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Xcel Energy to host an open house in Pueblo on Nov. 21 about this potentially boundary-pushing pilot project at Comanche

 

Xcel Energy will host an open house in Pueblo on Thursday, Nov. 21, to provide more information about the financial grant given to its multi-day iron air demonstration project.

The open house will be held from 5 to 7:30 p.m. At St. Joseph Catholic Church, located at 1145 Aspen Road, Pueblo.

A virtual open house will also be held from 2 to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

Xcel and Form Energy have partnered, apparently with the assistance of Argonne National Laboratory, to install an innovative energy storage battery system at the Comanche Generating Station. Xcel is also partnering with Form Energy on a similar pilot project in Minnesota.

The 10-megawatt 100-hour duration storage system should, if effective, maximize the use of low-cost renewable energy and enhance grid reliability. As such, it may be one of the pieces of the puzzle still remaining about how to provide 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050.

In June, the federal Office of Clean Energy Technology awarded Xcel $4.3 million to begin activities at this and the project and in Minnesota. The work will be to plan, design, permit and other development activities. This is expected to take 7 to 12 months.  Actual construction will come later.

The money is coming from the federal government via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act of 2021. The office has $505 million to give out in an effort to spur development of technologies that provide long-duration storage. Read more here.

One of the three units at Comanche Generating Station has closed, another will close in 2025 and the third is scheduled to close before the end of 2030.

Allen Best
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