An Important Greentech Bill You Need to Know: STORAGE

All eyes have been on the clean power and energy efficiency funds rolling out of the stimulus package, as well as the climate bill, and its cap-and-trade system, currently winding through the Senate. But a lesser-known bill — the Storage Technology of Renewable and Green Energy Act of 2009, or “STORAGE” (S. 1091) — that was introduced at the end of May, could offer crucial tax credits for one of the most important and overlooked aspects of building out a smarter grid: energy storage (FAQ on energy storage).

The bill is important enough that at the Infocast Storage Week conference earlier this month, Imre Gyuk, the Department of Energy’s program manager for Energy Storage Research, reportedly asked audience members to actively support the bill. The bill’s incentives, coupled with other funds for energy storage, could have massive potential to get more energy storage deployed, Gyuk said, according to John Petersen at Alt Energy Stocks.

Why is it so important? Here are the basics:

In the same way that tax credits have been an important part of boosting the installation of renewable energy generation, the storage bill would provide an investment tax credit of 20 percent for grid-connected energy storage with a size of at least 2 MW that can deliver 500 kWh for 4 hours, and a 30 percent investment tax credit for residential energy storage gear. In addition, the bill would enable utility energy storage to be paid for by clean energy bonds.

According to a statement by Sen. Ron Wyden, who introduced the bill, tax credits could be used for “individual homeowners with plug-in hybrid vehicles,” businesses buying “thermal cooling systems,” (like Ice-Energy’s ice-powered cooling technology), and factories that want to “install biomass equipment to generate steam to power some of the machinery.”

Wyden’s purpose:

The bill will base the tax credit on the amount of energy stored, not the type of technology used. The goal is not to pick winners and losers, but to offer a broad range of incentives to foster innovation and installation. By providing tax incentives, the bill will create demand for renewable energy storage technologies.

Because energy storage has been largely neglected by federal incentives and investors, the STORAGE tax credits are receiving a warm welcome from energy storage entrepreneurs. Craig Horne, president and CEO of year-old company EnerVault, which is building flow batteries for the power grid, told us he was heartened to “see that the importance and value of distributed energy storage is being realized.”

But there are some aspects of the bill, and energy storage federal support in general, that entrepreneurs would like to see modified. Horne says he would like to see the 20 percent tax credit for grid-connected storage raised to 30 percent like the renewable energy tax credits, and the floor for the power rating of 500 kWh, be lowered to 250 kWh. Dileep Agnihotri, the CEO of energy storage device maker Graphene Energy, would like to see more energy storage incentives that would help pilot earlier stage technology like Graphene’s. “We will spend most money to go through the pilot stage…I wish I could get money to pilot the technology without going through investors,” said Agnihotri.

From earth2tech.com

WildCharge, Pure Energy Team For Green Wireless Charging

By John Laposky

635 mots

1 juin 2009

TWICE

TWCE

50

Volume 24, Issue 12

Anglais

© 2009, TWICE, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Toronto — Pure Energy Visions, the Canadian provider of environmentally responsible rechargeable battery products, and wireless power technology provider WildCharge announced their intention to jointly develop wireless power solutions using rechargeable battery technology.

The companies are forming a yet-to-be-named, equally owned joint venture, to be headquartered in WildCharge's home city of Boulder, Colo. Pure Energy and WildCharge intend to license their technologies, subject to existing agreements, and transfer certain other assets and liabilities to the joint venture.

The new company will be responsible for the development, commercialization, marketing and worldwide distribution of both Pure Energy and WildCharge products and technologies.

Dennis Grant, CEO of WildCharge, would be chairman/CEO of the new company and lead the team that will drive sales of Pure Energy's and WildCharge's existing and soon-to-be released products.

Grant anticipates that additional employees, particularly in sales and marketing, will be added to support planned growth.

The companies are currently in an exclusive 120-day negotiating period to finalize the details of the venture. A statement by Pure Energy noted that “the contemplated transaction is subject to completion of a number of items, including finalizing structure, legal documentation and due diligence, approval of the final form of the transaction by the respective boards of directors of Pure Energy and WildCharge and obtaining any required corporate and third-party consents, including any required approvals from the TSX Venture Exchange.”

