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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.
Hopefully they have thought ahead with reguards to how they will dispose of this in the future.
I would have to have the worlds largest NiCad leak Cadmium into the Alaskan soil.
Is 7 minutes of not having power so bad?
Ask someone on a ventilator that question.
One would hope that someone on a ventilator would have their own backup power supply for it, and not rely on the vagarities of the local power grid.