The building of a 20 megawatt (MW) energy storage system in Johnson City, New York was made known publicly last week.
The energy storage system will use advanced lithium-ion batteries and will prevent pollution by reducing carbon emissions and focusing on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind power.
U.S. Energy secretary, Steven Chu, believes that “bringing more efficiency and reliability to the grid, will help cut costs for consumers and power a cleaner energy future.”
Instead of using traditional power plants, the AES project relies on new software and battery technology that will offer the same regulation at a much lower price. Power plants are not very efficient when power output ramps in response to short-term variation in power demand.
Furthermore, A123 Systems, Inc. says that in comparison to power plants which can take minutes to respond to a call to vary their power output, its Smart Grid Stabilization System (SGSS) can respond in milliseconds and can also reduce the associated emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide by almost 80%.
