Texas, which is now leading the charge in adopting solar energy, will get to store some of that sun power thanks to three massive grid battery installations announced by Intersect Power.
According to a press release, the clean energy development company recently secured $837 million in financing to deploy one gigawatt-hour of battery storage capacity in the Lone Star State. Intersect Power aims to have the three standalone systems — Lumina I, Lumina II, and Radian — ready for action sometime this year.
Notably, each battery project includes 86 Tesla Megapacks, and both Lumina II and Radian will be managed by Autobidder, the electric vehicle and clean energy giant's real-time trading and control platform.
As Canary Media reported, the battery installations will store sun-powered energy captured by Intersect's 640-megawatt Lumina solar park and its 320 MW Radian project in Texas. Per Intersect Power, the three sites will each have an energy storage capacity of 320 megawatt-hours with a two-hour duration.
Since Texas leads the nation in solar generation and is expected to outpace California's grid battery installations this year, per Canary Media, Intersect's projects will help secure the Lone Star State's grid and ensure it can meet soaring energy demands.
"The grid is broken," Intersect CEO Sheldon Kimber told the outlet of the energy supply and demand issues the state has experienced without sufficient battery backup.
"... We're ramping our battery growth much more quickly than we thought we ever would. We've built the equivalent of one of the largest battery developers within our company in a year."
With Texas's solar and storage markets booming, customers can enjoy cheaper energy bills and feel good knowing their electricity is coming from a clean source that doesn't produce pollution.
As Canary Media detailed, deploying more solar and battery projects can also help energy-hungry industries skip the middleman (the power companies) and connect to the grid directly.
While that wouldn't work for residential customers, Intersect Power believes this could be a game-changer for facilities that require a lot of energy to run, such as data centers and factories.
Luckily, Texas has made it easy for new projects to connect to its grid, which has helped it lead the pack in the renewable energy transition. With solar and wind power seeing explosive growth, a new era of cheap, clean electricity for everyone is on the horizon.
"Renewable energy is a critical piece of the overall American energy production story," said Kimber in a news release. "Texas clean energy production has spurred significant economic development and job creation in the state while bringing energy security and independence to the U.S."
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