San Antonio-based CPS Energy is building its first solar energy and battery storage project.

The $16.3 million project will be built by RES Americas and was approved earlier in 2018 by the municipal utility's Board of Trustees. The site will consist of a 5 megawatt solar power facility and a 10 MW battery storage system.

The Southwest Research Institute is providing nearly 50 acres of land for the project. The institute plans to study the efficiencies of both solar production and battery energy storage, potentially providing useful information to the utility that may lead to larger-scale projects.

In 2016, CPS Energy applied for and was awarded a New Technology Implementation Grant for $3 million from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to fund part of the project cost.

The CPS Energy solar and energy storage system will consist of 5 MW of distributed solar capacity co-located with a 10 MW/10 MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system. RES said that the project combines distributed solar generation with electrochemical energy storage, with both technologies interconnected at distribution voltage on a common feeder. Once operational, it said that the system will allow for peak mid-day solar production to be stored and injected onto the grid in late afternoon and early evening.

RES said that the project is among the first co-located solar and storage projects interconnected at the distribution level within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator for most of the state.

CPS Energy says that it received and evaluated 22 proposals for an engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.

The site is expected to be online in the summer of 2019.