WORLD’S BIGGEST WIND STORAGE

Duke Builds Largest Storage System With Xtreme at Wind Farm
Ehren Goossens, April 14, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

"Duke Energy Corp, a U.S. utility that operates 986 megawatts of wind-energy capacity, selected Xtreme Power Inc. to design and install the world’s largest power-storage system linked to a wind farm…The 36-megawatt storage system is expected to cost $44 million and will go into operation in the third quarter of 2012…

"The system will retain power generated when demand is low and can be tapped when electricity consumption is highest or the wind is not blowing. It will make the 153-megawatt Notrees wind farm in west Texas a more reliable source of energy…"

Big storage (click to enlarge)

[Greg Wolf, president, Duke Energy Renewables:] “[Storage technology will] help our wind projects, and potentially down the road solar projects, interact with the grid, making sure that any of the potential negatives from an intermittent wind resource or a peak solar resource can be managed…”

"Xtreme Power manufactures dry-cell battery systems for use with wind farms and solar projects, which cannot consistently deliver electricity."

Xtreme Power wind storage in Hawaii (click to enlarge)

[Carlos Coe, CEO, Xtreme Power:] “[Storage is beginning to catch on with renewable energy developers]. We have a few projects of this size awaiting to be announced later this year or into next year that are related to either renewable integration on a large-scale or renewable integration under challenging transmission and distribution circumstances…”

"A 30-megawatt wind project in Hawaii went into operation in March using a 15-megawatt storage system from Xtreme…Duke won in November 2009 a $22 million U.S. Energy Department grant for a large-scale battery storage system at the Notrees project…Electricity from Notrees is sold to Bentonville, Arkansas- based Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), the world’s largest retailer…"