By Chris Crowell May 16, 2022 View Profile
Pine Gate Renewables signed a Memorandum of Understanding supply agreement for 4,550 MWh of Urban Electric Power‘s zinc alkaline batteries over the next five years, to be used in solar-coupled and standalone energy storage projects across the country.
Tracker Month sponsor
Power Your Next Project with the OMCO Origin Bifacial Tracker
Bifacial modules capture more power, resulting in increased solar energy yield. OMCOSolar’s Origin Bifacial Tracker is optimized for bifacial modules for up to 20% more back side production. Learn more here
Pine Gate already has over 1 GW of operating solar assets in the country with over 16 GW in active development, including hybrid, standalone solar, and standalone energy storage projects across the country. This agreement allows Pine Gate access to Urban Electric Power batteries each year, under preferential terms.
“We’re excited to partner with Urban Electric Power to bring zinc alkaline batteries, a familiar household item, and apply it towards grid-connected utility scale applications for our customers across the United States,” said Raafe Khan, Director of Energy Storage at Pine Gate Renewables. “We are committed to supporting our partners and customers with safe, domestically manufactured, scalable, reliable, and durable solutions that they can connect with for their storage needs. This is just the start of an exciting journey ahead for both organizations and we look forward to working with the Urban Electric Power team in building a sustainable energy storage ecosystem so that our customers can live their lives uninterrupted.”
Urban Electric Power’s patented technology tweaks the chemistry of the familiar household AA battery to make it rechargeable. This enables safer, more affordable energy storage solutions, which the New York-based company offers under the Ohm label to homes and commercial and industrial customers, and to utility-scale infrastructure projects branded as Zeus. The batteries are assembled at its factory in Pearl River, New York, creating U.S. manufacturing jobs in a fast-growing industry.
The zinc alkaline cells avoid several issues of other battery chemistries including lithium, most notably thermal runaway. Supply outlook for zinc is also less volatile than it is for lithium.
The Urban Electric Power products are certified to UL standards as not subject to thermal runaway, meaning they are fire-safe for indoor installations in cities. They contain no cobalt, whose mining in Africa carries human rights concerns; nor lead. The technology has already been tested and proven for large-scale uses such as in the San Diego Supercomputer Center, and at commercial-industrial locations to offer backup power and dispatchable energy storage to the power grid.
Have you checked out our YouTube page?
We have a ton video interviews and additional content on our YouTube page. Recently we debuted Power Forward! — a collaboration with BayWa r.e. to discuss higher level industry topics as well as best practices / trends for running a solar business today.
Our longer running side project is The Pitch — in which we have awkward discussions with solar manufacturers and suppliers about their new technology and ideas so that you don’t have to. We’ve discusses everything from residential rail-less deck attaching and home solar financing to large-scale energy storage value stacking and utility-driven new home solar + storage microgrids.
We also post our Project of the Year announcements there! Interviews with this year’s winners will be up starting the week of Nov. 8. Head there and subscribe today to stay on top of all this extra stuff.
Tags: commercial and industrial, Pine Gate Renewables, Urban Electric Power