Testing of the UPS at the Dublin data centre site. Image: Microsoft.

Microsoft will be the latest big tech player to use battery storage at data centres, which will provide grid flexibility services when not being called upon as backup power.

Lithium-ion batteries will be used instead of diesel generators at a site in Dublin, Ireland and the installation is nearing completion, according to an entry in the company’s corporate blog.

The system has been certified, tested and approved for grid connection; Microsoft staffer John Roach wrote last week.  

It’s an uninterruptible power system (UPS) that is also “grid-interactive”. In other words, as well as providing backup power supplies to electrical equipment – which protects the equipment from damage if the grid goes down as well as keeping the centre running – the batteries will also provide grid services.

Microsoft had commissioned advisory firm Baringa to evaluate opportunities to decarbonise Irish data centres with the grid-interactive UPS technology. Baringa’s study found that it could displace fossil fuel use as well as providing system services in the DS3 grid-balancing markets of transmission operator EirGrid.

It would also mean higher utilisation of renewable energy on the grid that would otherwise be curtailed and lost.

Ireland is targeting meeting 70% of electricity demand with renewable energy by the end of the decade. With Ireland experiencing a recent boom in data centre building, EirGrid forecasted in 2019 that they could be responsible for 29% of all electricity demand in the country within 10 years.

Baringa meanwhile said replacing fossil fuels at data centre operations could lead to a 2 million metric tonne decrease in CO2 emissions by 2025, equivalent to a fifth of Ireland’s entire power sector emissions. Batteries are playing a key role in DS3, which has a market structure EriGrid implemented to accomodate storage.

Power management group Eaton has developed the UPS equipment through a wider partnership with Microsoft, deploying proof-of-concept models in 2020 at a data centre in Chicago, US. Energy-Storage.news has reached out to Eaton to ask about the sizing and capacity of the UPS.

Enel X will take the battery asset into the DS3 grid services markets for frequency response.

The announcement follows on the heels of Google’s project at one of its data centres in Belgium. That 2.75MW/5.5MWh system was described by the search engine company as a likely precursor to a wider rollout across its global operations.

Like Microsoft, Google will try out the battery technology’s ability to provide grid services. That can not only earn the asset owner money but also help maintain stability of the grid at lower cost and with lower emissions than by using fossil fuels.

Both companies are targeting fully carbon-free operations by 2030. Incidentally, they have also both recently joined the Long Duration Energy Storage Council (LDES Council).

Other data centre operators and developers are trying out batteries too, with the most recent example reported by this site a project in Wyoming, US, which will use zinc-based batteries as backup power.

Broad Reach Power leans on energy storage experience to manage Texas data centre’s ERCOT play

On a related note, US independent power producer (IPP) Broad Reach Power is also making a move into the data centre space. The company develops and owns utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage.

That has included some of the biggest standalone battery storage projects in Texas’ ERCOT market, one of the US’ leading regions for batteries on the grid.

The company’s subsidiary Broad Reach Energy Services has entered a partnership with Lancium, an infrastructure solutions group that is building data centres in areas with abundant renewable energy resources.

Lancium has also developed a proprietary technology which helps data centres act as smart demand response assets, with its Lancium Smart Response software able to command centres to turn up or turn down energy use within five seconds of receiving a grid signal.

The company’s first 345MW site is being built in Fort Stockton, Texas. Broad Reach will supply the site with retail energy and provide scheduling services for the site’s energy capacity. The Fort Stockton campus will be qualified to operate as a ‘Controllable Load Resource’ in the ERCOT wholesale market and is planned to be fully operational this summer.    

Broad Reach executive VP Paul Choi said the IPP’s experience in managing large-scale energy storage in the ERCOT service area made it well-positioned to optimise Lancium’s participation in the market. Broad Reach Power was valued in excess of US$600 million last November as a 50% stake in the company was bought by asset management firm Apollo.

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Kibo Energy will roll out CellCube’s vanadium flow battery across projects in the Southern Africa region. Image: Enerox/Cellcube.

South African energy company Kibo Energy will procure two vanadium redox flow battery system pilot projects from CellCube, the first step in a larger rollout.

