The nine finalists for the 2014 edition of Energy Storage North America’s (ESNA) annual Innovation Award have now been announced — setting the stage for the winners to be announced at the Energy Storage North America convention, which is taking place at the San Jose Convention Center from September 30th to October 2nd.
The annually awarded Innovation Award was created as a means of rewarding and recognizing innovative project development in the energy storage field. Amongst the finalists are players spread across three different categories — utility scale, customer-sited (commercial, industrial, or residential), and mobility (electric vehicle charging and surrounding infrastructure).
“This year’s ESNA Award finalists represent a rich diversity of players and business models in rapidly developing energy storage ecosystems across the US and Canada,” stated Janice Lin, Managing Partner of Strategen Consulting and co-founder of the California Energy Storage Alliance. “Energy storage as an asset class is a welcome addition to electric system planning toolkits in California, Hawaii, New York, Ontario and other markets. The strength of this year’s nominees demonstrates that we are past the early technology tipping point and moving toward the mainstream.”
The finalists were chooses from among the project submissions via an intensive process that took into account important industry priorities, such as: customer value proposition, project impact, services supplied to the grid, financing model, ownership model, technology, and safety.
Here are the finalists:
Utility-Scale Energy Storage
- 2500 R Midtown (Sacramento, CA)
- Abengoa Solana CSP Plant (Gila Bend, AZ)
- SCE Tehachapi Wind Energy Storage Project (Tehachapi, CA)
Customer-Sited Energy Storage
- EaglePicher PowerPyramid BESS (Promontory, UT)
- Green Charge Networks GreenStation 2.0 (various locations, CA)
- UC San Diego/BMW 2nd Life EV Energy Storage System (San Diego, CA)
Mobility Energy Storage
- Benecia City Hall Solar EV Fast Charger with Storage (Benecia, CA)
- Powertree San Francisco One (San Francisco, CA)
- SEPTA Energy Optimization Project (Philadelphia, PA)
“We selected Innovation Award finalists based on market-driven criteria and their ability to bring the next generation of progress to the energy storage market,” concluded Jeff Gates, Managing Director at Duke Energy and ESNA Advisory Board member. “The 2014 Award criteria align with the most critical aspects of market development for energy storage, such as safety, reliability, and security, which are also reflected in the event’s programming this year.”
Those interested in having a hand in the final selection process can do so (via Twitter) — public votes for the ESNA Innovation Award will account for 50% of the final result, with the remainder decided by the ESNA Advisory Board.
You can find out more at the Awards website here.
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