The latest initiatives announced by APS will include 850MW of battery storage projects and 100MW of solar generation by 2025.
APS chairman and CEO Don Brandt said: “Arizona is already a national leader in solar energy. The challenge is, no one has figured out how to stop the sun from setting at night. As storage technology improves and declines in cost, we will increasingly be able to store the power of the sun cost-effectively to deliver when our customers need it.”
As per its plans, APS will upgrade the large-scale solar plants in the state, which are owned and operated it, with 200MW battery storage systems. Invenergy will install six new battery systems at APS’ solar plants in Maricopa County and Yuma to be in place by 2020. The remaining two upgrades will be completed by 2021.
The company aims to build an additional 500MW of solar storage and stand-alone battery storage by 2025. The first project will be a 100MW solar-storage plant. APS expects to issue a request for proposals (RfP) this summer.
The company has already selected First Solar to build a solar-plus-storage project which is expected one of the largest in the country, when completed in 2021.
APS said: “When solar production declines late in the afternoon and energy usage is still high, electricity companies need a reliable, flexible source of power to serve their customers. Traditionally, that source has been exclusively natural gas.
“Today’s announcement signals a new direction: APS will use 150 megawatts of solar-fueled battery storage to meet part of the demand when energy usage peaks.”
Battery storage will come from two projects, a 100MW battery provided by AES and a 50MW battery from Invenergy. Additional natural gas will come from a contract with Calpine for 463MW of energy.
