While
the solar industry continues to heat up, I maintain that one of
the best plays in the space is SunEdison (NYSE: SUNE).
This is an aggressive operation, run by incredibly smart people.
The company is well-capitalized, fairly liquid, and
well-diversified in the energy space, boasting both a top-notch,
vertically-integrated solar operation, and a basket of healthy
wind assets, too.
The company is also now advancing on energy storage - the final
obstacle to the creative destruction necessary to alleviate the
world's reliance on fossil fuels.
In a press release this morning, SunEdison made the following
announcement...
SunEdison, Inc., the world's largest renewable energy
development company, and Solar Grid Storage LLC, a leader
in deploying combined energy storage and solar PV systems, today
announced that SunEdison has acquired the energy storage project
origination team, project pipeline, and subject to customary
consents and assignments, four operating storage projects from
Solar Grid Storage. SunEdison now offers battery storage
solutions to complement solar and wind projects worldwide,
providing solutions that can benefit utilities, municipalities,
businesses, and consumers alike.
"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. Renewable
generation-plus-storage has proven to be a cost-effective way of
integrating renewable energy such as solar and wind into the
grid.
"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, Chief Executive Officer 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."
Interestingly, this news comes less than one month after Tesla
(NASDAQ: TSLA)
genius Elon Musk announced that his company is about six months
away from unveiling a new kind of battery that'll be able to power
your home.
I'm telling you right now, the elusive storage dream is about to
become reality. And it's companies like SunEdison and Tesla that
are going to make fat wads of cash by getting this stuff out of
the labs and into the marketplace first.
Invest accordingly.
Jeff Siegel is Editor of Energy and Capital, where this article was first published.
