Onyx Renewable Partners LP and Qcells North America are tag-teaming two community solar and battery projects in Massachusetts. The projects developed by Onyx have a total of 6.2 MW — 3.3 MW provided by Qcells — of solar and 5.5 MWh of energy storage, all provided by Qcells.
The projects will strengthen local renewable energy capacity and give community subscribers access to clean energy without needing on-site solar. Together, Onyx and Qcells aim to set new standards for sustainability and environmental stewardship within the ISO New England (ISO-NE) region and beyond.
“Together with Qcells, we’re forging a partnership to create cutting-edge solar and battery storage solutions for communities,” said Angie Daoud, chief operating officer of Onyx. “This collaboration solidifies Onyx’s commitment to exceeding customer expectations by delivering premier quality products and services. United by our shared vision for a sustainable future, we’re demonstrating that true success stems from lasting partnerships built on shared values.”
These projects will showcase the effectiveness of combined solar and battery storage toward building a resilient, consistent and clean power supply. Deployed under the community solar and feed-in-tariff programs and sourced from local vendors, the two projects promote a responsible supply chain.
The Massachusetts projects benefit from the state’s SMART incentive program, an initiative designed to support the growth of solar power in the commonwealth by providing incentives based on solar energy production. Additionally, both projects will participate in the state’s Clean Peak Energy Standard (CPS), an initiative aimed at meeting high electricity demands with clean energy to create a more sustainable and reliable power grid.
Both projects feature Qcells’ DC-coupled battery storage technology and its end-to-end software solution, Geli Energy Management System (EMS), to optimize battery charging and discharging to comply with program requirements for SMART and CPS while maximizing the financial performance of the projects over the projects’ terms, all while bringing clean, resilient benefits to the grid.
“With Qcells’ cutting-edge solar technology, energy storage hardware and Geli energy management system software, and Onyx Renewables’ project development and execution expertise, our partnership will deliver reliable, cost-effective and sustainable energy solutions that benefit consumers, businesses and utilities alike,” said Jin Han, corporate officer, head of distributed energy at Qcells. “We have high hopes for our partnership with Onyx and our projects in Massachusetts are just the beginning.”
The Geli EMS uses the same machine learning algorithm to model the financial returns on projects as used in real-time battery operation, providing highly accurate and reliable project revenue projections from the start, to inform Qcells’ partners’ investment decisions. Qcells and Onyx will also deploy a risk-sharing partnership structure on the projects, leveraging Qcells’ unique Grid Services offerings. This includes a revenue share agreement and Qcells’ Network Operations Center (NOC) Services offering to mitigate risk on the long-term assets.
Onyx and Qcells plan to expand the partnership across the United States, including projects in ISO-NE, California ISO, NYISO and more, for both solar panels and energy storage systems.
— Solar Builder magazine
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