North Carolina-based Duke Energy just flipped the switch on what
the company claims is the world’s largest battery power storage
system. Situated at their Notrees wind farm in western Texas,
the $44 million, 36-megawatt facility utilizes cutting-edge
technologies to provide storage for—and therefore a steady
supply of power from—the 153-megawatt renewable energy plant
which supplies electricity to Walmart. Work began on the storage
facility in 2011, after Duke received—and matched—a $22 million
grant from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E advanced energy
research funding arm. An Austin-based company, Xtreme Power
engineered the large-scale power storage system, which they will
continue to manage. According to CleanTechnia, the system is
largely comprised of PowerCell batteries; a “12 volt, 1 kWh, dry
cell battery based on a proprietary formula of alloys including
copper, lead and tellurium.” Xtreme Power claims that these
batteries are less hazardous that others in regular usage, and
are more easily recycled.