Project funding for energy storage jumped to US$820 million in 2016 from just US$30 million in 2015, while Sonnen was revealed as the energy storage company to raise the most VC funding this year.

The latest quarterly report from Mercom Capital on financial activity in battery storage, smart grid and energy efficiency wraps up the results for the entirety of 2016. It found that during the year, energy storage companies raised US$820 million in project funding across seven deals, compared to US$30 million across three deals in 2015.

The majority of this project funding, US$625 million, was raised in the third quarter of the year and included Tabuchi America netting US$300 million for residential work and Advanced Microgrid Solutions with US$200 million of project financing from Macquarie Capital.

VC funding winners

Most significant among 11 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in 2016 – coincidentally the same number as was seen in 2015 – was the US$1.1 billion acquisition of battery and system maker Saft by oil major Total. The company has also invested in the likes of Stem, Sunverge, Powerhive and Off-Grid Electric within the storage sector and SunPower in solar. Analysis firm Lux Research said in August that Total and other oil majors had significant funds available to invest and should try and get a foothold in the energy storage market.

Meanwhile, the number of VC investors in energy storage grew annually last year, to 62 from 57 in 2015. The overall figure invested fell very slightly, from US$397 million in 37 deals in 2015 to US$365 million in 38 deals in 2016. Total corporate funding, which included debt and public market financing, reached US$540 million in 2016, again a drop from the previous year when it saw US$676 million of corporate funding used.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Tesla and Panasonic’s Gigafactory in the Nevada desert has now started making high performance cylindrical battery cells of the type used in its stationary storage and forthcoming Model 3.

Ahead of the availability of the Model 3, the 200 mile+ charge ‘affordable’ car expected later this year with a claimed 400,000 pre-orders, the factory – which will have the largest footprint of any building anywhere when completed – began producing the cells yesterday. It had already been producing battery packs for Tesla’s Powerwall 2 residential storage and Powerpack 3 commercial and industrial scale storage solutions, but has now also added the capability to mass produce the so-called 2170 cells, which go in the battery packs and which it has been making in a “qualification” phase since December.

Tesla did point out however that while the cells will go straight into Powerwall 2 and Powerpack 2 systems, they will not be ready for the US$35,000 Model 3 until the second quarter of this year. The company said that by 2018 the Gigafactory will be producing 35GWh of battery packs a year. Future expansions should take the facility up to 50GWh a year by 2020, according to the original plans announced in 2014. This would equate to 500,000 car battery packs. Research firm Baird Equity Research said in a note that it appeared Tesla was therefore also on track to achieve a more than 30% reduction in battery cell production costs as the factory ramps up into 2018, through better design, leveraging consolidation of supply chains and the vertical integration the Gigafactory enabled. 

The 2170 lithium-ion cell has been jointly engineered by Tesla and Japan’s Panasonic, which also makes its own stationary storage products for markets including Australia. Panasonic is thought to be making a US$1.6 billion investment in the Gigfactory, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk has claimed could help Tesla rake in US$20 million a year in revenues and US$5 a year profit from Model 3 sales.

Click Here to Read Full Article

The San Diego County Water Authority and the City of San Diego announced Wednesday that they haven taken steps towards developing a new 500MW pumped energy storage project at the the San Vicente Reservoir.

If developed, the installation will offer electric grid stability to the region during both peak times and on days where demand is high and other renewable-energy outlets are scarce.

Both the City of San Diego and the Water Authority announced that a joint Request for Letters of Interest were released Wednesday, with the companies reaching out to electric utilities, developers, investors and energy off-takers in an effort to find groups willing to purchase power generated from the site.

The request will also help determine what possible next steps are in the best interests of regional ratepayers and stakeholders.

Mark Muir, chair of the Water Authority board of directors, “When we filled San Vicente Reservoir last summer, we filled it with more than just water – we filled it with huge potential for energy benefits. Given this new potential for energy from a recently expanded water resource, it’s only prudent to continue to research the potential benefits to our region’s ratepayers.”

The main piece of the project would comprise of an interconnection and pumping system located between the existing San Vicente Reservoir and a new, smaller reservoir located uphill. The pumping system would be used during off-peak energy-use periods to pump water from the existing San Vicente Reservoir to the new reservoir.

Proposals in response to the Request for Letters of Interest are due to the Water Authority by 2 p.m. on Feb. 15, and questions regarding the request must be emailed to the Water Authority no later than 2 p.m. on Jan. 31, 2017.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Energy storage provider Alevo has appointed Peter Heintzelman as group CFO.

Heintzelman brings a wealth of international management and board level experience, having conducted strategic planning and successful financial management for major energy businesses around the world.

Heintzelman joins from T5 Oil & Gas, a privately-funded exploration and production firm, where his responsibilities as CFO included leading corporate and organic upstream transactions across Africa and the Middle East and maintaining a strong following in the financial markets. He brings over 25 years’ experience in the energy and energy investment banking sectors globally, with a background that includes Head of Energy roles with Standard Bank, and senior management positions at Halliburton and Enron.

“The battery storage market is poised to expand rapidly in 2017 and I am keen to be part of that process,” explained Heintzelman. “Alevo’s GridBank advanced battery technology and the high performance computing and analytics capabilities provided by Alevo Analytics are key differentiators for the company. It is clearly a successful and expanding business and I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

Click Here to Read Full Article

Energy storage provider Alevo has appointed Peter Heintzelman as group CFO.

Heintzelman brings a wealth of international management and board level experience, having conducted strategic planning and successful financial management for major energy businesses around the world.

