How do you store energy? Some have compared it to catching sunlight in your hand. But today, two Ontario-based startup companies are proving that even variable energy sources like wind and solar can successfully be stored and used to balance out fluctuations in Ontario's energy grid.
TEMPORAL POWER LTD. and ENBALA POWER NETWORKS both recognized the need for effective solutions to manage and store energy. Each also received 300,000 from the Conservation Fund, and began pilot projects in 2010 using two very different technologies.
ABOUT THE PROJECTS
Engineer and inventor Jeff Veltri developed the prototype for a flywheel - a mechanical battery that can convert electrical energy into kinetic energy, store it, then change it back again as needed. Starting with a one kilowatt hour storage device, OPA funding allowed Veltri and his partner Cam Carver to scale up to a 20 kilowatt hour size, and work toward a grid-scale device. Now, TEMPORAL has 20 employees, energy sector investors, and projects that include supplying Hydro One with flywheels to smooth the output of wind turbines.
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ENERGY STARTUPS AND THE CONSERVATION FUND
"In 2010, we saw a lot of promise in the technologies these two companies had under development," says OPA's Conservation Fund Manager, Jenni Myllynen. "ENBALA's smart grid platform allows for efficient regulation of the electricity demanded by large industrial consumers at any given time, while Temporal's flywheel takes a technology invented by Leonardo Da Vinci and makes it pertinent today."
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