Batteries and energy storage

Despite all the advances in battery technologies, pumped hydro storage--essentially pumping water uphill and releasing it through a generator later--remains one of the cheapest ways to store bulk electricity on the grid.

California utility Pacific Gas & Electric on Friday filed a request with state regulators to fund a feasibility study for adding a pumped hydro facility which could store as much energy as a power plant can supply.

PG&E has identified the Mokelumne River watershed in Amador County, Calif., as a location. The utility wants to study placing a pumped hydro facility sized between 400 megawatts and … Read more

Xtreme Power announced Wednesday its PowerCell energy storage and Dynamic Power Resources energy management system will be used in what could be the most significant transmission station in the U.S. electric grid.

In March, Tres Amigas got approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to offer transmission services at negotiated rates across the three main arteries of the U.S. electrical grid. The agency is now considering allowing it to build and connect a mega-hub based in Clovis, N.M.

Specifically, the proposed Tres Amigas SuperStation would allow power to be transmitted as needed among three independently operating U.… Read more

Yet-Ming Chiang, the MIT professor whose research led to the creation of lithium ion battery company A123 System, and his colleagues have started a new company to address the limitations of today's rechargeable batteries.

Called 24M Technologies, the early-stage company on Monday announced that it has raised $10 million in a series A round of venture funding from Charles River Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners. 24M Technologies also recently received a grant from the Department of Energy which will bring the Cambridge, Mass.-based company between $5.5 million and $6 million.

The technology behind 24M came about … Read more

What was once a Ford SUV factory will become a solar-powered facility turning out fuel-efficient cars.

Ford Motor on Thursday announced a plan with utility Detroit Edison to install a 500-kilowatt solar array and battery energy storage from Xtreme Power at Ford's Michigan Assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan.

The set-up is meant to make Ford's operations cleaner and serve as a smart-grid test case. Installation for the system, which will cost $5.8 million, is scheduled to start later this year, the companies involved said.

The electricity generated by the solar panels will feed into the grid to … Read more

Despite all the attention that Tesla Motors gets, lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems is just as much a bellwether for public green-technology companies.

A123 Systems on Tuesday reported its second-quarter results which appeared to disappoint investors; its stock was down more than 10 percent Wednesday morning.

The company is currently seeking to scale up to bring down product costs and meet anticipated demand for its technology. In its earnings call, executives said A123 Systems has made progress in pursuing supply deals for passenger cars, heavy-duty vehicles, and grid storage.

It announced a deal to supply 44 megawatts worth of … Read more

Start-up EnerG2 on Tuesday dedicated a plant to manufacture material for ultracapacitors that can be used to store energy in vehicles and on the electricity grid.

The Seattle-based company, which was spun out of the University of Washington, received a $21.3 million Department of Energy grant last year to build the facility in Albany, Ore. The funding, which was given to companies pursuing advanced storage technologies, covered the bulk of the total $28.4 million needed to construct the facility.

EnerG2 does not plan to make the actual storage devices, but instead make a material optimized for ultracapacitors, explained … Read more

TRUCKEE, Calif.--The exponential growth in chip performance, known as Moore's Law, is great, but can't be applied to all areas of technology, Bill Gates warned last week.

"We've all been spoiled and deeply confused by the IT model," Gates said, answering an audience question at last week's Techonomy conference. "Exponential improvement--that is rare."

Gates said that there are isolated segments of technology that do produce that rate of improvement.

"We do see it," Gates said. "We see it in hard disk storage, fiber capacity, gene-sequencing rates, biological databases, … Read more

Beacon Power on Monday said it has closed a $43 million loan guarantee with the Department of Energy for a project to use flywheels to buffer 20 megawatts of power on the grid.

The loan covers 62.5 percent of the estimated $69 million needed to construct the flywheel storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y. The New York Energy Research and Development Authority is also providing $2 million in funding for the plant which is now under construction.

Once done, Beacon Power said that the plant will be the only one of its kind in the world. Rather than use … Read more

On those occasions when you have to carry your electric bike, instead of the bike carrying you, it certainly can't hurt for the two-wheeler to fold up nice and neat.

With this in mind, we give you the VeloMini fold-and-carry electric bike from ELV Motors, released Wednesday.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company already has a significant lineup of electric bikes, scooters, and hybrid motorcycles. The VeloMini adds to the array a 32-pound electric bike that reaches a top speed of 12 miles per hour.

The lithium-ion battery that powers the VeloMini gives the bike a range of about … Read more