Batteries and energy storage

Lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems today said it will supply an energy storage system attached to a wind turbine in a test that could lead to further grid business in China.

Power equipment manufacturer Dongfang Electric will install a 500-kilowatt battery bank attached to a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine and diesel generator to evaluate how well the batteries can smooth out dips in power production from wind. The system, which can store 125 kilowatt-hours, is scheduled to be installed by the end of the year.

Wind power has boomed in China over the past few years, driven by government … Read more

To make a cheap battery that stores wind and solar power, Aquion Energy is using the ingredients in salt and water.

A spinoff out of Carnegie Mellon, the start-up has raised $20 million of a planned $30 million funding round, according to a regulatory filing spotted by Earth2Tech. The company was originally funded with $5 million from the federal stimulus program by the Department of Energy and has added Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as an investor.

Aquion Energy is developing a room-temperature sodium ion battery as an alternative to lithium ion and other batteries for grid storage. It expects … Read more

General Motors and grid equipment supplier ABB this week showed an early version of an energy storage system using battery packs from the Chevy Volt electric car.

The two companies are partnering to build a prototype which they say can be used either for large-scale grid storage or backup power for consumers. They estimate that 33 repurposed Volt battery packs could supply 50 U.S. homes for four hours during an outage or brownout.

Batteries lose their storage capacity over time, but used car batteries are still viable for grid storage. GM estimates that once used car batteries have 70 … Read more

Nissan Leaf owners may be happy to know that after their vehicle's battery is retired, in its second life it will be put to good use, still powering EVs.

Nissan and 4R Energy Corporation announced development of a new solar-powered charging station that uses old Leaf batteries to store solar energy. The test station was revealed last week at Nissan's global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan. Three 50kW fast chargers and four standard EV chargers draw energy from the equivalent of five 24kWh Leaf battery packs that get their energy not from the grid, but from photovoltaic cells mounted … Read more

Chicago-based Clean Urban Energy has raised $7 million in Series A funding, the company announced today.

The company has developed a software platform, and the monitoring and analytic services to go with it, that take advantage of a building's thermal mass and thermal-energy storage (TES) to make it run more efficiently and save on energy costs.

Clean Urban Energy says its software analytics platform can reduce the expense of a building's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning energy use by 15 percent to 30 percent.

"By aggregating and optimizing the thermal storage properties of multiple buildings, CUE unlocks … Read more

Say goodbye to those impromptu panic attacks when faced with blackouts or power surges affecting your servers at work.

Such interruptions in power will become obsolete as more commercial buildings, looking to actively manage energy consumption, invest in uninterruptible power supplies to protect computers and servers.

That's according the latest research report from Pike Research titled "Energy Storage in Commercial Buildings."

The uninterruptible power supply (UPS) industry includes any intermediary device used between the public grid and electronic devices being protected from interruptions like power failures, small surges, or brownouts.

UPS is poised to grow from a $… Read more

Better Place held a demonstration at the first of 20 Better Place battery-switching stations planned for Denmark over the next year, the company announced today.

The station was installed in Gladsaxe, a town outside of Copenhagen. Its inaugural battery swap was conducted on a Renault Fluence Z.E.

Better Place offers a subscription service in which drivers of electric cars have their depleted car batteries swapped for a fully recharged one at any member station, in lieu of waiting 15-30 minutes for a partial charge, or hours to fully recharge at a charging station.

The company launched its first retail … Read more

Siemens introduced the world this week to the first serial hybrid electric aircraft at the 2011 Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, France.

The DA36 E-Star, a two-seater composite glider, was a partnership project among Siemens, aircraft manufacturer Diamond Aircraft Industries, and aerospace giant EADS. The plane is based on Diamond Aircraft's HK36 Super Dimona.

Similar to General Motors' Chevy Volt drive train, the DA36 E-Star uses a serial hybrid electric drive train in which a main engine is powered alternately by a gasoline-powered generator and batteries.

A 70-kilowatt Siemens engine runs the aircraft's propeller. That engine is powered alternately between a small Wankel combustion engine made by Austro Engine that runs on gasoline and acts as a generator, and EADS batteries. Additional EADS batteries are used during takeoff and ascent.

While it's in early development, Siemens claims its drive train can be scaled up for use on a large passenger plane, and under further development hopes to create a drive train that can save 25 percent in fuel consumption.

Of course, even more so than with electric cars, battery weight is still an issue. The plane's range is limited by the number of batteries and the amount of fuel it can carry.… Read more

BOSTON--One of the barriers to the long-hoped-for hydrogen economy is a non-polluting energy source for hydrogen. Nanoptek is one company that's tapping the sun's energy.

The Maynard, Mass., company this week said it is taking orders for a commercial solar hydrogen generator, which is now in pilot production. The company showed a smaller version of its product at the TechConnect conference here.

Nanoptek envisions creating a system for storing energy from solar at large scale, making hydrogen for vehicles, and even home fueling. In the nearer term, though, the company is seeking to sell solar generators to businesses … Read more