FTC Solar’s 2P Voyager Tracker Nevada

FTC Solar has co-authored a whitepaper with wind engineering experts RWDI and structural engineering firm Engineered Power Solutions (EPS) on the wind mitigation strategy of FTC’s unique single axis tracker, Voyager. This strategy – combining a zero-degree wind stow position with proprietary dampening technology – was independently characterized through wind tunnel testing carried out by RWDI. The result is a solar tracker platform that alleviates the effects of static and dynamic wind loading, preventing catastrophic failure and revenue loss.

“Due to the high level of torsional damping in the model from the dampers, divergent oscillations indicative of aerodynamic instability were not observed in the configurations with at least one damper per half,” states RWDI’s report.

Through testing wind speeds between 105 and 150 mph, RWDI determined that the Voyager tracker remains stable. This unique damping technology is essential as it prevents wind from affecting the surface of the modules, which can ultimately lead to catastrophic failures.

“These large surface area modules with the frames at the outer edge, behave dynamically in new ways that traditional design approaches can’t analyze. This can lead to microcracking and cell failure that is not visible to the naked eye,” says Nagendra Cherukupalli, chief technical officer at FTC Solar. “To alleviate these issues, FTC Solar is pioneering the use of multi-body dynamics simulation to fully characterize the dynamic behavior of single axis trackers.”

To prevent wind damage during photovoltaic plant construction, FTC Solar attaches dampers to each row before the modules and sets the row to zero-degree stow, meaning no power or commissioning is required to protect the row from wind effects. Ultimately, this allows each row to be shielded and keeps installers in the field safe.

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UL, a global safety science leader, has released a report, co-authored with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), titled “Cybersecurity Certification Recommendations for Interconnected Grid Edge Devices and Inverter Based Resources.” The report includes recommendations that enable distributed energy resources (DER) and inverter-based resources (IBRs) to maintain a strong cybersecurity posture.

With support from DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office, UL will continue working with NREL on developing requirements to support cybersecurity certification standards for DERs and IBRs. NREL and UL are currently working on an outline of investigation for a standard that will apply to energy storage and generation technologies on the distribution grid, including photovoltaic inverters, electric vehicle chargers, wind turbines, fuel cells and other resources essential to advancing grid operations.

“Currently, there are no cybersecurity certification requirements to which manufacturers and vendors can certify their DER and IBR devices against an established and widely adopted cybersecurity certification program,” says Kenneth Boyce, senior director for the Principal Engineering, Industrial group at UL. “The development of these new cybersecurity certification requirements will provide a single unified approach that can be taken as a reference for performing the testing and certification of DERs before being deployed and while in the field. Drafting comprehensive certification requirements with peer review requires effective leadership and stakeholder participation.”

These new requirements will prioritize cybersecurity enhancements for power systems dealing with high penetration inverter-based resources, including those interfacing with bulk power systems for periods of instantaneous high wind, solar and hybrid/storage generation. It will also help ensure cybersecurity is designed into new IBR and DER systems.

“A national or international cybersecurity certification standard can aid industry stakeholders to evaluate and validate the cybersecurity posture of their DER or IBR devices before they are connected to the electric grid,” states Danish Saleem, senior researcher for energy cyber-physical system security at NREL. “UL supports the development of a cybersecurity certification program because, not only will robust cybersecurity be introduced to the electric grid, but it will also help to ensure the concept of security by design is being followed for new DER systems.”

“Drafting consensus-based cybersecurity certification standards requires effective leadership and regular participation from stakeholders,” adds Saleem. “NREL and UL can streamline this effort by utilizing in-house expertise and state-of-the-art testing facilities and by bringing industry experts to the UL Standards Technical Panel. By collaborating with UL on this technical report, we have established a valuable working relationship that will strengthen our ability to develop the forthcoming cybersecurity certification standard for DER and IBR devices.”

