By Tim Bradner For the Frontiersman
The world’s largest energy storage system will be built in Healy, south of Fairbanks, by Golden Valley Electric Association and Westinghouse, and including other partners. The U.S. Department of Energy notified GVEA last Friday, Sept. 22, that it will award $50 million for the cooperative and its partners to develop a Long-Duration Energy Storage system in the Interior Alaska community where GVEA also operates two coal-fired power plants.
The system will be capable of storing heat capable that is the equivalent of 100 Megawatts of electricity. It is primarily designed to support large renewable energy projects planned by GVEA and others but it will also be capable, in a “total blackout” emergency of supporting the co-op’s entire system for 10 hours, according to Philip Brennan, CEO of Echogen Power Systems, Inc., an Ohio-based power technology company that is working in partnership with Westinghouse to develop the new technology involved.