A123 Installs 1-Megawatt Battery System on Hawaii Electric Grid
By Andrew Herndon -
Jun 3, 2013
A123 Energy Solutions, a unit of China’s Wanxiang Group Corp. that produces energy-storage devices, installed a 1-megawatt battery system that will stabilize the power grid on the Hawaiian island of Maui. The batteries installed at a Maui Electric Co. substation can store electricity for one hour, A123 said today in a statement. The system regulates voltage on the grid, shifts peak loads and retains excess power generated by wind turbines. The company installed in December another battery system at a Maui wind farm that has 11 megawatts of storage capacity and holds power for about 25 minutes, Roger Lin, A123’s director of product marketing, said today in an e-mail. Power storage is becoming a more important part of renewable-energy projects because they produce electricity intermittently, depending on the weather. Wanxiang received court approval to acquire the assets of A123 Systems Inc. (AONEQ) in December, almost two months after the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company filed for bankruptcy. China’s biggest auto-parts maker formed the A123 Energy Solutions unit last month. To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Herndon in San Francisco at aherndon2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net ©2013 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. |