Energy developer Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. has announced two grid-scale energy storage projects near Chicago.
Battery-based energy storage projects can offer benefits to the electricity grid by keeping the alternating current's frequency steady, and can do so at a lower cost than alternatives like ramping generators up and down. Thanks in part to new federal policies, battery projects capable of providing frequency regulation can now earn increased revenue for their owners.
This week RES Americas announced plans to pursue two energy storage projects in Illinois. The company describes itself as a specialist in third-party development and construction
services for the renewable energy, transmission, and energy storage
industries. It also builds renewable
energy and storage projects that it owns itself.
In an apparent tribute to the Blues Brothers, its two newly announced projects will be named Jake and Elwood. The Elwood
Energy Storage Center will be sited in West Chicago, while the Jake Energy Storage Center will be in Joliet. Beyond names and locations, the projects bear greater resemblance to each other than to the Blues Brothers. Both projects were acquired from Glidepath Power in September. Each will be interconnected to the Commonwealth Edison Co. electric grid, and will have an operational life expectancy of at least ten years. Each will use lithium iron phosphate batteries with a 19.8 megawatt capacity, capable of storing 7.8 megawatt-hours of energy.
RES Americas expects to begin construction on both
projects this winter, and to complete them by August 2015. When complete, the battery projects will be able to provide real-time frequency regulation service to the PJM Interconnection LLC ancillary services market. Thanks to recent federal orders including FERC Order No. 784, faster and more accurate regulation
resources -- like battery storage arrays -- should be compensated more highly. These policies both increase consumer
demand and reduce developers' barriers to entry
into battery-based energy storage projects.
Other battery projects are moving forward, based on values other than frequency regulation. Last month,
Southern California Edison Company brought its Tehachapi Wind Energy Storage Project online. That $50 million project, the largest currently operating in North America, is capable of storing 32 megawatt-hours,
deliverable as an 8 megawatt stream of energy for 4 hours. The Tehachapi system is designed to help even out the flow of power produced by wind farms, which is naturally variable and intermittent. Battery systems can also be designed to improve local reliability, support microgrids, or serve as non-transmission alternatives to building more utility wires.
For more information about battery energy storage projects, recent policies favoring energy storage and the opportunities they create, contact Todd Griset at Preti Flaherty at 207-791-3000.
Energy powers society; society's choices shape energy policy. A blog about our energy resources and the choices they present for society.
Showing posts with label RES Americas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RES Americas. Show all posts
Wind to power Microsoft's Texas data center
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Microsoft has agreed to purchase energy produced by a Texas wind farm to power its data center in San Antonio. The announcement, posted on the official blog of Microsoft's Sustainability Development Team, describes a 20-year power purchase agreement with RES Americas under which Microsoft will purchase all of the output of the 110 megawatt Keechi Wind project located about 280 miles north.
The power purchase agreement fits with Microsoft's stated commitment to carbon neutrality. Since 2012, Microsoft has imposed an internal fee on the use of carbon-based forms of energy; Microsoft uses that fee to make investments in alternative or carbon-neutral energy, such as this power purchase agreement.
The Keechi project will be owned and operated by RES Americas, a subsidiary of British company RES Ltd. RES Americas currently operates over 600 MW of renewable energy projects, and has a renewable energy construction portfolio that exceeds 6,500 MW and 64 projects, as well as 534 miles of transmission lines. Its Keechi project is expected to cost $200 million, and will feature 55 turbines expected to produce 430,000 megawatt hours of energy per year. (To put this figure in context, it could power up to 45,000 homes, or cover between 5 and 10 percent of Microsoft's total electricity consumption.) Construction is expected to begin in 2014, with the project going operational by June 2015.
Microsoft is not alone in promoting its use of renewable or alternative energy to power its data centers. In 2012 Google entered into an agreement to purchase the output of a wind farm in Oklahoma to power its Pryor data center. Apple's new data center in Maiden, North Carolina is powered in part by a solar photovoltaic array and a biogas-fed fuel cell. eBay has proposed siting a 6 megawatt natural gas-fired fuel cell at its Utah data center. Whether the data center is powered by on-site distributed generation or buys power from a designated off-site renewable resource, the trend is toward promoting cleaner, greener computing through these arrangements. These choices may help the companies with cost control and power reliability as well as public relations.
Will large consumers of electricity continue to invest in alternative or renewable electric generation? If so, will they favor arms-length power purchase agreements with developers of remote projects, or will they rely more heavily on on-campus development of distributed generation? Will this trend spread beyond the big names so far - Microsoft, Apple, Google, and eBay - to the point where smaller or less tech-oriented companies develop or do similar projects and deals?
The power purchase agreement fits with Microsoft's stated commitment to carbon neutrality. Since 2012, Microsoft has imposed an internal fee on the use of carbon-based forms of energy; Microsoft uses that fee to make investments in alternative or carbon-neutral energy, such as this power purchase agreement.
The Keechi project will be owned and operated by RES Americas, a subsidiary of British company RES Ltd. RES Americas currently operates over 600 MW of renewable energy projects, and has a renewable energy construction portfolio that exceeds 6,500 MW and 64 projects, as well as 534 miles of transmission lines. Its Keechi project is expected to cost $200 million, and will feature 55 turbines expected to produce 430,000 megawatt hours of energy per year. (To put this figure in context, it could power up to 45,000 homes, or cover between 5 and 10 percent of Microsoft's total electricity consumption.) Construction is expected to begin in 2014, with the project going operational by June 2015.
Microsoft is not alone in promoting its use of renewable or alternative energy to power its data centers. In 2012 Google entered into an agreement to purchase the output of a wind farm in Oklahoma to power its Pryor data center. Apple's new data center in Maiden, North Carolina is powered in part by a solar photovoltaic array and a biogas-fed fuel cell. eBay has proposed siting a 6 megawatt natural gas-fired fuel cell at its Utah data center. Whether the data center is powered by on-site distributed generation or buys power from a designated off-site renewable resource, the trend is toward promoting cleaner, greener computing through these arrangements. These choices may help the companies with cost control and power reliability as well as public relations.
Will large consumers of electricity continue to invest in alternative or renewable electric generation? If so, will they favor arms-length power purchase agreements with developers of remote projects, or will they rely more heavily on on-campus development of distributed generation? Will this trend spread beyond the big names so far - Microsoft, Apple, Google, and eBay - to the point where smaller or less tech-oriented companies develop or do similar projects and deals?
Googa 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for wind energy in Texas that
will be funded in part by proceeds from Microsoft’s carbon fee - See
more at:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft-green/archive/2013/11/04/microsoft-signing-long-term-deal-to-buy-wind-energy-in-texas.aspx#sthash.4l62oNbo.dpuf
a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for wind energy in Texas that
will be funded in part by proceeds from Microsoft’s carbon fee - See
more at:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft-green/archive/2013/11/04/microsoft-signing-long-term-deal-to-buy-wind-energy-in-texas.aspx#sthash.4l62oNbo.dpuf
a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for wind energy in Texas that
will be funded in part by proceeds from Microsoft’s carbon fee - See
more at:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft-green/archive/2013/11/04/microsoft-signing-long-term-deal-to-buy-wind-energy-in-texas.aspx#sthash.4l62oNbo.dpuf
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