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 »
The days of startups building custom-made, capital-intensive machines to produce next-gen energy products is over. Today’s energy entrepreneurs are using standard machines from sectors like the chip industry, the lithium ion battery industry and printing. Read more »
A startup called Seeo, backed by Vinod Khosla and Google.org, has created a safer lithium ion battery that’s being trialled with a solar panel system developed by SunEdison. Batteries can provide much needed energy storage systems for solar. Read more »
The market for grid-scale advanced batteries is forecasted to reflect nearly $30 billion in investment through 2020. Tapping into this potential depends on the technical and market-focused innovations of a small industry ecosystem, one that faces considerable challenges in R&D and funding. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
If battery makers could enhance just the basic electrolyte — the guts of the battery — it could provide a major breakthrough for batteries. That’s what a year-and-a-half-old startup called Boulder Ionics is trying to do. Read more »
Lithium-sulfur battery maker Sion Power said in a government filing near Christmas that it had raised $50 million from an unnamed investor. Now the mystery is over. The company on Thursday revealed that the equity came from chemical giant BASF. Read more »
If there is one thing to know about the pace of progress for battery innovation, it’s this: There is no Moore’s law for batteries. The rapid progress that has been made over the past decade in silicon and computing makes the pace of innovation in batteries, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A lack of progress for battery technology is (arguably) the single biggest barrier for gadgets, electric vehicles, and the power grid. But there’s hundreds of researchers, entrepreneurs, universities and large companies working on battery breakthroughs. Here’s 25 you should know about: Read more »
Seeo raised $15 million earlier this year, and we know how it’s spending some of that money. The startup has moved into a new home and installed a pilot production line that produces 4 megawatt hours of cells per year. Read more »
A next-gen, lithium-ion battery startup — backed by Vinod Khosla’s Khosla Ventures — called Seeo has raised another $15 million from investors, according to a filing. Khosla Partner Pierre Lamond is listed on this latest filing, and Seeo previously raised at least $10.6 million. Read more »
Motiv Power Systems aims to break into the nascent market for electric trucks and buses through the back door of the diesel truck market, providing a mix-and-match library of batteries and motors, and the electrical and communication system to tie it all together. Read more »
Controversial greentech venture investor Vinod Khosla says the hype around — and DOE support for — batteries has distorted the green car market, leading to few investors focusing on innovation for the traditional internal combustion engine. Read more »
Nielsen is taking steps to integrate its measurement of TV and online video viewing, telling clients that it will soon install Internet meters into Nielsen homes to come up with cross-platform metrics for what content consumers are viewing. As part of a new initiative called “TVandPC,” […] Read more »
In an interesting twist involving how the $4 billion in smart grid stimulus funds are being allocated, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu this morning announced that energy storage technology received 16 grants for a total of $185 million from the U.S. federal government. While the list […] Read more »
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has just announced another $620 million in stimulus funds for 32 smart grid demonstration projects. As we explained this morning, this latest funding combined with the $3.4 billion in smart grid stimulus grants allocated last month, is delivering $4 billion to […] Read more »
As recently as August, the largest lithium battery recycler in North America — Toxco — snagged a $9.5 million grant from the Department of Energy to build out battery recycling capacity in Ohio and pledged to provide “end of life management” for advanced vehicle batteries “in […] Read more »
Vinod Khosla, one of Silicon Valley’s biggest cleantech backers and the founder of Sun Microsystems, may be keeping an eye on the hype about lithium-ion batteries, but the venture capitalist is still excited about one of his earlier lithium battery plays: Seeo. The stealthy startup, which […] Read more »
With billions of dollars in government funds coming down the pipeline for advanced batteries courtesy of the stimulus package, and the auto industry gearing up to make its first real go at marketing plug-in vehicles for the masses, the race to build lithium-ion batteries for vehicles […] Read more »
Lead metal is about to go the way of so many pop stars: out of the limelight. It’s had a good long run as the material of choice for batteries, but new materials that allow for faster charging, lighter weight, and higher energy density are poised […] Read more »
Lithium-ion batteries found in consumer electronics and the latest electric vehicles (Tesla’s Roadster and GM’s Volt) have a couple of major hurdles: They can be flammable and unstable, and the higher the energy density, the more volatile the technology. That’s the problem that Mohit Singh, founder […] Read more »