The Storage Industry Learns From Solar: Third Party Financing A Growing Trend
Energy 2/26/2015 @ 9:03AM
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterdetwiler/2015/02/26/the-storage-industry-learns-from-solar-third-party-financing-a-growing-trend/2/
PETER KELLY-DETWILER
This morning, ViZn Energy Systems - an energy storage company with a zinc iron redox flow storage technology announced that it was teaming up with LFC Capital to improve the financing options for solar PV and energy storage. The companies will make available up to 5 million per project.
The LFC financing program will involve a traditional operating lease, with options to own after six or seven years, as well as 'tax efficiency.' The two companies have identified the ideal project size as being a solar PV installation between 50 kilowatts and one megawatt, complemented with between 80 kilowatt-hours to 500 kilowatt-hours of energy storage.
The financing will be made available to qualified entities in all 50 states (though Alaska would seem an unlikely prospect). LFC is no novice to the energy finance business: it already offers operating leases starting at 100,000 to companies wishing to eventually own their solar systems.
This announcement is interesting on two levels, as it illustrates the growing trend of combining solar and energy storage technologies, as well as an increasing level of third-party financing moving into the storage game.
Solar + storage = an increasingly frequent value proposition
ViZn is not alone in combining solar and storage projects. In its February earnings call Tesla's CEO Elon Musk announced the impending release of a consumer lithium ion battery for home storage. And last fall, SolarCity SCTY +0.89% CTO Peter Rive announced at the Energy Storage North America conference that a combined PV/storage offering was in the works as a future standard product offering. Meanwhile, other companies like Solar Grid Storage and Intelligent Generation are offering their own solar/storage combinations with different business models.
As costs of both solar and storage continue to fall, we will see many more announcements concerning the convergence of the two technologies.
Solar + storage + financing = even better
ViZn CEO Ron Van Dell notes that the combined solar/storage product lends itself particularly well to financing because both solar and storage scale easily.
You have to have the inherent product attributes that are consistent with these types of projects. You can't have a cool financing tool with a product that isn't simple or doesn't scale well. The hardware aspects of deployment match up well with the kinds of projects that this kind of financing collaboration is targeting.
His company is not alone in this regard. Solar City is offering lease financing for a combined solar/storage offering. Storage company Stem recently announced a 135 million financing pool to help advance on-site customer storage projects. And GreenCharge networks announced an infusion of 56 million in third party financing last July from company K Road DG.
Van Dell notes that this trend is only going to grow.
It is echoing exactly what happened in solar, but we are hoping to accelerate...A lot of people who have been associated with the solar food chain are now doing solar plus storage... There are some fundamental economic reasons for that. You will get better economic returns from PV and storage, and you are more friendly to the grid you are connecting with. So why wouldn't you extend financing to both?
ViZn's redox flow battery (the company has an 80 kilowatt/160 kilowatt-hour module, with a 200 kilowatt/600 kilowatt-hour module out soon) positions the company to develop larger projects.
The financing offered by LFC allows the company to target a specific market that Van Dell feels is under-served, that is too small for a power purchase agreement, and has typically not had the financial wherewithal to access solar and storage.
We think there is a parade of opportunities in the mid-size market that typically have not been able to be done via a financed approach and now will be able to - and that's a large part of the market. It's also a diverse and early adopter part of the market as well.
He observes that as storage becomes more commonly deployed, some customers will want to do it themselves, even assuming responsibility for operations and maintenance, but others will prefer a storage-as-a-service type approach, with the flexibility of payment over time. In the end, Van Dell believes the financing will greatly help move product to market.
It really accelerates early adoption to be able to combine a very simple-to- deploy product with very straightforward financing options as well. It makes adoption easier.
Image: ViZn Energy Systems - will financing help move the needle on storage volumes?
ViZn has just entered its production phase and is now shipping product domestically and abroad, with the expectation that up to a third of its business in 2015 will be supported through this financing arrangement. The company expects to install dozens of projects this year and Van Dell is optimistic that the LFC financing option will help considerably.
"It's looking like the right thing at the right time for us."
