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storage

Energy Storage: Out of the Lab and Onto the Grid

As deployments take hold, real-world challenges abound.

Energy storage has advanced rapidly, leaving the lab and entering a phase of deployment on the grid. Storage's advancements are a result of its promise as well as the tireless support of industry stakeholders who modeled, tested, evaluated and demonstrated the technology.
Byline: 

Richard Fioravanti

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Creative Disruption

Today’s technologies are causing utilities to rethink their business models.

Fifteen years into the 21st Century, the utility industry is being asked to think forward, beyond 2050. To some, that's a bit of a stretch for a mostly regulated enterprise that has been producing power and sending the electrons reliably for the last 150 years or so. To many others, though, it's past time for an evolution.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein, Editor-in-Chief

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Energy Storage: The Utility's Best Friend

Perhaps the best way to think of energy storage is as an injection of much-needed intelligence for the grid. Energy storage will fine-tune the relationship between a bewilderingly complex asset base and a sprawling, diverse and demanding spectrum of customers in real time. Energy storage systems will act like energy grid computers and control systems, not just bulk repositories for electrons.
Byline: 

John Jung

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The Case for Smart Grid

Funding a new infrastructure in an age of uncertainty.

The world’s electricity supply will need to triple by 2050 to keep up with demand. What follows is a look at where we are, and what may lie ahead, with a focus on the the scope of the problem, regulatory reform initiatives now underway, and how to go about rethinking the business models that might evolve.
Byline: 

Massoud Amin

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Radical Candor

Making ‘Clean Coal’ More than an Oxymoron.

Are clean coal efforts likely to fail? Yes. Does that mean investing is foolish? No. Here are eight ways I think the industry should change its clean coal messaging if it wants to win over the people who matter most.
Byline: 

Peter Sandman

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Microgrids: Friend or Foe for Utilities?

For many, it’s the next logical step for smart grid technology.

A small, but growing, number of utilities are embracing these technologies. Microgrids offer a networking platform that the utility can both aggregate and optimize.
Byline: 

Peter Asmus

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Behind the Meter: What's In Store

Key steps for companies considering on-site energy storage.

The energy storage market is gaining momentum. Drivers: Growing penetration of renewable energy in the resource mix; Increasing focus on climate change and resource scarcity; Growing prevalence of demand charges for commercial and industrial energy users; and various other regulatory changes.
Byline: 

Brian Carey and Catherine Potter

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Integrated Energy

Distributed energy + distributed controls = distributed benefits.

Utility business models are at risk in a world of distributed energy resources and local intelligent controls, such as microgrids. But the real revolution may lie in customer expectations, where third parties threaten to take ownership.
Byline: 

Sunil Cherian

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RES Americas Building Commercial Large Energy Storage Systems Near Chicago

Submitted by aburr on Tue, 2014-11-11 12:49

Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. (RES Americas) developed two grid-scale energy storage projects outside of Chicago that, once completed in 2015, will be the largest, fully commercial energy storage projects in North America. RES Americas will develop and construct the two 19.8-MW energy storage systems, each having the ability to store 7.8 MWh of energy. The first project, Elwood Energy Storage Center, will be located in West Chicago and the second project, Jake Energy Storage Center, in Joliet.