Feds Advance Battery Storage Project in California Desert
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Federal regulators gave the green light last week to construction of a large-scale battery storage project intended to boost renewable energy capacity in California and increase the reliability of the state power grid.
The Sunlight Storage II Battery Energy Storage System project will augment the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm in Riverside County, California, providing it with up to 300 MW of additional renewable energy storage capacity.
The 550 MW facility was already noteworthy for being one of the largest completed PV solar projects in the world when it went into commercial operation in January 2015.
The facility is jointly owned by NextEra, General Electric, and Sumitomo of America.
“The Sunlight Storage II Battery Energy Storage System project will increase reliability for the state power grid, while expanding access to clean energy for Californians,” said Shelly Lynch, district manager for the California Desert office of the Bureau of Land Management, in a written statement.
“Clean and reliable renewable energy projects like this one will continue to help us address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Lynch said.
In 2021, the BLM approved construction of the Desert Sunlight Battery Energy Storage System within the Desert Sunlight Solar facilities, both of which are now fully operational.
The initial battery storage system provided the facility with 230 MW of storage capacity.
Like the first battery system, the new project will sit entirely within the existing fence line of the solar farm.
According to the agency, all of the Desert Sunlight Solar facilities, including the newly approved battery energy storage system, are in an area analyzed and identified as suitable for renewable energy development as part of BLM’s Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a landscape-level plan focused on 10.8 million acres of public lands in the desert regions of seven California counties.
The conservation plan is intended to streamline renewable energy development while conserving unique and valuable desert ecosystems and providing outdoor recreation opportunities.
Under the mandates of the Energy Act of 2020, federal regulators are expected to permit 25 GWs of new solar, wind and geothermal energy production by 2025.
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