Sterling installing $2.7M battery storage
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In an official groundbreaking ceremony today in Sterling, MA, Town officials, Massachusetts State officials, U.S. Department of Energy, Sandia National Laboratories, Clean Energy States Alliance, and NEC Energy Solutions representatives commemorated the Sterling Energy Storage project, the Largest Battery Grid Energy Storage Installation in New England.
Riding the wave of a national and state push towards energy storage in addition to renewable resources, NEC Energy Solutions broke ground on a 3.9MWh battery storage unit for the Sterling Municipal Light Department yesterday.
Once the storage project is completed in December, it will be the largest of its kind in New England, according to NEC. The decision to install it was made back in 2014, according to General Manager of the Sterling Municipal Light Department Sean Hamilton, when the town had the most solar watts per customer in the country. The system will be able to store the power generated by solar and put it to use on overcast days, or at night, he said, thus driving down the cost of energy to ratepayers and allowing it to better leverage the town’s solar infrastructure.
“Energy storage technologies, especially when paired with renewable energy, have the potential to be a game changer for Massachusetts, helping to lower the cost of energy to ratepayers while reducing emissions,” Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Judith Judson said in a statement.
The storage will both improve grid resiliency against weather-related power outages, while providing enhanced clean energy usage and cost savings to the town of Sterling that has a high amount of solar installed, according to NEC and Hamilton. The project was funded in part by a $1.46 million grant from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and also received federal funding.
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