NY-BEST Newsletter 11-4-2011

The bankruptcy filing for Beacon Power dominated the news around the energy storage sector this week, largely because Beacon had received a $43 million loan guarantee from the same Department of Energy program that provided a much larger guarantee to the now bankrupt Solyndra. While much has been made of these "failures", it seems only fitting that we step back and consider the purpose of this DoE program. The loan program is designed to provide loan guarantees for innovative projects and technologies that hold great promise, but present too much risk for the private sector finance to take on. One could safely say that if this program never made a loan that failed, the agency had set it up with too high a risk threshold--and thereby miss the mark entirely on its purpose. The article we've included below from Greentech Media goes into numerous other factors that make Beacon a very different story than Solyndra--most notably that Beacon's 200 flywheel energy storage project in Stephentown is humming along, providing frequency support to the NYISO and making revenue every day. The financial challenges Beacon has faced highlights the need to adjust policy and regulation to properly compensate energy storage system operators for the true value they create. Just two weeks ago, FERC enacted "pay for performance" that recognizes the extra value of fast responding systems. This important change is now being developed by the regional Independent System Operators. Beacon has filed to reorganize its business and I am optimistic at its prospects going forward.

In happier news, the Energy Storage sector received the majority of VC investment activity in Q3 of this year, which grew by 73% over the same period last year to a total of $1.1 Billion. As part of NY-BEST's mission and in recognition of the interest in our sector, we have planned a one day Investment Conference in New York City in December, where representatives from leading VC firms will come together to hear presentations by NY-BEST member companies on their technologies and business plans. If you are interested in details on this event, please contact me at acker@ny-best.org or by phone at 518-694-8475.

Finally a quick reminder about the upcoming NY-BEST Regional Technology Conference in Rochester on November 15-16. We've put together a great line-up of speakers and posters, and hope to see you there. You can get the details on the conference on our website here.

Best regards,

William Acker
Executive Director

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Upstate start-up harnesses battery power with a piece of paper
Battery technology has helped untether us all from electrical cords, but there’s a price to being portable.That’s why a small, start-up company outside of Albany, called Paper Battery, is working to change the way we store our energy.

Development council proposes 10 major projects for Rochester region
The Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council has tentatively proposed 10 multimillion-dollar projects, including the NY-BEST Product Commercialization Center.

Big bets, big risks with clean energy
Is New York state placing too big a bet on the clean energy economy? That's a question that needs closer examination after a series of high-profile bankruptcies by major alternative energy companies -- including Beacon Power, a Boston-area firm that operates a 20-megawatt flywheel operation in Stephentown. New York committed $2 million to the project.

Disruption ahead: Cleantech Group names its top 3 smart energy startups
The Cleantech Group, following up on its recently released 100 clean technology companies to watch over the next five to 10 years, has identified its top three startups to watch. NY-BEST member Xtreme Power is one of the top three.

Batteries at a Wind Farm Help Control Output
Another wind farm opened on another windy ridge in West Virginia this week, 61 turbines stretched across 12 miles, generating up to 98 megawatts of electricity. But the novel element is a cluster of big steel boxes in the middle, the largest battery installation attached to the power grid in the continental United States.

Beacon Power BankruptcyAutopsy
The news coverage of Beacon Power’s bankruptcy has focused on the $43 million loan it got from the same Department of Energy program that backed the bankrupt Solyndra. But Beacon left a beating heart in the form of a flywheel farm humming with megawatts of energy feeding into the grid today -- and it may get a lifeline from a recent regulatory ruling.

Plug Power Inc. Ranked as a Fast Growing Company in North America on Deloitte's 2011 Technology Fast 500 list.
Plug Power Inc. (Nasdaq:PLUG) today announced it has been ranked on Deloitte's Technology Fast 500(TM), aranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, lifesciences and clean technology companies in North America. Plug Power grew 149percent during this period.

Plug Power hiring 50, investing $9.4M in supplies
Plug Power of Latham will invest $9.4 million to purchase supplies from Vancouver-based Ballard Power Systems as demand for hydrogen-powered forklifts grows.

