EVs and Storage News

NRG eVgo completed installation of the largest corporate deployment of EV charging stations at Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SPE) lot and its offices in Culver City, California. SPE elected to participate in the eVgo Ready for Electric Vehicle (REV) program to provide turnkey EV charging solutions and charger maintenance and driver support 24 hours a day. The Level 2 chargers, dedicated for the use of individual employees, are compatible with all EVs, fully charge most during the workday and integrate seamlessly with eVgo's comprehensive network.

The world's first commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) process on a coal-fired power plant officially opened at Boundary Dam Power Station in Estevan, Saskatchewan. When fully optimized, SaskPower's new process will capture up to a million tons of carbon dioxide annually. The captured carbon dioxide will be used for enhanced oil recovery, with the remainder stored safely and permanently deep underground and continuously monitored.

NRG eVgo and the City of Hermosa Beach introduced the first EV fast-charging Freedom Station installation on public land in California. The Freedom Station, located in the municipal parking garage at 1301 Hermosa Avenue, supports all EV drivers, regardless of what kind of electric vehicle they drive. All Freedom Station sites currently include CHAdeMO DC fast chargers that can charge an electric vehicle in less than 30 minutes, as well as a standard Level 2 charger to serve EVs that do not have a fast charging option.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded The University of Texas at Austin a $12 million grant to fund carbon storage research aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The four-year DOE grant will fund a carbon storage research project at the university’s Center for Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security. This grant is a renewal of the department’s five-year, $15.5 million research grant to the center in 2009.

NRG eVgo, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, plans to roll out the EZ-Charge (SM) platform, an initiative that will offer EV drivers the ability to access multiple EV charging networks with a single all-access card. The EZ-Charge card will support all eVgo public charging plans and enable EV drivers to enroll in participating partner network plans either through their charging company or directly with eVgo. eVgo expects to begin distributing EZ-Charge cards this summer to EV drivers with participating plans in San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas-Ft.

Hydro-Québec and Sony Corporation (Sony) established a joint venture to research and develop a large-scale energy storage system for power grids. The new company will utilize Hydro-Québec's operation and control technologies for electric power supplies as well as its lithium-ion battery material technology, together with Sony's control technologies for reliable, olivine-type lithium-ion iron phosphate rechargeable batteries and highly scalable module systems. 

Car Charging Group, through its partnership with City Park, has expanded the availability of EV charging services at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) Garage in San Francisco. CarCharging originally deployed EV charging services at the MOMA Garage in 2013 and over the past year, the demand for EV fueling has continued to expand. The charging stations have been consistently utilized, which demonstrates the need for additional public EV charging infrastructure.

The Energy Storage Association (ESA) began engaging directly in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) stakeholder driven market redesign process. The Texas Energy Storage Alliance (TESA) had convened a group of industry members to work collaboratively; that effort has now been folded into the larger national organization. ESA is the forum for broad industry input that will ensure proposed rules will enable the advancement of utility scale energy storage technologies.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) installed a new EV fast-charge station at the SMUD campus. The station features dual capability to accommodate most types of EVs manufactured by domestic and foreign automakers. This station is one of the world's first commercial installations of certified DC fast-charge hardware that meets the new industry standard. The station is a joint SMUD, General Motors and U.S. Department of Energy project. Funding for this station comes from the sale of carbon credits.

Toshiba delivered battery energy storage systems integrating the company's SCiB, an lithium-ion secondary battery to Kyushu Electric Power, for a demonstration project to expand introduction of renewable energy sources on remote islands. The systems have been installed in substations on Tanegashima Island and Amamioshima Island, in Kagoshima prefecture. The demonstration program will run for three years to fiscal 2016.