Battery storage necessary for solar power expansion in Florida

PARRISH, Fla. – A key to the way forward for Florida’s electrical grid is a tool that might be confused for a pc server.

This equipment is definitely a battery module. By themselves, every of the elements is as highly effective as 2,000 iPhone batteries. However collectively, as a group of tens of hundreds of modules, they make up what’s the world’s largest photo voltaic battery storage facility owned by the state’s largest utility, Florida Energy & Gentle.

FPL’s Manatee Power Storage Middle is a cutting-edge photo voltaic power know-how in an evolving pastoral setting in fast-growing Southwest Florida.

At night time or when there’s thick cloud cowl overhead, power from the solar captured by the utility’s close by photo voltaic panel subject may be saved for later use, additional decreasing the necessity to depend on fossil fuels and permitting extra renewable power generated to not go to waste.

Battery storage can fill electrical photo voltaic hole on cloudy days, at night time

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Very like a rooftop photo voltaic contractor may advise a house owner to put in a battery pack in tandem with their photo voltaic system, battery storage is changing into an integral piece of large-scale renewable power investments.

“I feel it’s secure to say that storage is a mandatory element as we evolve to extra intermittent sources,” mentioned Bryan Jacob, the photo voltaic program director for the nonprofit Southern Alliance for Clear Power.

Battery storage might help bridge the hole between power sources on the occasions of day when solar energy would come on-line and offline, Jacob mentioned, or it may function the increase wanted throughout spikes in utilization, similar to when folks return residence after work.

When these utility-scale photo voltaic investments have been first being made, “curtailment of photo voltaic wasn’t a big difficulty but,” Jacobs mentioned, referring to the method the place renewable power output is diminished from its full potential attributable to supply-demand wants.

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“So now you may take in extra technology of what could be taking place with out having to curtail it,” he mentioned.

FPL has greater than 500 megawatts of solar energy storage, the majority of it coming from the 409-megawatt Manatee Photo voltaic Power Middle in Parrish. Trying 10 years into the longer term, Juno Seashore-based FPL hopes to extend its battery capability seven-fold by including one other 3,200 megawatts of storage.

“You don’t want as many batteries (as photo voltaic crops) as a result of they don’t make new power, they simply retailer it for later,” Silver mentioned. “Lengthy-term, I feel we’re going to begin to see there’s going to be worth for batteries serving to to satisfy these afternoon peaks and early morning peaks as we get increasingly photo voltaic on the system.”

FPL photo voltaic battery situated in rural city that’s seeing inhabitants development

The Parrish facility, which began operations in December, is located on 40 acres off of State Street 62 in unincorporated Manatee County, the place single-family residence developments are slowly taking on farmland as Florida costs onward with its speedy development, in flip including extra customers onto the grid.

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About 400 battery modules, every weighing greater than 200 kilos and manufactured by Samsung, are rigorously stacked into every of the 132 massive steel containers on the location. Exterior of every container is a warning: “DANGER. Lithium-ion batteries. Fireplace and Explosion Danger.”

Every container can retailer about 7 megawatts, mentioned Marcos Quintana, regional supervisor for FPL. This storage facility can energy 329,000 houses for 2 hours.

This assortment of modules shops power that comes largely from the solar energy plant, which sits a few half-mile away because the crow flies.

“If in a pinch we have to cost quick and photo voltaic just isn’t obtainable, it’s technically able to charging from the grid,” mentioned Matt Silver, challenge director for FPL improvement. “However clearly, we wish to cost from the photo voltaic as a lot as doable.”

Location of FPL battery speaks to utility’s previous, current and future

Within the background of the photo voltaic panels and storage facility is certainly one of FPL’s pure fuel energy crops, the place two Seventies period red-and-white striped smokestacks that inform this half century-old story of Florida’s previous and future from fossil fuels to renewable power.

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These smokestacks have been set to be decommissioned with the arrival of the photo voltaic battery facility, however now they may solely be used if excessive electrical energy utilization in wintertime necessitates it, a part of FPL’s effort to organize for excessive winter climate.

The 74.5-megawatt solar energy plant, related to the storage facility by buried cables, began operation in 2016 and is made up of greater than 340,000 panels. A herd of cattle roam simply outdoors the gate, whereas inside, wild hog traps assist lure the notoriously harmful species from the costly tools.

FPL has 30 megawatts of photo voltaic storage on two of its different photo voltaic websites in Suwannee and Columbia counties, and the utility has various smaller-scale pilot tasks whereas exploring electrical automobile charging stations. Florida’s different main electrical utilities, particularly Tampa Electrical Co. and Duke Power, are additionally making investments in battery storage.

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“They’re actually simply one other instrument within the toolkit,” Silver mentioned. “Everyone’s at all times on the lookout for the silver bullet or the magic wand that we’ll wave and that’ll remedy all of your power wants. However like the rest in life, it’s in all probability going to be a wide range of issues that add up cumulatively to unravel our power wants.”