A few years ago Alex Hillman, CEO of Connecticut alternative energy company Environmental Energy Solutions, partnered with a Pennsylvania company called Solar Development Group on a proposed solar panel installation project in Duncansville, south of Altoona. Now they’re working with each other again on a venture to develop high-tech batteries that can store energy at places like police stations and hospitals.
That venture, Power Source LLC, is focused on 30-kilowatt sodium sulfur batteries about the size of a compact refrigerator. Customers that use renewable energy sources like wind and solar power will also be able to collect energy when it’s windy or sunny out and use it when the weather is less cooperative. “Then you’re not pulling it off the grid,” Hillman says.
Alternatively, businesses that are closed during off-peak hours, like nights and weekends, will be able to use Power Source’s technology to save money by drawing electricity from the grid during those hours and using stored energy from batteries during the day.
It’s also notable that these sodium sulfur batteries should be available at one-third the cost of comparable lithium batteries, will be able to store twice the energy, and last three times as long.
Hillman says Environmental Energy Solutions’ VP, scientist John Urbahn, designed the new battery technology and plans to move to northeastern PA to work with Power Source. A $2 million state grant will go toward developing these batteries for the market. Power Source plans to start production within three years.
Source: Alex Hillman, Power Source LLC
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
