have a power of 34MW and the project is scheduled for completion in 2023.

The two assets will share a grid connection and will be directly connected to the electricity grid via a specially built transformer station, enabling Münch Energie to participate in the secondary reserve market (aFRR), a relatively new ancillary service market in West Europe.

The project was one of the winners in May’s Innovation Tender issued by the German Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur). Projects which pair solar PV with another renewable energy asset are eligible, and all or most winning projects are solar-plus-storage, and winning projects receive a fixed premium per kWh of energy dispatched into the grid.

Energy-Storage.news contacts have, however, criticised the Innovation Tender’s requirement that the storage asset only charge from the PV. Even Norwegian hydropower company Statkraft, which is bidding for projects, said on-record that this was not the most optimal solution while BESS developer Tricera Energy said it was a big disadvantage.

Mario Münch, founder and CEO of Münch Energie, indicated that his company and Fluence had more plans to bid for projects in the Tender: “To drive the further development of solar + storage projects in the country, Münch Energie and Fluence are planning more projects with triple-digit megawatt-hour capacity.”

By 2028, the market regulator plans to award contracts of up to 4GWh to the developers of distributed energy storage systems under the Innovation Tenders according to Fluence’s press release. This roughly matches up with Tricera’s estimate that around 400MWh of batteries would be tendered every half year in the coming years.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems says that Germany will need 84GWh of additional BESS capacity to achieve a renewable mix of 80% by 2030, on top of things like pumped hydro. It currently only has around 600MW of grid-scale (1MW-plus) BESS online, although considerably more residential and smaller commercial & industrial-located (C&I) capacity.

Services like aFRR will continue to be an important driver of revenues for grid-scale battery storage projects, but the overall grid ancillary services’ limited market size in Germany means wholesale energy trading is certain to grow in the value stack in the coming years.

Continue reading

Late last year Equinor bought a 45% stake in UK developer Noriker Power. Image: Noriker Power.

Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor will acquire East Point Energy, a US-based developer of grid-scale battery energy storage projects.

With the Norwegian state as its 67% majority shareholder, Equinor – formerly known as Statoil – is best known for its oil and gas business but has latterly become a major owner and operator of renewable energy assets, particularly offshore wind.

Its acquisition target meanwhile provides an early-stage platform for the energy major to enter the booming US battery storage market and leverage its renewables business.

For instance, Equinor has partnered with fellow fossil fuels major bp to deploy 3.3GW of wind energy generation off the coast of New York and in the process transform South Brooklyn Marine Terminal into a hub for bringing offshore wind power to land.

East Point Energy will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Equinor.

The deal marks the Norwegian group’s second significant investment into battery storage, after it invested in and became 45% owner of UK company Noriker Power, another early-stage developer, late last year.

Virginia-headquartered East Point Energy has only been around since 2018 but has developed and flipped three large-scale battery storage projects in the US Commonwealth of states that it has publicly announced its involvement in.

Its first was a 2MW/8MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project sold to non-profit electric supplier Rappahanock Electric Cooperative (REC) in Virginia’s Spotsylvania County, which Energy-Storage.news reported in August 2020.

The second was Dry Bridge, a 20MW/80MWh project sold in September last year to utility Dominion Energy through an RfP. East Point Clean Energy’s proposal was the only standalone battery project chosen by the utility in that procurement. Dominion Energy is mandated by Virginia clean energy policies to deploy 2,700MW of energy storage in its service area by 2035.

Energy-Storage.news reported in March that Yadkins, a 100MW/400MWh BESS in Chesapeake, Virginia, had been sold by the developer to Aypa Power, a battery storage-focused investment company in the portfolio of investment manager Blackstone.

East Point claims its current pipeline of opportunities is at 4.1GWh of early to mid-stage projects on the US East Coast, while its new owner-to-be said it will be able to optimise the market participation of battery assets using the energy trading platform it owns, Danske Commodities.

Equinor meanwhile also wants to invest into the developer to enable it to own and operate energy storage projects as well as develop and sell them on as it currently does.

