Justin Lee

Hanwha Solutions, a Korean company that owns completely clean energy solutions provider Qcells, has received a $320 million investment plan for solar manufacturing expansion in the United States and Korea with the aim of providing secure, cleaner energy amid mounting calls for energy security and net-zero emissions.

Hanwha said it will seek to spend $170 million building a 1.4 GW solar module production facility in the U.S. Qcells already operates a 1.7 GW module factory in Dalton, Ga. With the new factory expected to come online as early as the first half of 2023, Qcells’ total production capacity in the U.S. will exceed 3 GW – equivalent to one-third of current U.S. solar module production capacity.

The company also announced its plan to expand cell production capacity in Korea. By investing $150 million, the company will expand its cell factory in there. When the factory expansions are complete next year, overall cell capacity in Korea will be 5.4 GW. It is the first investment in Korean solar cell manufacturing in five years.

The investments aim to address growing demand for renewable energy, as ongoing energy market turbulence has sent fossil fuel prices soaring. Already worsened by a global supply squeeze during the pandemic, these price fluctuations have prompted calls around the world to reduce fossil fuel dependence aiming for energy security and carbon reduction.

“Growing uncertainties tell us that securing reliable, sustainable energy has become more important than ever before,” states Justin Lee, CEO of Hanwha Qcells. “To do this, Qcells will increase renewable supply from diversified sources and find cleaner ways to produce energy. That way, we will contribute to both energy security and net-zero emissions.”

To improve and further decarbonize its solar panel production process, Hanwha Solutions will secure low-carbon polysilicon from manufacturers around the world. In April, the company agreed with Korean polysilicon manufacturer OCI to receive polysilicon made in factories using carbon-free hydroelectricity. OCI will provide Hanwha with “clean polysilicon” for the next 10 years.

Other sources are providing low-carbon polysilicon to Hanwha as well. In March, the company became the largest shareholder of REC Silicon, the Norway-headquartered polysilicon manufacturer, which operates massive production facilities in the US. REC Silicon similarly uses hydropower to make solar-grade polysilicon at its production facility in Moses Lake, Wash.

Faced with soaring energy prices in Europe, the company also came up with solutions to lower heating bills. Qcells is working with Samsung Electronics to introduce a smart heating system with the aim of hitting the market in June. Combing Qcells’ solar panels and energy storage system with Samsung’s Eco Heating System, it will lower heating bills for households in Europe.

Hanwha Solutions’ decision to expand the Qcells’ module factory in the U.S. comes as a part of its effort to help rebuild the domestic US solar supply chain. It will create good-paying job opportunities for generations to come. Already employing approximately 750 staff at its module production facility in the U. S., Hanwha aims to further boost the number of local jobs with the opening of the new module production facility.

Upon the implementation of long-term, durable policy designed to incentivize solar manufacturing, Hanwha will further expand investments in the U.S., including wafers and cells. This requires implementing a “whole-of-government” approach, including smart trade policy, strengthened Buy American rules, and especially long-term domestic manufacturing tax legislation.

“Ensuring policy certainty is crucial to realizing our goal of rebuilding the US solar value chain,” adds Lee. “With our relentless efforts to provide reliable, sustainable energy, we will do our utmost to solidify Qcells as the dependable choice for the U.S. solar market.”

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Rendering of one of FREYR Battery’s planned gigafactory factory sites in Norway. Image: FREYR.

Norwegian lithium-ion battery gigafactory group FREYR reported a US$35 million loss in the first quarter of 2022 and has recently announced three conditional offtake agreements (COA) totalling 53.5GWh.

FREYR finished the quarter with cash and equivalents of US$524.6 million. It announced a COA with global battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator Powin Energy yesterday worth 28.5GWh from 2024-2030, as reported on Energy-Storage.news. The company has confirmed to this site that it is a separate deal to the 31GWh it announced with an unnamed partner last year.

FREYR has also signed COAs with an unnamed ‘leading global storage systems integrator’ for 15GWh of volumes from 2023-2027, and an unnamed ‘major U.S. renewables company’ for 10GWh for BESS applications. Together with Powin, those bring the total offtake agreements announced in the quarter to 53GWh.

FREYR also reached advanced negotiations for another 100GWh of potential offtake from 2024-2030 with two companies, including a major commercial mobility company.

As regards to its gigafactories, it started pre-construction work at one of two planned gigafactories in Mo i Rana, Norway, which are set to open in 2023-24, including ground-work preparation and detailed engineering. Its customer qualification plant (CQP) in the same city is expected to start factory acceptance testing in the second half of year.

The gigafactories that FREYR has announced total around US$4 billion in investment. The company said that its cash burn rate will increase modestly in the second quarter of the year as construction activity ramps-up.

It is “exploring capital formation solutions to finance giga-scale development” with global institutions and government entities in Norway, the EU and the US. This could include a combination of grants, bridge loans and direct lending.

