The Senate of New Mexico has passed a bill, which will require investor-owned utilities to have 2GW/7GWh of energy storage online by 2034, the second such move by a US state this week.

Technology group Honeywell’s energy storage solutions arm will supply a 20MW/80MWh battery system for renewables group Hecate Energy’s solar farm in New Mexico, USA.

Utility Public Service Company of New Mexico’s (PNM) plan to procure energy from 950MW of solar and storage facilities by 2022 and replace its retiring 562MW San Juan Generating Station coal plant has been handed a boost.  

Facebook has been asked to renegotiate the terms of contracts with a New Mexico utility, signed for solar energy and energy storage facilities which will power a data centre in the state.

New Mexico and Tennessee have both released plans for new solar, storage and gas infrastructure.

Electricity from 100MW of energy storage facilities will be purchased by US public utility company El Paso Electric, following a competitive solicitation process.

Two US Senators introduced a bill in Congress at the beginning of this week that would require the national Secretary of Energy to establish research and demonstration programmes and deployment strategies for energy storage, if passed.

The growing commercial viability of energy storage has led regulators in the US state of New Mexico to add the technology to the suite of resources available to utilities in their forward-planning.