Stillwater Wind, an 80 MW project in Montana that was developed by Talen Energy’s renewable joint venture partner Pattern Energy and came into effect in 2018. Image: Pattern Energy via Twitter.
Talen Energy Corporation, a US energy and infrastructure development group with 13 GW of mostly fossil fuels in its portfolio, has announced that it will develop a gigawatt of battery storage projects.
The company’s existing generation mix under or owned by the company, spread across six US states including Texas, Montana and the mid-Atlantic region, includes approximately 3.5 GW of coal and several gigawatts of natural gas, as well as natural gas and oil power plants, and the 2,256 MW Susquehanna Pennsylvania Nuclear Power Plant.
However, Talen Energy is in a “strategic transformation into a growth platform for renewable energies and digital infrastructure,” the company announced in a press release today. The company currently has around 140 MW of solar power, including a 100 MW solar PV project on the site of a coal-fired power plant in Pennsylvania that is slated to be decommissioned by 2025 along with a number of others in the Talen portfolio.
In mid-April, the company announced a joint venture (JV) partnership with Pattern Energy, an owner and operator of renewable energy, transmission and storage projects. The joint venture plans to invest around $ 2 billion over the next five years and develop a 1.4 GW pipeline of solar and wind projects. Relocating new renewable plants to the sites of older generation plants is an integral part of the company’s future plans as land and connections to the power transmission network are already in place.
After the start of this solar and wind partnership, Talen Energy announced earlier this week that the company is developing its 1 GW battery storage as independent projects from 20 MW to 300 MW in three US states, including in the service area of the regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection.
Talen expected the pipeline to develop over the next three to five years. As with its renewable energy projects, the company will seek to take advantage of the cost and location advantages of placing battery systems in some locations of its fossil fuel plants and with the same access to transmission infrastructure. Some of the projects also provide direct funding for coal-fired power plants owned by Talen Energy to switch to less polluting fuels. including natural gas and side-by-side renewable energy systems.
The first two projects planned are two 20 MW demonstration projects, one at a coal-fired power plant in Baltimore, Maryland, called HA Wagner, which is also retiring through 2025, and the other alongside a natural gas plant in Camden, New Jersey. The latter will serve as an additional capacity resource alongside the natural gas plant. Construction work on both projects is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.
“These battery projects, along with Talen’s existing low-carbon base load generation, are designed to act as a setback to disrupting renewables and ensure that power is available when needed. We believe our giga-scale battery development pipeline will become increasingly valuable as battery technology improves and manufacturing costs decrease with deployment, ”said Alex Hernandez, President of Talen Energy.
The company is holding an Investors Day on May 19, at which more details will be announced.
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