texas mega-battery aims to green up the grid - battery energy storage system

Hal Hodson is in a remote corner of West Texas, and in the shadow of a huge wind farm, one of the world's largest batteries was opened last week.
Deep in the oil world, batteries are a pioneer in helping renewable energy realize its potential and eventually replace American fossil fuels.
Built by local start-ups for energy giant Duke Energy-
Xtreme Power Supply, the array is the largest and fastest battery in the world.
It can deliver 36 MW of wind to the grid in 15 minutes.
The work of the battery is to act as a buffer to smooth the power supply of the nearby 153 MW Notrees wind farm.
The intermittent nature of wind power means that fossil-fuel-powered turbines often have to step in to meet energy supply and demand.
Haresh Kamath, of the Washington Electric Power Institute, said that the batteries of Notrees bridge the gap.
"When you go up and down the power plant, they lose efficiency," he said . ".
"It used to be the best way, but if we had storage like Notrees, we would make wind power plants more efficient.
The battery acts as a buffer, reducing the power supply of the wind farm next door, which also makes the entire power grid more resilient to the surge in demand, because the battery array can respond almost immediately, it will take about 15 minutes for natural gas plants to increase production.
Notrees battery is the first battery in the new power grid wave
In 2009, the connected storage system funded by the power company and the US Department of Energy (DOE)
This is expected to be launched this year.
No bussized, lead-
Acid battery modules with high surface area electrodes and multiple terminals, so electricity can enter and exit quickly.
Most other DOE
Projects funded look very different. The California-
Pacific-based gas and power companies will soon begin filling depleted gas wells near Becker sfield with compressed air that can provide 300 MW of electricity.
In moderstowe, a wind farm will be backed up by a zinc-based 25 mw storage system
A chlorine-flow battery that is charged by filling a reusable electrolyte liquid.
The battery will replace the planned 50 mw fossil fuel plant.
"There are storage projects across the country, and 2013 is the year that all of them go live and start working," said Mike Gravey of the California Energy Council . ".
"The goal is to give you enough energy to manage variability or give you enough time to find alternative resources.
"These facilities are too small to directly affect the way energy is produced and stored in the United States.
Instead, the goal is to have them act as test platforms to determine how best to maintain a stable supply of renewable power when the wind falls and the sun does not shine, or a surge in demand.
In 2010, US Energy Secretary steven Chu stressed the importance of such storage if the United States is to stop using fossil fuels.
"Without an efficient, large-scale technological breakthrough
Large energy storage, in our power, it is difficult to rely on intermittent renewable energy of more than 20-30 . "
"The whole goal is to build a grid that is flexible enough to achieve renewable energy at any level," Kamath said . ".
"The restrictions on the grid make it look like renewable energy is a problem, but the grid has never been designed for them.
"This is needed," he added . ".