By Isabella Kaminski

Juhl Wind, a community-based wind power developer, plans to install the 1 MW energy storage system at its recently acquired Woodstock Hills wind farm located near the company's headquarters in Woodstock, Minnesota.

Zinc Air, based in Montana, has developed the Zinc Redox flow battery which is designed to achieve rapid payback periods. This allows wind farms to store and shift wind power for flexible use by utility operators.

The first phase of Juhl Wind’s project will provide for the development and installation of the grid storage system based on securing revenue.

Dan Juhl, Chairman and CEO of Juhl Wind, says: "We selected Zinc Air and its core technology for our first system because we believe it offers the combination of being the most advanced technology along with the most environmentally safe option in the field of energy storage. We have carefully studied the growth in storage technologies because we believe large-scale storage will unlock the full value of wind power.”

Peter Walters, COO of Zinc Air, says: "Zinc Air Redox products are designed to have the highest round-trip energy efficiency, multiple revenue applications, and lower cost of operation, as to achieve best payback periods, while still being the greenest battery technology in the market. We have designed the product with the end customer in mind first.”

According to Zinc Air, its storage systems can be used for a variety of grid storage applications including energy peak shifting and renewable (for example, solar and wind) integration.