Wind batteries get prairie test 80-ton energy storers ‘act like independent power plants’

Farmers in Case International combines worked to get their corn out of the fields as snow fell Monday, harvesting within 20 feet of the first wind-to-battery storage test in the United States.

The 80-ton sodium-sulfur battery – 20 50-megawatt units which combined are the size of two semi trailers stacked – was refined in Japan. Xcel Energy has teamed with MinWind Energy to test the units at MinWind’s 11.5-megawatt wind farm west of Luverne.

When the wind blows, the batteries charge. When it doesn’t, the batteries can supply 1 megawatt of electricity to the grid, or enough to power 500 homes for seven hours.

Thom Gabrukiewicz • [email protected]

Full Story: http://www.argusleader.com/article/20081118/BUSINESS/811180326/1003/business