The Iowa Economic Development Authority has granted a $200,000 grant to Fairfield-based Ideal Energy for two projects to study storing wind energy in batteries, the Energy News Network reported.
The Fairfield firm will pass information along to Iowa State University for analysis. “We think there is much potential in this state for storage applications,” said Brian Sellinger, the team leader for Iowa’s energy office, a division of the Iowa Economic Development Authority. “Like a lot of states, Iowa doesn’t have much in the way of storage pilots. This is one of the first ones that came to our attention.” Ideal Energy installed a battery at a large consignment store in Coralville, and is working on one attached to a solar array at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield. A similar project is at Agri-Industrial Plastics, also in Fairfield.