New York-based Convergent Energy+Power has acquired 40MW of flywheel projects to become “the biggest pure-play operator” of energy storage in North America.
Convergent said on 1 May it had bought the New York and Pennsylvania flywheel projects from energy investment firm Rockland Capital for an undisclosed sum.
The deal takes Convergent’s portfolio of completed projects to a total of 66.5MW across seven projects in North America.
The newly-acquired flywheels have been providing stability services to the electrical grid since 2011 and 2014 respectively. The combined systems, which comprise 400 five-ton carbon composite and steel flywheels, “can move 80 million watts of electricity in a fraction of a second”, Convergent said. “The average suburban home uses 5,000 watts during the daytime—on and off the electrical grid to help stabilise the flow of power.”
Convergent said it would continue to operate the flywheels to meet the energy needs of local grid operators.
CEO Johannes Rittershausen said: “Renewable energy capacity in the US has tripled since the year 2000. We see these flywheel assets as crucial to integrating more such energy in the future.”
Convergent said the flywheels are “uniquely positioned to provide balancing services to an electricity grid that is incorporating more intermittent and variable sources of generation like wind and solar”.