Batteries

Long-duration energy storage

The biggest grid storage project using old batteries is online in Texas

Startup Element Energy set out to prove that second-life batteries could deliver cheaper energy storage safely and at scale.

By Julian Spector . 21 November 2024

Startup Element Energy installed 53 megawatt-hours of used electric vehicle batteries in West Texas earlier this year, the largest project of its kind so far. (Element Energy)

Electric vehicles

A new generation of cheaper batteries is sweeping the EV industry

A form of lithium-ion battery called LFP is becoming increasingly popular among automakers due to its advantages on cost, safety, and materials.

By Tim Stevens . 12 November 2024
Batteries

Moment Energy plans to mass-produce grid storage from used EV batteries

The Canadian startup repackages electric-vehicle batteries for commercial customers. Now it’s got $20 million from the DOE to build its first gigafactory in Texas.

By Julian Spector . 5 November 2024
EV charging

New York City tests a solar-powered electric-school-bus microgrid

Utility Con Edison and school-bus operator First Student see bus-charging depots equipped with solar and batteries as a win-win that supports the power grid.

By Jeff St. John . 4 November 2024
Virtual power plants

Hundreds of New Yorkers got free batteries to help clean up the grid

A novel collaboration between solar installer Sunrun and utility Orange & Rockland shows how New York could tap household solar generation to advance climate goals.

By Julian Spector . 30 October 2024
Batteries

A Massachusetts town uses batteries to help its grid — and its schools

Batteries can serve double-duty, shoring up the grid and providing backup to buildings when the power goes out. This project shows how.

By Jeff St. John . 7 October 2024
Transmission

Why won’t PJM let batteries and clean power bolster a stressed-out grid?

The country’s biggest grid operator is preventing developers from adding batteries to existing projects that have extra grid space, in defiance of a federal mandate.

By Jeff St. John . 3 October 2024
Clean energy

Solar and batteries are helping Texas weather heat waves. Here’s how.

Relentless heat has caused Texas to keep breaking electricity-demand records this summer. Good thing solar and batteries are breaking records, too.

By Jeff St. John . 28 August 2024
Long-duration energy storage

Form Energy set to build world’s biggest battery in Maine

The long-duration storage pioneer won DOE grant money to construct a massive iron-air battery intended to help a strained pocket of the New England grid.

By Julian Spector . 15 August 2024
Fun stuff

Cartoon: Bigger batteries, bigger bunnies

By Climatoonist . 9 August 2024
EV charging

In a first, electric Ford F-150 trucks are powering homes in Baltimore

Plenty of utilities are talking about using EV batteries as grid assets. Baltimore Gas & Electric is actually doing it.

By Julian Spector . 1 August 2024