Several management appointments were also made in the period. It appointed Oscar Brown as CFO and Andreas Bentzen as EVP of Technology, both in April.

FREYR, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) through a SPAC merger in July 2021, has seven gigafactories planned to launch by 2030 which will total 100GWh of annual production capacity.

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UL says the platform will help advance deployment of energy storage projects worldwide. Image: UL.

Global safety certification company UL has released a software platform for optimising utility-scale energy storage systems (ESS) to, the company says, help advance deployment of the technology globally.

The platform, HOMER Front, provides battery dispatching modelling and technical and economic analysis to help project developers maximise the revenue of their energy storage project. It can provide modelling for standalone storage as well as those co-located with wind or solar PV.

“By providing accurate, detailed results for different system configurations, HOMER Front allows developers and financiers to evaluate the system’s performance and make critical project decisions with confidence,” said Colin Tareila, engineering manager of Renewables in UL’s Asset and Sustainability Performance group.

The new platform is an add-on to the existing HOMER software platform, which UL acquired in late 2019, when HOMER was best known for its microgrid software.

Users can test and analyse the project size, architecture and technology and optimise battery augmentation strategies for participating in energy and capacity markets and meeting off-take agreement requirements.

Renewable project developers are now facing more competition and a growing demand for the supply of clean, reliable energy, UL said, and adding batteries to projects would allow them to increase revenues and system reliability. The software incorporates modelling of various value streams related to specific grid markets like California Independent System Operator (CAISO) and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

In summary, HOMER Front can provide the following insights:

Optimal sizing of energy storage in utility-scale systemsBattery capacity degradation and augmentation strategies to maximise revenue and minimise expensesRevenue stack analysis from:Wholesale energy markets with hourly and sub-hourly pricingCapacity markets such as resource adequacy in the CAISO marketPower purchase agreements, including shaping or time of delivery capacity injection requirementsRobust sensitivity analysis to screen projects for economic viability and de-risk internal rate of return

Within energy storage, UL is best known for UL 9540A, a test method for evaluating thermal runaway fire propagation in battery energy storage systems (BESS).

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A. William Stein

Digital Realty, a global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, is contracting for 158 MW of new solar power in California and Georgia. The contracts include a 12-year agreement to support the development of a new 130 MW utility-scale solar project in Kern County, Calif. The project, developed by Terra-Gen as part of its Edwards Sanborn Solar Storage energy project, is one of the largest solar-plus-storage projects in the world and is expected to be completed in late-2022.

“These efforts are part of our strategy to reduce our carbon footprint,” says Digital Realty CEO A. William Stein. “We are demonstrating that the data center industry is a key part of the transition to a digital economy that is powered by clean energy.”

Additionally, Digital Realty is subscribing to Georgia Power’s Customer Renewable Supply Procurement program. The company will receive 28 MW of new solar supply to support its Atlanta data center portfolio. The energy will be generated by new solar facilities located in Georgia. The program is expected to begin delivering power and renewable energy certificates to Digital Realty in 2024.

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Prairie State Solar

D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments’ (DESRI) Prairie State Solar and Dressor Plains Solar projects have reached commercial operation, and closed debt and tax equity financing. Prairie and Dressor will both utilize term debt from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service (RUS). They are each 99 MW AC solar facilities, with Prairie located in Perry County, Ill., and Dressor located in Fayette County, Ill. Both projects were developed in partnership with Ranger Power, a Chicago-based utility-scale solar development company.

Prairie and Dressor both have long-term power purchase agreements with Wabash Valley Power Alliance (WVPA). The facilities are each expected to generate enough clean energy to power approximately 21,000 homes per year, according to metrics provided by the Environmental Protection Agency. The projects also both have contracts for purchase of renewable energy certificates with the Illinois Power Agency (IPA), and were some of the first solar projects to execute these contracts, Prairie in 2017 and Dressor in 2018. The projects contribute to Illinois’s commitments under its renewable portfolio standard and the Future Energy Jobs Bill to procure 25% of the state’s electricity from renewables by 2025.

“We are delighted to have completed the RUS financing process for the Prairie and Dressor projects in Illinois: a true team effort,” says Aileen Kenney, executive director of development and project management for DESRI. “Our team is grateful for the hard work from the RUS team, our development partner Ranger Power, WVPA, and IPA for making new renewable energy and local investment available for Illinois customers and businesses.”

In addition to the term loan from RUS, financing for the acquisition and construction of the projects was provided by a syndicate of lenders including Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, CoBank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., PNC Capital Markets LLC, PNC Bank, National Association and National Cooperative Services Corp. Tax equity financing has been provided by Bank of America.

SOLV Energy served as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor. In addition, SOLV Energy will provide ongoing operations and maintenance services to the facility once operational.

