Duke Energy brought a 50 MW battery energy storage system online this month at the location of the former Allen coal plant in North Carolina. This facility represents the first of several planned storage deployments at the site where the utility retired its legacy coal units. The project utilizes existing transmission infrastructure on Lake Wylie to store electricity for use during peak demand periods on the regional grid.
The four-hour battery system consists of lithium-ion units designed to provide 200 MWH of energy. Duke Energy said it completed the installation ahead of schedule and under budget with an investment of approximately $100 million.
The project qualifies for federal tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act including a 10% bonus for reinvesting in a community formerly dependent on coal production, said the utility.
Storage capacity at this location will help Duke balance the intermittent nature of solar generation, which has seen significant growth in North Carolina. Based on current deployment rates, it is likely that solar will surpass wind as the third-largest source of electricity. And solar may soon topple coal as the second-largest source of electricity generation in the United States.
The batteries can charge using surplus energy from nearby solar farms or the Catawba Nuclear Station during low demand hours. This stored energy is then dispatched to the grid in the morning or evening when residential and commercial usage reaches its daily peaks.
Construction on a second and larger battery project is slated to begin at the same site in May with a capacity of 167 MW. Duke Energy also proposed a third battery installation and a regional operations center for renewable energy at the former Allen plant. These efforts form part of a broader utility plan to deploy over 6,000 MW of energy storage by 2035 to replace retiring fossil fuel capacity.
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