GM, ABB rewire Volt battery for back-up power

General Motors and grid equipment supplier ABB this week showed an early version of an energy storage system using battery packs from the Chevy Volt electric car. The two companies are partnering to build a prototype which they say can be used either for large-scale grid storage or back-up power for consumers. They estimate that 33 repurposed Volt battery packs could supply 50 U.S. homes for four hours during an outage or brownout. Batteries lose their storage capacity over time, but used car batteries are still viable for grid storage. GM estimates that once used car batteries have 70 percent of their initial charge, they can still be suitable for grid storage. Finding a viable method to repurpose used EV batteries after seven to ten years of driving isn't just a question of consumer convenience and driving range. Because batteries are the most expensive component of electric cars, car companies and battery makers are trying to ways to draw more money from that asset with grid storage.

Harnessing solar power, on a small scale

No thicker than a piece of paper - because it practically is a piece of paper - a solar panel created by an MIT researcher can be shoved into a pocket or made into a paper airplane, and it will still create energy when exposed to sunlight. The trick is in the way it is made. The panel is printed like ink onto a sheet of paper. Even folded up like a letter, it retains its ability to convert light to electricity. With her colleagues, Karen Gleason, a professor of chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, published a paper last week in the journal Advanced Materials, demonstrating how they created a solar panel by printing tiny, lightweight layers of electrodes and semiconductors on a piece of paper.

InterSolar North America 2011 - AltEnergyMag.com has all the News from the show

Intersolar North America - North America's Premier Exhibition and Conference for the Solar Industry Intersolar promotes the development of business opportunities throughout the North American solar industry. There are 800 exhibitors and 22,000 trade visitors expected at the 2011 exhibition, co-located with SEMICON West. The accompanying conference expects 1,600 attendees. Since its establishment in 2008, the exhibition and conference have developed into the premier platform for the solar industry in North America. Intersolar North America, focuses on photovoltaics and solar thermal technology and has quickly established itself among manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and service providers as a vital international industry meeting point. As a media partner AltEnergyMag.com is hosting a Special InterSolar newspage sponsored by Trojan Battery, Schneider Electric and CentroSolar. We invite all exhibitors and attendees to check out and submit all your Conference news here. Also, stay tuned for our InterSolar Conference report which will go online following the show.

Feds offer $105M loan guarantee for "Project Liberty" biofuel plant

Poet's so-called "Project Liberty" biofuel plant, which will use corn waste instead of edible corn, is getting some support from the U.S. government. On Thursday, the Department of Energy announced it will offer Poet a $105 million loan guarantee to build out Project Liberty in Iowa, which is supposed to eventually produce up to 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year. Through loan guarantees, the government promises to pay back loans if borrowers can't. In many cases, the government is providing the loans as well, via the Federal Financing Bank. The financial support could help Poet finally get Project Liberty into commercial-scale production, and the plant has been in the planning stages for years now. Poet initially was hoping to start building the plant in 2009 and operating it in 2011, and back in 2008, the company was aiming for the plant to eventually produce 125 million gallons of biofuel per year.

Clean-tech incubator gets down and dirty

BOSTON--An everyday office building doesn't quite work when you need to hammer out a prototype of a solar-powered chiller or an inflatable wind turbine. So a group of entrepreneurs here have created a hands-on workshop to bring their clean-energy ideas to life. Greentown Labs held its official opening last week, bringing fellow entrepreneurs, city officials including Boston Mayor Tom Menino, and investors looking to plug into the active clean-energy technology scene. About 40 people from 10 fledgling companies have moved into this former baker and confectioner's supply warehouse in South Boston with the hopes of finding more like-minded green-tech start-ups. Among the offerings was beer chilled by solar panels. Their work environment is definitely not class A office space. A disorderly room houses work areas shared among four or five companies. There is separate space for small offices and another with a lab table set aside for electronics testing. In the basement is a large machine shop where inventors can bang out their first prototypes.

Harnessing the Sun's Power

KUKA Systems North America has made a successful entry into the burgeoning Canadian solar panel manufacturing sector, demonstrating in the process how it can adapt its extensive suite of automated production solutions to a panel maker’s unique requirements. KUKA Systems provides photovoltaic panel manufacturers around the world with fully automated production lines or any level of automation short of that, from cell layout through all stages of module assembly and quality control, regardless of type or dimensions. For its first Canadian customer, KUKA Systems is installing three partially automated, post-lamination framing lines for trimming, framing, testing and packout of photovoltaic panels, a $12 million contract. Each line consists of five robots, as well as applicators, conveyors and other handling and testing equipment. Installation began in the first quarter of 2011.

