Electric power sector generation from renewable sources totaled 795 million MWh in the United States during 2021, surpassing nuclear generation, which totaled 778 million MWh, observes U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). The U.S. electric power sector does not include electricity generators in the industrial, commercial or residential sectors, such as small-scale solar or wind or some combined-heat-and-power systems. Renewable generation includes electricity generated from wind, hydropower, solar, biomass and geothermal sources.

Natural gas remained the most prevalent source of energy used in electricity generation in the United States, accounting for 1,474 million MWh in 2021. Although several U.S. coal-fired power plants retired in 2021, coal-fired electricity generation increased for the first time since 2014 and was the source of more U.S. electricity than either renewables or nuclear power. Total generation in the electric power sector increased slightly in 2021, but it remained less than its record-high year of 2018.

The increase in U.S. electric power sector renewable generation during 2021 came mainly from more wind and solar generation as a result of more wind turbines and utility-scale solar power plants coming online. Wind generation increased by 12% in 2021, and utility-scale solar generation increased by 28%. Hydroelectric generation decreased to its lowest level since 2015, mainly because of dry conditions in the western United States. Biomass and geothermal electricity generation remained relatively unchanged in 2021.

Nuclear-powered generation has remained relatively steady in the United States during the past decade because uprates at existing facilities have offset the retirement of several reactors. Only one reactor was retired in 2021: New York’s Indian Point Unit 3. Despite a slight increase in the capacity factor of the U.S. nuclear fleet in 2021, U.S. nuclear electricity generation fell to its lowest level since 2012.

Image: Photo by Jadon Kelly on Unsplash

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An Orbital Solar Services project, a 22 MW solar farm in Murfreesboro, N.C.

Orbital Energy Group Inc. has reorganized its solar division and named Robert Burns as president of its Orbital Solar Services (OSS) subsidiary. OSS is now a part of OEG’s telecom division, Gibson Technical Services (GTS). Mike McCracken, GTS’s CEO, will become CEO of both GTS and OSS. Long-term GTS executive, Jon Martin, will become president of GTS, while Scott Stokes, GTS’s chief technical officer, will assume that role for both GTS and OSS.

“We are proud to welcome Robert Burns to lead our renewable strategies. Robert is an incredibly accomplished executive with extensive construction and renewable sector experience, making him an ideal choice to lead this segment,” says Jim O’Neil, OEG’s vice chairman and CEO. “We believe that Robert’s expertise, coupled with Mike’s proven track record of success in delivering large projects on time and under budget will greatly enhance the efficiency and profitability of our Solar Division. We look forward to benefiting from Robert’s knowledge and leadership.”

Burns has more than 30 years construction expertise with a particular focus in the solar industry. He has extensive experience in all aspects of construction operations, pre- construction, budgetary controls for projects and segments, and business development for all sectors. Burns background includes more than 6 GW of solar renewable projects completed with continuous advancement in company grade level and compensation. He has managed a large assortment of construction projects from $500,000 to more than $130 million, with a track record of completing them safely, on time, and under budget.

“We are very pleased to welcome an experienced industry professional such as Robert Burns to the OEG/OSS team,” comments McCracken. “He brings considerable expertise in areas vital to OSS, particularly in the management of large, utility scale solar installations. He is a seasoned leader in the solar energy sector with an exceptional network and understanding of industry fundamentals.”

“I am delighted to join a progressive, growth-oriented company such as OSS,” says Burns. “I am looking forward to contributing to the Company’s further profitable growth; enhancing the operation of OSS; and increasing shareholder value, as OEG and OSS increases its commercial footprint within the infrastructure services industry.”

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Matt Potere

Sunlight Financial, a point-of-sale financing company, has debuted a new suite of 30-year loan products for residential solar. Available at annual percentage rates (APR) of 1.99%, 2.99% and 3.99%, Sunlight’s 30-year loans reduce monthly payments for residential solar systems, making solar more affordable and accessible. Hundreds of Sunlight installation partners nationwide now offer Sunlight’s 30-year loans to their customers.

