A flurry of large-scale BESS project news from four major developer-operators across the US, coinciding with the country’s largest clean energy trade show RE+.
Plus Power’s completes New England’s largest BESS
Developer-operator has put New England’s largest battery energy storage system (BESS) into commercial operations.
The Cranberry Point Energy Storage project in Carver, Massachusetts, is a 150MW/300MWh system comprised of 82 Tesla Megapack 2XL units.
Cranberry Point was one of the first BESS facilities to secure a Capacity Supply Obligation with the Independent System Operator of New England (ISO-NE), in 2021, and it moves Massachusetts materially on its way to reaching its goal of 1,000MWh online by the end of this year.
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Plus Power provided engineering, procurement, and construction on the project, on which Plus Power secured financing in July 2024. Last year also saw it finance an Arizona BESS and commission one in Hawaii, but the firm is active across the US.
Primergy gets approval for solar-plus-storage in Minnesota
Moving into the Midwest US, developer-operator Primegy has received unanimous state permit approval from Minnesota regulators for its Northern Crescent Solar + Storage project.
The project will pair up to 150MW of solar and 50MW of BESS capacity and is located in Faribault County.
Primergy will now find a suitable offtaker for the project’s power and set up the next steps for project delivery, targeting a connection to the grid in 2028 or sooner.
Minnesota is within the region of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO).
The company is known for the Gemini solar-plus-storage project in Nevada, one of the largest of its kind pairing 690MWac/966MWdc of solar PV with a 380MW/1,400MWh BESS. Read an ESN Premium interview with CEO Ty Daul about it here, from January.
Sunraycer Renewables and Engie land credit swap deal
Down in Texas, Sunraycer Renewables has reached a revenue swap agreement with international utility and power firm Engie for two solar-plus-storage projects.
A revenue swap is effectively a form of toll agreement, whereby an offtaker pays a project owner a fixed sum for the rights to the revenues of the project, taking on risk from the owner. Engie is the swap provider via its subsidiary Engie Energy Marketing North America (EEMNA).
The projects are the 50MW solar, 100MWh BESS Midpoint project in Blum, and the 75MW/150MWh Gaia project in Kerens. The revenue swap agreement will facilitate construction and operation of the two projects, for which Sunraycer announced financing in April this year.
Gridstor receives letter of credit from NORD/LB for pipeline
Lastly, GridStor has closed a US$50 million letter of credit with bank NORD/LB in support of its development pipeline.
It said the facility will support its projects which total 3GW of BESS capacity across the Western and Central US in later stage development or under construction.
The firm is backed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and put its first project into commercial operation in California in late 2023. Since then, it has launched construction and acquired projects in Texas, and also acquired ones in Oklahoma and Arizona earlier this year.
CFO Frank Burkhartsmeyer discussed tax credits and transferability for storage with us for an ESN Premium article last year.
