Two California power companies have applied for Department of Energy funding to develop energy storage systems for renewable power.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) applied for $25 million in grants to design an underground reservoir for compressed air, and Southern California Edison (SCE) applied for $25 million for an enormous battery system to be built by A123 Systems.
PG&E’s system would use excess energy produced by wind or solar power to pump air into an underground storage space. When winds die down, or during hours of darkness, the compressed air would be released through a turbine to produce electricity. The total cost of the project is estimated to be around $300 million.
SCE said its utility-scale battery would be housed in an 8,000-square-foot building in California’s Tehachapi region, which is expected to produce 4,500 megawatts of wind power by around 2015, according to Reuters.
A123 Systems recently received DOE funding to establish a manufacturing base for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
The DOE is expected to announce grant awards in November.
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