Lyon joins forces with intl JVs to develop battery storage in Asia Pacific

The Lyon Group of Australia today announced a collaboration with JERA Co Inc of Japan and Fluence Energy LLC aimed at pursuing utility-scale battery storage opportunities in Asia Pacific markets.

Lyon, which is the company behind Australia’s first grid-connected large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery storage project, said that the three parties will be assessing the use of utility and industrial scale battery storage systems in both new projects and at existing plants.

JERA is an energy joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Co (TYO:9501), or TEPCO, and Chubu Electric Power Co (TYO:9502), while battery storage technology company Fluence was created in January 2018 by Siemens AG (ETR:SIE) and AES Corporation (NYSE:AES). Within the new alliance, the Japanese company will act as an investor, Fluance will be the energy storage solution and service provider, and Lyon will be in charge of project development.

The trio will start with Lyon’s tranche 1 integrated solar and storage projects, which include the world’s next largest battery. Details are available below.

David Green, chairman of Lyon, said in a statement that the tranche 1 projects should enter the construction phase in the coming months. They will include four-hour Fluence battery storage systems.

The new partnership will expand the collaboration among the three companies beyond the Australian market, to Japan and the broader Asia Pacific region. JERA has about 66 GW of power generation in Japan and some 8 GW overseas.

“There are many markets beyond Australia where big batteries can provide substantial value in terms of network strength and dispatchable capacity,” commented Green.

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