The students essentially developed a portable version of the treatment one that could run off a battery
800-mah battery that offers enough juice for the projector to run for about two hours on a charge.
What happens here is that a tiny amount of electricity causes the charge carriers to deflect via a phenomenon called the Lorentz force,
and the periodic floods, the locals have had to resort to energy-inefficient terrace farming. This is not an isolated problem:
and requires very little energy. The Nemo's Garden project started in 2012 and continued through the next two summers.
#New energy cell can store up solar energy for release at night A photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) is a special type of solar cell that gathers the Sun's energy
and transforms it into either electricity or chemical energy used to split water and produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells.
In an advance that could help this clean energy source play a stronger role within the smart grid, researchers at the University of Texas,
Arlington have found a way to store the electricity generated by a PEC cell for extended periods of time
and allow electricity to be delivered around the clock. Currently the electricity generated by a PEC cell could not be stored effectively,
as the electrons would quickly"disappear"into a lower energy state. This meant that these cells were not a viable solution for a clean energy grid,
as the electricity had to be used very shortly after being produced. That is, on sunny days, at a time when standard PV panels would already be producing energy at full tilt.
Now, researchers Fuqiang Liu and colleagues have created a PEC cell that includes a specially designed photoelectrode (the component that converts incoming photons into electrons.
Unlike previous designs, their hybrid tungsten trioxide/titanium dioxide (WO3/Tio2) photoelectrode can store electrons effectively for long periods of time,
paving the way for PEC cells to play a bigger role within a smart energy grid.
The system also includes a vanadium redox-flow battery (VRB. This is an already established type of energy storage cell that is very well-suited for the needs of the electrical grid as it can stay idle for very long times without losing charge,
is much safer than a lithium-ion cell (though less energy-dense), is nearly immune to temperature extremes,
and can be scaled up very easily, simply by increasing the size of its electrolyte tanks. According to the researchers, the vanadium flow battery works especially well with their hybrid electrode, allowing them to boost the electric current,
offering great reversibility (with 95 percent Faradaic efficiency) and allowing for high-capacity energy storage.""We have demonstrated simultaneously reversible storage of both solar energy
and electrons in the cell,"says lead author of the paper Dong Liu.""Release of the stored electrons under dark conditions continues solar energy storage,
thus allowing for continuous storage around the clock.""The team is now working on building a larger prototype,
with the hope that this technology could be used to better integrate photoelectrochemical cells within the smart grid.
The new wireless power transfer system developed at KAIST, which was tested on a Samsung galaxy Note equipped with a special reception coil,
While there's a healthy selection of compact solar panels to keep our mobile gadgets charged up light permitting the vast majority of these are either too small to be effective or too bulky for carting around.
while the actual solar panels are only 1. 5 mm thick. But Solar Paper has more going for it than just its form factor.
but things stray from the norm at the bloated seat tube, which houses the battery and electric motor drive.
The front triangle detaches from the battery cage, splitting the bike for transport (another reason why we wouldn't ride it on anything rougher than a paved path).
The battery can be charged directly from the vehicle outlet. The multipurpose, breakaway frame may have you thinking that the Mode:
so we're left to assume that it packs the same 200-watt motor and 9 Ah battery as the Mode:
less energy-hungry devices in years to come, as well as help industry keep pace with Moore's Law as it continues the search for viable alternatives to silicon.
But thanks to a new Kickstarter project you may not have to worry about your smartphone dying before the electricity comes back on.
The Candle Charger is described as an"indoor power plant for smartphones, "providing USB charging capabilities with just a candle and five ounces of water.
and the difference in temperature generates the electricity (though the device can also be used to sterilize water).
The semiconductor device converts the temperature gradient (the heat of the candle against the coolness of the water) into electricity.
constant and usable flow of electricity is generated without any special setup, as long as there's a candle in the home.
Both have been utilized individually by researchers to boost sunlight conversion to electrical current in solar cells, and to increase the efficacy of electrically-generated light.
which then super-efficiently convert electricity to light. Merging these two materials has solved also the problem of self-absorption that occurs
when a physical medium partially re-absorbs the same spectrum of energy that it emits, resulting in a net efficiency loss."
#Smart low-carbon Solcer House generates more electricity that it uses A Welsh university claims to have built the UK first low-cost, low-carbon, energy-positive house.
and follows the"Buildings as Power stations"concept developed by the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre.
Energy-positive status is achieved by way of reduced energy demand, renewable energy supply and storing energy for later use.
