Mexico eyes energy storage facilities

CANCUN, Mexico, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Energy storage is needed if North America is to realize its full green energy potential, said Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

Calderon met with officials from energy storage company Rubenius to discuss building North America's first energy-storage warehouse in Mexico.

The Mexican president said renewable energy could get a boost if users could determine how to store wind or solar energy.

"Renewable energy needs a backup for the moment the wind stops blowing or when the sun ceases to shine and the current backup systems complicate and increase the price of the renewable installation," he said in a statement.

The storage facility would use sodium-sulfur batteries to store as much as 1,000 megawatts of energy at a site in Mexicali.

Calderon said the energy storage warehouse would bring "a real change" to energy markets in Mexico and California where renewable energy is booming.

The warehouse will require more than $4 billion during the next 5-7 years, the Mexican president said.