The LDES Council says 85-140TWh of long duration storage deployments will be needed globally by 2040.

Significant policy support for the long duration energy storage (LDES) sector may be needed until 2030-35 when the market matures, says a new LDES Council policy toolbox report.

The report, “The journey to net-zero: an action plan to unlock a secure, carbon-free power system”, provides an overview of key considerations and options for designing and implementing energy transition policies and regulatory frameworks that will help catalyse the LDES sector.

The LDES Council, a CEO-led organisation launched at COP26 in November 2021 and comprising 50 companies and stakeholder organisations in the sector, said that “signals need to be created today to spur scale-up, investment and adoption”.

Echoing similar recent figures by the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE), the LDES Council report said the need for long duration solutions increases significantly when renewables reach 60-70% of power capacity, and that some 85-140TWh may be needed globally by 2040.

The report noted that the major existing barriers to deployment include limited policy certainty for LDES, limited awareness and definitions of the asset class, high initial project costs, increased risk perception among investors, a lack of revenue streams and length development timeframes.

Its first policy consideration outlines that the level of policy intervention will evolve as the market does, and it categorises that evolution into three stages. The first is ‘market creation’, from now until 2025, which will need comprehensive revenue certainty and scale-up support from policymakers.

From 2025-2030, ‘market growth’ takes over, during which increasing deployment and cost reductions will occur but ‘significant support’ will still be needed from regulators and policymakers. ‘Market maturity’, when revenue stabilisation mechanisms can be phased out and merchant exposure increased, will happen over 2030-35.

Revenue support mechanisms that should be considered to help the LDES sector grow include cap and floor mechanism, capacity markets, CFDs (contract for difference), hourly energy attribute certificates, long term bilateral contracts for ancillary services, nodal & locational pricing, regulated asset base and 24/7 clean power purchase agreements (PPA).

Various direct technology support, including grants, incentives, sandboxes and targeted tenders, should also be used to create favourable environments for nascent technologies. Sandboxes are a structured form of regulatory flexibility that enable the testing of innovative technologies with minimal regulatory requirements.

The report contains a policy tool assessment framework which allows readers to compare how different policy options score on seven indicators covering project viability, ease of implementation, and long-term effectiveness in delivering a secure, reliable, affordable and low-carbon energy future.

Showing how all of this might be used in practice, the LDES Council included a theoretical business case for a 150MW, 12-hour solution operational in 2025 in Germany, outlined in the table below.

Image: LDES Council.

Read the whole report here.

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Dragonfly Energy sold nearly 20,000 batteries in the first three months of 2022. Image: Dragonfly Energy.

Lithium-ion battery pack manufacturer Dragonfly Energy expects revenues to increase 47% this year, during which it will complete a Nasdaq listing through a SPAC merger, before doubling in 2023.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news last month, Dragonfly Energy is going public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Chardan NexTech Acquisition 2 Corp. The transaction will be concluded in the second half of this year and its Form S-4 registration statement, filed yesterday (June 22) has provided more details about the company’s financials, long-term plans and risks, and the transaction structure.

Financial consultancy Duff & Phelps estimates that the enterprise value of the new combined entity, Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp, to be between US$640-760 million.

Dragonfly has to-date focused on recreational vehicle (RV), marine and off-grid residential storage markets but wants to go into grid connected energy storage solutions, and is also developing a solid-state battery product. It buys lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells from two suppliers in China and relies on one, also in China, for its battery management system (BMS) platform.

Dragonfly Energy financials

Dragonfly Energy expects to clock in US$115 million in revenue this year, up 47%, with negative EBITDA of US$18.1 million and adjusted EBITDA of US$12.2 million.

For 2023, it expects revenues to more than double to US$255.1 million and unadjusted EBITDA to become positive at US$39.1 million.

The company currently has 13,500 customers in North America, made up of large electric vehicle OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), distributors who buy bulk and re-sell, upfitters who augment vehicles, and retail customers buying directly.

For the three months ending March 31, 2022, during which it sold 19,664 batteries, revenue was up 17% year-on-year to US$18.1 million.

OEMs made up 17.4% of sales in the period but Dragonfly expects that to reach 37% by 2023. The OEM mix of revenues has grown from 2020 and 2021 when OEMs made up just 9/10% of sales, with retail and distributors making up the rest.

