Canadian Solar bags 193 GW battery projects in Japan's decarbonization auction

Canadian Solar Inc (CSI) announced it had won three battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in Japan's first Long-Term Decarbonization Power Source Auction. 

Japan's Organization for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators (OCCTO) published the results of the auction, through which it assigned 1.09 GW of BESS capacity across 30 projects. In addition, OCCTO also granted 1.3 GW of nuclear power capacity and 824 MW of thermal power capacity, as well as 576.9 MW of pumped hydro storage capacity and 199.2 MW of biomass capacity. 

CSI's projects, totaling 193 MW of capacity, are located in Japan's Aomori, Fukushima, and Yamaguchi prefectures. They will feature the SolBank 3.0 system launched by CSI subsidiary e-STORAGE, and are forecast to start operating commercially between 2027 and 2028.

The projects will provide energy storage capacity over a 20-year period, in return for Capacity Reserve Payments that allow operators to offset fixed storage system costs.

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO of Canadian Solar, commented, " The introduction of our SolBank 3.0 system has been pivotal, providing us with an edge in competitive market. As of January 31, 2024, our project development pipeline in Japan totaled 1.376 GWh and 213 MWp for energy storage and solar respectively." 

CSI said it would now enter into Capacity Reserve Agreements  with OCCTO. 

CSI, founded in 2001, is one of the world's largest solar technology and renewable energy companies, having successfully delivered over 118 GW of premium-quality, solar photovoltaic modules across the world. The company entered the project development business in 2010, and has since developed, built, and connected around 10 GWp of solar power projects and 3.3 GWh of battery energy storage projects across the world.