System integrator Fluence Energy and investor Excelsior Energy Capital have entered into a supply agreement for 2.2GWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS), which Fluence claims will utilise US-manufactured battery cells and modules.
Excelsior will utilise Fluence’s Gridstack Pro grid-scale BESS product at projects in the US starting in 2025.
The companies claim the BESS will use domestically manufactured batteries, modules and supporting systems, with a spokersperson telling Energy-Storage.news:
“We will be supplying Excelsior with our Gridstack Pro product that is positioned to qualify for the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA’s) domestic content bonus. Those Gridstack Pro products will utilise contain cells that will be produced by our supplier in Tennessee and modules that will be manufactured at the Utah facility. Final production of the Gridstack Pro enclosures will also take place at the UT facility.”
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Fluence is not revealing the name of the Tennessee-based supplier, while it discussed its Utah facility with Energy-Storage.news in late 2022. Several companies are setting up lithium-ion gigafactories in the state, including Ford, in partnership with SK Innovation via joint venture (JV) BlueOval City, and General Motors (GM), in partnership with LG Energy Solutions via JV Ultium Cells.
Although those gigafactories are likely to have been developed with an EV production focus, the EV market’s recent slowdown led LG Energy Solution to tell Energy-Storage.news today that it is considering converting production lines to serve the energy storage system (ESS) segment.
Fluence claimed that the BESS it will provide Excelsior with will qualify for the domestic content adder to the investment tax credit (ITC) for downstream clean energy projects under the IRA. It said that it would have US-made modules this year when releasing its quarterly results in May.
