USA's first NaS battery. (Electricity Storage Development in the USA)

Modern Power Systems, March, 2003 by Anthony Price

A small office block in Ohio, occupied by employees of AEP, the power company, now has its place in the electrical history of North America Just as Pearl Street in New York City was the site of the first generating station and distribution network, Gahanna, Ohio is the site of the first field test of the NaS (sodium-sulphur) battery on an active power grid in the USA.

The sodium-sulphur battery story goes back many years. Engineers working for the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s started development of the battery when Kummer and Weber identified the beta-alumina electrolyte that made practical operation of the electrochemical couple possible. A web of licensing and commercial arrangements followed with several organisations taking an active part in a collaborative...