The money comes from the Utilities’ Grant Funding Program, which is jointly funded by Arizona Public Service (APS), Salt River Project (SRP) and Tucson Electric Power (TEP). The funding allows for grant writing technical assistance and other forms of support to help develop new, sustainable economic strategies for residents and other stakeholders in impacted communities.

The following organizations were recently selected as grant recipients:

The Town of Eagar will receive a $25,000 grant to develop an updated general plan to replace the current version, which was written a decade ago. The updated general plan will identify areas of development, determine additional housing opportunities and craft a vision for the town’s future.

Apache County will receive a $25,000 grant to hire an engineering firm to write state and federal grants to support the design and construction of Phase II of the CR 8235 Stanford Road project.

The Town of Springerville will receive two grants. The first $25,000 grant will help fund the development of an updated master plan, the current version of which will expire in 2025. The master plan, a land use and infrastructure plan, sets forth local goals, objectives and policies to support community growth and redevelopment over the next two to three decades. The second $25,000 grant will match funding from the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority for new automatic meter readers, which will more accurately measure water usage, streamline operations and save water. 

Joseph City Unified School District will receive a $25,000 grant to match funds for an electric school bus that was awarded to the district through the second round of the EPA’s Clean Energy Grant.

APS, SRP and TEP pledged a combined $1 million in awards available through the Utilities’ Grant Funding program. Tribal, state and local governments, public schools, economic development groups and nonprofit groups within 75 miles of a closing or closed coal plant are eligible to apply.

The Signal Butte energy storage project would be a 250 MW, four-hour BESS located in the Elliot Road Technology Corridor in Mesa, AZ. The project would use lithium-ion technology and be operational by mid-2026. 

Signal Butte was selected from SRP’s 2023 All-Source Request for Proposals process. The project was jointly bid by Eolian, L.P., the original developer of the project; and Aypa Power.

The project would be owned and operated by Aypa Power, who purchased this late-stage battery energy storage project from Eolian, taking over the remaining development and construction required to bring this project into operation.

Once online, SRP will have full dispatch control of the storage system and will decide when to deploy its energy output. The project would typically be charged when energy costs are lowest and be discharged in the early-evening when demand is highest.  

SRP currently has nearly 1,300 MW of batteries and pumped hydro and 2,300 MW of carbon-free resources serving its customers. By the end of 2027, SRP expects nearly half of its generation mix to be carbon-free. 

Salt River Project (SRP) and Plus Power held a ribbon cutting this week for the projects.

The 250 MW Sierra Estrella Energy Storage facility, located in Avondale, Arizona, is SRP’s largest grid-tied battery and now the state’s largest standalone battery. The 90 MW Superstition Energy Storage facility, located in Gilbert, Arizona, was expected to come online this week, SRP said June 24.

Both facilities feature Tesla lithium-ion battery energy storage systems. Plus Power worked with the Gilbert and Avondale Fire Departments on an emergency response plan and to ensure local first responders were engaged throughout the project design, construction, operation and training phases.

Additionally, both projects were supported by a federal investment tax credit from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

When both facilities are operational, nearly 1,300 MW of battery and pumped hydro storage will be on SRP’s system.

The utility aims to reduce emissions (from 2005 levels) by more than 65 percent by 2035 and 90 percent by 2050. As a part of that plan, SRP will have retired approximately 2,600 MW of coal-fired generation by 2032.

The Arizona utility, which serves much of the Phoenix metropolitan area, also seeks an additional 500 MW or more of peak electrical generating capacity by December 1, 2029. SRP also hopes to add up to 2,500 MW of new carbon-free resources by December 1, 2029.

As a key finding from its Integrated System Plan, SRP recently said it will need to double or triple power resource capacity from a “wide range of technologies” to meet projected energy demand and achieve 2035 sustainability goals.

Currently, more than 2,300 MW of carbon-free energy – including nearly 1,000 MW of solar energy – is serving SRP customers. The utility also receives 689 MW for its 17.49% share in the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant.

SRP expects to add another 500 MW of solar, 161 MW of wind, and over 600 MW of additional battery storage by the end of 2024. These additions include a 161 MW wind resource, the “Babbitt Ranch Energy Center,” to be built in Coconino County north of Flagstaff and a solar and battery storage project that will support Meta and other SRP customers with clean energy.

The utility said this RFP will be open until May 3, 2024.

