Ideal Power’s 30 kW battery converters can now support distributed wind.
Ideal Power, a developer of a disruptive power conversion technology, recently received purchase orders for six of its 30 kW battery converters for use in two 100 kW wind turbine installations. Ideal Power’s battery converter was selected for its improvement in size, weight, and efficiency in comparison to other solutions. Installation of these units is expected to be complete in early 2015.
This will be the first installation of Ideal Power’s products in a wind energy application and represents another attractive market opportunity for the company.Ideal Power believes that this order provides further validation of its patented Power Packet Switching Architecture (PPSA) technology platform, which has demonstrated scalability in a number of vertical markets.
The global wind turbine market is dominated by large wind farms using turbines with capacity greater than 1 MW; however, there is also a small, but growing, market for distributed wind turbines that are located near electrical loads. In 2013, 30 MW of new distributed wind turbines were installed in the United States, and according to the American Wind Association, a further 130 MW of distributed wind capacity was under construction at the end of the year. Following recent announcements of third-party financing for distributed wind projects, which may accelerate market adoption, Ideal Power believes that the market for distributed wind converters integrating the company’s products may have significant growth potential.
Ideal Power also believes there is a sizable market opportunity for a 100 kW class distributed wind turbine solution, which can be easily sited and installed for agricultural electrical load requirements. By integrating Ideal Power’s battery converter with the wind turbine manufacturer’s technology, the company believes that these 100 kW wind turbines will be able to achieve attractive five to six year paybacks when purchased by customers located in productive U.S. wind regions.
Ideal Power
www.idealpower.com
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