Harnessing wind power is relatively easy (see: windmill). It’s storing that energy that’s the hard part.
Enter Xcel Energy’s “Wind-to-Battery” project.
Brought online last month, the experiment in southwest Minnesota is the first in the country to use a sodium-sulfur battery to try and store energy generated by wind farms, reports ABC news affiliate KAAL TV.
If successful, the technology could prove a windfall for the renewable energy sector. One of wind power’s greatest weaknesses has long been reliability because if the wind didn’t blow, no energy could be created.
“Energy storage is key to expanding the use of renewable energy,” said Richard Kelly, Xcel Energy Chairman, President and CEO. “This technology has the potential to reduce the impact caused by the variability and limited predictability of wind energy generation.”
The project is being tested in Luverne, Minn., about 30 miles east of Sioux Falls, S.D., and uses an 80-ton battery that Xcel says could power 500 homes for more than 7 hours when fully charged.
"This, of course, is a small test by utility standards, but it should be able to provide us the seed information that would help us determine what the impact might be," said Xcel Energy spokesman Frank Novachek.