A New Chapter for California Energy Storage: Celebrating “Firsts” with Project Commercial Operations
By Jack Schaufler – June 25, 2026
On June 18, 2026, California Community Power (CC Power), our member agencies, project partners, and local community leaders gathered in Kern County to celebrate an important milestone: the declaration of commercial operations and official ribbon cutting of the Tumbleweed Energy Storage Project – a utility-scale, eight-hour long-duration storage (LDS), lithium-ion project.
While ribbon cuttings are often an opportunity to recognize years of planning, collaboration, and hard work, this event represented something even bigger and celebrates a few “firsts”. Tumbleweed is CC Power’s first commercially operational joint-action project on behalf of its members, the first utility-scale eight-hour lithium-ion battery project in California, and potentially the country’s first, marking an important step forward in the transition to a cleaner, more reliable electric grid.
Figure 1: Tumbleweed Energy viewed from above.
From Vision to Reality
When CC Power was formed, our mission was to help our member Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) work together to procure large-scale, complex, and innovative clean energy resources that would be difficult to pursue individually. Tumbleweed embodies that vision.
The project consists of 75 MW / 600 MWh of battery storage contracted by CC Power on behalf of CleanPowerSF, Peninsula Clean Energy, Redwood Coast Energy Authority, San José Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Sonoma Clean Power, and Valley Clean Energy. Developed by REV Renewables, a subsidiary of LS Power, Tumbleweed achieved commercial operations on June 1, 2026.
Tumbleweed demonstrates the power of joint action and the ability of California’s CCAs to lead the deployment of innovative energy resources at scale. CC Power’s member CCAs recognized prior to the issuance of the California Public Utility Commission’s (CPUC) Mid-Term Reliability (MTR) Order that LDS would need to be procured to achieve the state’s long-term clean electricity goals. The need to achieve sufficient scale to advance the procurement of such resources, the desire to mitigate portfolio risks through resource sharing, and interest in advancing emerging technologies brought our members together to form CC Power as the vehicle to facilitate their collective procurement needs and targets.
The Long “Eight” Hours and Why it Matters
Over the past several years, battery storage has transformed California’s electric grid. Thousands of megawatts of battery capacity have been added across the state, helping absorb excess solar generation during the day and deliver it back to the grid during the evening peak. Most of those projects have been four-hour batteries. Tumbleweed just doubled that storage capacity.
The Tumbleweed project demonstrates how energy storage can move beyond simply addressing the evening peak demand and begin supporting reliability across a much broader portion of the day. With eight hours of duration, the project can shift renewable energy from midday solar production into both evening and morning hours, helping meet demand when clean energy would otherwise be less available.
Tumbleweed is more than just another battery project. It is evidence that the next generation of energy storage has arrived. As California continues pursuing an increasingly clean electric grid, it will require more than adding renewable generation resources, as the grid will need to deliver renewable energy over longer periods to continue to reduce dependence upon gas fired generation. By helping bring the first utility-scale LDS lithium-ion battery project in CAISO into operation, CC Power and its members have demonstrated an early blueprint for what that future could look like, not just for California, but for power systems across the country as grid operators seek reliable, emissions-free solutions capable of supporting increasingly renewable-powered electric systems.
Building Reliability and Community Benefits
Beyond its contributions to grid reliability and resource diversity, Tumbleweed has delivered meaningful benefits to the local community. Located in Kern County, the project utilized union labor through a Project Labor Agreement, creating up to sixty construction jobs during peak construction and five long-term operational positions. The facility is also expected to contribute millions in local tax revenues over its operating life while supporting local nonprofit organizations through charitable contributions totaling around $40,000 annually.
The project also incorporates robust safety measures, including the use of lithium iron phosphate battery cells which have the lowest flammability and greatest thermal stability of any commercially available lithium-ion battery chemistry. To complement the intrinsic safety benefits of the chosen technology, the project possesses key fire protection risk mitigations as evidence by a UL 9540 certification, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 69 certification, and extensive testing conducted in coordination with the Kern County Fire Department.
Figure 2: The CC Power Team visits Tumbleweed in February 2026.
A Milestone for CC Power and California
The successful delivery of Tumbleweed reflects years of effort by our member agencies, project partners, consultants, regulators, and local stakeholders.
It also highlights the growing role that CCAs can play in advancing California’s clean energy goals. Today, CC Power’s members serve approximately 2.7 million customers across 112 municipalities and represent roughly 12 percent of CAISO load in California. By working together, our members can pursue innovative resources that strengthen reliability, support decarbonization, and deliver value to the communities they serve.
As we celebrate this milestone in Kern County today, we also look ahead to a bright future. California’s clean energy transition will require new approaches, new technologies, and continued partnership approaches. Tumbleweed represents an important step on that journey, and we are proud to see it begin delivering reliable, clean energy for California communities.
Congratulations to everyone who helped make this project a reality.
Figure 3: Alex Morris (fourth from the right) represents CC Power, along with the REV team and other parties involved in the project at the ribbon cutting on June 18, 2026.
