grid

General Motors and grid equipment supplier ABB this week showed an early version of an energy storage system using battery packs from the Chevy Volt electric car.

The two companies are partnering to build a prototype which they say can be used either for large-scale grid storage or backup power for consumers. They estimate that 33 repurposed Volt battery packs could supply 50 U.S. homes for four hours during an outage or brownout.

Batteries lose their storage capacity over time, but used car batteries are still viable for grid storage. GM estimates that once used car batteries have 70 … Read more

BOSTON--One of the barriers to the long-hoped-for hydrogen economy is a non-polluting energy source for hydrogen. Nanoptek is one company that's tapping the sun's energy.

The Maynard, Mass., company this week said it is taking orders for a commercial solar hydrogen generator, which is now in pilot production. The company showed a smaller version of its product at the TechConnect conference here.

Nanoptek envisions creating a system for storing energy from solar at large scale, making hydrogen for vehicles, and even home fueling. In the nearer term, though, the company is seeking to sell solar generators to businesses … Read more

Primus Power has raised enough money from venture investors to build a commercial-size flow battery to store energy on the power grid, the start-up said today.

The company received $11 million from I2BF Global Ventures and DBL Investors, which was spun out of a JPMorgan fund to pursue "double bottom line" investments that earn money and address social and environmental issues. Existing investors Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers and Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital also invested in this round.

Primus Power has developed a flow battery to provide backup power for the power grid or store solar or wind … Read more

At a Paris event on Wednesday, GE announced a new gas-fuelled power plant it says offers more flexibility and efficiency than many other options currently available.

The FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant is rated at 510 megawatts, has a base-load efficiency of more than 60 percent, and, when fully operational, can provide enough energy to power more than 600,000 European homes, according to GE. The plant is built to incorporate fluctuating power sources like wind and solar, as well as a main source of natural gas, the company said.

"The FlexEfficiency 50 plant is engineered for flexible operation by integrating a next-generation 9FB gas turbine that operates at 50Hz, which is the power frequency that is most used in countries around the world; a 109D-14 steam turbine, which runs on the waste heat produced by the gas turbine; GE's advanced W28 generator; a Mark VIe integrated control system that links all of the technologies; and a heat recovery steam generator," GE said in a statement.

GE says the plant also conforms to the EU's strict plant emissions standards for NOx and CO2.

The plant represents $500 million in research and development and came out of GE's Ecomagination program to develop clean-energy projects. GE announced in June 2010 that it planned to invest $10 billion over five years in green-focused research and development.… Read more

Liquid Metal Battery, a company pursuing a breakthrough battery design, has attracted Bill Gates and an oil driller as seed investors.

Many battery companies are working to improve existing technology, but the founders of Liquid Metal Battery are taking an unusual approach that they hope will slash energy storage costs and deliver batteries able to store several hours of wind and solar power. The target of the company, which was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is to have demonstration systems connected to the grid in three to five years, executives said. An official announcement of the series … Read more

With millions of smart meters being installed, utilities find themselves atop a mountain of information but with a dearth tools to make sense of it all.

GridGlo is ready to dig into all that data. The start-up today announced that it received $1.2 million to build its business of providing applications and data collected from smart meters and other sources to utilities and software developers. Nonprofit research center CUBRC provided the funding and will create the algorithms for analyzing meter data.

GridGlo now has trial programs with six utilities in the U.S. with its services, which are built … Read more

Get ready for reliable electricity, and an automated world of electronics, appliances, and buildings, to become the new normal.

That's the main message in a report released today by GigaOm Pro and Pike Research.

Smart-grid applications in six key areas will change the way people use, buy, manage, and think about electricity, according to the report "Smart Grid Apps: Six Trends That Will Shape Grid Evolution" led by Clint Wheelock, Pike Research founder and managing director.

Those electricity-related applications focus on home energy management systems, electric vehicles, distribution automation, smart-grid analytics, building energy management systems (BEMS), and … Read more

Toyota Motor has agreed to develop and deploy telematic services, including its smart-grid technology for running electric systems more efficiently, on Microsoft's cloud-based Azure technology.

Toyota wants to use the technology to give customers navigation and diagnostic services, much like General Motors' OnStar service. Toyota also envisions scenarios in which drivers would be able to turn on heaters or air conditioning at their home with voice commands from their car. "We'll boost the value of today's vehicles by making them information terminals," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a press conference today, which was Webcast.… Read more

Progress Energy is moving forward with its plan to spend $500 million to upgrade two of its electric utilities in Florida and the Carolinas to a smart-grid system.

Together the two utilities provide electricity service to over 3.1 million customers. The Raleigh,N.C.-based company is paying for the upgrade in part with a $200 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The grant came out of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and is part of the high-profile push by the Obama administration and many state leaders to upgrade U.S. electric grids.… Read more