ESS Tech, listed on the New York Stock Exchange as “GWH”, announced it has secured a $50 million investment from the Export-Import Bank of The United States (EXIM).

The funds are expected to support the expansion of ESS production capacity at its Wilsonville, Oregon plant. The company develops long-duration energy storage iron flow batteries. The investment is expected to help ESS triple its manufacturing capacity at the Wilsonville plant.

“Our technology uses earth-abundant iron, salt and water to deliver environmentally safe solutions capable of providing up to 12 hours of flexible energy capacity for commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications,” said ESS Tech.

EXIM made the investment via its Make More in America Initiative, which makes available medium- and long-term loans, loan guarantees, and insurance to finance export-oriented domestic manufacturing projects.

ESS Tech is delivering iron flow energy storage systems to customers in Europe, Australia and Africa. The company manufactures 100% of its products in the United States, with a predominantly domestic supply chain that spans 29 states.

“Our partnership with EXIM underscores the critical role that American-made clean energy technology will play in the global clean energy transition,” said ESS chief executive officer Eric Dresselhuys. “ESS’s iron flow technology is already deployed in Australia and Europe and with this agreement, we are well positioned to meet the growing needs of our current and future global customers.” 

ESS battery systems are designed to operate for 25 years, while conventional batteries last about 7 to 10 years. The battery modules, electrolyte, plumbing, and other components may well last for decades longer with proper maintenance, said the company. The battery, for example, is expected to experience zero degradation over 20,000 cycles. The long duration energy storage (LDES) system can store and dispatch electricity for 12 hours or more.

According to the Department of Energy’s ‘Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Long Duration Energy Storage’ report, the U.S. grid needs 225 to 460 GW of LDES capacity for power market application for a net zero economy by 2060. The global LDES market is estimated to be $50 billion per year and forecast to grow significantly with a cumulative investment of up to $3 trillion by 2040, according to the LDES Council and McKinsey & Co.

From pv magazine Global

The latest supply chain report from Sinovoltaics, the Hong Kong-based technical compliance and quality assurance company, covers the North American manufacturing hub, tracking factory size, location, owner, current and planned capacity. It provides details on 95 factories producing PV modules, cells, wafers, ingots, polysilicon, and metallurgical-grade siliconin the region, up from 81 in the first quarter.

The Sinovoltaics Supply Chain Map (SSCM) – North America for Q2 2024 notes 42 GW of total module production capacity spread across Mexico, Canada, and the United States, which manufacturers plan to double to 84 GW in the coming 3 to 6 years. A Sinovoltaics spokesperson told pv magazine that the figures represent “nameplate capacity.”

The report presents data from publicly available sources, as well as Sinovoltaics contacts with manufacturers. “The report gives insights into the theoretical capacity if the factories are running at 100%,” a spokesperson from the company said. “Our data are based on the press releases that we’ve received from different manufacturers and different research, and marketing analysis documents that we’ve seen.”

There are ten more manufacturers included in the second quarter report than the previous one, a mixture of thin film, TOPCon, and perovskite tandem technology companies. The additions are Ascent Solar, Astronergy, Boway Alloy, Caelux, Great Lakes Solex, NanoPV, Prism Solar, Runergy, Solaria, and Ubiquity Solar.

The analysts noted constraints in the region’s supply chain at the cell and wafer nodes. Cell production is at 8 GW and growing to 55 GW in the coming 3 to 6 years, while wafer production is to grow from 3.2 GW to 24.5 G.

The Sinovoltaics team noted the CubicPV decision to halt silicon wafer production to focus on tandem perovskite technology and REC Silicon’s plant closure in Butte, Montana, observing that the market had not moved yet to fill the void.

Sinovoltaics has been tracking the development of PV manufacturing hubs and began publishing a series of free quarterly reports this year, mapping production in India, North America, Southeast Asia, and Europe

BASF, NGK launch sodium-sulfur battery with less than 1% degradation rate A set of technological improvements incorporated into the new product NAS MODEL L24 allows for lower maintenance costs compared to the earlier sodium sulfur battery type developed by the two manufacturers.

NREL guide for anyone seeking more solar and storage in utility resource plans A guide to utility resource plans aims to help state regulators and others engage effectively with utilities in reviewing the plans, which have often been challenged for limiting solar and storage in projections of new generating capacity needed.

Nextracker expands U.S. manufacturing with Unimacts Owned by Unimacts and located near Las Vegas, this factory will produce steel components exclusively for Nextracker, bringing the tracker specialist’s annual domestic solar tracker capacity to over 30 GW.

Final guidance released on IRA’s prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements According to the Treasury Department, developers of clean energy projects may be able to claim an increased credit equal to five times the base incentive.

Solar startup claims doubled energy per acre with terrain-following array California startup Planted Solar uses construction robots and high-density arrays to deliver what the company says are higher energy outputs and lower balance of system costs.

U.S. grid-scale storage grows 84%, residential storage 48% Wood Mackenzie reported large growth in Q1 year-over-year for grid-scale storage and residential storage, while commercial and industrial storage slowed.

Commercial real estate to host VPP-connected flywheels and batteries U.S.-based technology provider Torus has agreed to supply nearly 26 MWh of energy storage for Gardner Group’s commercial real estate portfolio. The project will integrate battery and flywheel energy storage systems (BESS, FESS) with Torus’ proprietary energy management platform.

From ESS news

BASF Stationary Energy Storage, a subsidiary of chemical company BASF, and Japanese ceramics manufacturer NGK Insulators have launched a new version of their sodium-sulfur (NAS) batteries.

The containerized NAS MODEL L24 battery jointly developed by the partners, whose cooperation started in 2019, boasts a few technological improvements. Compared to the previously available battery type, the new NAS battery is characterized by a significantly lower degradation rate of less than 1% per year thanks to a reduced corrosion in battery cells.

Another technical achievement is an improved thermal management system in battery modules, which enables a longer continuous discharge. For instance, in the case of discharging at 200 kW-dc per NAS MODEL L24 unit, the continuous discharging duration is six hours.

The new technology elements have been incorporated into the field-proven battery design. Namely, NAS batteries were implemented practically for the first time in the world by NGK and since then installed at over 250 locations worldwide, with a total output of over 720 MW and total capacity of around 5 GWh installed.

Like the earlier version, the new concept complies with the latest safety standards for energy storage installations, such as UL1973 and UL9540A.

story continues…

Reshore solar manufacturing but don’t stall construction with tariffs, suggests union official A leader of a union whose members work in construction and maintenance said the union supported a moratorium on tariffs on certain imported solar panels, as domestic panel output increases, to preserve opportunities in solar construction and installation.

Bill seeks to establish community solar market in Michigan Community solar projects are non-utility owned assets that allow customers to subscribe to a portion of the project’s electricity generation capacity in exchange for bill credits.

Titan Solar latest in residential solar business closures An email informed company employees that the company had ended operations.

Long-duration stability of perovskite solar cells US scientists have analyzed the impact of “seasoning” a formamidinium lead iodide solution with two-dimensional (2D) perovskites. They have found that the template improved the efficiency and durability of their solar cells.

Princeton NuEnergy scores $30 million in funding for lithium battery recycling The low-temperature plasma-assisted separation process, developed at Princeton University and now trademarked as LPAS, produces battery-grade cathode and anode materials suitable for direct reintroduction into cell manufacturing.

Soltec launches specially designed floating PV tracker Soltec has developed a floating PV tracker with pumps in the central tank for mobility and ballast, enabling operation in wind gusts above 100 km/h.

Longi claims 34.6% efficiency for perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell The European Solar Test Installation (ESTI) confirmed Longi’s achievement of a world record-breaking efficiency rating of 34.6% for a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell.

Princeton NuEnergy (PNE), a New Jersey-based specialist in lithium-ion battery direct recycling, announced the close a Series A funding round with a strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.

Founded out of Princeton University in 2019, PNE developed a patented direct recycling technology for lithium-ion batteries. The low-temperature plasma-assisted separation process, trademarked as LPAS, produces battery-grade cathode and anode materials suitable for direct reintroduction into cell manufacturing. The company reports that this recycling is done at half the cost and is 70% less energy intensive.

PNE is now commercializing its lithium-ion battery recycling process that the company reports recovers up to 95% of materials found in all lithium-ion battery chemistries.

Recovering lithium and other critical battery materials is important as the U.S. ramps up electric vehicle produciton. While the U.S. is making strides toward manufacturing batteries, it is behind in the race for raw materials as China reportedly holds the majority of the world’s lithium refining capacity.

To advance lithium battery recycling, PNE has received over $55 million in grants, strategic and venture funding including investments from Honda Motor Co. Ltd., LKQ Corporation, Samsung Venture, Shell Venture, Traxys Group, Wistron Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Investor demand for this 50% oversubscribed round brought PNE’s Series A total to $30 million. Samsung Venture and Helium-3 join the round’s previous investors. The funds will support construction of PNE’s first standalone, full-scale direct battery recycling advanced manufacturing facility.

“The incredible interest in our Series A round, capped off by a strategic investment from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Helium-3 Ventures, speaks to the importance of supporting a circular economy for lithium battery manufacturing here in the U.S.,” said Dr. Chao Yan, PNE’s co-founder and CEO. “This funding enables us to implement and demonstrate our capabilities at commercial scale, helping America meet the growing demand for high-performance batteries while also creating high-quality clean energy jobs.”

PNE was named to Time Magazine’s “America’s Top Greentech Companies 2024”

Two-thirds of jobs in the solar industry are in construction and installation, versus 13% in manufacturing, said a union leader on a webinar hosted by the American Clean Power Association (ACP).

“We’re a little concerned that the “tail” of manufacturing “could wag the dog,” said Jeff Soth, legislative and political director of the International Union of Operating Engineers, referencing his union’s support for a moratorium on solar panel tariffs that support domestic solar manufacturing. “We’ve adopted the ACP position,” he said.

Chiming in, Bill Parsons, American Clean Power (ACP) senior vice president and political director, said Soth had “articulated a really important principle, which I think our member companies would subscribe to, which is a very firm desire and commitment to reshore as much of the supply chain as we can, as quickly as we can, consistent with deployment.”

“If you cut off” foreign solar panel supply “too quickly,” Parsons said, “you haven’t really helped anything. You’ve just slowed down the construction jobs and the benefits for the grid and for the economy.” Parsons said companies are faced with a dilemma, “the choice to buy stuff that doesn’t exist yet.”

Two-thirds of operating engineers work in construction, Soth said, typically operating equipment such as cranes and backhoes, while one-third are maintenance engineers. Operating engineers work across all energy industries, he said.

Union support for projects

Turning to the potential for union support of new projects, Brad Markell, principal with Clean Energy Labor Advisors, said “you see some opposition” to both utility-scale solar projects and transmission projects. Yet “local unions, that are everywhere, are a key locus for local participation,” he said. Unions can add value “early in community involvement, because union members are living in these communities, and once they understand there’s a potential project coming through their area that they would like to work on, they become advocates.”

Soth said three unions had responded to a request from the solar industry, which led to a tri-trades agreement among the unions representing “the three essential crafts to build solar generation,” namely operating engineers, electricians and laborers. “We’re in the business of meeting the needs of owners and developers,” he said, “and they demanded, frankly, a streamlined project labor agreement with the three essential crafts, and that’s what we gave them.”

Wages, apprenticeships

“The skills and productivity” of union members, Soth said, give the union “a competitive edge, and frankly, allow us to command at the negotiating table the kinds of wages and benefits that our folks receive.”

Noting that a prevailing wage requirement is a condition for receiving energy tax credits, Soth said the requirement “provides some support for our role in the workplace and ensures that the green jobs of the future are, in fact, good jobs.” Clean energy industries have struggled, he said, “to be able to demonstrate that those are family sustaining jobs, particularly in the solar industry, historically, and that’s a function of residential deployment, small projects.”

Noting that women represent less than 25% of construction workers, Soth said his union is “doing everything we can” to recruit women and people of color into the trade, including marketing apprenticeships to students in high school. The operating engineers’ union offers training and apprenticeship programs.

“Apprenticeship is the primary pathway into a career in the operating engineers,” Soth said, adding that apprenticeship is “the best kept secret in career and vocational training.” He suggested that government investment in apprenticeship preparedness would be worthwhile, such as providing young people with “an introduction into the variety of craft unions out there and the opportunities that exist in the construction business.”

From pv magazine ESS News

Battery manufacturers CATL and Gotion High-Tech have denied U.S. lawmakers’ claims of forced labor in their supply chains, calling the accusations groundless and false.

On June 6, a group of U.S. Republican lawmakers have called on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately add CATL and Gotion High-Tech to a Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List and and block the shipments of these companies from entering the US.

“The Select Committee has uncovered indisputable evidence that Gotion High-Tech and CATL have supply chains that are deeply connected to forced labor and the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs in China,” House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar said. “The American people expect companies in the U.S. to avoid all involvement with the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of genocide.”

CATL said in a press release on June 7 that the accusations are “groundless and completely false” and that information about some of its suppliers in the letter to the DHS is inaccurate and misleading.

“With some suppliers, business relations ceased long ago. With other suppliers, business relations have been conducted with different subsidiaries and with absolutely no connection to forced labor or anything that violates US applicable laws and regulations,” the company said.

CATL said it adheres to the highest business and ethical standards and has effective policies in place to ensure a responsible and sustainable supply chain according to the highest global standards.

Read more here.

Has the Inflation Reduction Act bolstered the U.S. solar supply chain?  Wood Mackenzie is tracking the capacity that manufacturers have announced will come online in the U.S.; however, three challenges remain including a balance of materials, pricing and tariffs.

RFP alert: CAISO and TID seek renewable energy and storage projects Using the Ascend Analytics Energy Exchange, Turlock Irrigation District announces a request for proposals to meet its California Renewable Portfolio Standards and reliability goals.

A new federal transmission rule won’t help renewables projects anytime soon Although promptly deploying grid-enhancing technologies and advanced conductors could speed interconnection in the short term, a new federal transmission rule will improve interconnection only once new transmission is built, said panelists on a webinar.

ABB launches smart panel for home energy management In partnership with Lumin, the company released an electric panel with software for controlling solar, batteries, EV chargers, and more.

Researchers build 24.4%-efficient perovskite solar cells with room temperature process Researchers from the U.S. and South Korea have developed a method to make high-quality perovskite films at room temperature. The film was tested in a conventional perovskite solar cell architecture and the result was a power conversion efficiency of exceeding 24%.

Startup uses agricultural waste to produce low-cost, safe batteries U.S.-based start-up SorbiForce uses no toxic products or metals in production of its batteries. It claims its systems are cheaper and safer than lithium-ion batteries and have near zero end-of-life waste.

Solar carport to provide 100% electricity needs for Los Angeles Six Flags  Recom Technologies was selected as the solar panel provider for the 12 MW solar carport.

From pv magazine ESS News site

US-based SorbiForce says it has designed its battery energy storage systems to be completely recyclable, reducing environmental impact and fostering a circular economy.

Its technology does not rely on fossil-based resources and instead utilizes agricultural by-products, like straw, and brine from desalination plants, making them a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

The company uses its own ultra-porous carbon, water, and salt to develop its battery storage systems. It employs locally sourced raw materials that are abundant in most locations in the USA, thereby mitigating supply chain risks associated with traditional battery components.

According to SorbiForce, its battery is resistant to mechanical damage, non-flammable, non-explosive, has no problem with overcharging, requires no cooling, and has no thermal runaway. “The bromine salt ZnBr2 in our battery is used in firefighting,” the company says.

The cost of 1 kWh is 1.8 times lower than the price of 1 kWh on the lithium-ion battery market, the company claims.

At the end of their lifetime, the batteries can be easily disposed, fully recycled, and repurposed as organic compost, leaving minimal environmental impact.

The technology is touted as easily scalable offering a power range from 120 kW to 1 MW and storage capacity from 500 to 700 kWh.

The system measures 6 meters in length, 2.4 meters in width, 2.6 meters in height and weighs 18.9 tons.

The system needs four hours to charge and as much to discharge. SorbiForce guarantees 5,000 charge-discharge cycles and has a goal to extend this to 10,000.

“At present, we are introducing batteries with 4-hour and 12-hour cycles. That means 4 hours of charging/4 hours of discharging and 12 hours of charging/12 hours of discharging. However, we can manufacture batteries ranging from 30 minutes to 24 hours,” Serhii Kaminskyi, founder and CEO of SorbiForce, tells pv magazine Energy Storage. “We are focused on industrial applications for intraday operations.”

To continue reading, please visit our new ESS News website.

From pv magazine EES News

Lithium-sulfur batteries are a promising candidate for high-performance energy storage applications due to their low cost and high theoretical energy density of more than 500 Wh/kg when coupled with lithium metal anodes.

However, developing a highly durable sulfur cathode has been challenging due to the polysulfide shuttling and volume variation of sulfur that leads to chemical and mechanical degradation of the cathode during cycling.

Researchers at the University of South Carolina have made a huge step forward in addressing this issue by developing a simple electrode processing method for producing highly durable sulfur cathodes. These electrodes feature a self-structured binder confinement for sulfur particles using only commercially available sulfur, carbon black, and binder, with no additional components.

The researchers have controlled the dissolution of the binder during the slurry preparation step to form a porous binder/carbon shell structure around the sulfur particles that can entrap the soluble polysulfides and slow down the shuttling mechanism.

The sulfur cathodes achieved through this method offer an outstanding capacity retention of 74% over 1000 cycles, due to a considerable reduction in the lithium-polysulfide shuttling and active material loss. Electrodes with a high areal loading also showed excellent cyclability as well as a high capacity.

The researchers reported these results last year following the completion of the project’s first phase, in which they used coin cells. Now, they are moving to practical battery forms to determine if commercialization is possible.

The team’s current work focuses on pouch cells, which theoretically have the highest energy density since this type has the least amount of waste weight. “Pouch cells usually have lighter and thinner battery casing than the other forms, which leaves most of the volume and weight of the battery for the energy-providing components,” Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Golareh Jalilvand says.

While the challenges of batteries grow with their size, the USC researchers have reported a fast and successful transition from coin to pouch cells. “We have achieved outstanding lithium-sulfur pouch cells with competent energy densities,” Jalilvand says. “I’m looking forward to seeing the long cycle life and durability of our pouch cells because that’s the last check mark for us and our industrial partner. With that, it might be time to say we have a lithium-sulfur battery that is ready for commercialization.”

Given the long charge-discharge time, the researchers see lithium-sulfur batteries as best suited for applications that do not require fast charging. These include heavy-duty trucks, buses, and other means of transport that need long discharge time, commonly known as milage, and can be kept overnight at charging stations. The technology also shows great potential for stationary applications such as grid-level energy storage as well as space applications.

More bark than bite: U.S. solar tariffs and the shadow of larger trade measures Intensified trade measures against China via increasing tariffs on imported solar and battery cells represents a significant policy step, however, the impact is clouded by global manufacturing shifts, price decreases and looming Commerce Department trade complaints.

Startup debuts wall-mountable, tabletop residential heat pump Quilt unveiled a residential heat pump with a coefficient of performance (COP) of up to 4 and noise levels of 27 dBA to 47 dBA. The startup recently raised $35.9 million from a group of investors.

Bifacial solar module tariffs reinstated The Office of the President has turned its focus to solar panels, announcing the removal of the bifacial solar panel Section 301 tariff exclusion and addressing issues of stockpiling during trade cases, alongside promoting the nation’s manufacturing base.

Solidion seeks to provide sodium-based electrolytes as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries  The company says the technology’s better cycle times and potential lower costs would benefit grid storage and EV sectors.

A recent report by the International Energy Agency said lithium-ion batteries remain the key storage technology for the energy and transportation sectors. While mining for lithium is keeping pace with increasing demand, lithium refining and production of battery packs is concentrated in China, which causes some concerns in the West over supply chains and market dominance.

Sodium is emerging as a viable material for solid state batteries for many of the same energy storage applications that now favor lithium-ion systems.

Bor Jang, chief science officer and board chairman of Solidion Technology, an Ohio-based developer of solid battery technologies, told pv magazine USA that as many countries become dependent on batteries for important sectors of their economies, they will be prompted to search for alternative formulations to those based on lithium, which is relatively rare.

“Sodium, by contrast, is much more abundant in the Earth’s crust and oceans and is evenly distributed around the world,” he said.

In addition to its abundance, which leads to lower costs and easier supply chains, sodium-ion formulations have advantages in faster recharge rates and improved fire safety over lithium-ion ones, Jang said. The tradeoff is that sodium-ion batteries have less energy density (watts per kilogram), which translates into shorter ranges for electric vehicles and less overall storage capacity for grid operators for the same footprint.

However, Jang said, sodium-ion batteries are perfectly suited to EV uses where a 150-mile range would not be a burden, such as for local utility fleets or commuter driving, and where their faster recharge cycles would be appreciated, as would the projected lower price. Similarly, grid-storage facilities where footprint is not an issue would benefit from recharge rates and fire safety characteristics.

On the manufacturability side, Jang said sodium-ion batteries could be produced in factories that currently make lithium-ion batteries with only minor changes to the equipment.

“Solium-ion batteries have the potential to be useful across a wide range of applications, not just those dominated by lithium-ion technology” Jang said. “They can be used in place of lead-acid batteries, for example. Such demand will bring down prices.”

A materials scientist by education, Jang said he turned his attention to solid-state battery research and development about 20 years ago as the needs of the proposed energy transition from fossil fuels to non-emitting sources clearly would require a dramatic increase in energy storage capacity, particularly with renewable generators such as solar and wind. He founded a number of companies focused on the supply of materials for solid state battery electrolytes, anodes and cathodes.

Earlier this year, he saw the merger of his Honeycomb Battery Co. with Nubia Brand International Corp. which gave Solidion status as a publicly traded company. It joins a number of competitors hoping to commercialize sodium-ion batteries.

Jang said Solidion is working with the U.S. Department of Energy through one of the national laboratories, not announced, and the University of Texas, Austin, to improve the performance of sodium-ion battery technology. In particular, the focus is on improving the energy density electrolyte and replacing expensive cobalt and nickel in battery components.

Shift to renewables to combat climate change and air pollution The need to move away from fossil fuels is clear, but the path forward involves addressing both technological and economic challenges.

Solar-friendly Maryland passes the Brighter Tomorrow Act  Hailed as landmark legislation, SB 783 empowers municipalities to speed permitting, raises net metering cap, supports a payment in lieu of taxes program and more.

Quino Energy ramps up production of its organic flow battery formulation The company seeks to replace vanadium and compete with lithium-ion batteries for grid storage.

Sinovoltaics publishes energy storage manufacturer financial stability ranking The report lists Tesla as number one, followed by South Korean’s LG Energy Solution, Taiwan-based Kung Long Battery, China’s Mustang Battery, along with U.S.-based Solid Power in the top five.

California-based Quino Energy says its new pilot production line is ready to produce its proprietary chemistry for flow batteries. The company will produce electrolytes for existing commercial designs of flow batteries, which use tanks of charged and uncharged solutions to discharge electricity across a membrane. The technology is seen as a possible alternative to in-demand lithium-ion batteries for grid storage applications.

Eugene Beh, co-founder and CEO of Quino Energy, said his company’s electrolyte chemistry based on quinone, an organic compound, is intended to replace vanadium, a metal valued for flow batteries due to its ability to hold a charge but that is expensive and can be difficult to source.

