Gemini US record-setting gigascale solar + storage project launches in Mojave desert
Primergy and Quinbrook's sprawling 690MW array and its co-located 380MW battery storage could provide 10% of Nevada's total peak power demand
The massive Gemini solar + storage project in Nevada, the largest in the US, is now fully operational and able to meet 10% of the western state’s peak power demand, according to co-developers Primergy and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.
The facility outside Las Vegas employs 1.8 million solar panels that can generate up to 690MW on an alternating current basis. The arrays are co-located with 380MW/1,400MWh of four-hour battery storage.
The project has a 25-year off-take agreement with NV Energy, the state’s dominant electric utility that is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the country’s largest conglomerate controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett.
The project’s direct-current-coupled storage configuration, which the developers claim is unique, enables the battery energy storage system (BESS) to charge directly from the solar panels. This results in increased efficiency and maximises capture and storage of solar energy directly on-site.
“Gemini broke the mould with a historic amount of solar and BESS, backed by the largest tax equity financing of its kind,” said Primergy CEO Ty Daul.
He is referring to $532m in tax equity commitments made by Bank of America and Trust Bank, which is believed to be the largest single-asset tax equity solar financing completed in the US.
Primergy, a portfolio company of Quinbrook, created and implemented a broad-ranging framework for ecosystem management to minimise environmental impacts. Gemini is in the Mojave Desert.
The measures include leaving vegetation in place, installing solar panels to follow the ground’s natural contours, and reducing the project’s land footprint by over 20%.
“Gemini creates a blueprint for holistic and innovative clean energy development at mega scale, and we are proud to have brought this milestone project to life,” said David Scaysbrook, managing partner of Quinbrook.
As solar arrays grow in size, their potential longer-term environmental impacts on desert environments have been given greater scrutiny by local, state, and federal officials and regulators.