Ameresco to add battery storage system to 67-acre Army base

A large windowed building sits behind two grass plots with pink, red, and white flowers in the foreground

Photo | Courtesy of Kelleher & Sadowsky Associates, Inc. Headquarters of renewable energy firm Ameresco at 111 Speen St. in Framingham

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By Katherine Hamilton

Framingham renewable energy firm Ameresco was awarded a contract to add a comprehensive battery energy storage system to its existing solar energy facility in Maryland.

The contract, awarded by the U.S. Army, will allow Ameresco to deploy a 6-megawatt battery storage system to its 67-acre facility at the Fort Detrick Army Garrison base in Frederick, Md. This will add to the 18.6 megawatts of direct current solar energy already existing at the base, according to Ameresco’s press release from Wednesday.

The storage system is designed to save the government $125,000 annually in utility costs. Ameresco is partnering with Virginia-based Defense Logistics Agency Energy on the project.

Ameresco has worked with Fort Detrick since 2015 on a 26-year renewable energy effort to limit the army’s fossil fuel expenditure. The agreement sparked Ameresco’s work on the solar energy generation system at the base, which includes almost 60,000 solar panels.

"We commend the Army for taking yet another step to improve their energy infrastructure through battery energy storage technologies at Fort Detrick," Nicole Bulgarino, executive vice president at Ameresco, said in a statement. "This installation ties in the renewable energy generation from the existing solar arrays to a system that will allow the base to be microgrid-ready, ultimately creating a more resilient and future-energy ready base."

Completion of the 6-megawatt battery storage system addition is set to be completed in early 2023.