Ardagh Glass Packaging and CI Renewables are moving forward with development of a solar project in Madera, Calif., with a capacity of up to 10 MW.

The project, built and operated by VALTA Energy, is set to be completed this year. It will supply electricity to Ardagh Glass Packaging’s Madera manufacturing site and is expected to account for approximately 25% of facility demand.

“We are pleased to see this important solar project for Ardagh move forward,” says Walter Serafyn, managing partner of CI Renewables. “This is the second large-scale solar project we have developed for Ardagh, and we look forward to more opportunities with Ardagh in the future.”

Ardagh Glass Packaging’s Madera manufacturing site supplies glass containers for the U.S. wine market.

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Credit: CGP Grey

Amazon invested in more than 100 new solar and wind energy projects last year, becoming the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for the fourth year in a row, says the company. 

The company now has more than 500 wind and solar projects globally, and once operational, are expected to generate more than 77,000 GWh each year.

“Amazon’s investments in solar and wind projects are helping power our operations, while also providing new sources of clean energy to the grid, spurring economic growth and supporting jobs in the communities where our customers live and work,” says Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services. 

“More than 90% of our operations were powered by renewables last year, but we’re not done. We’re focused on continuing to find innovative ways to bring new projects online, address grid constraints, and work with policymakers to mitigate the impacts of climate change, all of which is helping Amazon move closer to achieving 100% renewable energy by 2025.”

To date, the company has expanded its renewables portfolio into 27 countries and more than 20 U.S. states.

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Winning bidders will need to have projects operational by 1 September 2026, for existing renewable projects and new solar PV plants.

Offtake agreements will be completed depending on three different schemes based on power for new or existing renewable projects supported with energy storage, energy from new or existing renewable projects, or firm power coupled with energy.

The government’s resolution can be accessed here (in Spanish).

See the full version of this article on PV Tech.

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Tiamat Technologies has raised €22 million in a fundraising round with participation from specialty materials manufacturer Arkema, missiles company MBDA and Stellantis Ventures, part of the automotive OEM formed through the merger of Chrysler and PSA Group.

Tiamat is a spinoff from the French state research institution CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) and has developed a proprietary sodium-ion battery technology. The firm is aiming to build a gigafactory with an initial production capacity of 700MWh in 2025 rising to 5GWh later.

Meanwhile, Sweden-based Altris has received 77 million SEK (€6.8 million/US$7.3 million) in grant funding from the state-led Swedish Energy Agency to build a pilot plant to produce sodium-ion battery cells. The funding is within the Industrial Leap (a Swedish programme) and NextGenerationEU (an EU programme).

Altris recently announced – in partnership with Northvolt – a ‘breakthrough’ in energy density for sodium-ion, reaching 160Wh/Kg which it said made it viable for the ESS market. The figure is at the lower end of what lithium-ion batteries can do.

Price reporting agency (PRA) fastmarkets recently wrote a guest blog on the potential of sodium-ion (and solid state batteries) amidst a supply crunch for lithium-ion while three European developers, when asked for major technology trends to look out for, all cited sodium-ion gaining ground in the market (Premium access).

A big attraction for sodium-ion is the more relative abundance of its critical materials needed compared to lithium-ion. However, it still needs time to become cost-competitive with the industry incumbent.

Market intelligence firm CRU Group recently wrote that sodium-ion will become a viable, cheaper alternative to lithium-ion for ESS and smaller or two-wheeled EVs, since its energy density is not expected to compete with the best lithium-ion can offer.

“Current costs are high, but an unprecedented rate of industrialisation is expected to dramatically drive these costs down in the medium term,” battery cost analyst Aaron Wade wrote.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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The developer will manage construction, operations and optimisation of energy storage projects SA Grid Solutions undertakes. That includes Great Kiskadee Storage, a grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) under construction in Hidalgo, Texas and due to begin commercial operations this year.

The JV’s first project will be connected to Texas’ ERCOT grid and is a 100MW, 2-hour duration (200MWh) asset. First announced by Apex together with BESS system integrator Powin Energy in May 2023, Great Kiskadee Storage’s BESS equipment will be manufactured, supplied and integrated by Powin, using its Centipede modular BESS platform and StackOS battery management system (BMS).

