Daily Globe photo
The photo at left is of a 1-Megawatt sodium-sulfur battery system which can power 500 homes for 7 hours. It’s part of a 11.5-Megawatt wind farm in Luverne, Minnesota. The company, MinWind Energy, is owned by 360 local investors from this mostly agricultural area, and everything they’ve done has been to forward the efficiency and self-sufficiency of their project. Along with Xcel Energy, they’ve also successfully tested a supporting generating system powered by 99% biodiesel to provide power when the wind isn’t happening.
The generating technology is top of the line, but the innovation is coming in energy storage. Xcel also has done work with compressed air and other energy storage technologies, but this battery system is among the simplest, most reliable.
There are two things about this story.
- First, the creativity of approaching the energy issue from several sides at once. Generation is important, but storage is just as important, both to cover peak times without having to load up conventional power plants, and to smooth out the fluctuations in output from an unsteady source like wind.
- Second, it’s a local initiative, with local investors and a deep knowledge of local conditions and local needs. When the community has a stake in the result, great ideas can easily result, and the MinWind group is a leading example of power of local control and local investment.
For the whole scoop, see Julie Buntjer’s article in the Worthington Daily Globe.