realfast95
4 years ago
STPK is aware of one complaint that has been filed on behalf of a purported stockholder of the Company relating to the Merger: Sean Smith v. Star Peak Energy Transition Corp., et al., in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, No. 650344/2021. The complaint alleges that the Proxy Statement contains materially misleading and incomplete information regarding the Merger. The Company has received a draft complaint raising similar allegations from another purported stockholder of the Company.
While STPK believes that the disclosures set forth in the Proxy Statement comply fully with applicable law, in order to resolve the shareholdersâ disclosure claims so as to avoid nuisance, cost and distraction, and to preclude any efforts to delay the closing of the Merger, STPK has determined to voluntarily supplement the Proxy Statement with the supplemental disclosures set forth below (the âSupplemental Disclosuresâ). Nothing in the Supplemental Disclosures shall be deemed an admission of the legal necessity or materiality under applicable laws of any of the disclosures set forth herein. To the contrary, STPK specifically denies all allegations that any additional disclosure was or is required. STPK believes the shareholdersâ claims are without merit.
The Supplemental Disclosures will not affect the merger consideration to be paid to STPKâs stockholders in connection with the Merger or the timing of STPKâs virtual special meeting of stockholders scheduled to be held online via live webcast on April 27, 2021 at 11 a.m., Eastern Time, at https://www.cstproxy.com/starpeakcorp/2021 (the âSpecial Meetingâ). The board of directors continues to recommend that you vote âFORâ the proposals being considered at the Special Meeting.
Supplemental Disclosures to Proxy Statement
The following information should be read in conjunction with the Proxy Statement. All page references in the information below are to pages in the Proxy Statement, and capitalized terms used in this Current Report on Form 8-K shall have the meanings set forth in the Proxy Statement, unless otherwise defined herein. Underlined text shows text being added to a referenced disclosure in the Proxy Statement.
The Proxy Statement is hereby amended as follows:
Adding the following paragraph before the first full paragraph on page 163:
Between August 20, 2020, the date of STPKâs IPO, and September 28, 2020, STPK considered over 89 potential targets, including both privately held companies and assets or divisions owned by publicly traded companies. Of those potential targets, STPK entered into non-disclosure agreements with 11 entities. STPK primarily focused its search on businesses that, in STPKâs view, are best in class within the clean energy industry and the broader energy transition space. STPK prioritized companies that target large addressable markets with long-term growth potential and whose products and technologies have low risk of obsolescence. STPK also focused on companies that could serve as platforms for both organic and acquisitive growth and were led by an experienced management team with a proven track record and complementary capabilities. Throughout this process, STPK leveraged the investing, industry and transaction experience of Sponsor, STPKâs management and the STPK Board to screen, prioritize and diligence potential acquisition candidates. A number of the potential targets that STPK evaluated did not, in STPKâs opinion, meet enough of the criteria it sought in its business combination partner. Following this preliminary evaluation of these 11 companies, STPK determined to focus its resources and efforts in the near-term on Stem, which STPK believed, based on this preliminary evaluation and the experience of its officers and directors, was the most suitable for a business combination.
realfast95
4 years ago
What Bidenâs American Jobs Plan Means for Energy Storage
By John Carrington, Stem CEO | April 1, 2021
https://www.stem.com/what-bidens-american-jobs-plan-means-for-energy-storage/
President Bidenâs American Jobs Plan, unveiled yesterday, contains the most ambitious infrastructure investment program any U.S. president has put forward in decades. The proposed $100 billion investment to transform our electricity grid is significant and will provide more jobs, decarbonize of the grid, drive renewables expansion, and enable grid stability.
While it is too soon to know how portions of the plan might be implemented, its ideas and language offer a roadmap of the administrationâs priorities for advancing clean energy and energy storage as a means of creating jobs, strengthening American competitiveness, and achieving 100% carbon-free electricity. In this blog, I will review some of the planâs key elements and explain what they could mean for energy storage.
Significantly Extended Federal Support for Clean Energy and Storage
One of the planâs more striking aspects is its proposal to extend clean energy tax credits for 10 years, which would offer valuable stability and predictability to clean energy companies, their employees and customers. The on-again, off-again production tax credit has frustrated wind developers for years and constrains project finance. The planâs actual language is:
President Biden is proposing a ten-year extension and phase down of an expanded direct-pay investment tax credit and production tax credit for clean energy generation and storage.