“Our first step as a company is to focus on our organic battery formulation to replace vanadium in existing battery designs,” Beh told pv magazine USA. “Ultimately our goal is to produce the complete battery package to utility and commercial customers.”

The new manufacturing line is expected to be able to produce 100 KWh of reactant solution per day and joins two smaller test lines for lab work. The production facilities exist at Quino’s partner, Electrosynthasis near Buffalo, N.Y. Quino is using its flow batteries as part of a 12 kW solar photovoltaic microgrid at its San Leandro, Calif., headquarters.

In September 2021 Quino received $4.58 million from a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) program long-duration energy storage research funding program. According to the funding announcement, this funding was awarded “to strengthen the U.S. domestic flow battery manufacturing ecosystem by developing and executing a scalable, cost‐effective, and continuous process for producing aqueous organic flow battery reactants”. DOE noted that this  investment is part of DOE’s Energy Storage Grand Challenge, critical to achieving the Long Duration Storage Shot goal of reducing the cost of grid-scale energy storage by 90% within the decade.

Quino is also receiving venture capital funding and investment from Israel-based Doral Energy Tech Ventures and from London-based Energy Revolution Ventures.

A chemist by background and a native of Singapore, Beh invented and commercialized a redox flow desalination technology as a researcher at Xerox PARC. He started Quino Energy in 2021 with co-founder Meisam Bahari, who serves as the company’s chief technology officer.

Beh’s quinone formulation for flow batteries is derived from relatively inexpensive and abundant dyestuff chemicals. He says the process for creating the organic battery material does not produce any chemical waste.

Right now, Quino is simply swapping out vanadium-based electrolytes in commercial flow batteries with its quinone formulation, the source of its intellectual property. The substitution only requires a small modification to the battery’s membrane. Ultimately, Beh wants to be able to produce complete flow battery systems because the economic margins will be better; however, he said that one of the challenges of creating and commercializing flow battery formulations is making them unique enough to be patented.

“We are very open about what exactly our secret sauce is made off,” Beh said. “We have the luxury of being the pioneers of using organic molecules for flow battery cells. So, we have some very strong IP, which has already been granted. And it’s enforceable.”

Beh said the company plans to move its production facilities to Houston, TX, later this year to scale up to MWh-day production in preparation for pilot projects it will announce later. Higher-rate production is expected to reduce costs and make the flow batteries cheaper than vanadium formulations at commercial scale.

Once Quino achieves commercial production, Beh says the company’s organic flow battery will be more attractive than lithium-ion batteries in 8-hour to 24-hour storage applications typical of grid and large industrial requirements. He predicts they will cost half as much and will have three times the battery life with the same cycle rates.

Alternative formulations for flow batteries are coming to market, promising more competition and possibly wider commercial acceptance of the technology. Germany-based CMblu Energy recently announced it is supplying its SolidFlow batteries to Mercedes Benz and utility-scale pilot programs in the U.S.

From pv magazine global

The latest Sinovoltaics financial stability ranking of battery energy storage system producers, which is based on a balance sheet model and publicly available financial information, lists U.S.-based Tesla as number one, followed by South Korean’s LG Energy Solution, Taiwan-based Kung Long Battery and China’s Mustang Battery, along with U.S.-based Solid Power in the top five.

Sinovoltaics, a Hong Kong-based technical compliance and quality assurance service firm, has released its latest Energy Storage Manufacturers Ranking. The report, which is global in scope and covers 55 manufacturers, is available to download for free.  Results are calculated from June 2020 until March 2024 to provide insight into the stability of the scores over time.

The ranking uses a so-called Altmann Z-score, a quantitative formula to analyze multiple corporate income and balance sheet values to gauge the financial health of a company. It assesses a company’s financial strength based on publicly available information through a credit-strength test based on profitability, leverage, liquidity, solvency, and activity ratios. A score that is 1.1 or lower indicates a higher probability of bankruptcy within the next two years, while a higher score of 2.6 or greater indicates a solid financial position.

The manufacturers in the top ten of the energy storage ranking include Tesla, LG Energy Solution, Kung Long Battery, Mustang Battery, Solid Power, along with Ireland-based Eaton, China-based Sinexcel, Japanese manufacturers GS Yuasa and Sanyo, along with U.S.-based Livent.

Sinovoltaics has published several other manufacturer rankings this year, including reports focused on inverter manufacturers and module manufacturers. It points out that although the reports do not assess the quality of the equipment, they can be used by buyers and other industry stakeholders, such as financial institutions, as an element of the due diligence process, or to help identify financially stable partners.

Sodium battery startup wins People’s Choice Award at Industry Growth Forum Adena Power is developing an energy storage solution using sodium batteries and domestically-sourced raw materials.

Utility-scale solar projects are increasingly including battery energy storage systems, and the market has grown rapidly. California recently reached the milestone of 10 GW of energy storage installed on its power grid, with many states expected to follow.

Powin, a global energy storage platform provider has a foothold in this market, with 170 GWh of energy storage systems deployed or under construction worldwide. The company is now announcing a new multi-cell-based hardware platform, the Powin Pod for utility-scale projects.

The Pod, which is expected to be manufactured in the U.S. starting in 2026, complements Powin’s Centipede product line. Part of an integrated battery energy storage solution (BESS) includes StackOS software, system design, delivery, commissioning and long-term service.

“This next-generation product advancement demonstrates our commitment to bringing the safest and highest quality energy storage solutions to the market, advancing the entire industry as a result,” said Jeff Waters, CEO of Powin.”

The Powin Pod platform offers benefits such as upgraded cell capacity, utilization of cell-to-pack technology and optimized internal space. Its compact size reduces land use, said the company.

Powin said its Pod delivers a 50% increase in energy density from the Powin Centipede platform. This solution and density improvement is available at 2-hour or greater durations.

Liquid cooling helps with safety and reliability, and Powin reports that Pod complies with the latest and most stringent fire prevention standards such as UL 9540A, NFPA 68 and NFPA 69, while also providing optional fire suppression at module and container level.

Powin’s proprietary Battery Management System and Energy Management controls comply with cybersecurity standards and regulations, Powin reports. Pod customers can also benefit from long-term on-site services, as well as system training from the company.

Pod, which comes with a 20-year performance guaranty, is now available to order in markets globally and delivery is expected to begin in mid-2025. The company is exhibiting this week at Cleanpower 2024 in booth 2645.

Adena Power was the winner of the People’s Choice Award, chosen as the “best startup” by the 300 attendees at the 2024 National Renewable Energy Lab’s Industry Growth Forum.

Ohio-based Adena Power was selected out of a field of more than 210 to present its sodium-based energy storage products to investors and industry representatives at the Industry Growth Forum (IGF) held last week in Denver, Colorado.

“Adena team and I are thrilled to be selected to present at IGF this year,”said Nathan Cooley, co-founder and CEO. “Since the end of last year’s event, we have made it a goal to be requested to present at IGF. We see the NREL Industry Growth Forum as the best climate tech startup event on the calendar.”

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) hosts the IGF, now in its 29th year and considered one of the nation’s premier events for cleantech entrepreneurs and other industry experts.

The IGF is an opportunity for cleantech entrepreneurs, investors and experts from industry and the public sector to showcase innovative technologies and identify business solutions and to network. NREL facilitates connections between startups and motivated investors to drive innovation to market for impact. NREL is the only U.S. federal lab dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency research.

“The theme of this year’s IGF is ‘breaking ground,’ and I believe our presenters represent that well in a variety of different ways,” said NREL Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (IEC) group manager Katie Richardson. “From batteries to revolutionary software, these presenters will help us all break ground through innovation. There is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ deployment strategy as we continue the global transition to a cleaner energy future, and that’s why it’s crucial to be in the room at IGF 2024 to learn from peers in the industry.”

Adena reports that its technology addresses all the limitations of conventional, molten sodium batteries and combines the energy density and roundtrip efficiency of li-ion batteries with the safety and lifetime of flow batteries.

With manufacturing facilities in Lewis Center, Ohio, Adena Power is in the demonstration phase of its IP-protected energy storage solution.

The company recently completed the successful demonstration of a 1 kWh battery module and reports that the test validates important components within the module and positions Adena for a larger external demonstration with a utility partner early next year.

“This successful module test finishes a very successful year for Adena Power,” said Neil Kidner, president of Adena Power. “We are looking forward to building on this result and continuing to meet our aggressive product development goals in 2023.”

Adena has been in discussions with utilities and renewable developers and is aiming to develop an energy storage solution that is safer than lithium ion, has a flexible duration and a lower installed cost. The company expects to launch our first product early in 2025.

Read about the 2023 NREL Industry Growth Forum.

Green Bank network’s total investment could reach $10B for 2023 Preliminary reports from the Coalition for Green Capital say investment in clean energy projects and technologies increased 52% over 2022.

Johnson Controls releases new residential heat pump series The new heat pumps use R-454B as a refrigerant and are specifically designed to be matched with Johnson Controls’ residential gas furnaces. 

Anker home energy storage system now available in North America The new X1 can operate inside or out, from -4 F to 131 F, delivering what Anker says is 100% power output without derating. It also has a NEM 3.0 mode, which enables battery storage and grid sell-back in states under NEM 3.0 jurisdiction.

Nextracker cuts solar tracker carbon by 35% with recycled steel and electric furnaces The utility-scale solar mounting solution’s low carbon option places an emphasis on reducing carbon-intensive materials and improving logistics.

Australian battery materials company plans U.S. manufacturing plant Sicona has confirmed it will develop its first commercial manufacturing facility in the United States as part of its ambition to become the biggest producer of silicon-carbon battery materials in the world.

Maxeon sues REC, Hanwha Qcells for alleged TOPCon patent infringement Maxeon has filed two different lawsuits in the United States against Hanwha Qcells and REC over claims that the two manufacturers used an unspecified tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) solar cell technology.

Congress urged to reform clean energy bottlenecks before 2024 election Reforms to siting, permitting, and transmission were requested by a coalition of about 200 solar and energy storage companies.

From pv magazine Australia

Wollongong-based Sicona Battery Technologies, which is developing a silicon composite material that improves the performance of batteries used for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy grids, announced it is moving forward with the development of a production plant in the southeast of the United States to take advantage of the booming battery and EV market.

It is anticipated the U.S. plant, the exact location of which is yet to be revealed, will initially be capable of producing about 6,700 tonnes per annum (tpa) of silicon-carbon anode material, before scaling up to a total output of 26,500 tpa by the early 2030s.

“Sicona’s vision is to be the largest silicon-carbon battery materials producer in the world and today’s announcement is the first major step towards the realisation of that goal,” Sicona co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Andrew Minnet said.

“We believe by going mass scale with our technology we can have maximum impact on increasing the adoption of electric vehicles. This is because our product has a real impact on the charge time of an electric vehicle or how far you can drive your EV before recharging, which are two major factors holding people back from buying an EV.”

Sicona, which has its headquarters and a pilot plant in Wollongong on the New South Wales coast, said its current generation silicon-graphite composite anode materials “supercharge” lithium-ion batteries, delivering a 20%-plus increase in energy density over conventional graphite-only battery cells and reducing charge times by more than 40%.

The Australian company said establishing a commercial-scale advanced manufacturing plant in the U.S. will enable it to serve customers in that market with Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) compliant materials supply. It is anticipated demand for anode materials in the U.S market will exceed 1,200 GWh by 2030.

Sicona said it has already started supplying product samples and begun offtake discussions with potential customers in the U.S. with qualification activities expected to ramp up significantly in the coming 18 months.

The exact location of the planned new manufacturing facility has not yet been revealed but Sicona said it will be sited in the nation’s southeast “near the geographic heart of the growing U.S. battery and EV manufacturing hub.”

The company said engineering and construction firm Bechtel has completed a front-end engineering design study and it will now push ahead with the phased development of the production plant.