East Point Energy’s leadership team is staying on at its offices in Charlottesville. The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year.

Continue reading

An existing Syncarpha solar PV project. Image: Syncarpha Capital

Private equity firm Syncarpha Capital has entered a partnership to co-develop solar and solar-plus-storage projects in New England, US, with Rosemawr Sustainable Infrastructure Management.

Syncarpha develops, owns and operates clean energy assets and is largely focused on community solar PV and distributed generation projects like commercial rooftop solar.

It has also been developing solar-plus-storage projects in Massachusetts for the last couple of years through a partnership with energy storage tech company Stem and another with a subsidiary of European energy major ENGIE.

The company said on Monday that its partnership with Rosemawr Sustainable Infrastructure Management, the sustainable infrastructure investment arm of investment firm Rosemawr Management, will put an initial US$100 million into project development.

Projects covered will include community solar, distributed generation solar and solar-plus-storage. Shared community solar and energy storage infrastructure delivers critical support to the grid and long-term power savings for customers, Syncarpha Capital CEO Cliff Chapman said.

Rosemawr Sustainable Infrastructure Management managing partner Josh Herlands described Syncarpha as a “a longstanding, proven project developer, sponsor, and operator with industry-leading expertise in shared community solar projects, including customer acquisition and management”.  

Syncarpha currently owns and operates over 150MW of solar in 10 US states.

Strong value proposition in Massachusetts, ISO New England territory

In terms of solar-plus-storage, Massachusetts remains the big opportunity within New England states due largely to the state’s clean energy policies, which have driven a wave of solar PV with battery energy storage systems (BESS) typically in the 5MWh to 20MWh range.

Drivers include market structures for two distinct revenue streams, the Clean Peak Standard and Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART).

SMART pays out incentives via utilities to projects that add dispatchable solar PV capacity to the energy mix, while the Clean Peak Standard mandates that a certain amount of energy on the grid at peak times must come from low carbon sources.

In a recent feature article on the US solar-plus-storage space for our quarterly journal PV Tech Power, a couple of industry commentators explained the value proposition in the Massachusetts market. Mary Cauwels, VP of product marketing for Syncarpha’s partner company Stem, gave a breakout of typical revenues associated with solar-plus-storage in Massachusetts.

Just over a third of revenues (34%) come from the energy market, Cauwels said, along with 27% from forward capacity markets, 15% from real-time reserves, 12% through the Clean Peak Standard and about 12% from frequency regulation.

Another participant in interviews for that piece, Mark Frigo, VP for energy storage at renewables developer Nexamp, explained that along with Clean Peak and SMART payments, the region’s grid and wholesale market operator ISO New England accepts storage as a capacity resource and frequency regulation asset. Massachusetts in particular is in a handful of leading US states along with California and New York to incentivise the progress of clean energy and associated energy storage, Frigo said.

However, looking at the US federally, Frigo also noted that solar-plus-storage assets are eligible for support via the investment tax credit (ITC). While standalone battery storage isn’t eligible for the ITC, batteries paired with solar are, as long as they charge directly from the solar for 75% of the year or more.

In the wider New England region, most of those opportunities can still be tapped, with ISO New England among the forefront of US regional operators to redesign market structures to accommodate energy storage – including adjusting rules ahead of implementation of FERC Order 2222 and FERC Order 841, by which federal regulator FERC ordered regional transmission organisations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) to allow behind-the-meter battery storage and other distributed energy resources (DERs) to participate freely in wholesale markets.

While in 2018 Massachusetts became one of the first US states to adopt an energy storage target of 1,000MWh by 2025, fellow New England states Connecticut and Maine also put in place state targets for energy storage deployment just over a year ago. Rhode Island recently enacted the US’ most aggressive state-level clean energy target policy, aiming to meet 100% of all electricity sales with renewables by 2033.