A battery startup flows toward launch

Will flow batteries — large tanks of liquid batteries — be a key technology to help deliver more clean power for the grid? Flow battery startup EnerVault is getting closer to commercializing that vision; it has completed the design of its prototype battery and is counting on a demonstration project next year to help the company launch its technology into the market in 2013, EnerVault CEO Craig Horne told us. The Silicon Valley startup is developing rechargeable flow batteries that, unlike a lithium-ion battery, separate the energy storage materials and electrolyte from the cells in which the electrochemical reaction occurs. The design involves two tanks, each of which contains a different mix of energy storage material and electrolyte. EnerVault's design fills one tank of electrolyte with iron (the energy storing material) and another electrolyte tank with chromium. Pumps send the solutions from the tanks into separate chambers of a cell to generate electricity. Flow batteries can be scaled up and down easily because of the use of external storage tanks. Flow batteries are also rechargeable, the electrolytes can last a really long time, and typically use abundant materials, so can be a more affordable option.

FUTURE CITY (LTDW) TO EXHIBIT THE DAIWA HOUSE GROUP¹S EDV-01 DISASTER EMERGENCY MOBILE SUPPORT UNIT

The EDV-01 is the first of its kind. A stainless-steel container about 6 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2 meters high, is equipped with cutting-edge systems to provide water and electricity. A rooftop solar system and fuel cell generates power that is stored in lithium-ion batteries (developed by Elly Power Co), whereas another system collects up to 20 liters of potable water a day from the air, which enough for two adults to live on for about month. The container¹s main attraction is that it does not require any construction. With the flip of a switch, a hydraulic pump raises the walls in four and a half minutes to form a second floor. The first floor contains a kitchen that utilizes induction heating for cooking, a shower and a bio-toilet. The second floor has fold-away beds and an office space with a separate desk. Four hydraulic ³feet² automatically stabilize the containers on rough terrain. The unit is ecologically sound as the container itself does not generate any waste during the installation or dismantling process. Research and development for the EDV-01 took two and a half years. The developers were particularly concerned about design details. For example, the exterior can be used as a billboard and the punched-metal exterior walls are visible from great distances due to the inclusion of light-emitting diodes.

Hypersonic passenger jet to run on clean fuel is unveiled at Paris Air Show

Super-fast speed — think Tokyo to L.A. in 2 1/2 hours — isn't the only cool feature of the Zero Emission Hyper Sonic Transport proposed by EADS. At the Paris Air Show this week, the aircraft manufacturer and Airbus parent revealed its proposed passenger aircraft, which would be run on, among other sources, liquid hydrogen and biofuel. The aircraft, which EADS said could be standard by 2050, would cruise at Mach 4 speeds nearly 20 miles high — inside the Earth's atmosphere. Demonstration technologies could be ready by the end of this decade. Companies at the Paris show were buzzing about clean-fuel options. Airbus and Parker Aerospace said they would look into fuel-cell technology that converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity and creates water as exhaust. The pair said that flight tests could happen by mid-decade. The Air Transport Assn. of America, the industry trade group, said a slew of member airlines signed letters of intent to partner with Solena Group. The company produces its GreenSky California fuel from biomass at a Santa Clara County facility.

New technology converts exhaust heat into cooling, electricity

It sounds a little counterintuitive, but the wasted heat from automobile tailpipe emissions could one day be used to cool and power your car. Researchers from Oregon State University developed a thermally activated cooling system that harnesses the energy in waste heat produced by cars, factories, and power plants, and converts it to cooling. The system works by combining a vapor compression cooling cycle with an "organic Rankine cycle," an existing energy conversion technology, to convert waste heat from a thermal source to generate power and cooling. By turning 80 percent of every kilowatt of waste heat into a kilowatt of cooling capability, the system recycles exhaust heat that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere. The cooling system could be used to ventilate electronics systems that also require energy-intensive air conditioning to keep cool. The energy-recycling technology could also be used in vehicles to help power hybrid cars. Although less efficient than converting exhaust to cooling, the prototype can also be used to produce electricity to propel a vehicle. Only 15 to 20 percent of the waste heat can be converted to produce electricity, but it's better than letting the energy go to waste.

US Concentrated Solar Power Industry receives its biggest boost yet by American DoE

Following announcements for 2 loan guarantees in late 2010 to construct Ivanpah (a tower CSP plant by BrightSource Energy) and Solana (a parabolic trough with 7 hours storage by Abengoa), 2011 has come with an unprecedented levels of support by the DoE for the CSP industry. One of the companies who have recently secured DoE backing with a loan guarantee is celebrating their ground-breaking ceremony today. With over $2.1bl in founding, this plant will be the largest in the world at 1GW once it is complete. However, this journey to CSP market proliferation and support has been a turbulent one! 2011 has so far followed a positively similar trend, with $3.35bn having been announced by the DoE in loan guarantees for 4 different projects: Blythe (Solar Trust of America, 2x 240MW part of 1GW plant), Crescent Dunes (SolarReserve, 110MW tower project, The Mojave Solar Project (Abengoa, 280MW) and Genesis Solar Project (NextEra, 250MW trough project). The industry are waiting with baited breath to see whether 2011 will be the turning point in the US industry on its journey to market dominance.