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DESRI’s Cuyama solar project in California

D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), a renewable energy producer in North America, has signed Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD) first combined solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) sized at 200 MW AC and 400 MWh.

The combined solar and BESS generation facility in northern California will be located on the east side of Sacramento County. The project is expected to reach commercial operation no later than 2024.

“Our DESRI team is pleased to continue our longstanding partnership with SMUD on the development of this landmark clean power project, especially considering the groundbreaking size and battery storage integration,” says Hy Martin, chief development officer of DESRI.  “This first-of-its-kind project took significant effort by all project partners and shows SMUD’s leadership in its drive towards carbon-free electricity generation in coming years.”

“Partnerships are a key component to SMUD reaching our 2030 Zero Carbon goals,” comments Frankie McDermott, SMUD’s COO.  “We committed to using every tool in the toolbox, and innovative projects like this that combine solar and battery storage will enable us to provide the region with clean and reliable power as we transition away from natural gas resources.”

Affiliates of Bona Terra Energy, LLC assisted as co-developers in the project.

As part of the project, the SMUD Clean Energy Community Leaders – Mark Gall Memorial Scholarship will be funded by DESRI. The scholarship will help cultivate local workforce talent and support students in the greater Sacramento area who demonstrate interest in renewable energy development. 

“DESRI is thrilled to support emerging young leaders interested in becoming part of the clean energy economy in and around Sacramento as the renewable energy industry grows in the region, and celebrate the public servants at SMUD for their commitment to renewable energy,” notes Hy Martin.

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A New Hampshire Solar Garden community solar project in Milton, N.H.

Luminia, formerly SD Renewables, has entered a joint development agreement with New Hampshire Solar Garden to secure funding for its pipeline of projects, including five community solar projects in Maine for a combined capacity of 15 MW. Through its financial offering and proprietary technology platform, Luminia provides New Hampshire Solar Garden with access to intermediate and long-term financing.

“Community solar is essential for many parties in the transition to renewable energy,” says Andrew Kellar, founder of New Hampshire Solar Garden. “We are thrilled to team up with Luminia in forming a long-term partnership that increases our access to capital, allowing us to accelerate momentum for a healthier planet. As Maine strives to become a carbon-neural state by 2045, securing the funding and resources needed to turn that vision into reality is what Luminia brings to the table – and much more.”

The Maine community solar farms – located in Baldwin, Berwick, Brewer, Eliot and Standish – allow residents to purchase credits from a remote solar PV system.

“New Hampshire Solar Garden has been an excellent partner in the community solar market, in addition to their commercial and industrial projects, and we are excited to be a part of Maine’s commitment to becoming carbon-neutral,” mentions David Field, co-managing partner of Luminia. “Through collaboration with our partners, our goal is to make community solar as effortless as possible by streamlining the financing and development process for both officials and our channel partners.”

“Community solar takes a cooperative and mutually beneficial approach to solar projects with Maine communities,” states Matthew Fricker, chairman of the planning board in Baldwin. “Community solar projects create jobs, reduce climate-damaging emissions and decrease reliance on fossil fuels. They also enable towns, schools, businesses and homeowners to save money on their electric bills, all while increasing tax revenues.”

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Colocated solar and storage is growing in popularity. Image: Pacific Green Technologies.

D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) has signed a solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) totalling 200MWac/400MWh with a local utility.

The project is the largest combined solar PV and storage facility in northern California under PPA, claimed D.E. Shaw and off-taker Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in a press release. It will be on the east side of Sacramento County and begin commercial operations ‘no later than 2024’.

“Our DESRI team is pleased to continue our longstanding partnership with SMUD on the development of this landmark clean power project, especially considering the groundbreaking size and battery storage integration,” said Hy Martin, chief development officer of DESRI.

“This first-of-its-kind project took significant effort by all project partners and shows SMUD’s leadership in its drive towards carbon-free electricity generation in coming years.”

