Energy storage news: 23.07.14

This week’s energy storage news headlines from our Twitter feed.

• The Society of Automotive Engineers has finalised a new hydrogen fueling standard for light-duty vehicles: SAE J2601.

• BMW and Samsung SDI are expanding their relationship in electric vehicle batteries – increasing technological development and supply quantity. BMW has also said that it is happy to share this electric vehicle battery technology with competing car manufacturers.

• California has received applications for over 2,000MW of energy storage projects to be interconnected to the grid, far in excess of its target. The state has also announced USD$26.5m in grants for microgrid projects that include energy storage.

• As Poland debates new renewable energy legislation, a Polish Energy Storage Association is being formed, in order to promote the importance of energy storage legislation.

• Researchers at Rutgers have developed a catalyst based on carbon nanotubes that could replace platinum in hydrogen fuel production from water.

• Lux Research believes the energy storage market will be worth USD$50bn by 2020, driven by the growth in electric vehicles.

• Japan is introducing USD$20k subsidies on hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and building over 100 hydrogen fueling stations.

• Hyundai thinks that large oil companies should provide the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle fueling infrastructure in the US. The company has also suggested that Tesla has been given an unfair advantage with its Supercharger network, due to government funding.

• A new ‘exfoliation’ or peeling technology for metal-oxide catalysts used in the splitting of water to create hydrogen has been developed by scientists at EPFL.

• Convergent Energy + Power has been given approval to install a lead-acid battery storage plant in Boothbay, Maine.

• Eguana Technologies’ Bi-Direx energy storage inverters will be used by a leading US manufacturer of vanadium flow redox batteries for solar energy storage.

• The UK government is buying 300 electric vehicles and installing chargers in Downing Street, the residence of the prime minister.

• Photon Energy, the German Energy Agency and BAI are piloting a battery-based solar energy storage system for telecom towers in Australia.

• Lithium-ion battery energy storage could benefit from anodes made from sand, according to the University of California, Riverside.

• Mercedes has released details about its upcoming C350 hybrid electric car, which will mainly be targeted at China and North America.

• Aquion Energy, the solar energy storage company, has given Gigaom a tour of its new battery factory.

• Con Edison is proposing the Brooklyn/Queens Demand Management Program – a combination of energy storage, microgrids and efficiency measures – in order to delay having to build a new USD$1bn substation in New York.

• Electric vehicle owners use four times more electricity at night than average consumers, according to research from Outlier.

• Navigant Research says that neighbourhood electric vehicles – golf-cart style, with short range and low speed – are the most popular form of electric vehicle in the world.

• BYD is going to build a factory in Campinas, Brazil, to manufacture electric buses and iron-phosphate battery packs. The site will include a research and development centre for photovoltaic and smart-grid technologies.

• Dragonfly Energy, of Nevada, is looking for funding to develop its lithium-ion battery production and is interested in talking to Tesla.

• Murcia, in Spain, has initiated an electric scooter hire programme.

• Energy storage scientists looking to exhibit their research talents are being invited to post information for free on the Linknovate platform.