Power storage remains expensive, making it difficult to cost effectively store power for use when the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow. However, this oft repeated statement does not represent the full picture because not all storage is created equal. While battery storage is seeing rapidly increasing deployment, it is not yet a cost effective solution for storing and discharging large amounts of power for longer time horizons. However, there are effective bulk storage solutions available today that can help address the grid challenges being created by increasing amounts of renewable generation. New challenges are emerging for system operators, resulting from the addition of signi

India has been making the case for electric vehicles to be both manufactured and purchased in the country for quite some time, with the apparent belief that they could make a large impact within the next two decades—if they just had the infrastructure. After doubts from Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared Twitter earlier this week, however, they were promptly addressed by an Indian program for manufacturing. When it comes to cars, it seems that there is always someone who wants a Tesla as their electrified vehicle, even in countries where the manufacturer doesn't yet sell vehicles. India hoped to capitalize off of the popularity of Teslas and other new EVs as early as 2016, when India's minister of

Calcutta, May 22: Lead-acid battery maker Exide Industries has buried a decade-long dispute over the ownership of the "Exide" trademark in India with a US company. "The company was in discussion with the US company Exide Technologies for an out-of-court settlement to amicably resolve the long standing dispute. Based on the discussions, the company has entered into a settlement agreement with the Exide Technologies on May 19," the Raheja-owned company informed the stock exchanges. The dispute over the trademark dates back to 1997: city-based Exide had dragged the US company to the Delhi high court, which restrained the US company from not using the name. Exide, the largest player in the autom

There’s the battery in your watch. There’s the battery in your mobile phone. And then there’s the battery at Green Mountain Power’s Stafford Hills solar farm in Rutland, Vt. The lithium-ion gargantuan is housed in two trailer-truck-size green metal containers. It sits atop a 10-acre former landfill and captures electricity from 7,722 nearby solar panels—enough to power 2,000 homes on a sunny day. What’s revolutionary about this system isn’t the solar farm; it’s the size and purpose of the battery, which offers 3.4 megawatt-hours of storage, enough to supply backup power to about 170 homes for a day, if needed. The rap on solar and wind is intermittence—they don’t produce power when the sun i

Helped by a $4M grant from the Canadian federal government, Vancouver upstart Nano One has developed and patented a process that decreases the cost and improves the performance of Li-ion batteries. If the technique proves itself feasible on a large scale, we could see electric vehicles with more range and energy storage systems with higher capacities, all with a lower price tag. After in-house proof of concept and third party validation, Nano One recently completed construction of a large-scale pilot plant. According to project manager Robin Sweeny, "The pilot will showcase Nano One’s patented technology, simulate full-scale production of cathode materials for the electric vehicle market, an

Trojan Battery Co., LLC, the world¹s leading manufacturer of deep-cycle batteries, has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Advanced Battery Concepts LLC (ABC) for its GreenSeal® bi-polar battery technology with the goal of future product commercialization. The advantages of bi-polar battery architecture include higher energy and power density and lower manufacturing costs than conventional AGM battery construction, which promotes more stable performance over the lifetime of the battery, said Michael Everett, senior vice president of engineering for Trojan Battery. Trojan will begin exploring integration of its own proprietary technology layered with the licensed technology from ABC

Every year, AAA answers 7.5 million phone calls from people whose cars are stranded due to dead batteries; these calls represent roughly a quarter of all AAA roadside assistance requests. We’ve all jumped, been jumped, and replaced batteries at $100 a pop every five or so years. Hyundai figures we’re all getting tired of it. The 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid is the first modern production car without a traditional 12-volt battery. Instead, engineers left open space at the furthest left section of the hybrid’s main battery housing, and installed a lithium-ion starter battery inside. One engineer likened this battery setup to a computer hard drive with two partitions: They operate in the same box

Mercedes-Benz Energy will combine home energy storage with Vivint solar panels in the U.S. Will be available first to California homeowners in the second quarter. Product is very similar to those offered by Tesla. Part of Mercedes' larger electrification strategy. Mercedes-Benz is partnering with U.S.-based Vivint Solar to compete with Tesla and similar companies in residential solar energy and storage. Mercedes-Benz Energy will combine its 2.5 kilowatt-hour energy storage batteries with a Vivint's rooftop to make a combined product for homeowners. "As Mercedes-Benz electrifies its vehicle fleet, solar plus storage is essential to enable those vehicles to be powered by clean energy," said Bo

See how apple melds design, conservation, innovation, and creativity in their new office space. Wired magazine details the process and result of Steve Jobs' vision. link here

