July 29, 2014 – A project to store renewable energy is being developed in Nova Scotia and, once developed, could pave the way for electricity generation from wind power to be stored.

“LightSail Energy is very grateful for the opportunity to participate in this exciting project,” said Dartmouth native Danielle Fong, LightSail’s co-founder and chief scientist. “This project will be a landmark and a world first… providing inexpensive, reliable wind power—available on demand, around-the-clock—delivered to the grid to power Nova Scotia businesses and homes.

Fong invented the technology being tested, says the provincial government, which promises a clean method for storing large amounts of wind energy. Her work has garnered her financial support from the provincial government, Bill Gates, Total Energy of France and Innovacorp. The project is being developed at ReNova Scotia Bioenergy Inc. in Brooklyn, former site of Bowater Mersey Mill.

According to the province, wind energy can be stored and used whenever it is needed using Fong’s technology. The wind energy for this project will come from wind turbines installed by Watts Wind as part of a 3.6MW project through the Department of Energy’s COMFIT program. The turbines will be constructed 5 km from the former Bowater site by the summer of 2016. Watts Wind will work with LightSail to take excess energy and store it until periods of low wind.

The ReNova Scotia Bioenergy site is currently being redeveloped under the guidance of Innovacorp to serve as an R&D centre. The project will be connected to the electrical grid under the COMFIT program. The R&D component of the initiative will be supported by Unify Energy, which plans to work with researchers from Dalhousie, the University of New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia Community College to develop electrical and thermal management systems to optimize energy output and control.