![]() ![]() The battery collects and delivers solar power for use during the day, when electricity rates are high. ![]() "We’re also using it to do energy arbitrage," said Cameron Freberg, a strategist for the utility. Austin Energy has already started using the battery, installed on the edge of the Mueller neighborhood, to collect enough solar power to help it meet increased electricity demand during spates of 100 degree days. Mueller has many pieces of the puzzle that might be needed, including a proliferation of new homes with rooftop solar arrays and a recently installed large battery storage system that Austin’s municipal utility, Austin Energy, helped acquire with a federal grant.Īustin’s first goal was to use the neighborhood and the big battery to help expand its reliance on renewable energy to 65% by 2027. The stage for this experiment is called the Mueller neighborhood in the east-central part of Austin, Texas, a large modern housing development started in 1999 on the runways of what was the city’s former municipal airport. ![]() It will attempt to collect and distribute enough renewable energy to support an "island," or smaller area of the grid that can quickly repower hospitals, police and fire stations, and other emergency centers. The most ambitious effort would give control to a local utility to make a rapid grid reconfiguration at the onset of a blackout. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |