The initial battery units for what could be the first of three energy storage facilities being built this year in San Joaquin County have arrived at the site backing up to Highway 99 adjacent to the Flyng J Travel Plaza in Ripon.

The Noosa Energy project in Ripon is on a 4.9-acre triangle next to the PG&E substation.

It will consist of battery storage cabinets, transformers, inverters, a main step-up transformer along with an interconnection line to the Ripon PG&E substation.

Tesla mega battery packs — or similar batteries — will be placed in 11 rows. Eight of those rows will go the width of the property with eight feet between rows. The longest row will approach 600 feet in length.

 Three shorter rows of battery packs will be placed east of the Ripon substation.

The Tesla mega packs would contain arrays of lithium-ion batteries that would be charged by alternating current energy from PG&E's grid, used when the supply of energy exceeds the demand.

Battery storage farms are needed in order to save excess electricity generated when the sun is out and the wind is blowing for use when solar panels and/or wind turbines aren’t generating power.

As such, one day it could store electricity needed to  help power homes and businesses in Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop as California moves toward a goal of 100 percent “clean” energy by 2045.

The 100-megawatt will store electricity generated at optimum times of the day when energy production exceeds demand.

One megawatt, on average, supplies the needs of 750 homes.

Also expected to move forward this year is a battery energy storage complex that could provide the energy needs of 300,000 homes concurrently on land 22 miles to the southwest of Manteca.

The 400 megawatt storage facility would tie into PG&E’s Tesla substation near the Alameda-San Joaquin county line.

The Korda Energy Storage project will consist of 500 free standing batteries that are each 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 9.5 feet tall.

It will be one of the largest, if not the largest, battery energy storage farm in California when it becomes operational.

 The county project being proposed is south of Tracy along Patterson Pass Road some 2,000 feet south of Midway Road.

The 40-acre Korda site with be about 9/10th of a mile east of Interstate 580.

NextEra Energy Resources also is approved to build 132-megawatt storage facility adjacent to a PG&E substation east of Linden.

The Linden site is 23 miles northeast of Manteca.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com