Long term strategy, expansion into grid storage and risks

Dragonfly wants to expand outside of its three current markets. In the medium term, it wants to sell into industrial, specialty and work vehicles, material handling, solar integration and emergency and standby power.

In the long term, it is targeting the data centre, telecom and distributed on-grid or grid-connected storage markets. It said there are 2,750 data centres in the US and expects these to increasingly shift towards lithium-ion batteries to provide a reliable power supply.

For on-grid storage, the company believes its solid-state technology will help reduce the related cost of storage to reach ‘grid parity’, meaning cost competitiveness with power from the grid, sooner than currently expected.

On risks, Dragonfly highlighted that its future growth depends on the needs and success of its customers. This is particularly true for selling to OEMs. It also expects competition to increase and that expanding into new markets for LFP batteries depends in part on the ability to develop and manufacture products.

It has no plans to diversify its cell and BMS supply mix as of yet but concedes that “any disruption in the operations of these key suppliers could adversely affect our business and results of operations”, and its reliance on one single manufacturing facility was also highlighted as a business risk.

There are also clear risks to its decision to invest in solid-state batteries, and the success of that venture actually ties into the SPAC listing, the company’s registration statement explained. Dragonfly mentioned significant engineering challenges in the development of the product and admitted that it may be delayed or even fail. It may also fail to adequately control the capital investments needed to be successful.

SPAC listing additional details

As Chardan is an existing publicly-listed entity, its shareholders have the right to demand the company redeem their shares for cash once the business combination occurs. Assuming no redemption shares, Dragonfly’s existing shareholders will hold 66% of the new entity and Chardan’s existing public shareholders hold 23%, with the remainder held by initial stockholders and a term loan lender. Assuming maximum redemption, the mix changes to 87/0/9/4% respectively, since all Chardan’s shareholders will have been bought out.

The work that has gone into the registration document has not factored any solid-state battery sales into future revenue projections. Interestingly, up to 25 million earnout shares as part of the SPAC merger are only payable if related trading price targets of US$22.50 by the end of 2026 and/or US$32.50 by the end of 2028 are met.

But the registration document says: “We believe that meeting these trading price targets is unlikely to occur unless Dragonfly successfully develops its solid-state technology and solid-state battery sales prospects.”

Other players in the energy storage market to have gone public in recent years through the SPAC route include C&I-focused energy storage solution provider Stem Inc, iron flow battery company ESS Inc and lithium-ion recycler Li-Cycle.

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Yuri Horwitz

Sol Systems LLC has acquired a 91 MW DC solar development project in Spencer County, Ind. from Orion Renewable Power Resources LLC, a joint venture between Orion Renewable Energy Group LLC and Eolian L.P. The project, known as Grandview, is part of Sol Systems’ Impact + Infrastructure growth strategy.

“This acquisition builds on Sol Systems’ significant footprint in the Midwest,” says Yuri Horwitz, CEO of Sol Systems. “We are eager to kick off the construction phase of this project, which will bring new clean energy and opportunities to the local community and region.” 

Sol Systems will develop, own and operate the project. Once complete, the project will produce enough solar energy, annually, to power over 13,000 homes and offset the equivalent of over 23,000 passenger vehicles’ emissions.

“We are very appreciative of the support we received in Spencer County from the Lincoln land Economic Development Corp., the county council, the county planning commission and the county commissioners,” states Justin Wolf, director of development at Orion Renewable Energy Group. “Their openness to our project, along with the County’s business-friendly climate, demonstrates its commitment to growth by recruiting new industries, including solar energy.”

“The Grandview project will improve regional electric grid resiliency and reliability by adding pollution-free resources during peak hours that are coincident with high consumer demand on the hottest and sunniest days when the system is increasingly at risk,” adds Aaron Zubaty, CEO of Eolian. “We commend Sol Systems for their support of this important project to enhance the economy of Southern Indiana.”

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Rendering of the project with cutaway showing the salt caverns underneath. Image: Advanced Clean Energy Storage I/Mitsubishi Power Americas.

Oil and gas major Chevron has pulled out of plans to acquire an equity interest in Advanced Clean Energy Storage Delta (ACES Delta), the 300GWh green hydrogen energy storage project in Utah, it confirmed to Energy-Storage.news.

Chevron announced in September 2021 that it planned to acquire a stake in ACES Delta, the joint venture between Mitsibushi Power Americas and Magnum Development, which owns the project set to go online in 2025.

