Hitachi has announced it has developed an energy storage system for the US market that can be integrated to high-voltage power lines to capture energy that has been generated by renewable sources. The stored energy can be sold back to the grid from the lithium-ion battery at times of high demand.
The Japanese company believes the 1MW system, known as CrystEna, will help to stabilise the grid by supporting solar and wind power.
It will be marketed for anyone who wants to capture and sell energy to the electricity grid, not only utilities.
Testing will begin in North America in early 2014 and market entry is expected in 2015. Hitachi has estimated the US will require 20GW of energy storage devices to stabilise its grid by 2020.