âDirect-payâ is just what it sounds like: an entity receives a direct, immediate payment rather than a (potentially more complicated, longer-term) tax credit. Popular with developers, direct-pay accelerates and facilitates capital flow, helping more projects to get financed sooner. Extending direct-pay for 10 years would be an important catalyst for clean energy project development.
Implications of an ITC for Energy Storage
You will note the language above references tax credits for âclean energy generation and storage.â Thereâs ambiguity here, but my read is that the administration favors an investment tax credit (ITC) for energy storage (often referred to as a âstandalone storage ITCâ or simply a âstorage ITCâ). Currently, energy storage only qualifies for a federal ITC when it is paired with solar.
A standalone storage ITC would improve the economics of energy storage projects across the board: projects that pencil today would be even more attractive economically, and the ITC will open markets that currently do not pencil. Analyst firm Wood Mackenzie has estimated a storage ITC would expand the U.S. market for energy storage by about 15 percent by 2024.
In Texas, which is seeking to build a more resilient grid in the wake of its recent crisis, a storage ITC could provide the measure of financial certainty some developers would need to proceed with energy storage projects in an otherwise uncertain market. In California and Massachusetts, some large-scale standalone storage projects would likely become viable, helping to maintain reliability by adding storage where it is most needed.
In states such as Arizona, Connecticut, and Virginia that are establishing new energy storage programs, a federal storage ITC would solidify the launch of those programs and provide a strong foundation for the energy storage marketplace in those states for years to come.
And for our solar developer and installer partners, a storage ITC would also create a tremendous opportunity to retrofit existing solar systems with energy storage and offer a new value proposition to customers they already know well.
The Interplay Between EVs and Storage
The American Jobs Plan codifies the Biden administrationâs enthusiasm for electric vehicles by putting a price tag of $174 billion on achieving some important tactical milestones (e.g., building a 500,000 national EV charger network, electrifying 20% of school buses) in addition to the bigger-picture strategic goal of retooling the U.S. auto industry to win global EV market share.
What will become widely recognized, is that battery energy storage is the key resource for mitigating the impact of a huge influx of EVs onto the grid â and the larger the vehicles and fleets, the more essential energy storage becomes. Without storage, uncontrolled and unpredictable EV charging loads could unduly stress the grid and trigger expensive distribution system investments â which can be avoided with (cheaper) batteries.
Leveraging Massive Federal Purchasing Power for Clean Energy
Many observers, including me, opined that the federal government could accelerate job creation and economic growth via clean energy if it tapped into its immense purchasing power. Bidenâs plan does exactly that, identifying procurement opportunities to electrify the federal postal fleet, source low-carbon construction materials and jumpstart clean energy manufacturing.
But perhaps most impressively, the plan announces the administrationâs intention to purchase 24/7 clean power for federal buildings â which, it rightly points out, will âdrive clean energy deployment across the market.â Pioneered by Google last fall, 24/7 clean energy sourcing is something only the most forward-thinking companies in the world have begun to embrace; that the U.S. federal government is moving in this direction as well only a matter of months after Google announced the concept, is good news for renewable energy and energy storage.
Whatâs Next?
In releasing the plan, the Biden administration has both identified its priorities and called upon Congress to act. Aspects of Bidenâs plan may receive broad bipartisan support â energy storage in particular is known as a bipartisan winner â but its proposed funding mechanism, raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, may not.
If Congress doesnât act, Biden could seek to pass elements of his plan with a simple Senate majority through the budget reconciliation process (which recently produced the COVID relief bill) as early as September.
Closing Thought
The funding proposed for energy storage is just a tiny fraction of Bidenâs overall plan, but it would still represent the federal governmentâs largest investment in storage. Why now?
The plan references Texasâ recent crisis and the massive economic toll of blackouts on the U.S. economy â up to $70 billion annually, according to the U.S. Department of Energy â and again, the desire to achieve 100% carbon-free energy by 2035.
By announcing unprecedented federal support for energy storage, the Biden administration is implicitly recognizing the key role energy storage will play in modernizing the grid and building a stronger, more competitive U.S. economy. As market signals go, that is about as favorable as it gets.
President Bidenâs American Jobs Plan represents an important and potentially transformative step in the federal governmentâs support for clean energy and its role in job creation and economic growth. As someone who has worked for years alongside many of you in anticipation of such a plan, I am encouraged by the vision and I look forward to continuing to work together in making sure this vision becomes a reality.
realfast95
4 years ago
Strong competition. We need to team up with Tesla since we don't make the batteries.