“Sunlight enables a homeowner to finance a residential solar system in the same way they likely financed their home – with a 30-year loan,” says Matt Potere, CEO of Sunlight Financial. “The 30-year mortgage is by far the most popular home loan, which is why Sunlight is excited to be the first company to enable installers nationwide to offer 30-year solar loans. Our latest product enhancement will reduce monthly payments, facilitating homeowners’ transition to clean and affordable renewable energy.”

Sunlight’s digital, end-to-end point-of-sale platform delivers instant credit decisions and automated loan processing and funding, creating a seamless process for the sale of residential solar systems and other home improvements.

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GridBeyond’s asset optimisation has been used at a range of distributed and flexible energy assets, including wind farms. Image: GridBeyond.

Growing electricity supply volatility and the rising demand for distributed energy solutions in Australia were among the motivations for UK-headquartered smart energy company GridBeyond to set up offices there.

Energy-Storage.news heard from representatives of GridBeyond, which already has operations in the UK, Ireland, USA and Japan, that there is a “great value proposition” the company’s suite of services including energy storage asset optimisation can target in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM).

GridBeyond will roll out its technology platform into the NEM, which covers five Australian states and offers wholesale market opportunities and is where frequency control ancillary services (FCAS) to balance the grid are procured.

Alongside energy storage services, optimisation for generation assets, demand response and virtual power plant (VPP) services will also be areas where the company is looking to acquire customers for the artificial intelligence-driven platform.

These could include commercial and industrial (C&I) customers and EV fleet operators which could gain access to grid-balancing market opportunities.

“There is a great value proposition in Australia taking into account its electricity consumption, the size of the industrial activity and the huge amount of volatility present,” the GridBeyond representative told Energy-Storage.news.

“Probably the biggest concern amongst consumers and stakeholders in the Australian market is the protection from energy price volatility and controlling electricity costs. Some of the Australian states are in the top five most volatile markets worldwide, so this is a huge concern to be addressed. If you have a good wholesale market price forecasting model backing the activity of the battery, it can be a very effective vehicle for volatility protection and/or creating revenue through arbitrage, for example,” the representative said, adding that FCAS markets generate additional revenues which can help to further offset electricity costs.

As more renewables go online in Australia, the need for fast frequency services that help match generation with demand and maintain the frequency – and therefore stability – of the grid will continue to go up.

Recent and ongoing changes to the NEM’s regulations, rules and structure are also enabling renewables and battery storage to outcompete fossil fuels, particularly coal generation, as the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) that designs the market increasingly values the fast response times and ability to digitally control batteries and other distributed energy resources (DER).

GridBeyond sees FCAS as very similar in scope and requirements to Ireland’s DS3 grid services market that it already has extensive experience in, while its work in the UK to date has encompassed other service provisions that it feels will stand it in good stead like capacity and balancing markets. It has delivered these in both behind-the-meter and in front-of-the-meter applications.

“GridBeyond has developed an AI-based trading platform that is able to combine several forecasters, variables, parameters and constraints into its algorithms and solvers to further optimise trading opportunities in an automated way, so this is a key source of value in a market with such high wholesale market price volatility levels,” the representative said of the Australia launch.

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Solar and battery storage, donated by Tesla for use at a Puerto Rican public facility following the devastating 2017 hurricane. Image: Tesla.

Puerto Rico’s energy regulator PREB has released a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for a minimum of 500MW of renewable power capacity and 250MW of storage in the Caribbean Island.

Issued on behalf of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the document pertains to the second of six planned tranches.

PREPA is planning to present six tranches of procurement in total over three years as part of its integrated resource plan (IRP), with a cumulative total capacity of 3,750MW of renewables and 1,500MW of energy storage sought. 

Contract terms for bidders in Tranche 2 will run between 20-25 years, except for virtual power plants (VPP), which will have terms of 10-25 years.

“PREPA seeks energy resources that can achieve commercial operation in no more than 24 months from the date on which a selected proponent executes a contract, with preference given to those proposals that can achieve commercial operation within a shorter timeframe,” the RFP said.  

In February, PREB approved 18 solar projects totaling 845MW in its first tranche of RFPs, launched early last year. It originally sought up to 1GW of renewable capacity and 500MW of storage. Coverage on the storage aspect of Tranche 1 can be found on Energy-Storage.news.