SUSTAINCO INC. ANNOUNCES A Venture Prize FOR GEOTHERMAL Group FOR Option Institution IN BRITISH COLUMBIA TSX Pitch EXCHANGE: SMS FOR Prompt Unknot Toronto, Ontario - June 10, 2014 - SustainCo Inc. (the "Furnish" or "SustainCo") (TSXV:SMS) is content to study that Clean Force Developments Corp. ("CleanEnergy") has been awarded a decline from Institution Private grounds 23 (Hub Okanagan), British Columbia, to accumulation extensive installation of a turn-key original geoexchange system for a little 175,000. The quit has commenced and is ordinary to be perfect in mid-July. As well as this project, CleanEnergy has executed seven geoexchange projects in schools in British Columbia by way of the following 18 months. "Our geoexchange team continues to shoot its mandates and grasp in delivering thermal energy systems to the education sector in Western Canada," convinced Emlyn David, Chair, CEO and Chairman of SustainCo. "Impart are hundreds of additional opportunities in the coming excitement in British Columbia, colleague, as they bump to waterfront their carbon marks". More or less SUSTAINCO INC. SustainCo is a set up provider of sustainable interactions solutions and services. SustainCo operates next to its two groups, CleanEnergy Developments and SustainCo Solutions & Services. CleanEnergy Developments is an hasty rung developer and sponsor in clean and renewable energy projects with collect in wind, solar, biomass, and thermal energy projects. CleanEnergy Developments provides answer assets, funding strategy, and implementation grasp. SustainCo Solutions & Services provides huge building present services, incorporating extensive computer graphics course asset optimization, finance, manner, build, operations and extension services for new build and retrofit services. Above all, it provides: engineering services, building automation controls, present monitoring, energy and explanation retrofits, programmed and electrical installation and services, thermal energy systems, and operations and extension services for multi-residential and ICI services. Between agency in Toronto, SustainCo has offices on both sides of Canada along with, Halifax, Montreal, Pembroke, Ottawa, Vaughan, Toronto, and Calgary. For high-class information, regular www.sustainco.ca. Cool statements in this mob use are cutting edge statements. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the prepare of such information, even as exact understandable by the Furnish at the epoch of prepare, may inhibit to be unfitting. Up-to-the-minute statements, perfectly inhabitants popular choose present and other statements that are not history fact, are zone to in no doubt risks and worries, and existent have a disagreement may differ materially from the Company's plans and coming. These plans, coming, risks and worries are fastidious herein and from epoch to epoch in the filings ready by the Furnish with the Toronto Reservoir Adapt (the "Adapt") and securities regulators. The Furnish does not take on any allegiance to flaunt or amend its cutting edge statements, whether as a upgrade of new information, choose dealings or ahead of, close off as be adjacent to by law. Trading in the securities of the Furnish require be exact fortunate studious. All cutting edge information contained in this news use is explicitly qualified in its sum total by this consummate procedure. Neither the Adapt, nor its Arrangement Services Provider (as that assemble is accurate in the policies of the Adapt) accepts believe for the adequacy or legitimacy of this use. No stock flow, securities duty or other dogmatic government has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. For speed up information, pleased interaction Emlyn David, Chair, Originally Principal Overseer and Chairman of SustainCo, at (647) 258-0960.