The existing agricultural ranch on the site will continue to run in parallel and other key aspects of environmental sustainability have been built into the project, the press release adds. Bona Terra Energy assisted as co-developer in the project.

DESRI has not yet replied to Energy-storage.news’ request for a clarification on whether the project is a true hybrid solar-plus-storage resource – where the solar connects to the battery which then dispatches to the grid – or more straightforward colocation – where the solar PV and battery are two separate assets which share a common connection to the grid. This story will be updated to reflect its response.

SMUD, a community-owned utility, is working towards installing nearly 4GW of renewables and demand-side resources by 2040. It aims to provide net-zero-emission power to its 1.5 million customers in and around Sacramento by 2040.

Other large solar and storage projects under PPA in California include the massive Rexford 1 Solar & Storage Centre, in Tulare County, which combines 400MWdc (300MWac) of solar PV capacity with a 180MW/540MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). Set to become operational in 2023, it is being developed by 8Minute Solar Energy who signed the 15-year PPA with Clean Power Alliance, a community choice aggregator (CCA) group.

Clean Power Alliance also bagged the output of an even larger project near San Diego, EDF Renewable’s Desert Quartzite. That combines 300MW of horizontal single-axis tracking solar PV with a 600MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) and is expected to be commissioned in February 2024. Their PPA runs for 15 years.

DESRI’s claim that this is the largest such project under a PPA in northern California depends on how you define the unofficial ‘vernacular’ region. When asked, most residents in Redding said they do not consider their southerly neighbour Sacramento part of northern California. In Merced in the south, a sizeable minority said northern California encompasses Tulare county, where 8Minute’s Rexford project is (Source: North State Public Radio).

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Lower Road, a 10MW battery storage asset in Gore Street’s portfolio. Image: Gore Street.

London Stock Exchange-listed battery storage investment fund Gore Street has completed the acquisition of a 90% stake in a 22MW/28MWh operational energy storage asset in Cremzow, Germany, as the company plans to “aggressively” pursue certain international markets.

Cremzow has been operating since 2019, providing balancing and frequency services across eight countries and eleven associated Transmission Network Operators in the European grid system. It can participate in wholesale and intraday arbitrage, presenting additional revenue stacking opportunities similar to the Great Britain and Irish markets.

Additionally, Gore Street highlighted how the intent by the EU to diminish co-dependency on gas and other fossil fuels – which it said has been reinforced by the current Ukraine crisis – will likely further enhance the need for energy storage infrastructure.

The Cremzow site was developed in two stages by Leclanche, Enel Green Power and Enertrag, starting with an initial 2MW followed by an additional 20MW, with the system based on LG Chem lithium-ion batteries.

The asset was purchased from Enel X Germany Gmbh, a subsidiary of Enel X. Enertrag, meanwhile, is to retain a 10% stake in the project, as well as support the technical management of the project.

It comes as Gore Street looks to diversify its exposure to new revenue streams, in line with its mandate to expand outside of the UK and Ireland – the latter of which it expanded into in 2019. 

A year later, it raised raised gross proceeds of £3.5 million through a placing of ordinary shares to fund its UK and international pipeline.

Following the acquisition, Gore Street’s operating assets will have increased to 232MW, and total portfolio assets under management will be 629MW.

Alex O’Cinneide, CEO of Gore Street Capital, said: “Gore Street has a unique skill set, drawing on our first mover advantage in GB, in owning and operating an international portfolio, and will continue to aggressively pursue critical markets such as Germany.

“This is a landmark acquisition with compelling fundamentals which not only demonstrates our entry into new markets but also increases our operational cash generating assets, and further diversifies Gore Street’s portfolio.”

Harmony Energy targets France

In related news, UK wind, solar and battery storage developer Harmony Energy is expanding into France with the launch of a new affiliate.

It will target the development of utility scale battery energy storage systems and photovoltaic energy projects initially, building on the company’s 12 years of experience in the UK.