Sicona’s announcement comes on the same day that the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) called for feedback on the design of the federal government’s $1 billion Solar Sunshot domestic manufacturing program.

The IRA-style initiative will see the government funding production subsidies and grants to boost the development of Australia’s solar manufacturing industry and increase the nation’s role in the global solar manufacturing supply chain.

CATL unveils first mass-producible battery storage with zero degradation  China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) has launched its new TENER energy storage product, which it describes as the world’s first mass-producible 6.25 MWh storage system, with zero degradation in the first five years of use.

Turkish solar module manufacturer begins production in Texas Elin has an agreement with key U.S. distributors and will begin with 1 GW annual production, intending to increase to 2 GW within 18 months, the company reports.

Germany gets the spotlight at RE+ 2024 The renewable energy conference, RE+ 2024, taking place in September in Anaheim, California, will showcase German clean energy companies in the Spotlight Country Pavilion.

U.S. median residential solar price is $2.80 per watt, payback period 8 years EnergySage marketplace data from the second half of 2023 shows moderate declines in cost for solar and energy storage.

Construction starts at solar microgrid in Northern California Tribal community The microgrid will add 5 MW of solar and 15 MWh of long-duration energy storage and is funded by a state grant.

From pv magazine Global

Battery industry heavyweight CATL has unveiled its latest innovation in energy storage system design with enhanced energy density and efficiency, as well as zero degradation for both power and capacity.

Its new TENER product achieves 6.25 MW capacity in a 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container, increasing the energy density per unit area by 30% and reducing the overall station footprint by 20% compared to its previous 5 MWh containerized energy storage system. For example, a 200 MWh TENER power station would cover an area of 4,465 square meters.

According to CATL, TENER cells achieve an energy density of 430 Wh/L, which it says is “an impressive milestone for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries used in energy storage.”

CATL describes TENER as the world’s first mass-producible energy storage system with zero degradation in the first five years of use. Leveraging biomimetic solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and self-assembled electrolyte technologies, it says that TENER enables unobstructed movement of lithium ions and achieves zero degradation for both power and capacity.

This represents a significant advancement in increasing the lifespan of batteries and creates the much coveted “ageless” energy storage system, at least in the first years of the system’s operation.

On the safety front, CATL has also introduced a few improvements.

“Powered by cutting-edge technologies and extreme manufacturing capabilities, CATL has resolved the challenges caused by highly active lithium metals in zero-degradation batteries, which effectively helps prevent thermal runaway caused by oxidation reaction,” it said.

It has also established a dedicated, end-to-end quality management system that includes technology development, proof testing, operation monitoring, and safety failure analysis. It sets different safety goals as required by different scenarios, and then develops the corresponding safety technology to meet those goals. In addition, it has built a validation platform to simulate the safety test of energy storage systems in different power grid scenarios.

After a project is put into operation, CATL continues to monitor its operational status through AI-powered risk monitoring and an intelligent early warning system. It calculates the failure rate of energy storage products throughout their life cycle, and thus verifies the safety design goals while continuing to optimize them.

The manufacturer says it has reduced the failure rate to the PPB (single defect rate per billion) level for cells used in TENER, which, when extended to the operation throughout its full lifecycle, can lower operating costs and significantly enhance the internal rate of return. CATL also says that TENER is equipped with long service life, without specifying the warranty specs.

The Chinese battery maker has ranked first in market share of global energy storage battery shipments for three straight years, with a global market share of 40% in 2023. In its latest annual report, it said that its sales of energy storage battery systems hit 69 GWh in in 2023, representing a year-on-year increase of 46.81%.

New solar antidumping tariffs are on the way, said Roth  The solar industry experienced project delays and cancellations when antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) tariff enforcement threatened supply in the past. Another round may be on the way as soon as this April, said a note from Roth Capital Partners.

SolarEdge acquires EV charging optimization and management startup Wevo Energy becomes a subsidiary of SolarEdge, and together the companies plan to integrate the Wevo’s software solution into the SolarEdge ONE energy optimization system for the commercial and industrial (C&I) segment.

Bluetti releases 2.4 kW portable power station  Bluetti has unveiled a new portable, weatherproof power station featuring a lithium iron phosphate battery with 1,536 Wh of power capacity and a rated output of 2,400 W.

Lion Energy introduces C&I energy storage solutions  The U.S.-made Powersave systems provide lithium iron phosphate back-up power that can be integrated with renewable energy sources.

NREL releases online tool to estimate pumped hydro storage costs The National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a cost-estimation tool for new closed-loop pumped storage hydropower plants in the United States. The tool allows operators to select from a range of system characteristics and account for factors such as local geology, labor rates and inflation.

Non-lithium battery startup nets $78 million Series C funding Alsym Energy is developing a non-flammable battery that is lithium and cobalt free.

Vehicle-integrated photovoltaics making the moves from niche to mainstream  A new report from the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA-PVPS) looks at success factors required to take vehicle integrated photovoltaics (VIPV) from niche to mainstream based on a survey of 110 experts in the topic of transport and PV.

With analysts from S&P Global Mobility forecasting that electric vehicles (EV) could make up half of automotive sales by 2030, several challenging must be overcome in order to support this fast-growing industry. Two of those challenges are building a domestic supply chain and the EV battery manufacturing workforce.

The U.S. Department of Energy has actively supported the buildout of the EV industry, beginning with the $7,500 tax credit available to EV buyers through the Inflation Reduction Act. Another program was launched through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which allocated $7.5 billion to increase the EV charging network—the dearth of chargers seen as a deterrent to EV adoption in many regions. And now two new initiatives by the Department of Energy (DOE) are aimed at battery supply chain issues and training the battery workforce.

According to DOE, 1.4 million EVs were sold last year and with more growth forecast, the battery market is projected to grow as much as 10-fold by 2030. To build a domestic supply chain to serve this market, DOE announced $62 million for 17 projects to increase and improve battery recycling. Battery recycling removes critical materials that can be reused in battery manufacturing, thus reducing demand new materials and reducing costs for the U.S. battery supply chain.

“Capturing the full battery supply chain—from sourcing critical materials to manufacturing to recycling—puts the U.S. in the driver’s seat as we build our clean energy economy,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.

The 17 projects selected for DOE’s Consumer Electronics Battery Recycling, Reprocessing, and Battery Collection funding opportunity include:

• Expanding Participation in Consumer Electronics Recycling: Increasing collection of end-of-life consumer electronics and stand-alone batteries for recycling is a key element in developing a sustainable domestic source of battery-grade materials. Four projects were selected to do this through student education and outreach, including e-waste collection events, representing $14.4 million in funding.
• Improving the Economics of Recycling Consumer Electronics Batteries: Generating greater market demand for recycling consumer electronics batteries through innovative, cost-saving approaches to pre-processing and sorting. Seven projects were selected to do this through approaches including artificial intelligence and automated sorting, representing $40.1 million in funding.
• Establishing Programs to Collect Consumer Electronics Batteries: Implementing projects that will assist States and local governments in the initiation or enhancement of battery collection, recycling, and reprocessing. Six projects were selected to do this through approaches including battery collection drop-off programs and deploying battery storage and sorting facilities, representing $7.2 million in funding.

This funding builds on previously announced investments in strengthening the domestic battery supply chain by supporting upstream materials processing to create the precursor materials for batteries including the more than $74 million announced to date to advance EV battery recycling and second-life applications.

Learn more about the projects selected for award negotiation here.

Battery Workforce Initiative

DOE in coordination with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), announced the Battery Workforce Initiative (BWI)’s National Guideline Standards for registered apprenticeships for battery machine operators. Over 400 EV and battery manufacturing facilities have been announced in the U.S. in the past three years, according to DOE, underscoring the need to grow a skilled workforce.

The guidelines were created in partnership with battery manufacturers, community colleges and unions, with the intention of training the workforce needed to support the burgeoning EV industry.

The announcement took place in Lansing, Michigan near the Ultium Cells factory being built with support from DOE Loan Program Office. Ultium Cells, a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, will manage battery cell production at the three facilities located in Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio. The Ultium project alone is expected to create approximately more than 11,000 good-paying jobs—6,000 in construction jobs and 5,100 in operations—across the three facilities, including more than 700 United Auto Worker jobs in the newly-organized Warren, Ohio facility.

DOE reports that National Energy Technology Lab will launch the BWI Pilot Training this month. The next step will be to look at other jobs in the battery supply chain, and BWI is convening stakeholders working on battery-grade materials processing and recycling to determine the skills needed for that workforce.

Learn more about the Battery Workforce Initiative.

What happens to the IRA under a new administration?  Norton Rose Fulbright conducted a live podcast with tax and legal experts who discussed what could be on the chopping block in the massive Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022.

DOE announces $9.5 million award for Iowa’s first microgrid project  The Montezuma project with a 3 MW solar installation and a battery energy storage system is expected to lower energy costs for residents by as much as 18% and to reduce transmission costs for the utility by 34%.

Primergy secures $588 million for 408 MW solar project in Texas Microsoft entered a power purchase agreement for 100% of the plant’s production.

Solar profits drying up The Invesco Solar exchange-traded fund (ETF) under-performed the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) stock indexes in January 2024. Jesse Pichel, a managing director at Roth Capital Partners, attributes this to logistics and apparent cashflow problems for some solar companies.

The Chrysler Halcyon Concept, expected to launch in 2025, will run on lithium-sulfur battery technology from Lyten, a California-based manufacturer.

Lyten’s 800V lithium-sulfur batteries feature Lyten 3D graphene, a material that eliminates the need for nickel, cobalt or manganese in a battery cell. The compound is created by converting greenhouse gasses into solid carbon and hydrogen gas. Lyten states the hydrogen gas is repurposed as a clean fuel while the carbon is separated and formed into a three-dimensional substance called graphene. The battery manufacturer refers to graphene as a supermaterial due to its tunability. Graphene’s atoms can be engineered to bond with various elements on the periodic table, reducing the risk of thermal runaway while optimizing energy density, elasticity and lightness, among other variables.  

Lyten said its 800V lithium-sulfur batteries offer an energy density that ranges between 3000 Wh/kg and 600 Wh/kg. That’s about two times the energy density of batteries made from lithium-ion chemistries, including lithium-ion phosphate and lithium-ion-nickel-manganese-cobalt, which have an energy density that ranges between 100 Wh/kg and 400Wh/kg, according to the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington.

Lyten projects its batteries will result in a 170 kg weight reduction compared to applications using lithium-ion batteries due to the lightness of the 800 V product’s chemistry. Research published in Stanford Advanced Materials states that the lightweight nature of sulfur reduces the overall weight of the vehicle, thus enhancing efficiency.

Designing a cathode without nickel, cobalt, and manganese and an anode without graphite also has social, supply chain and economic benefits. Lyten does not need to rely on sourcing cobalt, a material that continues to raise concerns around environmental degradation and human rights abuses. The manufacturer’s graphene development process reduces the miles from resource extraction to final assembly from 50,000 to 3000, the company reports, as all materials are sourced and manufactured in the U.S.

“We believe our lithium-sulfur batteries represent the future battery platform of electric vehicles, sourced through entirely local supply chains and manufactured in the U.S., Europe, and eventually around the globe,” said Dan Cook, Lyten’s CEO and co-founder. “We’ve been able to dramatically accelerate the development timeline of lithium-sulfur through the discovery and commercialization of our graphene innovation.”

In June 2023, Lyten opened its first lithium-sulfur production facility in San Jose, California. The campus features a Graphene Lab and an automated lithium-sulfur production line that develops 200,000 cells each year. 

Lyten is working toward delivering commercial cells to non-EV and government consumers throughout the rest of this year. The company is configuring its graphene material to develop more lightweight solutions that charge faster and offer increased conductivity, optimum resistivity and permeability. Lyten is testing how to restore recycled materials to virgin properties while replacing non-recyclable polymers and composites with Graphene Polyethylene. Lyten says the substance offers over 40% more stiffness and over 22% more flexibility. 

