Underwater batteries are making a splash for energy storage
Companies are looking to harness underwater pressure for energy generation and storage. Read more »
SunPower to sell energy storage, potentially lithium ion batteries
SunPower plans to sell lithium ion batteries — or other energy storage technology — bundled with solar panels. The move follows other solar companies into the energy storage space. Read more »
How energy data will impact the smart grid
The deployment of smart meters combined with the growth of cloud computing infrastructure has created opportunities to build business models around the volume of emerging energy data. Those who use data to solve customer problems and leverage decades of software development and advances in big data will attract investment dollars. Read more »
7 major energy trends to watch for in 2013, via DOE bigwig David Sandalow
What are the most important energy trends that the U.S. acting under secretary of energy, David Sandalow, is seeing in 2013? Check out these 7 that are at the top of his mind. Read more »
The case for a distributed, smarter, cleaner power grid post Hurricane Sandy
The power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy on the east coast highlight the needs for a much greater investment in smart grid technology, energy storage systems, clean power, and ultimately a move to a more decentralized power grid architecture. Read more »
This week in cleantech: the share economy, efficient data centers & grid batteries
What’s going on in cleantech? Over on GigaOM Pro we have some excellent new research on grid batteries, the share economy and energy efficient data center innovation. Read more »
Regulators push for energy storage for solar farms
Over the past year, BrightSource Energy has touted the importance of using energy storage for its solar power plants. And no wonder. California regulators are looking at approving three of five deals between BrightSource and a utility partly because they will benefit from using energy storage. Read more »
California’s pioneering energy storage mandate moves forward
California is moving ahead with what could be a precedent-setting mandate to require its utilities to invest in energy storage systems and services, which are meant to complement the growing amount of wind and solar electricity flowing into the grid. Read more »
A hot topic at Intersolar this week: energy storage
Energy storage companies, like battery makers, and solar firms have been talking about the possible marriage of the two technologies for some time. And the union will likely be a big theme at Intersolar, one of the biggest solar energy trade shows in the U.S. Read more »
3 things that are holding back grid energy storage
There are only a little over 500 deployed energy storage projects in the world, according to Pike Research. So what’s the hold up? Here’s three hurdles facing energy storage grid projects. Read more »
The new hotness in energy storage: gravel
Can a humble system of gravel and a heat pump provide a breakthrough for utility-scale energy storage? British startup Isentropic thinks so, and this week announced that they’ve raised $22 million in project funding and an equity investment. Read more »
Rethinking on-demand energy storage
Google’s choice of thermal storage for cooling its data center signals interest from Internet giants in using stored energy to cool data centers rather than just drawing power direct from the grid when needed. Is this the future of on demand power for data centers? Read more »
Toronto startup goes underwater for energy storage
If land-based wind turbines are a bird’s worst nightmare, it will be interesting to see how the fish in Lake Ontario react to giant underwater “accumulators” that will store compressed air to feed back into the electric grid. Read more »
The story of Energy Cache, a drop-dead simple energy idea
After an extensive interview with the founder and President of Energy Cache, Aaron Fyke, we bring you the details of how the gravel and ski lift technology works, how the company came into being, where it’s headed and how Bill Gates and Bill Gross became involved. Read more »
Battery startup Aquion Energy gears up for production
Grid battery startup Aquion Energy announced on Tuesday that it plans to build a factory in Pennsylvania and begin production of its sodium batteries starting in 2013. Read more »
Coda is raising another $150M, soon to ship electric cars
Electric car company Coda Automotive is raising more funds as it moves closer to shipping its first electric sedans. According to a filing, the company is looking to raise another $150 million, and has closed $21.5 million of that round. Read more »
How big data and the cloud can manage grid batteries
A quiet startup called Greensmith has been building a business out of connecting, controlling and monitoring large batteries installed on the power grid and used for energy storage. Read more »
The top 10 trends from the year’s big smart grid show
One of the year’s largest smart grid conferences — DistribuTECH — closes today in San Antonio, Texas. It’s like the CES for utilities, power companies and the vendors that are trying to sell them stuff. Here are the top 10 trends I took away. Read more »
Someday we could all have a home battery
One day it could be common to have a home battery to store energy from a solar panel, and some battery makers and startups showed off their home batteries at DistribuTECH this week. Read more »
Electric car startup Coda takes aim at the power grid
Despite Coda just going into production of its inaugural electric sedan, the startup will announce on Friday it’s launching a division that plans to sell its batteries and battery management system to act as energy storage for the power grid. Read more »
Regulators change fuel cell incentives & how that affects Bloom Energy
