One Step Closer to a Five Minute EV Charge

Feb 2, 2021

An Israeli company called StoreDot has just announced it has made 1000 samples of its lithium-ion battery variant available for commercial testing to prove it can be recharged in five minutes. These are small batteries, but big enough that the company believes they can make their point. Their breakthrough is in replacing the usual graphite anodes with metalloid nanoparticles. Ultimately the company wants to move to a “silicon-dominant” anode structure but believes this current step is enough to be attractive to certain battery applications like scooters and drones.

EVE Energy in China is StoreDot’s manufacturing partner. They indicate the new batteries can be produced on standard lithium-ion manufacturing equipment, which could be a very important feature for rapid adoption.

Take a look at their press release. It has a link to an interesting video.

Remember that fast charging will also require high-voltage chargers and connections to the power grid at a level or in a way that does not cause voltage sags on the system, so some innovations will be necessary. Nevertheless, the prospect of being able to get a full recharge in about the time it takes to get a full fuel tank on a conventional vehicle is huge.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

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Moss Adams, PowerSoft.biz, Greenberg Traurig, Momentum,

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

New Horizons in the Relationship Between Ratepayers and the Utility

Dec 7, 2020

If you were ever curious about the new ways utilities may be relating to their customers now and in the future, a great way to get a quick introduction is to watch the video of this outstanding discussion on the topic we did on December 3. It was probably the most informative MeetUp we have had, and one of the most popular with 46 people attending. If you missed it, you can view the recording on our YouTube Channel and below.

We had three outstanding speakers. Dr. Karen Herter started things off by reviewing her experiments on getting amazing demand reductions using clever communications technology and instantaneous information on the changing prices of electricity. She had done one experiment piggybacking a signal on the FM broadcast of local Capital Radio. Another used a small in-home receiver. But that was a minor part of what she found out. She had customers use a number of interactive thermostats and pre-cooling settings to see what those customers considered the best combination of features and ease of use. With the best system there were astonishing cost savings and demand reduction, far more than Time of Day rates had achieved. She is on loan to the CEC to help them devise the best strategies for applying her work. The key she indicated was getting a much better database of rates and communication protocols with standardization so that more vendors of energy-saving equipment can rely on that information to control their devices.

Tanya Barham of the Community Energy Lab in Oregon talked about her experience, borne out of various companies she had worked for previously, in finding simple systems to apply AI control to reduce energy use and costs in schools, churches and municipal buildings. She sees this expanding to become part of the strategy for decarbonizing buildings. She agreed that the kind of database work Dr. Herter was doing was absolutely essential to provide wider applications of user-based demand reductions. In her work, she was seeing a two-month payback on investments made in simple software systems and sensors to manage building energy use.

Ryan Braas of SMUD introduced us to the SMUD Energy Store, an initiative that is showing great results in getting energy-saving devices in the hands of users through an online store. SMUD is continuing to expand its offerings on the Store site, but one of the most popular features, Ryan said, was the “Instant Rebate”. While utilities across the country offer rebates to customers purchasing various energy-saving devices, often a great deal of paperwork and wait time is needed to actually get the money—fill out a form, mail it in with a copy of the receipt for the device and a copy of a recent bill to verify one is a customer of the utility, wait for the request to be entered into the system at the utility and 30-60 day later a check arrives in the mail. With the Energy Store, the rebate is taken immediately and deducted from the price of the device. The user is already verified as a customer and the proof of purchase is inherent as a part of the process. So bingo no wait, no extra paperwork. This is a great example of a utility establishing an entirely new relationship with its customers, one the customers end up valuing highly. If you are SMUD customer and haven’t visited the Energy Store you should. Go the the Smud.org site and find it.

The three presentations were followed by a lively Q&A, and more importantly, the audience used the Chat Room function to ask questions and get answers there as well. This is really becoming a very useful way to inform our cleantech community. If you haven’t attended one of these monthly sessions, you really should. We clearly are getting people far from our home territory participating, and that is making it all the better.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, EY, BlueTech Valley, Revrnt, Moss Adams, PowerSoft.biz

Momentum, College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

Tesla Battery Day

Oct 5, 2020

There were many groans when Elon Musk did not come forward with a big blockbuster announcement like the 500 Wh/kg battery at under $100/kWh capacity. But that reaction misses the point. Tesla has made a number of substantial pivots in its battery design that are setting the stage to reach the blockbuster stage faster than most expect.

When Tesla announced its Nevada Gigafactory (>1 GWh in the capacity of the batteries produced per year), my immediate reaction was: “Oh no, his factory will be obsolete the day it opens”. That was because he chose a battery size, electrolyte type, and chemistry that were solidly conventional (with all its flaws) on the day the announcement was made but overlooked how fast battery technology was improving. In the three years, it took to get the Gigafactory humming, much better batteries were becoming available.

