Leeward Energy has signed a resource adequacy (RA) deal with California’s PG&E for the 450MWh Arizona BESS, which will benefit both California and Arizona. The agreement involves a resource committing to self-schedule its capacity into the CAISO market without using centralised capacity market (CM) auctions. California’s wholesale energy market is administered by CAISO, but the state is part of the Western Interconnection, a wide synchronous grid area covering some or all of 14 states. The Sierra Pinta BESS is adjacent to Leeward’s 179MW White Wing Ranch Solar project, which already has a separate power purchase agreement with Verizon. Arizona is becoming a hotbed of grid-scale BESS activity, with long-term PPAs, tolling agreements and RA deals driving the construction of large-scale projects.
Solar Dominates US Energy Capacity Growth
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has published data showing that solar accounted for over 75% of US electrical generating
