A portable energy storage system being developed by an Allentown company would provide a backup to traditional power grids.
International Battery’s emerging technology, referred to as a bulk energy storage system, consists of lithium-ion battery cells about the size of a laptop computer. A bunch of these are put together, along with an inverter that converts one kind of electrical current to another. The result is an energy storage system as long as 40 feet, which would be used to store wind or solar power. International Battery plans to build systems with a capacity of at least 800 kilowatt hours and up to a megawatt hour. To put that in perspective, the average American household used a little more than 11,000 kilowatt hours in 2008.
Company spokesman Vance Grosso says the portable storage systems would most likely be used by utility companies to lessen the impact of peak demand for electricity.
“It would keep itself charged when everything’s fine, but when everyone’s turning their air conditioning on, this would turn on,” Grosso says.
International Battery expects the bulk storage system to be ready for the first round of tests next spring. Already, a smaller version is being used for power backup in remote, inaccessible parts of Alaska.
The Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority has given the company a grant of $800,000 toward the project.
International Battery is also working on a lithium-ion battery pack that could power trucks and buses. For that project, the state Department of Environmental Protection will contribute $235,000 under a grant program aimed at encouraging alternative fuels for vehicles.
Source: Vance Grosso, International Battery
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen