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The POWER Interview: Fluence Exec Offers Insight on Energy Storage

August 23, 2022

There’s global growth in energy storage. The latest evidence is a report that BlackRock, the New York-based asset manager and a major player in energy sector, is ready to buy Akyasha Energy, an Australian company that specializes in battery storage and renewable energy projects.

BlackRock in an Aug. 16 news release said it would commit about $ 700 million to develop more than 1 GW of battery energy storage. The group said it would at a future date expand Akyaysha projects across Taiwan and Japan.

Virginia-based Fluence, a battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator launched in 2018 by Siemens and AES, and with offices worldwide, has become a global leader in the development of energy storage products and services, and also is active in the Australian market—along with helping drive U.S. adoption of storage. The company, part of some of the largest U.S. BESS installations, earlier this month said it is setting up a new contract manufacturing facility in Utah to serve the U.S.…

GE Exec Expects Rebound for Renewables

March 14, 2022

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The leader of General Electric’s (GE’s) global energy business said the company expects its power and renewable energy units should be profitable in 2023, and experience even more success in 2024, after it weathers market headwinds that present challenges this year.

Scott Strazik, speaking at the company’s March 10 investor day, said GE is poised to turn around “unacceptable” financial results in its renewable energy division, though he said he expects onshore wind will not be profitable this year due to a slowdown in the North American market. The company’s power and renewable energy units could record what Strazik characterized as a low-single-digit profit margin in 2023, and then a mid-single-digit margin the following year.

GE last year announced it would divide into three separate, publicly traded companies, with the core GE business focusing on aviation. GE Healthcare is expected to be spun off early next year, with GE Power, GE Renewable Energy, and GE Digital becoming a single business that will be spun off in 2024.…

Exec Calls for Action on New Texas Gas-Fired Plants

June 16, 2021

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The post Exec Calls for Action on New Texas Gas-Fired Plants appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The chief executive of a Connecticut-based energy investment firm has called for action on his group’s proposal to build as many as 11 new natural gas-fired power plants in Texas.

Himanshu Saxena, CEO of Starwood Energy Group, in a June 14 interview said, “We would like to see significant steps in countering, negotiating and material tangible actions on our proposal.”

Saxena’s comments, published by Reuters, came the same day the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), asked Texans to reduce their electricity use “as much as possible” this week. ERCOT said that power plants accounting for as much as 11 GW of generation capacity were offline due to what it called “forced outages,” at a time when temperatures have soared into the upper 90s in the state. ERCOT in an email to POWER wrote that “forced outages are unscheduled and result from the failure of a power plant to function as designed.”…

TEPCO Exec: Daini Plant Will Be Decommissioned

June 15, 2018

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A Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) executive on June 14 said the utility is prepared to decommission the four idle units at its Fukushima Daini nuclear plant in Japan. The comments come as TEPCO continues to struggle with large compensation payments and cleanup costs associated with the March 2011 accident at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

TEPCO President Tomoaki Kobayakawa’s remarks today are the first public statements from the company regarding the Daini plant, known as Fukushima No. 2, which escaped damage in 2011 but which is among dozens of Japanese nuclear plants that have remained offline for more than seven years in the wake of the Daiichi disaster. Kobayakawa at a news conference in Fukushima said local opposition to restarting the Daini units is partly behind his company’s decision to permanently close the plant.

The Daini plant is about 7 miles south of Daiichi. Some of its reactors lost cooling functions during the 2011 incident but none of the four units experienced a critical situation.…