Canuck MegaBattery "Cleans Up" Wind Power

picture-431-1407968445.jpg
on

The trouble with wind is that it’s a bit like Adam Sandler’s career. Sometimes it blows, and sometimes it doesn’t.

That’s just fine if all you want to do is fly a kite, but if you’re an electrical utility seeking a steady supply of carbon-free juice for millions of homes and businesses, the resource needs a Plan B.

For one Canadian company, that plan B is โ€œbattery.โ€

If the deal goes through as expected, next year Richmond, B.C.-based VRB Power Systems will install an enormous โ€œflow battery โ€ in a wind farm at Donegal,ย Ireland.

When the North Atlantic is truly honkin’, turbines will feed a steady 32 megawatts of juice into the island’s grid while simultaneously charging VRB‘s battery.

The battery itself will be large enough to need its own warehouse. Picture a series of enormous plastic tanks containing electrolyte solution. Power will be stored in the bank and later released to the grid via a central โ€œcell stack,โ€ about the size of a large commerical refrigerator.

When fickle air currents abruptly die or shift and the Donegal turbine blades slow, VRB‘s two-megawatt-hour storage system will seamlessly kick in to pick up the slack, โ€œfilling inโ€ the power hiccups, and turning a stop-and-go proposition into a resource that the company calls 95 percent constant.

VRB says its batteriesโ€“which can be endlessly scaled-up in size as need arisesโ€“could also work with widely distributed solar systems such the California Solar Initiative . As part of Arnie’s Million Solar Roofs initiative, the Golden State has set a goal to create 3,000 megawatts of new, solar-produced electricity by 2017.

picture-431-1407968445.jpg
I work with Clean Energy Canada at Tides Canada to help accelerate Canadaโ€™s transition to an energy-efficient, ecologically responsible, and prosperous low-carbonย economy.

Related Posts

on

Decision a blow to campaigners, who say the ads gave the Saudi Aramco unearned climate credibility.

Decision a blow to campaigners, who say the ads gave the Saudi Aramco unearned climate credibility.
on

Lawmakers warned that oil companies are using increasingly sophisticated messaging tactics to portray themselves as climate champions at the UK's first parliamentary debate on calls to ban adverti...
on

Labour's Jacob Collier warns parliamentary debate of "coordinated strategy" by oil companies to delay climate action.

Labour's Jacob Collier warns parliamentary debate of "coordinated strategy" by oil companies to delay climate action.
on

Critics fear that Equinorโ€™s latest UK education deal is aimed at quelling opposition to North Sea drilling.

Critics fear that Equinorโ€™s latest UK education deal is aimed at quelling opposition to North Sea drilling.