The project was commissioned at the beginning of this month. Image: Sumitomo Electric.

One of the world’s biggest vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) energy storage systems has come online on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido in the last few days. 

Technology provider Sumitomo Electric said that the 17MW/51MWh VRFB system it installed to help integrate local wind energy onto the grid has been in operation since 1 April after installation was finished a day earlier.

The project has been commissioned in line with a schedule announced by the company in July 2020, as reported by Energy-Storage.news at the time. It will directly contribute to decarbonisation and increased renewable energy penetration on Hokkaido.

Due to large areas of suitable land, Hokkaido has become a hotspot for clean energy but has struggled to accommodate the increased energy capacity on its grid, which has only limited interconnection to Honshu, Japan’s main populated island to its south. 

As a consequence, Hokkaido Electric Power, one of the country’s main, regional monopoly electric utilities and operator of the region’s grid introduced rules in 2015 that new renewable energy facilities must be paired with energy storage.

This has lead to various battery storage projects on the island including the first installations in Japan for Tesla’s Megapack BESS solution and a recently-completed solar-plus-storage project supplied by Sungrow. 

For Sumitomo Electric, the project follows up an even bigger VRFB project in Hokkaido, a 15MW/60MWh system commissioned in 2015. Currently still the largest flow battery project in the world — although several bigger systems are in development in China — that system has been functioning well since its installation in collaboration with Hokkaido Electric, the company said. 

Vanadium flow batteries offer a potentially long lifetime energy storage resource, capable of heavy duty cycling over an expected 20+ years in the field. They also offer the ability to scale up energy storage capacity simply by increasing the size of liquid electrolyte tanks, unlike lithium batteries, which need to add more cell stacks and more balance of plant equipment as they add capacity. 

VRFBs are also considered to be safer than other batteries, due to their operation at room temperature and lack of combustible materials used in their construction.

The new system will support the grid-side and has been installed by Hokkaido Electric at its Minami-Hayarai substation. The power and grid company solicited offers from applicants that want to interconnect their renewable energy facilities to the grid and 15 companies will share the capacity the flow battery systems helps to free up. Costs of the battery will be shared by Hokkaido Electric and the other stakeholders. 

Sumitomo Electric’s 2MW/8MWh VRFB project in California, inaugurated in 2017 and the biggest project of its type in the US to date has been used to trial the use of VRFBs for microgrid applications by California utility San Diego Gas & Electric, as well as being used to provide grid services.  

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Battery storage as part of a renewable hybrid microgrid at Agnew gold mine, Western Australia. Image: EDL.

The government of Western Australia is funding work to assess a potential battery energy storage system (BESS) project which would be the biggest built in the state so far.

Up to AU$1 million (US$0.76 million) in funding has been committed from the Collie Futures Industry Development Fund for the first stage of a feasibility study into the project, which Minister for Regional Development Alannah MacTiernan said would help Western Australia’s transition away from coal. 

The BESS, planned for construction in the town of Collie, is tentatively expected to be between 600MWh and 800MWh, according to a statement issued last week from MacTiernan’s office. Australia’s biggest project of this kind so far is the 300MW/450MWh Victorian Big Battery on the other side of the country, which went online a few weeks ago.

The feasibility study funding is for the Collie Battery and Hydrogen Industrial Hub Project, which as the name implies may include green hydrogen electrolysis and production of green ammonia and urea powered by renewable energy.

“This project will provide a firm basis to progress a renewable energy hub in Collie,” MacTiernan said, adding that it makes sense for the region to host a clean energy hub as Western Australia transitions away from the coal industry. 

Massive renewable energy hubs hosting a mix of solar and wind and battery storage, often with large-scale green hydrogen commitments, are being planned in various parts of Australia by different state governments. 

These hub plans appear to draw interest from private entities. Meanwhile merchant revenues large-scale battery storage can access from ancillary services and arbitrage in Australia are reportedly pretty good, especially for regions connected to the National Electricity Market (NEM) — which Western Australia is not. 

