Canadian Solar agrees second big BESS order with Blackstone-backed Aypa Power

The energy storage arm of PV module giant Canadian Solar will supply 363MWh of its battery energy storage systems (BESS) to developer Aypa Power for a project in Texas.

Subsidiary CSI Energy Storage will supply its SolBank grid-scale BESS project to Aypa for the project, which is expected to come online in the second quarter of 2024.

It is the pair’s second such agreement after the 487MWh order for the Cald project in California, bringing the total co-operation to-date to 850MWh.

The MW power of neither project has been disclosed, but California projects are generally four-hour systems while new ones in Texas are most commonly two-hour systems.

Moe Hajabed, CEO of Aypa Power which private equity firm Blackstone bought and re-branded in 2020, commented: “We’re excited to expand our partnership with CSI Energy Storage. This supply agreement is a crucial step in our efforts to bring reliable and sustainable energy to California and Texas.”

“With our project development and operations expertise combined with Canadian Solar’s leading-edge technology, we can meet the growing demand for energy storage in the US. Together, we’ll drive innovation and accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more resilient grid.”

As Energy-Storage.news recently reported, Canadian Solar expects a flat 2023 in terms of energy storage deployment growth. It attributed this to a transition away from a white-labelled grid-scale offering towards SolBank, its proprietary product, as well as long lead times in the market.

“Next year will be the real growth. This year is a transition,” CSI Solar president Yan Zhuang said in a recent earnings call, made possible by an expansion to 10GWh of annual production capacity of SolBank.

The Texas market is set to see energy storage deployments soar this year, with around 8GW coming online, leading some to talk of saturation of ancillary service markets by Spring 2024.

For coverage of Canadian Solar’s latest financial results, you can visit sister site PV Tech.