Rick Borry

Priority Power has officially opened Beloit Solar Farm (BSF), a 2 MW solar farm that will provide clean, renewable, reliable electric power to Beloit in Kansas.

The Beloit Solar Farm was developed and built by, and will be operated and maintained by, Priority Power. The farm will provide enhanced reliability to the city’s power portfolio.

“Our community has been a leader in self-generating energy for over a century, and it is truly an honor to be able to continue that history with the official opening of the new Beloit Solar Farm,” says Jason Rabe, Beloit’s city manager. “Priority Power has been a great partner and has helped this project come to life, providing the expertise to bring this project to fruition in a challenging environment.”

“This project will provide another tool in our toolbox to provide more affordable, reliable power to our customers and will provide educational opportunities for our local students, both in local schools and NCK Technical College,” continues Rabe. “Our community might be humble and typically keep quiet, but we are very proud of our history and today adds to that history.”

“The Beloit Solar Farm is an amazing project, and we are thankful to the City of Beloit, the mayor and council, Jason and his team, and especially the community for their support,” states Rick Borry, managing director of renewable power at Priority Power. “Priority Power has many Jayhawks and Wildcats on our team, and being able to work in a community and a state with such a storied history of power generation and electrification has been incredible.”

Continue reading

One of Entergy’s Mississippi solar projects

Entergy Arkansas has issued a request for proposals for 1,000 MW of solar and wind generation resources. Resources would be procured through a combination of one or more build-own-transfer agreements, self-build alternatives, and/or one or more power purchase agreements that would be in operation between May 2025 and December 2026.

“Entergy Arkansas has a commitment to providing our customers with low-cost, reliable energy as well as more renewable generation,” says Kurt Castleberry, director of resource planning and marketing operations. “We continue to grow green energy within our diverse portfolio of power resources to better serve our existing and growing customer base and look forward to some exciting proposals.”

Solar facilities would be required to be within the Entergy Arkansas service territory, while wind resources could be located in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) or Southwest Power Pool footprints.

Entergy Arkansas currently has 281 MW of solar power providing clean, emission-free renewable energy to customers. In addition to the Stuttgart and Chicot solar facilities, the company’s largest solar farm – Searcy Solar Facility – came online in late 2021, with a 100 MW generation capacity and batteries that can store 30 MWs.

The company is the largest energy provider in Arkansas and has a mix of energy sources to ensure reliability, safe and cost-effective power to its 728,000 customers that are spread out among 63 of the state’s 75 counties, covering more than 40,880 square miles.

Additional solar and wind resources would complement the diverse and carbon-free generation Entergy Arkansas fleet, which includes hydroelectric facilities at Carpenter and Remmel dams, three solar facilities and Arkansas Nuclear One. Nuclear energy accounts for about 70% of the fuel mix for the company’s customers, followed by hydropower at 16%, with the remaining power sourced from coal, natural gas and solar.

Continue reading

HHE Energy Share System

Holu Hou Energy LLC (HHE), Borqs Technologies Inc.’s majority owned solar energy storage systems subsidiary, has signed with developers and property owners for nine solar plus energy storage projects in the State of Hawaii totaling $49.8 million, as of the last day of Q2 2022. Eight of the nine projects are on the island of Oahu, and one on Hawaii island.

Implementation of these projects will start as early as Q3 of 2022 and be completed within 2023. All of these customers are purchasing HHE unique energy storage systems, including its fully differentiated solar plus storage system with Energy Share technology for multi-dwelling unit residential applications. HHE’s Energy Share technology enables 25% more delivered energy with 50% fewer batteries.

“With such solid results from our marketing efforts in Q2, we are on track to sign onto over $140 million of contracts this year surpassing our previous forecast of $128 million,” says Pat Chan, founder and CEO of Borqs. “This demonstrates our ESG strategy can achieve a rather aggressive growth path. We are truly thrilled that HHE’s uniqueness is increasingly recognized by the renewable energy market. These recent signed contracts in Q2 testified for the customers’ awareness of the HHE advantages and that we have a competitive edge over with many brands that are much more well-known than us.”

