Sacramento utility rolls out its first long-duration grid batteries

Sacramento 's utility has installed its first batch of novel grid batteries to assist its quest for a carbon-free grid by 2030 .

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District cut a deal one year ago with cleantech company ESS to deliver a total of 200 megawatts/2 gigawatt- hours of long-duration energy storage.

ESS chose readily available iron to safely and economically store clean energy for longer periods of time than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

ESS signed agreements to deliver similarly massive portfolios to a power company in Germany .

Long-duration storage proponents still need to prove there’s a market for power plants that can store and discharge clean energy for eight, 10 , 12 hours or more.

But Sacramento offers a glimpse of the future: When full grid decarbonization moved from the abstraction of midcentury to an imminent deadline, the utility didn't lose itself in theoretical debates.