Kibo, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, has committed to purchase two proof of concept (POC) projects from flow battery company CellCube (official name Enerox). Specifically, it will buy CellCube FB 250 – 1000 Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries.

The purchases relate to a five-year framework agreement between the two companies aimed at deploying 1GW-plus of CellCube’s batteries across countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, signed in May. The SADC comprises all 16 countries from South Africa up to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania.

Kibo mainly owns coal assets but is transitioning to green energy, and will play the role of project developer and integrator of the CellCube battery system.

Louis Coetzee, CEO at Kibo Energy, said: “The Company is at the moment completely focused on getting the various projects in its current portfolio past financial close and into production within the next 18 months as previously stated.”

“As part of this drive, the Company is focusing all its resources on operational matters and project delivery and will attend to certain non-essential corporate activities, like the previously announced planned share capital consolidation, at a later stage in the future if still deemed necessary at such a time.”

As part of their agreement, Kibo has conditional exclusive rights to the marketing, sales, configuration and delivery of Austria-based CellCube’s VRFBs for behind-the-meter microgrid applications, but not utility-scale projects.

It is targetting ICT towers, gated communities, shopping centres and commercial parks while both companies will review a bespoke renewable energy project microgrid pipeline.

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Rendering of the planned 25MW/50MWh Darlington Point BESS which will be built together with two other systems, one of 60MW/120MWh and the other 65MW/130MWh. Image: Edify Energy.

Newly announced funding support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is enabling the expansion of a planned large-scale battery project in New South Wales.

ARENA said this morning that its A$6.6 million (US$4.5 million) commitment means clean energy developer Edify Energy can build 150MW/300MWh of energy storage at three sites.

They are being built adjacent to a 333MWp/275MWac solar farm at Darlington Point, a small town in western New South Wales (NSW).

The ARENA funds will directly support the deployment of one of the three sites, a 25MW/50MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) equipped with advanced inverters.

Advanced inverter projects are currently a focus for the agency. It has already helped fund four projects that have them and it is currently also running a A$100 million funding opportunity for which it has shortlisted 12 other advanced inverter-equipped BESS projects for support.

Advanced inverter technologies enable batteries and other inverter-based energy resources to provide synchronous inertia to the grid, a vital service which keeps the network stable and running properly. Traditionally a role played by thermal power plants, as the number of fossil fuel plants – mainly coal – for baseload decreases, there is a need for this inertia to come from alternative means.

At Edify’s Darlington Point project, batteries will not only firm up renewable energy, but the systems will strengthen the grid in the southwestern part of NSW and in turn “help to unlock more renewable uptake,” ARENA acting CEO Chris Faris said.

“To support the rapid transformation of our electricity system, large scale batteries will need to evolve to do more than just store energy. They need to be equipped with advanced inverters that can provide critical grid stability services to keep the system safe and secure, especially as synchronous generators retire and renewables provide a higher share of supply. That’s why it’s important to support and demonstrate projects like this, where batteries with advanced inverters can help supply critical stability services to the grid.”

ARENA previously supported Edify on another large-scale BESS project at Gannawarra in the state of Victoria in 2017, a 25MW/50MWh system and one of the country’s first of its kind.

As with the Gannawarra project, Tesla has been selected as the battery equipment provider for Darlington Point, with the California-headquartered company’s Megapack BESS solution to be used.

Energy-Storage.news reported in June that Edify has secured a long-term syndicated loan facility from banks as well as offtake contracts with Shell and utility EnergyAustralia to use the Darlington Point battery systems in the National Electricity Market (NEM). The developer has sold a majority stake in the project to Federation Asset Management but retains a minority interest.

ARENA noted today that the government of NSW has also pledged A$6.5 million in funding support for the project as part of the state’s A$75 million Emerging Energy Program.

While battery storage is playing a number of increasingly vital roles in the Australian energy system and making strong returns through the NEM, the merchant nature of the revenue streams earned versus long-term contracted revenues presents a challenge to project developers, which need to convince investors that that uncertainty doesn’t necessarily equal a big risk.

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Moss Landing, the largest battery storage system in the world at 400MW/1,600MWh, was expanded in 2021. Image: Vistra Energy.

