Month: June 2023

               Renewable Connections, a UK solar and storage developer, has won planning approval for its Balbougie Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Fife, Scotland. The BESS project and its associated cable route and infrastructure were approved by Fife Council’s Planning Committee on 7 June. The development has a maximum import capacity of 42MW and will be built on land at South Pargillis, Clockluine Road, Hillend, Dunfermline.

              It will connect into the Inverkeithing Grid Supply Point and construction of the site is anticipated to commence in 2024 The Council’s planning officer recommended the scheme for approval and was unanimously backed by committee members. Development director at Renewable Connections John Leith said: “Fife Council is leading by example on the path to net zero. As well as declaring a Climate Emergency in 2019 the council has been proactive in launching its own Climate Fife Action plan to support the area’s climate-friendly and carbon neutral ambitions.” He added: “Projects like Balbougie BESS are integral to helping achieve these aims. Battery storage has a key role to play in ensuring homes and businesses can be powered by renewable energy sources, even when the sun isn’t shining or when the wind isn’t blowing. “The system will help balance supply and demand across the National Grid, with the ability to store and release power for tens of thousands of homes, as well as displacing a significant amount of CO2 from fossil fuel sources per year of operation.”

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Adobestock]

                 PX Group’s Saltend Chemicals Park in Hull, UK has been selected as the site for the build of a green hydrogen facility being developed by Meld Energy. The move represents an investment of between £180m and £240m by the green hydrogen industrial developer. Meld Energy is an international hydrogen development company and is working with the global energy management company, World Fuel Services Corporation, to develop green hydrogen supply chains.

                World Kinect Sustainability Ventures, a subsidiary of the publicly listed US Fortune 500 company, acquired a 50% stake in Meld in late 2022. Meld is currently bidding for development support from the UK’s Net Zero Hydrogen Fund. Should the bid win government backing, FEED (Front End Engineering Design) is expected to begin in November 2023 and would run concurrently with planning application processes. Building would commence less than a year later with a target operation in early 2027. The facility would have an initial installed capacity of 100MW and the potential to increase its capacity to over 200MW in a second development stage. Meld would utilise PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements) with renewable energy suppliers. The hydrogen produced by Meld would be used to provide energy on-site at Saltend, helping to switch over from more carbon-intensive fuels and chemical feedstock to emissions-free green hydrogen. The Humber is the UK’s most carbon-intensive region.

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Meld Energy]

                 Storage developer Invinity Energy Systems is to deploy the first prototype of its next-generation flow battery at a site in British Columbia, Canada, early next year. The project has been funded in part by a CAN$0.5m award from the BC Centre for Innovation & Clean Energy (CICE).

               The backing will support the manufacture and deployment of a 1.2MWh prototype of Invinity’s next-generation vanadium flow battery (VFB), code-named Mistral, at a site near Invinity’s engineering and operations centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. Expected to be operational in H1 2024, this will be the first Mistral product deployed as a pilot in the field, the company said.  The prototype will be tested against a commercial use case with the intention of demonstrating performance of the newly-developed product as a customer facing, fully-integrated energy storage system. Further details of this project are expected to be announced before the end of this year.

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Invinity]

                 The REA (Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology) and Energy UK have called on the UK Government to extend planned windfall tax changes for oil and gas to renewable energy as well. The Government will introduce a new Energy Security Investment Mechanism which will reduce the windfall tax rate on Oil and Gas producers, called the Energy Profits Levy, when energy prices return to consistent normal levels. The intention is to ensure that investments in domestic energy supply are safeguarded. The REA argues that being serious about protecting energy security and British jobs requires applying these benefits to the cheapest forms of domestic electricity generation, which also happen to be critical to delivering a decarbonised electricity system. As such, the Energy Security Investment Mechanism must also be extended to reduce the tax rate being placed on the low carbon generators under the equivalent Electricity Generator Levy. The renewables and clean tech sector is key to tackling the volatile costs of fossil fuels at the heart of rising energy bills, and its treatment must be fair and equitable in relation to the oil and gas sector, the REA said.  Mark Sommerfeld, head of power and flexibility at the REA, said: “Once again, the Government are focusing tax cuts on fossil fuel producers, while the equivalent windfall tax on renewables, called the Electricity Generator Levy (EGL), remains unchanged. “Today’s announcement for the Energy Security Investment Mechanism will reduce the tax liability on oil and gas producers when energy prices return to consistently normal levels, however, will not apply to renewable generators, despite a harsher tax on low carbon generation. 