Paul Simmonds, Pure Energy's president and CEO, commented: “Our companies share a unique vision of where wire-free and rechargeable battery technology is headed and strongly believe that through forming this partnership we will become the market leader in this high-growth category. This is a tremendous opportunity for Pure Energy and its shareholders, and we are confident that this combination will significantly impact the future of sustainable, portable power.”

WildCharge's Grant added: “Our combined solutions, which independently already hold a superior position in the market, will make this a truly green company focused on developing convenient, cost-effective and environmentally responsible technologies that power our daily lives, at home, where we work and when we are on the go.”

Pure Energy contended its rechargeable alkaline batteries are the only rechargeable batteries that can be used in any application that uses disposable alkaline batteries. Their rechargeable alkaline batteries do not contain heavy metals and offer several well-tested performance and cost advantages in a number of OEM products over other rechargeable batteries, including an industry leading seven-year shelf life — 40 times longer than typical rechargeable NiMH batteries.

WildCharge's technology enables licensees to deliver wire-free charging to a variety of devices that require varying amounts of power. Devices such as cellphones that require only a few watts of power to laptops that need more than a hundred watts can be powered from a single, contiguous and non-discriminating charging surface.

WildCharge said it offers licensees the opportunity to bring new designs to market quickly through a reference design library that features wire-free products that have been conceived, engineered and tooled, and for which a supply chain has been pre-established.

Products currently available through the WildCharge reference design library include the WildCharger Pad, gel-skin adapters for BlackBerry devices and soon Apple devices, “and universal solutions for hundreds of different mobile devices,” according to the company.

Many of the products in the reference design library are also available for purchase by consumers on www.wildcharge.com .

Pure Energy is a consumer and commercial products company focusing on cost-effective, environmentally responsible products and a leading supplier of rechargeable battery products sold under private label and under the Pure Energy brand. More information on the company is available atwww.pureenergybattery.com .

Driving unplugged with toothbrush technology

Guardian Financial Pages

Bibi van der Zee and Adam Vaughan

493 mots

21 juillet 2009

The Guardian

Nissan has developed a revolutionary plug-free technology that it claims will make charging electric cars easier and faster. The wireless charging system is based on the concept of inductive charging, the same electromagnetic field technology used to charge an electric toothbrush. Nissan has scaled it up for use in their Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) electric car, which can charge in a compatible parking bay without the need for wires. Today's electric car owners, in contrast, have to carry a mains plug in their car to recharge.

David Bott, director of innovation programmes at the government-funded Technology Strategy Board, said: "If you look at handheld gadgets, inductive charging is a proven technology - the fundamental science says that it will work. I suspect you'll end up plugging electric cars in at night for efficiency, and by day using inductive for on-the-go recharging."

Nissan hopes to scale the technology up even further as a series of plates laid into the surface of designated electric vehicle lanes on roads and motorways, theoretically enabling motorists to charge as they drive. However, Nissan admits that it still has no idea how much it would cost, how long the designated lane would have to be, or how fast the battery could be recharged.

Bott was sceptical that such charging lanes would be practical: "It's scientifically feasible, but it's whether it's scalable and feasible is another matter."

Nissan's consumer research showed that 61% of potential electric car customers were most worried about the inconvenience of recharging. As well as inductive charging, its solutions include developing fast-charging facilities, which they hope to see in shopping centre car parks and service stations. "So while you're shopping, or having a cup of tea, the battery will refill to 80% of its capacity, in about 25 minutes," explained Larry Haddad, general manager of product strategy and planning at Nissan Europe.

Nissan claims that the ZEV will be the first "dedicated" electric car on the market, arguing that most of its rivals have been rehashes of existing models.

It is a five-seater family-sized car with a top speed of 90mph and a battery range of around 100 miles. Redmer van der Meer, Nissan's European electric vehicle product manager, said he was confident the range will be significantly extended in the next few years, and that cars will be built so new, improved batteries can be retro-fitted. He said the ZEV is deliberately conventional in style: "We don't want to make a shock in the market, an egg-shaped car or something. We want to make a transition. You could do mad things but we really don't want to."

It will go on sale in the US and Japan next year, and in Europe by 2012. Pricing is yet to be announced.

