Tag Archives: energy storage

Solar Energy Batteries on the Rise

by Susan Ellie Posted on May 17, 2018

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Solar Energy Batteries on the Rise

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Which is harder, Tetris or climate change?

by Violet33T87 Posted on July 6, 2015

getting off the grid

Which is harder, Tetris or climate change?

By on 6 Jul 2015commentsShare

If there’s anyone who knows how to solve big problems, it’s Henk Rogers, discoverer of Tetris. Fortunately, the man who ended boredom is now turning his attention toward climate change.

Rogers had a near-death experience back in 2006 that left him determined to save the planet: “We’re going to end the use of carbon-based fuel, and that is my mission No. 1,” he told the Associated Press. The god of blocks has since made his 6,000 square foot home in Honolulu completely energy independent and now plans to help others join him off the grid.

Here’s more from the AP:

Rogers will announce his new company, Blue Planet Energy Systems, on Monday. The new venture, which will sell and install battery systems for homes and businesses running on solar technology, plans to begin sales on Aug. 1. He declined to say how much the systems would cost, but said there will be a five- to seven-year return on the investment for a typical project that his company will install.

The Blue Ion system, which Rogers has been testing in his home for the last year, uses Sony lithium iron phosphate batteries, which can last for 20 years and do not require cooling, he says.

Elon Musk, who is already trying to solve the problem of home energy storage, should probably save face by encroaching on Roger’s own area of expertise and challenging the man to a Tetris duel.

Until then, here’s an idea: Why don’t we reframe the fight against climate change as one giant game of Tetris? Think of all the brain power that would suddenly zero in on ending this planetary death spiral!

As one game theorist puts it in the following YouTube homage to Tetris, “This game makes ordinary people like you and me become emotionally invested in tessellated stacks of squares. That’s ridiculous!”

Source:
Owner of ‘Tetris’ rights takes Hawaii home, ranch off grid

, The Associated Press.

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Which is harder, Tetris or climate change?

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, solar, solar power, Ultima, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Which is harder, Tetris or climate change?

People can’t get enough of Tesla’s new batteries

by RondaMoonlight Posted on May 8, 2015

People can’t get enough of Tesla’s new batteries

By on 8 May 2015commentsShare

World’s chillest billionaire Elon Musk announced this week that demand for his new energy storage devices is “crazy off-the-hook.”

According to Bloomberg Business, Musk’s new home- and utility-scale battery business, Tesla Energy, has already received about $800 million in reservations — an impressive number, given that Musk just unveiled Tesla Energy a week ago. But Bloomberg warns that, for now, it’s just a number:

Before anyone gets too excited, it’s important to note the biggest caveat: reservations don’t necessarily convert to sales. That’s especially true for the home storage batteries sold under the name Powerwall. Anyone can go online and place a reservation, years in advance, with no money down and no commitment to buy. To reserve a Tesla Model X vehicle, by contrast, requires $5,000 up front. Tesla declined to clarify what constitutes a “reservation” for a business or utility-scale project.

Still, the buzz is encouraging. Since the whole point of Tesla Energy is, essentially, to hurry us to the day we can all live in a solar-powered utopia, it’s good to know that the demand for said utopia is high enough to sell out these new batteries through mid-2016. (To their credit, utility companies have also been working on better batteries; they just haven’t had much success — they also lack the charisma of Musk, a.k.a. the real life Iron Man.)

Here’s a taste of what that $800 million number includes:

The Powerwall home batteries designed to be paired with rooftop solar systems received 38,000 reservations, according to Musk’s comments during Wednesday’s earnings call.
Some customers order more than one battery, with an average reservation amounting to somewhere from 1.5 to two batteries. Musk described the total demand as “more like 50,000 or 60,000” batteries in early reservations. Let’s call it 55,000 batteries.
The Powerwall comes in two designs sold at different prices: $3,000 and $3,500 each. Let’s split the difference: $3,250 apiece.
Total Powerwall Orders So Far: $178.8 million.

[…]

Musk said the company has received 2,500 reservations for the commercial-scale batteries and that the typical installation comes with “at least 10 Powerpacks.” So that’s 25,000 units totaling 2.5 million kilowatt hours.
Musk used Twitter last week to disclose pricing for the Powerpack at $250 per kilowatt hour.
Total Powerpack Orders So Far: $625 million.

So most of the money has actually come from the commercial market. According to Bloomberg, Tesla has so far been working with Target, Amazon, Southern California Electrdic, and the Texas-based utility OnCor.

