Japanese Firm Offers U.S. Company Wind-to-Battery Storage Know-How

Image by Stella N.F. Some Rights Reserved.

Japan Wind Development Co. (JWD), a Japanese wind power developer, announced on March 17, 2009, that it will offer Xcel Energy Inc., a major U.S. energy company, the know-how for operating a wind farm equipped with a wind-to-battery storage system. The aim of the project is to provide wind-generated electricity stably by using sodium-sulfur (NAS) batteries as a direct wind energy storage device.

JWD started operating a wind farm equipped with a large-capacity storage battery system for the first time worldwide in Rokkasho-mura, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, in May 2008. Xcel Energy intends to not only utilize this achievement in its new project but also to expand the market of wind power businesses, using the direct wind-to-energy storage technology, encouraged by environment-friendly policies of the new Obama Administration, often referred to as the "Green New Deal."

Xcel Energy plans to install 1,000-kilowatt (kW) NAS batteries and a wind turbine with a rated output of 11,000 kW in a demonstration experiment at Luverne, in the state of Minnesota. The start date had yet to be decided, as of June 2009.

Japan Wind Development Co. official website
http://www.jwd.co.jp/english/

Posted: 2009/07/13 06:00:15 AM