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Xcel Systems has installed one of the utility systems, first in the United States uses a giant battery to store wind energy. A series of sodium-sulfur batteries of the Japanese company NGK Insulators, LTD., Is said to create some seven hours of megawatts of power. Technology research batteries has led to some surprising discoveries. Xcel systems has led the way with the wind in battery technology.
Twenty batteries may creating about one megawatt-hours of energy in nearly a flash-that is powerful enough to run five hundred, average U.S. household full seven hours. Addendum of extra batteries, along with reduced use per household would mean creating even more energy.
The batteries are intended to store wind energy at night and contract with utilities to release the stored energy as needed during the day. This is a huge leap in the use of wind power a viable alternative source of energy, the elimination of many of the main disadvantages of this type of energy. One is the unreliability of wind. You can not always have the wind blowing at certain times, or not as it blows that do not really need much. Storage energy for later use removes some of the common problems and concerns about it and makes it a more viable alternative to other types of energy.
While the company is producing energy from stored wind energy, customers being served are limited. Now, customers are in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Mexico, the Dakotas, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Other sites would be good, however, are expensive to say the least, with millions of dollars needed for commissioning and testing only. This adds to the expenses that a project of this size and nature would create.
The company is also testing other types of energy, including the use of solar to generate hydrogen. Hydrogen can be burned and turned into electricity. Other actions based on the wind, are being analyzed at very small scales. Finding an alternative energy source which is much reliable and affordable for all is one of the keys to our future and we should all keep an open mind while exploring all options and opportunities before us.
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Kansas Project house at 2007 Solar Decathlon