Duke Energy is expanding its battery storage capacity in North Carolina and has begun commercial operations on an 11 MW project in Onslow County.
The battery system is often used in conjunction with an adjacent 13 MW solar plant located on a leased site at Marine Corps Base (MCB) Camp Lejeune, which has been producing carbon-free energy since 2015. These two facilities can also be used independently. .
Both projects are connected to Duke Energy’s substation and are used to serve all Duke Energy Progress customers. Future work could make it possible to improve the resilience of MCB Camp Lejeune’s solar and battery systems against outages.
“Integrating a solar farm with a battery energy storage system, which was unthinkable decades ago, provides the facility with multiple opportunities to achieve energy resilience goals,” said US Navy Commander Ross Campbell, director of public works at MCB Camp Lejeune. “These systems are part of an ongoing collaboration with the Department of Defense and its agencies to ensure energy security at federal facilities.”
The battery chemistry is lithium iron phosphate with a system capacity of 11 MW/11 MWh and a physical footprint of approximately 1 acre. Duke Energy partnered with Black and Veatch construction company OCI, which served as the general contractor for the design, procurement and construction.
