NEC Energy Solutions (NEC) announced today that they have introduced a DC-coupled energy storage solution for solar adding to their existing AC-coupled solution to leverage the rapidly expanding solar+storage market. NEC’s DC-coupled and AC-coupled solutions combined with the company’s proprietary AEROS® controls system allow for seamless integration of new and retrofit PV systems. Both options for adding energy storage to solar are available on NEC’s GSS® grid energy storage platform.

NEC’s new DC-coupled solution for solar is scalable for applications up to hundreds of megawatts in 500kW increments and durations ranging from 1 to over 4 hours. The proven benefits of DC-coupled energy storage for solar are numerous including:

• Lower overall equipment costs – allows for the sharing of inverters, transformers and switchgear across PV and storage.
• Lower operating costs – improves round trip efficiency and cuts energy losses compared to AC-coupled architectures by up to a third.
• Interconnect maximization – uses more of interconnection ‘bandwidth’ by shifting some PV output to a different time of day.
• Easier to ensure Solar ITC eligibility – DC coupled architectures ensure charging of storage from PV only.

“The addition of storage is one of the most exciting trends in solar today, to help shift solar power to more important times of day, enable better interconnection utilization with applications like clipping recapture, smooth and shape solar power output, or prevent curtailed solar energy from being lost forever. In keeping with our commitment to increase the value of our customers’ power, NEC is increasing the value of solar with our scalable, flexible DC-coupled offering,” said Roger Lin, VP of Marketing at NEC Energy Solutions. ”With the addition of our new DC-coupled solution, we now have a complete set of storage solution options for solar systems with the myriad of benefits DC-coupling offers, in addition to our existing AC-coupled product.”

The technology group Wärtsilä has released a new solution, GridSolv, the company’s first standardized energy storage solution.

GridSolv is an advanced energy storage solution that is designed to offer maximum flexibility and speed of deployment. This innovative and standardized architecture supports both standalone energy storage deployments as well as integrated hybrids with thermal or renewable generation assets. Coming in three sizes, the GridSolv solution is typically housed in an ISO 40-foot container and contains: batteries, power distribution, safety, fire suppression, and air conditioning systems.

“Much like how a smartphone delivers more value than simply a processor, a camera, and a touch screen, our new GridSolv solution goes well beyond batteries, inverters and container,” said Akshay Ladwa, Vice President of Engineering at Greensmith Energy. “We designed GridSolv to complement our industry-leading GEMS software platform so that utility partners and customers can have the most robust optimization of their grid assets and protect their energy storage investment for years to come.”

Greensmith’s GridSolv solution is already delivering results for Sinergy Kft, subsidiary of ALTEO Group, in Budapest, Hungary. ALTEO’s existing power plant, which was running on three Wärtsilä 34SG engines, is now optimized with the addition of GridSolv and GEMS, enabling the energy company to participate in the electricity market by providing frequency and secondary regulation to the national grid operating in virtual power plant mode.

Wärtsilä energy storage solutions enable power companies and developers to integrate and optimize a diverse mix of grid resources and deliver flexibility, reliability and resilience for customers seeking best-in-class system performance.

Globally, GEMS has become the most-used energy storage software and integration platform, operating in over 70 systems in nine countries. GEMS offers the widest selection of use-case applications, often integrated with renewable or thermal generation assets. In addition to energy storage applications, GEMS is able to manage any complex composition of energy assets, including wind, solar, thermal and storage. GEMS was also recently RIG certified by CAISO, the transmission operator for California, the seventh largest economy in the world.

ANAHEIM, Calif., Sept. 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Renewable energy technology leader LG Electronics is entering the fast-growing U.S. residential energy storage system (ESS) business, complementing the company’s industry-leading solar panel technologies in the United States.

At the 2018 Solar Power International Conference (Sept. 25-27), LG Electronics USA Business Solutions is launching two advanced new energy storage systems and an expandable battery pack for American homeowners: an AC-coupled 5.0 kW system for those who already have solar panels of any type on their homes and a DC-coupled 7.6 kW system as part of a new installation of LG solar panels.

Driving home LG’s commitment to future-ready energy solutions for smart home innovations, the new LG Electronics Energy Storage Systems create a flexible energy maintenance system for homeowners who want to take more control of their home energy use, according to Garry Wicka, head of marketing for LG Business Solutions.

“Providing residential clients with the highest quality products and bringing added value to their homes are top priorities for LG Solar. Our new energy storage systems align with LG’s leading solar solutions and allow homeowners to take more control of their energy usage with an extremely reliable and scalable system,” said Wicka.