Buffett Proposes A $8.3 Billion Fix For The Texas Power Grid... There Is Just One Catch
Tyler Durden's Photo
by Tyler Durden
Thursday, Mar 25, 2021 - 08:20 PM
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/buffett-proposes-83-billion-fix-texas-power-grid-there-just-one-catch
One of the main lessons from the deadly Texas polar blast disaster last month which left millions of homes without power for days, is that it provides a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to offer (and implement) fixes. Not surprisingly, power pioneer Elon Musk did just that earlier this month when a Tesla subsidiary - Gambit Energy Storage LLC - was revealed to be secretively building a more than 100 megawatt energy storage project in Angleton, Texas, a town roughly 40 miles south of Houston (a battery that size could power about 20,000 homes on a hot summer day).
Now it's Warren Buffett's turn.
Buffettâs Berkshire Hathaway has proposed an multi-billion plan to help Texas avoid a repeat of Februaryâs blackouts: according to the proposal, the company to be known as Texas Emergency Power Reserve, would invest $8.3 billion to build many new gas-powered plants along with gas storage. That would add about 10,000 megawatts of reliability plants to ERCOT, the grid that sends electricity to about 90% of Texans.
According to the Dallas Morning News and Bloomberg, the conglomerate put together a presentation asking state lawmakers to approve a plan for a new company that would add about 10 gigawatts of gas plants and emergency gas storage.
âWe really want to make sure that this never happens again. So weâre really wanting to partner with the state,â Chris Brown, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Infrastructure Group, said in an interview, although what he really wanted is something else entirely as readers will find out shortly. âThe proposal is simple: state residents should have a reliable source of backup powerâ he said, echoing Elon Musk's own vision of how to "fix" the dilapidated Texas power grid.
Ironically, if Berkshire is successful in its lobbying campaign, Texas would be adding a massive amount of new gas-fired capacity at a time when President Joe Biden is trying to shift the country away from fossil fuels, and in a state thatâs invested heavily in wind and solar power (although was remind readers that it was precisely Texas' outsized reliance on wind power which prompted the collapse, as the cascading failures started once windmills failed due to the freezing temperatures).
And while superficially the proposal makes sense, with Berkshire proposing that the Texas grid operator retain control the plants and tap them to prevent blackouts like the one that left more than 4 million homes and businesses in the dark, there is one catch... or rather a few catches.
While Buffett would make a one time investment of $8.3BN, Berkshire would earn a whopping 9.3% risk free rate of return - unheard of in a day and age when there are $14 trillion in bonds trading with negative yields - which would be paid by consumers after approval from the Public Utility Commission. The Buffett proposal would also stick Texas power customers with paying the fee to cover the costs of the plants.
Additionally, the plan includes a major change to Texasâ deregulated power market, including guaranteed payments for the extra capacity.
In other words, Buffett is generously "offering" Texas taxpayers a deal where he makes a one-time payment and collects a return that is 6 times higher than 10Y Treasurys despite having roughly the same level of risk. In fact, under Buffett's proposal he would make his entire investment back in about 10 years. And while billionaire is laughing all the way to the bank, it is Texas taxpayers who end up footing the bill for any future costs which as February demonstrated, will be substantial.
A spokesman for Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan confirmed to Bloomberg that the office had received the slides and had met with Berkshire regarding the plan. However, as CreditSights utility analyst Andy DeVries writes, âwe see little to no chance of Texas approving that Buffett proposal,â for one simple reason: "If they were going to spend that amount of money - which is a big if - they would do it with Texas companies."
Berkshire, however, is undaunted, and believes it could have its plan operational by the winter of 2023, according to the slides. The proposal would cost less than winterizing the stateâs power generators or creating a so-called capacity market where generation units are paid to provide supplies in future years, according to Berkshire.
The additional capacity created by Berkshire would ensure that no customer would be without power for more than three hours, the company said. The Texas Reliability Corp. would offer a $4 billion performance guaranty provided by an investment graded counterparty.
