Hydrostor, a Canadian company, says it has developed a new compressed air energy storage system that is half the cost of grid-scale batteries and equal to the cost of a new natural gas powered generating plant.
Let’s be honest, comparing Tesla to conventional automakers like GM, Ford, and Fiat-Chrysler Automotive is a little unfair — the “Big 3” don’t sell solar roofs or energy storage systems, just cars.
Engie had been on our radar before, but never to a large degree, even though it is a giant energy company — one of the largest in the world. Then, in January, Thierry Lepercq — Executive Vice President of Engie in charge of Research, Technology and Innovation — made some eye-popping futuristic claims which grabbed a lot of attention. A short time later, I was in Abu Dhabi at a gigantic IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) meeting of ministers from many countries around the world. To kick off a big ministerial, there was a CNN-moderated panel discussion with top people from IRENA, Statoil, EDF, IEA (the International Energy Agency), and Engie. Thierry was at the table.
The link between electric vehicles and electric utilities is inseparable, and as more and more utilities realize how much they have to gain from increased electric vehicle adoption, many are rounding the corner and starting to actively advocate for them.
Unofficial Tesla evangelist Bjørn Nyland uncovered what is, in all likelihood, the world’s largest EV-charging-enabled parking structure, which features a whopping 102 charging stations.
Elon Musk tweeted last week that he could install a 100 MWh grid storage system for South Australia in less than 100 days. That has spurred other Australia based companies to offer proposals of their own.
EDF Renewable Energy has commissioned a new business unit focused on Distributed Electricity and Storage that will focus on distributed solar and storage projects up to 30 MW in size.
In case you missed any of these or just like to see which CleanTechnica stories have been getting the most attention, below are the 30 CleanTechnica stories from the past week that got the most views. After that, you can see my favorites of the week.
Nearly 10 months ago, Tony Seba, author of the 2014 book Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation, posted a video on YouTube, “CleanDisruption.” In both, he projected that a nearly complete disruption of the energy business would begin in 2020 and be well underway by 2022, the year he projects for distributed solar power with battery backup to fall below the cost of transmitting electricity. It is a point at which centralized power plants, if they are to compete with solar-plus-storage, will have to provide power for free. He believes that all centralized electric power producers will be obsolete by 2030, as will conventional cars and utility companies.
A new residential energy storage pilot seeks to better understand how batteries installed in homes can be used at the neighborhood level by grid operators to absorb solar power generation excesses during the day and discharge them when needed later in the day.