The company reports it has raised over $410 million in funding to date, receiving investments from organizations including automobile corporation Stellantis, FedEx, and the multi-national product conglomerate Honeywell. 

Worldwide, production of lithium-ion battery cells is expanding rapidly. Electric vehicles are the dominant driver of demand, and both home energy storage and grid-scale batteries are expected to contribute as well.

A report from Clean Energy Associates (CEA) outlined that by 2025, global manufacturing of lithium-ion battery (LIB) cells is expected to triple from 2022 levels. It said the U.S. is expected to produce more battery cells than the European Union, largely due to incentives created by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

“The IRA attracted outsized investments in domestic cell production capacity with $35 per kWh tax credit available and bolstered by an additional $10 per kWh tax credit for assembled modules,” said the report.

CEA is a manufacturing quality assurance firm with insight into global battery energy storage systems supply chains. Its Q4 2023 report focuses on emerging trends in this space.

While the U.S. and Europe have a sizeable share of the global LIB battery production supply chain, it is still heavily dominated by China, said the report.

CEA said the U.S. has taken an “aggressive approach” to LIB supply chain expansion, offering a “raft of incentives” via the Inflation Reduction Act. However, upstream legs of the supply chain take a long time to set up, with brine mining, refinement, separators, and more requiring considerable time to reach operations. CEA said western markets need “a sense of urgency” if supply chain diversification is a desired goal.

CEA said collapsing lithium prices has led to a cooling-off in demand for chemical alternatives to the mainstream nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) and lithium-ferro-phosphate (LFP) chemistries. This leads to a negative impact on commercialization for new technologies like sodium-ion batteries. However, CEA said more evolutionary chemistries like lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) may find their way into electric vehicles and energy storage sectors as early as 2025.

Growth in midstream production capacity is helping push cost reductions for LIB cells, said the report. Cathode active materials and anode active materials are being produced with increasing capacity, lowering the overall cost of batteries.

The report said that supply chain growth is outpacing demand as major economies aim public policy at localization of battery cell and cell subcomponent production assets.

A report from Goldman Sachs forecasts a 40% reduction in battery pack prices over 2023 and 2024, followed by a continued decline to reach a total 50% reduction by 2025-2026. Goldman predicts that these price reductions will make electric vehicles as affordable as gasoline-powered vehicles, leading to increased demand.

Amazon helps Duke Energy complete power flow studies in hours, not months Every utility-scale solar project awaiting interconnection must wait for the transmission provider to conduct a power flow study. Duke Energy can now complete those studies in hours, not months, an Amazon executive said at a policy forum held by ACORE.

Canadian Solar to supply Texas-made TOPCon modules to Sol Systems Under the partnership, Canadian Solar will supply its latest high efficiency N-Type TOPCon solar modules to support Sol Systems’ project pipeline in the U.S. between 2024 and 2025.

Solar wins hundreds of millions in New England capacity payments  Solar projects totaling 16.6 GW won $3.58/kW per month in the 2027-28 NE-ISO capacity auction.

Thin prospects for ingot, wafer and solar cell manufacturing The production of PV ingots and wafers remains the most highly concentrated of all the production stages in the silicon solar supply chain. Yet efforts to re-establish production in Europe and the United States are not for the faint-hearted.

24M develops recycling process for its SemiSolid battery platform A new chemistry-agnostic recycling process for EV and ESS batteries called Liforever is designed to reduce the environmental impact of lithium-ion batteries by making it efficient and cost-effective to recover and reuse battery materials, including lithium iron phosphate both in process and at end-of-life.

The path beyond 5 TW of solar  With the COP28 climate summit in Dubai resulting in a pledge of at least 11 TW of renewables generation capacity by 2030, Bruce Douglas, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Global Renewables Alliance (GRA), examines the outcomes of the conference and their likely impact on the solar industry.

24M Technologies, based in Cambridge, Mass., developed what it calls a low-cost, simple, modular approach to lithium-ion battery manufacturing. Designed around the use of standard lithium-ion supply chain materials, the company announced a direct material recycling method it calls Liforever.

“Better battery recycling is essential for a sustainable energy future, but the use of binders in conventional cell production has made direct recycling impractical,” said 24M CEO Naoki Ota.

Liforever works by keeping the active materials in their original form and does not create a black mass. This is in contrast to recycling methods used for lithium-ion cells that form black mass e-waste as a result of its use of toxic pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical recycling processes. This conventional method also damages the structure of the anode and cathode materials and so it is not usually used to recycle more expensive metals such as nickel, manganese and cobalt.

“Liforever solves these challenges by enabling the reuse of nearly every part of the battery cell without requiring the expensive, inefficient and environmentally challenging processes used in conventional cell recycling,” said Ota. “These cost savings are further optimized by our streamlined SemiSolid technology, which eliminates half of the steps used in conventional cell production.”

24M reports that its Liforever method enables recycling of all active materials from the anode (graphite) and cathode (NMC, LFP, NCA, etc.). After recovery, the active materials undergo a low-cost cleaning and, as needed, re-lithiation to reclaim their original capacity.

The Liforever recycling methodology is designed to be compatible with recycling regulations, 24M reports. The fact that the process is chemistry agnostic means that it can support next-generation batteries of all chemistries, according to 24M.

24M Technologies was spun out of A123 Systems in 2010, and then acquired a renowned customer base, including license agreements with Volkswagen Group, Fujifilm Corporation, Kyrocera Corporation, Lucas TVS, Axxiva and FREYR. The last three companies announced plans to to build gigafactories based on 24M’s technology in India, China, Norway and the United States.

The company says it has simplified lithium-ion battery production with a new design that requires fewer materials and fewer steps to manufacture each cell. Its solution is a semi-solid flow battery in which the electrodes are mixed directly into the electrolyte, and as a result of its SemiSolid cell process and chemistry-agnostic platform, it can reduce manufacturing costs by up to 40%. The company says it also reduces the need for more than 80% of the inactive materials in traditional batteries, such as copper and aluminum.

In 2022 24M received a grant from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program to develop and scale a high-energy-density battery that uses a lithium metal anode and semi-solid cathode for use in electric aviation.

Tribal solar on the rise Native American lands boast serious PV potential in the United States but getting projects off the ground hasn‘t always been easy. Different tribes are willing to take power generation into their own hands and the landscape could be shifting, thanks to funding from the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other programs.

Fully printable flexible perovskite solar cell achieves 17.6% efficiency Developed by scientists in Canada, the 0.049 cm2 solar cell was built in ambient air fabricationand with a reactant known as phenyltrimethylammonium chloride (PTACl). It achieved an open-circuit voltage of 0.95 V, a short-circuit current density of 23 mA cm−2, and a fill factor of 80%.

First Solar could have $5 billion impact on U.S. economy by 2026 A study commissioned by First Solar analyzed the company’s actual and forecast U.S. spending in 2023 and 2026 when the company expects to have 14 GW of annual nameplate capacity across Alabama, Louisiana, and Ohio.

California needs 10 GW of solar deployment in five years, 57.5 GW of new solar added by 2045 For context, the state has about 43GW installed cumulatively to date, according to SEIA. The state’s new 2035 electricity emissions goals include 19 GW of new solar power, 20.6 GW of new wind and 15.7 GW of new battery power.

Construction begins on largest utility-owned solar project in New Hampshire ReVision Energy is building the 4.9 MW solar project on 36 acres of vacant land in Kingston, New Hampshire.

Arizona approves “discriminatory” charge on rooftop solar customers The Arizona Corporation Commission approved a request from utility APS to raise rates and add a punitive charge to rooftop solar customers.

Fire department nets 40% tax credit and $18,000 state rebate for rooftop solar A fire station in Superior, Wisconsin will save on energy bills and cut emissions with solar.

WeaveGrid, Toyota join forces to optimize EV grid charging in utility territories The partnership currently exists in WeaveGrid’s utility programs in Michigan, Maryland, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Minnesota.

Millions in government funding to advance batteries for planes, trains, and maritime transport Arpa-e announced twelve research awards totaling $15 million to develop electric airplanes, electric railroads and ships servicing the continental U.S.

Field service bridging the gap in solar adoption Three strategies to manage and reduce project costs, access new talent pools and upskill workers, and positively influence public opinion about the worth of these projects.

Nova Scotia launches heat pump initiative Partnering with Canada’s Oil to Heat Pump Affordability program will enable LMI households to receive funding to cover the full cost of switching to a heat pump.

California solar and storage project secures $1.1 billion Arevon Energy secured the funds for a 374 MW solar project with co-located energy storage.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (Arpa-e) has announced twelve projects aimed at delivering high-density energy storage products for electrifying aircraft, railroads, and shipping.

The group’s goal is to deliver technologies that will electrify regional flights traveling as far as 1,000 miles with up to 100 people, all North American railroads, and all vessels operating exclusively in U.S. territorial waters. Two of Arpa-e’s goals are batteries exceeding 1000 watt-hours per kilogram and 1000 watt-hours per liter, compared to the generally available 285 Wh/kg and 650 Wh/L products.

The twelve announced projects were awarded up to $1.5 million each, with the smallest award being just under $700,000. The program expects certain results to be available within 18 months.

The twelve projects include:

• Wright Electric & Columbia University are developing an aluminum-air flow battery with swappable aluminum anodes for mechanical recharging. They are using 3D design to improve contact between anode and cathode.
• Georgia Tech Research Corporation is advancing an alkali hydroxide triple-phase flow battery for ultrahigh energy density battery chemistries. The proposed design leverages innovative pumping and handling of molten alkali metal and hydroxide species to maximize the volume of reactants over inactive components, thus increasing energy density.
• Propel Aero is developing its “Redox Engine” technology to provide the power performance and energy density required for electric aircraft, with electricity costs comparable to jet fuel.
• Washington State University is developing a modular energy system by combining ceramic fuel cell technology with an innovative way to package hydrogen in the liquid form. The approach uses a self-pressurizing heat recovery and hydrogen expander module coupled with a proton conducting ceramic fuel cell

At least five of the projects use hydrogen-powered fuel cells as a primary source of power generation..

The seven factors driving Arpa-e’s decision making process include:

1. Gravimetric energy density ≥ 1000 Wh/kg
2. Volumetric energy density ≥ 1000 Wh/L
3. Turnaround time ≤ 30 minutes
4. Discharge energy efficiency ≥ 70%
5. Target system size 1 MWh to 100 MWh
6. System manufacture ≤ 100 kg CO2/kWh
7. Zero CO2, NOx, SOX emissions during operation of vehicle, vessel, or aircraft.

Arpa-e sees the energy potential in these metals due to their high energy densities. Its logic is that anodes in batteries “may be considered as fuels in that upon releasing energy, they are oxidized and donate electrons.” The value in red underneath the images notes how much material is left over after the materials are oxidized. The jet fuel value does not include the CO2 and other emissions released into the atmosphere.

For electric aviation, the target cost of electricity is 0.30/kWh. For trains and ships, which require less power, the target cost is lower at $0.20/kWh.

Antora Energy, a company seeking to decarbonize industrial heat and power, announced it raised $150 million in a Series B funding round. The round was led by Decarbonization Partners, a partnership between Blackrock and Temasek.

The funds are expected to help Antora ramp up production of its factory-made thermal batteries. Industrial processes represent roughly 30% of global emissions, and BloombergNEF reports that industrial heat represents about 15% of the global emissions total.

Heavy industry, particularly high-heat processes, are considered a “hard-to-decarbonize” sector. Antora’s thermal batteries seek to address high-heat intensive industries like steel and cement production.

