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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:blue'>FYI…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Constantia","serif";color:black'>Roger
Dixon<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-family:"Constantia","serif";
color:black'>Certified Wind Site Assessor<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Constantia","serif";color:black'>Skylands
Renewable Energy, LLC<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Constantia","serif";color:black'>908.337.2057
cell<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Constantia","serif";color:black'>908.730.6474
fax<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Constantia","serif";color:black'>roger.dixon@att.net<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:blue'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=storing-the-breeze-new-battery-might-make-wind-power-reliable<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>December 22, 2008 </span><span
style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.5in;background:white'><span style='font-size:23.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>Storing the Breeze: New Battery Might Make
Wind Power More Reliable<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:.5in;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>Using a massive battery to store
electricity generated by wind may make it more reliable--and cheaper<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:8.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>By David Biello <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span class=horizontallines1><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'> </span></span><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'><img width=320 height=321 id=articleImg
src="cid:image001.jpg@01C9650E.5FA5D1E0" alt=wind-battery><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=caption3 style='margin-left:.5in'><strong><span style='font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"'>WIND BATTERY:</span></strong><span style='font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"'> This series of sodium-sulfur batteries will store wind
power in an attempt to both make it more reliable and cheaper.<br>
</span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#C2BBB4'>Courtesy of
Xcel Energy</span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;margin-bottom:20.0pt;
margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#33302D'>Winter
winds howl off the Dakota prairie through Minnesota, turning the 1,100
megawatts worth of wind turbines in Xcel Energy's system in that state. By
2020, the utility expects to more than triple that amount in a bid to avoid <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=coal-war"><span style='color:#0AA1DD;
background:white;text-decoration:none'>more polluting energy sources</span></a>.
But the wind doesn't always blow and, even worse, it often blows strongest when
people aren't using much electricity, like late at night.<br>
<br>
So Xcel Energy, Inc., has become <a
href="http://www.xcelenergy.com/Company/Newsroom/News%20Releases/Pages/Xcel_Energy_launches_groundbreaking_wind_to_battery_project.aspx"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>one of the first
utilities in the U.S. to install a giant battery system</span></a> in an
attempt to store some of that wind power for later. "Energy storage might
help us get to the point where we can integrate wind better," says Frank
Novachek, director of corporate planning for the Minneapolis-based utility with
customers in Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, the Dakotas,
Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. "The overall cost of electricity might be
lower by using energy storage."<br>
<br>
The energy storage in question—a series of <a
href="http://www.ngk.co.jp/english/products/power/nas/index.html"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>sodium–sulfur
batteries</span></a> from Japan's NGK Insulators, Ltd.—can store roughly
seven megawatt-hours of power, meaning the 20 batteries are capable of
delivering roughly one megawatt of electricity almost instantaneously, enough
to power 500 average American homes for seven hours. "Over 100 megawatts
of this technology [is] deployed throughout the world," Novachek says. The
batteries "store wind at night and they contract with their utility to put
out a straight line output from that wind farm every day."<br>
<br>
That removes one of the big hurdles to even broader adoption of <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=offshore-wind-may-power-the-future"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>wind power</span></a>:
so-called intermittency. In other words, the wind doesn't always blow when you
want it to, a problem Texas faced earlier this year when a drop in wind
generation forced cuts in electricity delivery. But with battery backup, the
11-megawatt wind farm outside Luverne, Minn., can deliver a set amount of
electricity at all times, making it more reliable or, in industry terms,
base-load generation. Plus, the battery effectively doubles the wind farm's
output at any given moment—both the megawatt being produced by the wind
farm itself (that would otherwise have gone to charging the battery) and the
megawatt delivered by the battery.<br>
<br>
But it is expensive, costing roughly $3 million per megawatt plus millions for
start-up and testing. "Right now, they're a little too expensive,"
Novachek says. But "it's getting in the ballpark where it looks like the
economics might be there. Testing will help us understand the value."<br>
<br>
So far the battery has been through five charging and recharging cycles and
testing will continue through next year, Novachek says. Other utilities,
including the Long Island Power Authority in New York State and American
Electric Power in Ohio, have used similar or the same batteries to better
manage their grids, but this would represent the first <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/report.cfm?id=alternative-energy"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>battery to store
wind power</span></a> in the U.S.<br>
<br>
The battery is not the only storage experiment Xcel Energy is running: It has
been testing using electricity from wind and <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=hydrogen-house"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>solar installations
to generate hydrogen</span></a> and then burn the hydrogen in a generator to
turn it back into electricity when as needed. And the utility has paired with
the city of Boulder, Colo., to test <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=will-chevy-volt-be-road-ready-in-time"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>plug-in hybrid
electric cars</span></a> as a means of providing electricity during the day
when people are at work and not driving.<br>
<br>
"The Midwest is a great [wind] resource and we are strategically placed to
use that and reduce our <a
href="http://www.sciam.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=753B8587-C02E-0E98-A8CBE564ADDFC575"><span
style='color:#0AA1DD;background:white;text-decoration:none'>carbon footprint</span></a>,"
Novachek notes, by replacing some of the 16 coal-fired plants and 28 natural
gas power plants the company now operates. "New technologies that are out
there might really help us get more green than people had hoped—and
energy storage is one of those."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#33302D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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