Electricity is imported also from the grid when required and exported to the grid when there is a surplus.
Low-carbon cement was used for the construction of the Solcer House. To reduce its demand for energy
the house has high levels of thermal insulation, structural insulated panels (SIPS), external insulation and low-emissivity double-glazed aluminum-clad timber frame windows and doors.
Transpired solar collectors (TSC) are employed also. These comprise a perforated skin on the exterior of the house that draws air into the cavity
Electricity is generated by way of a 4. 3 kwp glazed photovoltaic solar panel array. This is fully integrated into the south-facing roof of the house
Energy that is not immediately required is stored in the house's 6. 9-kwh battery. Electricity generated and stored is used to power the heating, ventilation, hot water system and household appliances.
The Solcer House took 16 weeks to build and was completed in February this year. The video below shows the construction of the Solcer House e
as well as withstanding high-energy impact collisions. Though they aren't very familiar to the public,
it demonstrated the same shielding properties for high-energy gamma rays, though its density was lower.
and their energy absorption capabilities, make the material a good candidate for various nuclear structural applications. n
and/or heat In an effort to improve the energy efficiency of building, researchers have sought to develop windows that change transparency to let more light
Girls from Nepal Group Home Jump into Action Providing Earthquake Relief Researchers at the University of Brighton in the UK have come up with a ibrating barrier (Viba) that absorbs the energy from an earthquake
When the ground motion from a quake hits the building, the energy passes through the foundation to the Viba instead of into the structure itself.
For LG, appliances can go into an energy saving mode when users are not at home, or the Whirlpool washing machine can run on a quieter setting
but that doesn mean that saving energy is unimportant to consumers. For instance Whirlpool appliances will be able to integrate with Nest Rush hour Rewards utility program. his is definitely something we will see more of as we add utility partners and Works with Nest partners, Ha Thai,
where the grid is strained on the hottest days of the year. Now that devices are ready to interact with the grid,
utilities will have to develop novel pricing programs that can take advantage of the devices. Chargepoint is one of the companies that also announced it is integrating its residential EV charger with the Nest thermostat h
and Wind Incentives Permanent President Obama just unveiled a $3. 99 trillion budget for 2016 that asks Congress for a permanent extension of tax credits for the solar and wind industry.
In a section titled Improving Incentives for Research and Clean energy the 2016 budget proposal includes a request for $7. 4 billion for clean energy technologies along with a shopping list of funding and incentives for the renewable sector
and nuclear power industries. Although the Republican-controlled Senate and House will not approve this budget or enact permanent extensions of the tax credits the proposal signals that the administration will support some preservation of the solar Investment Tax credit (ITC) and the wind power Production Tax credit (PTC).
The U s. Department of energy provides about 75 percent of the clean energy technology funding. The 2016 request is a 9 percent increase over 2015 levels.
Grid Modernization: $356 million Supercritical CO2: $44 million to establish a 10-megawatt scale pilot Supercritical Transformational Electric power facility Subsurface Engineering:
$244 million for new wellbore systems, seismic research Energy-Water Nexus: $38 million to increase efficiency of these connected resources Exascale Computing:
$273 million Cybersecurity: $305 million to improve the cybersecurity of the DOE and the energy sector Some other budget highlights:
$4 billion for The Clean Power State Incentive Fund: Money to support states exceeding the minimum requirements that were established in the Clean Power Plan $2. 72 billion for energy efficiency $325 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency,
including R&d for transformational clean energy technologies $907. 6 million for nuclear energy for R&d in advanced reactor
and fuel cycle technologies, as well as technical support for the licensing of small modular reactors $560 million for fossil energy R&d to advance carbon capture
and storage and natural gas technologies $270. 1 million for electricity delivery and energy reliability grid modernization activities $257 million for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to operate
and increase the system durability and reliability $5. 34 billion for Science to continue to lead basic research in the physical sciences $8. 8 billion for weapons activities to ensure a safe, secure,
"Non-energy related budget requests include: $60 billion over ten years for students to attend community college for free $478 billion over six years for surface transportation improvements $146 billion for research and development $5 billion in start-up funding
#Can Microinverters Stabilize Hawaii's Shaky Grid? Hawaii leads the nation in rooftop solar penetration, with nearly one in nine customers,
About three-fifths of those Hawaiian solar systems use microinverters from Enphase, the company that leads the market for DC-to-AC devices that sit at the solar panels themselves, rather than in one big box next to the power meter.
each networked to the company cloud-based monitoring and control systems, ready to do things beyond simple solar-to-grid power conversion.
when grid fluctuations arise. Standard settings for low-voltage ride-through (LVRT), however, can make the original disruption worse
This is the kind of basic mart inverterfunctionality that Germany has introduced already for its solar-impacted grid.
two-way communications channel, allows Enphase to do remote firmware upgrades, monitor grid conditions, and ask inverters to provide reactive power
or ramping mitigation as a irtual power plant, all from the company Petaluma, Calif. headquarters, Nahi noted. e are talking about a distributed resource that is on tens of thousands
bidirectional communications technology that allows us not only to know what is happening with the solar systems and the grid,
he noted--a significant share of energy in a state whose largest fossil-fuel-fired power plant generates 180 megawatts.
Enphase is far from the only player in the distributed solar universe that had the foresight to connect its inverters to a two-way communications network.
Third-party solar provider Solarcity, for example, has worked with HECO and Department of energy researchers to show that smart inverter technologies can allow more solar per circuit--an important concession for HECO,
but also how well the grid is performing in those areas as well, he noted. n many cases,
we have more insight into the grid performance than the utility does, because we have the two-way communications network.
That valuable data in states like California that are demanding that their utilities start to incorporate the growth of distributed energy into their long-range grid investment plans.
#Meet Milli 5 Silver Spring#s Tiny Wireless Smart grid Node Silver Spring Networks wants to push wireless connectivity beyond smart meters
and grid sensors out to all kinds of remote devices--including those that aren plugged into the power grid.
and is meant to keep all sorts of battery-powered devices connected to the network for up to twenty years,
using the same IPV6 addressing that connects Silver Spring grid-powered devices. Silver Spring announced the Milli 5 as part of a broader launch of its new Gen5 technology platform
Cisco and Itron are using 802.15. 4g wireless for their smart grid and smart city efforts and Toshiba Landis+Gyr is using it for its 27-million smart meter deployment in Tokyo,
But battery-powered wireless devices are a trickier matter, requiring careful management of just how much electricity is being used to receive
and respond to the constant signals being passed back and forth amongst meshed devices. Silver Spring Milli 5 is one-seventh as big as the company's previous networking node, with a fivefold reduction in power consumption--all while increasing range and operational life. n the utility space,
any asset they have in the field, they expect to be able to talk to it, Don Reeves,
but can effectively use that electricity to run digital devices, at least not without expensive alterations.
Competitors like Itron, Sensus and Landis+Gyr are also working on smaller devices, ubiquitous network coverage, distributed intelligence and the like,
and while these streetlight communications modules don need batteries to run, they may want to talk to traffic lights
Former Opponent Touts Nuclear power at Chicago Event Not too long ago, Carol Browner would have sided with the activists clad in white hazmat suits protesting nuclear power outside the City Club's lunch Tuesday in downtown Chicago.
a speaker touting the benefits of nuclear power. With 6 percent of nuclear power in the U s. under financial threat, nuclear proponents are attempting to win over environmental activists.
Who better to send the message that nuclear power is a"clean"form of power and worth saving than Browner
who changed her mind and began advocating for nuclear power in 2011. Washington post: White house Opens Up Southern Atlantic coast to Offshore Drilling The Obama administration on Tuesday outlined a politically fraught plan for allowing oil drilling in U s. coastal waters,
announcing steps to open parts of the southeastern U s. coastline for oil leasing while imposing new restrictions on environmentally fragile waters off Alaska North Slope.
The proposals, intended to set a course for coastal energy development into the next decade, sought to strike a balance between soaring demand for energy production
and White house priorities to protect sensitive environments, particularly in the Arctic. EE Markets: Who Got What in Energy efficiency Venture capital?
So it may seem like energy storage is the big star these days. But it turns out that there were just as many energy efficiency venture capital deals last year, according to a new report.
CB Insights ranked energy efficiency and energy storage as tied for third place, along with green/environmental software for venture capital deals in 2014.
The three each captured 8 percent of the greentech VC pie, according to the data company report, he 2014 U s. Venture capital Year in Review.
Researchers Tout Solar panels Made With erovskitemineral A new generation of solar panels made from a mineral called perovskite has the potential to convert solar energy into household electricity more cheaply than ever before, according to a study from Britain Exeter University.
they can both shade windowsnd at the same time produce electricity, he said e
#The Case for Long-Duration Storage: Net Electricity Load in Calif. Is 5 Years Ahead of Schedule On January 11, 2015, a rather unremarkable Sunday earlier this month,
the California Independent System Operator daily duck curve was approximately 1, 500 megawatts below where it is projected to be in 2020.
