Key Capture Energy is approaching the final stages of construction of a battery storage system in New York that will inform how the developer approaches much bigger projects in the state.
A 150MW / 600MWh battery storage system would be a central component of a proposed “state-of-the-art clean energy underground highway,” capable of transmitting renewable energy into New York City from Upstate New York, Energy-Storage.news has heard.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said the state is “exploring every resource available as a potential tool to address climate change,” as funding was announced for long-duration energy storage technologies along with investigation on the role of green hydrogen in decarbonisation.
A zinc-air energy storage system (ZESS) offering 10 hours of storage is being trialled in a New York Power Authority (NYPA) project, while a US Department of Defense-funded investigation into flow batteries has moved into a physical validation and evaluation phase in Colorado.
A dramatic twist was added to a legacy pipeline of energy projects serving the town of Ulster, New York, with the local community now set to benefit from a large-scale battery energy storage system, instead of fossil fuels.
“With no large-scale batteries participating in the wholesale market in New York, the first day we turned the battery on it was exciting to see if all our internal models were correct in how the battery would behave,” KCE’s COO Dan Fitzgerald told us.
New York’s energy storage deployment target of 1.5GW by 2025, roundly welcomed by the industry when introduced at the beginning of 2018, has been ‘doubled’ to 3GW – by 2030.
New York plans to incentivise commercial and industrial (C&I) solar-plus-storage projects, kicking off by making $40 million funding available to support 50MW of storage paired with solar from early November.
Up to US$6.3 million in funding will support the commercialisation of emerging energy storage technologies in New York, from public benefit corporation NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research & Development Agency).
