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Articles on Batteries and Storage

• A Breakthrough In Energy Storage: Graphene Micro Supercapacitors
  Dec 3, 2013 - Nicole Miller - cleantechnica.com
  

  Imagine plugging in your smartphone for thirty seconds and then continuing the rest of your day with a fully charged phone. Then imagine plugging in your electric vehicle for less time than it takes to fill up a standard gas tank before running a day’s worth of errands on that one charge. Today, researchers at UCLA may have used some everyday, easily available technology and graphene — a strong, flexible and highly conductible carbon product — to make this dream of energy storage a reality.
  

• Better Lithium Ion Battery Aims to Re-Energize Electric Cars
  June 12, 2012 - scientificamerican.com
  
  A new battery from A123 Systems offers greater flexibility, more power and, potentially, lower overall costs.
  
  
• Offshore renewable energy storage
  June 4, 2011 - renewableenergyfocus.com
  
  Canadian Thin Red Line Aerospace has developed the Energy Bag, which will see a prototype anchored to the seabed off the coast of Scotland this summer as part of a renewable energy research project led by Professor Seamus Garvey of the University of Nottingham, UK. The project is being supported by E.ON.
  
  
• Falklanders to reap wind energy -- with their car batteries
  May 14, 2011 - energycentral.com
  
  The Falkland Islands could become the world's first territory to be mainly powered by a revolutionary combination of wind power and electric car batteries.
  
  
• Volt's Battery Capacity Could Double
  Oct 20, 2010 - Kevin Bullis - renewableenergyfocus.com
  
  GM has tipped its hand about the type of battery materials it aims to use in the next generation of the Chevrolet Volt and other battery-powered cars. It has licensed battery-electrode materials developed at Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy Lab. These materials, called mixed-metal oxides, could improve the safety and durability of car batteries and help double their energy-storage capacity, potentially leading to substantial costs savings by allowing GM to use a smaller battery pack.
  
  
• International team develops ultrahigh-power energy storage devices
  Oct 20, 2010 - renewableenergyfocus.com
  
  The researchers from the U.S. and France report the development of a micro-supercapacitor with "remarkable" properties.
  
  
• Energy Storage Medley: Hydrogen, CAES, Li-ion, NaS, NiCad…
  May 25, 2010 - Eric Wesoff - greentechmedia.com
  
  Renewable portfolio standards might be unachievable without energy storage technology.  Here’s a medley of storage topics and links.
  
  
• Nanocomposite said to boost lithium batteries by 5x
  May 25, 2010 - R. Colin Johnson - EEtimes.com
  
  Nanocomposites aim to boost the capacity of lithium ion batteries by five-times
  
  
• Nanotech fuels high-density power source
  May 25, 2010 - R. Colin Johnson - EEtimes.com
  
  Fuel-coated carbon nanotubes act as 'fuses' in MIT's thermowave experiment
  
  
• NYISO Considers Energy Storage
  Mar 31, 2010 - RenewableEnergyWorld.com
  
  The organization released a white paper that examines the role of energy storage renewable power and system reliability.
  
  
• Energy Storage's Quiet Revolution
  Mar 19, 2010 - Jennifer Kho - renewableenergyworld.com
  
  When A123Systems saw its shares jump more than 50 percent in a successful Nasdaq debut back in September, some industry insiders expected it would be the first of a bevy of big energy-storage headlines.
  
  
• Beacon Power Connects Flywheel Energy Storage System to California Wind Farm
  Mar 12, 2010 - Business Wire - Intelligentutility.com
  
  Beacon Power Corporation (Nasdaq: BCON), a leading provider of advanced products and services to support a more stable, reliable and efficient electricity grid, today announced that it has shipped, installed and successfully connected a Smart Energy 25 (Gen 4) flywheel energy storage system at a wind farm in Tehachapi, California.
  
  
• The Lithium Chase
  Mar 9, 2010 - Clifford Krauss - New York Times
  
  For many years, few metals drew bigger yawns from mining executives than lithium, a lightweight element long associated mostly with mood-stabilizing drugs.
  
  
• Is Energy Storage a Product or Service?
  Mar 8, 2010 - Michael Kanellos - greentechmedia.com
  
  Why sell utilities the cow when they can get the electricity for a fee?
  
  
• Utility energy storage no longer just giant batteries
  Mar 1, 2010
  
  If you need more evidence that energy storage is much more than lithium ion batteries, take a look at the latest smart-grid utility storage projects.
  
  
• EnerDel to Invest $237 Million in Indiana Battery Plant
  Jan 25, 2010 - Clean Edge News
  
  Lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnerDel recently announced it will invest $237 million in a new manufacturing plant near its Indianapolis headquarters in order to meet anticipated demand for advanced battery systems used in both automotive and stationary smart grid applications. Backed by a mix of private funds and public incentives, the new facilities will reportedly more than double EnerDel's U.S. production capacity and is expected to create 1,400 new jobs.
  
  
• Duke Energy to Harness Wind Power With 20 MW Energy Storage Project
  Nov 30, 2009 - Clean Edge News
  
  Duke Energy recently said it intends to match a $22 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to design, build and install large-scale batteries to store wind energy at one of its wind farms in Texas.
  
  
• Utility to store air underground to generate power
  Nov 23, 2009 -The Associated Press - Energy Central
  
  An Ohio electric company has bought the rights to an abandoned limestone mine so it can pump the cavern full of compressed air and let it out to generate power during peak-use times.
  
  
• Can Flywheels Help Balance Electricity Supply and Demand?
  Nov 19, 2009 - Michael Burnham - Scientific American
  
  Beacon Power Corp. broke ground today on a 20-megawatt, energy-storage facility in southeastern New York.
  
