In reporting second quarter 2019 financial results, Tesla’s solar installations reached a new record low, while its ‘Powerwall’ and ‘Powerpack’ energy storage products set a new deployment record.

Tesla’s retrofit solar installations plummeted to only 29MW in the second quarter of 2019, down from 47MW in the previous quarter, then a new low for the company.

The reason for the 40% quarter-on-quarter decline in solar installations remained unanswered in Tesla’s Update Letter, which provided the slimmest narrative on its Energy division, since acquiring SolarCity in late 2016.

“We are in the process of improving many aspects of this business to increase deployments,” read Tesla’s Update Letter for the reporting period.

In stark contrast, Tesla reported that it’s Powerwall and Powerpack deployments increase by 81% in the second quarter of 2019, achieving a record 415MWh. This comes after being capacity constrained at Gigafactory 1 through 2018 and a complete stop in production allocation of energy storage products to meet EV Model 3 demand.

Tesla noted that its Powerwall product, primarily for residential applications had cumulative installs that had surpassed 50,000 site locations in the reporting quarter.

During Tesla’s earnings call with financial analysts, Tesla’s management noted that battery cell production volume had continued to ramp in-line with the production ramp rate, reducing capacity constraints that enabled the surge in energy storage installs. This was all said to be due to a new storage system module line, designed by Tesla Grohmann that entered production.

Due to the significant upswing in energy storage deployments, offset by the heavy decline in solar installations, the Energy division revenue reached US$368.2 million, up 13%, quarter-on-quarter but down 2% from the prior year period.

Venture capital investments in battery storage companies and projects rose significantly year-over-year through the first six months of 2019, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group. That level of activity is consistent with the growth in energy storage noted by speakers on July 24 at the Storage Week Plus conference in San Francisco, California.

“We will be 100% renewable by 2045, that is our goal,” said Carlos Fandino, city administrator for the City of Vernon, a Los Angeles suburb. Fandino was part of a panel that discussed the procurement of storage by utilities, municipalities, and electric cooperatives. “The way we will get there is through battery storage and other technologies,” he said.

Mercom, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm, on July 22 released its report on funding and mergers and acquisitions activity for global battery storage, energy efficiency, and smart grid sectors. The data covers the first quarter of this year, along with the April–June period.

Mercom said funding for battery storage companies jumped 139% year-over-year in the first half of 2019 compared to the first half of 2018. Mercom tracked 17 deals worth $1.4 billion in 2019, compared to $543 million for 30 deals in the first six months of 2018. Battery storage technology continues to evolve, with developers of storage systems increasingly focused on reliability.

Northvolt, a Swedish company, received $1 billion of that 1H2019 funding to complete what is considered Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery plant. The company in mid-June announced that automakers Volkswagen and BMW were among the investors in the facility. “Today is not only a great milestone for Northvolt, it also marks a key moment for Europe that clearly shows that we are ready to compete in the coming wave of electrification,” Northvolt CEO and former Tesla executive Peter Carlsson said at a June 12 news conference announcing the deal.

Municipalities Look at Costs
Mercom said 41 venture capital investors participated in funding battery storage in the first half of this year. Along with the Northvolt deal, other top funding went to Sila Nanotechnologies ($170 million); Romeo Power ($88.6 million), Zenobe Energy ($32.3 million); and LivGuard Energy Technologies (about $32 million).

The cost of storage is key for project development, according to Fandino and the other panelists. “We look at capital costs and infrastructure costs,” Fandino said. Vernon is home to many industrial sites, and Fandino said their needs are important for decisions the city makes about energy.

EDISON, N.J.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Eos Energy Storage (Eos) introduced new management to industrialize and scale its aqueous zinc battery solution. Joe Mastrangelo joins Eos as Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Walsh as Senior Commercial Advisor, and Mack Treece as Chief Financial Officer. Addition of veteran leadership will support Eos’ growth as the company deploys product on 4 continents and builds out manufacturing capability in the U.S.

