Renewable energy sources like solar and wind only generate electricity when the wind blows or the sun is out and that isn’t always when customers need power. Batteries large enough to hold megawatts of electricity are prohibitively expensive but another potential source of battery storage is fast emerging: electric vehicles. (more…)

Energy storage comes in many shapes and sizes. Pike Research covers six energy storage technologies in depth for its upcoming update to Energy Storage on the Grid alone and includes discussions on many more emerging technologies. The variety of technologies is matched only by the variety of applications – up to 17 by EPRI’s count. In the (more…)

Stanford University researchers have designed a rechargeable battery that uses the contrast in salinity between freshwater and seawater to produce an electric current, an innovation they say (more…)

U.S. researchers say they have developed a technology that could dramatically reduce the time it takes to recharge lithium-ion batteries used in cellphones, laptop computers, and electric vehicles (EVs).

Unlike conventional lithium-ion rechargeable batteries — in which active material is placed on a thin film that has limited storage (more…)

Valence Technology (Valence) is an Austin, Texas, energy storage technology developer that makes lithium iron magnesium phosphate battery modules.

According to this piece in the Austin Business Journal, Valence recently won a four-year patent infringement suit against Montreal-based Phostech Lithium (more…)

The Andalucia region of Spain has developed many solar firsts: the world’s first commercial solar power tower (PS10), the largest (PS20), as well as the world’s first solar power plant that generates solar electricity past midnight.  Andalucia will soon add another first to that shiny list: the world’s first commercial baseload solar power plant. (more…)

One of the central questions yet to be answered in energy technology is how to store energy from alternative sources like solar or wind that don’t always produce power when we need it.  For the Navy and Marine Corps, this is particularly important, as we move toward our established goal of at least 50% non-fossil fuel use by 2020.

(more…)

I’ve added a hot new business plan to the list I’m now featuring. I spoke yesterday with Joe Speace, CEO of “Project Renewable Energy” near Kansas City, whose raising capital for a wind farm that will feature compressed air energy storage (CAES). This looks quite strong.

Storage will be a big deal soon, as the (more…)

I think it would be a system operator’s nightmare. You’re responsible for keeping everyone’s lights on, but a passing set of clouds cuts the output from several solar arrays from 100% to 20% — and then raises it back up to 100% in less than a minute.

Fluctuations like that would put me in the (more…)

The new year brings some good pieces of news on the energy storage front. If the first week of 2011 is any indication of trends to come over the next 12 months, there’s much to look forward to in the area of utility-scale energy storage.

Perhaps the biggest news (not in terms of scale but in terms of significance) is that the first utility-scale battery storage system in (more…)