The Texas battery boom is helping drive the ‘summer of storage’ in the US

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In what has become the summer of battery storage, California has stolen most of the headlines — but the spotlight is shifting to Texas, where more than 300 MW of storage capacity has been announced to be in development or under construction just in the last week.

The 100-MW Chisholm Grid battery energy storage system began construction in Fort Worth yesterday. The project is being developed by Able Grid Energy Solutions, MAP Energy and Astral Electricity and is set to begin commercial operations in mid-2021.

That’s the largest standalone battery energy storage system under construction outside of California known to pv magazine. When completed, the lithium-ion battery will likely clock in between 400 MWh and 600 MWh.

Able Grid shares that Chisholm will have an “initial rated capacity” of 100 MW.

LFP enters the fray

And while Able Grid has the only project under construction, the lion’s share of the new development in Texas will be coming from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas and Powin Energy Corporation, as the two companies have been selected by Key Capture Energy to build three battery systems totaling 200 MW in the Lone Star State.

The three batteries are the KCE TX 11, clocking in at 50 MW, KCE TX 12, the largest of the group at 100 MW and KCE TX 23, another 50 MW installation. Construction on the trio will begin in the fall of 2020, and the projects will be online before the summer of 2021.

Even more impressive than the size of these projects is the chemical makeup. All three will use a lithium iron phosphate solution, custom developed to meet Key Capture’s needs and again hinting that the battery chemistry revolution is upon us.

These projects are also important, as they represent significant large-scale battery storage investment outside of California.

The new capacity will provide an immediate boom to the Texas storage market, which currently has three operating projects totaling just under 30 MW.

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