Battery storage capacity in the US more than tripled to 4,631GW in 2021 and increasingly broadened out of ancillary services, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The amount of battery storage capacity grew 220%, from 1,438MW in 2020, driven by the commissioning of 106 utility-scale systems with 3,202MW, the EIA said. That means 2,923MW of new battery storage entered commercial operation over the course of the year.

Its storage figures, part of an early release of the final EIA-860 data, differ from other market reports from organisations such as Wood Mackenzie, BloombergNEF and American Clean Power.

BloombergNEF reported that 4.2GW of battery storage was added in 2021, bringing the total to 6.6GW installed, while Wood Mackenzie’s figures said 3.5GW of ‘energy storage’ was brought online. American Clean Power (ACP) estimated that 2.6GW was brought online, with the cumulative total reaching 4.6GW (4,588MW), though the ACP’s figures only included grid-scale.

The EIA also noted a broadening of the role batteries play beyond the traditional ancillary services that typically birth the battery energy storage market.

Although stable revenue-generating services like frequency response and ramping or spinning reserve continue to represent a significant share of the use case capacity, arbitrage, load management and response to excess wind and solar generation are increasingly mentioned as use cases.

In 2021, arbitrage was cited as a use case for half of grid-scale batteries installed, though the EIA did not say how far this had increased. The amount of batteries citing load management as a use case grew from 110MW in 2020 to 854MW in 2021, a nearly eight-fold rise. Some 1,086MW of batteries citing wind and solar power firming came online over the course of the year.

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Chester Maple Garage

DSD Renewables and The City of White Plains have completed the construction of a nine-site, 6.8 MW community solar portfolio, the largest municipal solar energy deployment in Westchester County, N.Y. The portfolio is expected to generate 8,100 MWh of energy annually, tripling the amount of solar energy produced in Westchester County and enough to power more than 700 homes each year. The New York Power Authority (NYPA) was the city’s energy advisor for the project.

The portfolio consists of canopy, rooftop and ground-mount installations at four parking garages, Gillie Park, the Ebersole Ice Rink, Gedney Way Recycling Facility, Water Storage Site and the Sanitation Complex. Energy storage systems totaling 1.76 MW / 8 MWh were also installed at the Recycling Facility and the Shapham Place parking garage.

“The city partnered with NYPA and DSD to create a successful 6.8 MW community solar portfolio that will not only benefit residents today, but future generations,” states White Plains Mayor Roach. “Public-private partnerships will drive the proliferation of clean-energy projects through New York State creating a robust renewable energy market. I am grateful to NYPA and DSD for their counsel and collaboration during this project.”

The city, as well as residents and local businesses subscribed to the community solar project, will receive a 10% discount for credits applied to their energy bill. Between energy cost savings and lease payments for hosting the systems, the installations are expected to deliver approximately $1 million in value annually to the City of White Plains.

The projects incorporated several infrastructure improvements, such as a new roof for the Ebersole Ice Rink and an enclosed solar canopy storage area for the water department. The canopies across many sites feature a proprietary integrated water management system that manages water from rain and snow melt.

At the Gedney Way Recycling Facility, DSD’s canopy team designed a floating foundation canopy mounted on a landfill cap. Additionally, two canopy systems at the site incorporate sidewalls to store and protect city equipment.

“We’re honored to be a part of a portfolio that has been so transformational for the City of White Plains,” says David Eisenbud, senior director of business development for DSD’s Origination group. “Our expertise and design capabilities have enabled us to overcome the challenges of delivering clean energy systems, with such significant energy capacity, to a dense urban area. This unique portfolio positions the city as a leader in solar adoption and shows other communities what is possible when it comes to clean energy.”

NYPA is the acting energy advisor for the project, providing oversight to ensure it is well-structured and maximizes energy, environmental and economic benefits for White Plains. NYPA also helped the city with the competitive bid process to select a qualified vendor for the comprehensive city-wide project.

“The New York Power Authority is pleased to have played a key role in helping the City of White Plains create an expansive, unique portfolio of solar and storage systems that offer renewable energy to reduce the region’s carbon footprint,” adds Justin E. Driscoll, interim president and CEO of NYPA.

