Page 19 - Energize March 2022

NEWS

World’s largest solar-charged battery

storage system unveiled

ork has been completed on shattering a world record and commissioning the largest solar-powered battery in the
the largest battery energy world,” Silagy said.
Wstorage system (BESS) to FPL forecasts that close to 40% of its power will come from zero-emissions sources
have been paired with solar PV to date, by 2030.
with utility Florida Power & Light (FPL) After construction began on Manatee Energy Storage Center in February, the first
holding a ceremony earlier this week. battery modules were installed in August and from there it has been a rapid ride to the
Construction on the Manatee Energy finish line for the project.
Storage Centre in Florida’s Manatee World’s biggest… so far: in power terms, the project is larger than Vistra Energy’s
County was completed in just ten 400 MW Moss Landing energy storage facility project in California, which is the world’s
months, having begun in February this biggest standalone battery system, although in energy terms Moss Landing, with four
year. The 409 MW/900 MWh BESS is hours’ duration (1600 MWh) is larger.
co-located with FPL’s existing 74,5 MW With around a third of solar projects in US grid interconnection queues planned
Manatee Solar Energy Centre’s ground- to include energy storage as of the end of 2020, the project may be the biggest solar
mounted PV plant. battery system to date but is by no means alone. Not least of all because solar-plus-
Allowing solar energy to be used storage projects in the US qualify for a federal investment tax credit (ITC) incentive,
in evenings and at night or on cloudy which reduces the cost of equipment by around 30%.
days, the power utility company — a Two projects in California will be even bigger than Manatee when completed.
subsidiary of electric utility holding Developer Clearway started work on its Daggett project in San Bernadino, California,
company NextEra Energy — has in October, combining 482 MW of solar with 394 MW of battery storage, to be built in
placed132 battery containers onto a phases.
40-acre plot of land. Meanwhile another developer, Terra-Gen, and its partners are building the Edwards
The BESS will charge at off-peak Sanborn Solar-plus-Storage facility in California’s Kern County, which will include 760
times with abundant solar energy and MW of solar PV and 2445 MWh of battery storage.
then discharge into the local grid at peak From a first phase of 346 MW of solar and 1501 MWh of batteries, which was fully
times, when power is most expensive financed in August, the rest will be built during 2022 and 2023.
and often at its most carbon-intensive. Edwards Sanborn combines standalone battery storage and batteries directly
It will reduce the runtime of local charged from the site’s solar.
fossil fuel power plants and will aid FPL
in a plan to ease two 1970s-era natural Acknowledgement
gas power plants, totalling more than This article was first published by Energy Storage News, December 2021.
1600 MWh, into retirement.
The company had previously said it
would save its customers around US$100
million over its lifetime by offsetting
fuel costs when the project was first
announced in March 2019.
FPL president and CEO Eric Silagy
said his company’s buildout of solar and
battery storage projects has been cost-
effective for customers, helping to keep
bills lower over the long term. This was
the aspect of Manatee’s unveiling that
made him “most proud,” Silagy said.
“It’s been a momentous year for
clean energy in Florida – FPL opened
the year by formally shutting down
its last coal-fired plant in the state
and now we’re closing the year by

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