A cutting-edge energy storage facility in the industrial park here is expected to come online in the next few weeks.
Mississauga-based NRStor Inc. purchased a one-acre lot at the corner of John and Hutchison Streets in a sale formally approved by Minto council in August of 2013.
NRStor executives Alexander McIsaac and Jason Rioux attended a May 6 meeting to update council on the project.
The company has built a facility containing flywheel energy storage systems created by Temporal Power.
The flywheels are installed in cast-in-place concrete vaults which extend about 20 feet below grade.
These and the supporting equipment are housed in 7,500 square foot fabricated steel building.
McIsaac explained that the goal of the two-year-old company “is to commercialize energy storage technologies.
“We are looking for contact opportunities. We partner with the best energy storage technologies and then we find contracts and we look for the best sites,” he added.
McIsaac said the Harriston industrial park location was chosen partly for technical reasons, including access to power lines with sufficient capacity.
An energy storage device, said McIsaac, whether battery, compressed air or flywheel, is capable of charging or consuming electricity, then discharging electricity back to the grid, or generating.
“The operator can use it to provide back up power. It can enhance power quality, so when you have manufacturing facilities that are turning big furnaces on and off, storage can counteract that and act kind of like a buffer and help the operator match electricity supply by putting electricity onto the grid. It’s sort of like a shock absorber for the grid,” said McIsaac.
The technology, explained McIsaac, can provide on-demand capacity similar to current technologies like gas-fired generators.
“We believe it comes with a lot fewer hassles than building large gas plants,” he noted.
Energy storage can also help balance the intermittent nature of new renewable technologies, he pointed out.
“The wind blows when it wants to blow – not necessarily when everyone comes home and turns their kettles on.”
McIsaac compared the flywheel system to an exercise bike.
“It’s got that heavy wheel in the front and it takes a lot of energy to get it spinning. But once you get it spinning, it’s easier to keep it going – and that momentum is the energy created by the flywheel.”
Each flywheel is essentially a 9,000-pound rotor operating in a vacuum. An electric motor uses surplus electricity from the grid to spin the wheel inside the vacuum and with “a flick of a switch the energy can go back on the grid.”
McIsaac said the technology generates no pollution.
“One of the great things about this technology is there’s no emissions. There’s no burning of any fuel, there’s no pollutants, it’s completely clean. It just takes electricity off the grid, stores it in a spinning wheel and then puts it back on.”
When fully operational, the 10 flywheels at the Harriston facility will generate a combined two megawatts of power. The facility will be run remotely, with no employees on site.
“You can think of it as a transformer yard – there aren’t really people there,” said McIsaac, adding that local contractors will be engaged for some maintenance functions at the facility.
The Harriston energy storage facility is a pilot project, expected to attract international attention.
“People will be coming to Minto to look at this project to see how it goes. So we’re bringing the world to Minto,” stated Mayor George Bridge.
McIsaac said the company will consider holding an official opening of the facility at some point after it is up and running.
