The construction of two US solar projects totalling 600MW, including one paired with 50MW of energy storage, has started this month, developer Hecate Energy has announced.
Chicago-based Hecate said work on the 500MW Roseland Solar plant in Falls County, Texas, began on 5 May. Featuring a 50MW battery storage system, the facility was transferred to Enel Green Power North America and is expected to achieve commercial operation in the second half of 2022.
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The combination of solar power and battery storage “will enable the Roseland project to help stabilise the power grid, increase operational efficiency and lower power costs”, said Hecate Energy’s senior vice president of operations, Craig Overmyer.
In Ohio, Hecate developed the New Market project, which consists of two separate solar facilities located 45 miles east of Cincinnati, and transferred it to Canadian utility Algonquin Power & Utilities earlier this month. The first of the facilities is expected to achieve commercial operation in December 2021.
The Ohio plants will supply 100% of the City of Cincinnati’s municipal electricity, making all buildings and electrical services owned and operated by the government of Cincinnati carbon neutral by the end of 2021.
Progress on the projects comes after Spanish oil major Repsol signed a deal to acquire 40% of Hecate Energy earlier this month, entering the US renewables market for the first time. Hecate has a clean energy pipeline of more than 40GW, of which 16.8GW represents PV and storage projects at an advanced stage of development.