Solar plus storage in Nevada to “fill the gap” left by retiring coal

United States’ renewable energy developers Avangrid Renewables and Primergy Solar have announced they will work together to deliver a 600MW portfolio of solar-plus-storage projects in Nevada, designed to “fill the gap left by retiring coal generation”.

Avangrid Renewables, the renewable energy subsidiary of American energy company Avangrid, confirmed a sale agreement last week with

Solar developer Primergy Solar, owned by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, will buy the 250MW Iron Point Solar Project and the 350MW Hot Pot Solar Project from Avangrid, both of which will be co-located with battery storage.

The Iron Point project will be paired with 4-hour 200MW of battery storage, and Hot Pot will be paired with 4-hour 280MW of battery storage.

“Our vision has always been to develop projects with clean, renewable sources of power to fill the gap left by retiring coal generation,” said Alejandro de Hoz, president and CEO of Avangrid Renewables.

“What makes this project unique is its location in northern Nevada where there hasn’t been significant solar development activity. These projects will contribute substantially to transitioning the Silver State to a low-carbon energy future.”

NV Energy, Nevada’s public electricity and natural gas provider, says the two solar projects will directly replace the 522MW coal fired North Valmy Generating Station in Winnemucca, Nevada.

NV Energy, and its partner in the North Valmy Generating Station, Idaho Power, agreed in late-2019 to shutter Unit 1 of the power plant by year’s end, and Unit 2 by 2025 at the latest.

Last year, however, Idaho Power filed documents that suggested they may even be looking to retire Unit 2 of the power plant “as early as year-end 2022”.

As part of NV Energy’s latest Integrated Resource Plan, three additional grid-tied battery storage systems would be built in northern Nevada with a combined capacity of 66MW of energy storage.