Peter Kavanagh, CEO of Harmony Energy, said: “This is an exciting move for Harmony and the next stage in our strategic growth plan. The formation of Harmony Energy France will enable us to take our expertise and learnings from the UK to help contribute towards a more sustainable energy future in France.”

In the UK, Harmony Energy currently has 600MW/1.2GWh of construction ready battery projects. It has 42MW/84MWh of Tesla Megapack Battery Systems that it owns and operates as part of a partnership with Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, and plans to build a 99MW/198MWh project in southern England under the same partnership.

The company also announced a joint venture with global clean energy group TagEnergy for two grid-scale battery energy storage projects in England and Scotland with a total capacity of 99MW/198MWh.

Additionally, in November the company launched an energy storage focused investment arm, Harmony Energy Income Trust. It has an initial seed portfolio of five projects with a capacity of 213.5MW, as well as exclusive rights to acquire a pipeline of projects within Harmony Energy’s control.

Gore Street story by reporter Alice Grundy, Harmony Energy story by deputy editor Molly Lempriere.

These stories originally appeared as separate news items on Solar Power Portal.

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Quidnet Energy has developments underway in Texas (pictured), New York, Ohio and Alberta, Canada. Image: Quidnet Energy.

Quidnet Energy, a provider of a novel geomechanical pumped storage (GPS) technology, has struck a 15-year commercial agreement with Texas utility CPS Energy to supply an initial 10MWh system.

Phase one of the project will involved Quidnet delivering an initial one-megawatt (MW) 10-hour storage facility with an option to extent the project to 15MW. The 15-year agreement allows the time for both parties to explore Quidnet’s technology, the press release says.

The Houston-based company’s technology is a form of pumped hydro storage with a 10-hour plus duration. It works by pumping water into an underground reservoir to be stored between impermeable rock layers at high pressure. When the system needs to dispatch electricity, the water is released upwards to power a hydroelectric turbine in a close loop system.

Unlike conventional pumped hydro, it does not need elevated terrain and requires a fraction of the time and cost to build, Quidnet claims. Specifically, it claims that its solution requires half, or less, of the capital expenditure and long-term costs of battery and conventional pumped hydro storage.

The CPS Energy deal marks Quidnet’s sixth test/pilot project, with the previous five in Texas (2), Ohio, New York and Alberta. It claims its projects employ “much of the same expertise, workforce, and supply chains as the oil and gas industry,” providing a natural pathway into the green economy for those professionals.

It has received investment by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Evok Innovations, Trafigura and others, funding from the Department of Energy, and is a founding member of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council. The foundation of acting couple Will and Jada Smith backed the company at its foundation in 2015.

Quidnet’s Texas location and focus is unsurprising. The state is the highest energy consumer in the US, accounting for around one-seventh of the country’s power needs according to the US Energy Information Administration (sixth-highest per capita). It has large energy-intensive sectors based there like petroleum refining and chemical manufacturing, though is still the third-highest net exporter of energy among US states.

For its part, CPS Energy serves the city of San Antonio, portions of seven adjoining counties, and the electric and natural gas infrastructure for a collection of US military installations in the state. The utility is targeting having a 50% renewable energy resource mix by 2040 and full carbon neutrality by 2050.

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Svalbard is one of the northernmost inhabited regions in the world. Image: Saft.

Saft has won a turnkey contract for a 7MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in a Norwegian archipelago which it claims is the largest in the Arctic, although much larger projects near the polar circle have progressed recently too.

The transport, industry and defense-specialised BESS provider will deliver the 6MW/7MWh system to the Longyearbyen community on the island of Svalbard for completion in late 2022. The bulk of Svalbard’s population of slightly under 3,000 people live there.

The BESS will be housed in six containers based on Saft’s Intensium Max High Energy technology and will feature a fully integrated solution including power conversion and control systems. The company says it will allow Longyearbyen to cut its emissions by 100% although this does not appear to be a near-term goal.

