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       #Post#: 3069--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 2, 2015, 7:41 pm
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       [center][img width=400
       height=300]
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       [center]GMP to sell new Tesla home storage batteries[/center]
       John Herrick May. 1 2015, 6:47 pm 6 Comments
       Tesla’s Powerwall. Courtesy of Tesla (at link).
       Vermont’s largest electric utility announced Friday it is
       partnering with Tesla Motors Inc. to sell batteries that store
       solar electricity for residential use.
       Green Mountain Power will begin offering Tesla’s Powerwall home
       battery units to customers this fall in Rutland. The batteries
       store excess power coming from the grid or net-metered renewable
       energy generation projects to then be used during an outage or
       when wind and solar energy is not available.
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       The batteries can also be recharged at night when Vermont’s
       utilities pay less for power, and supply power when prices are
       high during peak demand, a process known as “load shifting.” GMP
       says it will encourage customers draw electricity from the
       batteries during peak demand to reduce transmission and capacity
       costs, which are passed onto customers. The batteries can also
       be use to power homes during outages.
       “This is a great example of how Vermont is leading the way with
       real-world solutions to a more sustainable future,” GMP
       President and CEO Mary Powell said. “We want to create a new
       definition of resiliency, where we move away from the
       100-year-old grid system to a new electric system where energy
       is generated and used closer to home.”
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       The Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack that is
       mounted on a wall to harness excess electricity. Tesla sells a
       10 killowatt-hour for version $3,500 or a 7 kWh version for
       $3,000. The batteries are warrantied to last 10 years. Tesla
       says it will recycle the batteries.
       The 7 kWh unit can power essential services in a home such as
       the lights, furnace and refrigerator for about six hours during
       an outages, according to Kristin Carlson, a GMP spokeswoman.
       She said 80 percent to 90 percent of the utility’s outages last
       two hours or less.
       GMP will receive its first Powerwalls in October. It will
       distribute 400 to customers in Rutland and later statewide. GMP
       will offer product incentives combined with on-bill financing,
       the company says.
       Carlson said the company aims to charge customers between $3,500
       to $4,500 for the battery, an AC-DC inverter and installation.
       She said the company can subsidize the batteries because they
       could reduce peak power costs to the utility.
       After the 10-year life of the battery, Tesla will pick up the
       battery from the customer and recycle it, Carlson said.
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       Tesla announced its home storage system Thursday in California.
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       #Post#: 3074--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 3, 2015, 6:21 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote author=Eddie link=topic=559.msg74447#msg74447
       date=1430669902]
       Of course the recycling promise completely depends on the
       continuation of Tesla Motors as a going concern, and there is
       exactly one company in the US (maybe in the world, not sure)
       that recycles LI-Ion batteries. (Toxco)
  HTML http://auto.howstuffworks.com/can-electric-car-batteries-be-recycled.htm
  HTML http://auto.howstuffworks.com/can-electric-car-batteries-be-recycled.htm
       I hope they do keep going, as someone who is on his second car
       with batteries (first with LI-Ion since the Prius has NiMH's)
       but I'm not counting on it. Ten years is a long promise. I still
       think Edison cells make better sense for home power. The power
       utilities should subsidize those.
       When lithium-ion batteries reach a recycling plant, there are
       two ways to pulverize them. If they are completely without a
       charge, they're simply shredded so that the metal components,
       like copper and steel, can be easily sorted out. If the
       batteries could still possibly have a charge, though, they're
       frozen in liquid nitrogen and smashed to frozen bits (cool!).
       The liquid nitrogen is so cold, the batteries can't react, so
       the smashing is safe. And probably fun. Then the metals are
       separated out for reuse.
       [/quote]
       Eddie,
       I think you are right in regard to PUBLIC ACCESS battery
       technology. But the importance of this move by Tesla goes far
       beyond the limits of battery technology BECAUSE it is a paradigm
       shift in thinking about energy that the "dirty energy is the
       only reliable energy" people DO NOT WANT us to think about.
       The assumption most people HERE started out with when I began
       posting about renewable energy 3 years ago was that NO WAY, JOSE
       for renewable energy's "drop in the bucket".
       Look how things have changed in just 3 YEARS. It's over for
       dirty energy, Eddie. THAT is the subtext. THAT s what I am
       celebrating. THAT is what relegates all the "math doers"
       claiming this, that and the other about the "viability" of
       fossil fuels SQUARELY to the fringe whacko group that THEY had
       previously brainwashed MOST PEOPLE HERE into believing was
       applicable to the Renewable Energy crowd.  :icon_mrgreen:
       The unleashing in the next ten years of just a tiny portion of
       all the suppressed (by the fossil fuel government for nearly a
       century) renewable energy technologies, of which battery
       technology is a small segment, is now happening.
       The Renewable Energy Revolution will not be stopped this time,
       UNLESS we have a global thermonuclear war. So, yeah, the fossil
       fuelers have a genuine MOTIVE for wanting ALL OUT WAR. Never
       mind that it will hasten our extinction. Those people have been
       nuts from the start. I have yet to convince most people here of
       that, as well. But nevertheless, people are starting to connect
       the war loving, suicidal psychopath "dots" to the fossil fuel
       government/lobby MO. I hope it's not to late to stop those
       crazies.