PREB will hold a webinar on April 22 to provide an overview of the process. Vendor contact and services information can be found here, with the list update as and when new vendors are available.

Puerto Rico has pledged for renewables to meet 20% of its power generation this year, rising to 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040 and 100% by 2050.  

The territory has been forced to rebuild its energy system over the past few years after a major hurricane in 2017. Consultants from industrial group Siemens urged Puerto Rico’s utility and power regulator to scale up its solar and storage ambitions in 2019 to fortify the island’s battered power grid, suggesting a rollout of 920MW of battery storage by 2023.

This story first appeared on PV Tech.

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Greek minister Kostas Skrekas meeting with members of the US Congress and House of Representatives last week. Image: YPEN.

Greece has doubled its 2030 target for energy storage deployment to 3GW as it aims for a renewable electricity generation proportion of 70%.

The country’s Minister of the Environment and Energy Kostas Skrekas announced the plans at a meeting with US politicians on Tuesday last week (19 April), according to the Ministry’s official website.

The target for ‘electricity storage’ is double the 1.5GW outlined in an existing national plan, reports Insider.gr, and will accompany a renewable energy capacity of over 20GW by the 2030 deadline according to the Ministry.

Also discussed at the meeting were near-term plans to increase Greece’s energy security through increased local natural gas production, the Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) gas pipeline and new interconnections with Egypt, Cyprus and Israel.

Skrekas said that Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine would accelerate the green transition, as Europe seeks to wean itself off its fossil fuels, as would the falling price of renewable energy.

Insider reported that Greece already has a renewable energy capacity of 10.1GW at the end of 2020, so the 2030 target amounts to a doubling of that figure.

The storage projects will be supported by money from the post-Covid National Recovery and Resilience Plan, majority funded by the European Union, totalling €450 million (US$480 million) of which €200 million will be for battery-based projects.

In August last year, consultancy Clean Horizon’s head of market analysis Corentin Baschet told Energy-storage.news shortly that the €200 million would fund a 700MW tender for energy storage announced in June. He said Greece had all the drivers to become an important European market for lithium-ion-based energy storage in the coming years.

That tender may now have increased in size, with Insider reporting that regulatory steps and discussions with the EU have taken place and a tender totalling 800-900MW of storage could launch this coming September.

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EagleView has launched its new TrueDesign solar design solution, which leverages the company’s highly accurate aerial imagery and precise data to accelerate the sale-to-installation timeline for residential solar companies.

Without precise and accurate design tools, many solar installers are forced to create two different designs as part of their standard workflow, creating operational inefficiencies that drive up soft costs. TrueDesign allows for precise, easy panel-placement designs that are automatically optimized for maximum energy output without the need for an external site visit. The solar design solution also remotely provides exterior measurements and shade analysis for every sales appointment that is more precise than publicly available LIDAR data or satellite-derived 3D models, and is more accurate than manual methods for roof sizing and shading analysis.

“TrueDesign revolutionizes the workflow for solar contractors, enabling more automated and virtual operations through a design tool that is accessible for nearly any skill level,” says Pete Cleveland, vice president of solar business for EagleView. “Our high-quality data underpins a new era of smooth, efficient sales, design and installation for the solar industry, ultimately resulting in happier customers who become ambassadors for solar in their communities.”

EagleView’s existing portfolio of high-resolution ortho and oblique imagery, derived from the company’s image capture and processing systems, is four times more detailed than standard aerial imagery and 70 times more detailed than standard satellite imagery.

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A map of where the graphite processing facilities would be. Image: International Graphite.

Renewable energy developer ZEN Energy has taken on responsibility for a 600-800MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Western Australia while the regional government is funding a downstream graphite facility project for battery applications at the same location.

ZEN Energy is looking into the feasibility and potential delivery of the BESS project announced earlier this month.

Meanwhile, a downstream graphite processing facility in the same region is being explored by International Graphite (IG), an Australia-listed integrated mining and downstream graphite company, with funding from the local government. Both announcements were contained in an ASX announcement by IG today (April 26).

