Mitsubishi Power Americas and Powin Energy have been appointed to retrofit 640MWh of batteries to solar PV plants in California, while a community energy group in the state has just signed a power purchase agreement for a 100MW solar plant with 150MW / 600MWh of storage.
To reduce strain on the grid as renewable power and demand both grow, two New York utility companies have awarded contracts for flexible demand management to commercial and industrial (C&I) energy management specialist CPower.
Three new battery energy storage system (BESS) projects from the US that may not individually make headlines for their relative size, but nonetheless prove the value and flexibility of batteries for the grid.
Energy storage can help enable cleaner, reliable, low-carbon energy networks while connecting energy assets to the market opportunities that will make the transition to renewable energy economically feasible. We speak to Wärtsilä’s Jeff Damron about the ways that the value of energy storage can be realised in markets across the world, both today and in the future.
As society moves away from centralised fossil fuel generators to increasing shares of distributed renewable energy resources, the idea that customers’ homes could become host to virtual power plants (VPPs), joining the dots between electricity supply and demand across the grid, has gradually gathered traction. Andy Colthorpe speaks with Suleman Khan CEO of Swell Energy, which has raised nearly half a billion dollars in financing for solar-plus-storage VPPs in 14,000 homes across California, New York and Hawaii.
The energy storage industry should be well prepared to deal with failure in lithium-ion battery systems so that thermal runaway in a single battery cell never becomes a fire or explosion.
Two subsidiaries of Wisconsin-based electric and gas company WEC Energy Group have put forward plans for their second large-scale solar-plus-storage project in as many months.
The CEO of US virtual power plant provider Swell Energy has said that New York utility company Con Edison has been “very progressive” in recognising the value that aggregated home battery systems paired with solar can offer.
Enel Green Power North America has begun construction of a wind-plus-storage hybrid resources project in Texas that will serve off takers including breakfast cereal maker Kellogg Company.
Energy-storage.news speaks with Ameresco executive VP and general manager, at its Federal Solutions division, Nicole Bulgarino, who tells us about why this type of project can play such a critical role in proving the case for smart energy solutions that include battery storage.
The US state of Wisconsin’s first large-scale solar farms only went online in late 2020, but electric and gas delivery holding company WEC Energy Group has just proposed plans for a 310MW solar power plant with 110MW of battery storage.
US utility Duke Energy should refile its 2020 integrated resource plan (IRP) to effectively allow for the diversity benefits of solar and storage to be captured, it has been argued by energy consulting firm E3.
Norwegian state-owned energy company Statkraft is to provide market access and trading optimisation for battery storage assets being developed by RWE in Ireland.
Technology providers Fluence and Wartsila have been chosen through a competitive solicitation process to supply up to 1,000MW of grid-scale battery energy storage to Australian energy generation and retail company AGL.
A large-scale solar PV system paired with pumped hydro energy storage could cover as much as 25% of the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i’s energy demand, pushing the island’s total share of renewables in its energy mix past 80%.
DERs interconnected with the grid position a utility to better manage peak demand, avoid transmission overloads and keep electricity flowing, but interconnection of battery, solar and other DERs is not without its challenges. Jason Allnutt from IEEE Standards Association discusses a standard that has become an "essential resource" for stakeholders.
NREMC, a rural utility cooperative in Indiana, has just announced that it is deploying 108MWh of battery storage in a five-year project with energy storage technology and solutions provider FlexGen.
Canadian public utility company and transmission system operator Hydro-Québec has launched a battery energy storage subsidiary as well as announcing a large-scale green hydrogen project.
Southern California Edison (SCE), one of California’s three main investor-owned utilities, has signed new long-term contracts with developers of 590MW of battery energy storage.
Utility NV Energy has had plans for three large-scale solar-plus-storage projects approved by regulator the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) which the company said will enable it to achieve a PUC-set energy storage deployment target.
Australian utility AGL has furthered its plans to develop 850MW of large-scale battery storage across a number of sites in the country, announcing a new project in Victoria.
Two UK-based firms, energy supplier OVO Energy and integrated home battery storage provider Social Energy, have expanded into international markets in Spain and in Australia respectively.
After a series of large-scale battery announcements in Australia from Federal and state governments, utility company AGL has followed up by saying it plans to build a battery system in South Australia with up to 1,000MWh of capacity.
Saft has opened its third manufacturing site for energy storage systems (ESS) in Zuhai, China, adding to two existing “strategic hub” facilities in Bordeaux, France and in Jacksonville in the US.
While European power markets outpace the US and China for renewable energy deployment, the continent’s policymakers are yet to recognise the importance of energy storage for integrating that capacity onto the grid, new research from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables finds.
Another contract has been signed for energy from a large-scale solar-plus-storage plant by one of California’s Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) groups.
US electricity provider Direct Energy Business will be using some of the world’s largest battery energy storage systems to help cover its customers’ peak demand for power, signing contracts with project developer and investor LS Power.
Balancing the electricity supply system is not a simple task anywhere in the world, especially as more and more distributed energy resources come online. OpenADR can kick in, whenever the grid operator needs to reduce demand to keep the system stable. Aric Saunders of Electriq Power explains.
Texas-based Vistra will develop nearly 1GW of solar and storage projects in the next two years as the utility plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The US unit of German developer and EPC provider juwi has inked a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Colorado Springs Utilities for a 175MW solar project coupled with a 25MW battery storage system.