LG Chem: Storage Battery Leader
by Debra Fiakas CFA The post “Energy Storage Restart,” which was published last week, discussed the efforts by General Electric (GE: NYSE) to get back into the market for utility-scale energy storage. After some difficulties that required the partial closing of its battery manufacturing plant, GE has got back in the game with new contracts wins. In April 2015, the company won a contract to supply Con Edison Development with an 8-megawatt-hour battery storage system at a solar project in California. GE will be integrating lithium-ion batteries rather than...
The Race For Silicon Anodes
Graphite is the most widely used material for battery anodes. The anode is the positively charged electron collector in a battery. It collects and accelerates the electronics emitted by the battery’s cathode. Graphite gets the anode job because it is has excellent electric conductivity and resists heat and corrosion. Plus it is light weight, soft and malleable.
As satisfied as manufacturers might be with graphite anodes, none would balk at an alternative material that boosts battery performance or reduces cost. Scientists believe battery capacity can be increased as much as ten times by using silicon for anodes. It requires six atoms of carbon to bind one...
In Search Of Solid State Battery Stocks
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
Greater energy density or the amount of energy stored is the mission of every battery developer. The higher the energy density, the longer a battery can serve its owner. Scientists have been adjusting circulating chemistry, cloaking electrodes in exotic metals, and otherwise tinkering with conventional battery designs. Debate even spills over into the raw material supply chain as it has recently over the use of expensive and sometimes difficult to source cobalt as an additive to lithium ion battery designs. Others are trying to tame silicon for use in battery anodes.
Perhaps the most daring developers have abandoned conventional battery design...
Alice in EVLand – Cracks in the Looking Glass
John Petersen In his 2006 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush said: "Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology." What a crock of balderdash! If you compare US fuel prices with those in other industrialized countries, gasoline is a screaming bargain and the same can be said for electricity. It's not the energy we use that's a problem. The problem is the...
Alternative Energy Storage: Cheap is Outperforming Cool
John Petersen After devoting several months to articles on arcane technical and economic issues that normal investors should not have to endure, I declared a cease fire last week and advised readers that I was done with technology and planned to focus on more interesting topics like the future of the energy storage sector and making money from energy storage investments. I've spent enough time discussing trees. Now I want to evaluate the forest and show investors how to position their portfolios for the coming of cleantech, the sixth industrial revolution. I hope old friends and new...
Electro Energy Inc. Announces New Development Agreement With In-Q-Tel
Electro Energy Inc (EEEI) and In-Q-Tel, a private, not-for-profit venture group funded by the Central Intelligence Agency, today announced a new technology development agreement for advanced rechargeable bipolar lithium ion (BPLI) batteries. The resulting BPLI battery is intended to exhibit both high-specific energy and high-specific power, due to the efficiency of the EEEI bipolar cell and battery design. In previous work, EEEI has demonstrated BPLI cells with a specific energy greater than 200 Wh/kg and an energy density greater than 400 Wh/l. The development will be conducted at EEEI's battery manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ...
Investing With The Flow Battery
by Debra Fiakas CFA The looming threat of global warming has nearly everyone - except perhaps those bickering with each other in the Whitehouse - scrambling for lower carbon energy sources. Intermittancy remains a stumbling block for several of the lower-carbon renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar energy systems. To be a serious contributor to grid-connected power systems these energy sources need utility scale batteries that can store energy when the sun is down or winds have died away. Unfortunately, with current technology the cost of such battery capacity increases the levelized cost of energy (LCOE)...
When Will Polypore Payoff?
by Debra Fiakas CFA Diagram of a battery with a polymer separator. Lithium ion batteries make it possible to recharge your smart phone, camera and a multitude of other have-to-have-with-us-every-moment devices. Yet the average person knows very little of the inner workings of something so important to our daily lives. One little item in a battery is a highly specialized membrane that fits neatly between opposing electrodes - the positive and negative poles that make an electrical charge. This membrane manages the charge and discharge process. ...
