Younicos, Panasonic team up for 1 MW solar-plus-storage system in Denver

Dive Brief:

Younicos has signed an agreement with Panasonic for a 1-MW, 2-MWh storage system in Denver, Colorado, that will be part of a wider solar power and microgrid facility.
The storage system will be installed adjacent to Panasonic’s operations center and the Peña Station NEXT parking facility where a total of about 1.86 MW of solar panels will be installed at the two locations.
The storage system will use several Younicos Y.Cubes, which come as either 250-kVA or 500-kVA modular building blocks, and is being designed to tap into five revenue streams.

Dive Insight:

German energy storage software developer Younicos last year embarked on a 1-MW turnkey battery storage system for a solar array owned by OCI Solar that would be the first utility-scale solar + storage project in Texas.

The recently announced solar + storage in Colorado would rival the Texas system in size and be part of a wider microgrid installation. The microgrid is a project that involves several partners, including Younicos, Panasonic and Xcel Energy, and the installation of solar panels.

A total of 1.6 MW of solar panels will be installed on the roof of the Peña car park owned by Denver International Airport. The solar panels will be owned by Xcel, which will lease them back to the airport.

A total of 259 kW of solar panels will also be installed at Panasonic’s operations center in the Peña facility, which is a 400-acre transit hub that will include commercial, retail and residential space.

The storage system is being designed to provide frequency regulation, solar grid integration through ramp control, grid peak shaving, passive energy arbitrage, and backup power, according to Peter Bronski, head of marketing for Panasonic CityNOW.

“The solar-plus-storage microgrid is an anchor, not just of Panasonic’s new Denver operations hub, but also for the broader Peña Station NEXT development,” said Jamie Evans, managing director of the energy solutions group at Panasonic Enterprise Solutions, said in a statement.

Younicos was the recipient of $50 million in funding from investors, which was one of the largest single storage sector investments of the year, as energy storage is increasingly seen as an asset that can be monetized in different ways.

First Solar was one of the investors, but the main investor was not identified, though a media report said the investment was from Panasonic. Panasonic has not confirmed or denied that report.