       The "DIRTY ENERGY IS THE ONLY RELIABLE ENERGY" folks will soon
       be singing "I'm on the outside looking in."
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       There are ALL SORTS OF NOVEL ideas popping up out there!
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       Consider your place in Texas. Consider that you DO HAVE the
       solar power and money to buy umpteen panels that YOU KNOW will
       last 25 years PLUS with almost ZERO maintenance.  :emthup:
       Suppose you just use the bulk of them to pump water into a huge
       tank. THAT TANK IS A BATTERY! That battery has INFINITE "charge"
       cycles, Eddie. That BATTERY NEVER NEEDS TO BE "recycled"!
       And how do you get juice from that "battery" at EXACTLY the
       right voltage and amperage?
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       A WATER POWERED GENERATOR!
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       Here's a tiny one. It's very quiet and certainly won't power
       most of your needs but it is a NO BRAINER that this technology
       is SIMPLE and is EASILY scaled up to get your 15KW or so
       household demand 24/7 come hell AND high water.
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       And I don't need to tell YOU, in dry Texas, what ELSE you could
       do with access to a LOT of stored water, do I?   [img width=40
       height=40]
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       />[img width=40
       height=40]
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       />
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEqSuTOKUEg&feature=player_embedded
  HTML http://revolution-green.com/water-powered-generator/
  HTML http://revolution-green.com/water-powered-generator/
       And, by the way, if large water towers are not your cup of tea,
       a GIANT water tank can be placed IN THE GROUND (out of sight and
       out of sabotage access by vandals  ;D) with a gravity powered
       weight pushing DOWN on the water to give you water pressure for
       your generator. This is a build and forget thing with zero
       maintenance, for all practical purposes.
       Many systems, up to the gigawatt generating level of underground
       giant cylindrical weights in multiple cylindrical tanks have
       been proposed. NO ADDED WATER is necessary after initial fill
       up. You just raise the weight when you have excess solar power,
       PERIOD. Of course, the fluid does not have to be water, but I
       think water is the best to protect the environment in the case
       of minor leaks.
       Think BIG, Eddie. It ain't over yet!
       #Post#: 3080--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 4, 2015, 11:58 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       SunEdison Recruits Imergy Flow Batteries for Microgrid Rural
       Electrification Initiative
       [img width=640
       height=520]
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       After a pledge to power more than 20 million people in rural
       India, SunEdison has partnered with Imergy to install hundreds
       of solar-powered minigrid systems.
       Meg Cichon, Associate Editor, RenewableEnergyWorld.com
       March 25, 2015  |  8 Comments
       Massachusetts, USA -- Earlier this year, SunEdison announced a
       goal to bring power to 20 million people in rural India by 2020.
       To forward this mission, it announced today that it will use
       more than 1,000 flow batteries from Imergy Power Systems for its
       solar-powered minigrid projects.
       [img width=640
       height=420]
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       The solar-powered minigrids are anchored to telecom towers near
       remote villages with batteries typically ranging from 30 to 120
       kWh. The system provides 24/7 power for the tower, while also
       powering surrounding villages. Instead of purchasing expensive
       kerosense or simply living in darkness, villagers are able to
       charge their devices or wire lighting to the village itself.
       According to Imergy CEO Bill Watkins, about 5,000 villages fit
       this telecom model.
       Imergy is no stranger to off-grid applications. It’s storage
       technology has already been installed in both India and several
       parts of Africa. While in the U.S., the Navy is currently
       testing its applications in a smart microgrid project.
       [img width=640
       height=480]
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       Its technology uses recycled vanadium from environmental waste,
       which is stored in tanks and circulated during charge and
       discharge cycles.  Since the chemicals are stored in separate
       tanks, the system can be scaled up or down fairly easily. And
       while flow batteries have a shorter response time than other
       battery technologies, they are ideal for off-grid applications,
       according to Tim Hennessy, Imergy President and COO.
       “We can scale energy. If you’re looking to store it for 24
       hours, you can’t do it with other batteries or costs would
       become exorbitant,” said Hennessey. “There is no software to
       manage, a deep charge lasts all day long, and it can withstand
       harsh environments.”
       Back in December 2013, Imergy told REW that its costs were on
       track to reach $300/kWh by 2015. Hennessey said that they are
       still on track for that number to become a reality, but
       emphasized that the industry needs to look at the levelized cost
       of energy to understand true costs.
       “Everyone talks about costs, [b]but the fact is that [vanadium
       flow batteries] will last 20 years on energy storage cycle,
       [i]and vanadium itself never wears out. [/I][/b]While
       lithium-ion batteries may be ‘cheaper,’ they have a much shorter
       lifespan and are less scalable,” said Hennessey. “We are
       actually cheaper than other technologies over the lifetime of a
       battery.”
       But while everyone is interested in the technology and
       economics, Watkins and Hennessey want to emphasize the
       importance of these rural electrification projects.
       Hennessey explained what he called the “battle of the last
       mile.” When industry cannot justify extending transmission an
       additional five miles, many villages are left in the dark.
       However, when the villages get off-grid power, businesses start
       to crop up and demand increases, which then eventually justifies
       transmission investment. But since India’s transmission system
       is so unreliable, these villages are now relying on renewable
       energy systems, which are creating huge economical growth.