LG Energy Storage Systems work by using a “smart energy management” function to store excess energy produced from residents’ solar panels for use during hours when the solar panels cannot produce energy, such as at night. This allows for less reliance on the energy grid during peak energy consumption hours when time-of-use electricity rates are often highest. In the instance of a power outage, LG ESS solutions can each store up to four hours of energy. The systems can be scaled up for more storage through pairing with an expandable battery pack, and can be easily paired with LG’s award-winning solar panels, thanks to easy installation and maintenance. LG ESS models are covered by a 10-year warranty.

For more information on LG’s ESS and solar solutions featured at the 2018 SPI Conference, visit the LG Electronics USA booth (#2638). Additional information on LG renewable energy solutions can be found at www.LG.com/solar.

About LG SolarLG Solar is a leading provider of high-efficiency solar modules to the U.S. commercial and residential markets. The U.S. LG Solar business is part of the LG Electronics USA Business Solutions division based in Lincolnshire, Ill. LG’s U.S. solar module production will start in Huntsville, Ala., in early 2019. LG Electronics USA Inc., headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a $55 billion global innovator in technology and manufacturing. www.LG.com/solar.

Eos Energy Storage (“Eos”) – pioneer of the value enhancing Znyth® battery – today announced a strategic investment from and manufacturing partnership with Holtec International (“Holtec”). Under the partnership, Holtec has acquired a significant equity stake in Eos. The partnership will support commercialization of the Gen2 Eos Aurora® DC battery system and help to establish an automated manufacturing facility in the United States. Together, Eos and Holtec will deliver and support cost-competitive energy storage solutions that enable dispatchable solar or wind, increase utilization of grid infrastructure, and improve resiliency for commercial/industrial and utility customers.

Holtec, a global supplier of turnkey equipment and services to the nuclear power industry, will establish a subsidiary called HI-POWER to build and operate manufacturing capacity in the U.S., with plans to grow internationally. “HI-POWER hopes to build its first plant in Camden, NJ to fulfill a rapidly growing global demand for energy storage using Eos’s innovative technology,” said Dr. Kris Singh, Holtec’s President & CEO.

Eos’ first-of-its-kind manufacturing process entails rapid deployment of highly automated, localized production lines which can be easily replicated in markets across the world. Each line is capable of producing up to 400MWh/yr of the Gen2 Eos Aurora product with improved product quality, cost and reliability. Key product features include:

• Pre-integrated, single-drop enclosure that reduces on installation time, field work, and onsite cabling requirements
• Expanded scope including newly-integrated thermal management, DC disconnect and auxiliary power capabilities for outdoor-rated, plug-and-play deployment
• Enhanced serviceability with added DC control cabinet, allowing for more streamlined module replacement and more competitive long-term warranties

“We are thrilled to preview our Gen2 solution and distributed manufacturing capability at Solar Power International given that our product is optimally suited for solar + storage applications,” said Philippe Bouchard, Senior Vice President of Business Development and Marketing at Eos.

SPI attendees can visit the Eos team at Booth #3368 to learn more about Holtec’s new partnership with Eos and see the product first hand.

SPI Energy Co., Ltd. (“SPI Energy” or the “Company”) SPI, +19.04% a global provider of renewable energy solutions and crypto-miner hosting services for residential, commercial, utility customers, today announced that it will exhibit USolar (USolar.io), a distributed solar energy generation, storage and crypto-mining platform that helps resolve the pain points for both solar asset owners and distributed miner hosting, at Solar Power International and Energy Storage International conference. USolar provides residential and commercial ASIC and GPU crypto-miners, together with OpalStorage all in one energy storage solution, to transfer the value from excess energy to crypto assets. For more information, please visit: http://www.usolar.io

SPI will also exhibit UMining during the same conference. UMining provides the comprehensive crypto-mining related services including crypto-mining training, miner sale, miner hosting and repair. It provides hassle-free crypto-miner hosting services to clients during the entire economic life of ASIC, GPU mining equipments. For more information, please visit: https://www.umining.io/ Solar Power International and Energy Storage International will take place from September 24th to 27th. USolar’s booth will be located at Booth No.3856, Hall D, Anaheim Convention Center Anaheim, California, USA.

About SPI Energy Co., Ltd.

SPI Energy Co., Ltd. is a global provider of renewable energy solutions and crypto-miner hosting services for residential, commercial, utility customers. SPI Energy focuses on the EPC/BT, storage and O2O PV market including the development, financing, installation, operation and sale of utility-scale and residential PV projects in China, Japan, Europe and North America. The company operates a B2B E-Commerce platform offering a range of PV, storage products in Australia as well as a turnkey solution (umining.io) offering global crypto-mining training, sale, hosting and repair service. The Company has its operating headquarters in Hong Kong and maintains global operations in Asia, Europe, North America and Australia.

JEA, formerly known as the Jacksonville Electric Authority, as of April 1, 2018 removed net metering, and lowered the rate paid  of for any excess electricity produced that would have prior been net metered. A group of solar advocates – Solar United Neighbors – has been pushing back since the fall of 2017 when this change was originally proposed.

