Giant battery to store wind power planned - Reuters

Source: Reuters

Giant battery to store wind power planned
Thu Sep 13, 2007 11:34AM EDT

By Pete Harrison

LONDON (Reuters) - The British arm of German utility
E.ON AG is developing a giant battery using a secret
combination of chemicals to store wind and solar
power for times of high demand, the company said
on Thursday.

The prototype will be the size of four large shipping
containers and will contain the power of 10 million
standard AA batteries, capable of producing 1MW of
electricity for four hours, said E.ON UK.

"This is the holy grail of the wind industry," said a
spokesman. "The electrochemical technology is
proven but we're using a new mix of chemicals to
overcome the difficulties that stopped previous
attempts.

"The mix of the chemicals is the hush hush bit," he
added.

The battery should be operational by late 2009 and
will help solve one of the main problems of wind and
solar power, added the power firm, one of Britain's
biggest with around 8.1 million electricity and gas
customers.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1392418420070913

:spray:

...this will be BIG. I still can't believe the US isn't putting more resources into solar/wind research.

(Of course you can -- but only once.)

AEP to Deploy Additional Large-Scale Batteries on Distribution Grid

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept 11, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall

American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP), as part of the company's comprehensive effort to integrate new technologies for reliability, renewable energy and energy efficiency to meet customers' future needs, is expanding its use of large-scale battery technology on its electricity grid.
AEP, the only U.S. utility currently using advanced energy storage technology as part of its electricity infrastructure, will be adding stationary sodium sulfur (NAS(R)) battery technology in its West Virginia and Ohio service territories next year.
The company will also work with wind developers to identify a third location within AEP's 11-state service territory for NAS battery deployment next year, using the storage capability to help offset the intermittent nature of wind generation.
AEP has placed an order for the three new NAS batteries with NGK Insulators Ltd. of Japan, the manufacturer and co-developer, along with the Tokyo Electric Power Co., of the technology. AEP anticipates delivery in spring 2008.
The six megawatts added to AEP's system during this deployment is a step toward the company's goal of having 1,000 megawatts of advanced storage capacity on its system in the next decade.
"We are extremely impressed with both the performance and the potential of this technology after using it in real-world applications and from experience we've gained through our long relationship with NGK," said Michael G. Morris, AEP's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "These new installations will move us a step closer to the full potential of advanced energy storage technologies in areas like reliability improvement, peak-load shaving and the use of stored energy from renewable sources like wind to supplement available generation resources.


"We're first movers on advanced storage among U.S. utilities, a position we've held on a wide number of technologies in our century of existence," Morris said. "Our near-term goal is to have at least 25 megawatts of NAS battery capacity in place by the end of this decade. But this is just a start. Our longer-term goal is to add another 1,000 megawatts of advanced storage technology to our system in the next decade. We will look at the full spectrum of technologies -- flow batteries, pumped hydro, plug-in hybrid vehicles and various other technologies in early stages of development today -- to determine their feasibility and potential for commercial application.
"In our view, advanced storage technologies, like NAS batteries, and other emerging technologies to increase customers' ability to benefit from energy efficiency will play equally important roles in delaying or avoiding costly future investments in new energy delivery or generation infrastructure," Morris said. "I believe other companies will begin deploying storage technologies in the coming years."
AEP plans to add two megawatts of NAS battery capacity near Milton, W.Va., to enhance reliability and allow for continued load growth in that area. AEP will also add two megawatts of NAS battery capacity near Findlay, Ohio, to enhance reliability, provide support for weak sub-transmission systems and avoid equipment overload.
A specific site for the third NAS battery, which is expected to be integrated with wind generation, will be announced in the coming weeks.
The combined cost for the three installations, including associated site preparation, equipment and control systems, will be approximately $27 million.
AEP has identified other potential sites for future deployment of advanced storage technologies.
In 2006, AEP installed the first megawatt-class NAS battery system to be used on a U.S. distribution system. That installation, on a substation near Charleston, W.Va., operated by AEP utility unit Appalachian Power, delayed the need for upgrades to the substation. A similar, but much smaller, NAS-based system installed in 2002 at an AEP office park in Gahanna, Ohio, was the first U.S. demonstration of the NAS technology.