However, while revenues have been good, revenue streams are not certain, without long-term contracts for services as seen in other markets like the UK or California. A recent report from BloombergNEF pointed out that this uncertainty could slow down deployment in Australia as it makes it harder for developers to access financing from lenders. 

In various cases, state governments have stepped in to fill funding gaps. For instance, Queensland’s government said a week ago that a power company it owns will build a 100MW/200MWh BESS at a former coal plant site. In announcing that project, Queensland energy minister Mick de Brenni criticised Australia’s federal government for a continued lack of ambition to act on climate, leading the state to take the initiative and invest.

Assessment of the Collie battery project will be conducted by Sunshot Energy, an investment and advisory group focused on decarbonisation. 

The project could unlock AU$730 million investment in green industries and decarbonisation initiatives, adding 500 construction jobs and about 400 ongoing jobs after commissioning, while the low-cost energy it enables will benefit businesses in the region directly, Minister MacTiernan’s office said. 

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Kirk Barrell

NuQuest Energy LLC has secured three utility-scale solar development projects totaling 390 MW in Louisiana and Mississippi.

“After several months of advanced analytical analyses of the electrical grids in both Louisiana and Mississippi, we’re excited to have secured our foundational projects with large developmental capacity,” says Alex Guitart, NuQuest’s co-founder. “We look forward to advancing these projects and to generate value for all parties in our local community.”

Guitart is joined by industry executives Denis Taylor and Bob Rosamond, co-founders and partners at Audubon Companies LLC, as well as Kirk Barrell, founder and president of Barrell Energy Inc. and Amelia Resources LLC.

“NuQuest Energy has quickly secured excellent sites for utility-scale solar in our two target states,” comments Rosamond. “These sites build a great foundation for our progressing plans of a one GW portfolio.”

“Our technology-focused approach has enabled us to select and secure sites with high probabilities of reaching operational status,” states Barrell. The company has built a proprietary site-selection system, TerraVolt, which integrates electric grid analyses, GIS and advanced analytics. “Our proprietary technological system leverages decades of mapping and analytics experience to pinpoint high-quality locations for renewables development.”

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Bill Collins

LO3 Energy, developer of Pando software, is providing the software to Green Mountain Power (GMP) for a new Sun Match pilot for customers. The Pando platform will support GMP’s pilot to offer the benefits of solar power to low- and moderate-income customers without customers having to build their own systems.

“We’re thrilled to further our partnership with Green Mountain Power, a progressive utility at the forefront of the clean energy transition,” says Bill Collins, CEO of LO3 Energy. “Pando will help GMP’s customers subscribe to solar and optimize their savings by aligning their energy use with the sunniest periods. Pando’s platform means customers can easily participate in renewable energy without upfront costs or long-term commitments, and can get information they need to shift their usage to solar hours and save more when it makes sense for them.”

Pando provides utilities in general a comprehensive web dashboard that displays important information such as how many customers are enrolled in their renewable programs, participating customer usage charted against renewable energy availability and the effectiveness of alerts to inspire customers to shift their energy use to match renewable availability. GMP will be rolling out Sun Match to eligible customers over the coming months.

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The QuickBOLT QB2

QuickBOLT says it has become Solar Insure’s preferred mounting provider on its approved vendor list.

Solar insurance policies are a popular add-on to help build customer confidence and make installers stand out among the competition. Solar Insure’s 30-year extended warranty protection is 20% longer than any warranty on the market and covers parts, labor and roof penetrations.

With 10 years of experience designing solar mounting solutions, QuickBOLT says it is proud to team up with Solar Insure and have its mounting solutions available to installers. With zero reported leaks in the last decade, QuickBOLT’s solutions are relied upon by installers, insurance providers, and homeowners for maintaining roof integrity.

