The US energy regulator has accepted Daybreak Power’s application for a preliminary permit for its proposed 2200MW Navajo Energy Storage Station (NESS) near Page, Arizona.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision marks an “important early milestone” for $3.6bn project, according to Daybreak, which will use existing transmission infrastructure at the retired Navajo Generating Station coal plant.
NESS is a pumped storage hydropower facility that will use water from Lake Powell and a new reservoir on a plateau above the lake to create a large battery, using cheap, abundant solar and wind energy to pump water to the upper reservoir.
This is then released through turbines to generate 10 hours of renewable energy each day to power cities in California, Arizona and Nevada when demand peaks late in the day and through the night.
Unlike other proposed pumped storage projects in the region, the NESS project will not dam any rivers, inundate sacred places or deplete groundwater.
The project has been sited to minimise impacts on endangered species, steer clear of culturally significant sites and avoid adverse impacts on recreation, according to Daybreak.
The developer is working with the Navajo Nation, other First Nations, the recreation industry and conservation groups to develop the storage project.
Daybreak chief executive Jim Daly said: “Everyone knows we’re going to need massive amounts of storage to integrate high levels of renewables, and we need to do it smart and cost-effectively. The Navajo Energy Storage Station does that.
“This project marks a turning point for this region to begin its transition off of coal and onto solar and wind at a scale never seen before, here or anywhere else.”
The NESS facility is Daybreak’s second energy storage project, following its proposed 1540MW pumped Storage facility that will use water from Lake Mead and transmission infrastructure near Hoover Dam.
“It’s long past time to stop messing around and start building storage projects that actually work to deliver renewable energy on-demand, around-the-clock,” Day said.
Daybreak Power has a pipeline of nearly 50,000 megawatt-hours of pumped storage hydropower capacity in its pipeline.