That means that CAISO is operating the grid, this month, at net load (that is the system demand less solar and wind generation) more than five years ahead of forecast.
California needs more energy storage to match the duck curve Experiencing this net load years ahead of the CAISO forecast has placed not the California grid in crisis. The state's grid has sufficient flexibility today to accommodate the rapid rise of solar power,
which is the primary driver of change in CAISO grid operations. However, with the January 2015 milestone landing well beyond the 2020 forecast,
Long-duration energy storage offers both the benefits of grid flexibility similar to flexible gas plants, and the reuse of zero-marginal-cost midday solar during the evening energy ramp.
Long-duration energy storage unique functionality uncaps the limits to growth of solar in California--and beyond.
Beyond air quality and climate change mitigation benefits, California abundant renewable energy resources provide energy with zero marginal cost and zero fuel price volatility to our citizens,
California energy agencies are already collaborating to accelerate penetration of energy storage. Several promising long-duration energy storage technologies are now in early commercial operation homegrown in California with support from the California Energy Commission and the U s. Department of energy.
The CPUC can pull out the playbook that bestowed California with an abundance of solar energy and use it again with energy storage.
long-duration energy storage technologies to market so that they can deliver at scale in 2018--not sometime in the next decade.
Scale drives cost reduction for storage We are already witnessing the impact of manufacturing scale on cost for lithium-ion batteries being bid into the electricity market.
A variety of emerging long-duration energy storage technologies will also experience the rapid cost reduction that inevitably follows commercial scale.
I have had the opportunity to see inside the proto-factories of a range of emerging long-duration energy storage technologies,
Utility contracts from the current round of energy storage procurement can provide the market pull for long-duration energy storage technology.
However, CAISO did experience multiple days with negative real-time energy pricing during 2014 demonstrating the limitations to system economics given today substantial supply of inflexible generation participating in the energy market.
Since Christmas week 2013, the system operator has been helpfully posting actual net load. You can find the daily duck as the last chart here,
we have the abundant solar and wind resources, the innovative companies, and the open energy storage procurement proceeding that can, at a modest scale, kick-start the long-duration energy storage market.
#Which Grid-Edge Startups Are Raising the Most Capital? Nowhere is investor interest in energy solutions more apparent than at the grid edge. 2014 saw a dramatic increase in venture capital and private equity investment in companies developing innovative solutions, particularly energy storage, demand
-side management and energy data analytics technologies. Though the amount of investment hasn returned quite to the peak reached in 2011,
the number of deals and the number of vendors receiving funding is higher than ever.
In the process of writing the newly released M&a and VC at the Grid Edge report, we looked at
It true that money doesn guarantee the success of a grid-edge startup. After all Better Place raised around $850 million before closing up shop.
Energy storage and fuel cells The two outliers in this category are Boston-Power and Bloom energy. Boston-Power has raised up to $450 million for its lithium-ion battery technology over the past five years.
But the company has combined investment and grants in official press releases, so that total is a ceiling rather than an exact figure.
Fuel-cell vendor Bloom energy isn far behind having raised a reported $410 million since 2010, though the company has been officially silent on recent investments (leaving reporters to sift through emails from fund managers).
Beyond the outliers, many of the 50-some startups developing grid storage technologies have closed on significant financing.
GTM Research Grid Edge 100: M&a and VC at the Grid Edge The comparison isn exactly apples to apples.
Stem and Green Charge Networks are competing over C&i customers looking to manage their energy bills,
which requires project financing to allow the two companies to offer energy storage systems at no upfront cost.
Atieva has focused initially on the EV market. Aquion and Ambri have landed both large deals in the process of commercializing novel battery technologies,
though Aquion two-year age advantage makes a direct funding comparison with Ambri difficult. Demand-side management As the demand response market consolidates, there a high level of investment activity among home and building energy management providers.
Nest was a leader in investment raised having closed three rounds prior to its acquisition, one
Here the next tier among the nearly 50 energy management providers receiving funding over the past five years.
Top-Funded Home and Building Energy management Startups, 2010-2014 Source: GTM Research Grid Edge 100:
M&a and VC at the Grid Edge As the oldest of the group, Gridpoint has raised an exceptional amount of capital over an exceptional amount of time.