At that time, another Texas BESS project was announced by the pair, Angelo Storage, colocated with a 195MW solar PV plant and also set to be supplied and integrated by Powin. Powin and Apex also worked together separately on a smaller project for IKEA owner Ingka Group, announced as completed in September 2023.

While Apex Clean Energy referred to another project slated for purchase by the JV, being of similar size and duration to Great Kiskadee, its release yesterday did not specify or make mention of Angelo Storage.

Apex Clean Energy CEO Ken Young claimed his company has a development-stage pipeline of more than 13GW of BESS projects across the US. The collaboration with SK Gas and SK D&D would help “swiftly accelerate” its deployment, Young said. In addition to energy storage, Apex is also involved in utility-scale wind and solar PV, distributed generation and green fuels.

Major conglomerate’s steps into battery-driven economy

SK D&D is a development company focused on real estate and renewable energy, while SK Gas is a major liquefied petroleum gas provider diversifying its interest into areas like hydrogen and various ‘net zero solutions’.  

There are more than175 companies in the SK Group, headquartered in South Korean capital Seoul. Among the country’s largest and most influential ‘chaebol’ conglomerates along with the likes of Samsung.

Its other subsidiaries include SK One, an electric vehicle (EV) battery maker developing 180GWh of annual battery production capacity in the US together with its partners and SK Innovation, a holding company involved in areas including petroleum and clean energy technologies that also makes battery cells and again is building battery production capacity in the US.

There is also SK E&S, a renewables, energy solutions, hydrogen and LNG project company, which in 2021 acquired US grid-scale BESS developer, Key Capture Energy (KCE). KCE also has assets operating in ERCOT, as well as in Upstate New York where it is headquartered and a development pipeline that includes projects in the Midwest MISO service territory.

SK Group is also a shareholder in Lunar Energy, a distributed generation technology platform company, which counts US residential solar and storage leasing major Sunrun among its other investors.

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 6th Energy Storage Summit USA, 19-20 March 2024 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.

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As reported by Energy-Storage.news in April last year, about 20GW of licences are expected to be issued over a period of three years. At that time, the government had already received nearly 4,400 applications totalling 221,000MW and pre-licensed an initial 744MW across 12 projects.

Developers and their investors were invited to apply to install energy storage facilities on a one-to-one ratio per megawatt of wind or solar and Korkut Öztürkmen, board member at major domestic power producer Aksa Enerji said it marked the beginning of a “very promising market” for energy storage.

It would also support a stalled large-scale renewables sector in Turkey, with investors shying away from falling feed-in tariff (FiT) rates.

EMRA president Mustafa Yilmaz said on 29 December 2023 that in total, the regulator received 5,968 applications, for proposed transmission-connected projects with installed power exceeding 260GW, for delivery in the 2023-2028 timeframe. This demonstrated a “satisfactory” investment appetite, the president said.

The 25.6GW of pre-licences granted, meanwhile, represent an investment value of around US$35 billion should they all be built, the president said.

Pre-licences were split across solar PV and wind technologies as follows: 193 pre-licences granted for wind projects totalling 13,529MW and 300 solar PV projects of 12,101MW combined generation capacity.

Tariffs, trade association among drivers to create ‘industry ecosystem’ in Turkey

The same day EMRA published Yimaz’s announcement, renewable energy companies Partner EGS and Polat Enerji said they planned to deploy a battery energy storage system (BESS) at Soma RES, one of Turkey’s largest wind power plants.

The two companies said a 4MW/4MWh BESS will be sited at the 328.9MW wind farm, helping contribute to grid flexibility and reducing network imbalance costs. A signing ceremony was held 29 December (pictured above) between the two companies. Chinese technology provider Huawei will be supplying the BESS technology, extending an existing relationship with Partner EGS.

In somewhat related news, local media in Turkey and across Asia was widely reporting that another major Chinese maker, battery manufacturer EVE Energy, is partnering with Aksa Power Generation, part of the same group as Aksa Enerji, forming a joint venture (JV) to take on the Turkish BESS market.