Western Australia to get its own ‘big battery’

Earlier this month, the Government of Western Australia announced it was providing AU$1 million (US$0.72 million) to Sunshot Energy for the first stage of a feasibility study into the Collie Battery and Hydrogen Industrial Hub Project, which would include the large-scale BESS.

ZEN Energy has now taken on the responsibility and funding for the feasibility study and potential delivery of the BESS project, which would have 200MW of power and between 600 and 800MWh of energy. Sunshot is an affiliate company of ZEN with common ownership and management and the two will consolidate into one organisation in June this year.

The BESS project has been labelled a ‘big battery’ by ZEN in a possible nod to the largest operational BESS in Australia, the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery on the other side of the country, which went online in December 2021. The largest project in development in the country is a 2GWh BESS in New South Wales, approved last month.

ZEN said its BESS would help manage wholesale market risk by supplying renewable energy to new and existing industrial projects in Collie. It would be a key feature in the Collie Battery and Hydrogen Industrial Hub Project, the company said. Collie is a region with substantial coal mining and energy industry activity.

That wider Hub project is the centrepiece in the regional government’s AU$100 million strategy to create a major renewable energy centre in Collie and transition the local economy away from coal. A government statement said that the project, if it goes ahead, would create AU$730 million of new investment, 500 construction jobs and 400 long-term ones.

Downstream graphite facilities for battery applications

ZEN Energy has also signed a non-binding MOU with IG to secure future agreements to supply energy to IG for the downstream graphite processing facilities it is developing in Collie. Graphite is used in the anodes of lithium-ion batteries in the case of both nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistries.

IG is developing a facility to conduct pilot testing of graphite concentrates for purification and spheroidising of graphite for battery anode material (BAM) applications, as well as to produce micronised graphite. IG has been awarded AU$2 million towards the establishment of the micronising plant by the Western Australia government.

The company said that a shallow graphite deposit in Springdale on the south coast of Western Australia could feed the downstream processing activities at Collie (pictured above).

ZEN Energy, which stands for Zero Emissions Now, currently serves the electricity needs of various government and private sector organisations across Australia. Its major shareholder is leading climate change economist professor Ross Garnaut.

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Rendering of Gemini project aerial view issued in 2019. Image: Primergy.

Debt and equity financing worth US$1.9 billion has been closed for Gemini, one of the US’ largest single-site solar-plus-storage power plants to date.

Investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and project developer Primergy said yesterday that the deal has been clinched for Gemini, which combines 690MWac/966MWdc of solar PV with 380MW/1,416MWh of battery storage, set for construction in Clark County, Nevada.

Scheduled to go into operation in late 2023, power from the plant will be sold to Nevada utility NV Energy under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) contract.

It extends an existing partnership between Primergy and the Berkshire Hathaway-owned utility, with the pair having contracted for 1.3GWac of solar and 3.33GWh of battery storage to date.

In early March, Primergy – which is owned by Quinbrook – announced the appointment of key contractors, including EPC Kiewit Power Constructors and battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator IHI Terrasun, as reported by Energy-Storage.news.

Gemini’s bifacial PV modules will be supplied by Maxeon.

The project’s BESS will be DC-coupled and charge only from the onsite solar PV, IHI Terrasun’s president Jamal Burki told Energy-Storage.news in an interview.

Describing the Gemini project as a “real milestone” for the industry in terms of its scale, Burki said the power plant will enable “continued renewable energy usage” for NV Energy, beyond the hours in which solar is generating during the day.

“This is a four-hour [duration] system, and really a solar shifting application for the evening. The solar system is being oversized so all that ‘clipped’ energy is stored in the energy storage system and will now broaden that solar energy availability into the evening hours, by four hours,” Burki said.

The financing deal just closed includes US$1.3 billion in debt financing, from a combination of a construction/term loan, tax equity bridge loan and letter of credit facility.

Lead arrangers on the construction facility are KeyBanc Capital Markets, MUFG, Bank of America and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale, while the debt deal also covers a US$95 million mezzanine debt facility from Voya Investment Management.

