A ceremonial Avista light switch, measuring 6 feet tall, is placed in front of the crowd at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories in Pullman. (SR photo: Kathy Plonka)

If Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories’ manufacturing plant loses power during an outage, the company can turn to huge batteries on its campus for electricity. The batteries could supply enough power to run most of the factory’s operations for about three hours. A crowd of dignitaries, including Gov. Jay Inslee, turned out for the batteries’ activation on Thursday, recognizing the role they could play in solving a renewable energy conundrum. The Western landscape holds enormous potential for wind and solar development, but utilities don’t have a cost-effective way to store that energy for later use, when the wind has died down and the sun isn’t shining. As a result, utilities have to build backup electrical generation – often carbon-emitting coal plants or gas-fired turbines/Becky Kramer, SR. More here.

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