Technology company Huawei Digital Power has been awarded a contract to build what is claimed to be the world’s largest battery energy storage system in Saudi Arabia. Huawei will be partnering with Chinese construction and engineering company SEPCO111 to deliver the energy storage system as part of the Red Sea Project.  The project will include the integration of the storage system with a 400MW solar PV plant that is being developed by Saudi Arabia-based utility ACWA Power. Huawei [...]

The Toowoomba Regional Council in Queensland has endorsed BE Power Pty Ltd to progress to the next stage of the tender process for the council’s 400-MW Big-T pumped storage project. Toowoomba Region Mayor Paul Antonio said he was pleased with how the tender process was progressing. He said the approval allowed the council to continue taking steps toward using its existing land and water assets to generate energy. “BE Power is proposing to develop a pumped hydro energy storage facility [...]

Southern Co.-owned utility Georgia Power is going to build and operate the first standalone battery storage system on the state’s transmission grid. The Georgia Public Service Commission has approved plans for the Mossy Branch Battery Facility. The 65-MW/260-MWh grid-charging battery system will be sited on 2.5 acres in Talbot County near Columbus, Ga. It will connect into the Georgia Integrated Transmission System and will be part of a larger future 80-MW battery energy storage portfoli [...]

Follow @EngelsAngle</scrip Massachusetts has found early success with its behind-the-meter energy storage incentive program. The ConnectedSolutions program compensates residential and commercial customers for allowing utilities to draw from energy from their grid-connected batteries and/or to curtail energy use via smart thermostats or electric vehicle charging at times of peak electric demand. Launched in 2019, ConnectedSolutions had about 34,000 customer participants with 310 megaw [...]

By Jonathan Spencer Jones, Smart Energy International Helix Power Corporation is seeking seed capital from investors to advance its patented flywheel short-term energy storage technology. The Massachusetts-based start-up is aiming for a minimum of $500,000 and up to $1.07 million to build out and commercialize its technology. The minimum investment requirement is $1,000 and key terms are an interest rate of 5% over 24 months and a valuation cap of $10 million. Investors who inve [...]

Follow @EngelsAngle Solar PV module manufacturer and energy storage provider Q Cells has unveiled a new financing structure to boost value in C&I and community solar projects. The company announced an investment into a solar + storage portfolio developed by Amped Solutions through its new ‘Grid Equity’ financing structure. Under the framework, Q Cells will provide capital investment in exchange for the rights to future grid services revenue expected to be generated by t [...]

by Lisa Prevost, Energy News Network Connecticut regulators have finalized new rules paving the way for a major expansion of battery storage and electric vehicle charging, part of a broader effort to modernize the state’s electric grid.  Since the wide-ranging “grid mod” proceedings began in fall 2019, all but one of the 11 subject-area tracks in the docket have either concluded or made significant progress, according to Marissa P. Gillett. Gillett set the process in motion when [...]

Contributed by Benedikt Sobotka, CEO of Eurasian Resources Group and co-chair of the Global Battery Alliance The recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change clearly outlines that climate change is widespread, intensifying, and ‘unequivocally’ caused by human activities. Greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for approximately 1.2C of warming since 1850-1900, with global temperatures expected to reach or exceed 1.5C of warming in the coming decades. In orde [...]

Energy storage developer Ambri announced a $144 million financing round, backed by India’s Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd, Paulson & Co. Inc, and the company’s largest shareholder, Bill Gates, among others. The funds will be used to finance and commercialize Ambri’s daily cycling, long-duration system technology and to build a domestic manufacturing facility, the company said in a press release. Ambri’s mission is to meet the needs of the grid-scale energy storage market and indust [...]

Calpine and GE Renewable Energy this month announced completion of a 80-MWh standalone battery storage system in southern California. The Santa Ana Storage Project, which uses GE’s Reservoir energy storage technology, entered into commercial operation. The 20-MW, 80-MWh capacity is supported by a 20-year Resource Adequacy Power Purchase Agreement. Calpine, which traditionally has been a natural gas power plant and geothermal developer, considers the Santa Ana project as a major step forw [...]

The U.S. Energy Storage Association intends to merge with the American Clean Power Association in a move to spearhead transformative growth for renewable energies. The merger would unify groups representing wind, solar, storage and transmission companies within the membership. “Our Board sees the merger with ACP as a powerful new chapter for our industry and a pathway to achieving 100 GW of new energy storage by 2030,” said Kiran Kumaraswamy, the Vice President of Market Applications a [...]

