Plans to store battery energy in Gravenhurst were put forward to council during their latest meeting.
Dr. Richard Lu, president and CEO of SolarBank, provided an overview to council of the company’s proposal for a battery energy storage system in the municipality.
The roughly 10-acre site would be east of Clear Road and north of Coopers Falls Road.
Lu said the purpose of a battery energy storage system is to have energy available if the current grid can’t handle periods with excessive energy loads (which could result in brownouts or blackouts)
The proposal, if approved by the Independent Electricity System Operator through an RFP process, would involve the construction of a 120-megawatt/480-megawatt hour battery energy storage system using lithium battery technology. The system’s components would be fully containerized.
The system would be independently connected to the Ontario grid.
The system would be charged by the local grid overnight and supply power to the grid at times of high demand.
Lu said the company is in talks with dozens of other Ontario municipalities and the project in Muskoka is “not a done deal” yet.
Mayor Heidi Lorenz thanked the company for its presentation and noted the council will review a staff report on the proposal and requested support resolution at the Nov. 29 Planning Council meeting.
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Bob Braan says
Storage of power, energy conservation, maintaining existing nuclear and adding solar and wind is the way forward.
Not dirty gas plants or hydrogen or SMRs.
Search “Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants | Reuters”
The one and only SMR project certified in the US was cancelled due to cost and timing overruns.
“NuScale CEO remains upbeat after CFPP cancellation.”
Storage makes solar and wind power available 24/7.
“New Solar + Battery Price Crushes Fossil Fuels, Buries Nuclear”
Can also function as a local backup power supply during the many outages we have now.
Lakeland built a microgrid battery backup system.
Before they could even test it there was an outage and it kept the lights on.
“Bracebridge Generation’s ‘first-of-its-kind’ power grid tested in Parry Sound”
Storage is also inexpensive compared to new generation.
Especially new nuclear.
Storage and conservation of energy have the same effect as new generation for pennies on the dollar.
Demand goes down 30% at night typically. Store it and make it available the next day for peanuts cost compared to new generation from any source.
“Ontario’s electricity system moves forward with largest energy storage procurement ever in Canada”
“the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) announced it is moving forward with the procurement of seven new energy storage projects to provide 739 MW of capacity.”
“Storage facilities charge up during off-peak hours, taking advantage of Ontario’s clean energy supply mix, and inject energy back into the grid when it is needed most.”
Power demand in Ontario was going down for 12 years 2005-2017 in spite of the population going up due to Save On Energy and other conservation programs.
Ford cancelled all of them in 2018 so demand is skyrocketing.
To be met with dirty nat gas power plants according to Dud.
“Doug Ford government wants new gas plants to boost Ontario’s electricity system”
Enlightened cities are stopping Ford’s dirty plans.
While in the rest of the world proposed dirty gas plants are being cancelled in favour of non-emitting battery projects.
Power from natural gas is the most expensive source of power per kWh.
“The cities of Kingston, Thorold and Toronto have passed resolutions opposing new gas plants in their communities. Hopefully, Greater Napanee will do so too.”
No kidding.
Ontario used to be 96% non-fossil fuel power for decades. Now it’s 90% and dropping fast due to Ford’s many mistakes. Unlike most of the rest of the world.
Conservative Ostrich with his head in the sand, Doug Ford, means higher energy usage, higher costs and higher emissions.
Permanently.
Louis Brandt says
Should we expect the Town planners to say this eyesore meets the rural character of Muskoka?
10 acres of containers!!! How much more should our Town put up with. Time for a staff and Council shakeup starting at the top.
Bob Braan says
Plant a green hedge around a green project to calm the NIMBYers.
And avoid dirty gas plant smokestacks. A hedge won’t make those disappear.
If you want to store energy yourself, buy it when it’s plentiful and cheap, save some money, help out the grid during peak times and help save the planet by avoiding new dirty gas generation Doug Ford has planned.
In Ontario simply putting a timer (EH40 at HD) on your existing electric resistance water heater and switching to the ultra low 2.8 cents per kWh every night rate means the operating cost is lower than natural gas and no ever-increasing carbon tax.
Program it to heat at midnight to make sure it’s hot for hours to sterilize the water if needed. Program the dishwasher to run in the middle of the night as well.
In that case gas water heaters would be obsolete since they are far more expensive to buy and install and more expensive to operate.
If your gas water heater needs replacement consider a much cheaper electric tank with a timer and reduce your carbon footprint while saving money.
Check your tank is big enough by turning off the breaker at 7 am and showering normally to make sure you don’t run out of hot water. You can always turn the thermostat up a bit to get more capacity since more cold water is mixed with the hot. A mixing valve downstream of the water heater prevents scalding.
You just have to avoid the weekday 28 cents per kWh rate 4-9 pm on the new plan if you can. The rest of the weekday is the same or lower cost.
BBQ or gas stove and a toaster oven for cooking avoids most of the high cost weekday time. Toaster ovens use 1/4 the energy as a full size oven.
There is no higher rate on weekends so you save more on weekends than you do during the week.
We will save around $150/year on the new plan by shifting the energy for hot water and the hot tub to the middle of the night. Only $100/year to “fuel” an EV at that rate.
Just don’t tell Ostrich Doug Ford.
He’s all about burning more GHG spewing natural gas.
Search “Natural Gas Expansion Program Learn about how Ontario is expanding access to natural gas for households and businesses.”
He likely isn’t aware of the battery projects to avoid new generation. He would likely cancel them like he cancelled 750 green projects already under construction and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Ontario used to have rebates for timers like this to shift and conserve energy and save money.
Ford cancelled them all.
Hot water and other timers should be free to avoid billions in new power generation.
With V2G EVs will prevent outages due to demand not cause them once there are a lot of them around. Can also act as backup power for your home. No generator needed.