The other catch: Buffett's proposal flies against the very principles that makes the Texas energy market unique. The proposal will face loud opposition, especially from heavy industrial users of electricity who want to pay for power they use, not power pledged for emergencies, which is precisely what Berkshire - which has perfected the insurance model - is hoping to implement. Texas generators also would want to get in on the action, and one observer called the Berkshire proposal âa one-company capacity market.â
It's why Height Securities analyst Josh Price said he was âskepticalâ that the idea would have traction with lawmakers.
âThe key question will be whether policymakers are willing to forego market-based principles if a non-competitive approach would be more cost-effective,â he said in an email.
Non-competitive being the key word here, and applies perfectly to Buffett, 90, who is hoping to extend his folksy crony capitalist ways to yet another state. We can only hope that Texans are smart enough to read between the lines.
But the biggest reason why the Berkshire proposal won't work is that competitors would love to be part of the proposed solution, too. And while generators have proposed a capacity market for Texas in recent years, lawmakers have passed on those bills. They will do the same again, unless somehow their palms end up being well-greased just before the decision is made.
realfast95
4 years ago
more propaganda from stem twitter
https://www.powermag.com/best-is-yet-to-come-for-energy-storage-technology/
âBest Is Yet to Comeâ for Energy Storage Technology
Advancements in batteries, along with an improved regulatory environment and more investment, could make this decade the Roaring â20s for energy storage.
Many areas have been considered a focus for the electric power industry in recent years. The grid continues to face several challenges, as technology advancements transform the way electricity is produced and delivered.
Industry analysts have told POWER that energy storage, be it from batteries, thermal systems, mechanical storage, hydrogen production, or pumped hydropower, is critical to the advancement of the power sector. The need for storage is considered paramount to the electrification of transportation and other businesses, and to continued growth in renewable energy.
âFor energy storage, the best is definitely yet to come,â said Ryan Brown, co-founder and CEO of Salient Energy, a Canada-based zinc-ion battery manufacturer. Brown told POWER, âWe know that the industry is still in its infancy in almost all respects. While adoption is already meaningful and rapidly accelerating, a clean energy world will require trillions of dollarsâ worth of additional capacity to be installed.
âThe increasingly favorable regulatory environment for energy storage, combined with the evolution of business models that are bringing more capital into the space, means that the 2020s will be a breakout decade for the energy storage sector,â Brown said.
1. Tesla is among the companies driving growth in energy storage. The companyâs Megapack technology, shown here in an artistâs rendering, is a utility-scale storage product. The company in a recent earnings report said its 2020 energy storage deployments âfor the first time ⌠surpassed 3 GWh in a single year, which is an 83% increase compared to the prior year [2019].â Courtesy: Tesla
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in a summer 2020 report said batteries are a key part of the energy transition (see sidebar), especially when it comes to providing grid energy storage and electrifying transport. Battery energy storage systems (BESS) have grown significantly in the U.S. over the past decade (Figure 1). The EIA said that in 2010, seven U.S. battery storage systems accounted for 59 MW of power capacity. By year-end 2018, there were 125 systems in operation, with 869 MW of installed power capacity. Those EIA figures do not include recent capacity additions, including the 1.2 GW of storage installed in the U.S. in 2020 set to come online in the next year, most of it in California.
Caribbeanâs Largest System Takes Shape
Ground was broken in December for construction of the Caribbeanâs largest solar generation and energy storage system, being built on St. Kitts Island. Itâs an example of how storage is supporting the power grid, particularly in developing areas. The Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, and the state-owned St. Kitts Electric Co. (SKELEC) launched the project with the owner Leclanché, a Swiss energy storage company that is serving as the prime engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor. The system will provide between 30% and 35% of the islandâs baseload energy needs for the next 20â25 years.
The $70 million microgrid project is a fully integrated system consisting of three core components: a 35.7-MW solar photovoltaic system (the solar field), a 14.8-MW/45.7-MWh lithium-ion battery energy storage system (BESS), and Leclanchéâs proprietary energy management system (EMS) software. The systemâs batteries will be housed in 14 custom-designed enclosures near the main SKELEC power station and adjacent to the solar field. A portion of the generated electricity will meet the islandâs daily peak power demand; the remaining energy will charge the large-scale BESS to meet a second peak demand after the sun sets.