“This is the tip of the iceberg, I believe the market will welcome our technological advances over the competition when more and more prominent clients are entrusting HHE with their energy storage needs,” Chan adds. “There is a lot more to come from Hawaii in the coming quarters and we are excited about the potentials in California as well.”

Continue reading

MCE’s VPP program is set to launch in 2025. Image: MCE.

VPPs in California from MCE and PG&E/Tesla

Virtual power plant (VPP) programmes are being launched in California by non-profit renewable electricity provider MCE Clean Energy and investor-owned utility PG&E with Tesla.

MCE’s VPP programme will launch in 2025 in the city of Richmond. It will see the company install smart, clean energy technologies in up to 100 homes and commercial and industrial (C&I) sites to create a network of digitally-connected distributed energy resources (DERs).

These will include energy storage, smart thermostats, rooftop solar, heat pump space and water heating and EV charging. MCE will use the solutions to shift load out of the 4-9pm peak demand hours, reducing customer bills as well as strain on the grid.

The project has received US$3 million from the California Energy Commission and is also going to use the City of Richmond’s Social Impact Bond.

Meanwhile, PG&E and Tesla are launching a VPP programme which will aggregate PG&E customers’ Powerwall home energy storage systems, of which there are some 50,000.

It will also target the 4-9pm peak demand period along with the summer season, running between May 1 and October 31. Participating Powerwall owners will be paid US$2/kWh for exporting power to the system. Some reserve will be kept in the units so that homeowners can continue to use the batteries in case of grid outages.

It is part of the Emergency Load Reduction Program (ELRP) approved by by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last December to help prevent blackouts during peak demand hours with with 2-3 GW of new resources and incentives to reduce usage.

It isn’t PG&E’s first foray into VPPs, with the company having launched a pilot aggregating 100 solar-plus-storage home systems with technology providers Sunverge and LG Electronics last year. The programme combined LG’s energy storage systems and Sunverge’s DER software platform.

Financial close on colocated project with 50MWh BESS in California

Leeward Renewable Energy has closed debt and equity financing totalling US$121 million for a 100MW solar PV, 20MW/50MWh energy storage project in Kern County, California.

Banks Wells Fargo, MUFG and Silicon Valley Bank are providing US$58.5 million in Green Loan construction financing while J.P. Morgan is providing a US$62.5 million tax equity investment, a form of investment also recently used by a renewables platform backed by private equity firm TPG.

The Rabbitbrush Solar Facility, which features a 2.5 hour battery energy storage system (BESS), is expected to start operations in August 2022.

Energy generated by the facility will be provided to non-profit community choice aggregators (CCAs) Central Coast Community Energy (CCCE) and Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) through two previously announced 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Initiative to provide microgrids for two million Nigerians launched

Husk Power Systems, a company specialising in microgrids in Africa and Asia, has announced a new initiative to build 500 microgrids in Nigeria by 2026.

The “Nigeria Sunshot Initiative” aims to provide two million Nigerians with reliable, renewable energy by 2026 from solar-hybrid microgrids.

The company quoted government data saying that solar microgrids represent the lowest cost option for 8.9 million of the 19.8 million additional grid connections the country needs for universal electrification. Husk said it can provide 5%, or 400,000, of those connections under its initiative.

The programme has the potential to take 25,000 diesel and gasoline generators offline and electrify 700 public health clinics, 200 private hospitals and 100 public schools.

Husk recently committed to building 5,000 microgrids globally by 2030 in a 2022 UN Energy Compact.

Nissan launching second life battery project in Tennessee

Automative group Nissan is partnering with several Tennessee-based organisations to build two BESS projects using second life batteries at its headquarters in the city of Franklin.

The Japanese conglomerate is partnering with non-profit energy solutions companies Middle Tennessee Electric, Seven States Power Corporation and the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute on the project.

Battery packs form Nissan’s LEAF electric vehicle (EV) will be used to construct the BESS units. The packs will be assembled in modular, scalable storage systems to provide supplemental power supply and peak demand shaving for Nissan’s facilities.

Energy-Storage.news recently did an in-depth interview with a company specialising in second life application BESS projects, UK-based Connected Energy, which you can read here.

Continue reading

One of Fluence’s Philippines projects for SMC. Image: Fluence.

