The First Solar Plus Wind Plus Storage Project
NextEra Energy Resources and Portland General Electric (PGE) have recently announced that they are developing a renewable energy project that incorporates solar, wind, and energy storage. It includes 300 MW of wind, 50 MW of solar, and 30 MW/120 MWh of energy storage. The final completion date is planned for 2021.
The location of the project is in Morrow County (a bit more than 100 miles east of Portland) at the Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility.
Originally, the project was going to be primarily wind-based with a total of 500 MW in capacity. 100 MW of the 300 MW of wind capacity will be owned by PGE. The rest of the project will be owned by a subsidiary of NextEra and the energy produced will be sold to PGE under 30 year power purchase agreements.
Details on the energy storage include 41 total sites. Each site will have containers that measure 12 feet wide, 36 feet long, and 10 feet tall. In the containers will be modules of small lithium ion batteries that measure approximately 1 inch by 3 inches.
This groundbreaking project is certainly great news for the renewable energy industry as a whole! While it may not make sense to incorporate all three ideas in every location, this will surely not be the last time we see a solar+wind+storage project.