       “The big picture here is the fact that so many people in this
       world don't have electricity. When we enter these villages, it
       gets very emotional — most of them has never seen electricity in
       their lives,” Imergy's CEO Bill Watkins. “Yes, of course we want
       to make money for investors, but this is a big deal…This is a
       way to reach these people and have them be a part of the world —
       we can’t even fathom the impact.”
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       #Post#: 3083--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 4, 2015, 5:27 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Tesla Energy: Will the Markets for Solar and Storage Include
       Everyone in Need?
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       />
       Lewis Milford
       May 04, 2015  |  2 Comments
       Elon Musk’s Tesla Energy announcement to sell an affordable,
       reliable battery system for solar energy storage in homes and
       businesses is more important than all the hyped press even
       suggests. But as extraordinary as the news is about how this
       technology will impact our energy future, it leaves out some
       important issues still to be sorted out.
       At the top of the list is how these technology advances will
       benefit people other than high-income homeowners and businesses
       who are likely to be the first adopters of the product — how to
       make these technologies available to the low- and middle-income
       people who also need resilient power.
       The news of Tesla opening up a new energy battery division,
       called Tesla Energy, has captured the headlines and the
       imagination. In a presentation reminiscent of Steve Jobs before
       an adoring crowd, Musk gave an entertaining and direct talk
       about the need for solar and battery storage to replace fossil
       fuels and address climate change and to capture and store
       electric power that can make homes and businesses more resilient
       and independent from the power grid. It was an impressive show.
       The product specifications are even more impressive. For a
       cutting-edge and innovative product, the cost is low for a home
       system, $3,500, with an inverter and installation adding to that
       cost. That system will allow a home or business to island, to go
       grid independent in case of a power outage. It will also enable
       customers to reduce electric bills, especially very high demand
       charges that can represent more than half of typical commercial
       electric bill.
       The announcement is part of a wave of good news about how solar
       plus battery systems can reinvent the power system, reduce
       pollution, and realign the relationship between electric
       utilities and their customers.
       But what is missing from this news is how new battery storage
       technology can improve public safety — in virtually all
       buildings that protect the public like fire and police stations,
       schools and hospitals; and how this technology can benefit the
       people who need access to low-cost and resilient power the most
       — the underprivileged and largely forgotten poor, many who
       already suffer high electric bills in places like affordable
       housing and assisted living facilities. We need to ensure that
       the larger public and the most vulnerable can get these
       technology benefits along with high-end homeowners and
       businesses.
       Social equity is often a challenge during these new technology
       transitions — the need to ensure that the arc of these new and
       cleaner solar+storage technology markets benefits the general
       public rather than only private commercial customers and the
       affluent.
       We need to direct these technologies to benefit all sectors of
       society — not as an afterthought, but from the outset, as a
       matter of foundational market and policy design. That has not
       been the case with clean energy markets — the poor have usually
       been left behind the technology curve.
       As these energy storage technologies become available, we need
       to make sure they are deployed to provide resilient power to
       communities, to make sure that emergency services and public
       infrastructure can benefit from reliable and affordable solar
       plus storage technologies. Hospitals, schools, water treatment
       plants, fire stations, elderly housing complexes, airports,
       communications and transportation systems could all benefit from
       these technologies. They all need reliable and affordable
       electric power; they all need to function when the grid goes
       down.
       The good news is that Tesla seems driven to serve both private
       enterprise and public benefits. Musk is a brilliant energy
       innovator with a desire to solve large societal problems like
       climate change. He is keeping his technology patents open. That
       is to be commended.
       What is also needed now is a commitment to ensure that new
       energy storage markets also include the public sector — to
       extend these economic and environmental benefits to the people
       most in need now, and not have these benefits trickle down years
       later, after the technologies have become mainstream.
       The conversation about how to make that happen is an important
       one that companies like Tesla need to have.
       2 Comments
       ANONYMOUS
       May 4, 2015
       Where has your voice for "social equity" been for the past
       decade or so while the costs of fossil-fuel energy doubled for
       everyone, placing the greatest burden on the people most in
       need? Solar and wind power - and technology to store solar and
       wind energy - promise strong elements of price stability and
       predictability for everyone, including the economically
       disadvantaged. Fossil fuel energy and its inherent price
       volatility, unpredictability and massive subsidies are far more
       serious problems for the poor than anything that could be
       envisioned for modern clean energy technology.
       
       A. G. Gelbert
       May 4, 2015
       Of course Renewable Energy should be made available to everyone.
       This is where the insidious nature of town ordinances comes in.
       NOBODY seems to want to ADMIT that the infrastructure, at
       present, is tailored to promote the use of fossil fuels in homes
       and businesses and make it rather challenging, to put it mildly,
       to install Renewable Energy.
       No town ordinance will stop you from doubling the size of your
       fossil fuel burning furnace or installing a giant electricity
       hog called a central air conditioning system.
       Yet, just try to dig up the land to install a geothermal loop or
       stick a large PV panel array on your lawn (because you want easy
       access to it). How about the distance from the road that you are
       required, by ordinance, to put up a tower for a wind turbine? Be
       prepared to jump through several hoops, including peculiar ideas
       of what is aesthetically acceptable and what is not.