Why Energy Storage Stocks Should be an Easy Double for Investors
For several months I’ve been writing about manufactured energy storage devices and the companies that develop and manufacture them. My basic theme has been that these devices are fundamental enabling technologies for cleantech, the sixth industrial revolution. I’ve repeatedly said that profound economic changes were rapidly evolving and that energy storage would be a major investment theme for decades to come, but even my unbridled optimism could not keep pace with the realities. While most investors have been focusing on obvious problems like bad mortgages, tight credit and recessions, immense changes in the energy sector have gone almost...
Micro-Hybrids – The Fuel Efficiency Innovation of the Decade
John Petersen I've been writing about micro-hybrid vehicles and stop-start idle elimination since May 2009. It's a cheap and simple fuel efficiency innovation that turns the engine off while a car is stopped at a light and automatically restarts the engine when you take your foot off the brake. It's not gee-whiz sexy, but it can boost fuel economy by 5% to 15% in city driving and dramatically improve urban air quality by reducing idling. What could be more sensible? When I first wrote about stop-start in "Why Advanced Lead-acid Batteries Will Dominate the HEV Markets," the...
There’s Graphite In Them Electric Vehicles
by Debra Fiakas CFA The market for lithium ion batteries is expected to reach $46 billion by 2022. That represents 11% compound annual growth over the next six years. Few other markets if any are growing at such a feverish pace. The adoption of electric cars is the center of the excitement, but the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices also plays a part. Suppliers of critical battery materials such as lithium, cobalt and graphite are salivating over potential sales to battery manufacturers. Graphite with its strong conductivity and heat-resistant qualities is a perfect material...
Electro Energy: Drained, or Ready to Recharge?
Bottom-Fishing for Batteries I believe that we have only seen the beginning of the current market decline. You should take that with a grain of salt, since I've been unremittingly bearish since 1999 and for more than half that time, the market has been going up. Even if the market has much further to fall, some stocks may have already taken most of the damage they are likely to take. Knowing that I might be wrong, I've started to do a little bottom fishing among companies that people have been starting to dump as the realize stock prices can...
Congratulating A123 Systems On Its Very Successful IPO
John Petersen This morning Reuters is reporting that A123 Systems, Inc. (AONE) increased the number of shares offered in its IPO from 25 million to 28.1 million and sold those shares at a price of $13.50. If the underwriters exercise their overallotment option, which is usually the case in IPOs of this size, the total IPO proceeds will be $437.5 million before costs, commissions and discounts. This IPO has been a long time coming but it was worth the wait. I want to congratulate the A123 team and the underwriters on a job well done. Assuming full...
Arotech Receives Battery Development Contract from Leading UAV Supplier
Arotech Corporation (ARTX) announced that its Electric Fuel subsidiary has been awarded a development contract to develop a high energy density rechargeable Lithium Battery and Smart Charger from a world leading supplier of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). The batteries and chargers will be used to power the company's man-packed, hand-launched UAV, used for close range, over-the-hill reconnaissance missions.
Why The McCain Proposal Will Do Nothing For Battery Technology
On Monday, John McCain, in a drive to build his environmental credentials, pledged that if he were elected he would initiate a contest to come up with a car battery design that leapfrogs current technology and makes electric car and plug-in hybrids a reality. The winner would get a $300 million prize, or about $1 per American, which according to McCain is a small price to pay for the benefits this technology would yield. A politician would only make such a pledge for one of two reasons: (a) he has no insight into how innovation occurs in an...
Exide: Bargain Basement Battery Stock Ready to Start
Tom Konrad CFA Exide's Sundancer Electric Car. Photo by Frank Lodge, EPA. Public Domain NOTE: Since this article was first published, Exide Technologies (NASD:XIDE) stock has risen 22% from $2.31 to $2.82, but much of that rise was due to media confusion about a positive Credit Suisse research report on the unrelated Indian company Exide Industries, Ltd. Details here. Exide Technologies (NASD:XIDE) is shutting down its battery recycling plant in Frisco, Texas, and selling the surrounding 180...