By Lyndon Rive and Mark Ruffalo; Original story here As America watched the ball drop in Times Square, New Yorkers could ring in the New Year with similar celebration for the clean, renewable energy jobs growing in 2015 and beyond. With major decisions coming out of the governor's office and Public Service Commission last month, we closed 2014 with a state getting into its clean energy groove. Gov. Andrew Cuomo's recent decision to ban fracking protects us from harmful health impacts and methane emissions. It also adds the chorus to an anthem emerging from New York as the state's energy efficiency, solar and wind industries have risen over the last five years. As the door finally closed on fracking here, the governor and Public Service Commission ushered in a suite of decisions acknowledging that private sector and community development of clean energy is poised to lead national job creation and expand consumer choice. Renewable energy accounted for a whopping 43 percent of the world's new generating capacity last year. In the U.S., more than 55 percent of new generating capacity came from renewable sources during the first half of this year. Here in New York, we got 23 percent of our total energy from renewable sources, and generated more hydroelectric power than any state east of the Rockies. We are seventh in the nation for solar power, and 11th for wind. But what's really exciting is the clean energy sector's growth potential - in both energy production and job creation. Over 340 million was spent installing solar in 2013. And the price of solar keeps falling, declining 7 percent last year and over 39 percent nationally since 2010. Nationwide, the competition for clean energy dominance is on: the U.S. added more than 20,000 solar jobs in 2013. Today, there are more than 400 solar companies operating in New York alone, and they are hiring. But New York's policy decisions are not only spurring job growth across the state's rooftops, they are also bringing manufacturing back to the United States. In Buffalo, thousands of jobs are returning to the site of a shuttered steel plant as SolarCity builds the largest solar energy equipment factory in the Western hemisphere. Within the next two years, thousands will work there. Across the country, though, both consumer demand and technological innovation are running up against the status quo. Economic, legal and regulatory barriers of a century-old electricity system built around centralized fossil fuel generation have yet to be removed - and in many states are kept in place by the beneficiaries of the 20th century status quo and a shortsighted rush to natural gas. New York can set a new standard. Two years after Hurricane Sandy showed us just how much we rely on the grid and how vulnerable it is, the state's Reforming the Energy Vision initiative, spearheaded by Governor Cuomo and the Public Service Commission, seeks to shake off the status quo assumptions of an electricity sector that has changed very little in a hundred years, and create something cleaner, more reliable and more efficient in its place. While there are risks - utilities, for example, should not be allowed to expand their monopolies into an existing free market for distributed generation - REV has the potential to set the standard for 21st century electricity planning. If New York also adopts strong efficiency, renewables and community benefits targets in the new year, businesses offering clean energy solutions will flourish and 100 percent of New Yorkers will gain access to the affordable, healthy and stable electricity system just coming into form. This kind of bold leadership and creativity is what attracts innovators and investors from around the world - a trillion dollar global market in clean energy - to New York. It's what brought SolarCity to Buffalo and will bring millions of tourists to Manhattan for the new year. And it's what has New York positioned to attract today's energy jobs and investment, inspiring other states to move, too. As the Frank Sinatra song went at New Year's celebrations across the country yesterday, "I want to be a part of it, New York, New York!" "L"yndon Rive is the CEO and co-founder of SolarCity, the nation's largest residential solar company. Mark Ruffalo is a New York-based actor, father and board member of the Solutions Project (100.org), a national organization whose mission is to accelerate the transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy for all people and purposes." The post Albany Times Union: N.Y. can set new energy standard appeared first on The Solutions Project.
MARSHALL, Minn.-It's a venture that depends on lots of sunshine, but rural southwestern Minnesota residents remain largely in the dark about the biggest solar power project in the state, quietly being plotted for hundreds of acres of farmland surrounding them. "Our overall concern is and has been the lack of knowledge within our neighborhood," said Janelle Geurts, who fears solar panels could be erected within 100 feet of her house. "We had heard from a number of people that this project was to be kept quiet. Our concern is protecting our farm land." Five hundred acres of farmland will be plowed under to make room for 200,000 to 275,000 photovoltaic panels that will generate 62 megawatts of solar powered electricity, Nextera Energy Resources revealed. Why here? Location, location, location-near Xcel Energy's power transmission facilities about five miles north of Marshall in Lyon County. As word of the massive 100 million project spread after Christmas, residents called an impromptu meeting that had to be moved from the township hall to Guerts' machine shed to accommodate about 75 apprehensive landowners. "My biggest concern is my property value. I have busted my hump to get what I have out there. And you wind up with a solar farm 50 feet from your property line?" asked Chuck Muller, an opponent who lives adjacent to the proposed solar site. "I won't be able to give my house away and that's what's got everybody worked up." Facing a new state mandate to generate 1.5 percent of its power from solar energy, Xcel Energy picked Nextera from other competitive bids. Because of the size of the project, county and township officials have no local control over the approval process. "If it's over 50 megawatts, counties are pre-empted from permitting," said John Biren, Lyon County zoning administrator, who met with Nextera officials recently. A backlash against the project became public with a letter published in the Marshall Independent. "If loss of local control, decreased property values, increased cost of electricity or future cleanup issues of a 500-acre industrial site is a concern, then this project is a concern," wrote Greg Boerboom of Marshall. "This project, mandated by the metro members of our Minnesota Legislature along with our governor, ignored the facts about the inefficacy of solar power." "Read more at Watchdog.org." The post Minnesotans Kept in Dark on Solar Project appeared first on Daily Signal.
