Dive Brief:
- Scotland-based Aggreko announced Monday that it will acquire Younicos, a global leader in energy storage systems, for roughly $52 million dollars in cash.
- Younicos is based in Germany and the United States, and has developed more than 200 MW of energy storage systems thus far.
- Younicos will operate as a standalone company within Aggreko, according to The Telegraph. Aggreko CEO Chris Weston predicts global efforts to "decarbonize, decentralize and become more digital" will lead to a major role for energy storage systems.
Dive Insight:
Aggreko operates across a wide-range of energy businesses, including oil and gas, petrochemical and refining, and utilities. But the acquisition of an energy storage developer will help it play a more dynamic part in energy markets, particularly as intermittent renewable energy plays a greater role.
"As energy markets continue to decarbonize, decentralize and become more digital, the integration and control of multiple energy sources, including thermal and renewable, will be essential to ensure the provision of reliable power," said Weston.
Aggreko's focus on mobile power, combined with the battery knowledge of Younicos, will allow the combined company to create products that are modular, scalable and ready-to-implement, said the company.
Price called batteries an "economically attractive and reliable asset" the company expects to grow as a grid resource. "Integration and management of multiple distributed energy sources will be necessary to optimize energy systems and deliver customers with greater stability at a lower economic and environmental cost," he said.
Earlier this year, Younicos announced it won 75 MW of energy storage contracts in 2016, which the company says represented a 400% increase over its 2015 bookings. The company was founded in Berlin and has offices in Austin, Texas, said it had a “qualified” pipeline of deals totaling 1.2 GW over the next two years.
