Fort Carson Unveils Largest, First-of-Its-Kind Chemical Battery Installed on a DoD Site

A large new chemical battery at Fort Carson will help ensure the base can keep functioning during power outages and provide electricity when demand for energy is highest to save money.

"Diversification of our power distribution protects our community against power outages and any adversarial efforts," said Maj. Gen. David Doyle, who leads Fort Carson, during a ceremony on Wednesday.

While the energy priorities of President-elect President Donald Trump, may be different than the current administration, Rachel Jacobson, assistant secretary of the Army Installations, Energy and Environment, said she expected energy resiliency for the Army would continue to be a priority and other installations would install similar systems.

"Energy resilience is going to make us able to fight and win and accomplish the mission," she said.

Fort Carson expects to charge the chemical battery with solar panels and collect data on the battery's function for the next year or two to see how it can be best used, explained Joe Wyka, deputy garrison commander. At the same time, Fort Carson is doubling the size of its solar fields to a 16-megawatt array.

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The battery, a Gridstar Flow system, built by Lockheed Martin, is the first and largest of its kind installed on a Department of Defense site, according to the company. The 1-megawatt system can power 400 homes over 10 hours and doesn't rely on any rare minerals, such as lithium, Wyka said.

While flow batteries have been around for quite some time, the battery uses a proprietary water-based electrolyte system, that sets it apart, said Mark Wanamaker, who works in business development for Lockheed Martin. The negatively and positively charged electrolytes are stored in the large tanks and then pass through the battery cell stacks in large metal containers.

It's a system that could also be used by municipalities, investor-owned utilities and others, he said. While the company has piloted the battery on its own, this is the first time it will be used by a customer. He declined to give a price for the system. The U.S. Army's Construction Engineering Research Laboratory funded the project. The Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research & Development Center with other partners will help evaluate it.

As energy companies and other power generators, particularly in Colorado, move toward more wind and solar energy, batteries are becoming critical to store power when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing.

Colorado Springs Utilities plans to more than double electric generation capacity in next 5 years

Colorado Springs Utilities will more than double its electric generation capacity in the next five years, part of the agency's efforts to meet state regulations for clean energy, support Colorado Springs' growing population and ensure service reliability for customers.

Colorado Springs Utilities is contracting with NextEra Energy for 100-megawatt lithium battery system. The 100 canisters containing the battery components and a cooling feature are being delivered to the Jackson Fuller substation off Woodmen Road near Falcon, said Steve Berry, a spokesman for Colorado Springs Utilities. The batteries will store power from wind, solar and fossil fuel sources, he said, and NextEra will maintain them.

"It’s more about giving us flexibility that we haven't had before," he said. The project is expected to come online in 2025, according to Utilities.

Colorado Springs Utilities maintains Fort Carson's electric system, but it will not maintain the new battery because it does not have that expertise, Berry said.

Fort Carson unveiled an 8.5-megawatt battery in 2019, that the base planned to charge up at night and then discharge during the day when demand was highest to cut costs.

The garrison commander at the time, likened it to filling a gas tank at 99 cents a gallon to use when gas is $3 a gallon. The new battery will help save money in the same way.

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