An 11 MW/11 MWh battery storage system is now operating in North Carolina, the state's largest system to date. The battery storage facility, located in Onslow County, was developed by Duke Energy alongside an existing 13 MW solar farm on leased land within Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. (Courtesy: Duke Energy)The battery storage facility, located in Onslow County, was developed by Duke Energy alongside an existing 13 MW solar farm on leased land within Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
The two sites can also be operated independently. Both projects are connected to a Duke Energy substation and will be used to serve all Duke Energy Progress customers. Future work could enable the solar and battery systems to improve the resiliency of MCB Camp Lejeune against outages.
“Battery storage is an important resource for our transition to cleaner energy,” said Kendal Bowman, Duke Energy’s North Carolina state president. “Pairing the energy storage system with our existing solar facility at Camp Lejeune helps strengthen the reliability of our energy grid and makes better use of our existing solar generation.”
The battery’s chemistry is lithium iron phosphate with the system rated at 11-MW/11-MWh, and its physical footprint is about 1 acre. A photo of the project shared by Duke appears to show CATL as the battery cell supplier for the project.
Duke Energy partnered with Black & Veatch construction entity OCI, which acted as the prime contractor for engineering, procurement, and construction.
In North Carolina, Duke Energy operates a 9 MW lithium-ion battery system in Asheville, as well as a 4 MW lithium-ion battery system as part of a microgrid in the town of Hot Springs.
Duke Energy expects to have more than 1,600 MW of battery storage in service by 2029. Currently, the company’s regulated utilities have about 90 MW of battery energy storage projects in operation in three states.
