Massachusetts awarded $20 million in grants for energy storage projects in the state this week, doubling the initial amount planned, MassLive reported. The funding is going toward 26 projects involving different business models in an effort to accelerate the development of energy storage technologies.
The Advancing Commonwealth Energy Storage (ACES) grants are part of an energy storage initiative established by Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito in 2015. Collectively, the projects are aimed at priming the state for the increased commercialization and deployment of energy storage technologies such as batteries, flywheels, thermal storage, and pumped hydroelectric power systems, Bloomberg reported.
Tesla received $1.25 million for energy storage at residential sites in Nantucket and $1.074 million for the Wynn Boston Harbor casino in Everett, WBUR reported. Besides battery storage, the new casino plans to have two cogeneration plants and rooftop solar.
Grant recipients included EnerNoc for $1.25 million, National Grid for $875,000, and Sunrun for $561,000, according to the list of awardees published yesterday. NextEra Energy and Advanced Microgrid Solutions were also among the recipients.
General Electric’s Boston headquarters got $221,000 for an ice storage system, according to WBUR. MassLive’s Shira Schoenberg reported that the University of Massachusetts Amherst got $1.14 million to install a lithium-ion battery storage system for added resiliency to a solar array and cogeneration plant.
Hopkinton, Massachusetts-based Solect Energy was awarded a project grant for $1 million, the company told Energy Manager Today. The commercial-scale solar and energy management solutions company has around 400 commercial scale solar projects with businesses, schools, and towns. Recently they announced a new energy storage division and a partnership with NEC Energy Solutions.
Solect Energy’s VP of energy storage John Mosher said the company sees energy storage as an opportunity for growth and investment.
“Initial projections for our ACES project forecast savings of up to $1.9 million in energy charges over 10 years,” he said publicly about the announcement. “Energy storage will enhance the facility’s resiliency in case of power outages, and to more fully utilize their solar PV system, further reducing emissions and advancing their sustainability goals.”
Initially the program was only going to offer grants totaling $10 million, but the high quality of applications prompted officials to double that, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center CEO Stephen Pike told MassLive.
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