The first 500MWh of a battery storage portfolio for SMC Global Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of major Philippines holding company San Miguel Corporation, has been installed.

According to a report by newspaper Manilla Standard, the company announced it had reached the halfway point in its rollout of 1,000MW/1,000MWh of battery energy storage systems yesterday (30 June 2022).

The system will provide grid balancing services to electricity networks on islands in the Southeast Asian country, such as frequency response, reserve power and voltage regulation.

The Standard quoted San Miguel Corporation president Ramon Ang as having said installed capacity will reach 700MWh by the end of 2022 and all 31 facilities in the pipeline will be completed “within 12 months”.

Energy-Storage.news reached out to San Miguel Corporation – one of the Philippines’ largest privately-owned entities –  to enquire about the news and for further details but is yet to receive a reply.

What is known however is that installation of about 80MW/80MWh of the first battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the portfolio was completed and announced last June.

A 20MW/20MWh system delivered by global system integrator Fluence was then entered into commercial operations at the beginning of this year. Fluence supplied, installed and commissioned the system on a turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract basis.

Fluence had revealed it was contracted to deliver 470MW/470MWh of the initial buildout, which SMC said it was investing around US$1 billion into, while other companies known to be working on projects include Wärtsilä and ABB.

SMC: Total progress at 61% as of end of May

SMC has progressed project development quickly. Having been the first company to deploy a large-scale BESS of 10MW/10MWh in the country, at the site of a coal plant it owns, it said in April 2021 that it aimed to build projects in the new portfolio “simultaneously”.

In a prospectus filed with the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at the end of May this year, SMC Global Power noted that its diversified energy portfolio stood at 4,734MW, comprising assets including natural gas, coal, renewable energy and battery energy storage systems.   

This is equal to 19% of capacity on the National Grid, 26% of capacity on the grid of the island of Luzon and 7% of capacity on Mindanao’s grid.

SMC noted that the 20MW Masinloc BESS project which Fluence completed entered into a five-year ancillary services agreement with National Grid Corporation from January. It is expected that similar contracts will be entered into over the coming months for the next projects.

As of the end of April, nearly all of the equipment required for the 1,000MW portfolio had been delivered to project sites, including 860MWh of battery modules and 690MWh of inverters. While the amount of energy capacity installed has reached 500MWh, actual project completion for the portfolio was at about 61% by that time, the company said in its SEC-filed prospectus.

SMC said four sites totalling 80MWh had been fully completed, 150MWh was undergoing testing and commissioning and eight more sites totalling 260MWh would be entering testing and commissioning during May.

Another interesting point disclosed to the SEC is that SMC entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with battery manufacturer Samsung SDI in January 2020. This gave the power company preferred customer status, and tied Samsung SDI into performance guarantees, competitive pricing, warranties and other deal terms.

SMC Global Power listed gaining market share for ancillary services “and renewable energy initiatives” through battery energy storage systems among its principal business strategies. It is actively seeking opportunities to develop battery systems for applications that include peak shaving, microgrids, power quality management, black start of power plants and grids, energy aggregation, reactive power support and other ancillary services.

This is along with renewable energy integration applications, with the company building hundreds of megawatts of solar PV in the Philippines, which is going through an ongoing period of growing demand for electricity amid calls to reduce its reliance on coal-fired generation.

Other power generation companies in the country are also developing standalone battery storage, while the Philippines first solar-plus-storage hybrid plant came online this year. A recently proposed giga-hybrid project could pair between 2,500MW and 3,500MW of solar PV with between 4,000MWh and 4,500MWh of BESS, Prime Infrastructure Holdings, the company behind it, said.

Last month, Energy-Storage.news reported that the Philippines Department of Energy had issued developers of 529MW /829MWh battery projects with clearance to undertake grid impact studies for their proposals.

Continue reading

Forecasted NEM capacity to 2050 under AEMO’s Step Change scenario. Source: AEMO.

As the role of coal declines and ends in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), huge growth in dispatchable energy storage capacity will be needed in the mix, along with other technologies.

