The power plant itself will shift from an 800-megawatt combined cycle plant, installed by GE in 2008 as a model of efficiency, only to languish when its 12-hour startup time made it a poor fit for the era of cheap gas and weather-dependent renewable production.

Think this just goes to show how fast things are changing.

Federal analysts predict 2024 will be the biggest-ever year for grid battery installations across the U.S., and they highlighted Calpine’s project as one of the single largest projects. The 620 megawatts the company plans to energize this year represent more than 4% of the industry’s total expected new additions.

Good that it’s a small piece of the pie.