The Evolve system allows new or existing residential solar customers to store excess solar power generation. In the event of a power outage, the system will keep the solar system operating, ensuring that power is available to support essential loads.

“The Evolve system allows us to offer a fully-integrated, LG Chem battery-based, AC-coupled solution to our customers. With an attractive price point we expect the Evolve to pick up immediate traction in the Southeast,” said Russell Seifert, CEO of Creative Solar.

“Creative Solar is an established solar firm who was recently awarded the contract to install Solarize Atlanta and Solarize Carrolton customers, a validation of their leadership position in their regional market,” said Justin Holland, CEO of Eguana. “We are excited about our new partnership and look forward to bringing our solutions to additional US and Caribbean markets in the near future.”

Creative Solar is scheduled to become an Eguana certified installer in July, initial product orders have been placed and initial installations will commence immediately. Evolve energy storage systems will continue to be deployed throughout the balance of this year. One in four Creative Solar’s customers are already requesting storage as part of their solar installations due to low solar export rates in Georgia and a desire for solar-driven backup power.

Evolve is a fully integrated residential energy storage system that includes the company’s proprietary power electronics system, LG Chem low-voltage battery modules and a comprehensive user interface. The system is rated at 5-kWac output with a modular battery design based on a 6.5-kWh battery, which is scalable from 13 to 39 kWh in storage capacity. The NEMA 3R wall-mounted package is suitable for indoor and outdoor installations. The package is backed by a 10-year standard warranty.

Currently attracting developers and investment alike, the opportunity to reduce energy costs for businesses in Ontario has led to an agreement for another 42MWh of energy storage from project developer NRStor and solutions provider IHI Inc.

Ontario’s commercial and industrial (C&I) energy storage space has been found to offer one of the best policy-driven economic opportunities for reducing peak demand and therefore electricity bills in the Global Adjustment Charge.

The policy is a means by which to pay for the Canadian province’s grid upgrades and maintenance as well as for the development and promotion of clean energy and energy efficiency. Energy-Storage.news has reported on numerous multi-megawatt projects from the region in recent months, including last week, when multinational utility Enel said its second megawatt-scale C&I project in Ontario would save the customer, food packaging company Amhil North America, around 20% on current energy costs at the facility where the installation is being made.

In an announcement made this morning, NRStor, a developer founded in Canada in 2012, said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IHI Energy Storage, with the latter set to supply energy storage solutions for eight contracted projects which will add up to 42MWh of energy storage. The projects will be completed during 2019, with no further details of timelines given at this stage.

Each project will be a behind-the-meter, customer-sited lithium-ion battery system. IHI Energy Storage will deliver batteries, inverters, temperature-controlled enclosures and balance of plant components as well as putting the solutions under warranty and performing operations and maintenance (O&M) tasks. They will utilise IHI Energy Storage’s proprietary software, ESWare.

NRStor in early 2017 closed a deal with a union-backed pension fund, Labourers’ Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada (LiUNA), which committed CAN$200 million (US$151 million) of project financing towards NRStor projects. That deal was considered something of a vindication of the appeal of the Ontario energy storage market, as was the market entry of SUSI Partners, a Switzerland-headquartered investment fund aimed at encouraging institutional investors to get on board with energy storage, which reached its first closing at €66 million (US$70.4 million) in April last year. NRStor itself is also active in other areas, striking a deal with advanced adiabatic compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) firm Hydrostor for a potential roll-out of the latter’s utility-scale systems across Canada.

The market for power conversion systems (PCS) used in energy storage is becoming “increasingly crowded” with competitors, while the diverse field of players will contribute to “rapid technological innovations and price reductions”, Navigant Research has said.

Due to it being home to some of the largest and fastest growing markets for energy storage, the Asia-Pacific region could represent as much as 43.2% of the overall global market cumulatively for energy storage PCS.

According to ‘Innovations in power conversion technology for grid storage’, a new report from Navigant, North America, Western Europe and Latin America will be other big contributors to the overall picture, although authors Alex Eller and Peter Asmus wrote that “all world regions are expected to see significant growth over the 10-year forecast period”. Navigant also added that while North America is likely to see a higher capacity of energy storage installations in the next few years, Western Europe will deploy more distributed systems – at higher price points – than North America, meaning revenues from PCS market will be higher.

The report also identifies some of the key and leading players in the nascent ES PCS market: digital automation specialist ABB, Dynapower, Hyosung, Rhombus Energy Solutions and Solaredge, for a deeper look. It also looks at products and system setups from specific vendors, including Ideal Power, SolarEdge and Tesla.

