APS President and CEO Ted Geisler debuted the company’s new Agave solar-battery facility. Here’s how it could help Arizona energy customers.
TONOPAH, Ariz. — Arizona Public Service is looking to the desert west of Phoenix to solve one of clean energy’s biggest hurdles: making the sun work after dark.
APS President and CEO Ted Geisler debuted the company’s new Agave solar-battery facility this week, a massive installation designed to capture surplus energy during the day and discharge it when the grid faces its highest demand.
“As we all know, just because the sun goes down, it doesn’t mean it’s cooling off,” Geisler said. “These batteries allow us to use energy stored during the daylight hours to power homes into the night.”
The facility, located near Tonopah, sits adjacent to a sprawling solar array. By pairing the two, APS can store solar energy generated during peak daylight hours rather than losing it.
The Agave plant also addresses a regional energy surplus issue involving neighboring California. Because California’s solar farms often produce more electricity than its own grid can handle, the state sometimes pays utilities in neighboring states to take the excess power to avoid overloading its system.
“They are producing power that their grid can’t handle, and they actually pay us to take that power,” Geisler said. “We store it in these batteries and then use that power for our customers.”
Geisler noted the arrangement provides a dual benefit: Arizona customers receive power that helps stabilize the local grid, while the payments from California are used to help lower bills for APS customers.
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