Alliant Energy upgrades 2.55-MW Iowa solar plant with storage

• Greater than 9,500 solar panels currently produce clean power at Alliant Energy's brand-new Marshalltown Solar Garden in Marshalltown, Iowa. This pilot project integrates solar energy and battery storage space to create, shop and provide power to clients.

The Marshalltown Solar Garden rests next to Alliant Energy's Marshalltown Generating Station, a natural-gas-fired facility. Both energy resources are part of the company's energy mix, helping Alliant Energy to proceed providing energy to its consumers.

" This solar-battery combination enables us to offer our customers with solar energy during the day and also evening," said Terry Kouba, head of state, Alliant Energy Iowa. "The solar area includes power to the grid when the sun is radiating and then our battery enables our consumers to proceed using this renewable energy resource at night when the sun isn't shining."

The 2.55-MWac solar system in Marshalltown can power almost 400 homes. With complete sunlight, the solar panels can additionally fully charge the 548 kWh battery within two hrs. When released, the battery can power nearly 200 residences for 2 hrs. The solar yard came to be operational in mid-February and also the battery was just taken into service this week.

The firm has 3 battery sites in Iowa, as well as each is being used to pilot different combinations of solar + storage technology. The Marshalltown battery is the business's first that's straight connected to a utility-sized solar field. The battery in Wellman gives resiliency as well as dependability in a backwoods with a wealth of customer-owned solar systems. In a similar way, the battery in Decorah will be utilized as an "electron bank" to handle ability on a circuit as opposed to reconstructing it.

In 2003, Alliant Energy constructed its initial planetary system in Iowa at the Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids. In 2015, the company added photovoltaic panels to boost Indian Creek's capacity. Alliant Energy has 2 Dubuque solar gardens, which have been producing clean power for customers since 2017.