Armory Lovins : Visionnaire vert

Cet apôtre des économies d'énergie qui travaille avec le gratin des entreprises américaines est convaincu que la révolution écologique est une excellente affaire

Un vrai gamin... Comme un coureur de haies, il enjambe les montants des panneaux solaires qui couvrent le toit de sa résidence d'Old Snowmass. Au loin, les sommets enneigés des montagnes du Colorado. Mais c'est le dernier lifting énergétique de sa maison modèle qu'Amory Lovins fait admirer. Dans cette maison témoin qui revend son surplus d'énergie à la compagnie locale, électricité, eau chaude et chauffage au sol marchent au solaire. Des «supertenetres» au gaz xénon laissent entrer les lumières et retiennent la chaleur. Au milieu du salon trône une serre tropicale, avec insectes et poissons... «C'est cette résidence, achevée en 1984, qui a donné à Wolfgang Feist l'idée de construire en 1992 la première «maison passive» en Allemagne», explique Lovins. Car cette grosse bâtisse de pierre grise n'est pas seulement un agréable lieu de vie ouvert aux visiteurs. C'est aussi le siège du Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), qu'Amory Lovins et sa femme Hunter ont créé en 1982. RM, c'est une combinaison baroque d'ONG et de centre de recherche. Un «think and do tank» entrepreneurial de 80 personnes, qui tire la moitié de son budget (13 millions de dollars) du consulting énergétique. «Notre vocation est de promouvoir l'usage efficient et régénératif des ressources, résume Lovins. Nous apportons des solutions, non de nouveaux problèmes. Nous sommes des praticiens, pas des théoriciens. Et nous croyons aux transformations, non aux améliorations l» Pour Amory Lovins, grande figure de l'écologie, les Etats-Unis ont raté le tournant dans les années 1970 quand ils ont choisi la voie de la dépendance aux énergies fossiles - produire toujours davantage, quels qu'en soient le prix et les conséquences - au lieu d'emprunter un chemin plus frugal. Lui, dès 1976, préconisait de partir des usages concrets de l'énergie - une bière fraîche, une douche chaude... - pour réfléchir à la façon de les satisfaire, au moindre coût financier et écologique. Son dada ? Encore et toujours les économies d'énergie dans la construction, l'industrie, les transports. Un concept qu'il rend plus sexy en parlant de «négawatts», cette électricité qui coûte tellement moins cher à économiser qu'à produire. Refrain : «C'est la méthode même de design des bâtiments qui est mauvaise. On se demande toujours : quelle épaisseur doit avoir l'isolant, quelle doit être l'efficience du toit, des fenêtres, de la chaudière ? Mais bonifier les composants isolément n'optimise pas la maison en tant que système !»

Aux antipodes des écolos traditionnels, Amory Lovins ne prône ni privations ni subventions, mais une stratégie de marché. Dès 2000, dans son ouvrage culte, «le a Capitalisme naturel», cet avant-gardiste expliquait que la révolution écologique profiterait d'abord à l'économie : «Small est non seulement beautiful mais aussi rentable.» Cette approche l'a conduit à travailler avec 90 des 500 plus grosses sociétés américaines, de Coca-Cola à Chevron, de Hewlett-Packard à Bank of America. Rocky Mountain Institute vient ainsi de «codesigner» la rénovation de l'Empire State Building new-yorkais : un chantier à 13 millions de dollars, qui va réduire sa facture énergétique annuelle de 4,4 millions, en diminuant la consommation de 38% !

Le même type de raisonnement vaut pour l'automobile, plaide Lovins, qui a essayé, dans les années 1990, de vendre à General Motors son idée de voiture hyperlégère en fibre de carbone. En vain : «Détroit calcule ses coûts à h pièce ou au kilo. Les constructeurs n'ont pas compris que le surcoût d'une carrosserie légère et aérodynamique était plus que compensé par une réduction d'un tiers de la puissance du moteur et les économies de carburant.» Pour prouver l'efficacité de ce concept, RM a créé deux start-up : Hypercar, spécialisée dans l'outillage pour ces carrosseries en fibre; et Bright Automotive, qui vient de dévoiler un véhicule utilitaire électrique ultraléger pour les flottes d'entreprise. Qu'il s'agisse du dernier cri du photovoltaïque ou de la politique des biocarburants, Amory Lovins est intarissable. Avec la même passion de convaincre son interlocuteur... quel qu'il soit. «Il accordera autant de temps à un étudiant de passage qu'à un patron de multinationale», s'amuse un collaborateur. Lovins adore aussi mettre les pieds dans le plat. En mai, lors de sa visite en France, il a expliqué à Jean-Louis Borloo et à EDF que «le nucléaire était fini»... Pour lui, qu'elle fonctionne au charbon ou à l'atome, la centrale thermique géante est obsolète, «comme les locomotives à vapeur de l'ère victorienne ou l'ordinateur mainframe des années 1970». L'avenir ? Le«micropower» : un panachage de centrales électricité-chaleur, au niveau des usines ou des bâtiments, et d'énergies renouvelables distribuées (solaire, éolien). «Cette révolution s'est déjà produite. Désolé, vous l'avez ratée !», a-t-il affirmé, chiffres à l'appui, à ses interlocuteurs français. Les théories de cet esprit subversif sont controversées. Certains experts américains pensent qu'il se trompe. D'autres, plus nombreux, qu'il sous-estime les résistances au changement. Mais quand on le traite d'optimiste, Amory Lovins rétorque qu'il pratique simplement «l'espoir appliqué». Avec la sérénité du visionnaire qui a raison depuis quarante ans et que l'histoire vient de légitimer.

