NEC Energy Solutions, headquartered in Westborough, Mass., is partnering with Stem to simplify solar + storage projects. Through a master supply agreement, Stem will resell and integrate its Athena AI platform with NEC’s GSS end-to-end grid storage solution. The agreement will result in a powerful solar + storage solution for large-scale projects, leveraging NEC’s AEROS proprietary energy storage controls and Stem’s sophisticated Athena AI platform to perform solar and storage optimization, wholesale market participation services, solar charging compliance and reporting, and warranty compliance and administration.

“We expect over $50 billion to be spent on U.S. energy storage projects between now and 2030. Solar + storage is one of the quickest growing and exciting segments,” said Logan Goldie-Scot, head, Energy Storage at BloombergNEF. “The partnership between NEC and Stem offers a new option to developers looking for an experienced and safe storage provider that can also help monetize the assets in an increasingly complex trading environment.”

The addition of NEC products to the Stem portfolio brings a DC-coupled solution to the front-of-meter solar + storage market. With only a single point of interconnection, DC-coupled front-of-meter solutions are typically more efficient for energy production, less expensive to deploy than AC-coupled systems and support cost-effective time shifting of excess solar.

What’s cool
Stem will pair NEC’s offerings with its Athena software, which helps developers address the most complex aspects of solar + storage projects. The collective intelligence of the Athena and AEROS platforms enable users to predict battery operational costs, and layer on market knowledge, forecasting, and participation with known operating constraints such as ITC limitations and SMART program rules. Developers and asset owners will be able to increase the value of their project throughout its lifetime by automating energy trades based on different market scenarios.

“Stem’s decade of expertise coupled with more than 125 MWh booked in the last ten months alone, enables us to advise on the entire storage project lifecycle – from which batteries are best suited for a project and how to configure them, to optimizing them across their lifetime, managing federal and state incentive compliance and maximizing the financial return by participating in energy markets,” said Stem COO Mark Triplett.

For decades, scientists have sought an affordable and effective way of capturing, storing, and releasing solar energy. Researchers in Sweden say they have a solution that would allow the power of the sun’s rays to be used across a range of consumer applications—heating everything from homes to vehicles.

Scientists at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg have figured out how to harness the energy and keep it in reserve so it can be released on demand in the form of heat—even decades after it was captured. The innovations include an energy-trapping molecule, a storage system that promises to outperform traditional batteries, at least when it comes to heating, and an energy-storing laminate coating that can be applied to windows and textiles. The breakthroughs, from a team led by researcher Kasper Moth-Poulsen, have garnered praise within the scientific community. Now comes the real test: whether Moth-Poulsen can get investors to back his technology and take it to market.

The system starts with a liquid molecule made up of carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen. When hit by sunlight, the molecule draws in the sun’s energy and holds it until a catalyst triggers its release as heat. The researchers spent almost a decade and $2.5 million to create a specialized storage unit, which Moth-Poulsen, a 40-year-old professor in the department of chemistry and chemical engineering, says has the stability to outlast the 5-to 10-year life span of typical lithium-ion batteries on the market toda

The most advanced potential commercial use the team developed is a transparent coating that can be applied to home windows, a moving vehicle, or even clothing. The coating collects solar energy and releases heat, reducing electricity required for heating spaces and curbing carbon emissions. Moth-Poulsen is coating an entire building on campus to showcase the technology. The ideal use in the early going, he says, is in relatively small spaces. “This could be heating of electrical vehicles or in houses.”

Communities most likely to be affected by both the effects of and the response to devastating wildfires which have wreaked havoc on California will be given extra incentive to install solar-plus-storage at their properties.

In addition to the impact of the fires themselves, the latter part of this year saw utility PG&E, already facing bankruptcy proceedings relating to liabilities for previous fires, shut off power to more than a million people in areas where outlying substations, wires and cables from the grid are mapped out to be at risk from high winds and falling trees.

A series of fires in the past few days alone has led to up to 2.7 million people losing electricity in the PG&E service area by yesterday (27 October).

While shut-offs had been considered a prudent move by the utility, one of California’s three main investor-owned utility (IOU) companies, to do so, there has been criticism of the short notice given to customers on around 700,000 grid connection points, some of whom will lose power for several days at a time.

While deliberation is ongoing on how PG&E has handled the matter, in the meantime there has been a response from the California Public Utilies Commission which has responded by making some adjustments to the state’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP).

Described by research firm Navigant as “one of the longest running and most successful distributed energy incentive programmes globally”, SGIP will pay out over half a billion dollars to technologies including renewable and non-renewable generation, as well as large and small scale energy storage. It also has a provision for encouraging adoption in lower-income communities, the Equity Budget.

SGIP precedes California’s recently introduced 100% renewables targets and was one of the main initiatives at both public and private level examined in-depth by Strategen Consulting’s Janice Lin and Jack Chang in a recent feature article.

It’s been a great year for solar energy investors. The Invesco Solar ETF (NYSEMKT:TAN), which owns a stake in more than 20 companies focused primarily on some area of solar, is up 55% so far this year. Two stocks held in the Invesco Solar ETF that are responsible for a lot of those gains are Enphase Energy (NASDAQ:ENPH) and SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR), up 358% and 102% respectively.

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), another component of the Invesco Solar ETF, has also had a strong year. At this writing shares are up 32%; that may not match the performance of some of its solar peers, but it’s almost 70% better than the 19% in total returns the S&P 500 has generated so far in 2019.

But more recently, Enphase, SunPower, and First Solar have fallen sharply. Those stellar returns to date would be even better if not for a recent swoon across the solar sector that’s seen the three lose 38%, 33%, and 17% from their 2019 highs. I think that’s made for an excellent opportunity to buy, for anyone who’s willing and able to hold them.

There’s a multiyear opportunity ahead of the solar industry, and all three of these companies are positioned to profit. Three key reasons underpin my thesis that these are “buy on the dip” stocks worth owning for the long term:

1. A growing global middle class will require substantial expansion in energy production.
2. Solar costs continue to fall while efficiencies get better.
3. Energy storage technology is quickly expanding the percentage of the world’s energy needs that solar can meet.

Here’s how these three things are set to make SunPower, First Solar, and Enphase Energy moneymaking stocks worth buying now and owning for years to come.

This huge trend will drive substantial growth in solar power

In the U.S., the middle class hasn’t had a very good run in recent decades. Inflation has outpaced middle-class wages for years, and income and wealth inequity have see the rich get richer and the rest of us fight over what’s left.

However, in many of the world’s up-and-coming markets, the middle class is booming. According to a 2017 Brookings report, the middle class is expected to make up more than half the world’s population by 2020, and then grow by another one billion people by 2028.