Texas installs another big solar + battery storage project
Michelle Lewis
| Mar 22 2024 - 2:36 pm PT
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Texas solar battery storage
Photo: Enel North America
Power-hungry Texas needs solar and battery storage to help meet demand and balance the grid, so its largest utility-scale storage operator is delivering.
Enel North America has started constructing the Ables Springs Solar + Storage Project in Kaufman County, near Dallas. The project pairs a 186-megawatt (MW) solar farm with 115 MW/169 MWh battery storage.
Ables Springs is Enel’s 17th renewables project in the state, where it has installed 3.8 GW of wind and solar plus over 1 GW of grid-scale storage.
Texas consumes more energy than any other state, and demand is growing. Already the US leader in solar and wind, it’s turning to battery storage to maintain the ERCOT grid’s reliability in the face of extreme weather and rising power needs. It’s expected to add more new grid battery capacity in 2024 – 6.4 gigawatts (GW) – than any other state, according to the US Energy Information Administration. (Let’s not forget that Texas is also the top crude oil- and natural gas-producing state as well – we did say power hungry.)
“When ERCOT conditions tightened this winter, Enel’s solar and storage plants provided crucial generation and quick-response batteries that helped keep the lights and heat on,” said Stephen Pike, head of Enel Green Power North America.
Ables Springs is expected to generate 320 GWh of clean energy each year, enough to supply clean power to over 30,000 households. Over its lifetime, the project is expected to generate around $60 million in tax revenue for schools and public services. It’s expected to come online in late 2024.
Just over a week ago, Enel surpassed 10 GW of installed wind and solar capacity across the US and Canada and over 1 GW of installed utility-scale battery storage.
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