Battery generators may sound like a conflict of interests at first sight. We might even imagine a battery with a tiny diesel motor inside! But then, if we think again we realize that batteries generate electricity using their stock of electron energy ‘fuel’. Canary Media may have come up with the term, but we added it to our dictionary.
Taking a Broader View on Batteries and Diesel Generators.
Diesel generators kick in when grid supply fails, so the user can continue with their business or home life. They have long been hailed as a smart person’s solution, but global warming is changing that. Global warming is also increasing the raging runaway fires that are even taking distribution lines down.
These factors tell us that we are likely to need more remote electricity generators in future, but that these need to be low-carbon battery storage installations. Exit the diesel generator. Enter a new world of scalable battery generators, some say. But how workable is this idea really? We can see from our feature image that this is not a new idea.
In principle, again, the idea is simple. Offload a suitable-size battery pack at the desired location. Connect this to the grid for recharging. But there’s only one problem in this ‘ideal world’. The batteries go flat during an extended power outage, unless you can afford solar panels or wind power for topping up the supply of electrons.
Setting a Standard for Phasing out Diesel Generators
Battery generators would be a pleasant improvement for neighborhoods browned off by smelly diesel and noisy engines. Political will may silence them permanently, because of their impact on global warming. A recent decarbonisation think-tank suggested the following standards to regulate their replacement for business purposes:
- Compliance with health and safety norms according to local ordinances.
- 220-kilowatt capacity of three-phase power, on demand for up to 14 hours.
- Towable by a medium-duty truck, able to fit inside a standard parking space.
- Ideally able to act as a fast-charging facility for small / medium electric vehicles.
We were pleased to discover that some battery generators already include the option of collapsible, fold-out solar panels. This opens the door for them to become totally carbon free. And whisperingly silent as all green energy should be in the future.
More Information
New York Battery Storage For Summer
