Clearway Energy begins construction on $605 million energy storage portfolio in Utah

Each project will use 4-hour Tesla Megapack lithium ion batteries located adjacent to four operating solar power plants.

March 13, 2025 Anne Fischer

The BESS portfolio will be located adjacent to solar installations including Granite Mountain E

Image: Clearway Energy

Clearway Energy Group closed financing on a $605 million portfolio and has begun construction of its Honeycomb energy storage project in Utah.

The project includes four 80 MW battery energy storage systems (BESS) located in Beaver and Iron counties. Each BESS is adjacent to an operating solar energy portfolio owned and operated by Clearway.

Clearway Energy told pv magazine USA that each plant in the portfolio has a capacity of 80 MW, and includes Granite Mountain E, Enterprise Solar, Iron Springs and Escalante.

Each project will use 4-hour Tesla Megapack lithium ion batteries. When the Tesla Megapack was unveiled in 2019, a blogpost published on the Tesla website said that one of the benefits of the battery system was that the new utility-scale battery comes fully assembled, enabling it to “deploy an emissions free, 250 MW, 1 GWh power plant in less than three months on a three-acre footprint,” a speed four times faster than that for a fossil fuel plant of the same size, according to the company.

Collectively the Tesla batteries will store up to 1,280 MWh of dispatchable power.

The Honeycomb project brings Clearway’s total Utah fleet up to 869 MW.

“The Honeycomb battery energy storage systems represent not only a major investment in grid stability in Utah, but also advances Utah’s goal of energy security for the state,” said Steve Ryder, chief financial officer for Clearway. “We value our partnerships with our financial partners, PacifiCorp, and the Iron and Beaver County communities for their collective support in bringing reliable, dispatchable power to the region.”

Honeycomb is contracted with PacifiCorp under a 20-year toll agreement, which is a long-term contract between the seller (Clearway) and the off-taker (PacifiCorp), which is intended to provide the utility with dispatchable, reliable power.

The portfolio was financed by a bank consortium consisting of KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc., CoBank ACB, DNB Bank ASA, New York Branch, U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance (a U.S. Bank subsidiary), National Australia Bank Limited, Bank of America, National Association and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale’s New York branch.

Clearway partnered with Rosendin on the project’s construction, which will create up to 50 jobs that the company says are above the prevailing-wage. In addition, approximately 15% of total worked hours will be fulfilled by apprentices.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes a myriad of incentives for the solar industry, but in order to take advantage of many of them, solar developers must meet specific guidelines as far as pay, number of apprentices employed and ratio of workers who come from qualified apprenticeship programs.

Once Honeycomb is operational, expected in 2026, Clearway reports that the project will contribute $60 million in property and sales taxes to the local community over the life of the projects to support area schools, hospitals, and other public services.

Clearway Energy Group along with its public affiliate Clearway Energy, Inc., has a portfolio of approximately 11.8 GW of gross generating capacity in 26 states, including 9.1 GW of wind, solar and battery energy storage assets, and over 2.8 GW of conventional dispatchable power generation providing critical grid reliability services.

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