Continue reading

Ontario’s battery storage sector has largely focused on fairly large behind-the-meter industrial battery projects like the one pictured. Image: PRNewsfoto/Convergent Energy + Power)

A subsidiary of Canadian renewable energy investor Brookfield Renewable has proposed a 161MW/644MWh battery storage system to compete in an Ontario grid operator Request for Proposals (RfP).

Evolugen, a developer and energy asset owner wholly owned by Brookfield, presented its plan for Timberwolf, a battery energy storage system (BESS) to be built near the city of Sault Ste Marie, to the city’s council on Monday (11 July).

The lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery storage project would occupy 10 acres of land co-located with Evolugen’s existing 189MW Prince Wind power plant, about 15km outside Sault Ste Marie. Development, construction and commissioning would represent around CA$300 million (US$230.5 million) total investment.

It would increase the supply and reliability of electricity from the grid in the Sault Ste Marie area while creating local job opportunities and delivering inward investment at a time of post-pandemic economic recovery, the company claimed.

Evolugen VP of trading and marketing Simon Laroche noted that the proposed project will only go ahead if it is successful in the Long-Term Request for Proposals (LT RFP) being launched by the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO).

IESO is seeking 1,000MW of new capacity to come online between 2025 and 2027. The province is facing the retirement of Pickering, a nuclear power plant, and planned outages for other nuclear facilities.

Along with forecasted energy demand growth, this means the IESO is expecting to see a shortfall in electricity of between 4,000MW and 6,000MW by 2030 if nothing is done. As noted in a March entry on the blog of consultancy group Power Advisory, the system operator expects the need for capacity additions will begin to bite by 2025.

Evolugen’s Laroche noted that the project would therefore run to very tight and short timelines. Power Advisory noted back in March that the expedited RFP allowed for so little time that it made the building of new generation assets unlikely within the earlier part of the window. Battery storage, which can be built much quicker however, would likely play a significant role, the group said.

Timberwolf would be one of the bigger projects built in Canada, which has largely to date lagged behind its southern neighbour in battery storage rollout. Ontario has seen a fairly big rollout of behind-the-meter storage at large industrial facilities which reduce their electricity costs through peak shaving, but grid-scale storage development has been limited. Another province, Alberta, is starting to see development of renewables-plus-storage in particular with a handful of high profile projects but is still at an early stage.

Evolugen said it required the support of the local municipal council and to demonstrate community consultations had taken place for eligibility to enter IESO contracts. Laroche said feedback at community engagement sessions had been good thus far.

The only question asked by the council about the project was for further comment on the community engagement sessions. Evolugen VP for government and external relations Remi Moreau conceded that while there hadn’t been many people in attendance, the company received feedback from six attendees. Each of those had been interested in working directly on, or contracting to work with Evolugen, on the project, Moreau said.

The council unanimously ruled in favour of the Timberwolf project, clearing a major hurdle for the developer.

Evolugen’s parent company is becoming a major player in international stationary battery storage markets. An affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, Brookfield Renewable tripled its US development pipeline across all renewable technologies when it bought out developer Urban Grid, acquiring 13GW of utility-scale solar PV and 7GW of battery storage projects in the process.

A few days after sister site PV Tech reported the US$650 million Urban Grid acquisition in February, Brookfield Renewable announced its first foray into the UK’s battery storage market, targeting 985MW of opportunities with developer Cambridge Power.

Continue reading

A battery storage unit in Hawaii that Wärtsilä is set to complete this year. Image: Wärtsilä/Clearway Energy Group.

Battery energy storage systems (BESS) cost base has increased 25% in the past year, the head of storage for global energy technology group Wärtsilä told Energy-Storage.news.

“We’re looking at a 25% (+/-) increase in the cost base of BESS systems versus one year ago. There are inflationary pressures across the whole system but this magnitude of increase is really being driven by the battery cells,” said Wärtsilä’s VP energy storage & optimisation Andy Tang.

The ongoing supply chain crisis was covered in-depth in the last edition of PV Tech Power, our publisher Solar Media’s quarterly technical journal for the downstream solar industry. Tang characterised the ongoing issues as the result of a confluence of multiple events, none of whose effect can easily be quantified.

