Energy storage crowdfunding

What is an energy storage facility?

An energy storage facility comprises an unlimited number of Qnetic, connected together to form a megawatt-scale battery that can support the needs an entire town, for example. Not all batteries are alike—the capability to economically discharge for a long duration sets them apart.

What is compressed air energy storage?

The basic technology behind compressed-air energy storage goes back decades, and can involve pumping air into underground caverns, natural or artificial, then letting it out again. The first underground compressed-air facility was completed in 1978, in Germany; such systems can store and release vast amounts of energy.

Is storage-capacity a new technology?

Many states are now setting storage-capacity targets, and in 2018 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued Order 841, which integrates stored energy into the wholesale electricity market. “There’s been a recognition that this is a technology whose time has come,” Jason Burwen, of the American Clean Power Association, told me.

Should energy storage be a partisan issue?

Energy-storage technologies “are neutral as to the fuel source,” Leah Stokes, a political scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, told me. They “can store any kind of power—clean or dirty.” Storage may become a partisan issue if it begins clearly helping renewable energy to threaten fossil fuels.

How can we store energy?

The work is still at the crowdfunding stage. Just as you can store potential energy by lifting a block in the air, you can store it thermally, by heating things up. Companies are banking heat in molten salt, volcanic rocks, and other materials. Giant batteries, based on renewable chemical processes, are also workable.

How did Quidnet benefit from the energy-storage gold rush?

Quidnet has benefitted from an energy-storage gold rush. In 2018, the Department of Energy awarded thirty million dollars in funding to ten groups, including Quidnet, through a program called Duration Addition to electricitY Storage, or DAYS.