                  “Furthermore, the Government have repeatedly ignored calls to introduce a dedicated Investment Allowance for renewables, which would promote low carbon investment, despite the equivalent allowance again already being in place for oil and gas. “Government is presenting today’s announcement as necessary for delivering energy security, yet it is not applying these benefits to the cheapest forms of domestic electricity generation, which also happen to be critical to delivering a decarbonised electricity system. “If Government is at all serious about energy security, The Energy Security Investment Mechanism must be extended to renewables and the EGL be urgently reformed.” Energy UK agreed that renewables should also be covered by the mechanism. It added that it should also mirror the EU and remove the windfall tax on renewable energy.  Emma Pinchbeck, Energy UK chief executive, said: “Whilst wholesale prices have fallen, many customers, including businesses, are still struggling with high energy costs, and the long-term solution out of the energy crisis is to move away from a reliance on fossil fuels and produce cheap, low carbon energy here in the UK alongside making our buildings far more efficient. “Alongside easing the Energy Profits Levy, the Government has kept a windfall tax on renewable energy, disincentivising the very technologies that will help insulate the UK from future energy price crises. “The EU is looking to remove its windfall tax on renewable energy and the US has put billions of dollars behind a huge stimulus package. “We’re in a global race for investment and the UK is at risk of losing out on the vital infrastructure needed to keep our energy supply secure. “We have an opportunity to build on our existing capabilities and lead the world in green technologies like Small Modular Reactors, Carbon Capture and Storage, hydrogen and floating offshore wind. “We urge the Government to revisit the Electricity Generator Levy, with this global context in mind.”

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Unplash]

               Canadian Solar’s majority-owned subsidiary CSI Solar Co has completed its initial public offering (IPO) process and its shares have started trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Sci-Tech Innovation Board under the stock code 688472.  In the flotation, CSI Solar issued 541,058,824 shares, representing 15% of 3,607,058,824 shares outstanding immediately after the IPO. In addition, CSI Solar has granted the principal underwriter of the IPO a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 81,158,500 shares of CSI Solar to cover over-allotments, if any.

               The total shares issued by CSI Solar will be 622,217,324, representing approximately 17% of 3,688,217,324 shares outstanding after the IPO, assuming that the over-allotment option is exercised in full. The shares were issued at a public offering price of RMB11.10 per share and the total gross proceeds of the IPO are approximately RMB6bnn (approximately US$850m). Immediately after the IPO, Canadian Solar owns approximately 64% of CSI Solar, assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised, or approximately 62% of CSI Solar, assuming that the over-allotment option is exercised in full. The shares of CSI Solar will not be and have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements, Canadian Solar said. 

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Canadian Solar]

                  The European Commission has recommended ending a revenue cap on renewable energy producers, many of which have claimed has acted as a barrier to new wind and solar investments. In a report on the review of emergency interventions to address high energy prices submitted to the Council on 5 June, the European Commission found that the temporary, emergency measures introduced for the energy market at the end of last year – electricity demand reduction measures, infra-marginal revenue cap, and retail price setting rules – contributed to a calming of the European energy markets. The report also concludes that as the EU electricity market supply and prices have now changed considerably from the record high levels last year, a prolongation of these emergency measures does not seem necessary or advisable at the current time.

                 The Commission confirmed that it will not propose a prolongation of these crisis measures. At the same time, the report recalls that certain aspects of these rules have been included among the longer-term structural adjustments in the electricity market design proposals tabled by the Commission in March. The report notes that electricity prices have now decreased to less than €80/MWh and gas prices have not only fallen but also stabilised, to the extent that the electricity price spikes observed throughout 2022 are considered “less probable to occur in the upcoming winter”.    With respect to the electricity demand reduction measures, each EU country implemented measures to reduce electricity demand, such as through awareness-raising campaigns and targeted energy-saving measures. The implementation of the inframarginal revenue cap varied greatly across EU countries – both in terms of the level of the cap and the time scope. The report notes that the increased stability in gas and electricity markets means prices have steadily fallen below the revenue cap level. The report also highlights that 12 out of 25 EU countries took advantage of the possibility to widen the scope of retail price regulation in times of crisis to SMEs and apply price regulation below costs under certain conditions.