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has this week launched its Integrated System Plan (ISP) which offers a 30-year roadmap for reliable and increasingly low carbon-based operation of the NEM, which AEMO oversees and runs.

As the share of solar PV and wind – which are both variable sources of generation – grows in the NEM’s generation mix, other resources are needed to integrate that capacity and balance the grid.

AEMO noted that as of today, about 23GW of dispatchable firm capacity comes from coal-fired generation and 11GW from gas and other liquid fuels. A further 7GW is sourced from hydroelectric excluding pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) and just 1.5GW from dispatchable energy storage, a category that includes both batteries and PHES.

By 2050, the firming capacity needed will need to be met without coal, the use of which is not only incompatible with Australia’s climate and environmental goals but is also becoming less and less economically competitive within the NEM’s structures.

That latter trend is set to continue with ongoing market reforms that favour faster-responding and clean resources like storage and inverter-based renewables, from some already implemented, like five-minute settlement (5MS) periods to others like distributed energy resource (DER) integration and congestion management measures, which are being considered.

AEMO foresees a firming capacity mix by 2050 that includes:

46GW/640GWh of dispatchable energy storage

7GW of existing non-PHES hydro

10GW of gas-fired peak loads

Interestingly, AEMO expects a large majority of the dispatchable storage to come from distributed-level storage resources that could include virtual power plants (VPPs), vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and other emerging technologies.

This comes largely off the back of already-high and continually increasing uptake of rooftop solar PV across most of Australia and AEMO noted that it will become more common to install home solar with battery storage than without.

Around 31GW of the forecasted need for storage would be met by distributed resources, with about 16GW of utility-scale batteries and pumped hydro.

It seems likely however that given the capacity given in MWh figures would extend storage duration to more than 10 hours on average, a higher proportion of megawatt-hour capacity would come at bulk, or utility-scale locations.

In the shorter term, the ISP also highlights some immediately actionable proposed projects. Large-scale transmission infrastructure buildout projects compromise that list.

Some of those transmission investment plans include energy storage: one is a transmission hub for New South Wales which would enable the state government’s Waratah Super Battery project and 1,500MW of interconnection capacity between Victoria and Tasmania, which would enable Tasmania’s Battery of the Nation plan to send renewable energy generated on the island state and stored with batteries and PHES into the mainland NEM.

For further details and a digested read of the plans from a solar PV and renewable energy perspective, see our colleagues’ comprehensive coverage of the ISP at PV Tech, or visit AEMO’s site to read the ISP in full.

Additional reporting by Sean Rai-Roche.

Continue reading

Elemental Energy has chosen Renewables Consulting Group (RCG), an ERM Group company, as the lender’s independent engineer (IE) for the 20 MW East Strathmore Solar Project, located in Alberta, Canada. The firm is currently providing technical due diligence (TDD) services and is set to continue to act as lender’s IE to support the financing process through construction to operations.

The East Strathmore Solar Project, owned and operated by Elemental Energy, sits on approximately 140 acres of privately owned land and interconnects directly to Fortis Alberta’s distribution system, providing clean energy to local businesses, residences and farming operations. Elemental Energy, a Canadian renewable energy developer, maintains interests in operating and development stage wind, solar and hydro projects throughout North America.

“Renewable energy will continue to play a meaningful part in the future of Alberta’s electricity supply as the province targets 30 percent renewable energy by 2030,” says Jamie Houssian, principal of Elemental Energy. “With the assistance provided by the Renewables Consulting Group, the East Strathmore Solar Project is an important step in that direction.”

RCG’s scope of work includes full lender’s technical advisory services including bank grade energy yield assessment, review of the design, contractual and regulatory aspects of the project, site visits, and construction monitoring. The project is being led out of RCG’s Vancouver office.

“We are proud to support Elemental Energy’s growing renewable energy portfolio in Western Canada,” states Francis Charbonneau, associate director at RCG. “We’ve built a fantastic industry-leading technical advisory team in Canada over the last few years. With our deep local knowledge and technical expertise, we’re helping our clients in a pragmatic approach put more renewables on the grid while at the same helping the province meet its clean energy targets.”

