California energy regulators awarded a $42 million grant to energy company International Electric Power to develop a long-term energy storage project to provide up to two weeks of backup power at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, California, one of the largest and most energetic. – Intensive facilities of the US Marine Corps.
The funding from the California Energy Commission, announced Dec. 11, will allow construction on the 125,000-acre base of what is expected to be the largest energy storage project at a facility in the United States Department of Defense. The zinc hybrid cathode aqueous battery system is expected to provide 6MW/48MWh of storage, with plans to later expand the capacity to 50MW/400MWh.
The total cost of the initial installation of the system is estimated at $70 million, according to the commission, and the developer is willing to provide other financing.
Lakeside, Calif.-based Global Power Group Inc., which specializes in energy security and clean energy resiliency projects, has been selected as the contractor, said Michael Firenze, senior vice president of developers who leads the teams responsible for design, engineering and purchasing. construction and operation of the Camp Pendleton project.
“There are opportunities for vendors or subcontractors in this project, and there will be many more long-term energy storage projects in the future,” he noted.
The energy storage system, which is expected to become operational in the summer of 2027, is designed to provide backup power for outages of up to 14 days at the base, which can house up to 70,000 military personnel and civilians during the day. More routinely, the battery system will help manage California’s power grid by storing energy in times of overproduction and distributing it when there is demand.
A commission study of the proposal released earlier this month says the batteries’ zinc cathode chemistry “is extremely stable” and “is not subject to thermal runaway,” obviating the need for a specific system of extinguishing fires.
Commission Chairman David Hochschild emphasized the importance of long-term energy storage in achieving California’s goal of 100 percent clean electricity by 2045. “This project will help transform the way we store and use renewable energy, ensuring reliability in extreme conditions,” he said.
In the past five years, the state has increased its battery storage capacity by more than 15 times, to more than 13.3 GW of installed capacity today, from 770 MW in 2019, said the commission
The Camp Pendleton project is the largest grant to date under the state’s Long-Term Energy Storage Program and is expected to provide a template for energy storage facilities at other facilities military facilities Located at the base’s Haybarn Energy Reliability Center, the system is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing backup generators powered by fossil fuels.