The Saint Solar facility has been serving SRP commercial customers since the end of 2020 and is one of nine SRP-contracted solar resources delivering more than 650 MW of clean energy to SRP customers. The new battery energy storage system can store enough of the solar facility’s clean energy to provide power to more than 22,500 average-sized homes for four hours.

The Saint Solar facility and the connected battery energy storage system are operated by subsidiaries of NextEra Energy Resources, and solar energy from the site is delivered to 11 SRP commercial customers to help meet their renewable energy goals. The addition of battery energy storage is meant to benefit all SRP energy customers. This new storage will be in addition to SRP’s existing large investment in storage resources, including more than 1,100 MW of battery projects to be online by the end of 2024.

Energy Storage Deployments is an educational track at the POWERGEN International® exhibition and summit, which serves as an education, business and networking hub for electricity generators, utilities, and solution providers engaged in power generation. Join us from January 23-25, 2024, in New Orleans, Louisiana!

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently projected that coal-fired power plants will generate less electricity in 2024 (599 billion kWh) than the combined generation from solar and wind (688 billion kWh) for the first time on record.

Solar is the fastest-growing source of U.S. electric power generation. EIA expects at least 37 GW of new solar generating capacity to come online in 2024, up 39% from 2023. The agency projected 23 GW to come online in 2023, a 33% increase from 2022.

SRP has contracted with NextEra Energy Resources for additional Arizona-based solar and battery energy storage projects. These include the Sonoran Energy Center, an approximately 260-MW solar facility with the ability to charge a 1-GWh battery energy storage system. Located south of Buckeye, Arizona, Sonoran Energy Center will be the largest operational battery project in the state, the companies said. Additionally, SRP has contracted for the output of Storey Energy Center, an 88-MW solar and battery energy storage system operating in Coolidge.

SRP expects a 25% increase in energy demand by 2030. To meet this demand, SRP says its future power system will balance adding more renewables and energy storage resources with flexible natural gas to avoid compromising affordability and reliability. This aligns with SRP’s recently announced Integrated System Plan.

In addition to the battery storage SRP will have in operation in 2024, SRP is prepared to add 1,500 MW of new battery resources and 1,000 MW of long-duration energy storage capacity from pumped hydro by 2035. SRP also plans to add 7,000 MW of new renewable resources, which includes 6,000 MW of new, large-scale solar resources by 2035. This will triple SRP’s current extensive portfolio of solar resources scheduled to come online by the end of 2025.

Originally published in Renewable Energy World.

Under the contract, Meta will receive the majority portion of the solar energy generated by Ørsted’s Eleven Mile Solar Center, a 300 MW solar farm and 300 MW, four-hour battery energy storage system currently under construction in Pinal County, Arizona.

Once online in 2024, this will be the largest solar-plus-battery project on SRP’s power grid. The solar and stored energy not needed by the Meta data center will be available to SRP’s larger customer base. 

In addition to this newly announced project, Meta will also receive an allocation of 50 MW from the 100 MW West Line Solar Facility, which opened earlier this year in Eloy, AZ, and will soon receive a portion of solar energy from the 200-MW Brittlebush Solar Facility in Coolidge, AZ, which is expected to be online in 2024.

Eleven Mile Solar Center, located on over 2,000 acres, is expected to be operational in 2024. Ørsted is actively developing renewable energy projects in over 15 states, with a portfolio of 5.7 GW currently operating or under construction across the United States. 

The project’s storage capacity will contribute to the more than 1,100 MW of large-scale batteries that will be online on SRP’s system by the end of 2024.

This announcement follows SRP’s recent Integrated System Plan adoption, which will pursue battery investments, new solar additions, and more – backed by generation resources such as natural gas to ensure continued delivery of power.

SRP’s plan prepares to add 7,000 MW of new renewable resources, which includes 6,000 MW of new, large-scale solar resources by 2035. This is enough solar energy to power more than 1.3 million average size homes and will triple SRP’s current extensive portfolio of solar resources scheduled to come online by the end of 2025. 

CMBlu will build, own and operate the 5 MW, ten-hour duration project, named Desert Blume, on behalf of SRP at the utility’s Copper Crossing Energy and Research Center in Florence, Arizona.

The project is designed to store energy from Arizona’s abundant solar generation during the day and return that energy to the grid at night.

CMBlu’s Organic SolidFlow battery technology uses a non-flammable mix of solid electrolyte and water-based electrolytes the company says offers high energy density and performance. CMBlu says the systems are fully recyclable, free of rare metals, and housed inside buildings.