Speaking with Energy-Storage.news yesterday, Can Tokcan, managing partner at Turkish energy storage system integrator and manufacturer iNOVAT, said the developments were “very positive for the industry,” although it remains to be seen “how much of that [near 30GW] will be realised and in what time span”.

“Everybody has an expectation, but we will see how it’s actually realised,” Tokcan said.

Tokcan said that iNOVAT and a number of other companies across the energy storage value chain have formed a new trade association a few months ago. Participants include software developers, storage system manufacturers, battery management system (BMS) companies and others, seeking to develop an industry ecosystem in Turkey.

Part of this is with regard to targeting the Turkish market, but also with a view to export opportunities: iNOVAT recently made what is thought to be the first delivery of containerised BESS solutions abroad, to a customer in Hungary, while battery manufacturer Kontrolmatik is currently building one of the first lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cell factories on US soil, in South Carolina.   

At the same time, Tokcan said that perhaps equally, or of even more immediate relevance to the market’s early stage development is the government’s recent announcement that it will levy duties onto imported LFP battery products.

The 30% tariffs will apply to not only cells, but also battery modules and complete systems. In an interview to be published early next week on Energy-Storage.news Premium, Tokcan said that he believed local industry capabilities “will be improved by this additional tax, I think, because there will be more local companies working on manufacturing cells”.

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Credit: Jeffrey Beall

Mercom Capital Group has released its annual report on funding and M&A activity for the solar sector, finding that total corporate funding, including from VC, public market and debt financing, increased 42% year-over-year in 2023. 

The report further found $34.3B was raised in 160 deals, compared to $24.1B in 175 deals the previous year. Almost 45.4 GW of large-scale projects were acquired in 2023, with 35% of these being acquired by project developers and IPPs. Investment firms acquired 23%, followed by utilities with 17% of acquisitions.

“Investments into solar continue to defy expectations,” says Raj Prabhu, Mercom Capital Group CEO. “Despite high-interest rates and challenging market conditions, corporate funding in the sector was the highest in a decade. Debt financing also hit a decade high, and venture capital investments and public market financing recorded the second-highest amounts since 2010. Driven by the Inflation Reduction Act, the global focus on energy security and favorable policies worldwide, solar continues to attract significant investments.”

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The chief proposal is a cap and floor mechanism for LDES projects which would guarantee a minimum and maximum revenue for projects, with the government funding any shortfall and receiving any money back above the cap.

“The cap and floor mechanism for LDES is a sensible evolution from the simpler strike price model of a Contract for Difference (CfD), which has proven to help get less mature technologies off the ground,” developer and operator Balance Power‘s commercial manager Nick Provost told Energy-Storage.news.

“It’s likely to benefit consumers as asset operators will be able to gain more revenue before breaching the cap, compelling them to pay this extra revenue to the government. This should help provide downward pressure on the cost of the floor which is good for electricity consumers.”

Luke Gibson, COO at another developer-operator Field, similarly told us: “We welcome the launch of this consultation. It’s reassuring to see the recommendation for a cap and floor mechanism that – price dependent – should give greater revenue certainty, which will in turn help to secure financing for these assets.”

Provost also said that a cap and floor for LDES would complement existing shorter-duration assets. The UK already has 3.9GW/4.8GWh of operational battery energy storage systems (BESS) and the near-term pipeline is 60GW/92GWh pipeline (figures from Solar Media’s UK Battery Storage Project Database Report).

“A cap will discourage LDES assets from seeking the absolute peaks and troughs in the wholesale market which unsupported assets can chase and a floor will encourage LDES assets to provide energy security during periods of lower wholesale volatility,” Provost said.

Lithium-ion exclusion ‘should be reconsidered’ for LDES

The aspect of the consultation that has been most widely opposed by industry figureheads is the proposed exclusion of lithium-ion as an eligible LDES technology for the cap and floor scheme. The government said this is because it is already commercially viable and being deployed at scale without any subsidies. Indeed, lithium-ion technology is being used for the vast majority of energy storage projects being deployed in the UK.

Field’s Gibson said: “However, the exclusion of existing lithium-ion technology at 6-hour duration should potentially be reconsidered if the goal is consumer savings. LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries remain cost competitive at this duration.”