       People say this is just common sense. NO IT ISN'T. It's a
       deliberate defense of an unsustainable energy status quo,
       period. Hello, Colchester, Vermont. Are you listening? I am
       certain that there will be some bureaucratic baloney thrown at
       the Tesla Wall Battery, regardless of the fact that it is
       unobtrusive. The old "licensed electrician must provide an
       annual inspection of LARGE battery systems (see the Tesla
       battery stats LOL!)" trick to generate local jobs for friends of
       town counselors comes to mind.
       All Renewable Energy installations should be protected from town
       ordinances by Federal Law. But, of course, our bought and paid
       for "democracy" hasn't gotten around to that, for some reason...
       Change is coming IN SPITE OF irrational and environmentally
       suicidal town ordinances. The fossil fuel government at every
       level will not let go of its gravy train easily. But it will,
       eventually, be forced to.
       But for now, the poor are basically OUT of the Renewable Energy
       loop BY profit over planet, predatory capitalist DESIGN.
       100% of the people could have 100% Renewable Energy if the
       Federal Reserve provided loans for Renewable Energy Systems at
       the same low interest rate set for home mortgages. It's really
       stupid that they don't. The massive number of jobs generated
       from this giant transition would boost GDP. But some rich pigs
       would lose profits. So it is not done. So it goes..
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       #Post#: 3088--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 6, 2015, 2:10 pm
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       Ancient Greek Energy Storage Technology Challenges Tesla's
       Batteries
       Jeremy van Loon, Bloomberg
       May 06, 2015
       CALGARY -- A technology used in ancient Greece to power clocks
       and fire a cannon is undergoing a revival as the world searches
       for better ways to store energy from wind turbines and solar
       panels.
       [img width=640
       height=430]
  HTML http://www.worldchanging.com/EarthlyIdeas-CompressedAir.jpg[/img]
       Compressed air, already used to power carnival rides,
       jackhammers and medical equipment, joins the crowded field of
       innovations chasing what may be a $21.5 billion market in 2024.
       [img width=640
       height=420]
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       Compressed air auto Citroen drive train
       Contenders include Elon Musk, chairman of Tesla Motors Inc., who
       this month unveiled a suite of batteries to store electricity
       for homes, businesses and utilities.
       While Tesla plans to begin delivering its rechargeable
       lithium-ion model in late summer, compressed air storage
       systems, or CAES, may have an edge.
       The technology can be used to store large amounts of power for
       weeks at less than the cost of batteries.
       “You need bulk storage to support all the renewables and CAES is
       pretty much the only technology to do that,” said Jim Heid, vice
       president at Dresser-Rand Group Inc., a supplier of compressed
       air products. “It’s a worldwide phenomenon because of all the
       intermittent renewables coming online.”
       [quote]
       The mechanics are simple. Start with electricity from wind
       turbines and solar panels to run compressors that fill man-made
       caverns also used for natural gas storage. When the pressurized
       air is released, it drives turbines that provide clean power
       when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.
       [/quote]
       [img width=640
       height=360]
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       In less than a decade, annual investment in compressed air will
       be almost $5 billion, according to Navigant Research. That will
       support more than 11 gigawatts of installed capacity and help
       renewable power developers match demand with supply.
       Competition is stiff. Along with batteries, developers are using
       everything from vats of molten salt to rooftop tanks filled with
       ice to store energy, a market Navigant sees expanding about
       35-fold by 2024 from $605.8 million this year.
       Improvements Needed
       Even supporters acknowledge that air storage needs to improve.
       The systems currently return only about 60 percent of the power
       used to fill caverns, according to Dresser-Rand.
       “When you put in one unit of energy, you want to get one unit
       out,” said Sam Shelton, senior fellow at the Strategic Energy
       Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Air is not
       very dense so compression storage is low efficiency. It’s all
       economics.”
       Advancements in technology will boost efficiency and eliminate
       the need to heat the pressurized air with natural gas, reducing
       carbon dioxide emissions. Developers are improving above-ground
       vessels for smaller-scale applications.
       “Overall it’s a market that has a couple of niches,” said Brian
       Warshay, an analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance in New
       York. “A lot depends on the location and the proximity to
       demand.”
       Two years ago, California regulators asked the state’s three
       biggest utilities to add 1.33 gigawatts of energy-storage
       capacity by 2020 -- about 20 percent more than currently exists
       in the world, excluding pumped hydropower systems.
       Rooftop Ice
       Spain’s Abengoa SA is developing a solar-thermal project in
       California that will incorporate power storage. Ice Energy
       Holdings Inc., a Santa Barbara, California-based company, is
       pioneering a storage method using rooftop ice to provide cooling
       during the day.
       The Greek inventor Ctesibius wrote studies on the science of
       compressed air in the third century BC. The technology was used
       in an alarm clock, a cannon that shot arrows and to open the
       gates at the Temple of Alexandria.
       Thanks to its scale, compressed air storage today offers a
       solution to a challenge facing grid operators -- how to store
       wind power at night when demand for electricity slumps, and
       solar power for cloudy days.
       Compressed air can store hundreds of megawatt hours of
       electricity for weeks at a time. Batteries are useful for
       smaller volumes for shorter periods, said Rocco Vita, director
       of emerging technology at pipeline company Enbridge Inc., which
       operates solar and wind farms across North America.
       [img width=640
       height=380]
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       Texas Wind
       Chamisa Energy, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is seeking to
       raise about $400 million to build a compressed air project in
       the Texas Panhandle that can store wind energy at night and
       release it when turbines are still.
