The world’s biggest battery is being planned in an oil patch south of Lubbock, Texas, to little fanfare.
According to IndustryWeek,a news magazine that covers the manufacturing sector, the battery is being constructed by a little-known solar developer.
The energy storage system, which would hold almost 500 megawatts of electricity, is being built alongside a solar farm of the same size.
Once the projects are completed, battery storage will surge more than sixfold to 584 megawatts. This is important because, as Wes Reeves of Xcel Energy notes, the ability to store energy on a large scale would make renewable energy more useful. That’s because wind farms often produce more electricity overnight when few people are using it.
As of yet, Texas has been frittering away much of this overnight energy, with no means of storing it.