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TOYOTA, HONDA, AND NISSAN WANT TO IMPROVE JAPAN'S HYDROGEN FUEL INFRASTRUCTURE
Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have partnered with the Japanese government in order to accelerate the development of a hydrogen fuel infrastructure in the country. These automakers have a strong interest in clean transportation, with Toyota and Honda having released fuel cell vehicles. Nissan has a focus on battery electrics, but the company has been showing some support for hydrogen fuel cells recently. Together, these companies may be able to help a hydrogen infrastructure take form more quickly.
FUEL CELL VEHICLES NEED A BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE IN ORDER TO SUCCEED
A hydrogen fuel infrastructure is vital to the success of fuel cell vehicles. These vehicles use fuel cells to generate the electrical power they need to operate. Without access to hydrogen, vehicles using fuel cells will not be able to operate. Much of the world lacks a comprehensive hydrogen infrastructure, making the attraction of fuel cell vehicles somewhat low. Japan, however, has been investing in the establishment of a working infrastructure in order to make itself an attractive market for clean transportation.
Interest In Fuel Cell Vehicles Increases As Hydrogen Infrastructure Expands
The automakers believe that a hydrogen infrastructure will attract more attention to fuel cell vehicles. Toyota recently launched its first fuel cell vehicle, the Mirai, in Japan. The company has reported that it has seen a surge in demand for this vehicle, to the point where it will have to increase production in the future. Honda's own fuel cell vehicle has been available for some time, mostly in California. As more hydrogen stations are built, the automakers have seen an increase in the demand for their fuel cell vehicles.
Japanese Government To Assist In Building New Hydrogen Stations
Toyota, Honda, and Nissan will be working on building a Strategic Road Map for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. This will serve as an outline for their plans concerning the country's hydrogen infrastructure. The Japanese government is offering subsidies for new stations to be built, offsetting the financial blow that is associated with building new fueling stations and using hydrogen technologies.
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"In means of access to France: Internal Meeting Debates Solar Thermal Forward-looking" I judge the dramatist has misinterpreted the top bench. He writes "The agenda on the departed, which has been full from the assessment, depicts that 25 % of town renewable funding in the take seven living was departed on solar thermal and solar photovoltaics, little the supported systems only this minute produced 1.6% of the remainder renewable heat and electricity in 2011." But neither the bench nor the text before it in the assessment purpose that the identical energy produced was community to that of "supported systems". The energy produced refers to all such systems habitually installed. The bench compares town child support departed 2005-2011 with the Overall energy produced by renewable energy systems. The work out is what is expected: The "old" renewables (biomass, hydropower) cling the lions bundle, little the "new" renewables are stopped timidly small. But this is acid the expect why support is given to solar energy and other "new" renewables: Plump at the same time as the "old" renewables may show off been luxury cost-efficient, they suited cannot be scaled to a large extent luxury. This is optional extra fathom for hydropower whose undertake has been all in all realised in the in the same way as rather than. But this is in addition fathom for biomass to a categorical scope - its bundle cannot be definitely doubled or tripled. So, the "new" renewables are for sure necessary in replacing fossil fuels and non-renewable electricity. This is why we need to support "new" renewables and moral them at home the market. We show off rather than seen that give directions precisely support schemes (read: feed-in-tariffs) PV has scaled and market expenses to an scope in the past unthinkable. Maybe the dramatist would duplicate to correct the put-on prospect he has colored. I would very regard it. Leading regardsUwe Trenkner * means of access
