Startup to deliver energy storage by truck, rail, barge

Getting extra power to where it's needed is a tricky business, often requiring millions of dollars in investments.

Now a solar-industry veteran has proposed a cheaper alternative: juice stored in batteries that are delivered by truck, rail or barge.

Shihab Kuran, who founded Petra Systems Inc. and also worked at NRG Energy Inc. and SunEdison Inc., has now formed Power Edison, which offers grid-scale lithium-ion battery systems encased in specialized shipping containers that can be stacked like Legos.

The Green Brook, N.J.-based company was formed in March and formally announced Thursday.

The units would let utilities dispatch storage systems to match shifting demand and defer costly upgrades to the grid. Portability also allows businesses to send batteries to where power is needed most, like Canada in winter and Brazil in summer.

"We are the Uber of battery storage," Kuran said in an interview. "We're going to offer a solution for the duration that it's needed, and after that, we'll take our solution and re-purpose that for other applications."

full article found on the salt lake tribune