US$532 million of tax equity financing has also been secured from Truist Bank and Bank of America.

The US’ largest solar-charged battery storage system already in operation is utility Florida Light + Power’s 900MWh Manatee project, while in California developer Terra-Gen is building Edwards Sanborn, which has a planned final capacity of 760MW of PV and 2,445MWh battery storage, albeit that project is being built up in phases, with multiple off-taker contracts.

Supply chain challenges unlikely to impact project

Quinbrook managing partner David Scaysbrook said that many challenges had been “overcome along the way,” in getting the project to this stage.

“Once operational, Gemini will showcase the many benefits of pairing large scale solar power with storage and will guide the way for many similar projects to come from the Primergy team,” Scaysbrook said.

With suppliers and contractors now secured as well as financing, construction is now ready to begin on the “unprecedented” project, Primergy CEO Ty Daul said.

One of the major challenges facing the energy storage industry is the battery supply chain, which has seen bottlenecks and delays, as demand far outstrips supply. IHI Terrasun’s Jamal Burki told Energy-Storage.news that to his knowledge, Primergy was able to lock in contracts with its suppliers early enough to not be expecting any substantive impacts from that market dynamic.

The fact that there are a number of financiers (“almost a consortium”) on the project has derisked it somewhat from a financial perspective too, Burki said. It is worth noting that in 2019 as the PPA with NV Energy was announced, Primergy said Gemini was expected to cost about US$1 billion but would be worth US$2 billion in PPA revenues over the 25-year term. Additionally, as it revealed the contractors in March, the project’s cost was quoted at around US$1.2 billion by the developer.

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A home battery storage system from sonnen, one of Germany’s largest providers. Image: Sonnen.

The German energy storage market continued to be dominated by the residential segment in 2021, although utility-scale battery revenues grew by nearly six times year-on-year, according to new figures from the national storage association.

The Energy Storage System Association (BVES) report said that residential accounted for around half of the sector’s total revenues last year of €8.9 billion (US$9.51 billion). Within residential, €1.6 billion was battery energy storage system (BESS) and €3.9 billion was thermal storage sales. The segment grew overall by 25%: 23% for BESS and 26% for thermal storage.

The utility-scale segment’s revenues grew 25% to €2.3 billion, of which the bulk was from pumped hydro storage at €1.8 billion.

However, within the utility segment, BESS revenues grew by nearly six times to €441 million, from just €78 million in 2020. BVES said that BESS projects benefitted from higher system balancing costs. Heat storage made up 1-2% of the utility segment in both years.

It did say that there were fewer utility-scale installations in 2021 compared with 2020, which matches up with research published by a group of German academics in March, but the average project size grew.

UK energy storage investor Gore Street Capital capitalised on growing returns in the utility-scale BESS sector in Germany when it entered the market recently.

Drivers of the residential storage market include proliferation of solar PV, meaning more co-located projects, home batteries no longer being seen as a luxury item in light of the energy crisis and the growth of EVs.

Commercial & industrial-sited projects also had a good year with 36% revenue growth to €1.94 billion, which includes €140 million of hydrogen projects, meaning it accounted for about 21% of the German energy storage market.

Research projects for storage made up the small remainder of the sector’s €8.9 billion revenues in 2021.

Growth in demand and customer awareness of energy storage may have also accelerated recently with the effect that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had on energy prices, with C&I BESS provider Tesvolt saying that its year-in-year orders were up nearly 200% in March.

German energy storage market player offers customers exposure to wholesale markets

Meanwhile, one of Germany’s big three residential BESS providers sonnen has announced it will offer households the possibility to switch between feed-in-tariffs from the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) remuneration and wholesale market prices.

The ‘sonnenFlat direct’ power supply plan will come in during quarter three 2021 and will first be offered to those with new rooftop PV paired with sonnen’s battery storage. Existing customers with solar PV will need to wait until 2023 to be eligible.

The Shell-owned company will offer customers a set payment rate of €0.10c/kWh for 2022, higher than the current €0.0693c/kWh currently paid under the country’s EEG tariff, but customers can switch back to EEG if it grows to outcompete sonnen’s offer.

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