In Massachusetts, grants totaling $20 million were recently awarded to 26 projects that will develop the state’s energy storage market.
The programs are positioned to deliver benefits to the Massachusetts’s ratepayers and the electrical grid. The awarded projects will benefit 25 communities and draw in $32 million in matching funds, helping to grow the Commonwealth’s energy storage economy.
According to telegram.com, the grants were awarded as part of the Baker-Polito Administration’s Energy Storage Initiative (ESI) Advancing Commonwealth Energy Storage (ACES) program, funded by the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) through Alternative Compliance Payments (ACP) and administered by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC).
A few of the grant beneficiaries:
- NuGen Capital Management
- West Boylston’s Municipal Light Plant
- Sunrun
- Greenlots
How Grants Will Be Put to Use
As an example of how these grants will improve the energy storage and energy efficiency in the state, West Boylston Municipal Light Plant’s grant will cover 50% of the $486,000 Amber Kinetics flywheel energy storage project it has proposed. The plan calls for a 128-kilowatt, behind-the-meter flywheel energy storage system interconnected with WBMLP’s 370-kilowatt solar project. Flywheel storage technology is a chemical-free, battery storage system. The project will be used for peak load reduction, resulting in lower transmission and capacity charges, and the creation of alternative energy portfolio standard certificates.
Sunrun’s home battery service, BrightBox, uses the latest solar and battery storage technology to enable customers to save on electricity bills with solar power and uses energy stored in the battery to power through electricity grid outages. Sunrun will use the ACES award to demonstrate how BrightBox can also coordinate energy stored in batteries with a utility’s need for power to balance peak demand on the grid as a whole or in local areas. This can lower costs for all electricity users while making this new technology widely accessible and affordable to homeowners in Massachusetts.
Vendors mentioned in this article:
- NuGen Capital Management
- West Boylston’s Municipal Light Plant
- Sunrun
- Greenlots
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