An increasingly rare type of solar farm goes online in California
Harnessing the sun's heat
When the huge solar farm just outside of Las Vegas called Ivanpah opened up in early 2014, many lamented that this type…
The industry leader in emerging technology research Subscribe
When the huge solar farm just outside of Las Vegas called Ivanpah opened up in early 2014, many lamented that this type…
This week was monumental to the energy storage industry, including companies building big battery farms.
California is set to become a large energy storage market, and that has prompted bankers to figure out whether they could make money from it. Wells Fargo plans to get answers from its own pilot project.
Companies are looking to harness underwater pressure for energy generation and storage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Staff Scientist Venkat Srinivasan delves into what he thinks are the three laws of batteries that govern how batteries operate, plus he throws in a bonus one at the end.
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.
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.
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.
Gravity Power is developing a new way to store massive amounts of energy for the power grid: gravity and a new invention using pistons, water-filled shafts in the ground and a motor.
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.
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.
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.
Electrovaya, the Canadian battery maker supplying lithium-ion batteries for Chrysler’s plug-in hybrid truck demo, brought in nearly $1.1 million in revenue during the first three months of this year, compared to just $675,000 in the same period a year earlier.
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.
Lithium ion battery maker A123Systems collected a $5 million loan commitment this week from its home state of Massachusetts, which offers it a little more government-sponsored fertilizer for the seeds A123 has been planting to grow its grid storage business.
Under the current structure of vehicle ownership and warranties, automakers would suffer from the depreciation of electric vehicle batteries if the devices used to provide certain services for the power grid. But utilities and consumers could benefit.
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.
Friends of the Supergrid: Dubbed the “Friends of the Supergrid,” a new group of 10 companies “pushing to build a pan-European offshore…
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.
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.
Nintendo America (s NTDOY) President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime recently told CNBC that the company isn’t even close to releasing a second-generation…
No, not the Castro-type of coming out party, but according to researchers at IDC, utility-scale energy storage will have the it’s-going-to-be-a-big-market type…
When we first put out our list of 13 startups working on lithium-ion batteries for vehicles, the market was waiting for billions…
EEStor, the energy storage developer, has no shortage of skeptics. That comes with the territory when making ambitious claims about turning energy…
Amid heated debates over clean power sources, how to build out the smart grid, and the future of advanced transportation, one thing’s…
Lithium-ion battery maker A123Systems (s AONE) reported its first earnings this week since going public in September, showing a widening loss for…
As recently as August, the largest lithium battery recycler in North America — Toxco — snagged a $9.5 million grant from the…
The investment and innovation pouring into lithium-ion battery technology for electric cars could be a major boon for a greener power grid.…
We don’t usually see recycling as much of a money saver for big ticket consumer electronics. Some electronics makers still charge a…
As if Chris Anthony didn’t have enough to do as chief of composite operations for Aptera, a startup working on a futuristic-looking,…
Lithium, the key mineral for lithium-ion batteries used in many consumer electronics, computers and upcoming electric vehicles, is a limited resource residing…
Public officials might be well advised to steer clear of controversy, but when it comes to energy storage startup EEStor, its investor…
Well, we predicted another trademark fight was coming over the term “smartbook”, and it turns out we were spot on. The same…
While most iPhone users are aware of unofficial unlock methods, you may be surprised to discover that it’s possible to legally unlock…
All eyes have been on the clean power and energy efficiency funds rolling out of the stimulus package, as well as the…
Alas, fuel cell makers always seem to need more and more funds to reach commercialization. Just a year ago, fuel cell developer…
A series of setbacks for flywheel energy storage last year made us wonder if the technology was just spinning its wheels. But…
IBM’s (s IBM) “smarter planet initiative” seeks to connect everything from railways to the power grid to buildings with sensors, software and…
Some energy storage technologies for the power grid are expensive but can be deployed anywhere, like advanced batteries, while others are cheap…
Adding digital intelligence to the power grid is getting all the attention right now from Congress, investors and entrepreneurs, but a next-generation…
Lead metal is about to go the way of so many pop stars: out of the limelight. It’s had a good long…
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:…
EPA Endangerment Finding: The U.S. EPA said today that greenhouse gases pose a danger to the public, paving the way for the…
After cars, here come the electric trucks. (Earth2Tech) Open source comes to car entertainment. Now That’s cool. (OStatic) Your iPhone and SpinVox…
Lion Cells, a Menlo Park-based startup backed by Battery Ventures and Nth Power, joined the energy-storage fray yesterday, emerging from two years…
The power grid has seen little innovation in the past few decades, but lately battery companies have started to develop energy storage…