The South Burlington-based energy storage firm Dynapower has won a contract to supply components for Tesla’s Powerpack battery systems for large commercial and utility customers.
Tesla, the company that created the first highway-approved, fully electric car, has begun to turn its attention toward the energy storage field. Tesla’s Powerpack batteries are among a line of energy storage products that can store solar power during the day and be used to supply energy needs at night, according to Tesla’s website.
Dynapower will produce bi-directional energy inverters for Tesla’s battery system, Dynapower representative Chip Palombini said Friday.
Inverters are typically used to convert the direct current, or DC, that flows out of power sources such as batteries and solar panels into alternating current, or AC, which powers almost all buildings and appliances, Palombini explained. Most inverters, he said, are uni-directional – meaning they can only convert electricity from AC to DC.
Dynapower’s inverters convert energy from AC to DC or vice versa, Palombini said, enabling Tesla batteries to pour out AC current to power the grid and draw in DC current to recharge.
Palombini said the Dynapower inverters and Tesla Powerpacks could bring renewable energy to places where it has never been viable before. Remote areas with inconsistent weather, for example, could use the batteries to store solar energy during sunny weather and provide power during storms.
Dynapower has a battery and inverter system in Antarctica, Fortune magazine reports.
Palombini was unwilling to discuss the value of the contract.
The Powerpack system is the industrial version of Tesla’s Powerwall home energy storage system, which is being sold by Green Mountain Power to consumers.
