15-acre rechargeable battery storage space system recommended for Licking County

• One of the largest rechargeable battery energy storage projects in the eastern half of the nation could be coming to Licking County in an area surrounded by data facilities, the upcoming Intel project and also various other projects where there is big need for power.

Energy investor Eolian, which runs 20,000 megawatts of energy storage, solar as well as wind generating capacity across the nation, has proposed a 200-megawatt battery storage space project to be built on a 15-acre site on Jug Street in Jersey Township, 200 feet from an American Electric Power substation. The company prepares to make use of 11.49 acres of the site for building and construction and also operation.

If authorized, building of Flint Grid Energy Storage System could start as quickly as following year and also be functional in 2024. The business has actually not divulged the expenses.

California-based Eolian intends to take power from the grid throughout periods of low need, shop it in the batteries and afterwards put it back onto the grid throughout periods of high demand. The firm would certainly profit on the spread in prices between what it pays for electricity and what it would certainly later collect.

" This function will certainly work as an important addition to the electrical power system by using lower-cost energy generated throughout off-peak periods to satisfy peak need, supply flexibility to enhance using various other clean, periodic renewable resources, and delay future conventional generation and transmission projects while staying clear of as well as also offsetting their environmental impacts," according to the business's application with the Ohio Power Siting Board. The board oversees new sources of power generation in the state.

Natural gas plants have historically been made use of to take care of durations of high need for electrical power, however they can take five to 10 mins to respond, the application claimed. On the other hand, battery energy storage space systems can respond in secs.

" It's simpler to activate," project developer Justin Adams claimed of the storage space systems. "You don't have to fire up a turbine."

Demand for storage space has grown in the last few years combined with the surge in renewable resource projects. At the same time, prices have been falling, making batteries much more affordable.

" If there is even more wind than needed, you can conserve some for later as well as put it on the grid," claimed Joshua Rhoades, study affiliate at the Weber Energy Group at the University of Texas.

Same goes for solar as well as other sorts of renewable power, he claimed.

In the case of Flint Grid, those batteries would certainly draw power from all sources of power on the grid-- coal, natural gas, nuclear in addition to renewable sources.

The batteries can also decrease the need for extra transmission systems as well as new sources of power, Rhoades said, by filling in for times of high demand.

Large battery storage projects are anticipated to contribute 10,000 megawatts to the grid between 2021 as well as 2023-- 10 times the capacity in 2019, according to an Energy Information Administration report from last August.

Large storage space projects are extra common in Texas and California than in the East, where storage space hasn't developed as fast.

In Ohio, a handful of the more than 40 solar projects under some phase of development or operating have storage space capacity, according to data from the Siting Board. Projects under 50 megawatts do not drop under Siting Board territory.

Flint Grid remained in the works long before Intel introduced its plans to spend $20 billion on two factories that will certainly be located a couple of miles away. It also is close to the Facebook, Google and Amazon data centers that are big individuals of electrical energy.

" We didn't locate it as a result of those locations," Adams claimed. "We located there since it's near the AEP substation it could connect to."

The storage space system will certainly include about 360 battery containers, each holding concerning 24 lithium iron phosphate batteries, according to the firm's application. The battery containers are 32 feet long, 5.5 feet wide and also 8.5 feet high.

The project will certainly develop 42 building and construction jobs and 3.5 long-term jobs.

A public hearing on the project has been set for 6 p.m. July 12 at the Courtyard by Marriott in New Albany.

Individually, Amazon has actually announced that it is intending two even more solar farms in Ohio, offering 18 the number of solar farms it is planning for the state as part of its initiative to power its operations with renewable energy.

The projects remain in Madison and also Marion counties.