The US’s largest solar + battery storage project just came online

The US’s largest solar + battery storage project, Edwards & Sanborn, has come online in Kern County, California.

Edwards & Sanborn, which sits on 4,660 acres in the Mojave desert, was developed and is owned and operated by Terra-Gen. It comprises 875 megawatts (MW) of solar and 3,320 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy storage. 

The project sits on both private land and land belonging to Edwards Air Force Base. The project’s contractor, Mortensen, says it’s the largest public-private partnership the US Air Force has ever taken part in. It features a massive 1.9 million First Solar PV panels and 120,720 LG Chem, Samsung, and BYD long-duration energy storage batteries connected by 400 miles of wire.

In total, Edwards & Sanborn generates 875 MWdc of solar energy and has 3,287 megawatt-hours of energy storage with a total interconnection capacity of 1,300 MW.

The project supplies power to the City of San Jose, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Clean Power Alliance, and Starbucks, among others. Brian Gorda, vice president of engineering at Terra-Gen, said, “Now fully operational, this facility is a transformational project in the industry and is providing resiliency to the grid.”

Read more: The US government opens 22 million acres of federal lands to solar

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