(Bloomberg Businessweek) — Inside an unmarked stucco building in a Silicon Valley office park, more than 1,000 black metal cabinets, each about the size of a fridge, line the floor in rows.
Each cabinet contains 20 new lithium-ion batteries that, starting this spring, will feed power into California’s often-strained electrical grid, helping prevent blackouts. They’re essentially bigger versions of the rechargeable batteries that power phones, laptops and electric cars. Together they’ll supply 75 megawatts of electricity to the grid, enough to power 56,250 homes.
The San Jose building, whose past occupants include IBM and a defunct solar startup, houses Hummingbird Energy Storage, part of an industry that barely existed 10 years ago but has become essential to keeping the lights on in California, Texas and other states, and that’s spreading around the world. The rapid growth of large-scale energy storage is driven by plunging battery prices, rising electricity demand and a recognition among operators, utilities and public officials that grids are less reliable than they once were.
“Energy storage has become a linchpin” for avoiding disruptions, says Joseph Williamson, vice president for projects at esVolta LP, the company that developed and owns the Hummingbird facility, which will store electricity delivered by a nearby PG&E substation. EsVolta will sell the energy back to grid customers as needed.
January 21, 2025
January 17, 2025