QB2 is the mount that inspired such confidence from Solar Insure, thanks to its BoltSeal technology and four layers of protection: optional sealant, stainless steel Microflashing with EPDM layer, an L-Foot, and a specially designed lag bolt, all working to mechanically compress the flashing into the roof at the point of penetration, creating a powerful watertight seal. Solar Insure’s warranty can now act as the fifth layer of protection, QuickBOLT says.

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Jeremy Conner

National Energy Partners, a solar energy development company, has officially rebranded as Novitium Energy, a National Energy Partners company. Along with a new name comes a commitment to focus exclusively on commercial solar solutions.

For 13 years, Novitium has delivered end-to-end renewable energy solutions to nonprofit and commercial organizations. With a portfolio of over $100 million, Novitium works closely with clients across industries to develop, finance, build, operate and maintain custom solar systems.

“Novitium is Latin for ‘new beginnings.’ The world is moving into a new era in renewable energy, and we are proud to be a part of it,” states Novitium CEO Jeremy Conner. “We are committed to helping all businesses create custom solar solutions that are a win-win for the environment and their bottom line.”

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New York state aims to generate 70% of electricity from renewables by 2030.

New York state is on course to meet its new 2030 target of 6GW of storage deployment, with storage projects in its interconnection queue growing 50% to 12GW.

New York storage deployment roadmap

The Department of Public Service (DPS) has issued its third ‘State of Storage’ annual report detailing the state’s progress in meeting its 2030 deployment goal, which was doubled in January from 3,000MW to 6,000MW.

It is in the process of updating the 2025 interim target, currently 1,500MW, to reflect the new 2030 one. By 2030, the state wants 70% of electricity to be from renewable sources.

The DPS said that as of the end of 2021, total deployed and awarded or contracted energy storage projects stood at 1,230MW, or around 82% of the 1,500MW target. Progress appears to have been slow, however, as the figure means growth of just 4%.

The figure for storage projects in the interconnection queue of 12,000MW, which includes New York utility interconnection queues and the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) interconnection queue, grew much faster at 50%. Though the DPS adds that not all of those projects may be delivered on. One recently launched portfolio is Nala Renewables’ 280MW of BESS across four projects on Long Island, scheduled to go online in 2024.

The report breaks down the deployment figures in the table below, with the percentage figures at the bottom based on the old goals. These figures do not include two pumped hydro projects totalling 1,400MW which participate in the NYISO market and pre-date the 2025/30 goals.

Mixed use cases and incentives

The Bridge Incentive Program offers financial incentives to build 5MW-plus systems participating in wholesale markets, commercial retail projects up to 5MW and single-family residential systems paired with PV on Long Island.

Sixty-four out of the 77 commercial retail projects awarded Bridge incentives are there to time shift the renewable energy dispatch to times with a more valuable distribution grid value under Value of Distributed Energy Resource (VDER) compensation. The Long Island projects are paired with solar to help the local grid relieve demands during peak summer days under the Long Island Power Authority’s Dynamic Load Tariff.

Many of the Bulk projects provide or will provide wholesale services in the NYISO market. Some 14 comprising 550MW/1,835MWh have been awarded US$115 million in NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) incentives for projects targeting downstate capacity or ancillary services revenues in the wholesale market.

System costs

The report says that installation costs averaged US$464/kWh for non-residential projects while those above 5MW averaged US$370/kWh in 2020/21. The total average cost is expected to increase by 22% over 2022 and 2023, compared with 2020/21, to US$567/kWh. However, it cites industry analyst reports which say the cost of large scale storage is expected to decrease into the US$150-200/kWh range by 2030.

Investor-owned utilities in New York state have been required to procure minimum amounts of energy storage to be operational by December 31, 2025. Con Edison has to procure 300MW, and along with other utilities issued a request for proposals (RFP) in August 2021. The Public Service Commission has rejected the idea of utilities owning the storage themselves, saying that refinements to market rules and the removal of barriers will obviate the need for that.

Market design changes in New York

The report also says that NYISO and stakeholders have made progressing in expanding the ways that storage can participate in the market. NYISO’s compliance response to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order 2222, which requires ISOs to expand eligibility and improve participation for DERs, is still pending before FERC.