The opening of lithium mines slowed down in the 2018-2022 timeframe, he says. Part of this was due to Covid but there was also a fundamental misforecasting of the adoption of EVs. These have combined to cause the fivefold jump we’ve seen in lithium carbonate prices.

Tang highlighted that irony that Wärtsilä originally opted for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries instead of nickel-manganase-cobalt – as other big system integrators have done – as it believed that there was more stability in the commodity price bucket, with big shocks to the latter three in the past.

He says that China’s response to Covid has also exacerbated the current bottlenecks, agreeing with what other industry sources have told Energy-Storage.news previously. Shipping bottlenecks have also played a role in increasing the logistics element of a typical BESS cost base, which Tang demonstrated with a salient example.

“We’ve had projects in California where we’ve determined it was better to take the product from Shanghai, through the Panama Canal to the port of Houston, Texas, and drive it 2,000 miles to California, rather than waiting for it to unload at Long Beach, 200 miles from the project,” he said.

The jump in battery cell prices has unsurprisingly affected the cost structure of a typical BESS solution too. Tang said that for an average one-hour 50MW system, like several it is delivering for UK developer Pivot Power, battery cells would typically be around half of the balance of plant (BOP) cost. He agreed that with the jump in battery cells price that would be approaching two-thirds.

Note that, taking last year’s costs as a baseline, battery cells increase to close to 70% of the BOP costs when a lithium-ion BESS goes to four hours’ duration.

Asked about whether Wärtsilä had brought in raw material index (RMI) pricing to its BESS solution agreements as other system integrators have, Tang said: “The battery manufacturers are passing on to us any increase or decrease in raw materials directly and we, as an industry, are now looking to pass that on to our customers as well.”

Continue reading

Abigail Ross Hopper

The U.S. solar and storage industry and its allies are ramping up a push for Congress to pass a reconciliation bill with historic clean energy deployment and manufacturing provisions. Over 400 solar and storage companies sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to pass the legislation as hundreds of clean energy advocates make calls to offices on Capitol Hill.

These activities are part of an industry-wide day of action that emphasizes the massive clean energy and economic win Washington lawmakers can deliver to voters.

“The message from hundreds of solar and storage companies and advocates today is simple: Congress needs to get this done,” says Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “This is a once-in-a-generation window for leaders in Washington to deliver on their promise to tackle climate change, create clean energy jobs and ease the tight grip of inflation and the global energy crisis.”

“Ongoing inflation and the global energy crisis demand that lawmakers finally get these policies over the finish line to deliver critical cost-savings for families,” Hopper adds. “America has the means to become more energy and climate secure by putting people to work producing and deploying clean energy here at home, and now leaders must recognize the urgency of the moment by passing this legislation.”

The coalition of clean energy businesses, workers, trade groups and advocates are rallying support for a comprehensive suite of policies, including a long-term extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and a standalone credit for energy storage. The ITC is a job-creator that is capable of sparking historic levels of solar and storage deployment and is a necessary policy tool to drive growth at the pace required to tackle climate change.

Incentives for domestic clean energy manufacturing, namely Senator Ossoff’s Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act (SEMA), are a crucial element of the reconciliation package, SEIA emphasizes. With near-term trade certainty in place thanks to President Biden’s solar tariff pause, Congress has an opportunity to enact effective industrial policy for clean energy manufacturing, the organization adds.

“The time for rhetoric is over, and the only thing left is to cut a deal,” concludes Hopper. “The solar and storage industry is motivated, mobilized and ready to make our clean energy future a reality if Congress acts. It’s time.”

Continue reading

Fielded SRA system

NRG Systems Inc., a designer and manufacturer of smart technologies for a range of wind, solar and meteorological applications, is providing Solar Resource Assessment (SRA) Systems to Enel Green Power North America for pre-construction measurement campaigns in all major regions of the United States. The turnkey systems capture all relevant meteorological data, including soiling and albedo measurements, for accurate annual energy production estimates. The systems integrate with NRG Cloud, a web interface that facilitates remote management of data, troubleshooting and data logger configuration.

