AES-Siemens joint venture unveils new solar+storage platform

Dive Brief:

Fluence Energy LLC, an energy storage services company owned by AES and Siemens, announced an innovative platform the companies believe will help solar projects eliminate production variability and ultimately send up to 50% more clean energy to the grid.
The new platform, SunFlex Energy Storage, will capture excess energy that would have been lost during daytime hours and allow that energy to be delivered at night, creating a dispatchable solar resource.
Fluence received approvals to launch operations this year. The company will supply the 100 MW/400 MWh lithium-ion battery-based Alamitos storage project being installed in Long Beach, Calif., to serve Southern California Edison and the Western Los Angeles area.

Dive Insight:

Fluence will launch in 160 countries, with one of the world's largest lithium-ion projects in its queue.

Stephen Coughlin, president and CEO of Fluence, said the company believes in energy storage as a way to reduce costs and improve systems, but "we saw customers struggling to find a trusted technology partner."

Combined with estimates that the market for energy storage could reach $100 billion by 2030, the collaboration between Siemens and AES made sense.

"We have entered a growth phase in the industry," Sam Wilkinson, senior research manager at IHS Markit, said in a statement announcing Fluence. "The companies best positioned for success will require a proven track record, technology expertise, a global service network, and an ability to serve a broad set of energy storage applications.”

Along with the Alamitos storage project, Fluence is also developing 40 MW of new 4-hour storage and 37.5 MW of existing 4-hour storage for San Diego Gas & Electric, and three projects adding reliability for Arizona Public Service’s distribution grid in areas with high solar penetration.

Fluence believes its new energy storage technology platform will allow solar facilities to sell up to 50% more clean energy per site, while eliminating solar variability across the day.

"Solar and energy storage are the cheapest way to provide power in a number of markets today, and will reach economic parity in many more countries over the next five years,” Coughlin said in a statement.