The largest battery in the world has been launched in the United States, providing electricity to an entire city
Edwards & Sanborn, Terra-Gen’s solar energy storage project, was recently commissioned in California (USA): the solar photovoltaic system has a capacity of 875 MW DC and a battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity of 3,287 MWh, making it the largest in the world, Energy storage news reports.
The entire Edwards & Sanborn system occupies an area of 1.8 square meters. km and is located in Kern County. It consists of 1.9 million photovoltaic modules from First Solar and the BESS energy storage system from LG Chem, Samsung and BYD with a total capacity of 3,287 MW. The Edwards & Sanborn battery has even outperformed the 750 MW/3000 MWh BESS plant in Moss Landing, California, which was previously considered the most powerful and largest.
The contractor Mortenson began work on the project about three years ago, and the first phase, covering about half of the total capacity, was commissioned at the end of 2021, the media reports.
The capacity of the solar energy collection system is 1300 MW. It serves facilities of the City of San Jose, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric utilities, Clean Power Alliance aggregator, and Starbucks coffee chain.
Most California BESS projects are designed for 4 hours, which meets the CAISO grid operator’s resource adequacy criteria. The publication suggests that this system will be able to work longer, but it is not known how long.
Part of the project is located at Edwards Air Force Base, and according to a Mortenson spokesperson, the solar power system was built with the assistance of the US Department of Defense.
Another well-known Terra-Gen energy storage project is the 140 MW/560 MWh Valley Center BESS, also located in California.