In our coverage last week of the consultation, analytics firm Modo Energy’s Ed Porter also opposed excluding lithium-ion but for the opposite reason – that it is not currently commercially feasible at 6-hour duration.

‘Absolutely crucial to police gaming as a priority’

Balance Power’s Provost also discussed the risks of ‘gaming’ and operators exploiting the system for financial gain. Other industry sources have previously opposed cap and floor regimes for energy storage.

Provost: “It’s absolutely crucial that the policing of gaming is prioritised in the final design of any LDES support and we are happy this is considered within the consultation. This is for a couple of key reasons.”

“The myriad of trading opportunities available with storage will provide differentiation between competitors and will provide consumer benefits through innovation. However, this will make transparency harder to achieve and increase the potential for operators to exploit the system for financial gain.”

“The ultimate requirement for LDES is driven by the technical need for energy security during periods of low renewable energy generation (i.e., as coined in the German language expression “dunkelflaute” / “dark lull”). Therefore, there should be a mechanism to compel LDES-supported projects to deliver power during periods of dunkelflaute. Intuitively market signals should be enough but may not be sufficient under all circumstances.”

“However, gaming concerns are not unique to the proposed cap and floor model and will exist in any subsidy regime for storage as revenue is dependent on multiple components within a volatile market.”

LDES technology firms react positively

LDES technology firms have generally reacted positively to the government proposal. Stephen Crosher, CEO of proprietary ‘high-density’ pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) technology firm RheEnergise, said:

“We welcome the commitment to Long Duration Energy Storage from the UK government and the recognition that support mechanisms to initiate the LDES market are needed. In principal, we agree with the proposal for the cap and floor mechanism. We are keen to ensure that the mechanism is applicable for all LDES technologies, and at the various scales needed to support the overall, increasingly distributed, energy system. We will be responding to the consultation in due course.”

Scott Bolton, executive VP global policy & regulatory affairs for advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) technology firm Hydrostor added: “We’re pleased to see this proposal from the UK government, which will go a long way to support the decarbonisation of UK electricity markets while also adding flexible firming capacity. We look forward to reviewing the proposal in further detail.”

Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the 9th annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 20-21 February 2024. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.

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Credit: Christoffer Riemer

Paz Oil, Arava Power and Menora Mivtachim have closed on a tax equity bridge loan of $144M for the 272 MW Sunray Project located in Uvalde County, Texas.

The financing will support the project’s continued construction and operation.

“We are delighted to have reached another significant milestone in the financing of Project Sunray and are honored by the close partnership and continued support of Nomura,” says Ilan Zidkony, CEO of Arava Power. “It’s deeply gratifying to see our debut project in the US progress so successfully towards commercial operation.”

The project has become eligible for the 10% community energy adder enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act. The additional tax equity commitment was provided by a U.S.-based financial institution which also gave the original tax equity commitment together with an unnamed technology company.

Nomura Securities acted as bookrunner and coordinating lead arranger, underwriting the tax equity bridge loan financing.

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Credit: David Shankbone

Ice Industries has been awarded an additional long-term contract supplying panel components to First Solar and plans to invest nearly $10M in a Louisiana facility to supply steel back rails for modules produced by First Solar’s vertically integrated manufacturing facility in Iberia Parish, expected to start commercial shipments by 2026.

Ice’s Louisiana facility is the company’s second roll forming facility dedicated to supplying First Solar with back rails for its Series 7 modules. In 2022, Ice established its Bowling Green, Ohio facility to supply First Solar’s manufacturing facility in Lake Township, Ohio with back rails made with domestic steel.

“First Solar already sets the bar for domestic supply chains in the solar industry, as we produce our Series 7 modules with 100% U.S.-made glass and steel and source the majority of our components from our network of domestic suppliers,” says Mike Koralewski, First Solar chief supply chain officer. 

“And as we scale, our supply chains must scale with us, supporting our expansion in Louisiana and Alabama while also supplementing the impact of investments by creating jobs and economic value.”

Ice plans to initiate production in the first half of next year, with site selection process underway.

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