Capital Dynamics and Tenaska partner for 2GW of battery storage in California

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Reddit
Email
A solar development of Tenaska's in the US. Image: Tenaska.

Update 21 August 2020: A representative of Capital Dynamics contacted Energy-Storage.news with the following additional information: 

The combined projects' output and capacity are planned as follows: “1.95GW and up to 7.8GWh if all projects are 4-hour storage,” the representative said. 

This article requires Premium SubscriptionBasic (FREE) Subscription

Try Premium for just $1

  • Full premium access for the first month at only $1
  • Converts to an annual rate after 30 days unless cancelled
  • Cancel anytime during the trial period

Premium Benefits

  • Expert industry analysis and interviews
  • Digital access to PV Tech Power journal
  • Exclusive event discounts

Or get the full Premium subscription right away

Or continue reading this article for free

Of their strategic location, the representative said: “8 of the 9 projects are on the coast (Bay Area, LA, San Diego) to be close to load. If transmission has an outage and renewables located east cannot deliver energy due to transmission capacity it is important to have storage ready to dispatch without this constraint.

 

Asset management firm Capital Dynamics has signed a deal with Nebraskan independent power producer Tenaska to develop nine battery energy storage system (BESS) projects located in California's highest electrical load centres.

The BESS projects will be designed to deliver power resources to manage high-demand conditions caused by heat waves, supply shortages and growing local power supply deficiencies in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego areas that cannot be reliably served solely by intermittent renewables, the companies said. 

Struck through Capital Dynamics’ Clean Energy Infrastructure business, the deal will see enable the provision of approximately 2GW of clean energy through the nine projects into the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) market.

Benoit Allehaut, managing director of the Clean Energy Infrastructure team, said California is poised for “significant growth” in energy storage demand as a result of its “robust” clean energy goals. Indeed, the state announced plans in March to add 25GW of renewables by 2030.

“We are excited to join with Tenaska to build high-quality battery energy storage facilities to help integrate renewables and reinforce CAISO grid reliability and resilience,” said Allehaut. “We hope to quickly contract resource adequacy with utilities and CCAs to grow this portfolio.”

The move builds on other partnerships between Capital Dynamics and Tenaska. Last month, they agreed to develop 24 solar projects totalling 4.8GW, following on from a previous collaboration for 14 PV projects with approximately 2GW in the US Midwest.

Calls for more solar-charged batteries in California

The deal comes as California struggles to meet demand for electricity amid an ongoing heatwave that has fuelled dozens of wildfires. CAISO declared a state-wide Stage 2 Emergency earlier in the week and appealed to consumers to conserve energy to avert or limit power outages.

The strain on the electric system is said to be primarily driven by air conditioning use across the state. However, in an update yesterday, CAISO said consumer conservation efforts averted rotating power outages, even though “energy supplies were tight”.

While some have blamed the energy supply issues on the state’s transition from fossil fuels to renewables, Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association, said more solar-charged batteries can help solve its energy shortage.

“Moving beyond blame, what is needed is more solar energy combined with solar-charged batteries, not more fossil fuel power plants, to cover evening peak loads,” she told Energy-Storage.news.

“The state is not doing enough on this front. That’s the problem.”

Meanwhile, the California Energy Storage Alliance said in a statement earlier this week that “energy storage has been actively helping to meet grid peak needs”.

7 October 2025
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
PV Tech has been running an annual PV CellTech Conference since 2016. PV CellTech USA, on 7-8 October 2025 is our third PV CellTech conference dedicated to the U.S. manufacturing sector. The events in 2023 and 2024 were a sell out success and 2025 will once again gather the key stakeholders from PV manufacturing, equipment/materials, policy-making and strategy, capital equipment investment and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out PV manufacturing in the U.S. out to 2030 and beyond.
21 October 2025
New York, USA
Returning for its 12th edition, Solar and Storage Finance USA Summit remains the annual event where decision-makers at the forefront of solar and storage projects across the United States and capital converge. Featuring the most active solar and storage transactors, join us for a packed two-days of deal-making, learning and networking.
16 June 2026
Napa, USA
PV Tech has been running PV ModuleTech Conferences since 2017. PV ModuleTech USA, on 16-17 June 2026, will be our fifth PV ModulelTech conference dedicated to the U.S. utility scale solar sector. The event will gather the key stakeholders from solar developers, solar asset owners and investors, PV manufacturing, policy-making and and all interested downstream channels and third-party entities. The goal is simple: to map out the PV module supply channels to the U.S. out to 2027 and beyond.

Read Next

October 7, 2025
Solar PV will account for almost 80% of the 4.6TW of new renewable power expected to be added by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
October 7, 2025
Doral Renewables has secured a PPA with an unnamed 'corporate buyer' for its 430MW Cold Creek solar-plus-storage project in Texas.
October 7, 2025
US independent power producer (IPP) Arevon has begun operations at two utility-scale solar projects in Indiana.
Premium
October 6, 2025
Talon PV aims to be the first US company to safely manufacture TOPCon cells at scale, backed by European technology and a crucial First Solar licensing deal.
October 6, 2025
US utility AES Corporation is reportedly in discussions to be acquired by Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a subsidiary of global asset owning giant BlackRock.
October 6, 2025
Rajasthan government will develop 500MW/2,000MWh of standalone battery energy storage systems (BESS) with a four-hour single-cycle configuration and extended operational life.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
Manila, Philippines
Solar Media Events
October 7, 2025
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
Solar Media Events
October 21, 2025
New York, USA
Solar Media Events
November 25, 2025
Warsaw, Poland