The C&i energy management company has disclosed well over $200 million in investment since its founding in 2003.
Enlighted has raised also significant capital as it has broadened its solution from lighting controls to a more comprehensive set of building energy management applications.
On the residential side, Greenwave Systems and Alertme have made energy management a central component of their connected home platforms.
Ecofactor has focused exclusively on residential demand response and energy efficiency. Soft grid It cheaper to commercialize software than hardware.
The average venture deal size for soft grid or data analytics, startups was less than half of the same for grid-edge hardware startups.
Even so, several of the 40 companies receiving funding since 2010 have raised notable amounts of capital.
Figure: Top-Funded Soft Grid Startups, 2010-2014 Source: GTM Research Grid Edge 100: M&a and VC at the Grid Edge Prior to its public offering in 2014,
Opower raised a $50 million C round in 2010 for its consumer energy use data analytics and reporting.
Competing provider Tendril, which has shifted its focus from energy management hardware to software, has continued to bring in new funding.
SCIENERGY recently reemerged from stealth with new funding for software to streamline financing for commercial energy efficiency projects.
C3 has raised at least $38 million since 2010 for data analytics covering both sides of the meter.
And Space-time Insight, which visualizes grid data for utilities, has closed two deals worth well above the average for soft-grid vendors.
A word of caution It important to note that analyzing VC investments is an imperfect science.
Companies may keep deals confidential, may announce them late or may keep the amounts invested under wraps.
Other companies avoid VC investment entirely to insulate themselves from the expectations of outside investors.
Still, the available data allows us to draw conclusions about the emergence and consolidation of different markets serving grid needs r
#Will 2015 Be a Breakthrough Year for Storage in the UK? The United kingdom has no clear government policy on energy storage
The U k. Electricity Storage Network is expecting a Minister from the Department of energy and Climate change (DECC) to participate in its annual meeting.
And to crown it all the U k. currently has the biggest battery in Europe. So is storage really taking off?
(or soon will be provided by batteries and 5 megawatts by mainly uninterruptible power supply flywheel systems. There are also experimental compressed air,
cryogenic thermal and flow battery projects ongoing. That 3, 300-megawatt total compares quite favorably with 7, 600 megawatts in Germany and 6, 560 megawatts in California,
a state with similar energy requirements to the U k. But there's a push for much more. toring energy will become increasingly important in the move toward a low-carbon economy
and has the potential to save the energy system over £4 billion $6 billion by 2050,
Some argue that energy storage can help save consumers money by possibly reducing new grid buildout.
Anthony Price, director of the Electricity Storage Network, explains: The UK electricity and natural gas regulator Ofgem has calculated that it will cost £50 billion $76 billion to rewire Britain.
This will be to provide flexibility in the grid and allow the integration of more renewables,
add resilience to the grid, and to improve energy efficiency across the grid. If you look at energy storage,
it can help meet all three of those requirements. So we can spend £50 billion on rewiring the country,
or we can have more energy storage. Price organization is lobbying for a minimum 2, 000 megawatts of new network-connected electricity storage by the year 2020.
A fairly modest figure this represents less than 10 percent of the predicted increase in renewable generation capacity over the same time period.
The most prominent of these is the Smarter Network Storage project, better known as the biggest battery in Europe.
the battery is designed to explore alternative revenue streams for storage, while deferring traditional network reinforcement. Numerous early-stage projects have emerged.
Highview Power won funding for a demonstration of its liquid air storage technology. REDT is developing a vanadium redox flow battery for storing wind and wave power in Scotland.
And Isentropic is building a demonstration project for its cryogenic energy storage technology. Domestic solar-plus-storage is also taking off in the U k. Last September,
SMA launched its Sunny Boy Smart energy PV inverter and battery system. Sharp followed suit at the end of last year by offering a solar-and-storage device that uses Samsung batteries.
Bosch is hoping for certification of a solar-storage inverter next month and various other solar players, such as Renesola of China, seem to be clamoring to enter the U k. market.
These companies could be looking to cash in on growth in U k. solar installations. While much of the European solar market has suffered from a slowdown last year,
One solution for boosting domestic supply of residential storage systems is to leverage vehicle battery manufacturers,
"The U k. is home to one of the only electric vehicle battery plants in the world, the Nissan plant in Tyneside.
These car batteries could offer good potential for small-scale energy storage applications, "said Gordon. In the meantime, storage supporters like Gordon are looking for clearer support signals from the government. s solar storage is still a developing technology,
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