NineDot Energy, a developer of energy storage systems in New York, has secured a $25 million loan from NY Green Bank, a state-sponsored investment fund. The revolving debt facility provided by NY Green Bank will enable NineDot Energy to advance its pipeline of projects in the state.
NineDot Energy specializes in the development of distributed battery energy storage system (BESS) projects at the community level. These projects aim to provide flexibility for electrification and decarbonization in urban areas, reducing the reliance on polluting thermal peaker plants. Each project site developed by NineDot Energy will have a capacity of up to 5MW and a duration of energy storage of 4 hours. The funding from NY Green Bank will be allocated to finance the grid interconnections for these projects.
Initially, the funding will benefit 14 project sites, but NineDot Energy has ambitious plans to support approximately 40 sites with a total portfolio capacity of 400MW/1,600MWh by 2026.
This $25 million loan from NY Green Bank adds to the total funds raised by NineDot Energy, which now amounts to $150 million since the company’s establishment in 2015. Notably, the company received a significant strategic investment of over $100 million from Carlyle, an investment group, in 2022.
In a notable achievement, NineDot Energy became the first developer to deploy Tesla Megapack battery energy storage system solutions in New York through its Gunther project. Located in the Bronx borough of New York City, the Gunther project includes a solar PV canopy and infrastructure for bi-directional electric vehicle charging. For this project, NineDot Energy secured a $1.2 million grant from NYSERDA’s Retail Energy Storage Incentive Program.
In early 2022, NineDot Energy partnered with Stem Inc., an energy storage systems and services provider, to work on 110MWh of New York projects, including the Gunther project. These projects participate in New York State’s Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) program, which incentivizes investments in battery energy storage system projects that can benefit the state’s grid.
While NY Green Bank has previously provided financing for solar and solar-plus-storage projects, its investment in NineDot Energy represents its first pureplay energy storage investment. NY Green Bank and NYSERDA are collaboratively working towards the state’s target of deploying 6GW of energy storage by 2030. This goal is a crucial component of New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which seeks to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2040 and complete decarbonization, including in the transportation and buildings sectors, by 2050.
To facilitate the implementation of large-scale energy storage systems exceeding 5MW, also known as “bulk storage” in the Energy Storage Roadmap plans co-authored by NYSERDA, tenders are expected to be rolled out starting from early 2024. Simultaneously, NYSERDA and other public agencies are committed to supporting energy storage at smaller scales, including commercial and community-level (“retail storage”) as well as residential storage.