The project recently bagged a US$504 million loan from the Department of Energy (DOE) but will no longer receive investment from Chevron, as a statement provided by the company to Energy-Storage.news explained:

“Chevron is exploring numerous opportunities as we work to achieve our lower carbon goals and grow our lower carbon businesses, and for these opportunities to proceed, commercial agreements must meet certain thresholds. Unfortunately, our opportunity to acquire an equity interest in ACES Delta no longer meets our requirements,” it said.

ACES Delta will feature 220MW of electrolysers that will convert renewable energy, mainly solar and wind, into up to 100 metric tonnes of green hydrogen a day. This will be stored in two huge salt caverns with a combined storage capacity of 300GWh.

It is being built to help power a new 840MW combined cycle power plant from cooperative Intermountain Power Agency, which itself is replacing a retiring coal plant. It will power 30% of Intermountain’s plant when it comes online in 2025 with plans to increase that to 100% by 2045. But that achievement could come as early as 2030 or 2035 according to Mitsubishi Power America’s Thomas Cornell in a recent interview with Energy-storage.news.

Chevron added: “We continue to explore hydrogen opportunities – including in the western United States where we have established an early and growing business – and remain committed to identifying and pursuing lower carbon solutions and providing affordable, reliable, ever-cleaner energy.”

The oil and gas company recently acquired biodiesel producer Renewable Energy Group, creating a new segment called Chevron Renewable Energy Group. It said the deal will help it grow its renewable fuels production capacity to 100,000 barrels per day by 2030.

BP invests in similar project in Australia

Chevron’s decision not to invest in a massive green hydrogen project coincides with oil and gas peer bp’s decision to do exactly that. Last week, it announced it would acquire a 40.5% stake in and become the main operator of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), as first reported by Energy-Storage.news’ sister site PV Tech.

AREH is a project in Western Australia that is expected to produce around 1.6 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year (or nine million tonnes of green ammonia), and will also feature up to 26GW of solar and wind power. To what extent the hydrogen will be stored for conversion to electricity versus provided immediately for industrial use is not clear.

The other partner shareholders in AREH will continue to be InterContinental Energy (26.4%), CWP Global (17.8%) and Macquarie Capital and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (15.3%).

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Construction of a battery energy storage system in Ontario, Canada. Image: Convergent Energy + Power.

Maximising revenue streams for energy storage at distribution network level could have a positive impact for the energy system of Ontario, Canada, lowering costs for consumers by reducing the need for costly infrastructure build-out and upgrades.

A new report, commissioned by trade group Energy Storage Canada and authored by electricity market expert group Power Advisory explores some of the business models that could be applied, explains Justin Rangooni, Energy Storage Canada’s executive director.

As Ontario charts its path to a net-zero economy, it is clear the addition of renewable assets and a risingelectricity demand will reshape the province’s electricity distribution system, both from the increasedadoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and the wider electrification of the province’s industrial sector.

The question is how Ontario’s electricity distribution system should respond to the resulting changes.There are a range of possible solutions, but increasingly energy storage is being considered and deployedby location distribution companies (LDCs) and their customers as a viable non-wires alternative (NWA).

Energy storage is proven technology with the ability to provide the necessary peaking capacity,operational flexibility, and reliability for Ontario’s net zero economy.

In 2021, Ontario’s Minister of Energy, the Hon. Todd Smith stated in his mandate letter to the OntarioEnergy Board (OEB) that, “[d]eveloping policies that support the adoption of non-wires and non-pipelinealternatives to traditional forms of capital investment, where cost-effective, will be essential inmaintaining an effective regulatory environment amidst the increasing adoption of Distributed EnergyResources.”

However, several legislative and regulatory barriers in the form of various government or OEB codes andguidelines make the implementation of energy storage and other NWAs a challenge.

Unlike traditional distribution assets (i.e., poles and wires) energy storage can provide multiple servicesand generate additional revenues via a single asset to offset the costs of operation and maintenance.Revenue of this type, earned by an LDC outside of the provision of regulated distribution services, canreduce the LDCs’ revenue requirements and is considered a revenue offset.

Unfortunately, these revenue offsets are often perceived as a risk because they are unpredictable.

Energy Storage Canada’s recent white paper, “Leveraging energy storage for distribution services: Howmaximizing revenue streams can lower costs to electricity customers,” explores the perceived risksassociated with energy storage assets through an analysis of four ownership frameworks.