The company expects its battery system to store and deliver energy for two to three times longer per cycle than traditional lithium-ion technology, which typically last four hours.

This pilot is part of new development at the Copper Crossing Energy and Research Center. SRP is adding natural gas turbines with a total output of less than 100 MW, along with a solar facility capable of generating up to 55 MW.

Construction is expected to begin in early 2025. SRP and CMBlu expect the pilot to be operational in December 2025. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will support performance monitoring for the project.

In July, CMBlu announced the first customer deployment of its LDES system with Burgenland Energie in Austria. The company is also providing its system for a pilot in Milwaukee with WEC Energy.

Officials from Salt River Project (SRP), Plus Power, and the City of Avondale held a groundbreaking this week for the Sierra Estrella Energy Storage facility, which would be the largest standalone battery facility in Arizona once online in 2024.

Storage from the project will serve SRP customers during times of peak electricity demand and facilitate more renewable integration. The project will use Tesla lithium-ion batteries.

Sierra Estrella was one of two battery storage projects SRP announced with Plus Power in the Fall of 2022. The other, a 90 MW/360 MWh project called Superstition Energy Storage, is expected to be built in Gilbert, Arizona.

SRP has a goal of surpassing 1,100 MW in battery storage by 2024.

The utility aims to reduce emissions (from 2005 levels) by more than 65 percent by 2035 and 90 percent by 2050. As a part of that plan, SRP will have retired approximately 2,600 MW of coal-fired generation by 2032.

Arizona-based municipal utility Salt River Project (SRP) signed contracts with Plus Power to bring online two battery storage systems with a total combined output of 340 MW by early summer 2024.

The first project, called Sierra Estrella, will be a 250 MW/1 GWh storage system located in Avondale. The second, Superstition, will be a 90 MW/360 MWh system located in Gilbert. Both would be owned and operated by a subsidiary of Plus Power.

Both systems are expected to use Tesla lithium-ion batteries. Plus Power is currently working with the Gilbert and Avondale Fire Departments on an emergency response plan and to ensure local first responders are engaged throughout the project design, construction, operation and training phases.  

The project additions would bring SRP to 800 MW of energy storage contracted or owned by 2024.

SRP is also developing the Sonoran Energy Center, which would be the largest solar and battery storage project in Arizona. SRP has also contracted for another solar and battery project called the Storey Energy Center and will be adding a battery to the Saint Solar project site, both of which will be located near Coolidge. All three projects are expected to be placed into service in 2023.

SRP has a goal of reducing carbon intensity by more than 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050, from 2005 levels. SRP retired the 2,250 MW coal-fired Navajo plant in 2019 and plans to retire approximately 2,600 MW of coal-fired generation by 2032.

Four Arizona utilities and three public universities are forming a coalition to help the state move toward a carbon-neutral economy.

Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power and Southwest Gas, along with Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University, plan to discuss strategies and solutions.

The coalition established a new ASU-based center called the “Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy,” housed within the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory on the ASU Tempe campus. Among its first efforts, the center is expected to pursue creating a regional clean hydrogen hub.

“Today’s partnership will pave the way towards a carbon-neutral economy by 2050, creating the jobs of the future and fueling innovation and sustainable energy sources throughout our state,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)said.

Hydrogen produces no direct emissions of pollutants or greenhouse gases, and it offers ways to decarbonize a range of sectors. Interest in using hydrogen as an electric power-generating fuel is growing. In the United States, several power plants have announced plans to operate on a natural gas-hydrogen fuel mixture in combustion gas turbines.

The infrastructure law passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in 2021 establishes program guidance and funding to create regional clean hydrogen hubs, which the coalition will seek. The law defined a “regional clean hydrogen hub” as a network of clean hydrogen producers, potential clean hydrogen consumers, and connective infrastructure located in close proximity, with hubs encompassing the use of diverse feedstocks, end-uses and geographic placement. Beyond that, the specific details and implementation would have to be defined by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

The infrastructure law also includes funding for clean hydrogen electrolysis research and development, along with efforts to promote clean hydrogen manufacturing and recycling.

When fully operational, a new hub would help support a reliable and resilient electric grid, provide clean energy for the electric, transportation and industrial sectors, and potentially create economic development opportunities in communities that are adversely impacted by the closure of fossil-fueled plants.