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The US’s largest solar + battery storage project just came online

The US’s largest solar + battery storage project, Edwards & Sanborn, has come online in Kern County, California.

Edwards & Sanborn, which sits on 4,660 acres in the Mojave desert, was developed and is owned and operated by Terra-Gen. It comprises 875 megawatts (MW) of solar and 3,320 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy storage. 

The project sits on both private land and land belonging to Edwards Air Force Base. The project’s contractor, Mortensen, says it’s the largest public-private partnership the US Air Force has ever taken part in. It features a massive 1.9 million First Solar PV panels and 120,720 LG Chem, Samsung, and BYD long-duration energy storage batteries connected by 400 miles of wire.

In total, Edwards & Sanborn generates 875 MWdc of solar energy and has 3,287 megawatt-hours of energy storage with a total interconnection capacity of 1,300 MW.

Top comment by bugaboo jones

Liked by 8 people

Very impressive. I hope Michelle reports on the progress and success(or not) of the battery storage in this large of a system. Apparently Tesla is not the only company that makes battery storage products. The competition is coming.

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The project supplies power to the City of San Jose, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Clean Power Alliance, and Starbucks, among others. Brian Gorda, vice president of engineering at Terra-Gen, said, “Now fully operational, this facility is a transformational project in the industry and is providing resiliency to the grid.”

Read more: The US government opens 22 million acres of federal lands to solar


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Avatar for Michelle Lewis Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis is a writer and editor on Electrek and an editor on DroneDJ, 9to5Mac, and 9to5Google. She lives in White River Junction, Vermont. She has previously worked for Fast Company, the Guardian, News Deeply, Time, and others. Message Michelle on Twitter or at michelle@9to5mac.com. Check out her personal blog.