With such high demand, Musk said, Tesla could easily devote its entire Gigafactory — slated to open sometime next year, ahead of its original 2017 goal — to the storage devices. Unfortunately, he said, the company already promised two-thirds of the facility to electric vehicle batteries.

“We should try to make the factory bigger,” he added — probably with a wry smile and nonchalant shrug.

A bigger factory sounds great, Elon, but maybe keep the name Gigafactory — Yottafactory just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Source:
Tesla’s Battery Grabbed $800 Million in Its First Week

, Bloomberg Business.

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People can’t get enough of Tesla’s new batteries

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Is this train the “little engine that could” for clean energy storage?

by GretchenBamford Posted on March 26, 2014

Track star

Is this train the “little engine that could” for clean energy storage?

By

ARES

In Greek mythology, the story of Sisyphus endlessly rolling a boulder uphill is meant to be a cautionary tale. Gravity, in this case, worked against the poor chump. But the smart folks at Advanced Rail Energy Storage North America (ARES) asked: Why not make gravity your friend?

ARES has pioneered a train full of rocks that climbs up a hill, only to roll back down again and repeat the process, Sisyphus style. But instead of a metaphor of futility, this new train technology offers a breakthrough opportunity in clean energy storage.

It isn’t easy to find feasible solutions for storing grid-scale renewable energy loads for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. Pumping water through turbines only returns about 70 percent on energy inputs, while the big battery business comes with its own set of environmental and cost concerns.

That’s what makes the ARES technology all the more exciting. The group repurposed train cars originally meant for (ironically) Australian ore mining to use gravity and friction to store renewables. Each car can haul up to 230 tons of rock up a hill (heavier is better since it will generate more energy when it inevitably rolls downhill).

Here’s how it works: When electricity is at low demand, surplus energy gets sent from the grid to power a chain that hauls the weighted rail cars uphill. Then, when energy demand climbs, the train car’s motor becomes a generator as it rolls downhill, and the momentum pushes the stored energy back through the grid via regenerative braking. Scientific American reports:

 ”They go up, they go down, Slinky fashion,” said Francesca Cava, chief operating officer at Advanced Rail Energy Storage North America, the company behind the Nevada project. “For the most part, the technology we’re using is over a hundred years old – we’re not waiting for any scientific breakthroughs to be profitable.”

The benefits are that it’s less expensive than other storage solutions like pumping hydro through turbines, and it has a small environmental footprint — no water, no emissions, and no synthetic methane needed. ARES says that the energy stored can stabilize the grid and help make the power generated by renewables less intermittent.

The new railcars have been piloted in California, which recently approved a plan to use energy storing technologies to meet the goal of having 33 percent of its power supply from renewable sources by the year 2020. Now ARES has big plans for a large-scale commercial venture that could help the state get on track with its energy-on-demand needs. If this pilot program is successful, other states and countries could soon be riding this gravy train to clean energy storage.


Source
Energy Storage Hits the Rails Out West, The Scientific American

Amber Cortes is a Grist fellow and public radio nerd. Follow her on Twitter.

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Is this train the “little engine that could” for clean energy storage?

Posted in Anchor, FF, Free Press, G & F, GE, Keurig, ONA, PUR, solar, solar power, TOTO, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Is this train the “little engine that could” for clean energy storage?

The Latest Technology in Cheap Energy Storage Is Manufactured with Pasta Makers

by Prokippxv Posted on December 27, 2013

A startup based in Manhattan called Urban Electric Power is taking a stab at the energy storage problem. And rather than just store energy, the company is going one step further, by manufacturing completely non-toxic batteries rather than the usual corrosive chemical-filled variety.

One big problem with renewable energy—including wind, solar and wave energy—is storing it. If we could stock up on energy when the sun is shining brightly or the wind is blowing, then we could continue to produce power at night or during windless days. Stored energy can also offset demand for energy at peak times, when utility companies have to ramp up production.

Urban Electric Power is approaching this issues by updating an old battery technology. Energy.gov explains:

Inexpensive, non-toxic and widely available, zinc has long been known to be an excellent electricity storage material because of its high energy density. Invented more than 100 years ago, the zinc anode battery is still used today. Yet, for all its benefits, zinc has one major shortcoming — dendrite formation develops over the battery’s life, causing the battery to short after a few hundred cycles.

