What about the unbelievable wind and solar energy? Some energy experts are still throwing that old ball, but in the meantime, careful investors are cultivating billions of kilowatts of new energy storage facilities. According to them, the most recent example of financial discourse, and the most distorted, comes from Golden State, California.
A huge new energy storage facility for the Golden State
California has a lot of wind and sun, and it has a huge renewable energy goal that will make it the perfect place to launch huge clean energy projects, such as large new energy storage facilities.
California is a perfect place to show how fast-moving fossil fuels power stations are rapidly evolving. After all, the state is seen as a local warrior, but it has played a key role in the fossil energy industry in the United States. In addition to fossil fuels and existing transmission lines, it is filled with oil and gas wells, and some are ripe for release by clean energy investors.
The new energy storage facility is a demonstration of this. Behind the project is Vista, a multidisciplinary energy company. They are offering it as the largest battery-powered storage facility of its kind, and they are not kidding.
The institute is located in Mosland, near Monterrey, California. Launched in 2020, it has expanded its capacity to 400 megawatts or 1,600 megawatts per hour. According to Vistara, the expansion trampled on Moss Landing in the world record.
That doesn’t matter. So far, work has been completed in the first two stages ahead of schedule, and Vista is looking forward to another expansion of the 6,000 megawatts-per-hour factory to 1,500 megawatts.
For those who have the results in your home, California, Pacific Gas & Electric Company, LG Energy Solutions and Engineering and Construction Company Burns & MacDonald are also involved in the project.
Moss Energy Energy Project is a good start…
Land use issues are already threatening to delay the clean energy transfer, so the use of any existing power-connected stations is important to accelerate the transition to clean energy. Large batteries, such as the Moss Landing project, allow for more wind and solar development on the grid, so the impact will be felt beyond the site itself.
Vistara CEO Kurt Morgan said: “The best thing about this unique site is that it has more space – up to 1,500 MW / 6,000 MW – in a responsible way, including the existing site infrastructure, existing transmission lines and grid connections.” They said.
The battery compartment is located in the turbine building on the site, which is up to three football fields, so consider that all those batteries focus on digging in the pollen area instead of occupying the prefabricated area.
Because of its prehistoric location, Moss Landing has a fossil energy source. The story begins in It was built in the 1950’s with gas and electricity. PG&E has been around for 50 years.
Vista has received a lot of good press for the Moss Lander power plant under the Vistara Zero branch. For other energy storage projects in California and Texas, Vista Zero also produces a lot of solar energy. At 2,300 megawatts in Texas, during the 1990s, the Commando Peak nuclear power plant was considered a zero-emission facility, although a severe fire at the plant raised some red flags related to keeping all your energy eggs in one basket. At the time of writing, it is planned to cut off two parts of the plant between 2030 and 2033.
… But Vista has a long line for Hoy
Below, the Moss Energy Energy Project is part of a larger plan to reduce batteries for fossil fuels, at least in addition to fuel and solar, until fossils form a grid.
Vista is doing a lot in this regard and the climate Piper has little time to pay. The Mossland Energy Facility is counting on Vista sub-Luminant, which generates 39,000 megawatts of capacity in 12 states.
The shiny portfolio includes some sunscreen, but since 2019 its sunscreens have not been listed on the pie chart. Natural gas and coal still share the throne, nuclear to some extent a slide.
Nonetheless, Vistra’s interest in wind power was on the rise, and other strong signs of renewable energy were growing this year, partially resolved by a complaint by the Sera Club. The settlement includes the closure of Vistara Jopa’s coal and gas power plant in Illinois, and the lobby for the proposed “Illinois Coal for Solar and Energy Storage Act.”
If approved, the bill would help pastoralists with Vista plans to convert many other coal-fired power plants into renewable energy in Illinois. The company has already allocated $ 550 million for the project, which includes a total of nine stations, 300 megawatts of solar capacity, and 175 megawatts of battery-powered storage. Vistra plans a similar fate for its coal-fired power plants in Ohio.
If you think Joppa will soon be covered by solar panels, consider again. Clearly, the station is not suitable for converting solar energy into utility metrics. Instead, a 45-megawatt battery goes there, which is enough to serve 22,500 common homes.
Long-term power storage beyond batteries
That number of 22,500 houses may seem impressive, but the big question is how long. Battery-type power storage systems usually last only a few hours. This in the form of natural gas is enough to illuminate the grid of high demand without the need for additional fossil fuels. However, four hours is not enough to replace all existing “peer” plants.
Our friends at Power Magazine According to a recent study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, about 150 gigabytes of fossil fuels will be retired in the United States over the next 20 years. Battery-type power storage units can only replace those 28 gigabytes in four hours.
It takes four hours or more to replace the rest. The U.S. Department of Energy has ignored the problem with DAAS’s “Increased Duration of Electrical Storage” program. The acronym is a little longer, and so is the effort. DAYS requires at least 10 hours of energy storage, typically 100 hours or more.
Considering the type of battery storage, this may seem like a hard drive to break. However, the installed hydroelectric power already meets the bill, which ensures that this is possible. The problem with Pump Hydro is the limited options for site selection.
Flow batteries are another water-based option that allows for a much wider range. The water is contained in basins and can be stored in a relatively small container or in a large facility, depending on the conditions of use.
Another option is to apply gravity-based pump hydroelectric power to solid objects rather than water.
One interesting mashp company in the area is Energy Volt, a company that is considering the use of recycled wind turbine knives in a gravity-based storage system that looks like a Ferris wheel.
The compressed air storage space is also growing and expanding, so keep up with that with heating systems and other exciting storage solutions.
Follow me on Twitter @TinaMCasey.
Photo – Moss Landing Power Storage in Vista.
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