Batteries posts, articles, and infographics

The Dawn of a New Day for Autos

February 7, 2012 by Steve Seidel
with 223 views

A lot has changed in the two years since I made my first visit to the Washington Auto Show. Back then, gas prices averaged $2.68 per gallon and the Nissan LEAF looked like a “car of the future” compared to the other vehicles on the showroom floor. Now, prices at the pump are 25 percent higher, averaging $3.50 per gallon in 2011, and fuel... [read more]

Electric Cars & Overpopulation — R-Squared Energy TV Ep. 10

February 2, 2012 by Robert Rapier
with 71 views

In this week’s episode of R-Squared Energy TV, I answer questions on the future of electric cars, and the global population, which many feel is the root of so many problems. Some of the topics discussed are: When electric cars might be expected to make significant inroads in the auto market Why some people will continue to be tentative... [read more]

The Electric Car and the New Normal

January 31, 2012 by Rocky Kistner
with 295 views

About halfway between St. Louis and Chicago, nestled in the fertile corn and soybean fields of Illinois, a quiet electric car revolution is sprouting up in the town of Normal, a town that in some ways is anything but. That’s because this vibrant, forward-looking community of 50,000—along with its adjacent sister city... [read more]

How to Leverage Data to Increase Clean Tech Sales

January 30, 2012 by Christopher Williams
with 146 views

In last month’s post “How to Grow Electric Vehicle Sales”, I discussed the importance of understanding your target customers so you can successfully market your new clean tech product or service. For instance, the people who brought the early Toyota Prius - typically middle aged, upper middle class, highly educated, environmentalists –... [read more]

Ener1 Is No Solyndra

January 28, 2012 by James Greenberger
with 769 views

The losers in the Ener1 bankruptcy are those who invested in the common stock of Ener1. Their loss is unfortunate, but hardly novel among investors who buy high risk-high reward technology stocks. Their loss is of no consequence to U.S. taxpayers, whose $110 million grant was never intended to benefit the stockholders of Ener1, but rather was intended to support the development of technology and of a base of knowledge and experience in advanced batteries in the United States. By all accounts that technology and knowledge base appears secure and about to be doubled-down upon by $81 million of new investment. This is no failure. [read more]

The Future of Global Climate Policy: Clean Energy Innovation Imperative

January 25, 2012 by Jesse Jenkins
with 399 views

It is time to take stock of our current climate trajectory, and consider what it means for climate policy. In Part 1 of this week long series, we argued that our current climate trajectory means we must 1) redouble efforts to reduce CO2 emissions as quickly as possible, and 2) we must proactively build resilience to the uncertain impacts... [read more]

PEV-Related Patent Issuances Set Record Levels

January 22, 2012 by James Greenberger
with 244 views

Photo by Berkeley T. Compton via Flickr

The New York-based IP law firm of Heslin Rothenberg Farley & Mesiti P.C tracks cleantech patent filings in the United States and around the world. According to Heslin Rothenberg, annual cleantech patent applications have more than doubled since 2008. In the third quarter of 2011, the number of cleantech patents issued in the United States reached an all-time high of 599. This was 109 more than the number of cleantech patents issued in the third quarter of 2010. Of the cleantech patents issued, hybrid/electric vehicle-related patents accounted for 59, an all-time high for that subsector, up from 46 issued during the third quarter of 2010. [read more]

Consumer Interest in Electric Vehicles: A Prediction for 2013

January 9, 2012 by James Greenberger
with 396 views

It is a little early to be making predictions for 2013, but here is one: Within 12 months the folly of tying the fate of light vehicle transportation to a single, vulnerable commodity will again become apparent to the American public. When that happens, consumer interest in PEV’s will move sharply in the other direction. [read more]

Yet Another Battery Breakthrough

January 8, 2012 by Lou Grinzo
with 1,996 views

Photo by mariordo59 via Flickr, Creative Commons

If you could wave your handy dandy magic wand and create a single technological breakthrough that would make a huge impact on our intertwined climate and energy challenges, you’d be hard pressed to come up with something better than a killer battery.Find a way to make a battery pack that greatly exceeds the range of those in the Leaf,... [read more]

Allocating the Costs of Distributed Energy Systems

December 26, 2011 by James Greenberger
with 327 views

Both distributed solar energy and distributed energy storage have attributes that make their deployment desirable to society as a whole in addition to the customers who benefit from them most directly. A strong argument can be made, therefore, that in setting things such as “network use charges”, utilities and utility regulators should not impose the full costs of such systems on the customers who benefit from the systems most directly, but should instead be socializing the costs of those systems (or at least a portion of the costs) among all electricity consumers. [read more]

American Industry and EV Battery Safety

December 18, 2011 by James Greenberger
with 757 views

The bright side of the Volt fire is that it may just show the way for American companies and American technology to get a leg up in the advanced battery race. Let’s see product safety as an opportunity, not as a threat. Let’s encourage the NHTSA and other agencies of state and federal government to require the highest levels of safety possible in EV batteries. Safety is something we do very well as a country (relatively speaking). Let’s use that advantage to put American workers and American technology to work building safe advanced batteries for EV’s. [read more]

China's Rare Earths Monopoly

December 16, 2011 by Silvio Marcacci
with 604 views

Rare earth minerals may be the most important, let least understood factor in America’s transition to a low-carbon, clean-tech future. They’re essential to virtually every source of renewable energy and consumer technology we use today. But China dominates worldwide rare earth supplies and production, and their monopoly could corner the world economy. energyNOW! chief correspondent Tyler Suiters explores how U.S. dependence on China’s rare earths could affect our energy future and high-tech lifestyles. [read more]

The Case for Electric Vehicles

December 12, 2011 by James Greenberger
with 337 views

Increased fuel efficiency of light vehicles will not solve the problem that has bedeviled our nation for decades: the long-term hemorrhage of American jobs and capital to petroleum producers. If our light vehicle fleet is 100% dependent on petroleum-based fuels, reducing use of those fuels will neither save money nor reduce vulnerability to supply disruptions in the long run. As in any market controlled by a monopoly, the monopolist has the option to raise its prices as demand declines. The consumer cannot come out ahead by conservation alone. [read more]

Massive Battery System Captures Wind Power

December 6, 2011 by Silvio Marcacci
with 1,254 views

One of the biggest challenges facing wind energy is intermittency. Wind often blows strongest when power demand is lowest, and weakest when electricity is needed the most. Because today’s power grid needs electricity to be consumed the moment it’s generated, that means wind turbines send energy to the grid half as often as an average coal plant. What if wind farms could store the power that isn’t needed right away and sell it later when demand is high? energyNOW! correspondent Patty Kim visited an energy storage system built alongside a wind farm in the heart of coal country. [read more]

The Volt Fire and Public Acceptance of Electric Vehicles

December 3, 2011 by James Greenberger
with 572 views

As initial safety problems go, these initial problems with electric vehicles have gone as well as anyone could have hoped. No one was killed or injured. No serious property damage has occurred. The right questions are being asked and better post-accident procedures put in place. Most importantly, we are starting down the necessary path of educating consumers and first responders about how to operate electric vehicles safely. As that education continues and public familiarity increases, so will public comfort with the technology. [read more]