Energy trader and asset manager Trailstone has signed a route-to-market power purchase agreement with Glennmont Partners for 84MW that supports wind projects in Italy. This deal takes the total wind capacity managed by Trailstone in Italy to more than 500MW
Japanese developer Shizen International has formed a joint venture with Inmark Asset Management and Dohwa Engineering to develop projects in South Korea.
The companies have established the company, called Inmark Jayeon Energy, to develop offshore and onshore wind farms, as well as solar and energy storage projects. The firm has identified 2GW of renewables project opportunities and plans to make its first investment, in a development of around 100MW, by the end of 2023.
Clean energy company Masdar has signed a framework agreement to licence Octopus Energy’s technology platform Kraken for the management of its UK battery storage portfolio.
The move will enable Masdar to “optimise and expand its energy trading capabilities in the UK,” a statement said.
The deal comes after Masdar committed to invest £1 billion in UK battery storage following its acquisition of London-based Arlington Energy in October 2022.
The Kraken platform is currently contracted to manage more than 5GW across 38,000 green energy assets in ten countries.
Republicans in Texas are pushing for wide-ranging legislative changes that could undermine the investment credentials of wind farms and end the US state's long wind boom. The impacts for the industry could be far-reaching.
Texas is known as the Lone Star State, and nowhere is this name more appropriate than in the green energy sector. For onshore renewables, it stands alone.
The US state has over 54.5GW of installed wind, solar and energy storage capacity, according to the American Clean Power Association’s 2022 market report. That is the same as combining the 35 states with the least installed renewables capacity, and is almost double the 28.7GW in second-placed California. Texas is often cited as the example of how renewables in the US enjoys strong bipartisan support at state level.
There are just two problems with that analysis.
First, it ignores the large number of US states where the buildout of renewables is either disappointing or woeful: there are 26 with under 3GW of installed wind, solar and storage each. That should remind us that states aren’t universally supportive of renewables or diligently working to remove barriers to investment.
And second, Texas legislators are proposing new laws that threaten to bring the state’s booming renewable energy sector to an abrupt halt. Lawyers have warned of ten bills in the Texas Senate that could harm investment in wind, either because they impose direct obligations on owners or damage the competitiveness of projects.
The Republicans' rationale for this legislative package is to help the Texas grid avoid the type of blackout it experienced following extreme blizzards in February 2021. It believes that bringing new natural has plants online as soon as possible would help protect Texans from similar disasters, and ‘level the playing field’ between renewable energy and fossil fuels. In other words, it wants to clobber investors in sectors including wind to help the fossil fuels industry.
The most controversial of the bills is Senate Bill 624, which clearly shows how Texas legislators want to treat renewables differently to other generation sources.
This would require wind and solar owners to apply for extra environmental permits for projects; would give property owners within 25 miles of a project wide powers to object; and applies to existing projects as well as new schemes, making it a new administrative burden and cost that undermines the economics of operational projects.
There is also Senate Bill 2014, which ends subsidies for wind and solar farms, and removes obligations for the state to upgrade the electricity grid to help renewables; and Senate Bill 2015, which sets a goal that 50% of new generating capacity in the state from January 2024 should be from ‘dispatchable’ natural gas and fossil fuels.
And there are Senate Bills 6 and 7, which would direct more money to natural gas production and impose an extra credit on renewables operators to guarantee they can deliver power. These were both approved by the Texas Senate on 5th April.
You can read more about these bills in this analysis from law firm Latham & Watkins.
Taken together, these would damage the economics of new and existing wind and solar developments, and undermine the support that developers receive following the passage into law of the Inflation Reduction Act last August. Changing the rules for operational projects would also undermine the confidence of renewables investors to build new schemes in Texas, although this is unlikely to bother policymakers.
Our other big concern is the impact this would have on the wider wind and cleantech industry. If new laws make Texas less attractive for renewable energy investors, it would also undermine an area that can be a vital testbed for new technologies and project structures.
For example, Texas is already a hotbed for the utility-scale storage projects that provide vital support to get more wind and solar on the grid; has attracted headline-grabbing green hydrogen projects that need large amounts of green power; and is set to benefit as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s seeks to unlock the Gulf of Mexico for offshore wind development. Any moves that undermine the growth of onshore wind risk making Texas less attractive for these associated sectors too, and mean the industry as a whole loses out on vital knowledge and experience to take new technologies to commercial maturity.
Finally, these changes would appear to vindicate the spurious arguments that blamed 2021 blackouts on the fallibility of renewables.
The Texas grid failed in 2021 due to a range of factors, including under-investment in the grid, mechanical failures at natural gas plants, and the fact that wind turbines in the state were not specified with de-icing technology. Wind farms were not the main cause of those historic blackouts, and yet punishing the sector now makes it look like they were. The fact Texas is taking these steps now can only empower the critics sector's and increase the obstacles for wind developers elsewhere in the US.