The paper concludes that regulatory flexibility regarding the ownership of NWAs best enables a customer-centric approach, minimising the costs of distribution services and maximising the value of other grid services (i.e., value stacking).

Engaging local distribution company customers, while reducing and mitigating risks, will enable the successful adoption of energy storage assets and support the development of a net zero economy with a reliable and flexible distribution system with the necessary capacity to meet Ontario’s future energy demands.

Overall, we’re encouraged by the current activities at the OEB and the IESO. We hope our paper will contribute to their ongoing analysis, as it highlights for us the importance of regulatory flexibility going forward if we want to optimise Ontario’s distributed energy system and provide cost-effective and reliable distribution services to the province’s customers.”

You can view the full paper here.

About the Author

Justin Wahid Rangooni is executive director of Energy Storage Canada, the national association for the energy storage industry in Canada, representing stakeholders along the entire supply chain. Justin is a lawyer with over a decade experience in the energy sector starting with being a Senior Policy Advisor for the Ontario Minister of Energy and then as a the Ontario Policy Lead for the Canadian Wind Energy Association and most recently Vice President, Policy and Government Affairs at the Electricity Distributors Association.

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GIG is a specialist investor within Macquarie Asset Management. Image: Macquarie’s Green Investment Group via Twitter.

A joint development agreement (JDA) has been signed by Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) and renewable energy developer Bluestone Energy for up to 2GW of UK battery storage projects.

Already, projects representing 970MW are in early stage development, having secured grid connection offers.

“Bluestone’s considerable expertise and GIG’s global experience make for a strong partnership that can drive forward the UK’s storage industry.

“Energy storage clearly plays a critical role in the energy transition. This partnership leverages our mutual experience and expands Macquarie’s global portfolio in this important sector,” said Greg Callman, global head of GIG Energy Technology.

The new pipeline with Bluestone adds to GIG’s existing battery storage portfolio, with the company last year announcing the acquisition of a portfolio of 187MW/187MWh development-stage utility-scale, distribution-connected battery storage projects in the UK from Capbal Limited.

A 40MW/40MWh project in Maldon, southeast England, was the first project within the portfolio to reach financial close in December 2021.

This followed GIG and Enso Energy signing a joint venture with an aim of developing 1GW of subsidy-free solar and storage capacity across England and Wales in 2020. Two of these sites, the 49.9MW Larks Green Solar Farm and 40MW Walpole Bank Solar Farm, were approved in January 2021.

This story first appeared on Solar Power Portal.

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At 300MW/450MWh, the Victorian Big Battery is Australia’s biggest BESS in operation, but there is a pipeline of dozens more gigawatt-hours of projects of its type in development. Image: Victoria State government.

A capacity mechanism for Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) needs to catalyse urgently needed investment in renewable energy and energy storage, trade groups have said.

A proposal to add a capacity mechanism to Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) has been published by the country’s Energy Security Board (ESB) this week.

It would mark the first time a capacity market-style framework for making sure electricity supply matches demand has been introduced to the NEM.

ESB has made its draft proposal available to view and is now seeking stakeholder feedback on the high-level design paper, which ESB chair Anna Collyer said aims to make capacity available when it’s needed and avoid a “disorderly transition” away from fossil fuel generation.

“It will provide a more direct and certain way to ensure we have the right amount of capacity and right mix of capacity available when and where we need it,” Collyer said.

The Board is now seeking stakeholder submissions and wants to deliver a “considered and collaborative design that is fit for the future”, the chair added. Respondents have until 25 July to respond and ESB anticipated that it will submit a final proposal to ministers early next year.

Australia’s Clean Energy Council and Smart Energy Council, two trade associations that represent dozens of stakeholder organisations between them, warned that any capacity mechanism introduced needed to avoid the trap of extending reliance on fossil fuels.

Renewables and storage ‘could make Australia an energy superpower’

With the country currently in an energy crisis largely caused by unplanned outages at over 3,000MW of coal plants and planned maintenance at other thermal generation sites as it experiences an early onset of cold winter weather, it is critical that new policy mechanisms instead deliver rapid investment in renewable generation, energy storage and transmission, the Clean Energy Council (CEC) said.

That investment is the only way to bring energy prices down and prevent a similar situation happening again, CEC argued, while any moves to subsidise existing coal power plants and prolong the lifetime of fossil fuel generators would put Australia in an uphill battle to meet climate targets.

It could also delay investment in renewable energy and energy storage, CEC said.

