San Joaquin County is set to become a hub for clean energy storage, with several major battery facilities breaking ground this year. The first wave of batteries has arrived for what could be the county’s inaugural energy storage site—a project taking shape on a 4.9-acre triangle of land next to the PG&E substation and Flying J Travel Plaza in Ripon, just off Highway 99.

The Noosa Energy project will feature rows of Tesla mega battery packs—or similar technology—lined up in 11 parallel strips. Eight of these rows will stretch nearly the full width of the property, with the longest nearing 600 feet and separated by eight-foot gaps. Three additional, shorter rows will sit east of the Ripon substation.

These battery packs are designed to store excess electricity from the grid, using lithium-ion cells charged by alternating current from PG&E. The system allows the storage of surplus power generated during periods of high supply—when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing—for later use when renewable generation dips.

The 100-megawatt facility will have the capacity to power thousands of homes, supporting communities like Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop as California pushes toward its goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2045. For context, a single megawatt typically powers about 750 homes.

But Ripon isn’t the only location gearing up for large-scale battery storage. A separate project, located 22 miles southwest of Manteca, is expected to move forward this year as well. The Korda Energy Storage complex will feature 500 standalone batteries—each the size of a shipping container—on a 40-acre plot just south of Tracy, near Patterson Pass Road and less than a mile from Interstate 580.

Once operational, this 400-megawatt site will be among the largest battery storage farms in the state, capable of meeting the energy needs of up to 300,000 homes at once. The facility will connect to PG&E’s Tesla substation near the Alameda-San Joaquin county line.

Meanwhile, NextEra Energy Resources has received approval to build a 132-megawatt battery storage facility outside Linden, adjacent to another PG&E substation. That site will add yet another major node to the region’s growing energy storage network.

With these projects underway, San Joaquin County is rapidly positioning itself at the center of California’s transition to a more reliable and renewable energy future.