Joe Mastrangelo stepped in as CEO of Eos after serving as Board Advisor for the company since August 2018. Joe brings decades of energy industry experience leading diverse teams to develop and deploy commercial scale projects around the world. Before coming to Eos, Joe was President and CEO of Gas Power Systems for GE Power, a global business of more than 15,000 employees in 60+ countries working to power the world by combining the most advanced gas-fired technologies with digital innovation. Joe also served as CEO of GE’s Power Conversion business, applying power conversion solutions to increase the efficiency of the world’s energy infrastructure.

“It is clear to me that storage is the key to scaling clean energy faster. Eos has established a solid foundation of learning and has optimized a lithium alternative solution that is ready to scale and meet the world’s rapidly growing demand for energy storage. I’m proud to lead this team at an exciting and crucial moment for the company.” said Mastrangelo.

Eos also added industry leader Kevin Walsh as Senior Commercial Advisor to help guide the company’s strategy and commercial operations. Mr. Walsh was most recently Managing Director and Head of US Renewable Energy at GE Energy Financial Services (GE-EFS) where he led the investment by GE-EFS of $16 billion in renewable energy projects. Walsh held various leadership roles in Power, International, Capital Markets and Asset Management during his tenure at GE EFS. Kevin is also Senior Operating Partner at Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, member of the Board of the Connecticut Greenbank, and Board Member Emeritus for the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE).

“For renewables to scale faster, we need storage that is cost competitive and as reliable as existing energy solutions. The new Eos Aurora solution is uniquely positioned to compete and disrupt the sector worldwide. It is a solution the world urgently needs.” said Walsh.

To plan and manage the financial strategies for Eos at this important inflection point, Eos has added Mack Treece as its CFO. Prior to Eos, Mack was the CEO of Viridity Energy Solutions, Inc. where he grew the company and orchestrated its sale to Ormat Technologies. As COO and CFO of Viridity, he was responsible for all day-to-day operations including sales, marketing, operations and finance. Treece has over 20 years’ experience in senior management positions, with a specific focus on successfully scaling young companies into dominant market positions. Mack has a MBA from Widener University, a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia, McIntire School of Commerce and he attended Insead’s International Executive program.

Australian authorities have rallied behind what is arguably the largest solar-plus-storage project to be conceived in the world’s history.

Over the weekend, Northern Territory first minister Michael Gunner confirmed his government has granted major project status to a scheme mixing 10GW of solar with 20-30GWh of energy storage.

Designed with costs of AU$20 billion (US$14 billion) in mind, the project is slated for construction in Tennant Creek, a town in central Northern Australia.

The scheme is the brainchild of Singapore’s SunCable, which wants to use it to shore up the Asian state-city’s power system and limit its over-reliance on natural gas imports.

The developer intends to set up a 3,800 km high-voltage direct current submarine cable to transfer most of the installation’s output to Singapore, where it could cover 20% of power needs, while various reports also link it to the potential ASEAN grid. The plan, however, is to also link the mega-installation to Australia’s own electricity grid so that it can supply Northern Territory capital Darwin and others.

Speaking to local media, first minister Gunner said talks will soon begin with SunCable on a project development agreement, which will set the scene for environmental assessments and others.

Northeastern states have enacted a dizzying array of policies to promote energy storage development alongside the growth of renewables over the past few years.

Where the challenge used to be a lack of profitable storage opportunities, now the trick is keeping up with new programs, incentives and market rules.

“The Northeast is a region that, from a storage perspective, is starting to come into its own,” said Brett Simon, energy storage analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. “In New York and Massachusetts especially, we are on the cusp of seeing pretty substantial growth on both sides of the meter.”

This region is united in its muscular state policy stances on combating climate change with a pivot to cleaner electricity. Aggressive clean energy policy alone benefits from greater capacity to store intermittent production, but the Northeast also has a geographic interest in resilience in the face of hurricanes, nor’easters, ice storms and blizzards.

This corner of the U.S. generally subscribes to competitive wholesale markets. That means that, besides attracting state incentives, solar-plus-storage developers can augment their income with wholesale market participation in PJM, New York ISO or ISO New England.