Meanwhile, John Grimes, chief executive at the Smart Energy Council, said a capacity mechanism focused on zero emissions generation should be among the options considered to keep the lights on, but said investment in renewables and storage should in any case be the most urgent priority for Australia’s energy sector.

Grimes stressed further the importance of energy storage, which in combination with renewables could make Australia a clean energy “superpower”.

“Australia is in a unique position being at the forefront of the renewables revolution but there’s not yet sufficient investor confidence to support the energy storage we need to complement wind and solar,” Grimes said.

The Smart Energy Council is urging the Australian government to instruct the national Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to prioritise financing for renewable energy storage at all scales, Grimes said.

In a recent interview with this site, energy economy expert Bruce Mountain of Victoria Energy Policy Centre (VEPC) said that a formal policy target for energy storage deployment should be considered by government, along the lines of existing Renewable Energy Target (RET) policies.

Smart Energy Council’s John Grimes echoed that view, suggesting that the RET itself could be amended to incorporate a storage target.

With the ESB paper published only a couple of days prior, Clean Energy Council told Energy-Storage.news that it was too early to comment on the specifics of the proposals and their significance.

However, non-profit group Environment Victoria said that even the “notion of paying fossil fuel generators to stay open” as suggested by the draft capacity mechanism design is “one of the most backward-looking ideas to have emerged” during the tenure of previous prime minister Scott Morrison and should have been retired at the election Morrison’s Liberal Party lost earlier this year.

The new Labor Party government led by Anthony Albanese was elected on a platform that included climate action and alongside influence from independent politicians, there is an air of cautious optimism around the topic of renewables versus fossil fuels.

Just a few days ago Labor set much higher 2030 emissions reductions targets for the country, but Environment Victoria warned that with its proposal, ESB had not “read the room”.

“Any move to prop up aging and polluting power stations is wrong-headed and ignores the many years of work that have gone into building reliable renewable energy capacity. Across the board, stakeholders from environment groups to big business have rejected this idea as have energy ministers of every political persuasion,” Environment Victoria CEO Jono La Nauze said in a statement sent to Energy-Storage.news.

La Nauze said ESB’s assumption that thermal power solutions would need to be called on to cover long periods of “renewable drought” was simply incorrect and didn’t take into account advances in renewables technology or deployment levels.

“The federal election overwhelmingly demonstrated that Australians are tired of governments giving handouts to the fossil fuel industry, only to have them turn around and hold us hostage to their profiteering… No more handouts to coal and gas – we need to permanently get gas lobbyists out of our nation’s energy policy development.

“Too much unreliable coal in the NEM has caused this problem. Paying to keep it in the system would be a kick in the guts to households as inflation takes off. We must use this as an opportunity to thoroughly reform the NEM to make it genuinely – and cleanly – fit for purpose in the future,” La Nauze said.

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Gibraltar Industries’ Terrasmart renewable energy arm has supplied its racking system for Chicago’s largest commercial solar installation. The rooftop and carport solar installations combined yield 213 KW DC of solar generating capacity for the Chicago Urban League, one of the country’s oldest urban advocacy organizations for the advancement of African Americans.

The system represents the league’s commitment to bring clean, renewable energy to Chicago’s South Side community. Terrasmart supplied the fixed-tilt racking system for the two surface-lot canopies that make up the 162 KW solar carport. Fully customizable with several structural and geometric design options, the Terrasmart carport produces solar energy while providing shade for Chicago Urban League visitors. Renewable Energy Evolution LLC developed, designed and installed the system.

“We are excited about what this means for environmental justice across our communities in Chicago,” says project lead Andrew Wells, vice president of the Workforce Development Center at the Chicago Urban League. “Our project is bringing greater awareness, inclusion, and access to the clean energy economy for the people of the South Side.”

The solar system highlights the Chicago Urban League’s commitment to advancing the community’s access to renewable energy. In 2017, the League launched two training programs in solar installation and PV sales through its Workforce Development Center program with solar incentives from Illinois for All. Its annual cohort of 75 trainees has access to renewable energy job fairs, held in partnership with organizations such as the Illinois Solar Energy Association, the Solar Energy Industries Association, and the Coalition for Community Solar Access.

“We are honored to have played a part in such a monumental project,” states Ed McKiernan, Terrasmart’s president. “Not only is this the largest PV commercial installation in the city of Chicago, but it’s an important milestone in providing more equitable access to the solar economy. Terrasmart is proud to have partnered with the Chicago Urban League and Renewable Energy Evolution.”

