California has brought a new battery facility online in Kern County, adding a project that may reduce the need for fossil-fueled peaker plants.
As Canary Media reports, the Tumbleweed site can discharge electricity to the grid for up to 8 hours per cycle, roughly twice the duration offered by most large battery installations.
What happened?
According to Canary Media, Tumbleweed is the first large U.S. battery project at this scale that can provide eight hours of discharge. In practice, that allows lower-cost solar electricity generated during the day to be stored and used for a longer period after sunset by homes and businesses.
Rev Renewables told Canary Media that it built Tumbleweed in two phases and that the project provides 125 megawatts of capacity. For California planners, longer-lasting batteries are a key part of making the grid both cleaner and more dependable…