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    Florida Power & Light unveils 409-MW/900-MWh Manatee Solar-Powered Battery

    Dec. 14, 2021
    The battery storage system can store enough electricity to power approximately 329,000 homes for two hours and is equivalent to 100 million iPhone batteries
    Image credit FPL
    Fpl Manatee Solar Florida 61b8dc97d0a08

    Electric utility Florida Power & Light is celebrating the starting of what it calls the world’s largest solar-powered battery this week.

    The battery storage system at Manatee Solar Energy Center can offer 409 MW of capacity and 900 MWh of duration, FPL said in its announcement. This would be enough electricity to power approximately 329,000 homes for two hours and is equivalent to 100 million iPhone batteries.

    FPL celebrating the system with a commissioning ceremony which included a light and drone showed powered by the Manatee Energy Storage Center located with the solar facility.

    “It’s been a momentous year for clean energy in Florida – FPL opened the year by formally shutting down its last coal-fired plant in the state and now we’re closing the year by shattering a world record and commissioning the largest solar-powered battery in the world,” said Eric Silagy, FPL president and CEO. “Since embarking on the largest solar expansion in the nation, the company has also installed more than 13 million solar panels and is already 45% of the way toward reaching our ‘30-by-30’ goal to install 30 million solar panels across the state of Florida by 2030.”

    The Manatee Energy Storage Center is made up of 132 energy storage containers, organized across a 40-acre plot of land, equivalent to 30 football fields.

    The U.S. energy storage sector set another record in 2021’s third quarter with some 3,515 MWh in installation completion, according to Wood Mackenzie and the Energy Storage Association. The non-residential market recorded its best quarter of 2021 so far, with 43.6 MW/92.1-MWh deployed.

    In addition to the Manatee Energy Storage Center, FPL continues to execute on a 50 MW battery storage pilot program that comprises eight projects, including a building-sized battery in Miami and innovative microgrids in Riviera Beach and on FIU’s engineering campus.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.