The company’s thermal battery absorbs solar and wind power during hours of peak production when these electricity sources are the least expensive. It is made of carbon blocks that are heated to glowing-hot temperatures in an insulated module. Antora said its battery has demonstrated the ability to store energy about 1,800 degrees Celsius, making high-heat dispatch readily available.

“The electrification of industrial heat with renewable generation not only has the potential to bend the curve towards net-zero—it has the potential to open up one of the biggest and most actionable opportunities that the solar industry has ever seen,” said Justin Briggs, co-founder and chief operating officer of Antora Energy.

The Nature Conservancy and a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources also participated in this round, along with existing investors Trust Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BHP Ventures, Overture VC, and Grok Ventures. The funding builds on a Series A round in 2022, which brings total funding to over $230 million.

Antora has also received early support from U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO); the National Science Foundation; and the California Energy Commission (CEC).

“Carbon is about 50 times less expensive than traditional battery materials and has about three times the energy density of lithium-ion. And with a supply chain of over 30 million tons every year—more than 50 times that of lithium—it can quickly scale up alongside demand,” said Briggs.

Last October, Antora announced it opened a 50,000 square foot manufacturing facility for its carbon block thermal batteries. Located in San Jose, California, the factory is expected to have its first units produced in 2024.

Thermophotovoltaics

In addition to its carbon block thermal industrial batteries, the startup produces thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells, or solar cells that produce electricity from the stored heat in the battery. The company began production of its TPV cells at a Sunnyvale, California factory with an production capacity of 2 MW.

“The cells are based on III-V semiconductors, which have a higher performance than conventional solar cells, and produce 100 times more power than similarly sized devices,” CEO Andrew Ponec told pv magazine. “The cells can convert any source of high temperature heat into electricity and their most important application is for energy storage,” he added referring to thermal energy grid storage (TEGS) consisting of a low-cost, grid-scale energy storage technology that uses TPVs to convert heat to electricity above 2,000 C.

The technology has drawn the interest of scientists for decades, because it is able to capture sunlight in the entire solar spectrum and has the technical potential to beat the Shockley-Queisser limit of traditional photovoltaics. However, the efficiencies reported thus far have been too low to make it commercially viable, as TPV devices still suffer from optical and thermal losses.

Antora said combining its TPV cells with the company’s thermal batteries enables conversion of stored heat directly into electricity with no moving parts and supports on-demand electricity delivery to industrial customers.

Ascend Elements, a Massachusetts-based manufacturer of recycled battery materials raised $162 million in new equity investments to complete the construction of what it says is the first factory in North America to recycle electric vehicle (EV) battery components.

The capital will go toward completing the construction of Ascend Elements’ Apex 1 cathode precursor (pCam) manufacturing plant in Hopkinsville, Ky., . The facility is expected to begin operation at the end of 2025 and will produce repurposed pCam and cathode active materials (CAM) for up to 750,000 EVs annually. 

The majority of global pCam and CAM are produced in China from finite, mined metals. However, Ascend Elements reports that it generates these materials from black mass, a dark, powdery mixture of metals, including lithium, cobalt and nickel. 

Ascend Elements patented the hydro-to-cathode direct precursor synthesis process leeches out impurities from a spent battery and keeps the valuable metals in a solution, as opposed to procuring the necessary metals out of a spent battery. Ascend Elements’ says its method reduces costs associated with pCam and CAM recovery by 50% and greenhouse gas emissions by 90%.

A study published in ScienceDirect, found that battery cells with recycled anode and cathode materials had the best lifecycle result, enabling 4,200 and 11,6000 cycles at 80% and 70% capacity retention, respectively. Researchers report that the durability and performance of battery cells with recycled anode and cathode materials perform 33% and 53% better than cells made from state-of-the-art commercial anode and cathode matter. 

“Ascend Elements’ Hydro-to-Cathode technology provides a sustainable option for production of critical battery materials, championing circularity in an industry that is poised to scale significantly,” said Aruna Ramsamy, a managing director at Just Climate. 

Ascent Elements says it can also deliver intermediate commodity metals for producing battery materials or use in other applications through its lithium-ion battery recycling process. They include cobalt sulfate, manganese sulfate, nickel sulfate, and lithium carbonate. 

“With its first pCAM facility in construction in the United States, Ascend Elements has the potential to unlock the supply of critical battery materials to accelerate the roll out of electric vehicles,” said Ramsamy. 

Climate change solution investor Just Climate, venture capital firm Clearvision Ventures and global investment firm IRONGREY are the primary financiers. 

The $162 million adds to the $542 million Ascend Elements raised last year, receiving equity investments from Decarbonization Partners, a venture capital and growth equity platform launched by BlackRock and Temasek that supports proven decarbonization technologies. The Qatar Investment Authority also provided funds and the Department of Energy provided two grants totaling $480 million. 

“This diverse group of leading climate investors and industry partners underscores the confidence that the market has placed in our business,” said Mike O’Kronley, CEO of Ascent Elements. 

The sky is not falling in the lithium sector, but what is moving markets is misinformation and misinterpretation of sales trends. Lithium carbonite is a vital critical element for electric vehicles. So when Ford and General Motors reported demand for their EV’s fell short of projections in late October 2023, pandemonium broke out with bearish news reports on the future of EV’s and its underlying key critical elements including lithium and cobalt.

With the U.S. in an election year, is it any surprise that the energy metal conversation got hijacked by political strategists looking to rain on President Biden’s green energy parade? The move to accelerated decarbonization is not a partisan issue; it is about the survival of our planet.

Every new major innovation experience hiccups on the way to mainstream adoption, but the EV market has had stratospheric growth.

Electric cars’ fast lane trajectory

All-electric car sales in the United States continue to increase at a strong clip, outpacing the general car market. “A record 1.2 million U.S. vehicle buyers chose to go electric last year, according to estimates from Kelley Blue Book with 1,189,051 new electric vehicles (EVs) put into service. Experian/Automotive News registration data reports that the total number of Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) registrations during the first eight months of 2023 were 754,811, 64% higher than a year ago, and about 7.3% of the total market, up from 5% at that time in 2022.

With the U.S. government planning to end purchases of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, downstream end users will soon be entirely dependent on the guaranteed long-term availability of steady supplies of lithium carbonate (battery-grade lithium).

Why low prices cure low prices

Today’s low lithium prices disrupt the applecart of mining and exploration. A thinning of the (lithium) herds may be on the horizon this year with the ‘perfect storm’ of low lithium carbonite prices and limited access to new capital. Marginal prospectors and junior miners will exit stage left as even major producers curtail projects.

The ‘lithium mania’ chapter officially came to an abrupt close on January 17th when the world’s largest producer, Albemarle Corp., announced a reduction in project spending. With the price of battery-grade lithium carbonate descending in the last 12 months, widely attributed to oversupplied markets in Asia, the ‘mania’ subsided and ‘depression’ arrived. Prospectors and juniors drawn to lithium, akin to the dot.com euphoria in the ‘90s, pulled back in record numbers delaying or suspending projects.

So, where does that leave us with availability to lithium, sourced from geopolitically friendly regions? Will our brine, hard rock, and claystone ‘rockstars’ have access to the capital needed to bring projects to fruition in geopolitically friendly regions of the world?

Foundation of our environmental future

Our world will transition from fossil fuels and the demand for lithium will increase in the coming decade. Canada is paying $30 billion in incentives to build three battery plants which require battery-related energy metals including lithium. President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $6 billion in incentives to support R&D and production of batteries in the US, as well as supporting the creation of a domestic supply chain. America’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) allocates $10 billion to support construction of clean energy tech factories and retrofitting existing factories to make clean energy equipment and components including R&D support, US battery production and the creation of a domestic supply chain.

Divestment from China Crucial to Western Nations’ Environmentally & Fiscally Sound Future The US recognized 50 minerals, including lithium, as critical to the nation’s future and security. Since 2020, many Western nations’ divestment from China, a Goliath in energy metals mining and processing which controls nearly 60% of the world’s capacity for processing raw lithium products into battery-grade chemicals, has resulted in China scouting the world for mining assets in regions that do not have geopolitical conflicts with the world’s second most populous country.

Lithium subject to vagaries of spot market pricing

Much of the volatility around lithium prices is because most lithium products are traded using long-term contracts with wildly varying differentials between prices achieved for lithium carbonate from a specific mining project as compared to China’s spot lithium carbonate CIF Asia price, with the spot price shedding light on price movements on a shorter-term basis.

China is the world’s largest consumer and producer of lithium carbonate, and our future depends on North America taking that mantle back. With China calling the shots on commodity pricing, they are the primary factor contributing to spot lithium price instability. Questions about credibility of their information has paved the way for market manipulation and presented major challenges for investors in forecasting market movements. We also see China continuing to stockpile their lithium inventory in a “move analysts see as an effort to alleviate fears of a shortage.”

With the political and economic imperative to decouple from China’s economy, the United States and other geopolitically friendly nations must provide the raw materials for the industrialized world’s green energy revolution.

While the United States holds about 8 million metric tons of lithium in reserve, ranking it among the top five countries in the world, right now only a fraction of the world’s supply is produced at one solitary lithium brine mine in Nevada called Silver Peak, run by Albemarle Corp. America has some of the world’s highest quality, battery grade lithium carbonite, waiting to be developed.

Lithium’s future is green

Benchmark Intelligence forecasts price stability in 2024 but that the “lithium market balance remains fragile” with “only a single major project delay throwing this narrow surplus into a deficit.” Benchmark “estimates the market will return to deficit from 2028, with prices expected to react 12 months ahead of the deficit emerging. They expect the deficit to reach 390,000 tons in 2030 and 1,900,000 tons by 2040.

The current reverses in lithium pricing “provides a good buying opportunity for lithium stocks as demand growth over the next decade should support long-term prices, according to Wilsons Advisory with BloombergNEF projecting global demand for lithium to grow nearly five times by the end of the decade.

Armed with the ability to bring substantial new lithium production and refining operations online, we will be able to meet surging demand from the lithium-ion battery and energy metal supply chains. We will see higher prices for lithium carbonite that ensure today’s low prices will cure today’s market doldrums.

Graham Harris is Chairman and Director of Surge Battery Metals Inc., a pure-play lithium company focused on its flagship project Nevada North Lithium Project in Elko County. He was previously founder, chair and director of Millennial Lithium Corp., which was acquired by Lithium Americas.

Lithium producer Lithos Group LTD’s subsidiary Aqueous Resources LLC applied for a $30 million grant through the Department of Energy’s FedConnect program. The $150 million grant, to be awarded by the DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, is meant to help advance the development of financially and environmentally sustainable processes associated with the production and refinement of lithium. 

Each awardee receives up to $30 million, and Aqueous’ financing will go toward renovating its 55,000 sq ft Bessemer, Ala., complex. “We are excited to extend and expand our relationship with the U.S. Department of Energy and use this additional grant funding to accelerate pilot scale production of Lithium hydroxide from the Bessemer, Ala., complex,” said Scott Taylor, CEO of Lithos. 

The funds will help increase the facility’s capacity to process lithium hydroxide sustainably, which is essential to ensuring organizations can meet local demands for lithium without causing further harm to the environment. 

Lithium is usually mined from hard rock or salt brines. Both can have a negative environmental impact; however, Aqueous technology works to minimize the amount of groundwater evaporation necessary for lithium recovery from salt brines. The process usually requires pumping saltwater from underground reservoirs to the surface, then storing it in evaporation ponds, where it takes 12 to 18 months to evaporate and leave behind a brine with high lithium concentrations. 

Carbon Accounting Platform Greenly states that it takes almost 2.2 million liters of water to produce one ton of lithium. This depletes groundwater levels in nearby areas, thus potentially harming agricultural land. 