A joint venture owned by utility giant National Grid has secured $150 million in new credit to help grow its renewable energy investment over the coming years. Emerald Energy Venture LLC secured its $150 million portfolio revolving facility structured by SMBC, which is also lead arranger and agent. The portfolio revolver can be expanded to $250 million midway through next year. The new credit will allow National Grid’s EEV to fund construction of solar, battery storage and wind projects [...]

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm today announced the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) goal to reduce the cost of grid-scale, long-duration energy storage (of which pumped storage hydro is the largest source) by 90% within the decade. The second target within DOE’s Energy Earthshot Initiative, “Long Duration Storage Shot” sets goals to accelerate breakthroughs that store clean electricity to make it available anytime, anywhere and support more abundant, affordable and [...]

As solar power proliferates, at a certain point, it’s time to consider adding energy storage to help stabilize the grid. Take California’s duck curve problem as an example. The state has more than 31 GW of installed solar capacity and is ranked number 1 in the nation for solar according to SEIA. But all that solar means that between the hours of about 4-9 PM, as the sun is setting and folks are getting home and cranking up their appliances, the grid becomes strained. That’s why one innovat [...]

Crews have started work installing the first energy storage battery units at Florida Power & Light’s massive Manatee Energy Storage Center. The utility says FPL Manatee Energy Storage Center will be the biggest solar power-battery storage facility in the world when operational. The Parrish, Fla., center will have 400 MW of output and 900MWh of capacity, enough to power about 329,000 homes for more than two hours, according to the release. It is expected to be completed late [...]

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) announced this week that it will launch a project with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to explore the use of crushed rock thermal energy storage to provide reliable and effective energy storage in a market with significant renewable energy resources. The project will be led by EPRI and funded by a $200,000 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant. It will investigate the feasibility of a thermal energy storage (TES) technology developed by Brenmiller [...]

SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. (SMC), a major supplier of power to the national grid in the Philippines, has partnered with ABB to install battery energy storage systems (BESS) as part of its BESS Project. In countries such as the Philippines, several challenges negatively impact grid performance, such as the length of power lines required to connect the diverse archipelago, as well as intermittent energy supply from wind and solar, which needs storage to act as a frequency regulator. The BE [...]

According to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a deceptively simple sensor system that the lab developed can prevent dangerous conditions from developing in outdoor battery cabinets. Supported by DOE’s Office of Electricity, the invention, called IntelliVent, is designed to be installed in cabinet-style battery enclosures, which are becoming common for stationary grid energy storage, said PNNL. IntelliVent responds t [...]

Last week, consulting firm EnTech Solutions and its affiliate Faith Technologies said that they have partnered with the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians to implement a solar-powered microgrid. The project, named the Ishkonige Nawadide Solar Project, is part of a long-term energy strategic plan for the tribe. EnTech and Faith will finance, own, and operate the system for the tribe. Additional funding for the project was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. &n [...]

MISO planning resource auction prices for the 2021 planning year did not live up to their expectations from 2020 auction results. In the 2020 auction, the Michigan zone cleared at a cost of new entry of $250-per-MW-day. But in the latest auction results from April, MISO capacity prices were mostly in the $5-per-MW-day range, and in some South zones, they were at $0.00. These capacity prices are hardly incentivizing either renewable energy developers such as solar or energy storage developers. Be [...]

This week, Clime Capital, a Singapore-based investment management company that manages funds from SEACEF, announced that it has invested in an innovative floating solar and storage project in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam, currently under development by Blueleaf Energy. Southeast Asia Clean Energy Facility (SEACEF) is a collaboration between leading international foundations, including Microsoft, who seek to accelerate the low carbon transition in Southeast Asia. The goal of SEACEF is to catalyz [...]

State utility regulators have approved plans by Mississippi Power to develop and build its first-ever stand-alone solar energy and battery storage system. The Mississippi Public Service Commission signed off on the utility’s project to construct and operate the new solar-storage site in Walnut Grove. The 1.5 MW-solar array will be paired with a 5-MWh battery storage system. Subscribe to Renewable Energy World’s free, weekly newsletter for more stories like this Mississippi Power, a [...]

On March 4, MISO filed a request to extend the deadline to implement a market participation model for electric storage resources at FERC. This new request moves the implementation date from June 2022 to March 2025. FERC should reject this request because the benefits of keeping wholesale rates just and reasonable with storage participation outweigh the costs of MISO parallel processing current and future market platforms. Electric storage can participate in the energy market and capacity market [...]

The New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Westchester County under the Community Distributed Generation (CDG) Partnership Program are seeking developers to install solar PV and energy storage systems for more than three dozen municipalities and school districts within the county. Initial analysis shows that the program has the potential to develop more than 35 MW of solar at more than 100 sites, increasing the supply of clean, renewable energy into the electric grid and providing electric utili [...]