Sun Streams Solar & Storage Complex

The Sun Streams Solar and Storage complex is a three-phased solar facility tucked in the Sonoran Desert roughly 40 miles west of Phoenix. The facility has a total energy output of over 900-megawatts (MW) solar and 2,060 megawatt-hours (MWh) of battery energy storage.

Spanning more than 1,000 acres, Sun Streams 2 has a 200 MW solar facility featuring more than 450,000 First Solar Series 6 modules, 5,805 NEXTracker trackers, 5 SMA MWPS-4000 inverter skids, DC wiring and combiner boxes, as well as underground 34.5 kV AC collection wiring. The project was completed ahead of schedule and under budget.

Sun Streams 3, a 285 MW solar facility features Longroad’s first battery energy storage system (BESS) on site with 860 MWh capacity. The BESS component of Sun Streams 3 aids in storing excess energy created by the solar facility and releasing it to the grid during peak hours, allowing Arizona’s residents to use clean, cost-effective energy even in the nighttime hours. The battery energy storage system utilized 1,596 Powin Centipede energy segments, over 1-million battery cells, 84 inverters, and 84 collection segments. Prior to construction, McCarthy’s Crew Focused Design group modeled the entire site in Revit to identify areas of prefabrication. This prefabrication effort allowed our team to install approximately 90% of the grading, structural, and electrical in under 6 months. 

Sun Streams 4, the final portion of the facility, is a 376 MW solar facility with 1,200 MWh of storage capacity. This project has navigated several environmental conditions, including the removal of saguaro cacti in accordance with the Arizona Native Plant Protection Act.