Arizona’s largest grid-scale battery is now online

A 1,200 MWh storage facility developed by Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy has reached commercial operations.

July 7, 2025 Ryan Kennedy

Image: Recurrent Energy

The largest grid-scale battery in Arizona is now activated and dispatching stored electricity to utility APS.

Developed by Recurrent Energy, the development arm of solar manufacturer and energy storage provider Canadian Solar, the Papago Storage facility adds 300 MW / 1,200 MWh of flexible power to the Phoenix-area grid. It is comprised of roughly 240 grid-scale containerized storage systems housed in 20-foot containers.

The project is the first of three Recurrent Energy projects with tolling agreements in place with APS. Together, the three will add 450 MW / 1,800 MWh of battery storage capacity and 150 MW of solar capacity.

“Bringing online one of our state’s largest battery storage projects during this critical time when energy demand is growing rapidly will help our utilities execute an all-of-the-above response to that demand and further diversify Arizona’s energy resources,” said Kevin Thompson, chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Once fully operational, the projects are expected to storage and deliver enough electricity to serve the demand equivalent of an estimated 72,000 homes for four hours, supporting peak summer electricity demand. The 150 MW solar facility is expected to generate enough electricity for the equivalent of about 24,000 Arizona homes.

“We’re proud to deliver flexible capacity that meets the state’s growing energy needs,” said Ismael Guerrero, chief executive officer, Recurrent Energy.

Canadian Solar’s majority-owned subsidiary e-Storage served as the engineering, procurement, and construction provider for the project and is contracted to support the facility under a long-term service agreement.

The project closed $513 million in project financing last summer.

The project installed Canadian Solar’s SolBank, a containerized lithium-ferro-phosphate battery energy storage system designed and manufactured for utility-scale applications. Canadian Solar’s most recent SolBank battery contains over 5 MWh per 20-foot container and utilizes 314 Ah battery cells. The battery pack is IP67-rated and engineered to avoid dust, humidity, and water condensation. Find the technical specifications for SolBank here.

The project is expected to contribute to the local community through tax revenues and Recurrent Energy will directly support the Harquahala Fire District and Arlington Elementary School in Maricopa County via donations through its community funding program.

To date, Recurrent Energy has developed, built and connected roughly 12 GW of solar projects and 6 GWh of energy storage projects, ranking it among the largest developers in the world. As of the end of March, the company had a global development pipeline of 25 GW of solar and over 69 GWh of energy storage capacity, excluding projects in China, the largest solar market in the world.

Canadian Solar is a long-standing solar module manufacturer and has delivered nearly 157 GW of modules over the past 24 years. The company’s e-Storage subsidiary has shipped over 11 GWh of battery energy storage systems, and the company said it has a contracted backlog of over $3.2 billion of orders.

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