NRG Systems will work with Harness Energy to install, maintain and decommission the SRA Systems while ArcVera Renewables will provide data monitoring.

“There are a lot of unknowns in project development, especially given today’s supply chain challenges,” says Thomas Lattanzio, NRG’s sales manager for North America. “By providing the hardware, software, and supporting services needed to carry out a resource assessment campaign as a holistic package, we can help ensure as much project stability for our customers as possible. We are proud to supply Enel Green Power, the operator of North America’s fifth-largest wind and solar portfolio, with a complete measurement solution that will help them build their solar pipeline in as efficient a manner as possible.”

“Precise and accurate resource assessment has been foundational to Enel Green Power’s solar siting as we have developed and installed several gigawatts of new capacity over the last several years,” states Conor Branch, head of business development at Enel Green Power North America. “This technology will allow us to continue identifying prime sites in a variety of geographies across North America, enabling us to design efficient projects that contribute to our target of 6.5 GW of new renewable capacity through 2024.”

Continue reading

Bart Leusink

Sonepar USA [Holdings Inc.], a subsidiary of the privately held Sonepar Group, and EcoFasten Solar LLC, an Esdec Solar Group Co., have formed a new partnership. The collaboration with EcoFasten will bolster the services Sonepar offers its solar market customers by expanding its racking and attachment options with a manufacturer of solar roof attachments and racking systems.

Sonepar USA operates in all 50 states through more than 400 branch locations. Among their operating companies with dedicated renewable energy sales team specialists are OneSource Distributors, NorthEast Electrical (NEEDCO), Independent Electric Supply, Capital Electric Supply, Codale Electric Supply, Cooper Electric, Springfield Electric Supply, North Coast Electric and Crawford Electric Supply.

“EcoFasten’s solutions for the market have primarily benefited larger installers up until now,” says Andrew Jones, director of renewable energy at Sonepar USA. “With our new EcoFasten partnership, we will make their products accessible to solar installers of all sizes and enable enhanced services directly to regional and national solar installers.”

“We are excited about our partnership with Sonepar in the United States and look forward to our close collaboration in servicing small- to mid-size installers,” adds Bart Leusink, CEO of EcoFasten. “The Sonepar companies will provide extended regional support through a local inventory of innovative rooftop mounting and racking solutions.”

Continue reading

Erthos Inc., an energy technology company focused on utility-scale solar, has begun commercial operations for four more Earth Mount Solar PV projects in California. Developed by White Pine Renewables, the projects were acquired by Directional Services Inc. and built by OneSun Power Inc. Energy from the plants will be purchased under power purchase agreements by Teapot Dome Water District and Olam Food Ingredients.

Earth Mount Solar power plants are built without steel mounting systems, such as trackers, and are instead built by placing solar modules directly on the earth. With this method of installation, Erthos plants produce more than twice as much energy on the same area of land at a significantly reduced price per unit of energy.

“Erthos technology is truly a step forward in solar technology innovation,” says Michael Kremer, managing partner and co-founder at White Pine Renewables. “By executing on the Olam Food portfolio, Erthos has demonstrated an ability to turn projects that would not have worked with a conventional racking solution into viable assets using its innovative technology. White Pine has been proud to partner with Erthos over the past two years to ensure that we deliver for our customers – even in the most challenging circumstances.”

“This marks another stage in our rapid market adoption,” comments Jim Tyler, CEO of Erthos. “As with our first deployment a year ago, with these new projects online, we are seeing immediate and continued validation of our plant performance. Energy production, thermal performance, and the efficacy of the ErthBot cleaning robot are all supported by the data coming in from these plants.”

Erthos expects to have over 40 MW of additional projects under contract by the end of the year and is actively helping developers assess the benefits of Earth Mount Solar PV on over four GW of project pipeline.

Continue reading