Florida Power & Light adds advanced batteries to Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) recently announced that it incorporated advanced battery storage into the operations of its Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center in Charlotte County, Florida.

The project is the largest solar-plus-storage system built in the United States to date, FPL said. It involved adding a 10-megawatt (MW)/40-megawatt-hour (Mwh) battery-storage system to the 74.5 MW solar facility, which FPL built in 2016.

“FPL is building an incredible amount of solar power cost-effectively so we can bring the economic and environmental benefits to all of our customers while keeping their bills among the lowest in the nation,” Eric Silagy, president and CEO of FPL, said. “At the same time, we continue to innovate every single day, and the new system we unveiled today is a shining example of how we’re changing the current.”

The batteries can store power generated by the plant and dispatch it during reduce generation or peak demand, the company said.

“FPL has been an outstanding partner in our mission to make Babcock Ranch the most innovative, sustainable town in the nation,” Syd Kitson, chairman and CEO of Kitson & Partners and founder of the town of Babcock Ranch, said. “Improving technologies for energy storage are moving us ever closer to our goal of full reliance on clean, renewable energy. As home to the largest solar-plus-storage system operating in America, we are proud to be leading the way.”

FPL installed a four MW/16 Mwh storage system at the FPL Citrus Solar Energy Center in DeSoto County, Florida. The project was “the first-of-its-kind large-scale application of DC-coupled batteries at a solar plant in the country,” FPL said.

FPL is currently testing battery-storage pilot projects at Everglades National Park’s Flamingo Visitor Center, the Crandon Tennis Center on the island of Key Biscayne and other Florida locations.

FPL plans to develop 50 MW of battery storage over the next few years under the rate agreement approved by the Florida Public Service Commission in 2016.