USA: Company pitches roving resilience to communities threatened by wildfires

To prevent fires from dragging other utilities into bankruptcy, regulators floated an idea at the end of last year: selectively shutting down power to parts of the grid on hot, dry and windy days when the risk of wildfire is highest.

Such planned outages would create a need for emergency backup power, and an Indiana clean energy technology company thinks it has a novel solution: off-road heavy duty equipment that can be tapped as a mobile battery during an emergency.

Most of the time, Dannar’s mobile power stations operate as electric forklifts, multi-purpose cargo trucks, or other engineering vehicles, which provide an emissions-free alternative for cities that typically rely on diesel equipment. During an emergency outage, they can provide backup power to emergency service operators, community centers, or any other place with critical power needs.

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California cities are looking at investing in the mobile units to bolster local wildfire resilience. Rachel DiFranco, sustainability manager for the Bay Area city of Fremont, saw a Dannar demo recently. While the city hasn’t made any commitments, DiFranco said the city is interested in the technology.