As the leading US state for installed renewables, Texas has a unique position in terms of its influence on the sector. Where it goes, other states follow. If regulators in the Lone Star State have chosen to stifle wind, the impacts could be far-reaching.
US energy giant NextEra is set to invest $20bn in green hydrogen projects that would require 15GW of renewables capacity.
The firm last month announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding with ammonia producer CF Industries to create green hydrogen. NextEra followed this in its first-quarter results presentation on 25th April by announcing that it has a $20bn pipeline of green hydrogen projects.
John Ketchum, chairman, president and CEO of NextEra Energy, said the company sees "hydrogen becoming an important option for our customers".
Energy technology provider Bitech Technologies Corporation has received a letter of intent (LOI) from Nam Viet Green Energy to provide up to $300 million in financing for US solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects.
Subject to Nam Viet Energy’s completion of due diligence for each renewable energy sector project and execution of agreements with prospective target companies, the LOI “formalises Nam Viet Energy’s commitment to facilitate capital investment to invest or acquire several selected projects to be hand-picked by Bitech”, a statement said.
The funding under any such investment from Nam Viet Energy and its capital partners is expected to occur within fiscal year 2023 “with extension to fiscal year 2024”, the statement added.
Vietnam-based Nam Viet Green Energy is an engineering, procurement and construction company focussed on the development of renewable energy projects.
The project scope includes the design, construction, installation, and testing of all equipment required for the BESS installation, including a 345/34.5kV, 130 MVA step-up power transformer, 345kV AIS equipment, battery enclosures, inverter skid with coupling transformer, inverter control system/EMS, and station auxiliary supply system.
The Greenport project is planned to be completed by Q1 2025.
Northland Power has sold 24.5% stakes in two UK offshore wind projects totalling 2.3GW to Irish utility ESB.
Canadian independent power producer Northland won development rights for the 1.5GW Havbredey floating and 840MW Spiorad na Mara fixed-foundation offshore wind project in Scottish waters last year. It is now set to develop the schemes in partnership with ESB. Northland will retain the majority 75.5% stakes.
Lawmakers in US state North Carolina are considering a bill that would impose a 10-year ban on offshore wind development in the state's waters.
Senate Bill 697 is supported by Republicans Bobby Hanig and Timothy Moffit, and would impose a 10-year moratorium on the issue of state permits for projects off the coast of North Carolina. If successful, it would affect sites including two where the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management awarded support on 11th May 2022: Carolina Long Bay and Kitty Hawk North Wind.
Turbine maker Vestas has reported an operating profit (EBITDA) of €262m in the first three months of 2023 on sales of €2.8bn.
This is an improvement on the €437m loss it made in the first three months of 2022, while the sales figure is up 14% year-on-year. However, the company warned that the business environment in 2023 would remain challenging due to geopolitical uncertainty, inflation and obstacles for projects including slow permitting processes.
Emerging markets investor Actis has set up a $500m Japan-focused renewables platform to develop 1.1GW of onshore wind and solar by 2027.
Actis has backed Nozomi Energy from its $6bn Actis Energy 5 fund. The investor has also concluded the acquisition of a seed asset for Nozomi: Hergo Japan Energy Corporation from Italian independent power producer Infrastrutture.
Apex Clean Energy, in partnership with energy storage platform provider Powin, is to build 200MW/400 MWh of battery storage projects in Texas.
Angelo Storage, co-located with the 195MW Angelo Solar Project in Tom Green County, Texas, and Great Kiskadee Storage will each deliver 100MW / 200MWH capacity to the Texas grid with a two-hour battery duration.
The battery systems will use Powin’s StackOS platform to provide energy arbitrage and ancillary grid services to the ERCOT market.
Together the projects will generate more than $24.4 million in tax revenue and approximately 100 jobs during construction. The projects are expected to begin commercial operations in late 2023 and 2024.
Norwegian utility Statkraft has won a power purchase agreement to supply electricity to Fortescue Future Industries for the proposed 300MW Hemnes green hydrogen and ammonia facility in Norway. The PPA is conditional on FFI taking a final investment decision to build Hemnes.
US manufacturer Electric Hydrogen has announced plans to build a factory in Massachusetts that can produce 1.2GW green hydrogen electrolysers per year.
Production of Electric Hydrogen's 100MW green hydrogen electrolysers is due to begin at the factory by March 2024.
Acciona Energia has entered Thailand's wind market by securing rights to build five wind farms totalling 436MW with Singaporean firm The Blue Circle.
The companies announced a strategic partnership in September 2022 to develop projects in southeast Asia, and have now secured 25-year power contracts from the Electricity Generation Authority of Thailand to support five projects. Construction on the first project is due to start in 2024, and all are due to complete between 2026 and 2030.
