409MW/900MWh! World's Largest Battery Energy Storage Project Commissioned

　　Florida Power & Light (FPL) recently held a grand opening ceremony at the Manatee Energy Storage Center, a 409MW/900MWh Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) deployed in conjunction with a solar farm, and the largest battery energy storage system deployed in conjunction with a solar power facility in the world to date.

　　(Florida Power & Light's Manatee Energy Storage Center being deployed earlier this year)

　　Construction of the Manatee Energy Storage Center in Manatee County, Florida, began in February of this year and took only 10 months to complete deployment. The 409MW/900MWh battery storage system is co-located with FPL existing 74.5MW Manatee Solar Center solar farm.

　　FPL is a subsidiary of renewable energy developer NextEra Energy, installed 132 containerized battery storage systems on a 40-acre site in Manatee County.

　　The company said the battery storage project will use sufficient solar energy to charge during periods of non-peak electricity demand and then discharge to the local grid during periods of peak electricity demand. The solar + storage project will reduce the operating hours of local fossil fuel-fired power plants and will help FPL successfully implement a decommissioning plan that will allow the company to shut down two natural gas-fired power plants (with a total capacity of more than 1,600 MWh) that opened for operation in the 1970s.

　　The company had previously said it estimated it could save customers about $100 million by offsetting fuel costs when it first announced construction of the project in March 2019. FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy said the company's expanded solar power facility and battery storage project is more cost-effective for customers and will help reduce long-term costs.

　　FPL projects that nearly 40 percent of the state's electricity will come from zero-emission sources by 2030. Construction of the Manatee Energy Storage Center began in February, with the first containerized battery storage systems installed in August, and the battery storage project has been able to accelerate deployment since then.

　　In terms of installed capacity, the battery storage project is larger than Vistra Energy's Moss Landing battery storage project with an installed capacity of 400MW, which opened for operation in California not long ago, but in terms of storage capacity, the Moss Landing battery storage project is much larger, up to 1600MWh, with a continuous discharge time of 4 hours.

　　By the end of 2020, about one-third of the solar power projects in the U.S. grid interconnection queue are scheduled to deploy energy storage systems to accompany them. This project may be the world's largest battery storage system deployed in conjunction with a solar power facility to date, but it is expected to be surpassed by other projects soon. In particular, solar + storage projects in the U.S. qualify for the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) incentive, which will reduce the deployment cost of energy storage systems by about 30 percent, undoubtedly greatly stimulating investment.

　　Renewable energy developer Clearway began construction of the Daggett Solar + Storage project in San Bernardino, California, last October, with plans to build 482MW of solar power facilities and 394MW of battery storage systems in phases.

　　Meanwhile, Terra-Gen, another renewable energy developer, and its partners are building the Edwards Sanborn Solar + Storage Project in Kern County, California, which will build a 760MW solar power facility and 2,445MWh battery storage system. The solar power facility (346MW) and battery storage system (1,501MWh), the first phase of which began construction in August of this year, will be completed in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

　　Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) have become the main energy storage solution in the life of modern society. Among them, lithium iron phosphate batteries perfectly replace lead-acid batteries, and are more preferred by industries such as grid-connected peaking, off-grid energy storage, photovoltaic energy storage, UPS, and data centers.

　　Solar power system with lithium battery energy storage system is a very promising clean energy.