âThis clean energy project marks a significant milestone for our citizens, tourist economy, our broader business community, and indeed the entire Caribbean region,â said Dr. The Honorable Timothy Harris, St. Kitts and Nevis prime minister. âThe amount of carbon dioxide emissions we will reduceânearly three-quarters of a million metric tons over 20 yearsâis a significant demonstration of our strong policy for clean, renewable energy.â
Leclanché has worked with SKELEC to develop the system. The company will own and operate the facility under its strategic build, own, and operate model, and invest through its St. Kitts subsidiary, SOLEC Power, with partner Solrid. Its EMS software will integrate all the components of the system and efficiently manage the delivery of electricity to the SKELEC grid, while also providing spinning reserve, frequency regulation, and load-balancing functions.
âTogether, we have designed a system whose construction and ongoing energy production will be paid for over time from the sale of clean and reliable solar energy. We are pleased to have accomplished both objectives while developing a project financeable by well-established institutional investors,â said Leclanché CEO Anil Srivastava.
Once completed, which is anticipated in the first half of 2022, the solar and storage system will replace more than four million gallons of diesel fuel per year. It is expected to generate about 61,300 MWh of electricity in its first year.
âBryan Urban is executive vice president North America for Leclanché.
Kelly Speakes-Backman, former CEO of the Energy Storage Association who was recently named to a top post at the U.S. Dept. of Energy, told the audience at POWERâs Distributed Energy Conference last year that additions of battery storage doubled in 2020, and probably would have tripled if not for construction slowdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lower battery costs have supported growth. The EIA said the cost of utility-scale battery storage in the U.S. fell almost 70% between 2015 and 2018. The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) projects that increased battery production, and market competition, will continue to drive costs down. NREL recently said it sees mid-range costs for lithium-ion batteries falling another 45% by 2030.
âLithium-ion batteries remain the defining technology for new energy storage projects,â said Brown, while noting change is coming. âNew technologies that offer performance and material cost improvements, while taking advantage of lithium-ionâs low-cost manufacturing, show serious promise for the space.â
Range of Solutions
The many types of energy storage technologies include batteries, with a range of electrochemical storage solutions, including advanced chemistry batteries, flow batteries, and capacitors. Thereâs also thermal storage, capturing heat and cold to create energy on demand or offset energy needs. Mechanical storage includes technologies to harness kinetic or gravitational energy to store electricity.
2. The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility is located at the site of Vistra Energyâs natural gas-fired Moss Landing Power Plant in California, owned by Vistra since it acquired the facilityâs previous owner, Dynegy, in 2018. Phase 1 of the energy storage project was connected to the power grid in December 2020. The 300-MW/1,200-MWh battery energy storage system is among the worldâs largest. Phase 2 of the project is expected to begin operating this year, adding another 100 MW/400 MWh of capacity. Courtesy: Vistra Energy
âWeâve been following storage for years, and itâs always been âalmostâ there,â said Morten Lund, a partner in the Energy Development group with Stoel Rives, and chair of the firmâs Energy Storage Initiative. Lund said having storage attached to solar power installations âis almost standard for the U.S. You can use peakers [gas-fired peaking plants] for your short-term leveling, and storage when you need to take care of overgeneration. It makes it easily the most cost-effective solution for that problem in California [Figure 2].
âWeâve been through a few technology cycles,â Lund told POWER. âLithium-ion is the dominant technology, and is likely to stay that for the foreseeable future. Itâs relatively cheap, and it works, [and] the stuff that works better right now is more expensive. In this country, these decisions are made by the market, and the market looks for the good-enough, low-cost thing of the moment.â
Storage tech includes pumped hydropower, creating large-scale reservoirs of energy with stored water. And then thereâs hydrogenâwhere excess electricity generation can be converted into hydrogen via electrolysis and stored.
