Major US utility Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) is planning to build the world’s largest battery energy storage system adjacent to an existing solar power plant, with plans to roll out multiple other storage systems across the state.

With the key proposed battery standing at 409MW capacity, the Florida energy company claims it will be four times larger than the largest battery currently operating worldwide. Furthermore, the system will help reduce fossil fuel usage and thereby accelerate the decommissioning of two neighbouring, 1970s-era natural gas power units.

The FPL Manatee Energy Storage Center will be powered by an existing PV plant in Parrish, Manatee County, and capable of distributing 900MWh of electricity. It will start serving customers in 2021, with the batteries being used particularly during peak demand periods, thereby reducing the requirement for electricity from other power plants. It will be able to provide energy the equivalent of 329,000 homes for a period of two hours, saving FPL customers more than US$100 million in the process.

Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL, said: “This is a monumental milestone in realizing the full benefits of solar power and yet another example of how FPL is working hard to position Florida as the global gold standard for clean energy.”

The company has 18 solar power plants currently in operation and four more entering construction, but it is no stranger to solar-plus-storage, having opened the largest plant combining solar and storage at Babcock Ranch in Charlotte County in 2018, and the company is now also planning smaller battery installations and solar plants across the state. This, while carrying out efficiency upgrades to existing combustion turbines at other power plants, will help to replace 1,638MW of traditional generating capacity.

India has released another significant solar-plus-storage tender – this time in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) invited bids for 200MW of grid-connected solar projects to be combined with 300MWh of battery energy storage.

This will include two separate 100MW PV projects, each with 150MWh of batteries at the Galiveedu Site of Ananthapuramu Ultra Mega Solar Park, and at the Talaricheruvu Solar Park.

The latest news confirms India’s reignition of its large-scale solar and storage plans. Last week, after SECI announced a tender for 1.2GW of ISTS-connected solar to be combined with 3,600MWh of energy storage, Dr Rahul Walawalkar, president, India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) and CES (India), told our sister site PV Tech: “This is the big and long-awaited step and we can see that in the last four months the government’s seriousness towards the sector after some unfortunate cancellations of tenders for over 100MWh in 2017-18. IESA had strongly protested the cancellations and delays in implementation of the storage projects, and we are hopeful that this time, the government will prioritize these projects and see them through to implementation.”

Although the latest tender is far smaller than last week’s, it is still pioneering as one of the first such large-scale solar and storage tenders in India. Similar attempts in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were cancelled in 2017, as mentioned by Walawalkar.

SECI has also invited bids for 1.2GW of Interstate Transmission System (ISTS)-connected solar projects in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, and 275MW of grid-connected PV projects in a solar park in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

All the detailed Request for Selection Documents (RfS) for the three tenders shall be available by 30 March.

Maoneng Australia has said energy storage can improve the reliability of solar and “minimise the technical and commercial impacts” of electric system modernisation, as the developer broke ground on a 255MW solar project in New South Wales, Australia.

EPC contractor Decmil announced that is has broken ground on the 255MW Sunraysia solar plant in Balranald, New South Wales, Australia. A large-scale grid-connected energy storage project, named Sunraysia Emporium, will be located adjacent to the solar plant, although further details have not yet been given.

Construction on the PV plant will require 350-400 workers, with the installation of more than 755,000 JinkoSolar PV panels mounted onto single-axis trackers from NEXTracker, more than 4,000km of cables and 100,000 piles over 800 Hectares. The PV project is expected to generate approximately 529GWh of energy per year when commissioned; which is the equivalent to powering up to 50,000 households.

The solar farm is connected to a 33/220kV substation co-located on-site where the energy is transferred to the Transgrid 220kV Balranald Substation. From there the energy is then transferred either towards Buronga/VIC or Darlington Point/NSW. As part of the works, approximately 400km of new fibre optic cable will be installed between the Buronga and Darlington Point substations to improve communication and control of the solar farm.

The project is supported by two Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) under which UNSW Sydney and AGL Energy (AGL) will purchase energy over 15 years. It reached financial close with John Laing in October last year.

“As a responsible renewable energy developer, we are cognisant of the impact which renewable energy has, both good and bad. To improve the reliability and to minimise both the technical and commercial impact of our developments moving forward, we aim to implement energy storage systems capable of time-shifting large amounts of energy throughout the day. Only by doing this, as a matter of best practice, will we be able to transition towards a 100% renewable energy future,” said Qiao Nan Han, VP of Maoneng Group.

February 13 (Renewables Now) – US utility American Electric Power Company Inc (NYSE:AEP) has agreed to acquire Sempra Energy’s (NYSE:SRE) renewables business and its 724-MW portfolio of wind and battery storage capacity in a deal worth USD 1.06 billion (EUR 935m).

Under the transaction, AEP will take over Sempra Renewables LLC and its entire or partial shareholding in seven operational wind parks and a battery storage facility in Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Sempra Renewables currently owns five of the particular wind farms together with BP Wind Energy, which will keep its ownership in the assets, all of which operate under long-term contracts.

The acquisition price includes a cash payment of USD 551 million, the assumption of USD 343 million in project debt and some USD 162 million in tax equity obligation. The buyer noted, however, that this is not the final cost, as it will be subject to closing and working capital adjustments. It plans to finance the transaction through debt, equity and/or equity-linked securities.

Nicholas K Akins, AEP’s chairman, president and CEO, explained that the acquisition fits with the utility’s goal to diversify its power generation portfolio and invest USD 2.2 billion in “competitive, contracted renewables” by 2023. He pointed out that the Sempra Renewables’ business also includes a pipeline of development projects that could provide additional value to AEP.

Redflow is helping to bring power to a remote Thai village stranded in a wildlife reserve by installing 10 of its novel batteries alongside three conventional lithium-ion batteries and using them to store surplus solar energy.

The village of Ban Pha Dan, 70 kilometres from Chiang Mai in mountainous northern Thailand, has been denied power by a ban on power poles in the surrounding wildlife reserve. It has now been supplied with a battery system to store surplus energy from the solar panels for later use, and Redflow believes the case demonstrates the benefits of standalone “microgrids” for remote communities in Asia, Africa and even Australia.

“Just like mobile telephony leapfrogged fixed-line telecommunications in developing countries, microgrids can deliver the benefits of modern technology without the massive infrastructure spend required by grid-based energy utilities,” said Redflow chief executive Tim Harris.

The deal is one of a series that have given a fillip to the Brisbane-based company after it struggled to promote its novel “flow bromide” batteries over the juggernaut of lithium-ion batteries made by Tesla, Panasonic, Samsung and Germany’s Sonnen that have cornered the market for energy storage and enjoyed surging volumes and falling costs.

This microgrid project was initiated by Thailand’s Energy Ministry and the Renewable Energy for Sustainable Association, with financial support from the Energy Conservation Promotion Fund.