Continue reading

Gov. Dan McKee

Gov. Dan McKee has signed historic legislation into law to substantially increase renewable energy production and supply by requiring that 100% of Rhode Island’s electricity be offset by renewable production by 2033. Rhode Island is the first state in the country to commit to 100% renewable energy by 2033.

“Last year, I signed the Act on Climate, which sets mandatory, enforceable climate emissions reduction goals leading the state to achieve net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050,” says Gov. McKee. “This historic legislation outlines a firm 10-year commitment to achieve our climate change mitigation goals, giving Rhode Island the most ambitious renewable energy standard in the nation. When it comes to clean energy innovation, Rhode Island has the momentum and the tools to build on it.”

The legislation (2022-H 7277A, 2022-S 2274Aaa) institutes annual increases in the state’s Renewable Energy Standard, the law that requires utility companies to purchase renewable energy certificates representing a certain percentage of the power they sell annually. Those certificates are traded in a regional marketplace.

“Here in the Ocean State, we know that action to address the climate crisis cannot wait,” comments Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio (D-Dist. 4, North Providence, Providence). “Rhode Islanders are already feeling the effects of climate change, and the risks facing our communities will grow increasingly dire in the years ahead. This legislation sets out a bold but achievable goal and builds on the historic progress we made in 2021 through the Act on Climate. It will keep Rhode Island, home to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, on the forefront of renewable energy innovation. And it will help us harness the power of clean energy as a driver of economic growth and opportunity.”

Current state law requires annual 1.5 percentage point increases in the amount of electricity required to be generated from renewable sources through 2035. The legislation signed by the governor accelerates those increases to achieve a 100% Renewable Energy Standard in 2033.

“This bill supports renewable energy growth and is consistent with the Act on Climate’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by to net-zero by 2050,” states Rep. Deborah Ruggiero (D-Dist. 74, Jamestown, Middletown). “In addition to reducing emissions and our reliance on fossil fuels that must be brought to Rhode Island from other places, creating renewable energy supports the green industry, creating thousands of good paying jobs right here in Rhode Island. We’ve seen a 74 percent increase in green jobs since 2014, and that trend is going to continue as we deepen our commitment to renewables.

Under it, the target would increase by an additional 4% in 2023, 5% in 2024, 6% in 2025, 7% in 2026 and 2027, 7.5% in 2028, 8% in 2029, 8.5% in 2030, 9% in 2031, and 9.5% in 2032 to achieve the goal of 100% of Rhode Island’s electricity demand being offset by renewable energy by 2033 and thereafter.

“A 100 percent renewable electric supply is vital if Rhode Island is to achieve its Act on Climate goals and reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050,” adds State Energy Commissioner Nicholas S. Ucci. “Our state is once again setting a bold, but achievable pace for the nation, and we are now one step closer toward a more secure, reliable, affordable and equitable energy future for all.”

Continue reading

Battery racks at Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California are housed in former gas turbine halls with power converters outside. Image: Moss Landing / Vistra Energy.

ArcLight views its portfolio of existing thermal power plant assets as “excellent potential locations for battery projects,” with sites in New York and now California earmarked for development.

Affiliates of the Boston-headquartered equity investment firm have legacy power plants at which steps are being taken to deploy large-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) assets.

On Monday (27 June), one of those companies, Generation Bridge, said that it is progressing plans to execute a 67MW/335MWh BESS installation at the site of a 252MW natural gas plant in Long Beach, California.

Generation Bridge has a portfolio of 4,895MW of thermal plants spread across California, Connecticut and New York State, all of which were acquired by ArcLight from NRG Energy in 2021. A representative for Generation Bridge / ArcLight said that the group has plans to put storage at other sites too.

While the source would not be specific, they said: “certain projects have already filed for electrical queue positions and others are under evaluation,” and the company is known to be developing a 15MW BESS at its Arthur Kills plant site in New York.

Last week, another of the equity group’s affiliates, Eastern Generation, received state approval for a 135MW BESS project at the site of its 959MW fuel oil and natural gas plant in Astoria, New York.

That is likely to be accompanied by two more projects at Eastern Generation power plant locations, totalling 350MW, Energy-Storage.news reported.

It has long been noted that getting interconnection to the grid in the US – and in many other parts of the world – can be a slow waiting game and often a costly process for renewables and energy storage assets.

