Energy Storage

Report

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Lithium Ion Batteries Faulted for Jet Crash

A new report on the crash of a UPS jet carrying rechargeable lithium batteries outlines the hazards of transporting these devices. It’s the latest fuel for concern about the safety of lithium ion batteries, which store energy not only for gadgets but also plug-in vehicles.

15 Questions for the Don of Liquid Metal Batteries

Donald Sadoway, a professor of materials chemistry at MIT, aims to deliver a “lifesaver” for renewable energy in the form of a stable, low-cost, large-scale battery. Here are 15 questions with Sadoway on the future of liquid metal batteries.

SustainX Raises $14.4M for Air Energy Storage

A startup building the next-generation of compressed air energy storage, SustainX, has raised a new round of funding from investors including GE. The funds will help the company start construction on a 1 MW compressed air energy storage project with its first customer AES.

Soon to Be a Reality: Next-Gen Compressed Air Energy Storage

Utility scale energy storage doesn’t get the type of attention as, solar or electric cars — particularly a tech as dry as compressed air energy storage. But startups are innovating in this area, and two in particular are moving ever closer to commercialization: SustainX and General Compression.

The Energy Storage Story

The key to getting utilities to embrace renewable energy is investment in inexpensive, convenient, and highly efficient utility-scale storage for solar and wind power. The issue remains one of supply and demand: Supply the energy storage solutions without demanding too much of anyone.

Battles Over Cali’s Energy Storage Mandate Has Only Begun

There’s been a lot of high-fiving among energy storage technology developers about a bill signed into law by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week. However, the bill doesn’t mandate energy storage, which means it’s far from determined which technologies and players will be the big winners.

Energy Storage: One Size Does Not Fit All

If utilities are looking for a magic bullet for energy storage, which can help add clean power to the grid, prevent outages and manage peak load, they’re not going to find it. At least not among the current storage options, according to a report from Lux Research.

International Battery Bags $35M, Big Year Ahead

International Battery, a startup that just raised $35 million in third-round financing, is taking the Field of Dreams approach that so many energy storage startups are eying these days: If you raise funds and build a factory, the customers will come.

Thar She Goes: A123 Stock Drops as 6-Month Lockup Ends

Battery maker A123Systems has just hit a milestone in its young public life: Officers, directors, employees and early investors holding more than two thirds of A123’s common stock are free to cash out. A123’s shares have sunk more than 5.9 percent today.

Daily Sprout

Friends of the Supergrid: Dubbed the “Friends of the Supergrid,” a new group of 10 companies “pushing to build a pan-European offshore…

HP ProBook, EliteBook Lines Get Fast Processors

HP has refreshed its entire business notebook lines, with faster Intel processors now available. The EliteBook and ProBook models can now be configured with up to an Intel Core i7 processor. New colors have been introduced, caviar and bordeaux, depending on if you’re hungry or thirsty.

Kindle Storms the BlackBerry

Amazon has followed through on its promise to bring the Kindle reader app to the BlackBerry. The app works much like the iPhone version, with support for online e-book purchasing. Whispersync technology keeps the BlackBerry content in sync across multiple Kindle devices.

Daily Sprout

EPA Endangerment Finding: The U.S. EPA said today that greenhouse gases pose a danger to the public, paving the way for the…

What to Read on GigaOM Network Today

After cars, here come the electric trucks. (Earth2Tech) Open source comes to car entertainment. Now That’s cool. (OStatic) Your iPhone and SpinVox…