Denmark-based IPP Ørsted has partnered with developer Mission Clean Energy to develop and build 1GW of battery energy storage system (BESS) projects in the Midwest US.
Ørsted will use its capital to secure and maintain interconnection queue positions for four storage projects owned by Mission, while the developer will continue to lead development of the projects, Ørsted said.
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The pair have submitted interconnection applications for the projects which total 1GW, in the Central and North regions of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).
MISO Central includes Wisconsin, Masachussetts, Illinois and parts of Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri, while MISO North covers Minneapolis, Iowa, North Dakota, part of Montana and South Dakota, and the Canadian province of Manitoba.
Ørsted will have the option to acquire an ownership stake in the projects as they mature, it added. The company is mainly known for offshore wind but has been making a push into solar and storage in the last few years. But this partnership is its first foray into large-scale standalone energy storage with a portfolio of multiple projects.
It built its first standalone BESS, a 20MW system in the UK, five years ago, and two years later added a 40MW BESS to a solar project in Texas. More recently it added a 300MW/1,200MWh BESS to its Eleven Mile solar project in Arizona, for which it secured financing with JP Morgan earlier this year.
It is also starting to deploy large-scale BESS in Europe. In June it made a final investment decision (FID) on a 300MW/600MWh BESS (premium access) co-located with a 2.9GW wind project off the coast of England, UK.