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The Green Hydrogen Forum at Intersolar Europe, Munich. Image: Cameron Murray / Solar Media.

Buyers of energy storage solutions (ESS) in Germany do not yet see a need for flow batteries for medium duration storage, an ESS provider tells Energy-Storage.news, with many set on the potential of green hydrogen.

The German utility-scale and commercial & industrial energy storage market is a hot topic with the belief amongst many that it is set to take off after several years of stagnancy. But flow battery providers are unlikely to share in this growth anytime soon with lithium-ion and green hydrogen dominating the narrative, a Europe-based ESS technology provider said. The source spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Germany is quite captured in its belief of ‘everything hydrogen’ while other countries have a what I would call a more adult understanding of the technology. There is a very strong lobby for hydrogen and lithium and they don’t see anything in between, even though the market could be huge, with ‘Gridboosters’ (a virtual transmission project from transmission system operators) of a gigawatt,” they said.

“For short duration and grid services they think it can be done by lithium and whatever is long-duration they think can be done by hydrogen. They think they don’t need flow batteries. But the German market is still attractive, and maybe in three years or so they might turn around and say they do need them after all.”

Energy-Storage.news put this to Markus Rosenthal, head of policy and regulation at the German Energy Storage Assocation BVES who said the real market niche in Germany is between eight hours and two days’ duration, with the latter provided by green hydrogen.

He said: “I agree and disagree as it depends on which technology you are talking about. The key issue is the price, although we’ve seen some of our membership bring new solutions in this area making it cheaper.

“There’s no green hydrogen market right now but everyone sees the long-term opportunity it has to help to decarbonise which is what makes it so attractive, and the high gas prices are making the price difference between green, blue or grey hydrogen marginal.”

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Image: Eos Energy Enterprises via Facebook.

Eos Energy Enterprises, the US-headquartered manufacturer of stackable zinc battery storage system technology, added 65MWh of production capacity in the first quarter of this year.

The company reported its first quarter 2022 financial results earlier this week, noting that an initial 65MWh of a planned production capacity expansion of 550MWh was completed during the three month period.

It also saw quarterly revenues jump year-on-year from US$164,000 in Q1 2021 to US$3.298 million. This included the first delivery of equipment to an 80MWh customer project in the US for developer Pine Gate Renewables.

That three-month revenue figure compares very favourably with the US$4.6 million revenues it earned for the full-year in 2021, and the company said its orders in the year to date for 2022 stand at US$67 million, resulting in it holding an order backlog worth US$212 million.

As a company seeking to commercialise its technology, which essentially involves plating and replating zinc inside its Znyth brand batteries to create 3-hour duration units which can be stacked to 12 hours duration or more in a complete system called an Energy Block, Eos has been transparent in informing investors of an expectation that it won’t reach profitability until mid-2023.

However, company CEO Joe Mastrangelo described Q1 2022 as being marked by milestones being achieved in its product and business development almost every single day.

One metric it highlighted in its financial results disclosure on 10 May was a 14% reduction of its bill of material costs since the end of last year in its Energy Block energy storage system (ESS) product while it has been able to reduce the product’s cost by 7.4% in that time.

It claimed a US$6 billion-plus pipeline of potential opportunities have been identified, while it has shipped its 100th Energy Block unit to date from its facility in Turtle Creek, Pittsburgh. The additional 550MWh expansion of the Turtle Creek plant will bring its annual production capacity up to 800MWh.

As reported by Energy-Storage.news, the company has secured or is negotiating supply deals with a number of customers mainly in the US such as a 240MWh to 500MWh master supply deal with Bridgelink Commodities worth up to US$150 million and a 300MWh letter of intent with an undisclosed solar developer in the Northeast US signed in late April.

Eos Energy Enterprises also recently secured a US$200 million financing deal with an affiliate of investment group Yorkville Advisors, which it said will give it access to flexible capital as the company grows.

Eos’ cash balance was US$56.6 million at the end of Q1 2022. Its cost of commercialisation activities remains fairly high, with about the same amount expended during the quarter and a net loss of US$45.791 million recorded.

“The timing of our capacity expansion fits nicely with our orders backlog growth and commercial opportunity pipeline acceleration,” CEO Mastrangelo said.

“We are building a company ready to deliver safe, scalable, flexible, and affordable energy storage. Our manufacturing capacity expansion is on plan, we are seeing improved first-pass production yields, and we are proud to be working towards a cleaner, brighter energy future.”

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Large-scale California solar-plus-storage project developed by Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy. Image: Goldman Sachs Renewable Power.

Canadian Solar has made its first move in the UK battery energy storage space after signing a number of agreements with Pulse Clean Energy.

It will provide integrated energy storage systems, as well as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for four battery storage projects with a total capacity of more than 100MWh.

