A debt financing deal closed by independent power producer (IPP) sPower for a 100MW / 400MWh battery storage project in California demonstrates that significant project finance investment can be achieved for large-scale battery facilities.

The results of Spain’s auction last week for 3GW of renewables capacity have been widely welcomed by the country’s solar sector, but calls have been made to tweak future auctions to support smaller-scale projects as well as encourage the participation of bids with energy storage.

Key to the rapid success and growth of the energy storage industry in the US, China and other maturing markets has been the presence of a small number of system integrators. IHS Markit association director Julian Jansen examines what it is that system integrators do that makes them so vital to the industry and why the future ahead looks to be one characterised by growth, competition and consolidation.

There are seven utility-scale energy storage system integrator companies that currently lead a global market poised for significant expansion, with Fluence and Tesla currently competing for the top spot, according to a new industry ranking report from Guidehouse Insights.

Despite the fall in unit prices for energy storage, a total of US$3.6 billion of investment was committed to energy storage projects in 2020, around the same amount as in 2019.

France’s electricity transmission system operator, RTE, is exploring options to reduce congestion on the grid at four strategic locations around the country and could award long-term contracts to battery storage systems that can help.

The amount of corporate funding coming into the global battery storage industry in 2020 was more than double the amount the previous year, with over US$6.5 billion raised last year compared to around US$2.8 billion in 2019.

Renewable energy uptake and the falling costs of battery energy storage are “inexorably linked” as the global economy faces a crucial decade ahead in its urgent need to decarbonise, according to work by McKinsey & Company.

The Asia-Pacific region will continue to be the world’s leading centre of lithium-ion cell manufacturing for the next decade, but it won’t just be price reductions in batteries that will drive a 30% drop in front-of-meter battery storage in key markets China, Australia and South Korea.

At first glance, renewable power generation has created, in the eyes of traditional industries, an investment nirvana. By understanding how these better-capitalised companies view renewables’ merchant risk, we can identify where future energy storage projects should seek finance partners, says Charles Lesser, a partner at Apricum – The Cleantech Advisory.