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GREAT-Terry
V2G is a hot topic that many people are talking about. I believe it is a good ...
DrQuine
The electric power grid of the future will be a "smart grid" in which power is ...
Lithium-ion deal plugs batteries into U.S. grid
Rick Merritt
8/11/2010 7:15 PM EDT
SAN JOSE, Calif. – A123 Systems announced a deal to sell 44 megawatts worth of its lithium ion batteries to AES Energy Storage, a step toward the technology's use putting solar and wind farms on the electric grid.
AES said it will use 20 MW of the batteries to regulate frequency on the New York grid, the same kind of application needed for giant wind and solar farms. AES's corporate parent said it will use lithium ion starting in 2011 to handle such regulation for a 32 MW wind plant it operates in West Virginia.
"We wouldn’t be doing projects at this scale if there was still product development" needed in the technology, said Chris Shelton, president of AES Energy Storage, LLC in an interview.
He would not reveal financial details of the A123 purchase. However, he did say part of the New York plan depends on closing loan guarantees with the U.S. Department of Energy.
AES has operated since December 2009 a 12 MW energy storage system installed by A123 at one of its power plants in Chile. That system is based on battery technology A123 developed for a hybrid bus for BAE Systems, Shelton said.
Although the technology for grid-scale lithium ion storage is ready, the regulations and financial incentives are not, Shelton said.
Congress is debating investment tax credits for buying grid-scale lithium ion batteries. Regulators are discussing pay-for-performance metrics that would let companies like AES charge a premium over competing power plants because they can supply energy faster and with greater precision.
Regulators also need to hammer out ways to enable risk-averse utilities to acquire new technologies such as lithium ion, something utilities are reluctant to do that with rate payer's money today. AES is negotiating deals to sell systems and services using A123's batteries to electric utilities, but so far it has only installed the systems at its own power generation plants.
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george.leopold
8/11/2010 8:44 PM EDT
A big deal for the only American company pushing the envelope on battery technology. The scale of this project will provide A123 with real-world experience storing and distributing energy produced by renewable sources. The U.S. energy industry needs more deals like this one.
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Nic_Mokhoff
8/11/2010 10:19 PM EDT
Unless there is a national crisis or a national goal there is little incentive for alternative energy choices to cheap fossil fuel. A lithium ion battery-powered plant here, a hybrid bus there are drops in the water to augment the electric grid with alternative means for the masses. But every drop helps.
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www.battery-company.com.au
8/11/2010 10:34 PM EDT
No energy storage system will be 100% efficient and this makes them unattractive.
The first question is can it be cheaper to store the excess than build the extra capacity to meet the peak? The next question is how much capacity do you build? To make a meaningful contribution you would need upwards of 10% of peak demand and that sounds like many thousands of flywheels spinning or a massive investment in pump-storage plants.
http://www.battery-company.com.au
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Semiman_#1
8/12/2010 1:30 AM EDT
I think you may have missed the point. Renewable energy sources are variable in their output and hence you cannot simply build more capacity. YOu need storage.
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pixies
8/13/2010 4:17 PM EDT
I suspect we will shift of dependence on oil to dependence on Lithium, which is a much scantier resource. That said, I really like A123 as a company and would like to see them succeed.
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TanjB
8/13/2010 6:08 PM EDT
Lithium is not rare, it is one of the more common elements in the universe and appears in light minerals floating to the earth's crust. It simply has not been very important to mine it, which is why the supply is currently small. If we need it, it can be found. Unlike oil we do not destroy it so as we accumulate up to a few kg per human we probably reach an amount which balances to our needs, with recycling.
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DrQuine
8/13/2010 7:28 PM EDT
The electric power grid of the future will be a "smart grid" in which power is being produced, stored, and utilized in a more distributed manner than it is today. The availability of power sources (generated or stored) at multiple points makes the grid more robust than it is with a few large generators and a distribution network. The interesting question in my mind is whether the future stored sources will be stationary battery systems (as described here) or Vehicle-To-Grid (V2G) Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) such as the University of Delaware and Google are already experimenting with.
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GREAT-Terry
8/15/2010 10:38 PM EDT
V2G is a hot topic that many people are talking about. I believe it is a good idea to have other stationary battery systems (which will never be enough) and V2G working together for a real smart grid. The only thing we need to care about is how to recycle the batteries and make minimum pollution.
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