While various actions are being taken, both by industry stakeholders, experts and clean energy advocates as well as at federal level by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the number of projects waiting to obtain grid connection is in the multiple gigawatts in most parts of the US.

Generation Bridge announced this week that key interconnection studies have been completed for the Long Beach California Pier S Battery System Project, as the company has called it, including charge, discharge and transmission of the full proposed capacity of the 335MWh BESS.

The BESS will utilise the existing interconnection, real estate and site infrastructure that is already there at the site.

‘Critical locations of the electrical system’

This is something that has been seen elsewhere around the world at several battery projects in development, already constructed, or that have been proposed.

Perhaps the highest profile is the world’s largest BESS, which has been installed at the site of Moss Landing power plant in California, although other examples include various coal plant sites in Australia that have been proposed by the generation companies that own them.

“Obtaining interconnections for greenfield projects remains an impediment,” the ArcLight representative told Energy-Storage.news.

“Certain legacy projects are sited on critical locations of the electrical system. The confluence of site availability and electrical location make ArcLight’s legacy sites excellent potential locations for battery projects.”

Generation Bridge is targeting a commercial operation date for the Long Beach project for 2025, which would be around the time Eastern Generation hopes to have its New York BESS portfolio up and running. Commercial discussions have already begun for the Long Beach system.

As would be typical for a project of its scale in the California market, the Long Beach BESS would provide resource adequacy, peaking capacity, load following, support “grid integrity” and other ancillary services, the representative said.

While the proposed plan is for a five-hour duration system, battery sizing at this stage is preliminary and subject to change.

“The [Long Beach] BESS Project is a tangible example of the ongoing energy transition and ArcLight’s focus on leveraging its ownership interests in over 20,000MW of conventional power generation assets to develop emissions-free, dispatchable resources that further facilitate the integration of renewable energy resources into the existing power grid,” ArcLight founder and managing partner Dan Revers said.

ArcLight is also considering solar PV projects at some sites, the representative also said.

Continue reading

Image: Jupiter Power.

US independent power producer (IPP) Jupiter Power has turned its second 200MWh BESS online in Texas, bringing its total capacity in the state’s market to 450MWh.

Called ‘Crossett’, the 200MW/200MWh facility in Crane County has entered commercial operations and is one of the largest BESS projects in the gird market operated by ERCOT.

It comes three months after Jupiter Power turned its 100MW/200MWh Flower Valley II project online which, together with three smaller projects, brings the company’s total operational portfolio in ERCOT to 350MW of power and 450MWh of energy.

This makes it the largest developer and operator of battery BESS on the ERCOT grid by total duration. In April, it obtained a Term Loan and LC Facility from KeyBank National Association worth US$175 million to finance the portfolio which will total 650MWh by the end of summer.

The company has one more large-scale project in late-stage commissioning in ERCOT, the 100MW/200MWh Swoose II site, and another 500MWh of projects in ‘late stages of development’.

Mike Geier, Chief Technology Officer, Jupiter Power, said: “We have witnessed the strain that the Texas climate can put on the grid during unseasonably warm days. Jupiter Power’s projects like Crossett and Flower Valley II are optimally sited where the grid needs support to enhance resiliency both cost-effectively and reliably.”

On June 12, a heatwave led to the highest ever power demand recorded on the ERCOT grid at 75GW, although the operator was able to deliver electricity to consumers without any outages or issues. The month before, it had to ask Texans to conserve power during another heatwave that coincided with power plant outages (no such request was needed in June).

The company said its fleet of BESS projects will improve reliability on the ERCOT grid as Texas approaches peak summer demand. BESS units in the state are increasingly relying on wholesale energy trading, particularly around the most congested nodes, which now makes up half of revenues according to one investor.

Alongside this, BESS assets provide grid ancillary support services mainly through regulation reserve service (RRS) and a sub-set within that group called fast frequency response (RRS-FFR). RRS provides 10-minute energy deployments in response to significant generation losses on the system while RRS-FFR requires assets to be automatically deployed and provide a full response within 15 cycles after the frequency meets or drops below 59.85 Hz.

Continue reading