       [img width=640
       height=380]
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       “We’re surrounded by some of the best wind in the U.S. and the
       wind often blows in the off-peak,” said Alissa Oppenheimer,
       managing director at Chamisa. “There are numerous times of the
       day when the price of wind is negative.”
       Investors, who may not understand the advantages of the
       technology or are concerned that air storage systems are
       inefficient, have been slow to commit, Oppenheimer said.
       Dresser-Rand built one of the world’s two commercial compressed
       air systems in Alabama in 1991 and is currently working on other
       projects in Texas, said Heid. In Alabama, Power South Energy
       Cooperative’s 110-megawatt system stores enough energy from
       nearby power plants to power 110,000 homes. The world’s first
       commercial application of the technology was in Germany in 1978
       with a 290-megawatt plant.
       Surplus Energy
       In Canada, Ontario’s grid operator wants to add 16 megawatts of
       storage, including CAES, to cope with a supply surge from wind
       turbines and solar panels.  ;DNRStor Inc., which is bidding for
       the contract, expects the efficiency and cost of air storage to
       improve.
       Were Ontario to add 1,000 megawatts of compressed air storage,
       consumers would save C$8 billion ($6.6 billion) over 20 years,
       said NRStor Chief Executive Officer Annette Verschuren. With the
       system she’s proposing, stored air could turn turbines for as
       long as 300 hours.
       “Ontario has really built up a lot of renewable energy and is
       building up a lot more surplus energy,” Verschuren said. “We
       would capture the night stuff, capture the weekend stuff and put
       the energy on the grid during daytime.”
       NRStor sees the price of compressed air systems falling fall to
       one-tenth that of the expected $350 a kilowatt hour cost of
       battery storage in 2022, said Verschuren. She declined to say
       how much the Ontario project will cost.
       Copyright 2015 Bloomberg
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       #Post#: 3089--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 6, 2015, 9:36 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Is Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Scalable? Scalability is
       actually what makes CAES cost effective. IOW, YES!
       Compressed Air Energy Storage
       Trishna Das
       James D. McCalley
       Iowa State University
       Ames, Iowa
       2012
       Agebert NOTE: VERY brief summary of this educational chapter. I
       did not crunch any numbers. The math is above my skill set.  :(
       But I can read graphs and English quite well.  ;D
       [img width=640
       height=520]
  HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-060515221149.png[/img]
       SITES FOR CAES
       CAES storage reservoirs for underground storage can be
       classified into three categories: salt, hard rock, and porous
       rock. These geologies are found to account for a significant
       fraction of United States (Fig. 2). Previous studies indicate
       that over 75% of the U.S. has geologic conditions that are
       potentially favorable for underground air storage [18]. Fig. 3
       (at link) shows different storage mediums throughout US.
       DRAWBACKS OF CAES
       Currently the major drawback for CAES is its dependability on
       fuel source for the power generation. Natural gas prices
       contribute to the economics of CAES. Like any energy conversion
       system CAES also has its share of losses, thus working with an
       efficiency percentage around 60 % to 70 %. Some of these
       backlogs in CAES technology are currently overcome by enhanced
       CAES configurations and concepts. These advancements are given
       in a later section.
       EFFECT OF CAES SIZING ON ECONOMICS AND PERFORMANCE
       The CAES model developed is able to capture the influence of
       storage reservoir dynamics on performance measures such as
       demand met and input spillage percentage. From Fig.12, it is
       seen that irrespective of turbine and compressor sizing, a good
       enough reservoir volume is required to ensure effective
       addressing of wind variability issues by CAES for this
       particular wind farm.
       EFFECT OF PRESSURE LIMITS ON ECONOMICS AND PERFORMANCE
       We can notice that as the maximum pressure limit increases, the
       revenue per year and the operational performance measures too
       increase. So it corroborates the model‘s ability to account for
       internal storage dynamics and their direct influence on CAES
       operational and economic outcome.
       Since the model has the ability to simulate CAES operation for
       longer periods of time within reasonable simulation time while
       also capturing finer second-second or few minutes variations, it
       could enable performing very finer sub-hourly, say 5-mins, unit
       commitment studies. Therefore the model can lend itself well in
       long term production costing studies to evaluate generation
       planning strategies.
       ECONOMICS AND GRID BENEFITS EVALUATION USING PRODUCTION COSTING
       [img width=640
       height=380]
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       CASE STUDY
       In IEEE 24-bus Reliability Test System (RTS) wind and CAES were
       integrated and production costing studies were conducted. The
       production costing study is an hourly simulation for 48 hours (2
       days). The data for load and wind generation is taken from
       Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) for Nov 2nd and 3rd in the
       year 2010. This data was chosen as it covered good variation in
       wind pattern. The program was developed using MATLAB with TOMLAB
       optimization platform.
       RESULTS: CAES OPERATION ANALYSIS
       The production costing study was done with 25% wind capacity
       penetration with wind farms at bus 17, 21, and 22, and a CAES at
       bus 21. The turbine rating is 50 MW, compressor is 50 MW and the
       storage reservoir is 200 MWh.The system contains various mix of
       generation facilities such as 7 coal generation plants, 2
       nuclear generations, 3 natural gas generations, 2 oil fired
       plants with variable ramping rates, with CAES being the fastest
       ramping unit. The total system generation without wind
       generation and CAES unit is 3400MW.