On April 19, 2018 the group filed a lawsuit (PDF) stating that JEA’s removal of net metering violates state law requiring net metering. The lawsuit also notes that “energy sent to the grid by a rooftop solar customer is credited at the fuel rate (currently 3.25 cents/kWh) on an instantaneous basis”. The utility currently charges 10.3¢/kWh for electricity generation, and credits that amount to solar power accounts.

Documents provided by Solar United Neighbors show more of what the utility is thinking. The JEA Board Agenda, October 17 2017 (PDF) when the ruling was proposed, shows more than just pushback against net metering and bill credits.

The below image is from the above document – and it shows some evidence of solar growth on the larger scale.

The document references an energy storage program in development – $2,000 incentive for a residential installation – and the large scale solar program above, as part of the Universal Solar Expansion and Land Acquisition. Projects in this program see to be sized as much as 50 MW each – and the utility notes that the quotes they’re getting for pricing per kWh are approaching the utilities current fuel price of 3.25¢/kWh.

Deep within the Department of Energy is a small agency devoted to supporting cutting-edge energy research: the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. It’s only about 10 years old and not widely known or appreciated by the public — but among energy geeks, it is beloved.

By all accounts, ARPA-E is a rousing success. The National Academy of Sciences conducted an extensive assessment in 2017 and concluded as much. Of the roughly 500 grants the agency had given out at that point, about half had resulted in peer-reviewed research, about a quarter went on to leverage funding from the private sector, and around 13 percent resulted in new patents. And that’s with a deliberate focus on “high risk, high reward” investments.

The agency — originally created in 2007 by a bipartisan group of US lawmakers, fully funded by President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill in 2009, and put on firmer footing by Congress in 2011 — was consciously designed to mimic the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency(DARPA), created way back in 1958 to do advanced research for the Department of Defense.

ARPA-E’s purpose is to identify promising advanced energy technologies and help them bridge the “valley of death” between basic research and commercialization — oh, and “to bring a freshness, excitement, and sense of mission to energy research that will attract the U.S.’s best and brightest minds.”

In its modest way, it has done that. Naturally, because it is a successful agency associated with Obama, Donald Trump hates it.

The 10MW Lower Road project in Essex and the 9MW Port of Tilbury projects have all land rights, planning and other consents and grid access rights in place necessary to start construction and enter operations.

They also have a number of revenue streams already attached to them, including two firm frequency response (FFR) contracts to begin on 30 October 2019, with the construction of both expected to be completed in Q2 next year.

The six-month FFR contracts will be followed by fulfilment of 12- and 15-year contracts secured in the T-4 Capacity Market auction for Port of Tilbury and Lower Road respectively.

As a behind-the-meter project, the 9MW project will also participate in Triad avoidance at London’s Port of Tilbury industrial port facility. Triad is the UK’s winter peak time-of-use charging for commercial and industrial ratepayers. Origami Energy, a creator of digital platforms and technologies for energy market participation as well as a developer of energy storage projects, will provide real-time monitoring, control and operation of the batteries once completed and will also bid for multiple new contracts to maintain the projects at full utilisation once commissioned.

Gore Street Capital launched the UK’s first listed fund for energy storage projects, Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (GSESF), in March of this year.

The European Commission’s decision to end the minimum import price (MIP) on solar imports from China sends the wrong message about Europe’s future support of the battery storage industry, according to a key figure at French power giant, Total.

Speaking to our sister site PV Tech, Arnaud Chaperon, who represents Total Group in Brussels as vice president of European public affairs, and who was formerly head of its renewable division, said the Commission’s decision came as no surprise. Echoing other manufacturer arguments, he also said an MIP expiry review should have been held, because the global PV market has changed significantly since the MIP extension and claimed that European demand is more driven by Member States’ tenders rather than the price of the modules.

Chaperon, however, included a third “much more impactful” issue, that of inconsistency in the Commission’s rhetoric over fair trade and how this may affect other European industries in the future. The lessons learned from solar have to be applied to other industries and especially the energy storage sector, he said.

“So it’s not necessarily MIP ending that’s the real issue for us. It’s the image that Europe is giving outside at a time where you have Trump protecting his industry in the US, you have India starting to protect and say be careful with the dumping from China and you have Europe fully open,” said Chaperon. “For the industry of the future when we have to compete to develop a battery industry for instance, it’s giving a bad signal.”

He noted that although China is not ahead of Europe in terms of energy storage technology, it is already well ahead in terms of scaling up, before adding: “If you want to develop a battery industry in Europe you need to be sure you are on a fair level playing field basis. It’s very important.”

Total Group has the unique position of being a solar manufacturer, PV developer and PV asset owner as well as being owner of Saft, the largest energy storage company in Europe.