SUNY Canton to get $3m in batteries

CANTON — When SUNY Canton builds its proposed wind turbine, it already has a place to store the extra power.

The college plans to build a turbine on its campus and, with $3 million worth of batteries, the campus will be assured constant power from its generator. The batteries come to SUNY Canton from Ultralife Battery Corp., Newark, via two grants from the New York Power Authority and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

The electricity will save the college money on electric bills, even during peak hours.

"We have a heavy power load during the day, but our best wind energy comes at night," said Michael J. Newtown, director of the college's alternative and renewable energy systems program. "If we get this, we'll be able to do something other than keep squirrels warm at night."

Becausepower from wind turbines is unpredictable, and has to be used when it is generated or be lost to the campus, batteries will allow around-the-clock use of the power, Mr. Newtown said.

However, the wind turbine probably will be a year or two in coming.

SUNY Canton has been talking about putting a turbine on campus for more than a year.

The college has to get SUNY officials to work with National Grid, which supplies its electricity, and reach an agreement about amending the college's power contract. The college will work with NYPA to develop requests for proposals, once technical specifications have been completed, according to Michael A. Saltzman, NYPA spokesman.

"It's kind of like an origami project," he said. "You're going to have a nice little crane, but in the meantime you've got a little piece of paper with all these folds."

Once the turbine and the batteries are installed, the batteries will hold as much as 2 megawatt hours of power, or enough to power 1,000 houses for one day or one house for three years.

The batteries will be about the size of three tractor-trailers.

Ultralife Batteries is working on a pilot project to prove that lithium ion batteries, the same kind that are found in cell phones, can be viable for large projects.

"Our energy storage technology could truly make the grid more versatile by allowing for renewable and alternative energy generated power to be stored and managed more efficiently," John D. Kavazanjian, Ultralife president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "It is intended to serve as a model for integration of a managed energy storage system with a utility-scale wind power turbine."

Even though SUNY Canton's wind turbine is still nothing more than a proposal, the campus is attractive to the battery company. The company approached the college about hosting the battery array, possibly because of the college's alternative energy program, according to Mr. Newtown.

"They own it; we just host it," he said. "The really exciting thing is that they talked to us about students getting to do some work with it. They were talking about sending some little batteries up for our students to play with so it's a chance to get some new technology here, too."