Solar power + super batteries = Reliable energy for the future?
What types of big batteries or other energy storage systems will work best with renewable energy and the existing grid to ensure reliable power supplies in the future? A two-year research project under way in Arizona is seeking the answer to that question.

Zinc Oxide Used to Convert ‘Waste’ Heat to Electricity
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York announced that they have successfully developed a new method of converting waste heat into electricity by altering zinc oxide’s material properties.

Electric vehicle deal for Peugeot Citroen and GE
PSA Peugeot Citroën and General Electric have signed an agreement to help develop the electric vehicle (EV) industry. The scheme will cover areas including fixed battery vehicles (FBEV) and plug-in vehicles (PHEV).

GE may lease vechile batteries for electric cars
General Electric may lease costly vehicle batteries to electric-car buyers, joining other companies looking to get more people to buy alternative-energy automobiles.

The World's Largest Lithium-Ion Battery Farm Comes Online
For nearly a month now, a cluster of 53-foot containers on a ridge of Laurel Mountain in West Virginia has been sipping power from wind turbines that stretch out in both directions. The containers are home to the world’s largest lithium-ion battery farm for storing and sending energy to the electric grid, and the project reflects the emergence of a technology to help manage the growing production of renewable energy in the country.

Ultracaps: The Future of Batteries Might Not Be Batteries
Ioxus has created an ultracapacitor module that will relieve its customers of the work of harnessing ultracap cells.

SAFT : Li-ion batteries to power Bordeaux’s new hybrid diesel-electric river shuttle service
Saft, leader in the design, development and manufacture of high-technology batteries for industry, is supplying advanced lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery systems to provide quiet, efficient, low-emission power for two hybrid diesel-electric ferryboats that will operate a shuttle service across the Garonne river in Bordeaux.

ACAL Energy completes build of first field test system of FlowCath fuel cell technology; new single cell peak power density of nearly 900 mW/cm2
ACAL Energy has completed the build of its first field test system of its FlowCath platinum-free liquid cathode fuel cell technology, producing gross power of 3kW. The company has also achieved a new record single-cell peak performance power density of nearly 900 mW/cm2.

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N.Y Company Unveils Electric School Bus
The U.S. education system is about to be electrified. At least the trip to school is.

For more news about New York's Battery & Energy Storage Community click here.

Investments in Cleantech--led by Energy Storage--Grew 73% in Q3
Venture capital investment in U.S. cleantech companies grew 73 percent to $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2011 versus the same period in 2010, with the gains driven largely by deals in the energy storage sector, according to an Ernst & Young LLP analysis of data from Dow Jones VentureSource

Novel graphene electrode improves already promising lithium-air battery technology
After a steady improvement of some 10-15% during the last two decades, the energy density of lithium-ion batteries is now approaching its theoretical limit. Therefore, in recent years, the pursuit of the next generation of energy storage systems has been intense globally.

Better Batteries: Not Just for Cars Anymore
As I wrote in Saturday’s paper, energy storage will be critical to making wind power more useful. Some wind farms are forced to dump a substantial portion of their production because they churn out megawatts in the middle of the night, when there is very little demand for it. At such times, some grid operators even charge generators for making power rather than paying them for it.

Energy storage: Why the future relies on regulations, not cost reductions
The outlook has been skeptical around energy storage for mass adoption on the electric grid due to poor balances of cost and benefits. While some utilities or regions do require a small quantity of energy storage at the most problematic points on the grid, grid-storage will not reach ubiquitous commercial adoption at its current pricing. Furthermore, the incremental improvements in performance and reductions in cost suggest that commercial adoption is beyond 10 years away. As a result, many stakeholders are rightfully looking toward regulations to alter the market landscape and make room for storage

California's Silicon Valley Is Primed For Smart Grid Growth
California's Silicon Valley has all the right ingredients to make it a local and national leader in the development of the smart grid and related products, according to an economic analysis released by the Silicon Valley Smart Grid Task Force.

