Battery storage backup for renewable energy systems — like solar and wind — is not widely used in residential applications. But when it comes to larger systems, a number of recent projects have featured batteries. Two years ago, for instance, a BIG energy storage system was hooked up to an 11-megawatt wind farm in Minnesota.

News came out of Pennsylvania yesterday that Princeton Power Systems will be using battery backup technology as part of a $1.5 million, 200-kilowatt (kW) solar energy installation that will be tied to the electric grid of the Public Service Enterprise Group (PSE&G). The system is set to be installed at Princeton Power’s headquarters in New Jersey.

Arizona, which is fast becoming a national leader in solar energy, has also announced that one of the state’s renewable energy companies will equip a 17-kw photovoltaic (PV) solar energy system in New Mexico with a battery backup. The PV system is used to power the Aperture Center at Mesa del Sol.

All of these battery backup installations have elements in common with a broader national test. Over the next three years, Sandia National Laboratories — a technology research group located in Livermore, California — will monitor the backup systems in order to decide whether they should be used for commercial buildings throughout the country.