Public power utility Salt River Project (SRP) and NextEra Energy Resources said Arizona’s largest BESS is now operational. The 1GWh BESS forms part of a 260MW solar farm near Buckeye, Arizona.
NextEra claims to be the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun, as well as a world leader in battery energy storage. It did not respond to requests for details of battery manufacturer or power.
SRP said the Sonoran Solar Energy Centre solar and battery system will help supply electricity to a Google data centre in nearby Mesa. The company has also developed a Storey Energy Centre, an 88MW solar and 100MW BESS in Coolidge, also in Arizona. Both facilities are operated by subsidiaries of NextEra Energy.
The company said Google is aiming to have net-zero emissions across its operations by 2030. Amanda Peterson Corio, global head of data centre energy at Google, said: “We’re aiming for every Google campus to operate on clean electricity every hour of every day by 2030, including in Arizona where we are excited to put down roots with our first data centre in the state currently under construction.”
SRP said it will need to at least double the number of power resources on its power system in the next 10 years. This must happen to meet growing energy demand in the Phoenix metropolitan area and as it completes the planned phasing out of 2,600MW of coal resources.
It has more than 600MW of batteries and pumped hydro storage on its power grid. More battery energy storage capacity is also under development. That will bring its total battery storage to more than 1.1GW by the end of 2024, it said.
Photo: NextEra Energy Resources