Meanwhile, the region’s distribution utilities have adopted a “bring-your-own-device” mentality, letting customers earn money through timely use of their own energy devices.

To make sense of the opportunities ahead of a regional forum on the topic later this month, GTM is rounding up the top-line developments for solar and storage in Northeastern states. The geographically gifted will notice the absence of Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island; once they generate more storage policy and activity, they can join their neighbors on the list. Maine’s storage study, due in December, will suggest appropriate legislation and procurement targets, proving that storage advancement in the region is far from over.

SAN DIEGO, July 22, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Home solar storage offers low energy costs plus the security of backup power if/when the grid goes down. But when choosing a solar storage system, it’s important to consider the chemistry inside the battery. Most solar batteries on the market are lithium-based, and there are two main types: lithium ion and lithium iron phosphate. The names might sound similar, but in reality these batteries are quite different.

Lithium ion batteries contain cobalt, a toxic metal that comes with many serious risks. Cobalt is extremely harmful to both miners and the environment. On the consumer side, batteries with cobalt are prone to thermal runaway. When this happens, the battery rapidly overheats and can catch fire or explode. Combustion can also cause the release of toxic cobalt fumes.

Thermal runaway of lithium ion batteries has caused smartphones and electric cars to burst into flames. One well-known electric car maker that has had a string of highly publicized fire incidents uses the same lithium ion technology for its line of home solar batteries. Panasonic, whose automotive business partners with that company, has tried to cut down cobalt usage and is “aiming to achieve zero usage in the near future,” although it has yet to identify a replacement for cobalt.

The safer chemistry for home solar storage is lithium iron phosphate, which does not contain cobalt. These batteries are chemically and thermally stable and non-toxic. In head-to-head comparisons, they also last longer than their lithium ion counterparts.

San Diego–based NeoVolta Inc. designed its NV14 home energy storage system with safety in mind. The NV14’s lithium iron phosphate battery has superior thermal and chemical stability. It can withstand higher temperatures, while remaining cool and safe to touch. In the event of a power outage, the system will automatically disconnect from the grid via included auto transfer switch and will continue powering critical household loads indefinitely. The NeoVolta smartphone app allows users to monitor the system’s performance 24/7, and it’s backed by a ten-year warranty.

“When it comes to solar storage, there is an alternative to putting a toxic fire hazard in your home,” said Brent Willson, CEO of NeoVolta. “We’ve engineered our systems with cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate technology. Independent studies have shown that for safety, stability, and life cycle, lithium iron phosphate clearly outperforms lithium ion.”

About NeoVolta – NeoVolta designs, develops and manufactures utility-bill reducing residential energy storage batteries capable of powering your home even when the grid goes down. With a focus on safer Lithium-Iron Phosphate chemistry, the NV14 is equipped with a solar rechargeable 14.4 kWh battery, a 7,680-Watt inverter and a web-based energy management system with 24/7 monitoring. By storing energy instead of sending it back to the grid, consumers can protect themselves against blackouts, avoid expensive peak demand electricity rates charged by utility companies when solar panels aren’t producing, and get one step closer to grid independence.

Energy storage has always been a natural complement to solar energy systems, but the two never seem to find a successful way to work together in practice. Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) Powerwall was supposed to be a natural product to go with Tesla solar systems, but adoption has been weak because it’s still essentially an expensive toy.

Sunrun (NASDAQ: RUN) is one of the companies trying to change this dynamic and find ways for its Brightbox energy storage system to contribute to solar installations. Energy storage may not be the asset homeowners find the most value in, but it could still boost value after all.

Sunrun’s move in Oakland
Last week, the East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) board of directors agreed to replace a jet-fuel powered plant in Oakland, CA with home solar and energy storage systems from Sunrun in low-income housing in West Oakland and Alameda County. The project will string together thousands of energy storage systems in homes to form what’s known as a virtual power plant.

