A solar battery and storage company secured $513 million in funding for a battery storage project in Arizona, according to an article published in Electrek.
The new project will finance the construction of 1,200-megawatt-hour Papago Storage, the largest battery storage endeavor in the state of Arizona. When complete, the project will supply enough renewable energy power to support roughly 244,000 homes for four hours a day.
Recurrent Energy, a solar battery developer and subsidiary of Canadian Solar, secured financing for its Papago Storage project in Maricopa County, Arizona. Construction for the new project will begin in the third quarter of this year and create an estimated 200 jobs.
“When we began developing Papago Storage in 2016, the Arizona storage market was in its infancy,” Recurrent Energy CEO Ismael Guerrero told Electrek. “Today, Arizona is one of the fastest-growing markets for energy storage in the United States, bolstered by the state’s expanding economy and cost-effective renewable energy resources.”
Transitioning away from nonrenewable sources of energy is a major step toward creating a cleaner, safer future. Projects like Papago Storage not only provide renewable power to the surrounding communities but also help decrease the total cost of energy for those homeowners.
According to the World Economic Forum, the cost of renewable energy is decreasing. In fact, the same report found that renewable energy sources were the cheapest form of energy in 2020.
Large-scale projects that supply renewable energy power also help improve the local community response to natural disasters. By decreasing dependence on the grid, renewable energy projects help supply power during major outages.
Unlike nonrenewable energy, clean energy does not emit harmful, planet-warming gases into the atmosphere. As a result, when companies help regions incorporate renewable energy into their power supply, they also help decrease the total amount of air pollution.