Batteries and energy storage

It seems that when Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said in December that his company would invest $1 billion in green technologies for the home, he may already have had a deal in the works for the garage.

Panasonic will be collaborating with Tesla Motors to develop next-generation nickel-based lithium ion battery cells for electric vehicles, both companies announced Thursday.

"Combining Tesla's rigorous cell testing and understanding of EV requirements with Panasonic's cutting-edge battery technology will result in custom cells optimized for use in EVs," JB Straubel, Tesla's chief technology officer, said in a statement.

The … Read more

The route to clean energy is through small gadgets, according to Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies.

The company said Monday that it will show off the HydroFill, a home-use fuel cell system suitable for charging small electronics, at this week's Consumer Electronics Show. The product is set for release later in 2010.

The HydroFill extracts hydrogen gas from water and stores it in Hydrostik cartridges with a metal alloy that absorbs the hydrogen. To then charge electronic devices, people use a pocket-size fuel cell charger, called a MiniPak, which pulls hydrogen from the cartridges and a produces an electrical current. … Read more

Updated at 2:30 p.m. PST with additional information on PG&E deal.

SolarReserve said on Tuesday it has signed a deal to build a utility-scale solar plant in Nevada with a molten salt storage system that will let it supply power when the sun isn't shining.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company has a 25-year power purchase agreement with utility NV Energy to supply about 480,000 megawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power about 75,000 homes during peak times. The capacity of the concentrating solar system will be 100 megawatts and be located … Read more

While hybrid and all-electric cars are about five years away from becoming commonplace, 2010 will be a crucial year in determining how an electric car is designed, built, fueled, and used, according to a paper released Thursday by Pike Research.

The auto industry is already headed toward official decisions on technology and standards, and still to come is a natural market evolution determining industry leaders.

The most interesting part of the report is how Pike Research analysts see driver habits and electric cars evolving.

Currently, the report said, many automakers, like General Motors with its Chevy Volt, are following a … Read more

Lithium-ion battery manufacturer Boston-Power and Swedish automaker Saab are collaborating on a zero emissions version of the Saab 9-3, both companies announced Wednesday.

The ZE Saab 9-3 (ZE for zero emissions) would be an all electric vehicle with a Boston-Power battery.

Many may wonder why Boston-Power would get involved with the struggling, for-sale Saab. But for the Massachusetts-based battery manufacturer, which has been trying to get into transportation batteries, the partnership makes sense, considering its associations.

In January 2009, Boston-Power received $55 million in series D funding from a group led by Foundation Asset Management, the investment arm of a … Read more

Nissan is certainly laying the ground work to provide would-be buyers plenty of places to charge the all-electric Leaf car coming out in 2010.

In conjunction with Ecotality subsidiary eTec, Nissan North America is announcing yet another area in the U.S. where it will try to sell its electric car and offer public charging stations in conjunction with a U.S Department of Energy-sponsored program.

The Leaf is scheduled to be showcased at a press conference in Seattle with Mayor Greg Nickels on Wednesday to kick off the Pacific Northwest effort. On Monday, Nissan announced collaborations in San Francisco, … Read more

Outdoorsy types are sure to love mobile solar chargers, but what about those who rarely see sunlight? (No, we're not referring to "Twilight.")

Easy Energy will launch the YoGen, a mobile charger that solely relies on hand power. The pocket-size charger lets you generates energy by repeatedly pulling a ripcord, similar to the way a lawnmower is started.

The Las Vegas-based company created this product as a part of its mission to "satisfy the enormous worldwide demand for practical, compact, 'green energy producing' manpowered chargers." Easy Energy is also in the process of launching YoGen … Read more

Mazda, EnerDel, Think Global, and others are partnering on a test project that will pair all-electric cars with stationary storage units as charging stations, EnerDel and Mazda announced this past week.

Mazda plans to convert some of its Mazda2 vehicles (known as the Mazda Demios in Japan) to all-electric cars running a Think drivetrain with EnerDel lithium ion batteries.

The cars will be offered to Japanese customers through a rental car program, called the Tsukuba Environmental Style Test Project, which should be up and running by March 2010 in Tsukuba City, Japan, near Tokyo, according to Mazda.

U.S. battery … Read more