Xcel Systems has installed one of the first utility systems in the United States that uses a giant battery system to store wind power. A series of sodium sulfur batteries from the Japanese company, NGK Insulators, LTD., is said to create about seven megawatt hours of power. The research in battery technology has led to some amazing breakthroughs. Xcel systems has been leading the way with wind to battery technology.
Twenty batteries can create about one megawatt hour of power in almost a flash- which is enough power to run five hundred, average American homes for seven full hours. Adding additional batteries coupled with lowered usage by each household could mean even more energy creation.
The batteries are meant to store wind energy at night and then contract with the utility companies to release the stored energy as needed throughout the day. This is a huge leap in the use of wind energy for a viable alternative energy source, eliminating many of the major drawbacks to this type of energy. One of these is the unreliability of the wind itself. You cannot always count on the wind to be blowing at certain times, or not to be blowing when you really do not need it as much. Storing the energy for later use takes away some of the common worries and problems about that and makes it an even more viable alternative to other types of energy.
While the company is producing energy from stored wind power, the customers that are being served are limited. Right now, those customers are in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. The company itself is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Additional sites would be nice, however they are expensive to say the least with millions of dollars needed for start up and testing alone. This is in addition to the other expenses that a project of this size and nature would create.
The company is also testing other types of energy including using solar installations to generate hydrogen. The hydrogen can be burned and turned back into electrical energy. Other wind based operations are also being tested on very small scales as well. Finding an alternate energy source that is far, reliable and affordable for everybody is one of the keys to our future and we must all keep an open mind while we explore all of the various options and opportunities that are presented to us.
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