Japan allocates 1.09 GW of storage in capacity auction

Japan’s Organisation for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators (OCCTO) has published the results of the country’s first capacity auction, the so-called Long-Term Decarbonization Power Source Auction.

Through the procurement exercise, the organization assigned 1.09 GW of battery storage capacity spread across 30 projects, 1.3 GW of nuclear power capacity, and 824 MW of thermal power capacity. Furthermore, it allocated 576.9 MW of pumped hydro storage capacity and 199.2 MW of biomass capacity.

As for the selected storage projects, their capacity ranges from 16.5 MW to 96.2 MW and their average size is 36 MW.

Chinese-Canadian PV module manufacturer and battery supplier Canadian Solar announced its secured 193 MW of storage capacity in the auction. “Located in Aomori, Fukushima, and Yamaguchi prefectures respectively, the three projects are expected to commence commercial operations between 2027 to 2028 and will feature the recently launched SolBank 3.0 system from e-Storage, a subsidiary of CSI Solar Co., Ltd,” the company said in a statement released.

The selected developers and plant owners will be awarded a 20-year fixed revenue.