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Sebastian Bertrand]

               Orsted has pledged to reuse or recycle all photovoltaic modules from its global portfolio of solar farms with immediate effect. To assist this commitment Orsted has formed a partnership with Solarcycle, a technology-based PV recycling company, to process and recycle Orsted’s end-of-life solar panels from its projects across the US, which is one of the main solar markets for the developer. Solar energy is a key technology for the green energy transition and for limiting global warming. However, the deployment of this technology requires vast amounts of virgin materials. The mining of these has environmental and social impacts, and competition to secure access to these materials is on the rise. To lower dependency on virgin materials, a key solution is to reuse or recycle end-of-life solar panels and bring the materials back into manufacturing.

                 Today, reusing and recycling solar panels is limited, and landfilling is still common practice. This means that materials with a high value to the green energy transition are simply let go to waste. Ingrid Reumert, Senior Vice President, and Head of Global Stakeholder Relations at Orsted, said: “With this global solar commitment, Orsted is leveraging its position as a leader in sustainability and renewable energy to incentivise the creation of a market for – the recycling of solar panels – and with the Solarcycle partnership, we’re taking the first tangible steps to ensure that critical materials needed for green energy will be reused or recycled.” Solarcycle’s recycling facility in Texas extracts the valuable materials from panels, including metals like silver, copper, and aluminium, and materials such as glass and silicon. The company can take these materials and refine them to make the next generation of newer, higher-efficiency solar panels. Orsted has been growing its onshore portfolio in the past few years with the ambition of reaching 17.5GW of wind and solar PV capacity for its global onshore portfolio by 2030.

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Orsted]

               Mytilineos Energy & Metals has made a 1.4GW portfolio purchase of five solar projects from Westbridge Renewable Energy Corp. The projects, currently under development in Alberta, Canada, include the 230MW Georgetown solar farm, the 280MW Sunnynook project, the 200MW Dolcy, 300MW Eastervale, and 225MW Red Willow project.

                  Renewables Consulting Group (RCG) has acted as sole technical advisor, providing a full technical due diligence of the portfolio, a thorough review of engineering and preliminary design, interconnection and transmission system review, independent energy yield analysis, permitting, development, transaction/commercial market intelligence and stakeholder review. Mytilineos’ Regional Managing Director for North America Luis Laguna said: “We first set foot in Alberta five months ago and now we are celebrating this great accomplishment. Thanks to RCG for their guidance and advice in navigating our entry into the Canadian market.” RCG Principal Bert Chen added: “RCG is proud to introduce Mytilineos to the Alberta and Canadian market and assist in providing thorough due diligence of the portfolio. We believe that Mytilineos’ global expertise will bring the necessary expertise and resources to develop these projects as a new entrant in the Alberta market.”

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Pixabay]

               Banks Renewables has submitted a proposal to add battery storage capacity to the Barnsdale Solar Energy Park to Leeds City Council for review. The developer previously secured planning approval for the project in 2021 and is now seeking permission to add a containerised battery energy storage system with the capacity to hold up to 40MW of the electricity generated at the site, which is enough to power around 48,000 homes for two hours during peak times. The original Barnsdale scheme was supported by both Allerton Bywater and Kippax Parish Councils, and after being recommended for approval by the City Council’s expert planning officers, won unanimous support from the members of its planning committee.

               Jamilah Hassan, community relations manager at the Banks Group, said: “We’ve been continuing with the technical work required to progress the Barnsdale solar energy park and the submission of this planning application marks the latest landmark on the journey towards the realisation of our plans. “Adding battery storage to this site will ensure the energy supply can be managed with maximum efficiency and will also reduce energy wastage, which will in turn assist in reducing the cost of energy for consumers. “The benefits of co-locating battery storage capacity alongside solar energy generation facilities in this way are proven and accepted, and having had a great deal of local support for the Barnsdale project, we hope Leeds City Council’s planning committee will be similarly supportive of this application.”

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Banks Renewables]

                  Trina Solar’s tracker business has signed an agreement to provide 510MW of solar trackers for projects in Uzbekistan. The contract with Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEC International) will see TrinaTracker supply Vanguard 1P units to the Jizzakh and Samarkand solar power plants in Uzbekistan.

                  Once connected to the grid, the two sites will generate 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) of renewable electricity annually. This is the second project TrinaTracker has secured as the exclusive supplier for solar plants in Uzbekistan, supporting the country’s solar power development target of 4GW by 2026 and 5GW by 2030. It has provided 2618 sets of solar trackers for the 100MW Nur Navoi Solar Project, the country’s first solar power plant, which was inaugurated in August 2021. The country aims to develop high-quality power plants in a bid to maximise the benefits of solar energy. 

Credits: renews.biz [Image: Trina]