OX2 has completed the previously announced acquisition of ESCO Pacific, a leading renewable developer in Australia with a total project development portfolio consisting of 1,420 MW, comprising 1,220 MW solar and 200 MW energy storage.
The purchase price is A$126 million on a debt free basis. In addition, there is a contingent consideration amounting to up to A$17 million to the founder based on sales and margins from the acquired project development portfolio in 2025-2027.
“The Australian renewable market offers significant growth opportunities and OX2 has identified considerable potential for value creation in ESCO Pacific through extension of the product offering to turnkey solutions, scale up of operations through acquisitions and expansion to onshore wind,” an OX2 statement said.
PwC Australia acted as lead financial advisor and legal advisor to OX2. Lazard acted as lead advisor to the sellers.
Shell Germany and the Volkswagen Group have put into operation a 150 kW Elli Flexpole charging station – an innovative battery storage system that enables connection to a low voltage grid - at a Shell service station in Göttingen, Germany.
Similar charging stations are also planned for elsewhere in Germany and Europe.
“With the Elli Flexpole solution, one of the biggest hurdles of expansion could be overcome,” a statement said. “The Flexpole chargers can be connected directly to the low-voltage grid thanks to the integrated battery system, without the need for a special transformer or costly construction work. As a result, the installation time is significantly reduced.”
Volkswagen said Flexpole charging stations enable a charging speed of up to 150 kW. Depending on the vehicle, a range of up to 160 kilometres can be charged within 10 minutes.
Canary Wharf Group has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Brookfield to buy electricity from a 60MW wind farm in the UK.
The deal is set to provide the London-based property group with electricity for 70% of its own power needs from 2026, when the wind farm is due to be commissioned.
This PPA also represents the start of a partnership with Brookfield that could pave the way for the use of more renewables across the 150-acre Canary Wharf estate.
Hydrogen firm Lhyfe and Skyborn Renewables are planning to build a 600MW green hydrogen factory in Sweden linked to a 1GW offshore wind farm.
The companies are working with ABB on the SoutH2Port green hydrogen plant in Söderhamm, Sweden, which would be able to produce around 240 tonnes of green hydrogen per day. This would be connected to a 1GW offshore wind farm that Skyborn is developing in nearby Storgrundet.
A new organisation aimed at increasing the deployment of energy storage across Europe has launched.
The newly formed Energy Storage Coalition consists of four clean energy organisations: SolarPower Europe, EASE - The European Association for the Storage of Energy, WindEurope, and Breakthrough Energy.
The coalition's main focuses will be Electricity Market Design and security of supply.
Speaking at the launch event in Brussels this week, Philipp Offenberg, senior manager Europe of Breakthrough Energy, emphasised the critical need to have the right policy and investment frameworks in place to drive deployment and scale of long duration energy storage technologies.
Meanwhile, Patrick Clerens, Secretary General of EASE – The European Association for Storage of Energy, highlighted the role energy storage plays in alleviating grid constraints and grid extension costs. “It is paramount to accelerate the process of electrification – and here is where energy storage can help lowering costs and contribute to further renewables’ deployment”.
The US offshore wind industry has projects totalling 51.4GW in its development pipeline, according to research published today.
The American Clean Power Association has reported that projects totalling 33.9GW are in early development and 16.6GW are in advanced development, with 938MW under construction. Of this capacity, 84% (43.1GW) is in east coast projects and 16% (8.3GW) is off the west coast.
It also said ten US states have set targets totalling 81GW for offshore wind; and that the supply chain is developing, with 14 facilities focused on the offshore wind sector either announced or under construction.
Invenergy, energyRE and New York Power Authority have commissioned the 104MW Number Three wind farm in New York's Lewis County.
The companies developed the project under their joint venture Clean Path NY, which has a 3.8GW portfolio of more than 20 wind and solar developments.
US-based energy storage system manufacturer NeoVolta has partnered with sustainable home improvement finance platform GoodLeap to make solar energy storage “as affordable as possible for more homeowners”.
Under the terms of the agreement, GoodLeap will finance standalone NeoVolta Energy Storage System (ESS) installations with or without solar panels.
NeoVolta’s NV14 energy storage system has a storage capacity of 14.4kwh, expandable to 24.0 kWh with an optional battery. The system’s inverter discharges 7.7kw of power.
Major energy-related cyberattacks are 'probable' in the next two years - the battery storage sector needs to protect assets as such incidents could lead to loss of life
How vulnerable are renewable energy projects to cyberattack? While this may be difficult to measure with a high degree of accuracy, recent reports suggest that disputes involving energy supplies will be a prominent feature in international geopolitics in the coming years.