NYISO also has tariff modifications pending at the FERC that, if approved, it says will alleviate restrictions on energy storage and greatly expand aggregation opportunities. This includes removing buyer-side mitigation (BSM) costs (explained here) from all clean energy sources including energy storage.

One reform that has been accepted by FERC is the Co-located Storage Resources (CSR) market design which was implemented in December 2021. It allows for wind and solar resources collocated with energy storage that share an interconnection to participate in the wholesale markets as distinct resources under their respective participation models. Additionally, new CSR projects can submit a single interconnection request to reduce delays and costs.

In 2022, there are plans to bring in a new participation model that would allow colocated storage and renewables sharing an interconnection to share one point identifier (PTID), one bid and one schedule.

Conclusion

The report concludes by saying that the portfolio of programmes and actions approved by the Public Service Commission “…have been effective in building the foundations of a competitive market for qualified energy storage systems in New York.”

Before later adding: “DPS Staff recommends that no corrective actions to the Commission’s energy storage deployment policy are necessary at this time.”

The next review of the energy storage programme will take place in 2023 and DPS and NYSERDA are in the process of updating the roadmap to reflect the new targets.

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Mercedes-Benz Energy stand at a trade show in Europe, pictured in 2017. Image: Andy Colthorpe / Solar Media.

Electric vehicle (EV) batteries made by Mercedes-Benz will be given a new lease of life in stationary energy storage systems (ESS). 

Swedish startup BatteryLoop said yesterday that it will use batteries supplied by the German luxury automaker’s Mercedes-Benz Energy business line for its range of ESS solutions, called BatteryLoop Energy Storage System (BLESS). 

Longtime readers of Energy-Storage.news will be aware that Mercedes-Benz Energy entered the stationary storage market in 2016, marketing a range of solutions in Europe and the US.

That interest appeared to fizzle out, despite Mercedes-Benz Energy hosting some of the biggest industry trade show stands this writer remembers ever seeing and much media attention being paid to the company’s branded battery systems that featured the iconic three-pointed star logo. 

It had been marketing ESS based on second life automotive batteries, while a factory producing EV batteries was also expected to supply devices for ESS. Reports then emerged in early 2018 that parent company Daimler had decided to exit the market for Mercedes-Benz branded systems, but that Mercedes-Benz Energy would remain focused on developing and constructing projects and storage systems based on second life EV batteries and spare parts as well as systems utilising new batteries. 

A frame agreement has been signed with BatteryLoop which will see the Swedish company — a subsidiary of Stena Metall Group, a recycler and processor of various materials — roll out as much as 40MWh of ESS within the next 18 months using Mercedes-Benz Energy modules. 

The first project will be a 3MW/2MWh ESS installed at a site in Sweden which will help manage the electricity network and ease grid congestion.

BatteryLoop said it will secure “high volumes” of batteries, both new and second life, through the deal. 

“With second-use batteries and a power-optimising system we can also, based on the Swedish environmental research institute lifecycle analysis, save 1,000-tonnes CO2 emissions per 3MW energy storage system from the production and at the same time generate the same benefits for the grid,” BatteryLoop CEO Rasmus Bergström said, adding that such systems can generate significant revenues for customers of between SEK7 million (US$0.75 million) to SEK10 million per year. 

“With the company BatteryLoop we have got a partner that have showed deep knowledge in the ESS market, and we are convinced that our products will be an important role for the markets BatteryLoop have,” Mercedes-Benz Energy CEO Gordon Gassmann said.

“The market for large energy storage systems is increasing with the change to renewable energy production,” Bergström said. 

Interest in second life batteries from EVs as a component for ESS has grown as they could represent a cheaper source of energy storage than all-new batteries while providing a circular solution for getting the most out of devices which might otherwise be discarded. 

Mercedes-Benz is building large-scale battery gigafactories in Europe and the US which might serve as sources for the materials, as well as having launched a recycling subsidiary called LICULAR. 

