Dive Brief:
- Électricité de France (EDF), the largely publicly-owned French utility company, is preparing to unveil a is getting set to unveil a residential solar+storage project through its U.S.-based renewable energy developer, news website Usinenouvelle.com reports.
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The French utility giant plans to roll out its combined solar PV/lithium-ion battery product by year end through its San Diego-based renewable energy development subsidiary EDF Renewable Energy. The announcement came last week from the subsidiary's CEO at the unveiling of a utility-scale project in the PJM region.
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EDF says it will continue to develop utility-scale storage projects, such as a recently-commissioned facility in Illinois and one in Toucan, French Guyana, that opened in 2014.
Dive Insight:
Since Tesla Motors unveiled its Powerwall residential storage device last spring competitors have rushed into the market for solar+storage. The latest entry is French energy giant EDF via its EDF Renewable Energy affiliate.
EDF already had a stake in utility-scale storage market. In December, the company’s McHenry storage project entered commercial service. The project, in McHenry County, Illinois, added 20 MW/8.5 MWh of storage to the PJM Interconnection grid and will participate in both the regulation and capacity markets. EDF has an additional 100 MW/42 MWh of energy storage capacity under construction or in development for the PJM markets, according to a recent company release.
After Tesla introduced Powerwall, several companies jumped into the market. In September, SimpliPhi of California said it was developing a battery for residential market. That same month, another California company, Orison, unveiled its own plug-and-play residential storage device. And in December, Germany company Sonnen announced the shipment of its first 1,000 storage devices bound for American homes.
Tesla itself has teamed up with SolarEdge to provide inverter that will work with Powerwall and with SolarCity and Green Mountain Power as solar and utility partners. Last month, it unveiled a new bundled product aimed at Hawaii's solar market including photovoltaic panels, Tesla battery storage, Nest Smart thermostat, a Steffes smart electric heater and a hardware controller.
EDF Renewables CEO Antoine Cahuzac told journalists at a recent news conference that home energy storage systems represent a growing market opportunity. Even though the cost of such solutions still remains a little high, the market will continue to develop and demand is already there in certain countries, he said.