âHydrogen is by far the most exciting recent technology to be advanced by industry, albeit, it, too, is an old technology that has been given a new lease on life,â said Brian Restall, senior director for Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a renewable energy investment company. âHydrogen is by far the biggest competition to batteries for stationary and vehicle applications.â
Restall said itâs important to develop alternatives to lithium-ion-based storage systems. âAs electric vehicles become more accepted and popular, lithium-ion batteriesâ supply chains are coming under pressure to supply both stationary and vehicle applications,â Restall told POWER. âFor stationary energy storage, lithium-ion has a relatively limited ability to support 2-hour-plus energy storage needs. As a result of this and also ESG [environmental, social, and governance] concerns over cobalt, it is good to see industry investing in alternative chemistry such as LFP [lithium-iron-phosphate] to replace lithium-ion, and also the rise in flow batteries such as Eos [which offers a zinc hybrid cathode device].â
âI am hoping that hydrogen as an energy storage medium will become viable. Hydrogen has almost been there for a long time,â said Kelly Echols, a partner with Stoel Rives and co-chair of the firmâs Energy Technologies Working Group. âIâm hopeful that we may actually be on the cusp, where this P2H [power to hydrogen] will become a reality, where it can be produced at a low-enough point to be cost-effective.â
Echols told POWER, âThere does seem to be a demand, essentially in a fuel cell. You can store it longer, and with fuel cells, the storage capability, the ways you can hold onto that hydrogen, it could be longer. There does seem to be a lot of interest in this combined electrical hydrogen future, where theyâre complementary to each other, not competitive⌠where hydrogen is used in long-haul trucking, and we see interest in air transport.â
Eric Martin, a Stoel Rives partner focused on natural resource development, told POWER, âFrom a hydrogen perspective, the utilities that are facing this prospect are where the public is concerned about GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions, and climate change. Itâs a way to adapt their existing infrastructure in a less-climate-intensive way. Then thereâs the demand function from the end-users. If youâre the owner/operator of a fleet, and youâre [deciding] what type of vehicles youâre going to have, then itâs feasible [hydrogen] could be implemented.â
Hardware, Software, Reliability
The hardware involved with energy storageâbatteries, inverters, etc.âreceives a lot of attention in storage discussions. Shamik Mehta, director for product marketing for Data Platform at Intertrust, told POWER, though, that âsoftware is one of the most important BESS components. The software controls and sets limits on how much each cell can be charged to, discharged to, how fast to charge or discharge, and more.â
Mehta said the software âhas to detect the state of charge and depth of discharge of each individual cell and monitor each cellâs health and temperature. When a typical battery pack can run up to tens of thousands of cells, this quickly becomes a challenge. Whether itâs energy arbitration, demand response, or other energy storage applications, the software and its associated algorithms decide the right times to charge and discharge, controlling how much, far, or fast to charge or discharge each cell and pack, and when.â
âWhere the battery really has a place is in reliability,â said Anthony Shaw, CEO and founder of Progeneration Energy, a Texas-based energy project developer. âI think storage is the next evolution. If youâre comfortable with solar, then the next step is to ask about the storage aspect. Right now, for many, storage is kind of a nice to have. The assumption is that if the battery is being used simply to store excess power, it doesnât pencil.â
Shaw told POWER about a project his company worked onâa facility that âwanted the added benefit of backup power. For them, having a storage component made sense.â He said the cost of batteries has been an issue, but technology advancements are helping in that regard.
âTheyâre moving in the right direction, and theyâre moving very fast,â he said. âThe cost of [initiating] scaled production is probably the next step.â
Zinc Airâa Breakthrough?
An international group of researchers in January announced they had reached a breakthrough in the development of zinc-air batteries, an alternative to lithium-ion that could be cheaper to produce and involve fewer mining challenges. The group, led by Wei Sun, a researcher at the University of Münster in Germany, said they are close to producing a battery that wonât catch on fire thanks to its incorporation water, along with a hydrophobic zinc salt.
The battery could be especially beneficial for utility-scale energy storage, said Chunsheng Wang, director of the Center for Research in Extreme Batteries at the University of Maryland and a co-author of a paper that was published in the journal Science. âWe think this has potential to compete with lithium-ion batteries,â Wang said.
Zinc-air batteries typically have not been used for grid energy storage because of their chemical instability and relatively short lifecycle, the group said. But Wang said these batteries could be safer than lithium-ion cells because they incorporate nonflammable water and âopen cell architecture,â rather than a closed structure. Wang said zinc also is less environmentally destructive to mine and produce compared with lithium.
Roberto Denti, operations director at Greece-based storage developer Systems Sunlight, told POWER that while most of the focus in energy storage âhas been on the consumer automotive sector, there is significant opportunity for development in the industrial sectorâmore specifically, the renewable energy sector, to create safe, reliable, and sustainable batteries for heavy-duty applications such as energy storage for solar and wind farms. The opportunity also lies in other areas where industrial batteries are needed such as shipping, electric buses, and automated guided vehicles,â or AGVs, which is Sunlightâs market.
âBy developing new technologies that will usher in a clean energy future, we will hopefully see a wide-scale adoption of energy storage applications, leading to a fully electrified industry,â Denti said.
âDarrell Proctor is associate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
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