EDA Office of Foreign Trade • Riverside County, California • USA
November 2012
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12
Masters Electric Changes the
Game for Energy Storage
R
enewable energy sources, including
solar and wind energy, have great
promise for reducing both costs to
consumers and the impact of coal-fired
power plants on the environment.
But a major sticking point has been
how to collect and store energy
produced during sunny and windy
days for use at other times.
A Riverside company, Masters Electric,
is seeking to change the game with an
energy storage unit that promises to
more efficiently collect renewable energy
and do a better job of introducing such
energy into the statewide power grid.
Placing power storage units on-site
at photovoltaic (PV) energy farms
would reduce the incidence of power
fluctuations, making renewable
energy much more attractive
to utility companies, said Philip
Schaefer, owner of Master Electric.
“
Energy storage is very important to
the future of renewables,” Schaefer
said. “Photovoltaic energy is extremely
disruptive to the grid, but we can
mitigate that. There is no question
that power storage is a key to
solving a lot of these problems.”
Masters is developing a demonstration
project designed to show potential
investors how the system will work and
why they should consider investing in
the project. Schaefer said the storage
unit could enable utility companies to
begin generating renewable energy
earlier in the day and store that energy
until times of high demand, such
as when high temperatures send
air conditioners into overdrive.
“
There’s nobody else who has the
product that we have developed,”
Schaefer said. “We are unique
in where and how we do it.”
Masters has a long history in the
Riverside area as an electrical
contractor, but has branched out
from direct installations to include
more research and development.
“
We have a real desire to make renewable
energy more viable,” said Steve Pitzek,
a senior engineer with the company.
“
The technology has been around for 60
years, but we can improve it by making
it a more efficient system. We want to be
able to communicate with the needs of
the grid and supply that energy in such
a way that is dependable and reliable.”
If Master’s system is ultimately
successful, it could allow cities and
utility companies that rely on very
expensive peaker plants – which typically
use natural gas to produce electricity
during the peak hours of the day – to
instead collect energy from the sun
and wind and store it until needed.
“
We are creating an application where
the storage system is a reliable source
of power and works hand in hand to
make the grid system stable,” Pitzek said.
“
We’ve really tried to attack the problems
and create a win-win for everyone. It’s
taking it to another level of complexity.”
The company sees energy storage as a
huge growth opportunity and is open to
working with a larger company to license
the product and fully commercialize it.
“
That would open huge doors
for us,” Schaefer said.
Philip Schaefer, owner of Masters Electric, speaks with Steve Pitzek, senior engineer
