california

NeoVolta surfs California wave of energy storage investment

Californian residential battery storage start-up NeoVolta said it is set for a “300% increase in manufacturing capacity” as the state embraces investment in renewable energy systems.

NeoVolta, launched last year, said its move to a new 21,150 sq ft production facility in San Diego this summer will allow it to increase production of its lithium iron phosphate home battery units to more than 10,000 annually.

NeoVolta

lithium iron phosphate battery

companies

investment

california

residential battery storage

Daimler invests in Sila Nano for next-gen battery tech

Daimler is investing in the California-based producer of engineered materials, Sila Nanotechnologies, to boost development of “next generation lithium-ion battery materials”.

Daimler said it was making a “significant investment” in Sila Nano to forge a partnership that would speed up the development and commercialisation of lithium battery tech— to benefit future electric cars produced by its Mercedes-Benz subsidiary.

In addition to acquiring a minority equity stake in Sila Nano, Daimler also joins the board of the battery material specialist.

Mercedes

daimler

california

Sila Nanotechnologies

lithium-ion batteries

(EV) batteries

US consortium awards fast-charge tech contract

California-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer Zenlabs Energy has been awarded a US$4.8 million contract by the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) to develop “low-cost, fast-charge battery technology” for electric vehicles (EVs).

The contract will fund a 30-month project— which started in March 2019— that aims to develop novel cell designs and production methods to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries for automotive purposes.

“The low-cost/fast-charge technology development contract award with Zenlabs is part of USABC's broad battery technology research and development programme," said USCAR executive director Steve Zimmer.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Utility mulls future with hydrogen/batteries

A strategy paper from Southern California Gas Company (SCGC) has highlighted the importance of varied methods of energy storage to ensuring the West Coast state meets its “ambitious environmental goals”.

“California already produces more renewable energy than residents and business can use on most days,” meaning that new solutions to energy storage are required to manage fluctuations in supply and demand, the paper said.

But the paper suggests that while batteries will continue to be used to manage short-term demand for energy, they “are not well suited for long-term and seasonal energy storage”.

california

USA

Southern California Gas Company

Battery Report

Hydrogen Storage

Alternative Energy Storage

Swiss investor banks on storage for California

Swiss investment manager Susi Partners has acquired a 50% share of Macquaries Green Investment Group’s portfolio of behind-the-meter lithium-ion battery storage projects in California.

The more than 90 individual battery storage facilities in the western Los Angeles basin have a combined capacity of 63MW/340MWh.

“This is Susi’s first investment in the US,” said chief information officer Marco van Daele. “The state of California is pursuing the explicit goal of completely CO₂-free power generation by 2045.”

lithium-ion batteries

SUSI Partners

AMS

Macquaries Green Investment Group

california

USA

Switzerland

Tesla to acquire Maxwell Technologies

Tesla is to acquire Maxwell Technologies, in a deal that values the California-based ultracapacitor firm at around US$218 million.

Maxwell said on 4 February the companies had entered into a definite merger agreement under which Tesla would buy the company's 45.9 million shares for $4.75 a share in an all-stock transaction. The deal represented a 55% premium to the share price, which closed at $3.07 on 1 February.

The merger is expected to be finalised in the second quarter of 2019 or shortly after, subject to the successful tender and exchange of shares, regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Mergers & Acquisitions

china

asia

Lithium-ion

Utility bankruptcy blow for California battery storage?

Plans for four major energy storage projects in California could be under threat after the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The California Public Utilities Commission had granted approval for the lithium-ion projects— totalling 567.5 megawatts/2,270 megawatt-hours—to replace retiring gas generators.

The proposals included a 300MW/1,200MWh system— billed as “the largest system of its kind in the world— to be provided by Vistra Energy and located on the site of the Moss Landing Power Plant.

However, PG&E said on 29 January it was seeking court approval to access US$5.5 billion in debtor-in-possession financing to support operations and ongoing safety initiatives.

PG&E had not responded to questions from BEST Battery Briefing about the future of the battery projects at the time of going to press.

The utility cited lawsuits from victims of Californian wildfires and tens of billions of dollars in potential liabilities when it announced it planned to file for bankruptcy.

State investigators recently determined that the utility’s equipment was not to blame for a 2017 fire that caused deaths in northern California wine country.

USA

california

Lithium-ion

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)

CPUC

Utility bankruptcy blow for California battery storage?

Plans for four major energy storage projects in California could be under threat after the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The California Public Utilities Commission had granted approval for the lithium-ion projects— totalling 567.5 megawatts/2,270 megawatt-hours—to replace retiring gas generators.

The proposals included a 300MW/1,200MWh system— billed as “the largest system of its kind in the world— to be provided by Vistra Energy and located on the site of the Moss Landing Power Plant.

USA

california

Lithium-ion

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E)

CPUC

Chevron invests in Natron’s ‘Prussian Blue’ technology

The investment arm of oil and gas group Chevron is investing in the ‘Prussian Blue electrode sodium-ion’ technology under development by Californian energy storage provider Natron Energy.

Investment leader Jesse Teichman said the “high-power density and fast charging time of Natron’s unique battery technology make it an attractive storage solution for the EV stations of the future”.

Natron’s technology involves using Prussian blue dye pigments in both the positive and negative electrode. The dye itself has “a unique structure and composition that allow it to store energy much more rapidly and reversibly than other types of battery electrodes”, meaning that the battery tech “can be fully charged and discharged tens of thousands of times at very high power”.

Chevron

Natron Energy

california

Prussian blue electrode

Luminant turns on ‘biggest BESS’ in Tex

A 10-megawatt lithium-ion battery energy storage system in Texas has started operations as the state’s biggest such facility to date.

Power generation business Luminant, a subsidiary of Vistra Energy, said the 42-megawatt-hour BESS is the seventh largest in the US.

The BESS is on the site of Luminant's 180-megawatt Upton 2 Solar Power Plant in Upton Count. The battery system captures excess solar energy produced at Upton 2 during the day and can release the power in late afternoon and early evening, when Luminant said demand by system operator the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is highest.