A utility in Southern California has successfully demonstrated the use of a battery energy storage system to provide a ‘black start’, firing up a combined cycle gas turbine from an idle state. The utility Imperial Irrigation District (IID) announced news of the successful demonstration, which it said took place last week. IID was ranked as the utility to deploy the most energy storage in the US during 2016 by trade group the Smart Electric Power Association (SEPA) with 30MW installed, Black starting is the restoration of power functions to an electric power generator, network or grid without having to call on external transmission lines. The 33MW / 20MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage sy

A team of researchers from the Naval Research Laboratory is on to a new zinc-based alternative to lithium-ion batteries. The new research aims at enabling the Navy to expands its energy storage options. The new zinc battery could also makes its way into the EV market, providing manufacturers with a lighter, less expensive alternative to today’s crop of lithium-ion batteries. Head researcher Debra Rolison, who has been at NRL since 1980, graciously spent some time on the phone last week with CleanTechnica along with her colleague Jeffrey Long to provide some unique insights into the breakthrough. he Navy’s problem with lithium-ion batteries is that they are not considered safe for some applic

Falling oil prices, international obligations to cut emissions, and a global shift toward renewable energy technologies seems to have pushed even the oil producing countries to invest heavily in clean energy sources. A Chinese company recently signed an agreement with an Oman-based investment firm for the development of a large-scale solar power project in the Middle Eastern country. The project will be developed in two phases, with the first one having a capacity of 400 megawatts. The first phase will eventually be expanded to 1,000 megawatts capacity. Ningxia Zhongke Jiaye New Energy and Technology Management Co. signed an agreement with Oman Investment Fund to set up the project at Duqm.

Tesla's solar roof prices come in cheaper than some had expected 4 Hours Ago | 00:41 Tesla said Wednesday that the first two styles of its solar roof will be priced at about $21.85 per square foot. That price is slightly lower than the $24.50 per square foot price Consumer Reports had said Tesla would need to meet to compete with asphalt roofs, once savings from electricity bills were factored in over the roof's expected lifetime. Many had expressed skepticism that Tesla's product would be as affordable as the company claimed. But after the release of the pricing, Tesla shares closed up more than 1 percent Wednesday. Tesla said it is releasing the first two styles of the glass tiles — "blac

Competing visions have emerged for how to ensure capacity for New York City when the nuclear plant nearby turns off. Closing a nuclear power plant is like wading through wet concrete: The hard part is yet to come. That hard part is coming fast to New York, where the state’s political leadership committed to ramping up to 50 percent renewable energy by 2030 while shutting down the clean baseload power of the Indian Point nuclear plant by 2021. To meet several environmental regulations while providing for the necessary energy and capacity to serve the nation's most populous city will require some energy acrobatics. Adding 450 megawatts of energy storage could lower costs and carbon emissions c

On April 30, Germany established a new national record for renewable energy use. Part of that day (during the long May 1 weekend), 85% of all the electricity consumed in Germany was being produced from renewables such as wind, solar, biomass, and hydroelectric power. Patrick Graichen of Agora Energiewende Initiative says a combination of breezy and sunny weather in the north and warm weather in the south saw Germany’s May 1 holiday weekend powered almost exclusively by renewable resources. “Most of Germany’s coal-fired power stations were not even operating on Sunday, April 30th, with renewable sources accounting for 85 per cent of electricity across the country,” he said. “Nuclear power sou

A “first of its kind” collaboration between energy storage provider Sonnen and transmission system operator TenneT will integrate solar and batteries into energy networks in Germany using blockchain technology. TenneT, headquartered in the Netherlands and responsible for the Dutch high voltage grid and interconnections to neighbouring countries, is also one of Germany’s four transmission system operators (TSOs) through a subsidiary, TenneT TSO. In order to ascertain their efficacy in integrating renewable resources onto the grid, the TSO will link together Sonnen’s residential storage batteries and blockchain technology developed by IBM. TenneT and Sonnen claimed this morning that this is t

Like Tesla’s enormous market capitalization, the outsized mind share of the California carmaker is hard to reconcile with its true market share. A look at the sales data shows that noisy Tesla is quietly being outsold by the true pioneer in the electric vehicle field, the Renault-Nissan Alliance. The Alliance may get no respect from a media that hangs on to every Musk tweet, but it sure gets the customers. In the first quarter of 2017, the Renault-Nissan Alliance moved nearly 37,000 electric vehicles, per data supplied by the automakers. That is some 12,000 units, or nearly 50%, more than the 25,000 electric vehicles Tesla said were shipped by the company in the first quarter. An even bigge