       [img width=640
       height=680]
  HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-060515221236.png[/img]
       We can observe from Fig. 12 that during high wind spell of the
       first day the compressor reduces the wind spillage by charging
       the CAES reservoir, and thereby contributing to down-regulation
       and earning revenue from the ancillary service market. CAES also
       participates actively in providing spinning reserves and up
       regulation, as seen from the plot for turbine.
       From the above figures (in addition to figure 12 there are
       others at the link) it confirms that with increase in wind
       penetration CAES gains greater benefits from the grid
       operations.
       On the other hand, it is important to quantify how the grid
       benefits by the installation of CAES unit.
       Some of the metrics to quantify the grid benefits are
       system production cost,
       wind spillage percentage,
       quality of regulation,
       emissions,
       transmission congestion relief,
       system stability improvement and so on.
       CAES sizing is a key issue that influences the grid benefits as
       observed from Fig. 15 (at link). In Fig. 15 as the CAES sizing
       is increased the wind spillage is reduced. At 10% wind capacity
       penetration it is observed that the grid without CAES had 4% of
       wind spillage and with increased CAES size the spillage was
       reduced to nearly 0.5%. The blue curve in Fig. 15 shows wind
       energy penetration for corresponding wind capacity penetration
       in the system. It would be interesting to investigate the
       correlation between the CAES sizing, and wind energy
       penetration.
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       CONCLUSIONS
       In this chapter, a state space model for compressed air storage
       technology was developed, which monitors the storage dynamics at
       any instant of time in terms of the reservoir pressure and mass
       of compressed air stored.
       The model was validated using the operational curves from
       Huntorf CAES. The CAES model developed is simulated as a
       collocated facility to address the wind variability issue of a
       particular wind farm. The model facilitates capturing storage
       dynamics‘ influence on CAES‘s operational performance and
       economic indices. Eventually some standard CAES configurations
       consisting of variations in turbine, compressor and reservoir
       ratings are simulated and a wide range of performance indices
       are computed for assessing the worth of each configuration for
       that particular geography.
       From the results we understand that such a venture would require
       huge investments with very long payback periods. Thus CAES
       acting as an auxiliary support for individual wind farms may not
       be as wise as investing in a system level CAES with higher
       capacity.
       Economic assessment of the storage benefits was studied with the
       CAES model developed and incorporated into the production
       costing program. The assessment platform with the unit
       commitment and economic dispatch program modules dispatched the
       CAES unit under [b]increasing wind penetration levels.
       From the results we  observe that CAES plays a vital role in the
       ancillary and reserve markets with increasing wind penetration,
       thereby benefitting grid as well as earning revenue to cover its
       huge investment costs.
       The profits earned by the CAES indicate that this venture would
       be lucrative with the changing grid scenarios involving
       increasing integration of variable generations. The study points
       to an interesting direction that the CAES compressor providing
       down regulation service is especially effective in absorbing the
       high wind spells, [b]and thus reducing wind spillage and
       providing economic and quick ramping regulation service to the
       grid.
       Storage‘s participation in ancillary services is attractive
       because the new generation portfolio not only requires more
       regulation services, but also higher ramping capabilities and
       more operating reserves to counter the costs associated with
       deeper and more frequent cycling of fossil units.
  HTML http://home.eng.iastate.edu/~jdm/wind/Compressed%20Air%20Energy%20Storage_Chapter_TRISHNA%20DAS.pdf
       #Post#: 3090--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 7, 2015, 1:37 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       THE ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES PICTURE AS OF 2013
       [img width=740
       height=300]
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       Stored energy from the SURPLUS SUPPLY of Solar and Wind is the
       answer to EXCESS DEMAND at ANY TIME in the day OR night. [img
       width=75
       height=50]
  HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/reading.gif[/img]
       
       Dec. 6, 2014
       Smooth Operators
       Grid-scale storage
       [quote][font=times new roman]"The world would no doubt be a
       better place if the externalities imposed by fossil fuels were
       properly accounted for in the price of electricity."
  HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/128fs318181.gif[/font][/quote]
  HTML http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21635331-matching-output-demand-hard-wind-and-solar-power-answer-store
       The corporation referenced in the above article has done the
       math. Here is how it works, followed by two videos from their
       site.  [img width=75
       height=50]
  HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-060914180936.jpeg[/img]
       [img width=640
       height=580]
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       [img width=640
       height=780]
  HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-070515000206.png[/img]
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNyyILVkQP0&feature=player_embedded
  HTML https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzKpqRRwSYo&feature=player_embedded
       Details:
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  HTML http://sustainablesv.org/ecocloud//uploads/solutions/Gravity_Power_Company_Overview_1-17-2013.pdf
       #Post#: 3096--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 7, 2015, 7:18 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       [quote]Photovoltaic (PV) panels combined with batteries will do
       to the electric utility industry what digital cameras did to the
       photography business.  [img width=80
       height=70]
  HTML http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/yayayoy/yayayoy1106/yayayoy110600019/9735563-smiling-sun-showing-thumb-up.jpg[/img]<br
       />[/quote]
       Utilities, Cheap Batteries Won't Hurt You; You Have Much Worse
       Things to Worry About - Part I: Assault and Battery
  HTML http://theenergycollective.com/jayirwinstein/2223241/utilities-cheap-batteries-won-t-hurt-you-you-have-much-worse-things-worry-abou
       #Post#: 3098--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 7, 2015, 8:00 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       Agelbert NOTE: This is from SPARK, the newsletter of the Rocky
       Mountain Institute. It was written just before the Tesla Battery
       announcement but it has great info on how to get the most out of
       the Tesla residential and business Battery.
