The European Union has approved 2.9 billion euros in subsidies from 12 member countries for a second pan-European project to develop the electric battery industry and move away from its reliance on Asian imports. The EU’s executive commission had already cleared a 3.2 billion-euro plan subsidized by seven countries in Dec. 2019 to support research […]
Parents Pushing For Solar And Batteries Across All Australian Schools
Australian Parents for Climate Action (AP4CA) wants to see Federal funding for solar panels and batteries for every school and early childhood centre in Australia. AP4CA is a volunteer-run group of parents from around Australia advocating for a safe climate. In September last year, it kicked off an action lobbying the Federal Government to fund […]
California Sets $200M Budget for ‘Complex, Multi-Property Microgrid’ Projects
Utility funding for community resilience against fire-prevention outages doesn’t go far enough, microgrid groups argue. California regulators have approved a microgrid plan directing $200 million to help communities build networks that can supply power through the state’s extended wildfire-prevention blackouts, a task expected to take years to move from planning to completing its first projects. […]
Core design strategy for fire-resistant batteries
All-solid-state batteries are next-generation batteries that can simultaneously improve the stability and capacity of existing lithium batteries. The use of non-flammable solid cathodes and electrolytes in such batteries considerably reduces the risk of exploding or catching fire under high temperatures or external impact and facilitates high energy density, which is twice that of lithium batteries. […]
6 Out-of-the-Ordinary Energy Concepts From 2020
Even COVID-19 didn’t lock down the ingenuity of energy entrepreneurs this year. It’s been a remarkably business-as-usual year for renewables, despite the societal upheaval wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Most of our headlines this year have still been about conventional renewable segments such as solar and energy storage. On the margins, virtual power plants have […]
Batteries For Electric Cars Speed Toward a Tipping Point
The price of battery packs for electric vehicles is fast approaching a tipping point. According to a price survey conducted by BloombergNEF, EV makers soon will be producing models that are as affordable—and as profitable—as comparable combustion engine models, and without the help of tax subsidies. The average price per kilowatt-hour for a lithium-ion battery […]
Ever-Cheaper Batteries Bring Cost Of Electric Cars Closer To Gas Guzzlers
Battery prices are one of the biggest costs for electric cars, but that cost has plummeted over the past decade. The price of a lithium-ion battery pack has fallen 89% in real terms from more than $1,100/kWh in 2010 to $137/kWh in 2020, according to the latest forecast from BloombergNEF (BNEF). By 2023, average prices […]
Con Edison Contracts Its Biggest Battery to Date in New York City
A 400-megawatt-hour battery from 174 Global Power will balance NYC’s energy needs with increasing offshore wind power capacity. New York utility Con Edison has signed its biggest energy storage contract to date, a 100-megawatt/400-megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery project that will help balance a grid facing rising levels of offshore wind and other renewable power in the […]
Batteries in Solar Installations Becoming the New Norm: Q&A
Pairing batteries with solar in residential applications is quickly becoming the norm in the U.S., particularly in California, SunPower Corp. CEO Tom Werner said. “The integration of storage will go mainstream, maybe as soon as one year but certainly in three years,” Werner said. “Having battery storage with solar systems could be the rule and […]
Installers can understand the case for batteries
How can installers explain the value in batteries when talking to residential customers about solar PV? Jason Venning, FIMER: The value of batteries depends on what homeowners want to achieve. Just looking at the price of an energy storage solution may put off some households as pricing is still relatively high across the board and […]