Alliant Energy has completed construction of its solar energy battery storage project in Decorah, and is now providing power from the battery to its customers in the northeast Iowa community. The project was part of the company’s Clean Energy Blueprint, which included the addition of a storage battery to its 2.55-megawatt solar garden in Marshalltown. Alliant Energy representatives say the company’s commitment to battery storage will accelerate the transition to renewable energy and provide both economic and environmental benefits to the communities it serves. The Decorah project’s 2.5-megawatt battery connects to a circuit in the town with a high concentration of customer-owned solar systems. It will absorb much of the excess energy those customers generate at the brightest parts of the day and release it onto the grid when customers need it most. The project was supported by a $250,000 cost-share from the U.S. Department of Energy and a $200,000 grant from the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Sandia National Laboratories provides technical support and will collect data from the battery, and Iowa State University’s Electric Power Research Center will use the project in its studies.