Solar Power World

  • Home
  • Top Solar Contractors
  • Articles
    • Most Recent Posts
    • News
      • Latest News Items
      • SPW State News Hub
      • IRA coverage
      • Solar tariffs
      • U.S. manufacturing updates
    • Featured
      • Latest Feature Stories
      • Contractor’s Corner
      • Trends in Solar
      • The Solar Explorer
  • Policy
    • The Solar Policy Scoop
    • IRA Coverage
  • Markets
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Community Solar
    • Utility
  • Products
    • Winners of SPW’s 2024 Top Products
    • Batteries and Storage
    • Electric Vehicle (EV)
    • Inverters
      • U.S. solar inverter manufacturers
    • Racking and Mounting
      • U.S. solar mounting manufacturers
    • Software
    • Solar Panels
      • U.S. solar panel manufacturers
  • Resources
    • About SPW
    • Digital Issues
    • Event Coverage
    • Podcasts
    • Product Manufacturing Locations
      • U.S. solar inverter manufacturers
      • U.S. solar mounting manufacturers
      • U.S. solar panel manufacturers
    • Solar Classrooms
    • Suppliers
    • Videos
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

World’s largest lithium battery bank grows even larger with 400-MWh addition

By Kelly Pickerel | August 19, 2021

Share

The world’s largest lithium-based energy storage facility has just gotten a little bigger. Construction of Phase II of the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California is now complete, adding 100 MW/400 MWh to the site, which now reaches 400 MW/1,600 MWh in total.

LG Energy Solution lithium batteries at the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California. Credit: Vistra

“This facility provides a solution California desperately needs and this expansion was able to come online at the right time – as the summer heat intensifies and demand for electricity is at its highest,” said Curt Morgan, chief executive officer at Vistra. “The state’s laudable immense buildout of intermittent renewable power has both lowered emissions and presented a reliability challenge. California produces an excess amount of renewable power during the day while the sun is up, but often struggles to meet demand as the sun goes down. Our Moss Landing battery system helps to fill that reliability gap, storing the excess daytime power so it doesn’t go to waste and then releasing it to the grid when it’s needed most.”

Announced just 15 months ago with construction starting in September 2020, the Phase II expansion project was completed in July 2021, ahead of schedule despite the many challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Burns & McDonnell installed the second phase of LG Energy Solution batteries.

The site is the existing Moss Landing Power Plant in Monterey County, a site that’s been providing electricity to Californians since 1950.

“What’s great about this particular site is that it has the space to support even further expansion — up to 1,500 MW/6,000 MWh — while responsibly utilizing our existing site infrastructure, including existing transmission lines and grid interconnection,” Morgan said. “California leads the country in the transition away from fossil fuels and the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility stands as a model for how batteries can support intermittent renewables to help create a reliable grid of the future.”

The 100-MW/400-MWh Phase II expansion is operating under a 10-year resource adequacy agreement with PG&E. The 300-MW/1,200-MWh Phase I project has a similar 20-year resource adequacy agreement with PG&E.

News item from Vistra

About The Author

Kelly Pickerel

Kelly Pickerel has over a decade of experience reporting on the U.S. solar industry and is currently editor in chief of Solar Power World.

Comments

  1. CHARLES WHITE says

    August 23, 2021 at 3:49 pm

    Is anyone tracking the $/kwh that consumers must bear for the latest and planned capacity additions… the consumers that cannot afford solar systems on their homes or Teslas?

    Reply
  2. Toby says

    August 22, 2021 at 10:12 am

    We must not buy these batteries or other equipment from our enemies, especially China!

    Reply
  3. Solarman says

    August 19, 2021 at 7:27 pm

    ““What’s great about this particular site is that it has the space to support even further expansion — up to 1,500 MW/6,000 MWh — while responsibly utilizing our existing site infrastructure, including existing transmission lines and grid interconnection,” Morgan said. “California leads the country in the transition away from fossil fuels and the Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility stands as a model for how batteries can support intermittent renewables to help create a reliable grid of the future.””

    From some of the articles in the local Monterey paper over the last couple of years, the 1,500MW/6,000MWh is supposed to be ‘another’ energy storage system built for PG&E. I believe this site is called Elkhorn and should be online before 2025 when the nuclear plant at Diablo Canyon is decommissioned. Two summers ago, when the area suffered through rolling blackouts, it was stated that another 53GWh was needed to keep the grid up during those high grid demand periods. It looks to me like California needs at least 65GWh of distributed energy storage. When one starts to consider having enough energy stored to handle just domestic electric load and then what it would take to have enough energy on storage for an average 40 mile round trip in an EV each day, then will need at least around 211GWh of solar PV and wind generation a day. Something like 9GWh baseload to meet average EV charging demands.

    Reply

Tell Us What You Think! Cancel reply

Related Articles Read More >

$1.4 billion in solar, EV, storage developments cancelled in May
SMUD signs PPA for 640-MWh battery still under construction in Sacramento County
ENGIE includes solar panel recycling upfront in PPA for first time
SolarEdge batteries now qualify for Pacific Power’s Wattsmart Battery Program
Solar Power World Digital Edition
Check in with the nation's leading solar construction magazine today.
 
“the-informed-solar-installer”
“solar
“spw
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for Solar Power Professionals.

Contractor’s Corner Podcast

“solar
Solar Power World
  • Top Solar Contractors
  • Solar Articles
  • Windpower Engineering & Development
  • Leadership
  • About/Contact Us
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising
  • WTWH Media

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Solar Power World

  • Home
  • Top Solar Contractors
  • Articles
    • Most Recent Posts
    • News
      • Latest News Items
      • SPW State News Hub
      • IRA coverage
      • Solar tariffs
      • U.S. manufacturing updates
    • Featured
      • Latest Feature Stories
      • Contractor’s Corner
      • Trends in Solar
      • The Solar Explorer
  • Policy
    • The Solar Policy Scoop
    • IRA Coverage
  • Markets
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Community Solar
    • Utility
  • Products
    • Winners of SPW’s 2024 Top Products
    • Batteries and Storage
    • Electric Vehicle (EV)
    • Inverters
      • U.S. solar inverter manufacturers
    • Racking and Mounting
      • U.S. solar mounting manufacturers
    • Software
    • Solar Panels
      • U.S. solar panel manufacturers
  • Resources
    • About SPW
    • Digital Issues
    • Event Coverage
    • Podcasts
    • Product Manufacturing Locations
      • U.S. solar inverter manufacturers
      • U.S. solar mounting manufacturers
      • U.S. solar panel manufacturers
    • Solar Classrooms
    • Suppliers
    • Videos
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Voices
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe