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World's Biggest Battery Switched On in Alaska
windowpain writes "An article in the London Telegraph describes a 2,000 square meter 13,730 cell NiCad UPS that will provide backup power for the entire city of Fairbanks for up to seven minutes. 'This is enough time, according to ABB, to start up diesel generators to restore power, an important safeguard since at such low temperatures, water pipes can freeze entirely in two hours.' Now if they can just remember to keep it plugged in." Update: 08/28 14:58 GMT by M : A reader notes that the battery has enough juice for 12,000 people for seven minutes, and the city of Fairbanks has a population of over 80,000, so they couldn't keep the whole city powered up for even a minute.
i wonder how long my mp3 player would last on that thing..
MilkMiruku
The giant energiser bunny of the apocalypse.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
Slugs are worse then stones.... Slugs are used somewhere in physics to make rocket science as hard as it is.
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Well, thanks to Google calculator that should no longer be a problem: 1 stone = 0.435133302 slugs
1 slug = 32.1740486 pounds or 14.5939029 kilograms
Work for Change & GET PAID!
40MW for 7 minutes = 4.6 MWattHours. A D-cell is 12 AmpHours * 1.5 = 18 WattHours, so this battery pack is equivalent to 260,000 D-cells. A D-cell is 60 mm long, so this is would be a Mag Light 9.6 Miles Long!. Here's an artist's rendering
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
Does it emit a heart-stopping, ear-splitting banshee wail when it kicks in? Because the lights going off just isn't sufficent notice that the power is out...
Ceci n'est pas un post.
Pounds are the strangest imperial unit, you insensitive clod.
Once Fairbanks is hooked up to the Matrix, the other 68,000 people will serve as backup power when the NiCads punk out.
Sign me up, I hate resetting my clocks!
SCO to Hell