“As the commercial hub of Westchester County, White Plains is setting an example for other communities looking to develop alternative clean energy options. Hopefully other municipalities will follow suit and help our state further advance its bold climate action goals.” Perch Energy, which has enabled more than 8,100 community solar subscriptions and delivered millions in customer savings, will manage the community solar subscriptions.

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Volkswagen executives at the launch of construction. Image: Volkswagen.

Volkswagen has started construction of its 40GWh battery cell gigafactory in Salzgitter, Germany, and the company plans to dedicate capacity to grid-scale energy storage in future.

The automative group announced the start at a ground breaking ceremony yesterday (7 July). The facility it set to open in 2025 and will produce battery cells for electric vehicles (EVs).

It is part of “battery offensive” by the company which has started with the creation of a new subsidiary, PowerCo, under which all of the company’s global battery business will go. Volkswagen said that PowerCo plans to produce products for the grid-scale energy storage sector in future.

A total of €20 billion (US$20.3 billion) will be invested in the battery business to generate annual sales in excess of €20 billion and to employ up to 20,000 people in Europe alone.

Salzgitter, where PowerCo will be headquartered, is the first of several gigafactories Volkswagen has planned. The next one will be established in Valencia and sites are currently being identified for three further gigafactories in Europe. PowerCo is also exploring the possibility of further gigafactories in North America.

By 2030, the Volkswagen Group intends to operate six cell factories with a total volume of 240GWh throughout Europe.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz commented on the start of construction: “Today is a good day for the automotive industry in Germany and Europe. Volkswagen is showing how the future of sustainable, climate-compatible mobility could look. Together, we are laying the foundation for shaping this future to a significant extent in Salzgitter.”

Each factory PowerCo launches will be operated entirely from renewable energy resources and will be designed for future closed-loop recycling, the company said.

It added that its prismatic unified cell allows the flexible use of different cell chemistries and will be used in up to 80% of all Volkswagen group EV models. The cell “harnesses synergy effects” and will reduce battery costs by up to 50%.

The Salzgitter gigafactory was initially launched through a JV with European gigafactory group Northvolt, called Northvolt Zwei, before Northvolt sold its share in the JV to Volkswagen in March 2021. But Volkswagen has invested in Northvolt and the JV share sale coincided with a US$14 billion order of battery cells from the former to the latter.

Energy-Storage.news recently reported that some gigafactory projects in Europe are quietly revising plans and may not open at all, according to an advisor. A handful of major gigafactory projects are set to start production of battery cells this year.

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Fluence’s tech centre in India opened this week. Image: Fluence.

Fluence opens technology centre in Bangalore

Fluence has opened a technology centre in Bangalore, India, which will support the system integrator and energy services company’s global customers.

It’s the company’s first tech centre in Asia and complements similar operations in North America and Europe. Fluence has around 4.8GW of battery storage projects in operation, development or construction and a growing number of contracts to optimise storage and renewable energy assets through its digital software platform.

A team of experts at Fluence India Technology Centre will work on areas including engineering of enclosures, batteries and inverters, software quality assurance and product management.

The announcement made earlier this week follows the news from January that Fluence is forming a joint venture (JV) with independent power producer (IPP) ReNew Power, to target opportunities within the India market.

Fluence was the first company to deploy a 10MW grid-scale battery storage project in the country, developed jointly by AES and Mitsubishi. It was commissioned in 2019, in a market which has just been described as now being on the verge of an “energy storage revolution”.

Redflow launches new zinc-bromine flow battery product

Production has begun of the latest range of flow batteries using zinc-bromine electrolyte from Redflow’s factory in Thailand.

The ASX-listed Australian company made the announcement yesterday that the Gen3 battery is commercially available and deliveries to customers will begin next month. The product comes in 10kWh modules stackable up to multi-megawatt configurations.

As the name implies, Gen3 is Redflow’s third-generation product, although there was a Gen 2.5 product between the last two major iterations.

