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Wind batteries get prairie test 80-ton energy storers ‘act like independent power plants’

November 19, 2008 /

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Farmers in Case International combines worked to get their corn out of the fields as snow fell Monday, harvesting within 20 feet of the first wind-to-battery storage test in the United States.

The 80-ton sodium-sulfur battery – 20 50-megawatt units which combined are the size of two semi trailers stacked – was refined in Japan. Xcel Energy has teamed with MinWind Energy to test the units at MinWind’s 11.5-megawatt wind farm west of Luverne.

When the wind blows, the batteries charge. When it doesn’t, the batteries can supply 1 megawatt of electricity to the grid, or enough to power 500 homes for seven hours.

Thom Gabrukiewicz • [email protected]

Full Story: http://www.argusleader.com/article/20081118/BUSINESS/811180326/1003/business

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