“Terrasmart went above and beyond on this milestone project,” adds Brian Maillet, founder and CEO of Renewable Energy Evolution. “Their help in engineering, design, permitting and implementation of the city’s largest solar carport system was critical to the success of the project.”

Wells and his team are adding two electric vehicle charging stations to the current system. He is also planning a new community solar farm to serve renters who want to lower their electricity bills.

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Nera Lerner

Legends Solar has debuted Legends Rooftop, an “’on-demand” solar investing platform that allows investors to directly purchase panels operating on commercial solar farms. With Legends Solar’s finance partner SDC Energy, investors earn cash when their panels generate and sell electricity.

“Locked out of the housing market and unable to install rooftop panels on their homes, millennial investors can’t access the growing solar infrastructure market,” says Lassor Feasley, Legends’ founder and CEO. “With Legends Solar, you can invest in a single remotely located panel, or a whole rooftop’s worth, even without the suburban mini-mansion and white picket fence.”

“The team at Legends Solar has challenged us to reimagine our approach to raising equity for new solar facilities,” states Charles Schaffer, SDC Energy’s president. “We look forward to unlocking the solar asset class for a wider and more diverse set of retail investors. By doing this, we will accelerate the transition to a carbon free society and spread its financial benefits more equitably” he continued.

“Up and coming investors are motivated purchasers of rooftop solar panels,” comments COO Nera Lerner. “They are eager for socially and environmentally responsible investments, but few products offer the financial returns and verifiable environmental impact of solar investing. We like to say our product delivers ‘Rooftop Solar without the Roof,’ because we’ve tried to reproduce the rich financial and environmental returns homeowners already experience when they install rooftop solar – but for a much wider audience”.

On Legends Solar, investors purchase panels after they’ve been sited, permitted, built and connected to the power grid. Because investors can purchase solar by the panel and on-demand, they can size their purchase to fit their investment appetite and profile – and start earning dividends immediately. Buyers will no longer be locked out by prohibitively high costs of installation or constrained by the size of their rooftop. In the future, Legends may also allow investors to participate in the financing of new solar projects.

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SinglePoint Inc.’s The Boston Solar Co. LLC subsidiary has acquired Ecodaptive Inc. Ecodaptive, a clean energy company providing financial structuring solutions to expand the adoption of clean energy projects, will support Boston Solar’s growing commercial division. Ecodaptive is currently focused on developing the SunRAYS Energy Program in Massachusetts, which enables traditionally underserved customer segments to go solar through a roof lease structure.

The SunRAYS Program was developed to expand access to rooftop solar generation opportunities. Enabling broader communities to participate will result in greater penetration of rooftop solar and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon energy future. The program directly improves the livelihoods of participants through long-term site-lease payments.

The SunRAYS program focuses on providing electricity from distributed rooftop solar to a broader constituency than traditional distributed generation business models. As a result of expanding renewable energy, air emissions and associated water management issues related to traditional fossil-fuel-derived electricity are mitigated.

“The opportunity with Ecodaptive could prove itself to be a significant competitive advantage as well as a company changing event,” says Wil Ralston, CEO of SinglePoint. “There is a framework $100 million asset finance facility enabling Boston Solar and Ecodaptive to scale a successful SunRAYS pilot program. The Ecodaptive Team has years of successful experience in solar finance, and we look forward to leveraging their expertise as we push forward.”

“An exciting aspect of the program is that building owner financial constraints are essentially removed, enabling any qualifying residential or commercial sites to go solar without having to consider any out of pocket expenses and will actually be compensated through an upfront payment at the start of installation as well as through ongoing lease payments,” continues Ralston.

The SunRAYS Program attempts to overcome one of the primary risks of solar integration by locating the solar generation resources closer to the sources of electricity demand so as to not require high-voltage interconnections nor long-distance power transmission. The SunRAYS Program utilizes local residential and commercial rooftops to host solar projects, interconnecting to the distribution grid at lower voltages and overall power levels than would be considered for utility-scale projects.

The SunRAYS Program uses existing under-utilized building stock. There is no additional land required to host projects in the program. Owners of small commercial, multi-family housing units and single-family residential buildings enter into a site-lease agreement through which they receive ongoing rental payments in exchange for hosting one or more solar PV projects that feed their output directly into the electricity grid.

Image: Andreas Gücklhorn on Unsplash

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