News

July 4, 2015

EV Battery Second Use Can Improve Grid Stability, NREL Reports

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has recommended battery second use (B2U) as a way to offset the cost of electric vehicles and improve electricity grid stability. What is B2U? Battery second use is just another term for battery repurposing. NREL conducted a study on the viability of reusing discarded […]
July 2, 2015

DOE Report Examines Opportunities for US Battery Manufacturers

Asia currently dominates automotive lithium-ion cell production – it controls around 79% of the market. However, a recent report by the DOE’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC) found that the US has a growing opportunity in the industry, which is expected to swell from the current $9 billion to […]
July 1, 2015

Innovative Clean Energy Technologies — From Concept to Market

Transformative technologies are fundamentally driving the acceleration of the clean energy field. From more efficient solar photovoltaics and larger wind turbines, to grid-scale energy storage and small, high-capacity electric vehicle batteries – innovative technologies continue to develop the clean energy industry and increase cost-effectiveness for consumers. Imagine the amount of […]
June 30, 2015

Samsung Dramatically Increases Battery Capacity

Samsung researchers have developed a new technology that enables them to coat silicon battery cathodes with high crystal graphene. This means that they can now virtually double the capacity of lithium-ion batteries! This energy density increase could almost double the range of electric vehicles without adding a single pound of weight. This […]
June 30, 2015

MobileBattery Can Boost EV Range and Provide Home Back-up Power

Germany-based Nomadic Power has received a €2-million grant from the European Commission for its MobileBattery system, which features a trailer-mounted battery pack that can be towed behind an EV to boost range, and also serve as a residential back-up power source when stationary. The Nomad mobile battery comes in several […]
June 29, 2015

Researchers Add Compounds to Electrolyte to Prevent Dendrite Growth

Those doggone dendrites are the bane of battery boffins working on otherwise promising lithium metal anodes. Now a group of researchers from SLAC, Stanford and MIT have discovered that adding lithium polysulfide and lithium nitrate to an ether-based electrolyte can prevent dendrite growth and minimize electrolyte decomposition. Professor Yi Cui, […]
June 24, 2015

Swiss and Finnish Firms Collaborate to Build Drivetrain for Battery-Electric Ferry, City Buses

Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché (named for the inventor of the dry cell battery) and Finnish electric drivetrain specialist Visedo have partnered to deliver a powertrain for an electric ferryboat that will be built by Danish shipbuilder Søby Shipyard and put into service in June 2017 between the mainland and Ærø […]
June 24, 2015

5 Lithium-Ion Battery Startup Companies

Energy storage has been a hot topic lately. While there are many forms of energy storage, the one we might be most familiar with is lithium-ion battery technology. All those smartphones you see around wouldn’t be here were it not for lithium-ion batteries. Perhaps the most visible user of lithium-ion […]
June 23, 2015

24M Introduces Semisolid Lithium-Ion Cell Claiming Half the Cost of Current Technology

Startup 24M has emerged from stealth mode to introduce its semisolid lithium-ion cell, which the company claims will deliver improved performance at half the cost of current Li-ion batteries. “The lithium-ion battery is a brilliant, enabling technology, but its economics are flawed. It’s prohibitively expensive; it’s cumbersome and inefficient to […]
June 23, 2015

Sion Power to Provide Lithium-Sulfur Batteries for Airbus High-Altitude Aircraft

Sion Power Corporation has signed a three-year agreement to supply its proprietary lithium-sulfur batteries for use in Airbus Defence and Space’s Zephyr High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) aircraft. The HAPS is an aircraft that stays aloft for long periods of time, allowing it to perform many of the functions of a […]
June 21, 2015

Tesla Hires Prominent Battery Researcher Jeff Dahn

Better and cheaper batteries will be one of the key enabling technologies for the clean, distributed energy system of the future. More specifically, they are a critical component of Tesla’s master plan to produce an affordable mass-market EV. The Seers of Silicon Valley added a big name to their stable […]
June 19, 2015

Old Nissan LEAF Batteries Will Store Electricity For Businesses

It is the very nature of a battery that, over time, the capacity to store electricity begins to degrade. After an electric vehicle battery has lost about 30% of its total capacity, it’s generally deemed unfit for continued use in a car and is replaced. But those batteries aren’t just […]