A roundup of the biggest projects, financing and offtake deals in the sector that Energy-Storage.news has reported on this year.
It’s been another landmark year for energy storage, part exemplified by the following news stories which marked the largest announcements of their kind over the course of 2022 (so far) and some of the largest ever in the energy storage sector.
Click the sub-headings to go to Energy-Storage.news coverage of these at the time of announcement.
Biggest lithium-ion BESS project commissioned: Crimson Energy Storage 1,400MWh (California)
Unsurprisingly, the biggest lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS) that came online this year was in California, the leading market for energy storage.
Developers Axium Infrastructure and Recurrent Energy, part of Canadian Solar, started operating the four-hour Crimson Energy Storage system in Riverside County in October.
The energy from the 350MW/1,400MWh project will be split roughly 60:40 between 14/15-year offtake deals with utilities Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), respectively.
At the time the project was commissioned, California had around 3,000MW of grid-scale BESS online as per the latest figures then, while today it stands at around 4,700MW. Nearly all projects that have come online over the past year have been four-hour systems, in order to qualify for Resource Adequacy, the California ISO’s (CAISO) framework for ensuring utilities have enough capacity to meet demand.
Technically speaking, the largest system to have come online this year was Vistra Energy’s 400MW/1,600MWh system at Moss Landing, which was re-energised in July after several months offline due to battery overheating incidents. That system was originally commissioned prior to 2022.
Biggest lithium-ion BESS project proposed: 4-4.5GWh co-located BESS (the Philippines)
In June, an infrastructure group owned by billionaire Enrique K Razon proposed building a solar-plus-storage project in the Philippines with a 4,000-4,500MWh of battery storage capacity.
Razon’s Prime Infrastructure Holdings (Prime Infra) would oversee the project which would combine the BESS with 2,500-3,500MW of solar PV.
Biggest non-lithium/non-PHES project commissioned: 400MWh vanadium redox flow battery (China)
July also saw the announcement of the largest commissioning of an energy storage project not using lithium-ion batteries or pumped hydro energy storage (PHES), the two dominant technologies in the sector.
A 100MW/400MWh vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) was brought online, the first half of a larger system connected to the Dalian grid, in May.
The system in Liaoning Province in northeastern China is by far the largest VRFB in the world and could quite easily total more than all the other VRFBs put together.
Rongke Power, a spin-off from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, supplied the battery technology
Biggest financing of an energy storage project: US$1.9 billion for Gemini solar-plus-storage (Nevada)
In April, Energy-Storage.new reported on a debt and equity financing worth US$1.9 billion for Gemini, a 690MWac/966MWdc solar PV with 380MW/1,416MWh BESS project in Clark County, Nevada.
System integrator IHI Terrasun is deploying the BESS which will utilise lithium-ion batteries from supplier CATL and is expected to come online in late 2023.
Gemini was originally developed by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and its subsidiary Primergy, which sold a 49% stake in the project to Dutch pension asset manager APG in October.
Biggest offtake agreement between cell supplier and system integrator: FREYR and Powin’s 28.5GWh deal
The biggest announced offtake deal by size was announced in May, when Norwegian lithium-ion battery gigafactory group FREYR agreed to sell system integrator Powin Energy 28.5GWh of its battery cells between 2024 and 2030.
The cells will first be supplied from FREYR’s gigafactories Norway – operational in 2023/24 – before later coming from FREYR’s planned facility in the US. It recently acquired a site in Georgia for the latter and accelerated its timeline and capacity plans although its still not clear when the US site will start producing.
Powin will integrate FREYR’s batteries into its BESS solutions across the globe.
Energy-Storage.news’ publisher Solar Media will host the eighth annual Energy Storage Summit EU in London, 22-23 February 2023. This year it is moving to a larger venue, bringing together Europe’s leading investors, policymakers, developers, utilities, energy buyers and service providers all in one place. Visit the official site for more info.
A month later comes the 5th Energy Storage Summit USA, 28-29 March 2023 in Austin, Texas. Featuring a packed programme of panels, presentations and fireside chats from industry leaders focusing on accelerating the market for energy storage across the country. For more information, go to the website.
Then on 11-12 July, 2023, Solar Media will host the 1st Energy Storage Summit Asia in Singapore. The event will help give clarity on this nascent, yet quickly growing market, bringing together a community of credible independent generators, policymakers, banks, funds, off-takers and technology providers. For more information, go to the website.
