Energy Storage

200-MWh Battery Energy Storage to complement CHP at new Texas Airport

Sept. 9, 2022

Austin-based Available Power will lease land on the Greenport campus to develop the lithium-ion, front of the meter BESS. Once operational, the batteries can provide both grid stability services to the ERCOT system and support for the local utility

Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor

Real estate development-focused energy storage firm Available Power LLC has closed a deal to deliver a utility-scale battery system to provide energy resiliency at the new Greenport International Airport and Technology Center project in Texas.

The 100-MW/200-MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) will support the privately run Greenport facility near Austin. The ownership of Greenport is targeting net-zero emissions goals for the site, including baseload power fueled by biomass.

Available Power plans to break ground on the Greenport BESS next year and put it into commercial operations by mid-2024. The prospective project has been placed for consideration in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) interconnection queue.

“The Texas power grid is getting greener, and our goal is to ensure that it also becomes more resilient as it evolves,” said Benjamin Gregory, President of Available Power. “Large-scale energy storage is a critical component necessary to efficiently balance the grid, navigate severe weather safely, and adapt to changing consumer electricity demands. We hope our GREENPORT project will be a prime example of the power of battery energy storage in action.”

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The role of Texas as the nation’s top wind power capacity state and rising in solar energy installation make it ideal for utility-scale energy storage to help balance out the intermittencies of the renewable energies.

Earlier this year, Vistra Energy brought its DeCordova Energy Storage System online near Dallas. The 260-MWh DeCordova BESS is considered the largest such array in Texas.

Greenport International is being developed as a new airport and technology center located along the Texas-Colorado River some 17 miles from Austin’s Central Business District. The project’s planners also intend, as part of the net-zero vision, to develop a biomass-fueled combined heat and power (CHP) for the site.

The Technology Center will include space for future data centers and other new companies, according to the plan.

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(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]).

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About the Author

Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He 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.

Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World.

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. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

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.