FERC Issues New Compensation Method For Regulation Service
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) says it has acted to remedy undue discrimination and ensure just and reasonable rates for providers of a service that organized wholesale power market operators use to balance supply and demand and ensure the reliability of their systems.

Disruption ahead: Cleantech Group names its top 3 smart energy startups
The Cleantech Group, following up on its recently released 100 clean technology companies to watch over the next five to 10 years, has identified its top three startups to watch.

Fuel Cells Recommended by US DOD for Defense Facilities
Two leading North American clean energy associations, the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) of the United States, and the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association (CHFCA), today applaud the release of a groundbreaking U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) study, "Beyond Demonstration: A White Paper on the Role of Fuel Cells in the Department of Defense's Energy Strategy" which supports deployment of fuel cell-based power solutions.

International Battery’s Utility-Scale Li-Ion Goes After Solar
Walking the 20 square miles of exhibitors at Solar Power International in Dallas last week, I met 400 Asian module vendors I've never heard of before, a really large number of new and incumbent module racking companies, and a few new microinverter companies.

Toyota could have 600-mile, solid state battery ready by 2015-2020
The Holy Grail of electric vehicle technology is coming soon, according to Japanese news outlet Nikkei.

Electric Vehicle Battery Market to Reach $14.6 Billion in Revenues by 2017, According to Pike Research
Over the past few years, the automotive industry has increased its focus on the electric vehicle (EV) battery market by successfully introducing several new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as the process of moving away from petroleum-based fuels and toward battery power intensifies.

Researchers Create Fluoride Battery, Look to Replace Lithium-ion Technology
Few things hold as much potential to change a wide variety of devices for the better than the battery. Batteries with higher power capacity will allow for gadgets like notebooks and smartphones to operate longer away from an outlet. Higher power densities will allow a longer driving range for electric cars as well.

Making sodium-ion batteries that are worth their salt
Sodium-ion technology possesses a number of benefits that lithium-based energy storage cannot capture, explained Argonne chemist Christopher Johnson, who is leading an effort to improve the performance of ambient-temperature sodium-based batteries.

The Battery Show 2011 showcases latest energy storage technologies for EVs and hybrids
The Battery Show is North America’s largest free to attend exhibition for advanced batteries. The exhibition showcases the very latest battery technologies and solutions, ranging from electric vehicle applications to raw material suppliers.

Developments in battery technology to give boost to electric vehicles
As the cost of batteries accounts for a large portion of total costs of electric vehicles, researchers are constantly looking for ways to make batteries more affordable as well as efficient. Newly developed technologies include batteries using organic polymer instead of cobalt and battery packs with improved thermal management that takes advantage of copper’s heat conductive characteristics.

Hydrogenics' 1MW Electrolyser for Renewable Energy Project
Hydrogenics Corporation has announced it has been awarded a contract for a 1MW HySTAT® electrolyser for an industrial scale renewable energy storage project. The project is the largest of its kind in Germany with the capacity to store sufficient hydrogen to produce up to 27 MWh of energy.

Electric Vehicle Battery Market to Reach $14.6 Billion in Revenues by 2017, According to Pike Research
Over the past few years, the automotive industry has increased its focus on the electric vehicle (EV) battery market by successfully introducing several new plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as the process of moving away from petroleum-based fuels and toward battery power intensifies. These vehicles will rely almost exclusively on lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, while hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) will slowly switch from nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) technology.

Investments in Cleantech--led by Energy Storage--Grew 73% in Q3
Venture capital investment in U.S. cleantech companies grew 73 percent to $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2011 versus the same period in 2010, with the gains driven largely by deals in the energy storage sector, according to an Ernst & Young LLP analysis of data from Dow Jones VentureSource

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This news update is provided as a service to members and interested parties of the New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology Consortium. NY-BEST is an industry-led coalition working to build a vibrant, world-class, advanced battery and energy storage sector in New York State.

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