Italy-headquartered global energy storage and electric vehicle (EV) technology group NHOA, formerly Engie EPS, is expanding in the US market with one project recently going online and two more contracted.
The 10MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Bellingham, Massachusetts, was switched online after commissioning in December. It is part of a solar-plus-storage plant and is now providing services to the New England Independent System Operator (ISO New England).
The project was delivered for Kearsarge Energy, a renewables project developer, finance and holding company which has also awarded NHOA two more projects totalling 12 MWh capacity.
“NHOA has provided a highly reliable and competitive solution along with excellent customer service well suited to the needs of the Massachusetts SMART programme. Solar plus storage is a complicated offering and NHOA has been an excellent partner from design to contracting to commissioning. We look forward to more successes,” said Andrew Bernstein, Managing Partner of Kearsarge Energy.
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The SMART programme was introduced to incentivise households to invest in residential or community – I.e. utility-scale but ownership shared amongst local people – solar power by being guaranteed payment by their utility for 10 years (residential) and 20 years (community).
NHOA recently announced comparatively larger deals in the Australian and Taiwanese markets totalling 200MWh and 420 MWh, respectively, as reported by Energy-storage.news.
However, it also had a 240MWh project in Hawaii cancelled by former parent company ENGIE, a few months after ownership of the energy storage company was transferred to Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) and rebranded under its new name.
TCC acquired two-thirds of its shares, but the company remains listed on the Euronext Paris with a 34.85% free float.
Its financial results since switching majority owner suggests NHOA may have to some extent switched focus to EVs away from energy storage, or at the very least has grown the latter much faster.
Two-thirds of its FY 2020 sales of €11.1m (US$12.6 million) were from its storage business line NHOA Energy with the remainder from its ‘eMobility’ segment, eSolutions Free2move.
Fast forward to FY 2021, the proportion of its €33m sales between storage and eSolutions is now 48:52, with storage doubling but eSolutions quadrupling.
Standard Solar, EDF bringing online Massachusetts SMART project
In related news from Massachusetts, developer Standard Solar said this week that a solar-plus-storage project also accredited under the SMART programme in the town of Acton is about to come online.
Standard Solar acquired the project from the development arm of EDF Renewables, which was awarded it in 2018 after a Request for Proposals (RfP) from the nearby Town of Plymouth and Acton Water District. It pairs 4.69MW of solar PV with a 4MWh BESS. The BESS discharges to the grid during times of peak demand, reducing local reliance on fossil fuel peaker plants.
Energy-Storage.news reported at the beginning of this month that DSD Renewables, a solar PV and energy storage developer owned by Blackrock Real Assets has acquired a SMART programme incentivised solar-plus-storage portfolio with 45MW of PV and 88MWh of battery storage from solar developer Borrego. The six-site project is set to begin construction in 2023.
