Salt River Project is joining solar storage market leaders

• One of the major public utilities in Arizona is starting deployment of a 250 MW / 1,000 MWh storage facility in Rainbow Valley, the southern neighborhood of Buckeye (Phoenix Metropolitan Area). Sonoran Energy Center is going to become the biggest storage system in Arizona and one of the biggest in the US.

In addition to Buckeye-located energy center, Salt River is also starting construction of one more solar-and-storage plant – Storey Energy Center. The facility will be located in Coolidge, the state of Arizona. The station is announced to have 88MW capacity. 

Both energy facilities are scheduled to start operation by summer 2023. Both will belong to NextEra Energy subsidiary companies. 

By comparison, the biggest announced Li-I batt projects globally include 316 megawatt / 2528 MWh in NYC, 409 megawatt / 900 MWh in Florida, 300 megawatt / 1200 MWh and 182.5 megawatt / 730 MWh in California, as well as 300 megawatt / 1.2 GWh in LA. 

Apart from the two ventures mentioned, SRP has far more ambitious plans for development. In six years, the utility hopes to supplement its portfolio with a new 1,000 megawatts of large-scale solar facility. As of today, the expected projects include the above 250-megawatt facility in the area of Buckeye, which is likely to supply power to Sonoran, and 88-megawatt energy plant in Coolidge; two 100-megawatt PV plants in Pinal County (in Eloy by sPower and in Coolidge by NEER), as well as one more 100-megawatt installation, on which no details are available so far.

With the listed facilities operational, Arizona is predicted to rank the third in US with total capacity of 3,873 MW. While Texas and Florida are expanding capacity gradually and steadily, Salt River utility is doing its best to hold the state’s place among major large-scale solar producers.