Biggest Battery System Inches N.Y. Toward 100% Green Energy Goal

(Bloomberg) -- The biggest battery system in New York is now storing electricity at a technology campus north of Albany to help stabilize the state’s power grid and reduce carbon emissions.

The 20-megawatt installation of thousands of lithium-ion batteries will store excess power from the grid and release it when needed. The project, by an Albany-based start-up called Key Capture Energy, received $1.3 million from the state as the first recipient of a $150 million program to help the shift from fossil fuels, according to a statement Thursday.

Governor Andrew Cuomo plans to have 3,000 megawatts of energy storage installed within 10 years, highlighting the massive investment necessary to wean the state entirely from fossil fuels. The new storage center brings the state just 0.67% closer to that goal.

Key Capture Energy also plans to build a storage project for Consolidated Edison Inc.’s Orange & Rockland utility in Pomona, New York.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Martin in New York at cmartin11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lynn Doan at ldoan6@bloomberg.net, Reg Gale, Pratish Narayanan

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.