Additionally, Canadian Solar will maintain and operate the battery assets via a 10-year long-term service agreement. Its solutions will allow Pulse Clean Energy to optimise the assets in ancillary grid-services, capturing multiple revenue streams, the company said.

“Over the past 3 years, we have built a track record of 2.5GWh for energy storage in the United States. Now, customers in other markets are turning to us. Such partnerships in implementing energy storage strategies are instrumental to support the clean energy transition,” Canadian Solar chairman and CEO Shawn Qu said.

As of the end of January, Canadian Solar had 300MWh of energy storage projects under long-term services agreements, a further 2,043MWh under construction and a pipeline of over 4GWh.

While this is the company’s first battery energy storage project in the UK, it has solar power projects in the market, and is currently developing the 350MW Mallard Pass Solar Farm together with Windel Energy, which forms part of a 1.4GWp pipeline of solar the two companies are targeting together.

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

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Attendees at the Intersolar Europe / ees Europe event this week in Germany, where Patrick Clerens was speaking. Image: Jules Scully / Solar Media

The European Union has no choice but to develop a coherent strategy on energy storage if it is to achieve its decarbonisation goals and end its dependency on Russian fossil fuel imports.

That was the view expressed to Energy-Storage.news by Patrick Clerens, secretary general of the European Association for Storage of Energy (EASE) in an interview yesterday.

EASE recently called on the European Commission to address the omission of energy storage from policies designed to quickly reduce the need for gas and coal imports from Russia, as well as carry through longer term targets for decarbonisation.

The association teamed up with fellow trade groups Solar Power Europe and Wind Europe, as well as Breakthrough Energy, the energy transition organisation founded by technology business guru Bill Gates, sending an open letter to European Commission leaders.

The commission needs to take steps such as establishing energy storage targets for 2030 and including them in the RePower EU plan, the letter argued. While RePower EU includes a big renewable energy increase, including 420GW of additional solar PV by 2030, it maintains a large degree of reliance on gas, particularly from peaker plants.

Speaking at the ees Europe conference held in Munich, Germany, Clerens said that for the EU to meet its stated goals of reducing CO2 emissions by 55% and sourcing around 40% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, a “massive” rollout of energy storage is absolutely necessary.

EASE experts and member organisations found through research and analysis that roughly 190GW of energy storage would be needed by 2030. That means a big leap within eight years from the 60GW or so already installed in Europe.

“Last year, we installed less than 1GW for the year in the whole of Europe. To achieve these goals, we’d need some 14GW [of new energy storage] per year. So you see the challenge,” Clerens said.

“If we don’t do this, we don’t have enough storage for renewables, we will curtail renewables [output], and we will struggle to achieve the backup energy supply we need.”

“If we want to deploy renewables, we need to deploy storage massively. There’s no choice, we need a coherent strategy on how to deploy this. The question is not do we need it? The question is how to achieve it, and [for] people [to] wake up to this.”

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The city of Boundiali. Image: Saft.

A lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) made by Saft will be installed at a 37.5MWp solar PV power plant in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast).

It is the African country’s first-ever large-scale solar project and the batteries will be used to smooth and integrate the variable output of the PV modules for export to the local electricity grid.

Located in the city of Boundiali, the power plant will be owned by state-owned electricity management group CI-Energies and Saft has been contracted by Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, the France-headquartered engineering company executing the project.

Saft, also headquartered in France and owned since 2016 by French energy major TotalEnergies, will deliver a full turnkey system based on its Intensium Max containerised BESS units which it uses for all of its utility-scale battery projects.

That includes the 25MW/25MWh BESS at a TotalEnergies platform site in Carling, northern France, which Energy-Storage.news reported the completion of installation and commissioning at earlier this week. That was part of a portfolio of 129MW Saft is deploying for its parent company in France, including the country’s biggest BESS, at 61MW/61MWh in Dunkirk, also in northern France.

At the Boundiali site, six Saft Intensium Max units totalling 10MW/13.8MWh will be installed along with power conversion systems and medium voltage power infrastructure, the company said today. It also marks Saft’s first major project on the African continent.

The BESS is scheduled for commissioning by September this year.

With Côte d’Ivoire looking to double its installed energy generation capacity by 2030 from around 2229MW today, the Boundiali represents a first step towards solar making a contribution to that goal. The country’s government wants 42% of its energy to come from renewables by the end of this decade.

The batteries will rapidly charge or discharge as needed in line with the generation of the solar PV. It will create a generation profile which is equivalent to the power plant’s output averaged over 30 minutes and feed it into the grid.

CI Energies wants to use the project as a means to try out various other applications for battery storage on its networks, which could include ramp rate control, black starting power plants and local network infrastructure, frequency regulation and reactive power support.

Saft said the battery containers are designed to withstand the hot and dry winds the region experiences, as well as ambient air temperatures that sometimes reach 37°C in the semi-arid region.

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