Basically, researchers have hit a roadblock when attempting to tap into zinc’s energy-storying potential because of that material’s annoying tendency to clump up. To get around this problem, Urban Electric Power designed a simple solution: just stir the zinc. Scientific American reports:  

The key to preventing that degradation turns out to be flow. In the case of Urban Electric, that means little propellers attached by magnets to the bottom of the plastic container holding a series of zinc–manganese dioxide pouch cells. The fans circulate a fluid that keeps the flaws from forming, and the ions flowing in and out of the electrodes. That fluid also turns out to be cheap: water. The convection from a little bit of water flowing around the pouch cells prevents the formation of tiny fibers on the zinc electrode, known as dendrites, that kill off a typical alkaline battery. “We use very little flow,” Banerjee says. “It’s really just stirring.”

The design is so simple that the creators use little more than homemade pasta makers, restaurant-grade stirrers and rolling pins to make the chemical materials, SciAm adds.

More from Smithsonian.com:

Underwater Kites Can Harness Ocean Currents to Create Clean Energy 
We Don’t Have to Choose Between Fossil Fuels and Green Energy

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The Latest Technology in Cheap Energy Storage Is Manufactured with Pasta Makers

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China and the Soybean Challenge

by celicjusz Posted on November 6, 2013

green4us

Itty-Bitty Toys – Susan B. Anderson

Adorable hand-knit playthings, featuring clever twists on classics and enchanting reversibles and interactive toys. Kids love toys, and toys you make yourself are extra-special. If you could buy these imaginative playthings in stores, they would fly off the shelves! This book features stuffed animals, including a luscious lamb and a gigantic giraffe, and fin […]

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Codex: Blood Angels – Games Workshop

The Blood Angels fought at the Emperor’s side in the very earliest days of the Imperium and now, ten thousand years later, their battle to protect Mankind continues. Yet tales abound of a dark flaw that mars the Chapter, a curse that drives the Blood Angels into the cauldron of war with unmatched ferocity. Do the Blood Angels fight for humanity any long […]

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Itty-Bitty Nursery – Susan B. Anderson

A feast of gorgeous projects, shown on gorgeous kids in gorgeous photos. At sleep, at play, in the nursery, and on the go, adorable babies need adorable knits. And here are 40 gloriously unique projects that manage to be utterly charming, fabulous, and usable all at the same time. Baby sets and toys; stroller blankets, jackets, and mittens; and a pure and sw […]

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Index Chaotica: Plague Marines – Games Workshop

Plague Marines are Chaos Space Marines who have pledged their allegiance to Nurgle. Though some go to war as part of the Death Guard Legion, others fight as separate warbands. All Plague Marines are are blighted by decay, and their armour and weapons are corrupted by foul diseases. About This Series: Though the Chaos Space Marines were once heroic defenders […]

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Itty-Bitty Hats – Susan B. Anderson

Beautifully rendered, heartbreakingly adorable, and wonderfully wacky knitted caps for newborns and toddlers Thirty-eight million Americans knit, and that number grows every day. The baby hat is the perfect project for knitters of any level, with enchanting patterns that are easy enough for rank beginners but also interesting enough for the most accomplished […]

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There Are No Sad Dogs in Heaven – Sonya Fitzpatrick

Our pets are part of the family. For many they’re as close as children; for some they may be our only children. And while most of us can expect that our children will outlive us, sadly, our pets almost never do. Losing a pet can be as difficult as losing any other family member; we grieve, we miss them, and, mostly, we want closure, to know that our furry, f […]

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Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out Knit Toys – Susan B. Anderson

Susan B. Anderson’s fifth book–her most enchanting yet–turns the spotlight on “reversibles”: knitted projects that are two toys in one. This collection of a dozen delightful toys features a dog in a doghouse, a chrysalis with a fluttery surprise inside, a tiny hidden fairy, a vintage toy with a fabled theme to boot, pigs in a blanket, and mu […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, says, “Yes, […]

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The Art of Raising a Puppy (Revised Edition) – Monks of New Skete

For more than thirty years the Monks of New Skete have been among America’s most trusted authorities on dog training, canine behavior, and the animal/human bond. In their two now-classic bestsellers, How to be Your Dog’s Best Friend and The Art of Raising a Puppy, the Monks draw on their experience as long-time breeders of German shepherds and as t […]

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Chaser – John W Pilley & Hilary Hinzmann

The amazing story of a very smart Border collie who is redefining animal intelligence. Chaser has a way with words. She knows over a thousand of them—more than any other animal of any species except humans. In addition to common nouns like house, ball, and tree, she has memorized the names of more than one thousand toys and can retrieve any of them on comman […]

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China and the Soybean Challenge

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