Duke Energy’s decision to replace 36 MW of Xtreme lead-acid batteries shows the risks of backing emerging storage tech. Utilities are leery of new battery technologies, no matter how groundbreaking they seem. That’s because they sometimes don’t perform as promised, and fixing that problem can turn out to be an expensive proposition. Last week, Duke… Keep reading →
Korean engineers may have found a way to allow electric vehicle batteries to recover and reuse energy from braking. “These guys have built high-performance supercapacitors out of graphene that store almost as much energy as a lithium-ion battery, can charge and discharge in seconds and maintain all this over many tens of thousands of charging… Keep reading →
CPUC passes controversial mandate for 1.3 gigawatts of batteries, grid storage by 2020 California’s status as the vanguard in pushing energy storage technologies onto the power grid is now official. On Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved its proposed mandate (PDF) that will require the state’s big three investor-owned utilities to add 1.3… Keep reading →
How a quest for a ten-fold improvement in batteries promises to make electric vehicles deliver on their remarkable potential.
The din that accompanied the birth of modern electric vehicles has quieted, despite a steady parade of new models and the ascent of gas prices to worrisome highs. The relative quiet is good news though, a sign that electric vehicles (EVs) are entering a critical period when the technology must evolve from exotic to everyday. Keep reading →
