The Pennsylvania-based energy storage and PV company brings its projects, pipeline and personnel to SunEdison, allowing it to now offer battery storage solutions to complement solar and wind projects worldwide.
SunEdison has acquired energy storage and PV company Solar Grid Storage, including its energy storage project team as well as project pipeline and four operating projects.
Solar Grid Storage will integrate its solar-plus-storage control services with the SunEdison Renewable Operation Center, enabling global 24/7 asset management, monitoring and reporting services for energy storage assets.
The move allows SunEdison to now offer battery storage solutions along with its solar and wind projects worldwide. The company said the new business could benefit utilities, municipalities, businesses and consumers.
“Storage is a perfect complement to our business model and to our wind and solar expertise,” said Tim Derrick, General Manager of SunEdison Advanced Solutions. “Our strategy is to increase the value of the solar and wind projects that we finance, develop, own, and operate by improving their availability and ability to interact with the grid.”
Derrick said the acquisition adds the capability to pair energy storage with solar and wind projects, thereby creating more valuable projects and positioning SunEdison as “a leader in the rapidly growing energy storage market.”
Growth in the energy storage market is being driven by commercial and municipal customers interested in both immediate energy savings from solar and emergency back-up power from storage as well as by grid operators “who place a high value on storage for its ability to make the grid more resilient and less susceptible to failure,” the company said.
Renewable generation-plus-storage has become a cost-effective way of integrating solar and wind into the grid, SunEdison added.
“Solar Grid Storage is unique in the storage industry in that we approach storage from a solar perspective,” said Solar Grid Storage CEO Tom Leyden, adding that that the company delivers renewable energy projects that are more valuable for both customers and grid operators due to the added storage component.
Becoming a part of SunEdison positions the group “incredibly well to accelerate our growth and integrate energy storage with renewables to help create the electricity grid of the future,” Leyden said.
The move into energy storage follows SunEdison’s acquisition of First Wind last year. The company now has 5 GW of solar and wind assets under management around the globe. The latest acquisition gives SunEdison significant synergies and opportunities for growth by integrating energy storage into its global finance, project development and asset ownership platform, the company said.
Source: PV Magazine. Reproduced with permission.