Key features include a new stack design, updated electronics and increased functionality along with new tank design and cooling system. CEO Richard Aird said “significant manufacturing cost reductions” as well as performance improvements have been achieved from applying learnings from its earlier products’ field usage delivering more than 2GWh of energy and over 10 million hours uptime since 2018.

The company recently completed a 2MWh flow battery project at a bioenergy project in California, its first North America project and its biggest to date. In its half-year financial results to 31 December 2021, the company registered a 172.3% increase in revenues from the same period the previous year.

Redflow’s Gen3 10kWh Zinc-Bromine Module (ZBM) as it looked under development in 2021. Image: Redflow.

Ground breaking for Wyoming data centre with zinc battery backup power

A new data centre under construction in Wyoming, US will rely on zinc-based battery energy storage system (BESS) for backup power.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news in January this year, nickel-zinc batteries from tech company ZincFive will be used to support 30MW of critical IT loads at the first phase of the 120MW centre being built in Aspen, Wyoming.

Data centre company Wyoming Hyperscale is planning to build a number of sustainable data centre facilities for a market projected to double in size between now and 2026. Engineering firm Burns & McDonnell, which is working on the project, announced the start of construction in mid-June.

The Aspen Mountain Hyperscale Data Center campus has been designed to eliminate industrial water consumption and refrigerant use as well as being powered by renewable energy and utilise liquid-cooled IT equipment.

As noted in a February guest blog for this site by Dr. Josef Daniel-Ivad, manager of the Zinc Battery Initiative trade and technology group, the data centre company specified that it was seeking a zinc-based backup solution in developing the project. Daniel-Ivad said this was another example that zinc battery technologies are ready for “commercial prime time”.

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PV modules supplied by Maxeon at Quinbrook subsidiary Primergy’s Gemini Project near Las Vegas, Nevada, US. Image: Quinbrook.

Quinbrook is developing a A$2.5 billion (US$1.7 billion) ‘Supernode’ site in Queensland, Australia, for storing energy and data that would include 2,000MWh of battery storage.

The US-headquartered investment manager said today that it has already received local planning permission and Foreign Investment Review Board approvals, as well as a 30-hectare site for the proposed project in Queensland’s Moreton Bay region.

It will be built adjacent to a substation connecting to a central node of the Queensland Electricity Network and the battery storage would participate in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM).

Featuring four data centres which Quinbrook anticipates would be for multi-tenant use, the Supernode would support net zero emissions data operations, with three separate high-voltage transmission connections that offer 800MW of power between them.

It would also be along the newly laid data network lines that connect the region subsea to the island territory of Guam.

Quinbrook said it would also develop, procure and construct renewable energy supply capacity to the site, harnessing abundant and low-cost wind and solar PV resources available in Queensland.

The investment group specialises in projects relating to renewable energy infrastructure. As such, it has been behind some of the biggest standalone battery storage and solar-plus-storage projects around the world.

Examples include Gemini, a US$1.9 billion solar-plus-storage plant in Nevada, US, which pairs 690MWac/966MWdc of bifacial solar modules with 1,416MWh of battery storage. Currently under construction through Quinbrook development subsidiary Primergy and partners including its battery energy storage system (BESS) contractor IHI Terrasun, Gemini is expected to come online in late 2023.

Other projects for the company and its subsidiaries in the US include sites in key renewable energy markets like California and Texas. Meanwhile in the UK Quinbrook is developing a 230MW/460MWh BESS at a former coal power plant site in Wales.

The investment group also has a major project already in the works in Queensland too, with a gas turbine peaker-plus-battery site in the Lockyer Valley region receiving approval in April from the state’s Planning and Environment Court (P&E Court).

Queenslanders contributing to state’s energy transition and digital economy

Quinbrook said the energy portion of the Supernode project would help put downward pressure on power prices by integrating cheap renewable energy into the network and making it dispatchable, while helping to ensure reliability of power supply.

Data centre customers meanwhile, should be able to make what Quinbrook described were significant cost savings based on utilisation of renewables.  

“Supernode is the latest example of our strategy to make impactful and ‘hard to repeat’ investments that help decarbonise energy intensive data center operations using renewable power solutions. Brendale is a truly unique location in the Pacific region and is well deserving of the ‘Supernode’ title,” Quinbrook manging partner David Scaysbrook said.