Only last month, a joint investigation conducted by broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland led to allegations that Russia has a programme to sabotage wind farms in the North Sea. A series of reports broadcast in the Scandinavian countries said that Russia has a fleet of vessels – disguised as fishing trawlers and research vessels – that carry underwater surveillance equipment for the purpose of mapping key sites for possible sabotage. It has led to speculation that disrupting nations’ energy supplies could be a tactic increasingly deployed in conflicts around the world.
Research suggests that concerns about disruptions to energy supplies caused by malevolent forces are justified. And cyberattacks could be the weapon of choice. A survey of almost 1,000 energy professionals conducted last year by DNV showed that the vast majority (85 per cent) believe that a major cyberattack incident is “probable” at some scale within the next two years. Of those that feel a major cyberattack is imminent, a total of 85 per cent think it will result in disrupted operations, 74 per cent believe it will cause harm to the environment, while 57 per cent say it will lead to loss of life.
The findings are alarming. Especially when you consider that the same survey indicated that the renewables industry is woefully underprepared for cyberattacks. The DNV research showed that only one in five (20 per cent) of professionals in the renewables industry “assert confidently that they would know exactly what to do if concerned about a potential cyberattack”.
The evidence suggests most energy professionals currently have no intention of taking steps to protect their organisations against cyberattacks. While the DNV survey showed that six out of ten energy sector ‘C-suite’ respondents acknowledged that their organisation is “more vulnerable to attack than ever before”, far fewer (44 per cent) expect to make “urgent improvements in the next few years to prevent an attack”.
But this risk needs to be acted upon by all segments of the renewables industry, including energy storage businesses. The Environmental Protection Agency has stressed that storage technologies need cybersecurity strategies to prevent, identify, detect, respond to, and recover from cyberattacks.
Just last week, global professional services firm Aon - which has placed insurance for over 2.8 GW of battery energy storage systems (BESS) and handled more than $100 million of battery storage claims - said that storage asset owners and operators must “bolster their cyber resilience as they face emerging cyber threats”. Specifically, Aon has identified operational technologies used in BESS control systems as an “invisible point of vulnerability that could be exposed by increasingly sophisticated threat actors”.
The energy storage industry’s digitalisation was speeded up by the global pandemic, but this has meant that, as the sector has become increasingly digitalised, so has its vulnerability to cyberattack. If we take the US as an example, the Atlantic Council think tank has highlighted that, despite the fact that energy storage relies “intrinsically on digitization and network connectivity”, the US is “unprepared” to secure the energy transition.
Due to the nature of the digital evolution, Aon has said, critical operational technologies (OT) in the energy storage sector are now connected “more than ever”, which could leave asset owners exposed to unknown risks. Andrew Hainault, managing director, EMEA – security advisory at Aon, has highlighted how OT is playing catch-up with information technology (IT). “We see examples of clients who have relatively mature cyber security programmes for IT, with corresponding control frameworks that are established and measured, yet have noticeable control gaps for OT,” he said.
Meanwhile, Paul Gooch, head of cyber open market at underwriter Tokio Marine Kiln, said that, while battery energy storage will have to be fully integrated into the electrical grid architecture to effectively ensure reliability and grid stability, such integration “necessitates the adoption of a communication infrastructure, which will increase the potential surface area for cyberattacks”.
This should be a serious concern given that data has shown energy companies are more at risk of cyberattack than any other business in North America. IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2023 revealed that energy firms were North America’s most commonly attacked organisations, constituting 20 per cent of all cases. This was higher than the manufacturing and retail-wholesale sectors, which tied for second place with 14% of cases each.
The IBM study also showed that extortion is the most common objective of cyberattacks, accounting for 21 per cent of the total, more than data theft, which accounted for 19 per cent. A total of 13 per cent of all extortion-related cyberattacks target the energy industry.
It’s not hard to see why the majority of energy storage professionals fear that a major cyberattack is imminent that could lead to loss of life. As Gooch highlighted, lithium-ion batteries – the technology most commonly used in battery energy storage systems – require careful monitoring and control of their voltage, current and temperature conditions. “If a threat actor were to interfere with this monitoring and control, physical damage could occur – ranging from battery cell degradation, caused by overcharging or over-discharging, to a ‘thermal runaway’ event resulting in overheating, fire or explosion,” he added.
What should energy storage companies be doing to protect against cyberattacks? Firstly, with the industry upping its investment in digitalisation, they need to ensure that, where possible, investment in cybersecurity keeps pace. Secondly, it’s prudent to assess exactly where projects are vulnerable to cyberattack – while your organisation may be confident that its OT is adequately protected, can the same be said for your suppliers? Finally, make sure cybersecurity training is also prioritised – the DNV study indicated that while some organisations are taking steps to upgrade core IT system security, less attention is being paid to training programmes.
It's clear that cybersecurity must be taken seriously in the energy storage sector. If it isn’t, our data, our environment, and even people’s lives could be put in danger. The worry is that the renewable energy sector is woefully unprepared.