The BESS will be next to a coal-fired power station to provide reserve capacity and overcome fluctuations, as well as backup power. The coal station will close in 2023, after which the ESS will “…provide voltage and frequency control to integrate diesel generators and growing amounts of renewable energy,” the press release reads.

“We selected Saft after a competitive bidding process that evaluated price, quality and capability to deliver,” said Joachim Karlsen, Longyearbyen Council’s project manager.

“One aspect we particularly liked about Saft is its experience and proven high reliability with similar systems for remote communities in northern Canada and Alaska. That has given us extra reassurance that their team has what it takes to deliver this complex project in harsh Arctic conditions and that their technology will provide us with reliability and security of supply.”

The projects Karlsen alluded to include a 21MW wind farm in northwestern Finland and a 1MWh system to a remote coastal Arctic community’s microgrid in Cordova, Alaska. Both are relatively close to but not in the Arctic circle, while a smaller 950kWh system delivered to an electric cooperative in Kotzebue, Alaska, does fall within the boundary.

Saft says it will schedule transportation to Svalbard in the warmer months to overcome logistical challenges, as well as carry out final commissioning during winter to demonstrate the system’s tolerance for the intense Arctic winter.

Other projects near the Arctic

Other BESS projects in the far north (but again not technically Arctic) include a large 40MWh system in the Yukon province of Canada. SunGrid Solutions was recently chosen by utility Yukon Energy as the project construction partner after a year-long competitive process. The project will cost CA$35 million (US$27 million) of which CA$16.5 million will be provided by the governments’ Green Infrastructure Stream.

Another, even larger one is a 93MWh Tesla Megapack BESS in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula provided to utility Homer Electric, which went into full commercial operation on January 19th, 2022. The BESS was installed on the site of a gas power plant to provide voltage support, enhance grid stability and reduce gas burn.

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PV project in Ghana. Image: Huawei.

Huawei Digital Power has agreed to provide the complete solar PV and energy storage system (ESS) solution for what looks set to be the biggest project of its type in Africa so far. 

The digital and power electronics division of Chinese tech company Huawei has signed a strategic cooperation agreement for the project in Ghana with Meinergy, a developer of projects in the electric power, mining and solar PV sectors in the West African country. 

The project will include 1GW of solar PV generation and 500MWh of battery storage. 

Huawei Digital Power and Meinergy have collaborated on previous clean energy projects in Ghana, including utility-scale PV, PV and hydropower hybrids, residential PV and energy storage. The pair expect to collaborate further on projects in Africa including PV and storage plants, data centres and cloud-computing, Huawei said. 

Ghana already has quite a lot of hydroelectric power resources, which provide more than 40% of the country’s electricity, but the remainder of power on the grid is nearly all thermal generation and as of 2019, utility-scale solar only accounted for 0.6% of total installed generation capacity. 

However, among the aims of the government’s Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP) is an increase of renewable generation in the national mix to 10%, which means deploying more than 1GW of renewables by 2030. Energy access for off-grid citizens is also a key aspect of the plan. 

While deployment of large-scale battery storage has so far been slow across Africa and largely limited to mining industry microgrids, Energy-Storage.news has reported on a number of recent projects from the continent, several of which mark milestones for the industry. 

Mozambique’s first grid-scale solar-plus-storage project achieved financial close late last year and is underway, grant funding for Namibia’s first grid-scale ESS was awarded by German national development bank KfW and Norwegian company Scatec brought out a novel solar-plus-storage leasing model for its utility company customer in Cameroon. 

Huawei meanwhile has signed a contract for another of the world’s biggest battery projects, a 1,300MWh system to be installed at Red Sea Project, a new luxury ‘sustainable’ resort development on the Saudi Arabian coast.  

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Many had expected an emerging technology like flow batteries to be selected. Pictured is California’s largest flow battery installation. Image: SDG&E / Ted Walton.

A group representing community energy suppliers in California has made its second long-duration energy storage procurement, with the selected bid once again a lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS). 

