Under the equipment purchase and associated service contracts, valued at approximately $1.8m, Altairnano will build, ship, install and commission its ALTI-ESS energy storage system, and provide technical support, system monitoring and reporting over a period of three years.
The energy storage system will be installed at the Hawi wind farm on the island of Hawaii and connected to the Hawaii Electric Light Company utility grid.
The research project is designed to test the performance characteristics of the battery system and to demonstrate the effectiveness of battery storage technology to integrate wind energy into an electric grid.
The companies said that the test is expected to demonstrate solutions for integration of greater levels of renewable energy onto the grid, improving capacity utilization, and reducing dependency on fossil-fuel power generation while maintaining grid performance and reliability.
The project, funded through a grant from the Office of Naval Research, is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2011.
