The NAATBATT Blog:

The Smart Grid’s Problem Should Be Storage’s Opportunity

November 25, 2011

I recently attended a conference on smart grid technology in Chicago. Following the conference, I had lunch with another attendee and asked him what he thought about the conference. My lunch guest, who is a wise fellow and has worked for many years in the cleantech and sustainability fields, just rolled his eyes. The conference [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

Solyndra is Not the Failure It Appears

November 18, 2011

On Thursday, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu had the unenviable task of testifying before a House subcommittee about Solyndra and explaining why that company’s bankruptcy will cause the government to take a $500 million loss. The subcommittee’s response to Secretary Chu’s testimony was in large part predictably hostile, with some lawmakers demanding that he be [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

Government Support for Electric Drive Must Continue

November 11, 2011

As deadlock continues on Capitol Hill and storm clouds darken over the Super Committee on deficit reduction, there is increasing danger that government support for vehicle electrification may get sucked into the maelstrom. Vehicle electrification has historically been one of the few points of bi-partisan policy agreement. It is important that supporters of vehicle electrification [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

The Good News Energy Storage Story

November 4, 2011

This week was a great week for energy storage. Despite the bankruptcy of Beacon Power and the delisting of Ener1, which received inordinate attention from those looking for bad news stories in renewable energy, a game-changing regulatory decision in Washington and a record breaking storm on the East Coast signal a coming of age for [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

The China Clock: Designing Urgency Into Energy Storage Demonstration Projects

October 28, 2011

Last Monday NAATBatt hosted a meeting of the DES white paper working group in Detroit. The DES white paper group consists of leading advanced battery manufacturers, electric utilities, auto makers, electric power equipment companies and national laboratories working with KEMA, an energy consulting firm, to produce a white paper outlining the importance of distributed energy [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

The Curious Disconnect Between Smart Grid and Energy Storage

October 21, 2011

I had the pleasure this week of attending two conferences, the ESAT conference on energy storage systems in San Diego and the Great Lakes Symposium on Smart Grid in Chicago. Both conferences were excellent. But I finished the week with an uneasy feeling that while smart grid advocates and storage advocates are both trying to [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

Steve Jobs and the Energy Storage Industry

October 14, 2011

It is difficult to add much to what has already been written about Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, who passed away on October 5. There is no question but that history will remember him as one of the great titans of American industry, on par with Edison, Rockefeller and Ford. For those engaged in [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

Innovate or Die

October 6, 2011

Earlier this week I caught up with two old friends with whom I had not spoken in a while. To my surprise, both told me remarkably similar stories about what they had been doing for the past year. The two individuals, who are experts in their respective fields (neither in energy storage), had each been [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

Community Energy Storage Leads the Way

September 30, 2011

This summer American Electric Power (AEP) became the first electric utility in the nation to deploy a community energy storage (CES) system in its service territory. AEP’s CES system consists of 80 25 kW units, which were installed in a residential neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio. NAATBatt member firms S&C Electric and International Battery supplied the [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

Shakedown Complaint Misses the Point but Highlights a Need

September 23, 2011

Last week Senator Carl Levin and Senator Debbie Stabenow wrote to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk complaining that China is attempting “shakedowns” of American companies in order to obtain their technology secrets. The Michigan Senators cited China’s purported attempt to condition the Chevy Volt’s rollout in China on General Motor’s willingness to share the Volt’s [...]

Share NAATBatt:

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →

Twitter