The agreement to purchase additional NAS batteries was reached during an August visit to NGK in Japan by Holly Koeppel, AEP's chief financial officer.
"AEP and NGK have had a very close business relationship for more than five years," Koeppel said. "Our meeting in August generated the agreement for our deployment of additional batteries, but it also provided an opportunity for us to arrange an upcoming meeting with NGK for other Ohio utilities and state officials. Advanced storage technologies like NAS batteries are important to our industry's future. That's why we continue to lead the public policy and technology integration efforts."
The deployment of additional advanced storage capacity is part of a comprehensive AEP initiative focused on preparing the company's 11-state distribution system to meet future needs of customers.
"We're looking at where we need to be in the year 2020 and will be making changes to transition our system to the grid of the future," Morris said. "We have teams of employees examining the current and likely future needs of customers as well as the variety of technologies under development that could meet those needs. We're looking at ways to improve reliability and efficiency of our system as well as ways to reduce consumption, which delays or avoids the need for additional generation.
"Some elements, like additional large-scale storage systems to enhance reliability, advanced metering systems to provide customers with options for reducing energy use and further integration of renewable resources, are among the likely solutions customers will see in the near term," Morris said. "We're also testing distributed energy resources and 'smart grid' or 'self- healing grid' technologies designed to seamlessly separate sections of the distribution grid when problems develop elsewhere, with customers seeing no disruption in power supply or quality in situations where outages would be likely today. But implementation of these technologies is a bit further off."


American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning more than 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation's largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000- mile network that includes more 765 kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP's transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP's utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP's headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.


This report made by AEP and its Registrant Subsidiaries contains forward- looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Although AEP and each of its Registrant Subsidiaries believe that their expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, any such statements may be influenced by factors that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different from those projected. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are: electric load and customer growth; weather conditions, including storms; available sources and costs of, and transportation for, fuels and the creditworthiness of fuel suppliers and transporters; availability of generating capacity and the performance of AEP's generating plants; AEP's ability to recover regulatory assets and stranded costs in connection with deregulation; AEP's ability to recover increases in fuel and other energy costs through regulated or competitive electric rates; AEP's ability to build or acquire generating capacity when needed at acceptable prices and terms and to recover those costs through applicable rate cases or competitive rates; new legislation, litigation and government regulation including requirements for reduced emissions of sulfur, nitrogen, mercury, carbon, soot or particulate matter and other substances; timing and resolution of pending and future rate cases, negotiations and other regulatory decisions (including rate or other recovery for new investments, transmission service
and environmental compliance); resolution of litigation (including pending Clean Air Act enforcement actions and disputes arising from the bankruptcy of Enron Corp. and related matters); AEP's ability to constrain operation and maintenance costs; the economic climate and growth in AEP's service territory and changes in market demand and demographic patterns; inflationary and interest rate trends; AEP's ability to develop and execute a strategy based on a view regarding prices of electricity, natural gas and other energy-related commodities; changes in the creditworthiness of the counterparties with whom AEP has contractual arrangements, including participants in the energy trading market; actions of rating agencies, including changes in the ratings of debt; volatility and changes in markets for electricity, natural gas and other energy-related commodities; changes in utility regulation, including the potential for new legislation in Ohio and membership in and integration into regional transmission organizations; accounting pronouncements periodically issued by accounting standard-setting bodies; the performance of AEP's pension and other postretirement benefit plans; prices for power that AEP generates and sells at wholesale; changes in technology, particularly with respect to new, developing or alternative sources of generation; other risks and unforeseen events, including wars, the effects of terrorism (including increased security costs), embargoes and other catastrophic events.
SOURCE American Electric Power

Such a simple concept, and why the battery in your car can start the engine. Also, why the Prius and similar hybrids get such good gas mileage. Storing "excess" energy when readily and cheaply available to be used when not readily and cheaply available has been the solution to many economic and conservation problems. However, wasting energy has been the profitable way to go for our corporations, so that this technique was never advanced.

It took peak oil, global warming, and $3.00-plus per gallon gasoline to make people wake up to the fact that humanity has to start doing things differently, than merely what is good for corporate profits, or civilization, or maybe even life on this planet, is in jeopardy.