Texas installs another big solar + battery storage project

Energy-hungry Texas wants photo voltaic and battery storage to assist meet demand and steadiness the grid, so its largest utility-scale storage operator is delivering.

Enel North America has began developing the Ables Springs Photo voltaic + Storage Undertaking in Kaufman County, close to Dallas. The venture pairs a 186-megawatt (MW) photo voltaic farm with 115 MW/169 MWh battery storage.

Ables Springs is Enel’s seventeenth renewables venture within the state, the place it has put in 3.8 GW of wind and photo voltaic plus over 1 GW of grid-scale storage. 

Texas consumes extra power than every other state, and demand is rising. Already the US chief in photo voltaic and wind, it’s turning to battery storage to keep up the ERCOT grid’s reliability within the face of maximum climate and rising energy wants. It’s anticipated so as to add extra new grid battery capability in 2024 – 6.4 gigawatts (GW) – than every other state, in accordance with the US Energy Information Administration. (Let’s not overlook that Texas can be the highest crude oil- and pure gas-producing state as effectively – we did say energy hungry.) 

“When ERCOT situations tightened this winter, Enel’s photo voltaic and storage vegetation offered essential era and quick-response batteries that helped hold the lights and warmth on,” stated Stephen Pike, head of Enel Inexperienced Energy North America.

Ables Springs is anticipated to generate 320 GWh of fresh power every year, sufficient to provide clear energy to over 30,000 households. Over its lifetime, the venture is anticipated to generate round $60 million in tax income for faculties and public providers. It’s anticipated to return on-line in late 2024.

Simply over per week in the past, Enel surpassed 10 GW of put in wind and photo voltaic capability throughout the US and Canada and over 1 GW of put in utility-scale battery storage. 

Learn extra: Here’s how solar and wind kept the Texas grid online in 2023’s brutal summer heat

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