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In a new study, researchers are assessing the life cycle of batteries in order to find ways to reduce global warming emissions and address nanotechnology innovations that could improve the overall performance of the batteries. Lithium (Li-ion) batteries used to power plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles show overall promise to “fuel” the vehicles and reduce [...]

Scientists at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg, ZSW (Germany) have developed top-class lithium-ion batteries. In terms of the cycle stability – an important parameter for the lifetime – the high-performance cells now exceed the current international state of technology: more than 10,000 full cycles have been achieved so far, ZSW reports [...]

Eos Energy Storage, the zinc-air battery startup targeting a super-low $160 per kilowatt-hour for grid-scale energy storage, has raised a $15 million Series B round from a syndicate of twenty-one strategic and financial investors, including Fisher Brothers and a big potential strategic partners, NRG Energy. New York-based Eos has previously raised about $12 million from [...]

Improvements in lithium ion (Li-ion) battery technology are helping to accelerate the worldwide market for electric vehicles (EVs). In the last few years, automakers have shifted from nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries to Li-ion batteries. This shift represents a major endorsement of Li-ion chemistry and its ability to perform consistently in an automotive environment. According to [...]

Zero Emission Bay Area (ZEBA) — a group of regional transit agencies in Northern California — operates twelve, zero-emission, fuel cell buses in real-world service throughout the Bay Area’s diverse communities and landscapes. 11. Similar to a battery, a fuel cell is a device that produces electricity through an electrochemical reaction — a chemical reaction [...]

Ancillary services are the auxiliary services required to balance the grid in order to reliably maintain the electricity grid. Such applications include frequency regulation, voltage support, spinning reserve, electric supply reserve capacity, and load following.  Over the next 10 years the market for ancillary services, and the energy storage systems that enable them, will be driven [...]

Solar energy will not become an integral part of the energy supply system in Europe until suppliers, including private residences, have unlimited access to the energy grid. In practice, this would mean that they could supply their self-produced solar energy to the grid at a profitable rate 24/7. This is not yet the case today, [...]

The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL, Golden, Colorado, US) has released a new report which quantifies the value that concentrating solar power (CSP) with thermal energy storage can add to California’s grid. “Analysis of Concentrating Solar Power with Thermal Energy Storage in a California 33% Renewable Scenario” puts the value of [...]

The Notrees Wind Storage Demonstration Project is a 36-megawatt energy storage and power management system, which completed testing and became fully operational in December. It shows how energy storage can moderate the intermittent nature of wind by storing excess energy when the wind is blowing and making it available later to the electric grid to [...]

Canadian researchers have developed a ground-breaking method which may ultimately enable excess energy created by wind turbines and solar panels to be stored for later use. Two researchers at the University of Calgary report in the journal Science that they have invented a relatively inexpensive way of using rust to act as a catalyst for [...]

Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. (Altairnano) (NASDAQ: ALTI) has commissioned a 1.2 megawatt (MW) ALTI-ESS lithium-titanate battery system at a Danish wind farm supplied by Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Vestas), a global leader in wind power. The demonstration project is one of several initiatives currently using Altairnano’s energy storage technology to advance renewable power integration. Headquartered in [...]

Galaxy Resources (ASX: GXY) is now producing a lithium carbonate of minimum 99.9% purity, registered by Galaxy as EV Grade, which is used specifically in the manufacture of electrolyte solution for lithium-ion batteries. Commercial production has now been achieved from the company’s wholly-owned Jiangsu Lithium Carbonate Plant in China. What is so important though for [...]

Construction of Cowessess First Nation´s wind farm, includes erection of an 800 kW Enercon E53 wind turbines connected to a lithium ion battery with 740 kWh of electrical storage. Construction of a wind power project – the first of its kind in North America – is underway on Cowessess First Nation land four-kilometres east of [...]

Ancillary services are the services required to maintain safe, reliable, and secure transmission of energy on the grid. Designed to respond to the technical challenges of generating, transmitting and distributing electricity, these services are required to balance the grid regardless of the structure of the electricity market. It can be challenging for a new technology [...]

Northwestern University’s Yonggang Huang and the University of Illinois’ John A. Rogers are the first to demonstrate a stretchable lithium-ion battery — a flexible device capable of powering their innovative stretchable electronics. No longer needing to be connected by a cord to an electrical outlet, the stretchable electronic devices now could be used anywhere, including [...]