Meeting ambitious clean energy goals almost certainly requires the widespread adoption of battery energy storage to provide power on demand when sources like solar and wind power are not producing enough. California’s battery energy storage capacity now exceeds 21 GW, most of which has been installed in the past 7 years. By comparison, New York has only 80 MW of battery storage.
New York has faced substantial grassroots opposition to battery storage installations in part as a reaction to some fires in 2023 at a Suffolk County battery facility. This opposition has made New York the home for more than 80% of the nation’s moratoriums on new battery storage facilities.
Despite this situation, the state is moving ahead. Eight grid battery projects won state contracts in September which will collectively add almost 1 GW of power by 2030.
New York’s biggest problem has not been that batteries would not be valuable to the state. The problem is that the existing rules made it nearly impossible to finance them. The new projects are based on market-based incentives established by NYSERDA that protect both storage operators and the public. While NYSERDA may make up shortfalls in storage facility revenues when wholesale prices are too low, operators have to pay back NYSERDA when prices are higher than what the project needs.
Overall, the buildout of battery storage should put downward pressure on energy prices for New Yorkers. Compared with the gas peaker plants used to meet times of high demand, battery storage is a much cheaper option.
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Will New York’s 1GW storage contracts finally break the state’s big battery impasse?
