Deepwater Wind has announced a request made to Tesla Energy to supply what would be the world’s biggest offshore wind-battery proposal to date.
The company has proposed a 40-megawatt-hour battery system to help turn a proposed 144-MW Revolution Wind farm off the Massachusetts coast into a dispatchable energy resource. If the project goes ahead to completion it will dwarf the 2 MW lithium ion system Dong Energy plans to build
If the project goes ahead to completion it will dwarf the 2 MW lithium ion system Dong Energy plans to build a 90 MW wind farm by year’s end, and the 1-MW battery Statoil plans to build next year to support its 30-MW Hywind wind farm.
Tesla’s batteries would be called upon to help shift megawatt-hours’ worth of energy production to times of peak demand.
The March request for proposals (PDF) from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and the state’s investor-owned utilities requires that projects “contribute to a reduction in winter electricity price spikes,” when rising demand for heating electricity, combined with cold-related power plant problems, can drive emergency-level imbalances like those of the 2014 polar vortex.
Deepwater Wind, developer of the first US 30-megawatt offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, would build the new battery-backed wind farm adjacent to its existing 90-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm, which serves Long Island.
New Bedford, Massachusetts would serve as the assembly and construction hub, with power delivered to the state’s big utilities, National Grid and Eversource. If approved, the project could begin construction in 2022, and be up and running by 2023.
Source: powerengineeringint.com
