Ordinary gas-turbine energy plants that run only when needed can take up to 12 hours to ramp up while spewing emissions that cause lung-damaging smog and greenhouse gases that exacerbate global climate change. Teaming up with General Electric, utilities company Southern California Edison has found a way around that lengthy ramp-up period by retrofitting two of their plants with lithium ion battery technology. The world’s first “hybrid” power plants combine batteries with gas turbines and can power up instantaneously, reducing warm-up time to nearly zero seconds and dropping emissions by 60 percent.
World’s first battery-gas hybrid power plants launch in Southern California
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