California regulators have made significant changes to a state incentive program that will impact electric customers who use technology such as fuel cells. The changes could have a big impact on Bloom Energy, which has been a major beneficiary of the SGIP. Read more »
China: The next big grid storage market
China is poised to become a giant solar and wind energy producer, and that will open opportunities for energy storage technology developers. ZBB announced its foray into China on Tuesday and more American companies are sure to follow. Read more »
5 smart grid startups to watch via the Cleantech Open
The network of the smart grid is taking its sweet time to get deployed, but we still need smart applications to run over these networks once they are fully installed. Here are five smart-grid startups to watch via the Cleantech Open. Read more »
How ultracapacitors work (and why they fall short)
Hang around the energy storage crowd long enough, and you’ll hear chatter about ultracapacitors. Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has said he believes capacitors will even “supercede” batteries. What is it that makes ultracapacitors such a promising technology? And where do they fall short? Read more »
5 hot topics to watch for at Intersolar
Here are our five topics to watch for at one of the largest U.S. solar conferences, Intersolar, in San Francisco this week. Policy — how to survive with more mandates and less money — along with new technology and markets will dominate the discussions. Read more »
The future of grid energy storage: Software-as-a-Service
One of the reasons energy storage for the grid isn’t widely used is that many of the technologies, like batteries, are still too expensive. But what if you could use something that costs a fraction of a battery to deploy for grid storage, like Software-as-a-Service? Read more »
A battery startup flows toward launch
Startup EnerVault is getting closer to commercializing its flow battery, which uses large liquid tanks of chemicals to store energy. The Silicon Valley company will be building a demonstration project next year to help launch the technology into the market in 2013. Read more »
Cell phones: the mother of invention for electric vehicles
Turns out cell phones and electric cars have more in common than you might think and technology developed for phones could help pave the way for more powerful electric cars. Read more »
All in the family: A new kind of billion-dollar cleantech fund
Cleantech investing may not have produced many big exits and returns so far, yet it keeps attracting investors who believe they can do better. Here comes the Cleantech Syndicate, a group of 11 families that plan to invest $1.4 billion over the next five years. Read more »
The alternative option for energy storage makers: off-grid
When electric vehicles merely trickle into the market and utilities move at a snail’s pace when it comes to buying grid-tied batteries, where can an energy storage developer turn? To the somewhat generic, but decidely non-power-grid-connected “off grid market,” according to a new report. Read more »
Why investing in energy storage is risky business
Selling energy storage technology to utilities can be a risky business, according to a group of venture capitalists at an energy storage conference in Silicon Valley Wednesday. Read more »
General Compression Raises $20M for Air Energy Storage
The next-generation of technology to use compressed air for energy storage is on its way. One of the companies leading the way — General Compression — has raised another $20.39 million Series B round, according to a filing. Read more »
Bill Gates Backs Liquid Metal Battery
A buzzy startup working on a battery that sandwiches molten salt between two layers of liquid metal, has gotten seed funding from Bill Gates. The company is called Liquid Metal Battery, and it’s the brainchild of MIT Professor Donald Sadoway. Read more »
AES Building World’s Largest Lithium-Ion Battery Grid Projects
Power company AES is in the process of scaling up its lithium-ion grid battery projects to a commercial size, and by the third quarter of this year, plans to start operating a 32-MW project in conjunction with grid operator PJM in West Virginia. Read more »
Aquion Energy’s Cheap (& Edible) Grid Battery
Aquion Energy has one overriding goal: to change the way the world uses energy. The idea is to build modular, sodium- and water-based energy storage devices that can provide a slew of services for a cleaner power grid at relatively low cost. Read more »
5 Things You Need to Know About Energy Storage
The Electric Power Research Institute has released a report that lays out energy storage technology options, benefits, performance and costs and how the different technologies play a role in everything from managing the electric grid to managing home energy use. Read more »
VIDEO: Energy Storage for the Off-Grid World
Listen to Fenix International founder and CEO Mike Lin talk about Fenix International’s ReadySet energy storage device that is delivering power to the off-grid world. Read more »
In Energy Storage, Value Trumps Cost
Battery-powered energy storage provides an on-demand, predictable source of energy to power systems to keep them running optimally, and even to enable new projects, but the cost seems to be scaring some people away despite the high value the technology brings beyond mere stored energy. Read more »
10 Digital Energy Innovators from Green:Net 2011
For this year’s Green:Net, a team of GigaOM editors and industry insiders chose 10 innovators in the digital energy space to present their “big ideas” for using information technology to fight climate change. Here are some of the insights they shared. Read more »
A Mega Wind Farm, Needs Lots Of Batteries
Battery startup Xtreme Power just landed its biggest grid energy storage deal yet, a 36-megawatt battery for Duke Energy. Could its secretive, solid-state energy storage technology challenge sodium sulfur and lithium ion for reigning grid champion? Read more »
