Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) and SunEdison, Inc. (NYSE: SUNE), have announced a joint venture to finance and deliver 50 megawatts of energy storage for Southern California Edison (SCE).
SCE, one of the USA’s largest electricity utilities, will purchase capacity from the storage systems under a 10-year capacity contract. The project is part of SCE’s plan to add 2.2 gigawatts of cleaner resources including energy storage and renewables by 2022.
The deal is the first of its kind to replace utility power generation capacity with battery storage located on-site at customer premises.
AMS’s Hybrid-Electric Buildings Project deploys large networks of battery systems in targeted buildings where electric utilities need grid support. Building owners get paid for being part of the solution.
“SunEdison is excited to be working with both Advanced Microgrid Solutions and SCE to integrate today’s leading-edge technology into the energy grid,” said Tim Derrick, SunEdison general manager of Advanced Solutions.
“AMS’ energy storage solutions are truly ground-breaking. With these systems, the utility will for the first time be tapping into energy stored by its own customers to provide grid support during times of high demand.”
Once operational, these AMS projects are expected to be the first storage assets to be acquired by SunEdison’s yieldco; Terraform Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: TERP).
AMS is growing rapidly – the company recently secured USD $18 million in Series A funds and among its investors is ex-California governor and Terminator star, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Last month, the company announced it would install up to 20 megawatts of capacity at Royal Dutch Shell Plc sites in California. Also in June, Tesla and AMS announced a deal for 500 MWh of storage capacity using Tesla’s Powerpack batteries.
The AMS partnership isn’t SunEdison’s first foray into energy storage. In March, the company announced it intended acquiring some of Solar Grid Storage’s assets and last month, SunEdison inked a partnership with Green Charge Networks to deliver solar plus energy storage systems to Silicon Valley Power.
Closer to home and on a smaller scale, SunEdison Australia is gearing up to add battery storage options to its residential solar power system product lineup.
