Fourth Power’s take on long-duration energy storage sounds like something out of a James Bond film. The thermal batteries come complete with superheated liquid tin and argon-filled hermetically sealed chambers. The company’s goal, though, is far more prosaic — to store electricity cheap enough to make solar and wind an obvious choice for 24/7 power. […]
Even Tesla’s energy storage business, which has been a small, yet notable bright spot, can’t escape the cloud that’s hanging over the company. For the second consecutive quarter, deployments of its Powerwall and Megapack stationary storage products have declined, according to stats released by Tesla. In the second quarter of this year, the company installed
Tesla’s energy storage business gets sucked into the company’s downward spiral Read More »
Tesla is a business built, in part, on government regulations and incentives, from a Department of Energy loan guarantee in 2009 to the regulatory credits it sells to other automakers, which have driven a third of its $32 billion in profits since 2012. Now, the company’s energy business — a rare bright spot amid faltering demand
Tesla pleads for Senate to spare its booming energy business Read More »
Republican leadership in the Ways and Means committee of the U.S. House of Representatives released Monday night a draft of a reconciliation bill that seeks to undo much of the Inflation Reduction Act. The landmark 2022 law implemented a range of incentives that spurred the production of clean energy, electric vehicles, carbon capture, and battery
House GOP wants to cut parts of the Inflation Reduction Act while sparing others Read More »
Few markets are moving as rapidly as China’s automotive sector. There, new models are rolled out in as little as 18 months, putting tremendous pressure on legacy Western automakers, which need four-plus years to go from concept to sales floor. “With the increasingly short development cycles in China, it’s driving a huge amount of cost
Breathe lands $21M Series B to predict battery performance Read More »
In less than a year, Base Power has grown from a stealthy startup to one of the largest battery fleets in Texas. Now, the company has raised $200 million to fund a rapid expansion, including dozens more megawatt-hours of battery storage and plans for a domestic battery factory. The Series B round was led by
a16z backs Base Power in $200M round for home backup batteries Read More »
Plenty of materials — from sulfur and sodium to manganese and organic molecules — have tried to topple the ubiquitous lithium-ion battery. And, so far, they’ve all failed. Organic batteries, which are built from some of the most abundant chemicals here on Earth, including carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, has been perhaps the most frustrating failure.
XL Batteries is using petrochemical infrastructure to store solar and wind power Read More »
Getting rid of fossil fuels is relatively simple for some things. Housing? Replace furnaces with heat pumps. Cars and light trucks? Ditch internal combustion for batteries and electric motors. Yet for many industries like cement, steelmaking, and more, it’s hard to replace the heating power of fossil fuels. But Dan Stack thinks bricks have a
Phillip Man was burned out. He had founded a watch trading company with his flatmate, but the grind was wearing him down. “We did that for ten years,” Man said. “It’s very difficult to keep yourself motivated when you know the whole reason for your operation is to sell expensive stuff to wealthy people.” He
Former watch trader is now building the AWS of grid storage, Terralyr Read More »
Phillip Man was burned out. He had founded a watch trading company with his flatmate, but the grind was wearing him down. “We did that for ten years,” Man said. “It’s very difficult to keep yourself motivated when you know the whole reason for your operation is to sell expensive stuff to wealthy people.” He
Former watch trader is now building the AWS of grid storage, Terralayr Read More »
