US energy company Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) will buy output from a solar and battery storage centre with a total capacity of 465MW in partnership with WEC Energy Group’s subsidiaries We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service (WPS).
The project, expected to begin operation in late 2025, will include 300MW solar energy capacity and a 165MW battery storage system. After the acquisition, MGE will own 10% of the Koshkonong Solar Energy Centre, in Wisconsin’s Dane County.
We Energies and WPS will own the remaining 270MW solar capacity and 148.5MW battery storage from the centre.
“We are working aggressively to reduce our carbon emissions at least 80% from 2005 levels by the end of this decade and achieve net zero carbon electricity by 2050,” said Jeff Keebler, MGE’s Chairman, president and CEO.
The Koshkonong Solar Energy Centre got regulatory approval in April 2022 and is one of three announced investments by MGE in large-scale solar energy and battery storage. MGE also will own a 10% share of the Paris Solar-Battery Park and the Darien Solar Energy Centre, both of which are under construction.
US developer Invenergy is working on both the Koshkonong and Paris projects, while a developer for Darien had not been announced when MGE and WEC put the project up for Public Service Commission of Wisconsin approval in March 2021, as reported by Energy-Storage.news.
Darien will pair 250MW of solar PV with a 75MW battery energy storage system (BESS), and will be jointly-owned by the two utilities in a similar structure to the Koshkonong deal. Meanwhile, Paris Solar-Battery Park will combine 310MW of solar PV with 110MW BESS with both Darien and Paris originally scheduled to go online in 2023. WEC and MGE were granted Commission approval to buy the Paris project in March 2022.
This story first appeared on PV Tech.
Additional reporting for Energy-Storage.news by Andy Colthorpe.
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