Ameresco to construct photo voltaic plant with 168MWh battery storage at Pearl Harbor base

Rendering of a photo voltaic microgrid venture Ameresco is engaged on for the US Coast Guard in Petaluma, California. Picture: Ameresco.

A big-scale photo voltaic PV plant with four-hour length battery storage may very well be constructed on 132 acres of underutilised land at a US Armed Forces Base in Hawaii.

Renewable power and power effectivity venture integrator Ameresco has partnered with developer Brilliant Canyon to suggest the venture, which might pair 42MW of photo voltaic PV with 42MW/168MWh of batteries.

If it goes forward, development will begin in 2024 on the Navy West Loch Annex of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The three goals of the Kūpono Photo voltaic venture, as it is going to be recognized, are to extend native use of renewable power and to extend its power resiliency and power safety, Ameresco mentioned.

It will feed energy into the native grid, enabling using dispatchable photo voltaic power when it’s most wanted and a 37-year land lease has already been signed by Ameresco and Brilliant Canyon’s three way partnership (JV) firm, Kūpono Photo voltaic Growth Firm with the US Navy in help of a Division of Protection long-term initiative on power safety.

In the meantime, electrical energy can be bought to utility Hawaiian Electrical beneath a 20-year energy buy settlement (PPA) whereas Kūpono Photo voltaic would personal, function, and keep the photo voltaic and battery venture.

Public works officer on the base, Captain Randall E. Harmeyer, mentioned that Kūpono Photo voltaic “allows us to place 131 acres of underutilised land to long-term, sustainable use for Hawaii at a time when the associated fee and reliability of worldwide power provides is of nice concern and displays the Navy’s core dedication to power safety and resiliency for America”.

Hawaii’s place as one of many US’ main states for photo voltaic adoption comes partly due to its historical past and state of affairs as an archipelago that should import costly and polluting fossil fuels. The swap to photo voltaic – and latterly battery storage – has seen renewable power applied sciences undercut the price of thermal era for a while.

Along with lots of rooftop in addition to utility-scale photo voltaic, curiosity in battery storage has grown and Hawaiian Electrical has launched a ‘Battery Bonus’ scheme to incentivise funding in residential batteries in addition to together with battery storage in its Requests for Proposals (RfPs) to obtain renewable power capability.

The utility has already signed contracts for a number of gigawatts of utility-scale solar-plus-storage and a few standalone storage and a draft RFP revealed in October 2021 forward of its subsequent procurement stipulated that each one photo voltaic initiatives bidding ought to embody power storage.

The utility is presently searching for to contract for clear power sources in an ‘all-source’ procurement for Oahu and Maui islands that may allow the additional retirement of oil-based era.

In keeping with figures revealed in the direction of the beginning of this 12 months from the American Clear Energy Affiliation (ACP), there was a pipeline of 0.6GW of large-scale battery storage in growth in Hawaii, which ranked it fourth amongst US states, on the finish of 2021.

Because the state’s most populated island, Oahu is a concentrate on a lot growth, not least of all as a result of it’s residence to Hawaii’s final coal energy station – scheduled for retirement and decommissioning quickly. Developer Plus Energy closed financing final November for a 565MWh standalone battery power storage system (BESS) venture on the island, which was among the many services contracted for by Hawaiian Electrical’s (HECO’s) RFPs.

In the meantime Ameresco, which has labored on numerous initiatives in collaboration with US federal businesses together with the navy and public services like hospitals and training services, has executed initiatives in Hawaii of varied sorts since 2004.

Elsewhere within the US, the corporate obtained one of many largest BESS venture awards so far when it was contracted by California utility San Diego Gasoline & Electrical (SDG&E) to ship three websites totalling greater than 2.1GWh of battery capability.

Ameresco has mentioned that it’s presently going through some delays to that venture based mostly on world provide chain points that are affecting battery storage and lots of different industries. The know-how integrator just lately signed a 2.5GWh BESS provide deal for initiatives going forwards with Powin Vitality. Provide chain points – albeit these pertaining to photo voltaic slightly than storage – have been cited as a cause why Engie just lately deserted an awarded solar-plus-storage venture in growth on Hawaii’s Large Island which might have included 240MWh of BESS. Engie mentioned higher-than-expected grid connection prices have been additionally an element.