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LG Chem: Storage Battery Leader

The post “Energy Storage Restart,” which was published last week, discussed the efforts by General Electric (GE: NYSE) to get back into the market for utility-scale energy storage.  After some difficulties that required the partial closing of its battery manufacturing plant, GE has got back in the game with new contracts wins.  In April 2015, the company won a contract to supply Con Edison Development with an 8-megawatt-hour battery storage system at a solar project in California.  GE will be integrating lithium-ion batteries rather than its own battery technology into the project.

Where will GE source the lithium-ion batteries for the California project?  So far, spokespersons have been non-committal on the name.  Today’s post profiles a company that may not be a likely ‘bedfellow’ for GE, but it is a leader in lithium ion energy storage technology.

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LG Chem: Storage Battery Leader

The post “Energy Storage Restart,” which was published last week, discussed the efforts by General Electric (GE: NYSE) to get back into the market for utility-scale energy storage.  After some difficulties that required the partial closing of its battery manufacturing plant, GE has got back in the game with new contracts wins.  In April 2015, the company won a contract to supply Con Edison Development with an 8-megawatt-hour battery storage system at a solar project in California.  GE will be integrating lithium-ion batteries rather than its own battery technology into the project.

Where will GE source the lithium-ion batteries for the California project?  So far, spokespersons have been non-committal on the name.  Today’s post profiles a company that may not be a likely ‘bedfellow’ for GE, but it is a leader in lithium ion energy storage technology.

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NewsUncategorized

Hawaiian Home a Solar-Battery Storage Microgrid Showcase

Combining performance-enhanced PV panels, advanced battery storage and cloud-connected system monitoring, a residential microgrid now up and running on the ¨Big Island¨ of Hawaii’s Kona Coast shows how PV and clean tech innovators are bringing renewable energy self-sufficiency closer to commercial, mass-market reality. The smart solar-battery storage microgrid now up and running at Bakken Hale, the home of environmentalist, inventor and entrepreneur Earl Bakken, is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Installed by Aloha State solar installer Renewable Energy Systems    (RES) and Silicon Valley-based Tigo Energy, a ground-mounted array of 176-kW PV panels is able to produce 356-MWh of emissions-free electricity per year over a projected 20-year lifecycle. That’s enough to meet all of Bakken Hale’s power needs, the two project partners stated in a press release.

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NewsUncategorized

Hawaiian Home a Solar-Battery Storage Microgrid Showcase

Combining performance-enhanced PV panels, advanced battery storage and cloud-connected system monitoring, a residential microgrid now up and running on the ¨Big Island¨ of Hawaii’s Kona Coast shows how PV and clean tech innovators are bringing renewable energy self-sufficiency closer to commercial, mass-market reality. The smart solar-battery storage microgrid now up and running at Bakken Hale, the home of environmentalist, inventor and entrepreneur Earl Bakken, is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Installed by Aloha State solar installer Renewable Energy Systems    (RES) and Silicon Valley-based Tigo Energy, a ground-mounted array of 176-kW PV panels is able to produce 356-MWh of emissions-free electricity per year over a projected 20-year lifecycle. That’s enough to meet all of Bakken Hale’s power needs, the two project partners stated in a press release.

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States Already Seek To Delay Clean Power Plan

Fifteen states led by coal-rich West Virginia asked a federal court to stall Obama administration rules intended to cut the use of fossil fuel for power plants and slow climate change.

The request on Thursday is the first move by states to block President Barack Obama’s landmark initiative. It would freeze current regulations as they work to undo the new rules.

The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants by 32 percent by 2030, based on 2005 emission levels, by requiring states and utilities to emit less carbon by using less coal and more solar power, wind power and natural gas.

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States Already Seek To Delay Clean Power Plan

Fifteen states led by coal-rich West Virginia asked a federal court to stall Obama administration rules intended to cut the use of fossil fuel for power plants and slow climate change.

The request on Thursday is the first move by states to block President Barack Obama’s landmark initiative. It would freeze current regulations as they work to undo the new rules.

The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants by 32 percent by 2030, based on 2005 emission levels, by requiring states and utilities to emit less carbon by using less coal and more solar power, wind power and natural gas.

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Stolen Solar Panels and Sabotage A Challenge for Powering India With Renewable Energy

Disappointment spread across Tarun Singh’s face when he saw that parts of his solar power microgrid in eastern India’s Bihar state had been stolen.

Batteries meant to store energy stood disconnected from solar panels and drained of essential acid at the site in Kayam village. Singh, chief executive of Veddis Solars Pvt., said he hadn’t been paid the rent due on the small plant since February.

“I’m on the verge of saying goodbye to the state,” he said in an interview at Kayam, surrounded by cobwebs and grime in a control room that’s supposed to be kept clean. Singh, who’d flown from his southern Indian base in Hyderabad to inspect the grids, said he’d consider relocating the equipment.

The episode sheds light on some of the challenges facing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for a $94 billion expansion of solar power. While Modi’s ambition has led billionaires such as Foxconn Technology Group’s Terry Gou to pledge investment, the question remains whether the 750 million Indians living on less than $2 per day can afford or will embrace green energy.

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Uncategorized

Stolen Solar Panels and Sabotage A Challenge for Powering India With Renewable Energy

Disappointment spread across Tarun Singh’s face when he saw that parts of his solar power microgrid in eastern India’s Bihar state had been stolen.

Batteries meant to store energy stood disconnected from solar panels and drained of essential acid at the site in Kayam village. Singh, chief executive of Veddis Solars Pvt., said he hadn’t been paid the rent due on the small plant since February.

“I’m on the verge of saying goodbye to the state,” he said in an interview at Kayam, surrounded by cobwebs and grime in a control room that’s supposed to be kept clean. Singh, who’d flown from his southern Indian base in Hyderabad to inspect the grids, said he’d consider relocating the equipment.

The episode sheds light on some of the challenges facing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for a $94 billion expansion of solar power. While Modi’s ambition has led billionaires such as Foxconn Technology Group’s Terry Gou to pledge investment, the question remains whether the 750 million Indians living on less than $2 per day can afford or will embrace green energy.

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