The patent-pending technology, AcQUA, employs an electric-pressure membrane process to remove and refine lithium chloride salt brines. It allows for directly removing raw brine from saltwater without evaporation ponds. Aqueous states that the process is cost-effective and efficient because the technology can pre-treat, select, purify, and concentrate lithium-enriched brines before extracting lithium chloride.

The company reports that the technology also allows for repurposing over 98% of the input brine water. 

Lithos states it has a fully operational direct lithium extraction processing plant commissioned in Denver, Colo. The organization is focusing on applying the same technology to reduce the environmental impact of processing brines across other locations in the United States, as well as in Argentina and Chile. 

The company seeks to become the global standard for economically and environmentally sustainable lithium production, used in the manufacturing of EV batteries. ​Its Bessemer, Ala., facility sits near Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc., Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC, and Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, LLC.  

“The existing permits allow us to seamlessly extend our pre-treatment processing flowsheets to DLE and through polishing and purifying battery grade lithium. We are grateful for the support we received from the Senate, Congress, the University of Alabama, and the City of Bessemer,” said Taylor. 

Energy Department announces investments in clean energy future  A slew of funding programs are intended to advance electric vehicles and charging reliability, increase U.S.-made batteries, modernize the power grid and reduce the carbon footprint of federal buildings.

Solar installations can be haven for insects Habitat-friendly solar could help protect insect populations and improve pollination in nearby agricultural fields.

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WoodMac predicts strong yet flat global PV growth through to 2032  Research firm says the solar industry has reached a new stage in its evolution and is predicting around 350 GW of global solar installations annually for the next eight years.

People on the move: RWE, Green Lantern Solar, GeoSolar Technologies, and more Job moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy transition finance.

Distributed solar and storage policy trends Trends in U.S. solar policy as tracked by the NC Clean Energy Technology Center.

Saskatchewan First Nation signs PPA for $200 million solar project The Ocean Man First Nation agreed to purchase power from a new 100 MW solar project, among the largest in Canada.

The DOE reports that the number of EVs on America’s roads has more than quadrupled in three years, and the Biden administration has a goal of building a national network of 500,000 public EV charging ports by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

In support of this goal, over $46 million will help fund 30 projects that enhance EV charging reliability and workforce development. The projects, which are in 16 states and Washington, D.C. are expected to boost EV charging performance while enhancing resiliency and reliability, support equitable access to clean transportation solutions, and grow the clean energy workforce.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is focused on ensuring that America wins the EV race, capturing good-paying jobs and the benefits of a clean energy manufacturing economy,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “These funds are part of that mission, helping to grow our new automotive economy with EVs and EV chargers that are made in America by American workers.”

Electrifying America’s transportation sector is essential to mitigating greenhouse gas pollution and addressing climate change, and the transition will improve health outcomes, reduce fuel and maintenance costs, and strengthen our national energy security.

The funding will be executed by the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation is making targeted investments in the following area:

• EV charging resiliency: As transportation electrification accelerates, communities and energy systems must ensure resilient EV charging infrastructure for all users.
• Community-driven models and workforce development: Installing EV chargers in or near underserved communities—and creating novel business models that prioritize energy justice—will provide equitable access to clean transportation options for all Americans.
• EV charging performance and reliability: Increasing commercial capacity for testing and certification of high-power EV chargers and validating real-world performance and reliability will enable a high-quality, safe, and reliable charging experience for all EV drivers.

The projects support clean transit and school bus deployment, enhance charger resiliency to hurricanes and wildfires, and accelerate workforce development pre-apprenticeship programs. The funding is made available through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to accelerate the electrification of the nation’s transportation sector and spur private sector investments in clean transportation. Several projects will make use of complementary funding from other federal programs.

Battery development

Key to boosting clean transportation is the build of of American battery manufacturing. To this end, the DOE announced $131 million for projects to advance research and development (R&D) in EV batteries and charging systems. It also funds a consortium to address critical priorities for the next phase of widescale EV commercialization.

The advanced battery consortium will engage key stakeholders, including universities, national laboratories and manufacturers that supply critical materials and components to the battery industry.

“The investments announced today will supercharge the development of a convenient and reliable EV network, and expand the domestic battery supply chain—securing our nation’s energy independence and spurring economic opportunity,” said U.S. deputy secretary of energy David M. Turk.

DOE announced 27 projects to receive $71 million to develop innovative and equitable clean mobility options, alleviating supply chain concerns for EV batteries, and increasing the drive range. The selected projects aim to:

• Lower the cost of EV batteries using inexpensive, abundant materials by developing long life-cycle, high-energy density lithium sulfur batteries;
• Improve the efficiency and convenience of public transportation by developing and demonstrating system-level approaches to equitable mobility access;
• Advance on-board EV charging systems through the research and demonstration of innovative EV charging systems, including bi-directional charging;
• Increase EV drive range by developing sustainable lightweight materials, including door panels and EV battery enclosures.

The United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC, based in Southfield, Michigan, will receive $60 million for pre-competitive, vehicle-related advanced battery R&D that addresses critical priorities for the next phase of widescale EV commercialization. The consortium will focus on R&D for EV batteries with enhanced performance; EV batteries using earth-abundant and domestically available battery materials; light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicle batteries; and more cost-efficient battery recycling processes. Click here to learn more about the selected projects.

Modernizing the grid

According to the DOE,  the electric power distribution system in the U.S. has over 5.5 million line-miles with over 180 million power poles, all of which are susceptible to damage by weather and its effects and account for a majority of power outages in the country. Twelve projects across 11 states will share $34 million in funding to support undergrounding electric power lines, modernize the grid and replace aging power infrastructure through development of cost-effective, high-speed and safe undergrounding technologies.

The selected projects also support the nation’s goal of 100% clean electrical grid by 2035. They are expected to lower costs, reduce inefficiencies, mitigate disruptions from extreme weather events, and accelerate the adoption of renewable clean energy resources.

The projects to receive this funding, managed by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), include small and large businesses, national labs, and universities. More information and complete project descriptions for the teams announced today can be found on the ARPA-E website.

Energy conservation in federal facilities

The first step toward a clean energy future is to make existing facilities as energy efficient as possible. As the federal government is nation’s largest consumer of energy, according to Energy Secretary Granholm, the DOE announced $104 million for energy conservation and clean energy projects at 31 federal facilities.

The Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) program, which was established in 1992, will receive three disbursements from the historic $250 million in funding for the program in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The projects announced for funding today align with President Biden’s December 2021 Executive Order that calls for a 65% reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions from Federal operations by 2030, 100% zero-emission vehicle acquisitions by 2035, and a net-zero building portfolio by 2045. AFFECT helps agencies cut energy consumption, and saves taxpayers money through building electrification, geothermal heat pumps, on-site solar generation, and battery energy storage, among other initiatives.

“President Biden has charged the Federal Government to lead by example by transforming its footprint of over 300,000 buildings to be more energy efficient and climate resilient, which means cleaner air across the country,” said Brenda Mallory, chair of White House council on environmental quality, Brenda Mallory.

Projects were selected for facilities of the Social Security Administration; the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, the Interior; Transportation, and Veterans Affairs; the U.S. General Services Administration; and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. The 31 selected projects are expected to double the amount of new carbon-free electricity capacity at federal facilities over the amount brought online in 2022, resulting in 27 MW of additional clean-energy capacity. The projects will also leverage more than $361 million in private investment.

View the full list of the projects here.

In the first year of operation, the projects are expected to:

• Save more than $29 million in energy and water costs;
• Remove the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions from the air as taking 23,042 gasoline-powered vehicles off the roads; and
• Reduce energy usage by the equivalent of 29,662 homes’ annual electricity use.

AFFECT Phase 2
Applications for the second round of AFFECT funding will be accepted starting this month. Click here to subscribe to latest Federal Energy Management Program news to receive AFFECT news, feedback opportunities, and best practices for submitting Phase 2 applications.

DOE seeks input on high-priority areas for transmission The Department of Energy has begun a process to designate National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors, and invites industry input on the first stage of the process by February 2.

CMBlu Energy’s organic flow batteries to be tested in microgrids, cold climates The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DoE) Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory will carry out demonstration projects to validate long-duration energy storage tech developed by German manufacturer CMBlu Energy. The collaborative project is designed to improve microgrids in cold climates and make fast charging of electric vehicles more affordable in underserved communities.

Worldwide PV growth set to slow in 2024 The number of PV installations around the world grew by an annual average of 28% between 2019 and 2023, including a 56% jump from 2022 to 2023, according to Wood Mackenzie. Growth is not expected from 2024 to 2028, however.

The recent report “Energizing American Battery Storage Manufacturing” by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), noted that credits offered through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have spurred adoption of electric vehicles, energy storage and other forms of electrification. However, domestic battery manufacturing is still in its nascent stages.

Just over a year ago, in quick response to the IRA incentives, a raft of manufacturers announced plans to set up shop in the U.S. And the announcements continue: Freyr announced a multi-phase project that is expected to bring battery manufacturing to Georgia. Kore Power recently received a conditional loan commitment from the DOE Loans Program Office, receiving $850 to build battery cells for electric vehicles and grid-scale storage. LG Energy Solution quadrupled its announced investment in two manufacturing plants in Arizona.

While the announced build-out of domestic manufacturing is promising, many questions remain as to whether the manufacturers can overcome the many hurdles on the way to meeting the growing storage needs. According to the SEIA report, U.S. manufacturing capacity for all lithium-ion battery applications is currently at 60 GWh, while demand for battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the U.S. is likely to increase over six-fold from 18 GWh to 119 GWh by 2030.

The SEIA report forecasts that the announced manufacturing facilities could increase domestic capacity to over 630 GWh over the next five years. However, much of this supply may be directed toward meeting demand of EV manufacturers, rather than that of non-vehicle applications like BESS.

SEIA said over 25% of the new factories have not publicly stated their intended markets and some (if not all) of their capacity may go to BESS, so there is still hope for steady supply.

Material supply and cost

The majority of batteries manufactured in the U.S. are lithium, and while the U.S. has vast reserves of lithium other materials are needed such as phosphorous and graphite. These materials are sourced primarily from outside the U.S., so domestic manufacturers are competing on a global scale, often finding high prices and short supply.

Workforce challenge

As with the rest of the renewable energy buildout, securing a strong, skilled workforce is a challenge. According to the SEIA report, roles critical to energy storage supply chains include mining, chemical and electrical engineers, machine operators, production technicians, and more. While apprenticeship incentives are part of the IRA, growing the workforce long term requires committed collaboration among manufacturers, government agencies, training facilities, and other stakeholders.

Building a domestic renewable energy supply chain includes support for energy storage development at all levels, and the report contends that this will require investment, partnerships with experienced manufacturers, and collaboration with allies

Grid scale energy storage is on the upswing in the U.S., driven in part by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Energy storage was a topic discussed in a panel session at the pv magazine Roundtables US held in October, where George Hershman, chief executive officer of SOLV Energy, noted that the IRA inclusion of an investment tax credit for standalone energy storage projects is a first for storage.

According to the recent Wood Mackenzie and American Clean Power Association (ACP) Energy Storage Monitor Report, in Q3 grid scale increased deployment by 37% quarter on quarter for 2.2 GW/6.8 GWh. This boost led to a record-breaking quarter for both MW and MWh installed.

“Energy storage deployment is growing dramatically, proving that it will be essential to our future energy mix,” said Frank Macchiarola, ACP chief policy officer. “This industry will serve as the backbone of our modern grid. As we continue to build a strong domestic supply chain, streamlined permitting and evolving market rules can further accelerate the deployment of storage resources.”

In addition to the credit offered by the IRA, another driver is utility adoption. At the pv magazine Roundtables US, Vanessa Witte, senior research analyst, Wood Mackenzie,  said that energy storage projects are also being increasingly targeted by utilities in their integrated resource plans as a flexible tool with strong rates of return for revenues. Grid congestion is an increasingly difficult challenge for utilities, and energy storage often offers a much better rate of return than building more transmission lines in the area, she noted.

