The growing use of solar and wind power is driving a growing need for large-scale energy storage technology. There are many ways to store energy ranging from pumping water into an elevated reservoir to storing compressed air in caverns to a wide range of battery technologies.
The expanding development of battery technology is being driven by electric cars as well as by the needs of the power grid. So it is no surprise that the largest to-date battery energy storage project in the US uses the same sort of batteries that are found in electric cars as well as computers and cell phones.
This fall, Southern California Edison dedicated a 32 MWh lithium ion battery storage facility adjacent to the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area. This long-established wind farm has continued to grow and modernize and is projected to generate up to 4,500 MW of wind energy by 2016.
The new battery storage facility will be able to provide 8 megawatts of power for up to four continuous hours. LG Chem, the Korean company that is one of the world’s largest suppliers of lithium-ion batteries, provided the batteries for the project, which was paid for by Southern California Edison in conjunction with federal stimulus funding.
There are a number of competing battery technologies that are targeting grid-scale energy storage. Tesla’s plan for its gigafactory that is supposed to be in operation in 2016 will certainly keep lithium ion in the race. Regardless of which technology ends up as the leader of the pack, energy storage is here to stay.
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Southern California Edison bets big on lithium ion for the nation’s largest energy storage project
Photo, posted January 16, 2010, courtesy of Lawrence Murray via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.