Navigant also gave predictions for price reduction trajectories for PCS, although figures will only be made available to subscribers to the company’s research service. Nonetheless, it did say that the energy storage industry’s focus on battery price reduction has diminished as the market has matured, resulting in increasing efforts to reduce costs for balance of system (BOS) components and the PCS.

Renewable energy sources producing DC power, such as solar PV, and variable AC (wind), use PCS to convert their energy to regulated AC power which can be grid-integrated, thus, “PCS enable the utilisation of renewables, storage, and microgrids on a large scale”.

“The market for energy storage PCS is growing increasingly crowded as new companies enter the market leveraging a variety of backgrounds and expertise to introduce new products,” the authors wrote.

Market participants come from a range of backgrounds and expertise, from more pure play component vendors to those with a track record of developing inverters and other products for solar and wind.

According to Eller and Asmus, there are three key innovations or areas of innovation likely to drive the market forward: Smart islanding and backup power, where inverters and PCS combine to provide resilience and uninterruptible power systems (UPS) in the event of grid outages or off-grid use; cost reductions, driven by innovations in materials and components, including improvements in system architecture that reduce the complexity of system design; and the use of energy storage to support grids, with “features such as automatic reactive power support and variable settings to ride-through disruptions” helping with the integration of variable renewable energy through coordinating the different distributed energy resources (DERs) attached to grids.

Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) has selected Hummingbird Energy Storage, a subsidiary of esVolta, to develop an energy storage system in Santa Clara County, California.

The firm will develop, build, and operate the Hummingbird Energy Storage project, a 75MW / 300MWh lithium-ion battery storage facility.

The energy storage system is expected to be complete by December 2020.

The project will be the largest battery system in the world, according to a statement.

The system is being designed to help PG&E provide affordable and reliable energy to its customers. The plant will provide ancillary services to California’s grid whilst enhancing reliability, especially during peaks.

The system is expected to help California achieve its renewable energy targets as it will facilitate integration of renewable energy resources including solar and wind. Read more: Eight trends impacting solar and storage industry

The market for power conversion systems (PCS) used in energy storage is becoming “increasingly crowded” with competitors, while the diverse field of players will contribute to “rapid technological innovations and price reductions”, Navigant Research has said.

Due to it being home to some of the largest and fastest growing markets for energy storage, the Asia-Pacific region could represent as much as 43.2% of the overall global market cumulatively for energy storage PCS.

According to ‘Innovations in power conversion technology for grid storage’, a new report from Navigant, North America, Western Europe and Latin America will be other big contributors to the overall picture, although authors Alex Eller and Peter Asmus wrote that “all world regions are expected to see significant growth over the 10-year forecast period”. Navigant also added that while North America is likely to see a higher capacity of energy storage installations in the next few years, Western Europe will deploy more distributed systems – at higher price points – than North America, meaning revenues from PCS market will be higher.

The report also identifies some of the key and leading players in the nascent ES PCS market: digital automation specialist ABB, Dynapower, Hyosung, Rhombus Energy Solutions and Solaredge, for a deeper look. It also looks at products and system setups from specific vendors, including Ideal Power, SolarEdge and Tesla.

Navigant also gave predictions for price reduction trajectories for PCS, although figures will only be made available to subscribers to the company’s research service. Nonetheless, it did say that the energy storage industry’s focus on battery price reduction has diminished as the market has matured, resulting in increasing efforts to reduce costs for balance of system (BOS) components and the PCS.

Renewable energy sources producing DC power, such as solar PV, and variable AC (wind), use PCS to convert their energy to regulated AC power which can be grid-integrated, thus, “PCS enable the utilisation of renewables, storage, and microgrids on a large scale”.

“The market for energy storage PCS is growing increasingly crowded as new companies enter the market leveraging a variety of backgrounds and expertise to introduce new products,” the authors wrote.

Market participants come from a range of backgrounds and expertise, from more pure play component vendors to those with a track record of developing inverters and other products for solar and wind.

According to Eller and Asmus, there are three key innovations or areas of innovation likely to drive the market forward: Smart islanding and backup power, where inverters and PCS combine to provide resilience and uninterruptible power systems (UPS) in the event of grid outages or off-grid use; cost reductions, driven by innovations in materials and components, including improvements in system architecture that reduce the complexity of system design; and the use of energy storage to support grids, with “features such as automatic reactive power support and variable settings to ride-through disruptions” helping with the integration of variable renewable energy through coordinating the different distributed energy resources (DERs) attached to grids.