Amory Lovins

1947. Naissance à Washington DC.

1982. Création du «Rocky Mountain Institute» (rmi.org).

2000. «Le Capitalisme naturel» (avec Paul Hawken).

2008. «Pétrole : gagner la fin de partie», mode d'emploi pour nous débarrasser de notre accoutumance au brut.

Dominique Nora
Le Nouvel Observateur

Energy Storage for the Smart Grid

FAQ: Energy Storage for the Smart Grid

Written by Katie Fehrenbacher

Source : earth2tech.com

Adding digital intelligence to the power grid is getting all the attention right now from Congress, investors and entrepreneurs, but a next-generation smart grid without energy storage is like a computer without a hard drive: severely limited. Energy stored throughout the grid can provide dispatchable power to address peak power needs, decreasing the use of expensive plants that utilities power up as a last resort when demand spikes, making the network less volatile. Energy storage will also be crucial for making the most of variable renewable energy sources (the sun shines and the wind blows only at certain times) once they’re connected to the grid. In the way that computers and the infrastructure of the Internet have built up around storage as a key component, so will the power grid eventually rely on energy storage technology as a pivotal piece.

But until recently, energy storage has been largely ignored — overshadowed by clean power generation or information technology for the smart grid. Mohr Davidow Ventures partner Marianne Wu said at an energy storage conference at UC Berkeley last week that over the past few years it’s been very hard to find entrepreneurs with long careers and innovative ideas in grid-focused energy storage. The small number of battery startups in the U.S. have generally been focusing on the sexier market of electric and hybrid vehicles.

All that seems to be changing, though, as more attention shifts to the importance of remaking the power grid. The stimulus package is allocating billions specifically for energy storage and advanced battery technology for the power grid, among other applications, in addition to the billions set aside for adding digital intelligence to the grid that will help incorporate these storage technologies. On Tuesday morning, GE announced that it’s building a battery factory in New York state in order to produce energy storage devices for the power grid (as well as heavy-haul trains) and is looking for stimulus funding.

Private investors are also seeing the new opportunities: While venture capital investments for the first quarter of this year dropped across the board, energy storage technology for vehicles and the grid received $114 million, making it one of the only bright spots, according to Ernst & Young and Dow Jones. That was more than double the $50 million venture capitalists invested in the quarter a year prior. If funding news coming out of the current quarter is an indicator of things to come, the energy storage boom will continue. Last week grid energy storage company Deeya Energy announced it has nabbed $30 million.

Battery companies that have been developing devices for vehicles are also increasingly eyeing applications for grid power. A123Systems, the lithium-ion darling backed by GE, installed its first Hybrid Ancillary Power Unit at a power plant owned by AES in Southern California last November. Around the same time lithium titanate battery maker Altairnano announced that it is supplying a 1 MW battery storage system for a major transmission region. And ultracapacitor company EEStor was reported to be in “serious talks” with potential solar and wind energy partners to help boost grid capacity by providing its devices for utility-scale electricity storage.