Seven of the 10 member organisations in CC Power, a Joint Powers Agency collective of Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) groups, banded together to make the procurements. In late January, it announced that a 69MW/552MWh lithium-ion battery project by developer LS Power had been the first selected for a contract from the group’s joint request for proposals (RfP). 

CC Power said yesterday that members of the Joint Power Agency’s board voted at a special meeting to enter into a contract for Goal Line, a 50MW/400MWh lithium-ion BESS project in development by Onward Energy. 

The eight-hour discharge duration system will be built in Escondido, California, with an expected online date in 2025 — a year earlier than the commissioning date expected for LS Power’s project, called Tumbleweed. 

The procurements are held in response to a requirement from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that the state’s load-serving entities — including CCAs, investor-owned utilities and municipal utilities and coops — procure sufficient energy to ensure so-called ‘Mid-Term Reliability’ of the energy system. 

In addition to procuring 11.5GW of clean energy resources in the timeframe 2025-2026 to mitigate circumstances including the retirement of natural gas power plants and the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, CPUC ordered load-serving entities to procure or contract for at least 1GW of long-duration energy storage.

Bids selected from 9GW of long-duration submissions

CCAs were actually ahead of the curve on this, Energy-Storage.news heard from Girish Balachandran, CEO of one of the participating groups, Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SCVE), in an interview published shortly after the announcement of the contract for Tumbleweed. 

SCVE and other CCAs had, of course, observed the California ‘Duck Curve’ of solar production versus grid demand and how that was changing the pattern of peaks in demand. With the addition of huge amounts of solar, the profile in California has shifted to a ‘net peak’ in nighttime hours.

As the state targets 50% renewable electricity by 2030 and full decarbonisation by 2045, the situation will grow more acute.

CC Power’s original request for information (RfI) on long-duration storage came out in 2020, a year before the CPUC ruling. Seeking eight-hour minimum discharge duration resources of at least 50MW, with a minimum delivery term of 10 years, projects had to be able to come online by 1 June 2026. 

When the CCAs then put out a Request for Offers (RfO), it was responded to by 51 different entities, representing more than 9GW of projects. Girish Balachandran said the diversity of technologies and their ability to meet the duration requirements was “very positive”.

While lithium-ion was picked first — and now also second —  the CEO had said there was a third shortlisted project which was based on an emerging technology. While Balachandran could not disclose what it was, he did refer to bids being received for projects using everything from flow batteries to hydrogen fuel cells, gravity storage, pumped hydro, various thermal storage technologies and more.

California’s energy sector is likely to be contracting for a big mix of energy storage technologies in the coming years, he said. Another CCA, Central Coast Community Energy (CCCE) has signed contracts with three vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) projects totalling 226MWh, expected to come online in 2026.

Energy storage is already proving its worth in the state. Energy-Storage.news reported yesterday that according to CAISO, California’s main grid and wholesale markets operator, battery storage deployments grew 12-fold on its network in 2021 from 2020 figures.

This enabled the dispatch of around 1GW of energy stored in batteries during the Bootleg wildfire in July 2021, which helped keep the lights on in a tough situation, CAISO president and CEO Elliot Mainzer said.

In the meantime, the Tumbleweed and Goal Line projects between them enable the CC Power member groups to meet their requirement through the CPUC Mid-Term Reliability ruling with lithium-ion. Boards of the individual CCAs will now vote on approvals for Goal Line. 

“This new contract allows the participating members to meet our state-mandated long-duration storage requirements, showing how CCAs are leading the way to advance clean energy in California,” Geof Syphers, chair of the CC Power board and CEO of member group Sonoma Clean Power said. 

California’s government has offered its support to long-duration energy storage with US$380 million of funding available for projects through the 2022-2023 state budget. 

In an article published yesterday on Energy-Storage.news, executives from flow battery companies Invinity Energy Systems and ESS Inc discussed the prospects and use cases for long-duration battery storage.

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