Massachusetts awards USD 20m of energy storage grants, Tesla among winners

Two projects by Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) are among the 26 that got a total of USD 20 million (EUR 17m) in grants on Thursday as part of Massachusetts’ Energy Storage Initiative (ESI).

Governor Charlie Baker made the announcement on Thursday during an event at UMass Memorial-Marlborough Hospital. The critical care facility itself won a USD-686,000 grant to integrate a 400-kW solar canopy and an energy storage system.

A total of 25 communities will benefit from the awarded projects, which will draw in USD 32 million in matching funds. The grants were awarded as part of the Baker-Polito Administration’s ESI Advancing Commonwealth Energy Storage (ACES) programme, funded by the Department of Energy Resources (DOER). The Department announced in June a 200-MWh energy storage target for the state’s three electric distribution companies that should be met by January 1, 2020. The projects awarded under the ACES programme represent a total of 32 MW and 85 MWh of energy storage capacity. Of this, 16 MW and 45 MWh are within electric distribution company territory, according to a press statement.

Elon Musk’s Tesla secured more than USD 2.3 million in total for its own projects. Other notable awardees include General Electric, NextEra Energy, National Grid, Ameresco, Sunrun and Constellation.

The full list of winning projects can be found here.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.852)

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