US renewable energy IPP Longroad Energy’s Sun Pond solar-plus-storage project in Maricopa County, Arizona, US has reached commercial operation.
Announced 5 May, Sun Pond combines 111MW of solar PV generation with a 85MW/340MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), and has long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with California community choice aggregators (CCA) Ava Community Energy and  San José Clean Energy (SJCE).
In December 2024, Longroad announced financial close of Sun Pond, noting that construction company McCarthy Building Companies would act as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor on the project.
Additionally, the BESS cells would be provided by Japan-headquartered lithium-ion battery manufacturer Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC), which is majority owne by Chinese firm Envision Energy.
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BESS integrator Fluence, which at that time, had recently secured US-manufactured cells from AESC, would work with Longroad and operations and maintenance firm NovaSource Power Services to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services for the Sun Pond project.
In the past week, AESC sold its stake in the US lithium-ion battery manufacturing business to US firm Fixx Energy, amid tighter restrictions in the US on companies seen to be controlled by the Chinese government.
Longroad has specified that Fluence’s Gridstack BESS solution was used at Sun Pond. PV modules from First Solar, smart trackers from Nextpower, and solar inverters from Sungrow were also used in the project.
Sun Pond is part of Longroad’s Sun Streams Complex, which is made up of three additional projects, and brings the Complex’s total capacity to 973MW solar PV and 600MW/2,400MWh BESS.
Longroad claims that the Sun Streams Complex will provide over US$300 million in benefits to Arizona schools and local communities through its long-term leases with the Arizona State Land Department and tax remittances.
In March 2024, the company closed on Serrano, a large-scale solar PV and battery storage project in Pinal and Pima Counties, Arizona, with PV modules also developed by First Solar.
Prior to closing on the Serrano project, Longroad closed on Sun Streams 4, which was the company’s largest solar and storage project to date, at 377MW PV and 300MW/1,200MWh. The project was part of a portfolio it acquired from First Solar.
In 2025, Longroad secured a PPA for its Allium solar-plus-storage project in San Benito County, California, with CCA Marin Clean Energy.

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