Heintzelman joins from T5 Oil & Gas, a privately-funded exploration and production firm, where his responsibilities as CFO included leading corporate and organic upstream transactions across Africa and the Middle East and maintaining a strong following in the financial markets. He brings over 25 years’ experience in the energy and energy investment banking sectors globally, with a background that includes Head of Energy roles with Standard Bank, and senior management positions at Halliburton and Enron.

“The battery storage market is poised to expand rapidly in 2017 and I am keen to be part of that process,” explained Heintzelman. “Alevo’s GridBank advanced battery technology and the high performance computing and analytics capabilities provided by Alevo Analytics are key differentiators for the company. It is clearly a successful and expanding business and I look forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

Click Here to Read Full Article

Lithium mining and extraction companies have made several recent high profile moves to increase their production of the metal, which is used to make the batteries in many stationary energy storage systems and EVs.

This includes the acquisition of a lithium mining operation in Nevada, US, home of Tesla’s Gigafactory, by Toronto Venture Stock Exchange (TSX-V) -listed LiCo Energy Metals, which has also signalled its intent to acquire exploitation concessions for lithium in Chile. Meanwhile, US-headquartered Albemarle Corporation, which owns the only existing lithium mine in the US – also in Nevada – announced that it too is seeking a big win in Chile, striking a deal to increase its lithium production from an existing facility.

LiCo Energy Metals announced on Friday that it had brokered a deal, subject to stock exchange approval, with exploration company Nevada Energy Metals, for 199 placer claims in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. LiCo would earn an undivided 70% interest, while paying a 3% net smelter return royalty to Nevada Energy Metals. LiCo will pay the exploration company the sum of US$170,000 and issue it with 1.5 million shares upon approval by TSX-V. Then in the first year of the deal it would give Nevada Energy Metals another 1.5 million shares and then the same amount again in the second year. Before the third year LiCo will pay out a US$1,250,000 work commitment as well as paying a cash finder’s fee of US$75,000.

The Black Rock site covers about 2,000 square kilometres. The area in question contains lithium values “well below those of producing lithium brines”, but do represent a “significant source of metal available for evaporative concentration,” LiCo said. 

Click Here to Read Full Article

Oregon has become the latest US state to lay out its foundations for electricity companies to procure and deploy energy storage systems, with the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) providing guidelines and timelines.

The state actually enacted bill HB2193, which would authorise utilities to explore the possibilities of deploying energy storage for reasons including deferring spending on transmission infrastructure, back in 2015. The latest document to emerge from the PUC gives details on how it sees that electric companies with over 25,000 retail customers could select storage system providers and present project proposals to the commission. Once approved, they have been given until 2020 to procure projects.

This would apply to two utilities, Pacificorp, trading as Pacific Power, and Portland General Electric Company (PGE). While the systems should have over 5MWh storage capacity each, they would also be capped at 1% of the utility’s peak load in 2014, except, the PUC said, for a project of “statewide significance”. Utilities will be allowed to recover the costs of projects from ratepayers.

GTM Research’s recent report on third quarter 2016 activity in energy storage in the US highlighted policy moves to spur on energy storage development in Oregon and in Massachusetts as two of the states following national leaders California and New York’s lead in recognising the value of energy storage. Massachusetts has determined that it will implement procurement targets for storage, although it has yet to rule on their size or timescale.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Oregon has become the latest US state to lay out its foundations for electricity companies to procure and deploy energy storage systems, with the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) providing guidelines and timelines.

The state actually enacted bill HB2193, which would authorise utilities to explore the possibilities of deploying energy storage for reasons including deferring spending on transmission infrastructure, back in 2015. The latest document to emerge from the PUC gives details on how it sees that electric companies with over 25,000 retail customers could select storage system providers and present project proposals to the commission. Once approved, they have been given until 2020 to procure projects.

This would apply to two utilities, Pacificorp, trading as Pacific Power, and Portland General Electric Company (PGE). While the systems should have over 5MWh storage capacity each, they would also be capped at 1% of the utility’s peak load in 2014, except, the PUC said, for a project of “statewide significance”. Utilities will be allowed to recover the costs of projects from ratepayers.

GTM Research’s recent report on third quarter 2016 activity in energy storage in the US highlighted policy moves to spur on energy storage development in Oregon and in Massachusetts as two of the states following national leaders California and New York’s lead in recognising the value of energy storage. Massachusetts has determined that it will implement procurement targets for storage, although it has yet to rule on their size or timescale.

Click Here to Read Full Article

Software for energy storage systems will be a mixture of in-house solutions by integrator/developers and third-party providers, in an industry segment set for a steep rise in value, according to one expert.

A new report from Navigant Research has predicted a steep rise in the value of energy storage software. Navigant analyst Alex Eller told Energy-Storage.News that cumulative vendor revenues will rocket from US$201.2 million this year to US$3.4 billion by 2025. The report itself looks at both utility-scale and behind-the-meter energy storage software, including residential, commercial and industrial (C&I) and large-scale, from a range of providers with a range of approaches.

Software is a vital piece of the advanced energy storage puzzle, used in three key areas: analysing projects, controlling and operating storage systems, and system optimisation. As Eller points out, software determines how effectively the storage will achieve revenues or savings, whether that be in helping C&I customers reduce demand charges on their bills or providing multiple or ‘stacked’ services to grid operators.

While on the one hand the right software can effectively manage and control systems, it also plays its role even before systems are built.

“Usually a lot of the same vendors that have management systems platforms also do system design and analysis,” Eller said.

“So before anything even gets built they can model how components are going to interact, the optimal size for the system and all different operating parameters that are going to allow streamlined installation, make the whole process faster and more accurate, you’re not going to have systems that are oversized or undersized, theoretically that’s the idea there.”

Click Here to Read Full Article