[Micele]

Het grootste batterijpark om "zonenergie" op te slaan komt in Florida:

https://www.powermag.com/fpl-will-bu...torage-system/

FPL Will Build World’s Largest Battery Storage System
04/03/2019

Florida Power and Light Co. (FPL) has been building new solar farms and bringing gigawatts of new natural gas-fired generation capacity online in recent years. Now the utility has announced what it calls the world’s largest solar-powered battery storage system.

FPL on March 28 said the Manatee Energy Storage Center, a 409-MW/900-MWh battery storage facility, would begin operations in late 2021. The batteries will be charged by an existing FPL solar power plant in Manatee County, Florida. The new facility would have four times the storage capacity of the world’s current largest battery system at the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia.

Steeds meer (oude) fossiele centrales gaan dicht:

Utility officials have said the new battery storage facility is part of an “innovative modernization plan” that will help FPL speed the timetable for retirement of two natural gas-fired units at the nearby 1,638-MW Manatee Power Plant in Parrish. FPL brought a 74.5-MW solar farm online in Parrish in 2017, part of a plan to add 1.5 GW of solar generation capacity in the next few years.

A second 74.5-MW solar farm in Manatee County, the Southfork Solar Energy Center, is expected to come online in 2020.

FPL in a statement said the modernization plan includes the new energy storage system in Manatee County, along with smaller battery installations across the state, and efficiency upgrades to existing turbines at its gas plants.

FPL has ramped up its solar power portfolio in recent years as it has retired older coal and natural gas-fired plants. The utility earlier this year announced a plan to install 30 million solar panels by 2030. It also is adding gas-fired generation capacity.

“FPL is pioneering a clean energy revolution for our state that’s come full circle for our community,” said Stephen Jonsson, chairman of the board of Manatee County commissioners. “It seems like just yesterday that FPL kicked off its massive solar expansion in 2016 by opening a solar power plant in Parrish. Fast forward a few years, and our hometown solar power plant is on the verge of powering the world’s largest solar-powered battery system. This modernization plan is truly an incredible feat and consistent with our commitment as leaders to keep sustainability at the forefront of every project that takes place in Manatee County. It’s why we continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with FPL to help do our part to shape Florida’s clean energy future.”

FPL closed two coal plants in Jacksonville in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Its lone remaining coal-fired plant, the 330-MW Indiantown Cogeneration facility—which it purchased for $451 million in 2016 from Calypso Energy Holdings—is scheduled to close in the next year.

En voor nieuwe gascentrales te zetten is ook niet meer zo gemakkelijk...

https://www.powermag.com/plan-to-bui...-dead/?mypower

Plan to Build New 1-GW Plant in Rhode Island Officially Dead

11/17/2019 | Darrell Proctor

A project to build a 1-GW gas-fired power plant in Rhode Island has officially ended, after developer Invenergy took no action to appeal the project’s rejection by state regulators, who earlier this year voted unanimously against the plant’s construction.

Invenergy had until Nov. 15 to challenge the formal denial of a construction license for the project by state officials. The state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB) issued that denial on Nov. 5, after the EFSB in June had voted against permitting the project.

The siting board in its denial detailed changes in the regional energy market that factored into its decision to reject the plant’s construction, including that wholesale energy prices in New England have fallen even as coal and nuclear generation has been retired. It cited the growth of energy efficiency programs, lessening power demand, and said solar farms and several offshore wind power projects will provide new regional power generation.

Chicago, Illinois-based Invenergy could have appealed the Nov. 5 decision to Rhode Island’s Supreme Court during a 10-day window that closed at 4 p.m. Eastern time Friday, but the deadline passed with no action from the company. A small group of project opponents, most of them local residents holding signs saying “No New Power Plant,” waited outside the courthouse in Providence on Friday. They cheered when they were told Invenergy had not filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.

Invenergy spokeswoman Beth Conley in a statement said, “The need for low-cost reliable power continues to grow around the nation and in Rhode Island. Invenergy will continue to develop projects in markets where our efforts will deliver better outcomes for energy consumers.”