Developer-operator Strata Clean Energy has broken ground on the 150MW/600MWh Justice battery energy storage system (BESS) located in Maricopa County, Arizona, US.
The Justice BESS is expected operational in April 2026 and was awarded through utility Arizona Public Service’s (APS) all-source request for proposals (RFP) launched in June 2023.
Through this RFP, Strata was awarded another project, the 100MW/576MWh White Tank energy storage project, also located in Maricopa County.
Strata has a 20-year tolling agreement with APS for both projects, which Strata is developing, owning and operating.
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The White Tank BESS project will see Canadian Solar’s BESS integration arm, e-Storage, providing the technology and servicing the project.
Recently reported by Energy-Storage.news, e-Storage will provide approximately 120 units of the SolBank 3.0 energy storage solution for White Tank.
Notably, White Tank’s capacity was announced as 400MWh but Strata’s most recent announcements about the project have shown an upsized capacity closer to the Justice project’s 600MWh capacity.
Strata highlights the importance of energy storage for Arizona during its extreme summer heatwaves.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s State Climate Summaries, “Temperatures in Arizona have risen about 2.5°F since the beginning of the 20th century.”
The state tends to see summer temperatures between 105°F and 115°F. Last summer, Arizona set record highs for peak energy demand during August and July heat waves.
APS notes this trend of record-setting demand on its website, saying that during a heat wave on 11 July 2023, its customers used more energy than at any other time in 2022.
The need for energy due to heat, growing population and data centre development as well as a large amount of land and high solar penetration make Arizona an active market for large energy storage projects.
In March of this year, Carlyle Portfolio Company-owned developer Copia Power closed a US$1.71 billion debt facility to fund construction of the Maricopa Energy Centre Projects, representing approximately 2.2GW of BESS capacity.
The month prior to that, developer-operator TransGrid Energy secured over US$1.4 billion in financing for two BESS projects in the state with a combined capacity of 1,800MWh.
While still behind US leaders Texas and California in terms of installed capacity, Arizona remains incredibly active for BESS developers.