Grid scale challenges

As the energy storage market grows, so does its demand on the supply chain. One of the greatest challenges in the past year has been a shortage of transformers. Not only is the energy storage market competing against renewables for access to newly minted transformers, but it’s competing against the burgeoning electric vehicle market as well as the growing demands for data centers, Debrup Das, head of renewables, North America, at Hitachi Energy, told pv magazine USA.

In addition to growing demand, prices of transformers are rising, mainly due to increased raw material demand, pandemic-related shortages and backlogs, labor constraints, shipping issues, and geopolitical tensions.

Other challenges faced by a growing energy storage manufacturing in the U.S. include availability and price of raw materials for batteries, as well as recruiting and training a manufacturing workforce.

Future needs
The United States announced that it is joining Australia, Canada, and the European Commission in launching a new Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) global initiative on supercharging grid-scale battery storage. This initiative aims to build a secure and transparent supply chain to boost stationary battery storage development and deployment. Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Department of Energy secretary applauded this step, saying that “battery storage is an essential piece of the decarbonization puzzle”. She estimates that the U.S. will need 1.5 TW to 2.5 TW of power capacity, plus up to tens of thousands of terawatt-hours in storage duration to get to net zero.

IBEW union members to build SunZia transmission line Developer Pattern Energy estimates the $5 billion project, the largest renewable energy project in North American history, will power more than 3 million homes annually when complete, all while creating more than 2,000 construction jobs.

Using waste heat from PV panels to generate residential hot water Scientists in the United States has developed a new photovoltaic-thermal system design that utilizes parallel water pipes as a cooling system to reduce the operating temperature of photovoltaic panels. The waste heat generated by this process is then used to generate domestic hot water.

Form Energy awarded $30 million for 100-hour iron-air battery project in California The California Energy Commission awarded a contract to deploy a 5 MW / 500 MWh energy storage project in Mendocino County.

Guidance released for 45x clean energy manufacturing tax credits The IRS has released guidelines for attaining the lucrative manufacturing credits contained within the Inflation Reduction Act.

Record-breaking Q3 for U.S. energy storage deployment  Wood Mackenzie/ACP report estimates that grid scale energy storage deployment increased by 37% quarter on quarter.

From pv magazine global

While thermal energy storage (TES) has struggled to take off to date, U.S.-based Fourth Power is taking a new technological approach to some of the cost and scale challenges. Its high-density TES system is based on its Guinness World Record achievement for high temperature in its patented liquid metal heat transfer system, which allows for operation at almost half the sun’s temperature.

“Until this innovation, I don’t think there has been an innovation in thermal fluid infrastructure in almost 100 years,” Fourth Power CTO Asegun Henry told pv magazine. “Utilizing PVC, steel, or nickel-alloy pipes has been around for a very long time, and that’s what everyone is doing.”

He said Fourth Power’s approach is based on knowledge of the struggles that other TES companies have faced in trying to scale the technology.

“The key is our liquid metal handling infrastructure, which allows us to transfer heat at fluxes more than an order of magnitude higher than traditional thermofluid systems,” Henry said. “This leads to higher power density and lower cost.”

Fourth Power’s system converts renewable energy to heat, or thermal energy in a fully enclosed system roughly the size of half of a football field. The thermal battery heats liquid tin and moves it through a closed-loop piping system to heat stacks of carbon blocks until they glow white hot.

The system then exposes TPV cells to the light and converts it into electricity. This is similar to traditional solar generation but uses light from very hot — up to 2,400 C — graphite rather than light from the sun to produce electricity. The battery is sealed in a warehouse of argon gas to maximize system lifetime and ensure safety.

“We’re primarily focused on electricity and industrial heat,” Henry said. “To be more specific, we aspire for our technology to replace peaker plants in combination with renewable electricity generation.”

For power generation alone, Fourth Power’s roundtrip efficiency target is 50%.

“Our TPV cells have already set a world record at 41% – and we have designs to reach 50%,” Henry said. “For co-generation, the efficiency is near 100%.”

Finally, by using readily available and less expensive materials, the overall system cost is lower, enabling energy storage that is 10 times cheaper than lithium-ion batteries ($25/kWh-e vs. $330/kWh-e), according to the company.

On Tuesday, Fourth Power announced that it had received $19 million in Series A funding to scale its TES technology. The investment round was led by the venture capital firm DCVC, with participation from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Black Venture Capital Consortium.

“After more than 10 years of research and development, we are grateful to reach this crucial milestone in our journey thanks to our funding partners who recognized the innovation and potential of Fourth Power’s thermal battery technology,” said Henry, who developed Fourth Power’s thermal battery technology when he was a professor at Georgia Tech.

The funds will also support the construction of a 1 MWh-e prototype facility outside of Boston, with a targeted completion date in 2026. In addition, it will facilitate rigorous durability tests and expand the company’s engineering team.

“Following the 1 MWH-e prototype facility’s successful completion, we plan to partner with utilities to conduct pilot projects designed for commercialization throughout 2026 and 2027,” Henry said. “We anticipate achieving our goal of installing full-scale, 100 MWh-e systems by 2028.”

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Carbon capture hubs could present solution for industrial emitters  There are more than 3,000 such carbon emitters in the country, collectively producing some 266 million metric tons of CO2 annually according to a report by the EFI Foundation and Horizon Climate Group.

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ASICS doubles the solar on Mississippi distribution center  The additional 1 MW of solar is projected to provide $100,000 in energy savings in the first year, with the environmental benefits of the combined systems estimated to offset the electricity of around 290 households annually.

Elevating U.S. energy security & reshaping domestic supply chains  Amidst the changing currents of U.S. energy policy and supply chain reform, the states of Nevada and Arkansas stand center stage in the development of lithium projects.

In a world increasingly defined by geopolitical complexities and economic interdependence, the United States finds itself at a critical juncture, navigating the delicate balance between energy security and global supply chain dynamics. The current landscape is one marked by strategic considerations and intentional policymaking.

In recent analysis, attention is drawn to a significant element: The incorporation of Foreign Entities of Concern (FEOC) within the Infrastructure Law. Notable nations covered by this provision include China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. This inclusion aims to curtail their influence in the burgeoning domestic battery supply chains.

Against this backdrop, the impending unveiling of the EV tax credit revolution in January 2024 and the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022 emerge as catalytic forces propelling transformative shifts.

Just 16 months after the passage of the IRA, the largest federal investment in alternative energy and sustainability in American history, we are witness to historic climate action and an investment in America to create good paying jobs and reduce costs. Encouraged by the IRA, the private sector has announced over $110 billion in new clean energy manufacturing investments. over $70 billion in the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain and more than $10 billion in solar manufacturing. The private sector has invested in over $240 billion in new clean energy manufacturing investments since President Biden was elected.

Amidst the changing currents of U.S. energy policy and supply chain reform, the states of Nevada and Arkansas stand center stage in the development of lithium projects. Nevada, renowned for its arid landscapes and abundant natural resources, has become a crucible of innovation, hosting ambitious initiatives which harness the vast potential of lithium.

Nevada aims to become epicenter of lithium mining

Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo’s five-year strategic plan focuses on expanding the state’s electric vehicle production, technological innovation and new infrastructure. He believes that claystone lithium will emerge as the key critical element in Nevada’s energy transition as he seeks to make the ‘Silver State’ the epicenter of lithium mining in North America.

Unlike traditional lithium production from brine or hard rock sources, claystone lithium extraction represents a distinct approach that taps into the geological characteristics of regions in Nevada.

Arkansas’ role in powering America’s future

In the heartland of America, Arkansas is actively carving out its role in the energy sector by spearheading critical elements projects. A noteworthy development unfolded in November 2023 when ExxonMobil laid out ambitious plans to establish itself as a key player in lithium production. The company embarked on a significant venture by drilling its inaugural lithium well in southwest Arkansas, marking a strategic move toward bolstering the nation’s lithium supply. Under the brand Mobil Lithium, this endeavor underscores the transformative potential in regional initiatives.

These local initiatives are tangible examples of the groundswell of activity underway, attesting to the decentralized nature of the U.S. push toward energy independence and supply chain resilience.

The heightened need for the U.S. to source as much sustainable, “homemade” lithium as quickly as possible, with America’s natural resources and supportive policies able to bring new mines online, will ensure its place in history as the leader in America’s secure and sustainable new energy paradigm.

America’s road to energy metal independence is long and full of hurdles, both on the supply and processing side. While the United States holds about 8 million metric tons of lithium in reserve, ranking it among the top five countries in the world, right now only a fraction of the world’s supply is produced at one solitary lithium brine mine in Nevada called Silver Peak, run by Albemarle Corp.

As we dissect the intricate web of national policy, it becomes increasingly apparent that Nevada and Arkansas are not just states on the map; they are vital players in the quest to reshape domestic supply chains and elevate the nation’s energy security.

America’s legislative strides are engines of change, steering the nation toward a future characterized by a robust, self-sustaining ecosystem in the sourcing, manufacturing, processing, and recycling of energy metals. As the gears of progress are set into motion, America’s drive for domestic resilience is a paradigm shift actively reshaping the nation’s energy landscape.

Graham Harris is chairman and director of Surge Battery Metals Inc., a pure-play lithium company focused on its flagship project Nevada North Lithium Project in Elko County. He was previously founder, chair and director of Millennial Lithium Corp., which was acquired by Lithium Americas. Based in Vancouver, BC, Canada he can be reached at gharris@surgebatterymetals.com.

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From pv magazine Australia

New draft rules from the U.S. Department of Energy state that enterprises “owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction” of China, Russia, North Korea or Iran, will not be eligible for subsidies under the nation’s USD 369 billion ($550 billion) IRA, nor the USD 550 billion Infrastructure and Jobs Act.

The upper limit of both direct stakes or “cumulative” investment is 25%, according to the draft guidance.

China is far and away Australia’s biggest trade partner, including for lithium and other critical minerals. China’s dominance in the sector has meant that a number of Australian projects have substantial Chinese ties. These ties come in the form of Chinese project ownership, investment, and off-take agreements.

For instance, Western Australian project Greenbushes, which produces most of Australia’s lithium, is owned by Chinese company Tianqi and U.S. giant Albermarle. Tianqi also holds a majority stake in the Kwinana lithium hydroxide refinery, which produced Australia’s first commercial quantities of battery-grade lithium hydroxide in 2022.

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From pv magazine global

The hot brine in a vast underground reserve under the Salton Sea in California probably contains enough lithium to build 375 million batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), according to “Characterizing the Geothermal Lithium Resource at the Salton Sea,” a new report by the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The researchers attempted to thoroughly quantify the amount of lithium that the deep subsurface geothermal reservoir of the lake could contain.

The study also notes the advantage that this type of lithium extraction is accompanied by the production of geothermal energy, which combines the production of renewable energy with the generation of materials to promote the development of electric vehicles.

“This is one of the largest lithium brine deposits in the world,” said Michael McKibben, a geochemistry professor at the University of California, Riverside, and one of the report’s 22 authors. “This could make the United States completely self-sufficient in lithium and stop importing it through China.”

The Salton Sea Geothermal Resource Area currently has approximately 400 MW of geothermal generation capacity installed, and is estimated to have the potential for up to 2,950 MW. It is estimated that the currently proposed geothermal energy and lithium recovery operations would require around 3% of the historically available water in the region.

The land beneath the Salton Sea is owned by three entities: the federal government, the Imperial Irrigation District of California and the Cahuilla Indians of the Torres Martínez Desert.

In January 2023, electric vehicle battery maker Statevolt acquired 135 acres in Imperial Valley, California, near the Salton Sea, where it plans to build a 54 GWh lithium-ion battery gigafactory, capable of producing enough batteries to power 650,000 electric vehicles per year.