The Texas battery boom

In what has become the summer of battery storage, California has stolen most of the headlines. But the spotlight is now shifting to Texas, where more than 300 MW of storage capacity has gone into development or construction in the last week.

The 100 MW Chisholm Grid battery energy storage system began construction in Fort Worth this week. The project is being developed by Able Grid Energy Solutions, MAP Energy and Astral Electricity and is set to begin commercial operations in mid-2021.

That’s the largest standalone battery energy storage system under construction outside of California known to pv magazine. When completed, the lithium-ion battery will likely clock in between 400 MWh and 600 MWh.

Able Grid says that Chisholm will have an “initial rated capacity” of 100 MW. And while the company has the only project under construction, the lion’s share of new development in Texas will come from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas and Powin Energy Corp., as the two companies have been selected by Key Capture Energy to build three battery systems totaling 200 MW in the Lone Star state. Construction will begin in the fall, and the projects will be online before the summer of 2021.

Even more impressive than the size of these projects is the chemical makeup. All three will use a lithium iron phosphate solution, custom developed to meet Key Capture’s needs, and again hinting that the battery chemistry revolution is upon us. These projects are also important because they represent significant large-scale battery storage investment outside of California. The new capacity will provide an immediate boom to the Texas storage market, which currently has three operating projects totaling just under 30 MW.