Big batteries are all the rage, but this one’s 16 years old

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David R. Baker, Bloomberg

New York City dove headlong to build bigger and bigger batteries as regulators approved plans for a system on the East River in Queens.

But for all those keeping score, even the largest of America has been on the job for almost 16 years in a far more distant corner of America: a warehouse in Alaska.

The 46-megawatt battery, also in Fairbanks, uses a chemistry which ’s mostly gone the means of fax machines. It’s old enough that its operators can’t find replacement parts for a few parts. But it works, keeping the lights on in the city of 32,000 near the Arctic Circle, last year preventing 59 blackouts.

“Our network operators are adamant they don’t said Dan Bishopdirector of engineering services to the Golden Valley Electric Association, which possesses the battery life.

The drive to install bigger and bigger batteries on U.S. electrical grids comes as the price of ion technologies has shrunk and states attempt to squeeze out fossil fuels. By soaking up excess power if demand spikes and dispatching it, batteries might keep grids secure and integrate flows and ebbs of solar and wind. So called peaker natural-gas crops that kick in when demand surges they can also displace.

So far, battery systems capable of saving about 5.5 gigawatts of power have been set up worldwide, with more than 6 gigawatts under growth, according to BloombergNEF data. A gigawatt is about the outcome of one commercial nuclear reactor.

Dubbed that the BESS, for Battery Energy Storage System, the variety in Alaska uses 13,760 nickel-cadmium cells, stacked in rows. Guinness World Records certified it because the worldrsquo;s most powerful battery as it was commissioned in 2003. It’s because lost its worldwide crown as systems including Tesla Inc.’s 100-megawatt battery in Australia have come online.

Now several installments planned from the U.S. are poised to eclipse it, too.

Back in California, Tesla has been building a 182.5-megawatt installation for PG&E Corp.. Back in Florida, NextEra Energy Inc.’s Florida Power & Light utility is planning a 409-megawatt battery package. Meanwhile, the New York’s battery life at the Ravenswood power plant in Long Island City is going to be constructed with the first coming online in 2021.

A ‘Islanded’ Grid

But for now, the BESS remains king.

For the record, the U.S. Energy Department believes BESS to be tied with a battery at California as the nation ’s biggest, listing the potential for at 40 megawatts. Golden Valley, nevertheless, says its strategy in Alaska weighs in at 46 megawatts.

Produced by ABB Ltd. with cells in Saft Groupe SA, the 35 million program kicks in if there’s an interruption in power distribution. The Alaskan interior lacks the woven web of energy lines and blackouts was common, said Tom DeLong, chairman of Golden Valley’s board of supervisors.

“We had been islanded — we had one extension cable down to Anchorage,&rdquo. “Everyone in Fairbanks, when I was here from the 70s and 80s, had a generator inside his or her garage. ”

As the BESS represents an earlier generation of energy-storage jobs, BloombergNEF analyst Logan Goldie-Scot stated. The batteries now being installed supply various services: helping maintain grid stability, storing power from wind and solar and also in some instances replacing power plants. In BESS’big batteries served remote communities that needed a energy supply in a pinch s day, Goldie-Scot stated.

Like every aging system, BESS needs work. Its cells have been replaced, and the control system requires an upgrade or replacement. Golden Valley, nevertheless, has no plans to ditch it.

“Not unlike your other computer-based items, after a particular quantity of time, the processors aren’t left ” Bishop stated.

–With help from Will Wade.

To learn more watch the movie below.

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The post Big batteries are the rage, however this particular one ’s 16 years old appeared initially on Renewable Energy World.

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