Batteries

NEW YORK--Ener1, which manufactures lithium ion batteries for electric cars, is testing energy storage systems for the power grid, the company's CEO said on Tuesday.

Ener1's roots are in the automotive industry and its Indianapolis-based EnerDel division already has agreements to supply battery packs to a handful of auto companies, including Think and another automaker in Europe.

The company is also expanding into different markets, including the military and utility-grade storage, said Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer at the Jefferies Global Clean Technology Conference here.

Ener1 is working with a few utilities that work in its Midwestern region on … Read more

Hewlett Packard on Monday said that its long-lasting Enviro laptop batteries from Boston Power are available with a three-year warranty.

The batteries costs $149.99 and fit 18 of HP's laptops. They can be purchased online now and will be available in stories later this month.

HP has branded Boston Power's Sonata batteries under the Enviro name to emphasize the environmental attributes. With a longer-lasting battery, consumers need to upgrade less often, which reduces the number of batteries that need to be recycled, HP said in a statement.

Last year, an HP representative estimated the Enviro line costs … Read more

Engineers at MIT have made a breakthrough that could translate into smaller, lighter, and faster-charging lithium ion batteries, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced Wednesday.

Gerbrand Ceder, the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT; aided by Byoungwoo Kang, a graduate student in materials science and engineering, have made a small battery that can be fully charged or discharged in 10 to 20 seconds.

A detailed explanation on how they did this has been published in the March 12 issue of Nature, but here is a brief recap of what they essentially accomplished.

While lithium ion … Read more

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Utility company American Electric Power (AEP) plans this year to place equipment in residential areas capable of storing a few hours of electricity, one of the first tests of distributed storage on the power grid.

Ali Nourai, AEP's manager of distributed energy resources, calls the storage program a potential "game changer" for the utility industry. Nourai spoke during a panel on grid energy storage at the MIT Energy Conference here Saturday.

"The key for distributed energy is not because it's cheaper. The key is national security--we don't have a huge storage (device) … Read more

Solar-powered phones like the Samsung Blue Earth are great eco-friendly concepts, in theory.

But let's be frank with ourselves. We won't see these sun-worshipping devices replacing mainstream handsets in the near future. Meanwhile, we still have a mountain of gadgets that need to be juiced regularly, which is why designer Knut Karlsen's idea of integrating flexible solar cells onto rechargeable batteries could be a more immediate solution to reducing our carbon footprint.

… Read more

"Should Uncle Sam provide billions in loans and grants to a promising but unproven business? Or should the government wait for the market to sort things out before it backs a U.S. company?"

Those are questions posed in a BusinessWeek article last week. However, the questions are largely rhetorical: the U.S. Department of Energy already has a $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, and many car and battery companies are counting on these loans to aid their development and production of lithium ion batteries.

So it's not a question of "should," it's a question of "how?"

Lithium ion batteries will add at least $8,000 to the price of a production plug-in hybrid vehicle, according to BusinessWeek. However, that amount is probably on the low side when you consider that the Chevy Volt is predicted to cost a bit less than $40,000, a good portion of that price being the battery. Another manufacturer representative estimated that a lithium ion battery currently costs approximately $22,000, effectively putting the electric car out of reach to all but the well-heeled greenies. … Read more

California start-up Better Place and Danish utility Dong Energy said Tuesday they have lined up financing to bring an electric car charging network to Denmark by 2011.

The two organizations have secured almost $103 million in equity and convertible debt that will go toward constructing stations where drivers can swap in fresh batteries for electric cars.

Better Place's business plan focuses on building a network of automated battery-swapping stations along driving corridors. Places to rapidly charge or get fresh batteries will address the range limitations of existing car batteries, according to Better Place.

Although Better Place has announced customers … Read more

Laptop battery maker Boston-Power on Wednesday said it has raised $55 million to expand its manufacturing, and develop lithium ion batteries for transportation and potentially other applications.

The Series D round was led by Foundation Asset Management, the investment arm of a Swedish foundation, along with existing investors Oak Investment Partners, Venrock, GGV Capital, and Gabriel Venture Partners. Altogether, 4-year old Boston-Power has raised $125 million.

Boston-Power's first product a long-lasting battery called Sonata, is available for Hewlett-Packard laptops. While the run time of current laptop batteries starts to degrade after about 150 charges, the Sonata can go for … Read more

General Motors has decided to manufacture its own battery packs for its new electric vehicle, the Chevy Volt.

"GM is getting back in the battery business," CEO Rick Wagoner announced Monday.

The company also announced Monday that it has chosen LG Chem to provide the lithium-ion cells for the battery packs GM plans to manufacture.

GM announced in September that it had chosen a battery supplier, but would not reveal which company that was. LG Chem and A123Systems have long been involved in the development of the lithium-ion cells for the Volt's E-Flex electric drive train. While … Read more