But beyond advanced batteries and ultracapacitors there’s a variety of technologies being tested for the power grid. These nine are among the most promising:

• Compressed Air: Compressed air is a decades-old technology which takes excess energy from a power plant or renewable energy and uses it to run air compressors, which pump air into an underground cave or container where it’s stored under pressure. When the air is released, it powers a turbine, creating electricity. Utilities like PG&E are starting to investigate this technology because it is one of the lowest-cost and simplest energy storage technologies. But pumping compressed air underground has some environmental and safety concerns, so the process for getting regulators to approve these projects takes a long time. There’s only a handful of compressed air energy storage projects in the world, including one in Alabama and one in Germany. Entrepreneurial ventures in this space are rare, but a joint venture called Energy Storage and Power, which is a partnership between Public Service Enterprise Group, owner of New Jersey’s largest utility, and inventor Michael Nakhamkin, emerged last year.

• Pumped Hydro: Pumped hydro storage is the most widespread energy storage technology used in the world, according to the Energy Storage Association. There are about 90 GW of pumped storage in operation, which equals about 3 percent of worldwide generation capacity. The system works by pumping water from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir and then letting the water move downhill to produce electricity when needed. Traditional iterations of the technology are ideal for populations that live close to high altitude terrain, like Switzerland, where pumped hydro has been used for a century.

• Ultracapacitors: A new generation of ultracapacitors is emerging, aiming to seize the future of the auto industry — can they revolutionize the power grid, too? Capacitors have traditionally been used to produce quick bursts of speed and to deliver fast charge times, rather than for endurance, but some of the newer ultracapacitors are getting better in this area. EEStor is one of the more well-known of the group and, as we’ve already pointed out, it has been reported to be talking to renewable energy providers. Graphene Energy, an Austin-based ultracapacitor developer that emerged in January and is seed funded by Quercus Trust, works with the strongest material ever tested — a one-atom thick sheet of graphite — and is looking to apply its device to the power grid.

• Flywheels: Flywheels are large discs that spin in a vacuum and are sometimes used as backup power for an uninterrupted power supply (UPS), which are emergency power systems that turn on after a power outage before a generator kicks in. Flywheels have the benefit of needing little upkeep over a 20-year-plus lifetime and don’t contain toxic chemicals the way some batteries do. The amount of power delivered to the grid depends on how fast the flywheel spins. But flywheels have faced some hurdles in reaching mainstream commercialization including technology development, difficulty finding the right market and competition with batteries. (For example, flywheel maker Beacon Power recently said it is delaying the expansion of a small commercial project that it had been planning to build out to 5 MW.)

• Sodium Sulfur (NAS) Batteries: Sodium Sulfur or “NAS” batteries use simple ingredients — liquid sulfur and salt — and have been used on Japan’s power grid for years. According to the Electric Storage Association, there are over 190 sites and 270 MW of stored energy from NAS batteries in Japan. In GE’s battery factory announcement this morning, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt said GE will be building sodium-based batteries at its plant and said that the company has over 30 patents in the space.

• Flow Batteries: Similar to fuel cells, flow batteries are a decades-old technology that converts chemical energy into electricity. Oftentimes the electrolyte is stored in large external tanks, and the rate of how the power is stored and delivered can be managed. Another advantage of a flow battery is that it can be recharged quickly. The tech is older, but some entrepreneurs see newer opportunities, and Deeya Energy is an example of a new flow battery startup that recently received funding.

• Lithium-ion Batteries: Much of the advancement in batteries (for the grid and for electric vehicles) is being done with lithium-based batteries like the ones made by A123Systems and Altairnano. Compared with the incumbent technology, lead acid batteries, lithium allows for faster charging, lighter weight, and higher energy density and is poised to be the moneymaker of the world battery materials market in the coming years.

• Lead Acid Batteries: Lead acid batteries are the oldest, most mature form, of batteries for energy storage, and the technology is relatively cheap and widely available. But the chemistry has its barriers, including lower energy density and heavier weight. Some entrepreneurs are trying to breathe new life into lead acid battery technology, including Axion Power, a Quercus Trust-backed startup working to blend ultracapacitor tech with old-fashioned lead-acid batteries for a lead 2.0 device.

• Fuel Cells: Fuel cells produce electricity through an electrochemical conversion, and can be quickly recharged by updating a fuel cell device with a new solution. Fuel cells have long been thought of as the holy grail of energy storage technology — for consumer electronics, vehicles and the power grid — but have so far failed to make it to mainstream commercialization. They may fare better in the power grid market, since the need for rock bottom prices in the gadget and car markets has been one of their biggest barriers. Bloom Energy is a high-profile startup working on a large-scale fuel cell that could help stabilize the power grid and promises to have its device ready within a year or two.