       There is nobody that can make better use of new technology to
       reduce (and eventually eliminate) dirty energy better.  [img
       width=75
       height=50]
  HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/reading.gif[/img]
       
       Apr 30, 2015
       Authors Jesse Morris Manager
       The 10 Things Likely To Be Missing From Tesla’s Stationary
       Storage News
       Later today Tesla Motors is expected to make a major
       announcement about new stationary storage offerings—both a home
       battery and a very large utility-scale battery. Everyone, it
       seems, has been abuzz for days, evidenced in wall-to-wall
       coverage from Bloomberg to Yahoo!. Investment analysts have been
       weighing in, too, and Tesla’s stock is up significantly this
       week on the forthcoming news.
       Without speculating on the product’s technical specifications or
       other details we won’t know until Tesla makes the actual
       announcement, I think we can safely assume that Tesla’s talking
       points will follow a general three-point outline:
       •Stationary storage—including behind-the-meter—is here for the
       long haul
       •Storage has gotten very cheap (or will soon, thanks to the
       Gigafactory)
       •Storage offers value to residential, commercial, and utility
       customers today
       For residential and commercial customers, Tesla’s announcement
       is another proof point that cost-effective, customer-sited
       solar-plus-storage systems are coming, as we recently analyzed
       in The Economics of Load Defection.
       However, an obsessive focus on cheap storage for customers risks
       missing the bigger opportunity. For batteries to be truly
       transformative—for customers and the grid—we need to recognize
       the full range of values they can provide and remove barriers
       (especially market participation) preventing customer-sited
       batteries from providing all of those values.
       Twelve Services Energy Storage Can Deliver to the Grid
       For sure, Tesla’s new systems will be used for backup power.
       They’ll also be used to lower customer bills through arbitrage
       against rates (such as demand charges) and demand response
       programs, as many other energy storage companies currently do.
       But without even knowing additional detail about the product
       itself, I can safely say that Tesla’s new product will able to
       do much, much more for multiple stakeholder groups including
       customers, utilities, and independent system operators (ISOs) /
       regional transmission organizations (RTOs).
       In fact, when products like Tesla’s are installed behind the
       customer meter and networked with hundreds or thousands of other
       similar systems, storage is capable of providing about a dozen
       services to the electricity system at large. Furthermore, in
       many cases, it costs less for aggregated behind-the-meter
       storage to provide these services than what we pay for them to
       be delivered now in other ways.
       The services energy storage can deliver when installed behind
       the meter like Tesla’s planned products fall into three
       categories: 1) services for customers, 2) services for ISOs /
       RTOs, and 3) services for utilities.
       Services for Customers
       •First, they can be used to directly benefit customers by:
       •Providing backup power
       •Reducing demand charges
       •Optimizing customer bills against time of use or other
       non-volumetric rates
       •Increasing self-consumption of distributed solar energy. In
       places like Germany and Australia where net metering doesn’t
       exist or in some corners of the U.S. where electricity is
       expensive and net metering isn’t available, storage can be used
       to increase building-level self-consumption from a distributed
       solar system to maximize the economic benefit of solar.
       These services, especially the first two, are likely to be
       squarely in line with what Tesla and its partners will announce
       as major values of their new battery product. However, these
       customer benefits tell only part of the story; an exclusive
       focus on these aspects of Tesla’s (and others’) batteries will
       miss the bigger story and a bigger opportunity.
       Services for ISOs / RTOs
       Second, storage—especially fast-response batteries like the
       chemistries found in electric vehicle batteries—can support the
       grid by delivering a suite of ancillary services. In
       restructured states like California, this means energy storage
       can bid into wholesale electricity markets. In non-restructured
       states like Colorado, these services are delivered using assets
       directly controlled by the utility—not a marketplace.
       These services include:
       •Frequency regulation
       •Spinning and non-spinning reserves
       •Load following / energy arbitrage
       •Black start
       •Voltage support
       In many cases, batteries can provide these services more
       reliably and at a lower cost than the technology that currently
       provides a majority of them—thermal power plants—so by using
       energy storage to deliver these services, some electricity
       systems can be maintained at a lower cost.
       Services for Utilities
       Third, storage systems installed behind the customer meter can
       be dispatched to provide deferral or adequacy services to
       utilities, such as:
       •Transmission and distribution upgrade deferral. When load
       forecasts indicate transmission or distribution nodes will
       exceed their rated load carrying capacity, incremental
       investments in energy storage can be used to effectively
       increase the node’s capacity and avoid large, overbuilt,
       expensive upgrades to the nodes themselves.
       •Transmission congestion relief. At certain times of the day,
       ISOs charge utilities to use congested transmission lines.
       Discharging energy storage systems located downstream of
       congested lines can avoid these charges.
