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Released August 23, 2021 | SUGAR LAND
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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Last week, Vistra Corporation (NYSE:VST) (Irving, Texas) announced the recent completion of its Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility expansion project in California, bringing the facility's capacity to 400 megawatts (MW). The company said the 100-MW expansion makes Moss Landing the largest of its kind in the world.
Vistra is far from alone in developing battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, which are touted as a means to store and release renewable power even when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing.
According to a new update on BESS market trends by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), power markets in the U.S. "are undergoing significant structural change that we believe, based on planning data we collect, will result in the installation of the ability of large-scale battery storage to contribute 10,000 megawatts to the grid between 2021 and 2023 -10 times the capacity in 2019."
Much of the recent increase in new storage capacity comes from battery energy systems co-located with or connected to solar projects, the EIA said.
Industrial Info is tracking more than $72 billion worth of BESS projects in the U.S., including about $4.5 billion worth that are under construction.
Click on the image at right for a graph showing the top 10 states for BESS project activity in the construction stage.
Led by California, five states accounted for more than 70% of U.S. battery storage power capacity as of December 2020, the EIA said. California had the largest share at 31% (506 MW); Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts and Hawaii each had more than 50 MW of capacity.
Located at the site of Vistra's existing Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey County, California, construction of the Phase II lithium-ion battery expansion project began in September 2020.
"California produces an excess amount of renewable power during the day while the sun is up, but often struggles to meet demand as the sun goes down," said Vistra Chief Executive Officer Curt Morgan in a press release. "Our Moss Landing battery system helps to fill that reliability gap, storing the excess daytime power so it doesn't go to waste and then releasing it to the grid when it's needed most."
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can click here for a detailed report on the Moss Landing BESS expansion.
Most large-scale battery energy storage systems that are expected to come online in the U.S.in the next three years will be built at power plants that also produce electricity from solar photovoltaics, marking a change in trend, the EIA said. As of December 2020, the majority of U.S. large-scale battery storage systems were built as standalone facilities, the EIA said. Only 38% of the total capacity to generate power from large-scale battery storage sites was co-located with other generators.
"We expect the relationship between solar energy and battery storage to change in the United States over the next three years because most planned upcoming projects will be co-located with generation, in particular with solar facilities," the EIA said. "If all currently announced projects from 2021 to 2023 become operational, then the share of U.S. battery storage that is co-located with generation would increase from 30% to 60%."
Click on the image at right for an EIA chart showing cumulative and planned BESS capacity additions.
U.S. BESS projects under construction include:
Vistra is far from alone in developing battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, which are touted as a means to store and release renewable power even when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing.
According to a new update on BESS market trends by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), power markets in the U.S. "are undergoing significant structural change that we believe, based on planning data we collect, will result in the installation of the ability of large-scale battery storage to contribute 10,000 megawatts to the grid between 2021 and 2023 -10 times the capacity in 2019."
Much of the recent increase in new storage capacity comes from battery energy systems co-located with or connected to solar projects, the EIA said.
Industrial Info is tracking more than $72 billion worth of BESS projects in the U.S., including about $4.5 billion worth that are under construction.
Led by California, five states accounted for more than 70% of U.S. battery storage power capacity as of December 2020, the EIA said. California had the largest share at 31% (506 MW); Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts and Hawaii each had more than 50 MW of capacity.
Located at the site of Vistra's existing Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey County, California, construction of the Phase II lithium-ion battery expansion project began in September 2020.
"California produces an excess amount of renewable power during the day while the sun is up, but often struggles to meet demand as the sun goes down," said Vistra Chief Executive Officer Curt Morgan in a press release. "Our Moss Landing battery system helps to fill that reliability gap, storing the excess daytime power so it doesn't go to waste and then releasing it to the grid when it's needed most."
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can click here for a detailed report on the Moss Landing BESS expansion.
Most large-scale battery energy storage systems that are expected to come online in the U.S.in the next three years will be built at power plants that also produce electricity from solar photovoltaics, marking a change in trend, the EIA said. As of December 2020, the majority of U.S. large-scale battery storage systems were built as standalone facilities, the EIA said. Only 38% of the total capacity to generate power from large-scale battery storage sites was co-located with other generators.
"We expect the relationship between solar energy and battery storage to change in the United States over the next three years because most planned upcoming projects will be co-located with generation, in particular with solar facilities," the EIA said. "If all currently announced projects from 2021 to 2023 become operational, then the share of U.S. battery storage that is co-located with generation would increase from 30% to 60%."
U.S. BESS projects under construction include:
- NextEra Energy Incorporated's (NYSE:NEE) (Juno Beach, Florida) 409-MW/900-megawatt/hour (MWh) Battery Energy Storage Facility at the Manatee Solar Farm in Parrish, Florida; see project report.
- Intersect Power's (San Francisco, California) 500-MW IP Athos BESS in Desert Center, California; see project report.
- ArcLight Capital Holdings LLC's (Boston, Massachusetts) 300-MW Sanborn BESS North in Mojave, California; see project report.