But it’s the financial mechanism behind those storage systems that make this such a big deal. Sunrun will build 500 kilowatts of power and 2 megawatt-hours of storage capacity, and offer capacity to the EBCE on a 10-year contract. What the utility is looking for is available capacity on days when the rest of the grid is stretched, like hot days when air conditioners are on high or days when there’s an outage in another part of the grid. Utilities usually pay for extra power plants to be available at those times — known as “capacity” — but energy storage might be able to take over this important role in the grid’s infrastructure.

How customers will see energy storage
The details aren’t all worked out, but the money Sunrun is making from the virtual power plant could offset some of the cost of a residential solar and storage system. Customers could be offered a discount up front or a reduced contract price over time if they participate in the capacity side of the energy storage deal.

The downside is that would give Sunrun more control over a homeowner’s energy storage system. If someone wants to use primarily energy they produce on-site, this would reduce its availability for that purpose. It may also reduce capacity available for backup power for homes.

However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t enough value for homeowners to still go forward with an installation. At the end of the day, few customers are intimately involved with how their solar or energy storage systems work, so they’ll be looking at the dollars and cents in savings being offered. Sunrun is hoping this capacity contract will help make solar and energy storage more economical for customers.

Over the past year and a half, the U.S. energy storage industry has been getting into arguments with grid operators over their plans to implement Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 841, the mandate to integrate energy storage assets into the country’s wholesale energy markets.

The biggest argument to date has been over PJM’s insistence on a 10-hour duration requirement for batteries to play in its capacity market.

Storage advocates and clean energy groups say the proposal violates FERC Order 841’s call for open and equal access for energy storage assets, by effectively making it impossible for lithium-ion batteries to economically compete against fossil-fuel-fired plants in the country’s biggest capacity market.

They’ve also complained that PJM hasn’t provided an analysis to justify such a long duration requirement, which is actually based on an old rule for pumped-storage hydro projects. But the groups challenging the data behind PJM’s proposed rule haven’t had their own analysis to counter it — until now.

Last week, the Energy Storage Association and Natural Resources Defense Council unveiled an analysis by Astrapé Consulting, using PJM data and industry-standard modeling, that indicates gigawatts’ worth of energy storage in 2-hour, 4-hour and 6-hour durations could provide the same capacity value as power plants that run 24 hours a day.

There’s a relatively simple explanation for this finding. While PJM may see its daily demand on peak days rise, peak and fall over the course of 10 hours or more, the true “peaks” at the very top of that demand curve “can presently be met by efficient dispatch of shorter-duration storage, given the current mix of supply resources,” ESA writes.

Specifically, “The results of our analysis demonstrate that with energy storage deployments up to 4,000 MW, 4 hours of duration allows those resources to provide full capacity value relative to a resource without duration limits,” Astrapé states.

The grid’s edge is taking a growing share of the revenue, and for good technical reason. California’s home mandate will accelerate this as solar power pricing plummets when integrated at time of construction. As our ability to manage our grid with home based solar+storage hardware increases, even larger grid benefits will come into view. And, even this morning, we’re seeing it happen in bigger ways.

National Grid has extended the application period for it ConnectedSolutions program in Rhode Island (pdf technical description) and Massachusetts (pdf technical description) to August 1. The program will pay home owners who install residential energy storage and give the electricity utility access to that hardware to make use of during high power grid demand moments.

In Rhode Island, National Grid arm (above image) will pay for summer and winter grid events, whereas in Massachusetts (below image) the utility will pay only during the summer. The program will limit any specific system to 75 individual events during the year, with the contract for this program lasting five years.

The Massachusetts program application is here (pdf) and the Rhode Island application here.

On SolarEdge’s Massachusetts ConnectedSolutions page, the company worked out the total revenue – per year – that could be gained if your system were to be used the maximum number of times the program.

A SolarEdge 7.6KW + Single LG Chem RESU-10H operating under ideal conditions, during all events in both summer and winter over the five-year performance period may earn up to $2,940 for summer events, and $650 for winter events, A possible total of $3590.

A SolarEdge 7.6KW + Two LG Chem RESU-10H performing optimally during all events in both summer and winter may earn up to $5625 for summer events and $1250 for winter events. A possible total of $6875.