Google Invests $280 Million in SolarCity Project Finance Fund

Google Inc. (GOOG) agreed to put $280 million in a new project financing fund for SolarCity Inc., a financier, installer and owner of rooftop photovoltaic systems, in the Internet search engine's biggest clean-energy investment. The deal with San Mateo, California-based SolarCity is also Google's first investment related to distributed solar energy, Rick Needham, the search engine's director of green business operations, said by telephone yesterday. The investment is a "quadruple-win" because it will enable more homeowners to lower their energy bills while also shifting to renewable energy, allow SolarCity to expand its business and facilitate wider deployment of solar, Needham said. Mountain View, California-based Google will also make a return on capital upfront, he said, since its investment is supported by the Treasury Department's cash grants program. As an alternative to tax credits, the program reimburses investors for 30 percent of project expenditures for solar. The program was created after the 2008 financial crisis to revive spending on clean energy. Projects must begin construction by the end of 2011 to be eligible.

Bloom Expands Manufacturing to the East Coast - Expected 1,500 Jobs to Newark

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) manufacturer, Bloom Energy, has announced a new deal to build a 200,000 square-foot manufacturing plant on a portion of an old Delaware Chrysler plant. This new manufacturing plant is expected to bring 1,500 new jobs to the Delaware area and boost the University of Delaware’s vision of a thriving high-tech center. This news comes after two months ago Bloom Energy quadrupled their manufacturing size with the expansion of their Californian based manufacturing facility. That facility was expanded to over 210,000 square feet and is expected to provide California with over 1,000 new jobs. They also announced a major increase in manufacturing of their Energy Server, a 100 kW SOFC unit, from just one unit produced every month in their early days of operation, to now producing one Energy Server every day. Over the next five years, Bloom expects to hire about 900 workers for the Delaware manufacturing facility and predicts a minimum of 600 more jobs to follow as suppliers open Delaware bases of operations. A number of these expected suppliers are expected to also set-up shop on the Chrysler property, which qualifies as a "brownfield" given its 60-year history of auto-making. "Brownfields" are abandoned or underused industrial and commercial facilities available for re-use and redevelopment.

Positive outlook for renewables set to boost mergers and acquisitions

The renewable energy space is expected to see a high level of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the next 12 months, with Europe predicted to be the most active, according to a new report published by mergermarket, in association with Rödl & Partner. In a survey conducted in Q2 2011 of 100 senior M&A practitioners involved in the renewable energy sector, 72% expect an increase in renewable energy M&A activity. This bullish sentiment could be attributed to a number of factors, including the devastating effects of the Fukushima disaster. "Investors of all shapes and sizes are competing against one another in this flourishing sector, therefore sustainable future growth can only be assured in two ways - by beating out the competitors or by acquiring them," explains Michael Wiehl, Rödl & Partner Nuremberg. 67% of respondents expect Europe to be at the forefront of this increase, forecasting the region will see significant activity. This is attributed by some respondents to Europe's variety of resources, with one respondent noting that: "Europe has a great diversity: The Nordics are great for wind power; Italy, Spain and Greece for solar; and continental Europe for geothermal and biomass." The long-term feed-in tariffs introduced by Germany are also highlighted as an important aid in bolstering renewable energy investment. The renewable sector globally has seen 51 deals at a total value of €10.6 billionthis year-to-date. Iberdrola's pending 20% stake bid for Iberdrola Renovables SA is the biggest deal of the year at €2.6 billion, followed by Electricite de France SA's €1.5bn bid for EDF Energies Nouvelles SA (50% stake).

Power plant to steady wind and solar with gas

A power plant planned for Turkey will use a combination of energy sources--wind, solar, and natural gas--to deliver round-the-clock electricity service. General Electric today said that it will supply the equipment for a 508-megawatt plant to developer MetCap Energy, which expects to complete the project by 2015. The plant in Karaman, Turkey, is projected to power more than 600,000 homes. The project is unusual in that a single facility will draw on three sources to deliver "baseload" power, or the power needed to meet the continuous energy demand for the area. GE said that the plant's overall efficiency will be 66 percent, higher than a modern natural gas plant. GE is touting the project as a showcase for its FlexEfficiency power plant system anchored around a natural gas turbine designed specifically to ramp power production up and down to accommodate variable wind and solar power. The other main power-generating components are GE wind turbines capable of producing 22 megawatts and a 50-megawatt eSolar concentrating solar thermal plant. GE yesterday announced that it invested in California-based eSolar and has a license to use eSolar's solar technology for hybrid power plants. eSolar plants generate heat with thousands of sun-tracking mirrors to produce steam, which is driven through a turbine to make electricity.

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