CATL signs massive battery supply agreement for Las Vegas solar and storage project

Chinese battery manufacturing giant CATL has signed a mammoth battery supply agreement to provide 1,416MWh to the Gemini Solar and Storage Project outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.

CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co) said this week  it had signed a sole battery supply agreement with Primary Solar, the Californian developer and portfolio company of Brisbane-based Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.

The announcement came a day after Quinbrook and Primergy announced the sales of a 49 per cent stake in the $US1.2 billion Gemini project outside to APG, the largest pension asset manager in the Netherlands.

“Given the scale and impact of Gemini, we felt APG was an exemplary partner for us that is differentiated by its sophisticated approach to the Gemini project and to the US renewables market more generally,” David Scaysbrook, the co-founder and managing partner of Quinbrook, said in a statement.

The Gemini projects will comprise 690MW of solar capacity and and 380MW and 1,416MWh of battery storage capacity. It has been described as the largest project of its type in the US.

CATL will supply Primergy Solar with its EnerOne module outdoor liquid cooling battery energy storage system, which it says boasts an operating life of up to 10,000 cycles.

The EnerOne battery systems will complement an innovative DC coupled system which Primergy expects will help to maximise efficiency between solar and storage.

In March Primergy announced that local EPC company Kiewit Power Constructors had been selected to build the project, while Maxeon Solar Technologies would provide its high efficiency bifacial solar modules.