Energy Vault’s green hydrogen storage facility breaks ground

What will be the largest system of its type in the United States is now under construction.

Energy Vault has broken ground on construction that is expected to result in the largest long-duration green hydrogen storage facility in the United States.

It will be utility scale with a battery ultra-long duration energy storage system (BH-ESS)

The company develops and deploys energy storage solutions at a utility scale. The Energy Vault green hydrogen storage facility will have a 293 megawatt-hours capacity for carbon-free available energy.

The new system is under development for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and will be built in Calistoga, California on under an acre of land. Construction is slated for completion before the end of the first half of 2024.

Green hydrogen storage approval

In April 2023, the California Public Utilities Commission issued approval for PG&E to use the system. The BH-ESS, also called the Calistoga Resiliency Center, will become the first and largest facility of this nature for storing green hydrogen at a utility scale in the United States, according to Energy Vault.

The facility’s battery

The location’s battery section will provide grid support as well as black start capabilities.  The new system will provide downtown Calistoga and its surrounding area with up to 48 hours of power during the Public Safety Power Shutoffs that may occur at times when power lines are turned off due to high wildfire risk.

Replacing diesel

The green hydrogen storage system will be used for the replacement of the currently used mobile diesel generators for providing power to the PG&E Calistoga microgrid during Public Safety Power Shutoff situations.

“The timely start of construction is an important milestone in our partnership with PG&E to deliver this first-of-its-kind microgrid solution. We greatly look forward to not only its delivery but most importantly to the sustainability benefits it will bring to the Calistoga community,” said the Energy Vault chief commercial and product officer Marco Terruzzin.

“Our partnership with California’s largest public utility is yet another example of the growing recognition that optimizing grid resiliency and economics toward achieving decarbonization goals requires innovation that leverages multiple technologies and a ‘fit-for-purpose’ customer-centric approach when designing energy storage solutions,” he added.

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