Scaysbrook noted that the founders of Quinbrook are themselves Queenslanders and hailed the opportunity that projects like the Supernode will bring in terms of catching up with Australia’s other states on climate and renewable energy progress, as well as building a digital economy ecosystem.

“This is the critical communications infrastructure needed by progressive industry in this State and it represents a competitive advantage in achieving Net Zero operations at low cost that may become the envy of competing economies the world over,” Scaysbrook said, noting that Quinbrook has recently also brought online the first phase of an 800MW ‘green’ data centre project in Texas.

Queensland has historically been Australia’s most emissions-intensive state, but the government of premier Anastasia Palaszczuk and the Queensland Australian Labor Party appear committed to an energy transition.

Its recently announced state budget included a progressive royalties system for coal industry company profits, as well as funding to invest in a 400MWh BESS as well as 13 smaller battery systems totalling 8MWh. This is in addition to a number of large-scale battery projects underway through state-owned power companies.

In terms of other storage technologies, the government is financially supporting feasibility studies for large-scale pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) while also investing in a vanadium electrolyte processing facility for the flow battery industry. This week it welcomed the start of construction of a factory making flow batteries based on a different electrolyte compound, iron and saltwater.

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Kilroy Oyster Point

Kilroy Realty Corp. has completed three onsite solar installations at 2100 Kettner and 9455 Towne Centre Drive in San Diego and Kilroy Oyster Point – Phase 1 in South San Francisco, Calif. With these systems energized, Kilroy now hosts over six MW of solar spanning across 13 assets.

“Installing onsite solar is a critical tool for Kilroy as we work to decarbonize the built environment, allowing us to generate clean energy onsite, deliver long-term value to Kilroy, our tenants and our shareholders, as well as provide a visible demonstration of our commitment to sustainability,” says Sarah King, Kilroy’s senior vice president of sustainability.

The solar projects are installed behind the meter, allowing the solar energy generated to be used onsite, reducing the buildings’ electrical grid demand to optimize building efficiency while benefiting Kilroy’s tenants. The projects are owned and operated by Stronghold Engineering and Lamb Energy, and the deals were facilitated by Black Bear Energy.

“Stronghold is proud to be a part of Kilroy’s continuing efforts to embrace renewable energy,” declares Beverly Bailey, Stronghold’s president and CEO. “Along with helping to conserve natural resources, this project delivers real value to the client. It is a ‘win’ for all parties, and we are ecstatic to see companies like Kilroy lead the way in utilizing these technologies.”

“Kilroy is the leader in the industry when it comes to all things sustainability, and it is an honor to continue to work with them to build out solar on their new developments. Installing onsite solar remains one of the most value accretive options for REITs in their pursuit of net zero,” comments Drew Torbin, Black Bear Energy’s CEO.

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Bill Roeschlein

Tigo Energy Inc., a Flex MLPE (Module Level Power Electronics) supplier, has named Bill Roeschlein as CFO. In his new role, he will lead the finance and legal teams at Tigo. Roeschlein will focus on establishing the financial organization in the renewable energy industry, along with the processes and procedures that facilitate the growth of Tigo to the next stage of financial development.

“Bill is exactly the type of finance executive that Tigo needs,” states Zvi Alon, chairman and CEO of Tigo. “His proven leadership as CFO at several different public companies combined with his experience in executing complex financial transactions including mergers, acquisitions, financings and equity offerings will be invaluable as Tigo continues to evolve and grow.”

Roeschlein brings publicly-traded, pre-IPO and international operations experience to the Tigo executive team. He began his career in financial planning and audit at companies such as Coopers & Lybrand, Hewlett-Packard, and Asyst Technologies. More recently, he served as chief financial officer at Nanosys Inc., where he led the company’s most recent financing, and Perceptron Inc., where he led the M&A sale and integration process to Atlas Copco.

“Tigo is in the enviable position of having both financial stability and a tremendous potential for growth,” states Roeschlein. “I’m excited to be given the opportunity to build upon the work that Zvi and his team have done and help continue and accelerate the current rate of growth.”

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