  
• "Better Place will spend $1.1b on Israeli electric car project"
  Nov 4, 2009 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dubi Ben-Gedalyahu Globes, Tel Aviv, Israel
  
  Better Place will have to invest $1.1 billion over the next six years to buy the batteries and build the battery replacement centers and recharging points for its electric car venture in Israel alone, according to a report by Deutsche Bank on electric cars.
  
  
• NY helps put flywheel battery plan in motion
  Oct 15, 2009 - The Assoiated Press
  
  A plan to build an array of 200 flywheel batteries to store spare power from New York's electrical grid and transmit it back when needed has been approved by state regulators.
  
  
• Pentadyne Introduces Next Generation Flywheel With 25% More Energy Storage
  Oct 1, 2009 - Business Wire
  
  Pentadyne Power Corporation (www.pentadyne.com), a world leader in flywheel clean energy storage systems, introduced the next generation in flywheel technology for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems. The new flywheel, branded GTX, delivers 25% more energy storage than previous models. The 25% increase in energy storage allows UPS customers to reduce the number of flywheels and the cost needed to bridge the gap between utility power losses and transition to a back-up generator system.
  
  
• When an electric car dies, what will happen to the battery?
  Sept 14, 2009 - Phil Taylor - Scientific American
  
  In the race to put 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015, another challenge awaits on the other side of the finish line: recycling all of those batteries.
  
  
• Utility wants to deploy largest grid battery ever
  Aug 27, 2009 - Poornima Gupta - Reuters
  
  SAN FRANCISCO - Southern California Edison said on Wednesday it is seeking a U.S. grant to store wind power in the largest-ever grid storage battery, to be built by A123 Systems.
  
  
• Utah salt caverns handy for energy storage
  Aug 22, 2009 - The Associated Press
  
  A Utah company plans to use wind or solar power to pump hollowed-out salt caverns full of compressed air. Then, as daily demand for electricity peaks, the company would release the underground air to spin power-generating turbines.
  
  
• Recovery Act Announcement: President Obama Announces $2.4 Billion in Grants to Accelerate the Manufacturing and Deployment of the Next Generation of U.S. Batteries and Electric Vehicles
  Aug 5, 2009 - EERE
  
  Further accelerating the manufacturing and deployment of electric vehicles, batteries, and components here in America, and creating tens of thousands of new jobs, President Obama today announced 48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects that will receive $2.4 billion in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These projects, selected through a highly competitive process by the Department of Energy, will accelerate the development of U.S. manufacturing capacity for batteries and electric drive components as well as the deployment of electric drive vehicles, helping to establish American leadership in creating the next generation of advanced vehicles.
  
  
• Waterproof lithium-air batteries
  Jun 26, 2009 - Katherine Bourzac - Technology Review
  
  A company based in Berkeley, CA, is developing lightweight, high-energy batteries that can use the surrounding air as a cathode. PolyPlus is partnering with a manufacturing firm to develop single-use lithium metal-air batteries for the government, and it expects these batteries to be on the market within a few years. The company also has rechargeable lithium metal-air batteries in the early stages of development that could eventually power electric vehicles that can go for longer in between charges.
  
  
• Energy storage technology: A way forward to a clean renewable future
  Jun 16, 2009 - Hunton & Williams LLP
  
  Energy Secretary Chu is the latest of a series of energy leaders to regard energy storage technology as a key element in deploying renewable energy more widely. As for renewable energy itself, President Obama is a leader among those who support more renewable energy development as being necessary to engender long-term economic growth, break America’s dependence on foreign oil and combat global warming. In a key early speech outlining his plans for the national economy, President Obama called for a doubling of the production of alternative energy over the next three years. Without greater deployment of energy storage technology, however, these aspirations are likely to remain unmet.
  
  
• China battery company launches plug-in hybrid car
  Dec 15, 2008 - By Elaine Kurtenbach - The Associated Press
  
  SHANGHAI, China - Battery maker turned car company BYD Co. has launched China's first homegrown hybrid vehicle for the retail market, seeking an edge over its crisis-stricken international rivals.
  
  
• Company says its battery will change future of cars
  Mar 7, 2008 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Justin Hyde Detroit Free Press
  
  In a brick hall by the Charles River, where blacksmiths made cannons for the Union Army, a new breed of metalworker forges what may be the best weapon automakers will have for surviving the 21st Century.
  
  
• Xcel Energy Launches Groundbreaking Wind-to-Battery Project
  Feb 28, 2008 - Business Wire
  
  Xcel Energy soon will begin testing a cutting-edge technology to store wind energy in batteries. It will be the first use of the technology in the United States for direct wind energy storage.
  
  
• Study: Plug-in hybrids could reduce greenhouse gas emissions
  Jul 19, 2007 - Ken Thomas - Associated Press
  
  If motorists used rechargeable "plug-in" hybrid-electric vehicles in large numbers, the U.S. could see a significant drop in greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, says a study released Thursday.
  
  
• Ford and Southern California Edison Partner on PHEV Research
  Jul 13, 2007 - Clean Edge News
  
  Ford and Southern California Edison are combining resources to explore ways to make plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles more accessible to consumers, reduce petroleum-related emissions and improve the cost-effectiveness of the nation's electricity grid.
  
  
• New battery packs powerful punch
  Jul 5, 2007 - Paul Davidson -USA TODAY
  
  Batteries have long been vital to laptops and cellphones. They are increasingly supplying electricity to an unlikely recipient: the power grid itself. Until recently, large amounts of electricity could not be efficiently stored. Thus, when you turn on the living-room light, power is instantly drawn from a generator. A new type of a room-size battery, however, may be poised to store energy for the nation's vast electric grid almost as easily as a reservoir stockpiles water, transforming the way power is delivered to homes and businesses.
  
  

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