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February 29, 2008 – Vol. 12 No. 49 Xcel Energy Launches Wind-to-Battery Project. The company will begin testing a one-megawatt battery-storage technology to demonstrate its ability to store wind energy and move it to the grid when needed. Fully charged, the battery could power 500 homes for over 7 hours. Xcel Energy has signed a contract to purchase a battery from NGK Insulators Ltd. that will be an integral part of a project. The sodium-sulfur battery is commercially available and versions of this technology are already being used in Japan and in a few US applications, but this is the first U.S. application of the battery as a direct wind energy storage device. The 20 50-kilowatt battery modules will be roughly the size of two semi trailers and weigh approximately 80 tons. They will be able to store about 7.2 megawatt-hours of electricity, with a charge/discharge capacity of one megawatt. When the wind blows, the batteries are charged. When the wind calms down, the batteries supplement the power flow. The project will take place in Luverne, Minnesota., about 30 miles east of Sioux Falls, South Dakota., with the battery installation beginning this spring adjacent and connected to a nearby 11-megawatt wind farm owned by Minwind Energy, LLC. S&C Electric Company will install the battery and all associated interconnection components. The battery is expected to go on-line in October 2008.
Partners in the project with Xcel Energy include the University of Minnesota, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Great Plains Institute and Minwind Energy, LLC. “Energy storage is key to expanding the use of renewable energy,” said Dick Kelly, Xcel Energy Chairman, President and CEO. “This technology has the potential to reduce the impact caused by the variability and limited predictability of wind energy generation. The project has been selected to receive a $1 million grant from Minnesota’s Renewable Development Fund, pending Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approval this spring. Xcel Energy is a major US electricity and natural gas company with regulated operations in eight Western and Midwestern states. (2/28/08)
Links: Xcel Energy NGK NAS batteries
Related: Energy Storage: A Building Block for the Power Grid of the Future. ZBB Energy Corporation Announces Commercial Product Platform: ZESS, the Zinc Energy Storage System.
Disclaimer, Forward-Looking or Safe Harbor Statement on original press release: No
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