Rival luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover recently announced a similar tie-up for its used EV batteries with power application supplier Pramac. Enel just commissioned a 4MW ESS project at Melilla, a Spanish enclave on Morocco’s northeast coast using Nissan batteries and German energy company RWE inaugurated a 4.5MWh ESS using decommissioned Audi EV batteries at one of its facilities. 

In a recent Guest Blog for this site, Matthew Lumsden, CEO of UK company Connected Energy, which specialises in second life projects, argued that while recycling is important, EV batteries need to be designed for reuse in second life as well.  

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A solar PV project delivered by Reon Energy, the local renewable development company delivering Lucky Cement’s project. Image: Reon Energy.

Lucky Cement, the largest cement producer in Pakistan, is launching a solar-plus-storage project with 5.589MWh of energy storage, which it claimed would be the largest in the country.

The stock-listed company is partnering with local renewable energy firm Reon Energy to build the 34MW solar PV project with storage at its Pezu plant, located in the northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The storage will improve the reliability of the power supply to the plant by smoothing out the intermittency of the solar PV plant and allow for a rapid response in case of a drop in power supply.

The press release claimed the solar PV at the Pezu plant will be the largest ‘on-site’ solar project in the country and the energy storage system will be the largest too.

Noman Hasan, Executive Director, Lucky Cement, said: “Considering the global environmental challenges, it is important to invest in such technologies, especially on the industrial level. Being an industry leader we understand our responsibility towards the environment and through such investments, we are committed to ensuring a sustainable future.”

Reon Energy will supply its Reflex energy storage system for the project. It said Lucky Cement is the third company in the country to buy the solution.

On its website, Reon describes Reflex as a customisable energy storage solution with a lithium-ion battery and a 15-20 year average lifetime. The company has developed its own energy management system (EMS) platform called SPARK which it says has been designed to maximise performance, reduce risk and to increase system flexibility in order to improve the levelised cost of energy (LCoE).

Energy storage is at a very early stage in the Pakistan market. One of the country’s independent transmission & distribution (T&D) infrastructure operators NTDC launched a tender for a 20MW BESS pilot project in September last year.

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A Fluence BESS project in the Philippines. Image: Fluence.

Fluence has formed a partnership with TECO Group to pursue energy storage opportunities in Taiwan’s growing market. 

The energy storage system integrator and energy tech and services provider has formalised an existing relationship with TECO, a Taiwan-headquartered conglomerate which began — and continues to be — in the field of heavy industrial and electrical equipment, but has diversified into numerous other business areas. 

The two companies have worked together on energy storage system projects since 2020, with their first 6MW project together announced publicly in late 2021. In the initial stages of their newly announced partnership, Fluence’s battery storage technologies will be installed at TECO Group factories.

Those battery systems will participate in the Automatic Frequency Control (AFC) ancillary services market launched by Taiwan’s grid operator Taipower. AFC tenders have brought a number of international energy storage players onto island, which is a hub of high tech manufacturing. 

Through the tenders, Taipower is expected to procure about 590MW of energy storage over four years.

Companies including Powin Energy, Wärtsilä and New HOrizons Ahead (NHOA) have been contracted to deliver, or have already delivered, battery energy storage systems (BESS) to participate in the AFC market opportunity.

NHOA in particular, formerly known as ENGIE EPS, was acquired last year by Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) and is set to deploy 420MWh at facilities owned and operated by its new majority owner.

In fact prior to the acquisition being completed, TCC Group announced in March 2021 that it had completed work on Taiwan’s first grid-scale storage project, participating in AFC. It was soon followed by other companies’ project announcements throughout the rest of the year.  

Fluence and TECO meanwhile will also seek opportunities to deploy BESS for offshore wind and solar PV applications, as well as continued involvement in ancillary services. Offshore wind has been a big area of focus for TECO, which claimed to have deployment onshore substations to support about 2GW of offshore wind in the last three years alone. 

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