Independent power producer EDF Renewables North America has signed a 22-year power purchase agreement with utility NV Energy for a 200MWac solar project coupled with a 180MW, four-hour battery storage system (720MWh).
Located around 35 miles northeast Las Vegas, Nevada, the Chuckwalla Solar+Storage project is expected to come online by the end of 2023. For context, the project is slightly smaller than the PG&E-Tesla Moss Landing substation battery project (182.5MW / 730MWh) which has just begun construction in California’s Monterey County, currently one of the biggest lithium-ion battery projects in development in the world – and set to be eclipsed by a 1,000MWh+ facility in the same region under development by Vistra Energy.
Meanwhile in May, authorities gave approval to the US$1 billion Gemini Solar Project in Nevada, a hybrid resources project combining 690MW of solar PV with a 380 MW / 1,400MWh of battery storage, again with NV Energy as the offtaker.
“The battery and solar system work together to provide more energy during the summer evening peak hours when system needs are the greatest,” said Ian Black, vice president, west region development at EDF Renewables North America.
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“NV Energy can utilise the battery at their discretion in all months of the year, allowing mitigation of demand spikes.”
Plans for the Chuckwalla plant and two other Nevada solar farms were announced by NV Energy last week. The three solar-plus-storage projects, which form part of the utility’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) filing, total 478MW of new solar photovoltaic generation and 338MW of battery storage.
The Chuckwalla collaboration builds on the 2019 agreement between EDF Renewables and NV Energy to develop the Arrow Canyon Solar+Storage project, also located in Nevada.
EDF Renewables’ North American portfolio consists of 16GW of developed projects and 10GW under service contracts.
This story first appeared on PV Tech. Additional reporting for Energy-Storage.news by Andy Colthorpe.
