Massachusetts wants to build big battery farms to store energy
December 19, 2025 | The Boston Globe
A $1 billion-plus battery farm big enough to power 500,000 homes for four hours could start going up as soon as the end of next year in Everett, now that it’s one of four winners in a state competition for energy storage contracts.
The 700-megawatt Trimount project from Jupiter Power would be the largest such lithium-ion battery farm in New England, if it opened today. The other winners of the rights to negotiate utility contracts for these projects’ clean-energy certificates are Flatiron Energy’s Energizar project in Chelsea and its Salt Cod project in Somerset, and Rhynland Energy’s River Mill Storage proposal in Tyngsborough.
The state Department of Energy Resources unveiled the selected projects on Friday. Trimount, going up at the site of a former oil-tank farm along Beacham Street now owned by Davis Cos. and Global Partners, would be the largest of the four by far, at 700 megawatts. The others would have a combined capacity of nearly 600 megawatts. This is the first round of battery-storage bids established via a climate and energy law passed by the Legislature in 2024.
“The procurement we’re conducting right now is the logical next step to really unlock a lot of utility-scale storage resources, which could really transform the way that our grid operates,” Michael Judge, energy undersecretary in Governor Maura Healey’s administration, said in a recent interview.
Cost was the number one factor in weighing the bids. DOER, the state agency, gave preference to bids that support grid resiliency and create economic opportunities for communities, such as Everett and Somerset, that once hosted fossil fuel-fired power plants. (Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria had expressed concerns, though, saying he hoped for a more ambitious redevelopment of the 20 acres where Trimount would go.)
The state’s three major electric utilities will now enter contract negotiations with the project owners, and the final contracts would need approval by the state Department of Public Utilities.
The precise impact on electric bills remains unclear. However, proponents of battery storage say these projects will save ratepayers money in the long run, while helping curb carbon emissions, by minimizing the need to run older natural gas- and oil-fueled turbines during times of peak electricity demand when wholesale prices surge. These battery energy storage systems also can complement solar and wind farms, holding energy to release it when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.
“Well-sited and responsibly-developed battery storage projects are the Swiss Army knives of an affordable modern grid,” Elizabeth Turnbull Henry, president of Environmental League of Massachusetts, said in an email.
Hans Detweiler of Jupiter Power, which is owned by an affiliate of financial giant BlackRock, said the contracts for Trimount, near the Boston city line and the site of the former Mystic power plant, could either delay or completely avoid the construction of $2 billion-plus in transmission line upgrades in Greater Boston. Jupiter will use these contracts to help land financing for the Trimount project. He said he hopes to start construction, a roughly two-year process, by the end of next year.
“Because of our location, … we’re able to provide such critical support for the grid,” Detweiler said. “We’re glad the evaluators were able to see that.”