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$1 Billion Solar and Battery Storage Project Breaks Ground In Utah 26

Posted by BeauHD from the go-big-or-go-home dept.
rPlus Energies has broken ground on a $1 billion solar + battery storage project in east-central Utah. Electrek reports: The Green River Energy Center in Emery County, Utah, is a 400-megawatt (MW) solar and 400 MW/1,600-megawatt-hour battery storage project that will supply power to western electric utility PacifiCorp under a power purchase agreement. EliTe Solar is supplying solar panels, and Tesla is providing battery storage. Sundt Construction is the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor for the project. Securing over $1 billion in construction debt financing in July, the Green River project is expected to create around 500 jobs. Salt Lake City-based rPlus Energies gives the target completion date as 2026.
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$1 Billion Solar and Battery Storage Project Breaks Ground In Utah More

$1 Billion Solar and Battery Storage Project Breaks Ground In Utah

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  • Instead of nuclear (Score:3)

    by Smonster ( 2884001 ) on Tuesday September 24, 2024 @12:46AM (#64811735)
    It is worth noting that politicians and power brokers had been trying to build a nuclear power plant near Green River, Utah for decades. It would have been a disaster on my levels. It just is not the place for it. No backup water source if anything goes wrong. The water taken from the over allocated Colorado River tributary would not have been trivial. And any water they would have managed to put back in the river would have been a lot warmer which would have decimated the fish. This project makes way more sense for the area. i say that as someone who is pretty bullish on nuclear, in the right places. Really, Utah could and should, be a Saudi Arabia of photovoltaic and thermal solar energy. Large swaths of the state of the state are very sunny, hot, and largely devoid of life.

    • Re:Instead of nuclear (Score:4, Informative)

      by Szeraax ( 1117903 ) on Tuesday September 24, 2024 @12:53AM (#64811743)

      To add to this, we're seeing some very interesting research about solar farms INCREASING the biodiversity of the areas that they are located in. Seems to be a combination related to shade, native plants, pollinators, etc. that benefit.

      That's a BIG win, IF we have the distribution to manage it well.

  • Where will Tesla be sourcing the battery packs for this installation? Natron, hopefully?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • That is only keeping the lights on for four hours after sunset. Still four hours will handle the evening peak of the "duck curve" and then demand drops to the base load.

      1600 MW-hr divided by 3.9 MW-hr per Tesla Max Power battery is 410 batteries at 42 tons a piece is 17,230 tons, or about as much as a WWII heavy cruiser.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • My math on this is 400 MW of solar, but with the typical over the day spread. The batteries can either charge or discharge up to 400 MW, but can hold 1600 MWh.

          In that the panels and batteries are both at the same site, losses should be reasonable (and might already be built into the number). This balance should let the "combination" run pretty much one deep cycle per day most days:

          In KWh:

          1,600,000 x 300 x 10 = 4,800,000,000 or 4.8 billion KWh, which works out to $0.21/KWh.

          Add in some incentives, plus the

        • It depends on how big the inverters are. The batteries can supply a little for a long time or a lot for a short time, at least up to the point where internal resistance heats them up (I^2 * R are always a bitch) or electrolyte diffusion can't keep up.

          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • The terms "pre capacity factor" and "post capacity factor" do not exist.
              The plant is a 400MW peak plant.
              If you can not calculate how much energy that is on a clear sky day: go back to school?

              • Comment removed based on user account deletion

                • Because no one reports averages for a solar plant - or any other plant.
                  It is always peak aka nameplate.

                  What the CF aka average for this plant is: no one knows. You have a wild guess after some "key months" and/or a full year or several years.

                  Bottom line: a plant is not run by a CF. It is run by weather prognosises and projected output regarding such a prognosis based on measured load curve.

                  For example, yesterday was a perfect sunny day. I have the measured load curve for that day. Because of "reasons" (beca

                  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

                    • No one uses CFs.
                      As the CF is determined how you plan to run a plant.
                      If I have a dispatch able plant, I can run it load following, based on grid load. Then I have perhaps a CF of 65%
                      But that is my choice.
                      Or I run it as a base load plant, close to 100% power rating over nearly 100% of the time.
                      Completely my choice.
                      Has nothing to do with the plant technology.
                      I think you meant CF 100% though, and not 1 :)

                    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • "400 MW/1,600-megawatt-hour battery storage project"

    The article includes both numbers you need, power supplied and energy storage. I hope this catches on.

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