Texas’ grid and the idiosyncrasies of its electricity planning system regime made global headlines in February following a harsh winter storm and subsequent blackouts that affected millions of people and businesses for almost an entire week. It may be a unique market with unique characteristics, but what wider role can batteries — and other energy storage technologies — play in assisting the grid to remain stable and prevent a situation like this from happening again?
US utility-scale battery energy storage project developer Key Capture Energy has secured US$93.3 million debt financing for a portfolio of six projects in Texas.
It has yet to build its first project but Jupiter Power, a developer, owner and operator of utility-scale energy storage has claimed it will deploy 652MWh of battery storage during 2021, kicking off a 10GW development pipeline.
Financial backing to support early development phases in battery storage and renewable energy projects has been found by Momentum Energy Storage Partners, a project development company launched by DNV GL’s former energy storage lead for the North Americas region.
Solar inverter manufacturer Sungrow’s energy storage system (ESS) solution will power a 100MW battery storage project in Texas which is scheduled to go into operation in mid-2021.
Updated 7 January 2020: Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) will supply lithium-ion batteries to energy storage system integrator FlexGen for two large-scale energy storage projects totalling 220MWh in Texas.
Barriers to financing for energy storage could hold back the growth of solar in the US, while an Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for standalone energy storage should be introduced, the audience heard as our publisher Solar Media hosted the Solar and Storage Finance USA event last week.
Texas-based Vistra will develop nearly 1GW of solar and storage projects in the next two years as the utility plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
