China considering energy storage mandate for wind

In response to a potential mandate, a California-based energy company said it installed a battery storage system for wind power in the Chinese capital.

Primus Power announced Sunday it installed a battery component at the Beijing campus of Etechwin, a subsidiary of Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind.

When tied into variable energy resources like wind and solar, battery components can ensure stable output. Guoju Zhang, a lead researcher at Goldwind, said Beijing is considering a mandate that would require all wind developments to include a battery storage system.

“In anticipation of this mandate, we have installed, commissioned and are operating a Primus EnergyPod 2 system at our facility [in Beijing],” he said in a statement.

Reliability for variable sources of energy like wind and solar power are a concern. U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry last year was calling for an investigation into the resilience and reliability of the nation’s energy grid. With renewable resources like solar and wind deemed variable because of the nature of their power origins, the secretary said the issue was a critical one given regulatory burdens enacted by previous administrations that could impact legacy resources like coal-fired power generation.

Norwegian energy company Statoil — which is proposing a name change to remove “oil” from its name — is planning a battery system for its Hywind floating wind farm off the coast of Scotland that will be “smart” enough to compensate for calm conditions.

China is the second-largest economy in the world behind the United States and among the top energy consumers. The International Energy Agency said the United States was emerging as a leader in oil production, but China was taking the helm on renewables.