wiredinUSA May 2019

Renewable energy developer NextEra Energy Inc plans to build “the largest solar- powered battery in the world”. The 409MW battery will be added to an existing 74.5MW solar plant on the west coast of Florida. “As the price of battery and solar technology continue to fall, and as we learn how to optimize this technology in multiple ways to best serve our customers, we are going to be seeing more battery technology throughout our system,” said NextEra spokeswoman Alys Daly. NextEra’s project, scheduled for operation in 2021, will replace 1,638MW of natural gas-fired generation at the site that will be retired once the battery system is in service. The company said the solar farm cost $100 million, but declined to give an estimate for the battery portion of its project. The next-largest battery in operation is a 100MW storage project in Australia, but, with the average cost of lithium-ion battery packs down by 85 percent, more projects are being developed around the world. Saudi Arabia, partnered with SoftBank Group Corporation, proposed a 200GW photovoltaic panel project, backed by a storage system, in March 2018. More recently, in Texas, IP Juno has outlined plans for a 495MW storage system to be built in tandem with a solar farm of the same size, and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is looking to install 690MW of solar with up to 200MW of batteries on federal land about 25 miles (40km) from Las Vegas.

Battery farms

wiredInUSA - May 2019

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