Here was what I missed: Tesla did not know much about building batteries. They had to learn and took a low-risk approach by building a well-known battery with dozens of suppliers to support it. In doing so, it could avoid making battery packs the limiting item in EV production. Turns out that was brilliant. And it allowed them to do some other stunts like the PowerWall.

Now that Tesla has learned the battery-building process (in record time probably), it can step out and build the next generation of batteries and battery packs faster (and better) than anyone else. Most people at Battery Day likely didn’t appreciate this advance. The downside for Tesla is that they likely bought millions of dollars of equipment they now don’t need.

One example was the initial use of the spiral-wound, sort-of-AA size batteries. Tesla was eloquent about how that was the right solution when anybody in battery R&D knew that was baloney. The spiral-wound battery was a holdover from its use in zinc (acid) and nickel (alkaline) cathode batteries. Li-ion batteries have much less conductive material and so have a lot of internal resistance, leading to heat build-up during charging. The result is the slow charge and discharge rates of Li-ion batteries (such as 1/6th of the battery capacity per hour). Other battery shapes mitigate this problem, but Tesla disregarded those.

Musk announced they are now moving to a much larger cylindrical battery (the size of the old dry cells with screw posts on the top—am I the only one who remembers these?) without the single tabs. Instead, Tesla has come up with windings that look like overlapping shingles and have multiple connection points. They call them “tabless” cells. These have significantly lower internal electrical resistance so that they generate much less heat leading to lower cooling requirement. And they have higher power density and faster recharge rates. Now Musk says that anyone that does not use this format will not be competitive in EVs. So much for the little batteries being the ideal choice. Head fake!

Among other changes were:

Substituting dry powder electrolytes for the conventional wet paste, cutting manufacturing costs, and reducing processing steps substantially.
Eliminating processing of raw materials for the cathode
Using a nickel cathode for higher capacity
Redesigning the structure of the battery pack and the vehicle frame to reduce weight and complexity

The net result of all the changes is an expected 56% drop in cost/kWh in battery capacity and an increase in factory output to 1 TWh per year (making it a Terafactory rather than a Gigafactory). They hope to reach 200 GWh per year by 2020. Tesla’s target is to have a $25,000 EV with a good range in three years, leveraging all they are achieving.

If you want to learn more, here’s a good article and a short YouTube video. And the whole presentation via YouTube is here.

We had blogged on even bigger advances Tesla has underway for its batteries, but for now still in the shadows.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Simon is the Chair of CleanStarts Board. A seasoned energy executive and entrepreneur with 45 years of experience in business, government, and non-profits.

CleanStart Sponsors

Weintraub | Tobin, EY, BlueTech Valley, Revrnt, Moss Adams, PowerSoft.biz

College of Engineering & Computer Science at Sacramento State

California’s Zero Emission Vehicle Goal a Boost to Innovation

Sep 30, 2020

California’s recent goal to have 100% Zero-Emission Vehicles (ZEV) by 2035 represents a big opportunity for innovation in related services. An Executive Order by Governor Newsom continues aggressive leadership in California by focusing on vehicle emissions. California has focused on vehicle emissions, which are over 20% of its Greenhouse Gas Emissions, with AB 1803 and AB 32 and former Governor Brown’s Executive Order to have 5 million EVs by 2030. These executive orders are actually directed toward the Air Resources Board to create the rules to achieve the stated goals.

There are two thoughts around this. One, it isn’t much faster than we were already going and Second, it supports investment in innovative charging services.

It is impressive but fairly slow. Why couldn’t we do this much faster? With over 15 ZEVs on the market, more than double that in Plug-in Hybrids, and 10 more ZEVs arriving in 2021 there are plenty of models. Tesla has outlined the road to a sub $100 per kWh battery and several light-duty trucks will be coming on the market. I would have liked to see a more aggressive approach that would have rewarded early innovators more.

The most important takeaway is that this does set the stage for innovation around ZEVs. Commonly vehicle innovation is associated with large OEM’s like Ford and Toyota, while there are companies shaking that up like Tesla, most don’t have the patient financial backing to compete. The big innovation is going to be around supporting this goal. What does that entail? New “fueling” infrastructure, charging and hydrogen, that needs development and user education. Tesla built a Fast Charging network that has supported their growth, it is easy to imagine OEMs and others investing in ones for new cars.

There are several behaviors and preferences EV owners exhibit that could be opportunities for developing charging with auxiliary services. Putting Fast Chargers (50 kw or greater) in shopping centers or concierge charging like free wire are two examples of possibilities. This EO gives startups a stronger position against skepticism when seeking investment. I am really looking forward to seeing what innovations come out of this.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas is the Executive Director of CleanStart. Thomas has a strong background in supporting small businesses, leadership, financial management and is proficient in working with nonprofits. He has a BS in Finance and a BA in Economics from California State University, Chico. Thomas has a passion for sustainability and a commitment to supporting non-profits in the region.