Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy has acquired two standalone energy storage projects in the US state of Texas totalling 400 megawatt-hours (MWh) from Black Mountain Energy Storage for an undisclosed price.
The projects, which are in the South Load Zone of the Texas ERCOT market, are each anticipated to store up to 200MWh of electricity.
Both projects are currently in development and are anticipated to reach notice to proceed in 2023 and begin operations in the second quarter of 2024.
Canadian Solar chairman and chief executive Shawn Qu said: “ERCOT is one of the fastest growing markets in the world for energy storage, driven by market demand for flexible capacity.
“We are pleased to accelerate our ERCOT storage pipeline with the acquisition of two projects totaling 400MWh of storage from Black Mountain Energy Storage.
“We look forward to bringing our storage development, financing and construction experience to bear as we bring these projects to fruition and increase grid reliability for Texans.”
Black Mountain Energy Storage director of corporate development Witt Duncan said: “It’s bittersweet to see these projects leave the nest, but I must say Recurrent picked them well.
“We ought to see pronounced volatility at these nodes for years to come, and these batteries will not only capture significant value but provide resiliency in a sparse region of ERCOT’s transmission network.
“Identifying challenged areas of the transmission network that produce outsized opportunities for spread capture is BMES’ core focus, and we have 3GW of optimally sited ERCOT BESS projects in the hopper behind these two.
“We’re excited to see Recurrent Energy take each of these projects into the next phase of development and appreciate the expertise the folks at LevelTen Energy brought to the table to facilitate an efficient transaction process.”
The transactions were executed through the LevelTen Asset Marketplace, a platform that connects clean energy project developers and financiers, and provides the software, analytics and M&A transaction expertise they need to execute transactions quickly.