in presidio, a grasp at the holy grail of energy storage - electricity storage

Kate in Galbraith's
2010 Gray compartments, neatly arranged in a square concrete building on the edge of the poor border town of Presidio.
In addition to the occasional jingle sound, the only sound is the rotation of the air --
Air conditioning to keep the car cool.
The $25 million device is the largest battery system in the United States.
It is called Bob locally because it has a large battery.
It started operations earlier this year, the latest sign of the country's interest in a nascent but fast-growing industry-electricity storage.
Storage is often referred to as the holy grail of energy technology, because it can modernize the grid by more effectively matching the power demand to power generation.
All kinds of early days
Texas is working on stage technology from Presidio batteries (
This can power towns of about 4,000 people for up to 8 hours in the event of a power outage)
A magnet that will store and release air compressed by electricity will be transferred to the cave.
Due to the surge in wind turbines in West Texas, the state is particularly keen on storage.
When people sleep, the machine produces maximum energy at night
So if their power is able to be stored for daytime use, the use of wind power, which currently accounts for about 6% of the state's electricity generation, will increase significantly.
Advertising "storage has long been an elusive goal for our industry," said Barry smithman, chairman of the utilities committee, which oversees state grid operations.
"I think there is a lot of great research and development going on in this area.
"The advertising Presidio project does not support wind power, although future versions of the battery system can be used for this purpose.
On the contrary, fourMegawatt sodium
Sulfur batteries should help to provide more stable power supply for towns located at the end of 60-year
Mile transmission line completed in 1948. The line —
There are still many original wooden poles-
Often hit by lightning, resulting in power failure.
Texas power transmission plans to replace the line by 2012, but at the same time it has installed batteries to keep the lights on and after the new line is built.
The concept of electric storage has a long history.
A few decades ago
Grid ranchers can buy batteries to support their small wind turbines, but they only store enough power to provide at least part of the power for a home
Far less than the Presidio battery.
Additional battery projects and potential projects are available throughout Texas.
Earlier this year, power company AES Energy Storage began operating-
Megawatt batteries near Petroleum Coke
Power plants in the Houston area.
The company's goal is to test how the technology will work with grid systems.
Duke Energy, based in North Carolina, expects around the end of the year whether it will receive a majority of the $22 million federal grant to build batteries near the wind farm in Ector and Winkler counties.
Another project, years of research on zinc
The mobile battery concept of San Antonio utility CPS Energy was canceled last year because ofyet-
Lisa Lewis, a spokesman for CPS Energy, said business technology had "encountered some challenges ".
Other types of energy
Storage experiments are also in progress.
In August, a consortium, including the University of Houston, received a $4 bonus.
Energy Department's 2 million grant for the development of energy storage systems made of super magnets. The wind-
Power arm for housing and power supply-
Power generation company Luminant has been working on the concept of "compressed air storage" to back up power from Panhandle's wind farm.
Excess power, like the wind generated at night, will compress the air and pump it into a salt hole or other suitable underground formation;
Later, the air may be burned and inflated by natural gas, generating electricity.
So far, the technology has been put into use mainly in Alabama and Germany, but Luminant spokesman Alan Konig said that while the project is still in the development phase, the project is "moving"
The main problem with ad storage is the high price.
The construction cost of Presidio batteries and ancillary substations is $25 million, and the cost per Presidio resident is about $6,000.
In other words, about $1 per Texas person.
Steven Stengel, a spokesman for Nexus Energy Resources, a major renewable Energy developer, said that in general, the economy of battery storage
No major grant or state or federal assistance
It is difficult to work for his company.
There is no plan to invest in any storage project at this time. Stengel said.
The collapse in natural gas prices over the past few years has also hurt the storage economy.
Calvin Crowder, president of Texas electric power transmission, compared the huge Presidio battery, which occupies a large house-sized area, to the first digital computer built in Iowa in the 1930 s.
Subsequent computer technology
"It's cheaper and more compact," Claude said"
So should the battery.
The Presidio battery is made in Japan and it requires 24 semi-trailers to be shipped from the Port of Long Beach, California to Texas.
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Who should pay for storage projects, and how to classify the related issues in the grid system, is an important and complex policy issue that the state must solve quickly.
On July, the state grid operator, the Texas power reliability commission, convened the first meeting of the power storage Working Group;
It will hold its fourth meeting in November. 8.
As far as Presidio batteries are concerned, the utility board actually classifies the batteries as a form of transmission rather than a form of power generation, which means that the cost will be borne by all rates
Payer of Texas power gridRight now, Mr.
Smitherman said the Commission was reviewing each item on a case-by-case basis.
He warned everyone not to see too much of the bureau's decision.
But he said the storage time could be "longer --
Long-term policy issues that we need to discuss and resolve. ”Robert J.
Kim, president of a good partner at energy
Austin's efficiency and renewable energy consulting company called the Texas Energy Storage Alliance, which said uncertainty about how storage will be classified --
And related questions about whether the scope of benefits it provides can be captured
Make it unlikely that the company will invest.
Another promising technology for storage is electric vehicles.
In the coming months, there will be thousands of such cars in Texas.
They expect to charge mainly at night, taking advantage of the time of the nighttime windiness.
In theory, the electricity accepted by the car may be sent back to the grid when demand is high, such as the later stage
Summer Afternoon
"An electric car . "
Smitherman said, "it's basically a battery with wheels.
Last Sunday, an article on energy storage in Texas omitted part of the name of a power company that started running
Megawatt batteries in the Houston area.
It's AES Energy Storage, not just AES Energy.
Kgalbraith @ texastribune.
The orgA version of this article was published on page A37A, national edition, November 7, 2010, with the title: in Presidio, grasp of the Holy Grail of energy storage.
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