Battery storage is receiving a lot of funding from the federal government. California and Texas are leading the way in taking advantage of these incentives as they modernize their grids.
One billion dollar battery plant in Menifee, California (inland from Los Angeles in Riverside County) is a doozy. Destined to be the largest in the world, Calpine’s Nova Power Bank, rated at up to 680 MW output, has a storage capacity of 2,270 MW-hrs.
The 680 MW lithium-ion facility is coming online in two phases. 620 MW by the end of 2024 and the remaining 60 MW in 2025.
California already has about 7 GW of battery storage, but current projections require about 50 GWs to support the state’s renewable goals. So much solar is coming online that batteries will be needed to meet evening peak demand.
“This plant will help stabilize the grid, especially for reliability purposes,” says Emily Precht, Strategic Origination at Calpine. The new facility is being built on the site of a decommissioned 800 MW natural gas combined cycle plant. While California may come to regret its push to close combined cycle plants, this one appears justified.
A more modest battery project in Texas, the Ables Springs solar and storage complex, is being built by by Enel North America. It will consist of a 186 MW solar farm and 115 MW of battery storage. Sited near Dallas, Enel has plenty of experience in solar and batteries.
The company owns 3.8 GW of solar and wind generation capacity and 1 GW of storage. The plan for the solar farm at Ables Spring I to charge the batteries during the day with excess capacity. That battery storage will be available after sunset to serve the local community.
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