A roundup of energy storage news announcements from Energy Vault, Mitsubishi Power Americas and Tesla.
Energy Vault begins building hydrogen-plus-BESS project in California
Energy storage technology firm Energy Vault has started construction on a project in California combining battery energy storage system (BESS) technology and green hydrogen, totalling 293MWh of energy storage capacity.
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The Calistoga Resiliency Center project is being built in the city of Calistoga for the Pacific Gas and Electricity Company (PG&E) utility and will be completed by the end of Q2 2024. It will replace diesel generators currently used to energise the Calistoga microgrid when there are Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), increasingly common in California in light of high wildfire risk.
In an interview with Energy-Storage.news in June last year (Premium access), Energy Vault CEO Rob Piconi explained that the BESS would provide some ancillary power for the site while the hydrogen in tanks with a fuel cell would provide the main backup power.
“Their requirement was to be able to charge 8.5MW over 48-96 hours, so the system is designed to support up to 700MWh of capacity. Although the primary use case is for 293MWh,” he said at the time.
The project will be owned, operated and maintained by Energy Vault under a long-term tolling agreement with PG&E.
Mitsubishi Power Americas spins out BESS division into new entity Prevalon
Mitsubishi Power Americas, part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), has spun out and rebranded its battery energy storage system (BESS) division into a new wholly-owned entity, called Prevalon.
The company has been deploying BESS projects in North and South America over the last few years with over 30 projects and 3GWh installed to-date, and the new standalone and legally separated entity will be a pure-play BESS company into which the projects and pipeline will be rolled into.
Bill Newsom, president and CEO, Mitsubishi Power Americas, said: “With the establishment of Prevalon, we are confident its dedicated focus on battery energy storage solutions and services will unlock more value in this business to keep pace with this hyper-growth battery energy storage market.”
The new business does not appear to include Mitsubishi Power America’s green hydrogen activities, most notably the ACES Delta project in Utah, a 300GWh green hydrogen project that will primarily help power a new combined cycle power plant.
Thomas Cornell will head up Prevalon as CEO after leading Mitsubishi Power Americas’ storage activities as VP for energy storage solutions. In an interview with Energy-Storage.news in April 2022 he discussed the company’s technology, deployments and future plans in the sector.
Tesla launches latest residential BESS, Powerwall 3
EV and BESS company Tesla has launched its latest residential energy storage product, the Powerwall 3, which has an energy capacity of 13.5kW and a continuous output power capacity of 11.5kW.
It has a fully-integrated solar inverter and DC-coupled battery expansion units with Storm Watch and Heat Mode features for extreme weather protection, the firm said.
