Solar giant SunEdison announced today that it has acquired Solar Grid Storage, an early developer of grid-connected solar microgrids.
SunEdison acquired Solar Grid Storage’s project origination team and project pipeline, along with four operating storage projects.
The acquisition adds battery storage to SunEdison’s solar and wind products.
“Storage is a perfect complement to our business model and to our wind and solar expertise,” said Tim Derrick, general manager of SunEdison Advanced Solutions. “Our strategy is to increase the value of the solar and wind projects that we finance, develop, own, and operate by improving their availability and ability to interact with the grid. With this acquisition we have added the capability to pair energy storage with solar and wind projects, thereby creating more valuable projects and positioning ourselves as a leader in the rapidly growing energy storage market.”
The growth in the energy storage market is being driven by commercial and municipal customers who are interested in both immediate energy savings from solar and emergency back-up power from storage, and by electricity grid operators, who place a high value on storage for its ability to make the grid more resilient and less susceptible to failure, according to a SunEdison news release.
“Solar Grid Storage is unique in the storage industry in that we approach storage from a solar perspective. Understanding the core solar customer value proposition, as well as the ways that energy storage can add customer benefits and economic value to solar projects, enables us to deliver renewable energy projects that are more valuable for both customers and grid operators,” said Tom Leyden, CEO of Solar Grid Storage. “Becoming a part of SunEdison, a renewable energy market leader with a strong pipeline of customers and development projects, positions us incredibly well to accelerate our growth and integrate energy storage with renewables to help create the electricity grid of the future.”
The move into energy storage follows SunEdison’s successful acquisition of First Wind. With 5 GW of solar and wind assets under management around the globe, the company expects to realize significant synergies and opportunities for growth by integrating energy storage into its global finance, project development, and asset ownership platform. Solar Grid Storage will integrate its solar-plus-storage control services with the SunEdison Renewable Operation Center, enabling global 24/7 asset management, monitoring and reporting services for energy storage assets.