       •Resource adequacy. Instead of using or investing in combustion
       turbines to meet peak generation requirements, utilities can
       call upon other assets like energy storage instead.
       In the U.S. alone, we’re slated to spend an estimated $1–2
       trillion over the next fifteen years on electricity
       infrastructure. By deploying energy storage—along with demand
       response, energy efficiency, smart controls, and distributed
       solar—many of these investments can be avoided in the first
       place, saving money for society along the way.
       Barriers to Market Participation
       There’s little argument that systems like Tesla’s, when
       installed behind the customer meter, can technically deliver
       these services to the electricity grid. However, even though in
       many cases behind the meter energy storage—in addition to demand
       response and distributed solar PV—can provide these services at
       a competitive cost, several regulations, laws, and
       misunderstandings have largely restricted the ability of the
       technology to do so.
       In Tesla’s home state of California and in a select number of
       states like New York, Texas, and Minnesota, regulatory reform
       efforts are under way that should help overcome many of these
       challenges.
       But until those efforts are successful, these barriers currently
       restrict behind-the-meter storage to delivering a much shorter
       list of the services outlined above—even in states leading the
       charge for electricity system regulatory reform. Encouragingly,
       even with a truncated list of services to work with, Tesla will
       still be able to use its new product and create value for
       thousands of customers including commercial customers looking to
       reduce their demand charges and residential customers under
       dynamic rates. In fact, by deploying their new product to
       deliver only one or two of the twelve services energy storage is
       actually able to deliver, Tesla will demonstrate the value that
       their systems can create for the electricity system at large.
       This act will help overcome myriad regulatory challenges and
       utility misconceptions facing energy storage by pointing to
       real-world successes.
       A Path Forward
       Tesla won’t be alone in working to overcome these barriers to
       unfettered market access for energy storage and other
       distributed energy resources. Groups like the Electric Power
       Research Institute have research and analytical tools coming
       down the pipeline that will help to illustrate what batteries
       like Tesla’s can do for the system, and at what cost. And later
       this summer RMI will be releasing new research as well,
       including a body of work focused on quantifying the costs and
       benefits of behind-the-meter energy storage to the grid.
       Through these efforts and with the availability of new products
       like Tesla’s in the marketplace we hope to provide tangible
       evidence to decision makers on the merits of distributed energy
       resources and the changes that need to take place in order to
       unlock their full
       potential.
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       #Post#: 3123--------------------------------------------------
       Re: Batteries
       By: AGelbert Date: May 12, 2015, 12:48 pm
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       05/08/2015 11:45 AM
       Tesla's New PowerWall Battery Sells Out!  :o  ;D
       SustainableBusiness.com News
       Calling the response "overwhelming" and "crazy" Elon Musk says
       Powerwall batteries are already sold out through mid-2016.
       Within days of announcing the launch of Tesla Energy, the
       company has 38,000 reservations for Powerwall - the home version
       of the battery. And since most people ordered more than one
       battery, the sales add up to more like 50,000-60,000.
       There's also lots of interest on the industrial/ utility side
       for the larger version, called Powerpacks
  HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/muscular.gif
       . There are 2500
       reservations for about 10 Powerpacks each, for a total 25,000 .
  HTML http://www.freesmileys.org/emoticons/emoticon-object-081.gif
       
       Tesla also received 2,500 requests from distribution and
       installation companies. [img width=25
       height=30]
  HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-080515182559.png[/img]
       Musk said all this on a call with investors on Tesla's first
       quarter results, but spent most of the time answering questions
       on Tesla Energy. The Gigafactory in Nevada - which comes online
       in mid-2016 - could be devoted to just these batteries, he says,
       indicating that this first factory won't meet demand.
       He expects demand for these batteries to be double that for
       electric cars.
       [img width=640
       height=380]
  HTML http://images.thecarconnection.com/hug/computer-generated-image-of-proposed-tesla-motors-gigafactory_100479294_h.jpg[/img]
       Fossil fuel produced energy WILL NOT BE USED to operate the
       above Battery Factory.
  HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/301.gif
       In the first quarter, Tesla sold 10,030 Model S cars - 55% more
       than Q1 2014 - with revenues of $1.1 billion and a loss of $159
       million. Its Model X SUV goes on sale late this year, followed
       by a lower priced Model S in 2017 ($35,000).
       For background, read our article, Tesla's Next Goal: Transform
       How We Get Electricity
  HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26275.<br
       />
       SNIPPET:  [img width=75
       height=50]
  HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/reading.gif[/img]
       
       [quote]For businesses and utilities, Tesla Energy offers
       "Powerpacks
  HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/19.gif
       ," more
       powerful versions of the home-based system "designed to scale
       infinitely."
  HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714191258.bmp<br
       />They integrate lithium batteries, power electronics, thermal
       management and controls into a turnkey system.
       Powepacks are being piloted in over 100 projects, including
       Amazon Web Services data centers, Target and Walmart stores and
       Green Mountain, Southern California Edison and other utilities.
       Incredibly, Musk plans to make its battery patents available for
       free as he has done for the electric car.  ;D [/quote]
  HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26287
       Renewable energy=
  HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-301014181553.gif<br
       />                               [img width=60
       height=40]
  HTML http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-scared002.gif[/img]=Fossil<br
       />Fuelers
       [center] [img width=100
       height=100]
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       *****************************************************
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