Ormat acquires Pomona battery storage facility in California

Nevada-based alternative power company Ormat Technologies has purchased a 20 MW / 80 MWh battery energy storage facility in California. The Pomona site, which came online in 2015, partly in response to gas leak-induced blackouts, has been purchased from AltaGas Holdings for $47m. The acquisition brings Ormat's energy storage portfolio to 73 MW / 136 MWh of assets. The move represents a continuation of the firm's emphasis on the fast-growing energy storage market, having experienced a decrease in its product backlog due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Energy Storage News reported.

Ormat has been developing as well as acquiring energy storage assets for some time, to add to a 933MW generation portfolio, while the company claims to have engineered, manufactured and constructed 3,000MW gross capacity of power plants to date, which are either under its ownership or were projects executed for utilities and developers in a number of different countries.

The company’s emphasis on energy storage appears to have stepped up not only in response to commercial opportunities for battery projects, but more recently also has been seen by Ormat as a means to offset a slowdown in its other key industry segments. In late June, Ormat Technologies then-CEO, Isaac Angel, said that there had been a decrease in the company’s product backlog “affected by the continuation and increasing severity of the COVID-19 global pandemic”. A “significant product sale contract in the coming months in a different market,” was no longer expected.

“In light of this current situation, we are continuing our efforts to expand and expedite our growth in the electricity segment and energy storage segment,” Isaac Angel had said, before stepping down as CEO at the beginning of July.

Last week, new chief executive officer Blachar said that the Pomona acquisition “is an important addition to our energy storage segment, and it strengthens our activity in the California market, which is the largest and most attractive market in the US for renewables in general and for energy storage in particular”.

Blachar called the energy storage market “one of the most rapidly growing parts of the energy sector” and said Ormat “continues to expand its presence and capabilities” in the sector. Ormat began its move into the segment with the purchase of energy storage and demand response project developer Viridity Energy in 2017, while its most recent own project to come online was the 10MW Rabbit Hill battery system in Texas, which went into commercial operation providing ancillary services and energy optimisation in April.

Pomona: A ‘world record’ fast-track deployment back in 2016