- Tumbleweed project in California’s Kern County is the first major battery installation in the U.S. that can discharge power for up to eight hours at a time, addressing the need for longer-duration storage in the state.
On June 1, the Tumbleweed project in California’s Kern County became the first major battery installation in the U.S. that can discharge power for up to eight hours at a time — twice as long as typical energy-storage facilities.
The U.S. power sector now builds more battery storage capacity than any other form of on-demand power, like gas, nuclear, or geothermal. But battery developers typically design their projects to discharge at maximum capacity for four hours before running out of juice; that’s what has made sense, so far, given equipment costs and market opportunities. Analysts have concluded that longer-duration storage is needed to cost effectively power the grid with clean energy 24/7.
Consequently, California regulators in 2021 ordered power companies to procure longer-duration storage as part of the state’s planned transition to zero-carbon energy. California Community Power, a consortium of local nonprofit power providers, issued a contract for Tumbleweed back in 2022 to fulfill this obligation…