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Released January 28, 2016 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Mortenson Construction (Minneapolis, Minnesota), a big player in the renewable energy and industrial construction markets, has decided to enter the electricity storage industry. "This is a logical continuation of Mortenson's growth in energy and infrastructure," said Brent Bergland, who will lead the new initiative. "We've been in the wind business for 20 years, the solar business for six years and the energy infrastructure business for five years. Storage has a lot of commonalities with those other businesses."
"In addition," he told Industrial Info," there is strong interest in storage from our commercial & industrial (C&I) customers. They want to be smarter consumers of electricity. Their electric bills are going up and demand charges from utilities are going up. They want to be in a position to avoid both, and storage gives them an opportunity to do that."
Bergland, a general manager in Mortenson's high-voltage operations group, said energy construction projects account for about 40% of the company's business. The other 60% comes from C&I projects. Mortenson is building the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, which is where the Minnesota Vikings will play its home games starting in 2016. Mortenson also is building sports stadiums for the Atlanta Braves baseball team, the Kansas State University football team and the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. The company said it is the nation's second-largest sports builder, with 160 sports and entertainment projects valued at about $7 billion. The company also builds a variety of other types of industrial projects.
Mortenson has built numerous wind and solar Power generation projects in the U.S., including Prairie Rose Wind, a 200-megawatt project located in Hardwick, Minnesota, and Solar Star Phase 1 and 2, a 597-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic project located in Rosamond, California. Currently, it is involved with active large renewable-energy projects under development in Nebraska, Texas, California, Kansas, Oklahoma, Indiana and North Dakota, among other areas. It announced its entry into the storage business last November.
The electric storage business draws on many of the same skill sets required to build electric substations and transmission interconnections, Bergland said. Mortenson will seek to provide engineering, construction and integration services in a market that is expected to grow dramatically. The company will be "technologically indifferent," and is willing to work with various technology providers. Some of the companies involved in manufacturing technology used in storage projects include Greensmith Energy Management Systems (Herndon, Virginia), Johnson Controls Incorporated (NYSE:JCI) (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), ABB Limited (NYSE:ABB) (Zurich, Switzerland), Samsung Group (Seoul, South Korea) and LG Electronics (Seoul, South Korea).
Mortenson will focus on the U.S. storage market and expects to build various-sized projects. Storage projects have a wide range of sizes and numerous technologies. Bergland said. He continued to explain that the company will not be strategically aligning itself to any storage equipment manufacturer or developer.
The Mortenson executive went on to say that the hottest U.S. markets for storage projects right now are California, Texas and the PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland) Interconnection. An industry survey estimated that 192 megawatts of electricity storage projects were built in the U.S. last year. In a report compiled for the Energy Storage Association (Washington, D.C.), Greentech Media (Boston, Massachusetts) projected annual installations of storage projects in the U.S. could exceed 1,000 MW by 2020. Some have estimated global demand for utility-scale, grid-connected battery storage could reach 12,000 MW by 2024.
Mortenson joins a handful of engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) firms jockeying for business in the storage sector. Storage projects could become a cost-effective alternative to building new generation or transmission assets, particularly in areas that face land-use constraints or sharp peaks in electric demand. California has mandated utilities deploying 1,325 MW of electric storage projects. Storage projects are part of a broad class of power projects termed distributed energy resources (DERs). For more on how storage and other forms of DERs could help accelerate the industry's transformation, see November 20, 2015, article --SCE Aims to Turn Electric Grid from One-Way Street to Two-Way Electricity Freeway.
Bergland noted that while many see storage as the next big thing for renewable energy, there's no requirement connecting storage projects and renewable energy. "Storage projects don't know the color of the electricity they're storing," he said.
"Mortenson's entry into the electricity storage business is an important milestone on the industry's maturity curve," said Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the global Power Industry. "The keen interest in, and potential rise of, storage technologies is another sign of how dramatically the Power Industry is changing."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.
"In addition," he told Industrial Info," there is strong interest in storage from our commercial & industrial (C&I) customers. They want to be smarter consumers of electricity. Their electric bills are going up and demand charges from utilities are going up. They want to be in a position to avoid both, and storage gives them an opportunity to do that."
Bergland, a general manager in Mortenson's high-voltage operations group, said energy construction projects account for about 40% of the company's business. The other 60% comes from C&I projects. Mortenson is building the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, which is where the Minnesota Vikings will play its home games starting in 2016. Mortenson also is building sports stadiums for the Atlanta Braves baseball team, the Kansas State University football team and the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. The company said it is the nation's second-largest sports builder, with 160 sports and entertainment projects valued at about $7 billion. The company also builds a variety of other types of industrial projects.
Mortenson has built numerous wind and solar Power generation projects in the U.S., including Prairie Rose Wind, a 200-megawatt project located in Hardwick, Minnesota, and Solar Star Phase 1 and 2, a 597-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic project located in Rosamond, California. Currently, it is involved with active large renewable-energy projects under development in Nebraska, Texas, California, Kansas, Oklahoma, Indiana and North Dakota, among other areas. It announced its entry into the storage business last November.
The electric storage business draws on many of the same skill sets required to build electric substations and transmission interconnections, Bergland said. Mortenson will seek to provide engineering, construction and integration services in a market that is expected to grow dramatically. The company will be "technologically indifferent," and is willing to work with various technology providers. Some of the companies involved in manufacturing technology used in storage projects include Greensmith Energy Management Systems (Herndon, Virginia), Johnson Controls Incorporated (NYSE:JCI) (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), ABB Limited (NYSE:ABB) (Zurich, Switzerland), Samsung Group (Seoul, South Korea) and LG Electronics (Seoul, South Korea).
Mortenson will focus on the U.S. storage market and expects to build various-sized projects. Storage projects have a wide range of sizes and numerous technologies. Bergland said. He continued to explain that the company will not be strategically aligning itself to any storage equipment manufacturer or developer.
The Mortenson executive went on to say that the hottest U.S. markets for storage projects right now are California, Texas and the PJM (Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland) Interconnection. An industry survey estimated that 192 megawatts of electricity storage projects were built in the U.S. last year. In a report compiled for the Energy Storage Association (Washington, D.C.), Greentech Media (Boston, Massachusetts) projected annual installations of storage projects in the U.S. could exceed 1,000 MW by 2020. Some have estimated global demand for utility-scale, grid-connected battery storage could reach 12,000 MW by 2024.
Mortenson joins a handful of engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) firms jockeying for business in the storage sector. Storage projects could become a cost-effective alternative to building new generation or transmission assets, particularly in areas that face land-use constraints or sharp peaks in electric demand. California has mandated utilities deploying 1,325 MW of electric storage projects. Storage projects are part of a broad class of power projects termed distributed energy resources (DERs). For more on how storage and other forms of DERs could help accelerate the industry's transformation, see November 20, 2015, article --SCE Aims to Turn Electric Grid from One-Way Street to Two-Way Electricity Freeway.
Bergland noted that while many see storage as the next big thing for renewable energy, there's no requirement connecting storage projects and renewable energy. "Storage projects don't know the color of the electricity they're storing," he said.
"Mortenson's entry into the electricity storage business is an important milestone on the industry's maturity curve," said Britt Burt, Industrial Info's vice president of research for the global Power Industry. "The keen interest in, and potential rise of, storage technologies is another sign of how dramatically the Power Industry is changing."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities. Follow IIR on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn. For more information on our coverage, send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.com or visit us online at http://www.industrialinfo.com/.
