Yesterday A123 Systems (AONE) surged on news it received some government cash to develop utility scale battery storage systems. This morning, it’s EnerDel’s (HEV) turn. The company has announced that it will participate in a program to help develop Portland General Electric’s smart grid which is a project funded in part by the DOE. The DOE will provide around $90 million of the $178 million project.
EnerDel will build lithium batteries for five 1MW power systems in order to help manage peak demand and provide back up power when wind and solar power aren’t available. The five systems will provide enough energy to power around 2000 homes for an hour at a time.
Said EnerDel CTO Cyrus Ashtiani, “Energy storage is a key component of the smart grid, as well as a crucial tool for enhancing both the reliability and the availability of renewable but often intermittent energy sources like wind and solar. We expect this sector to be a major growth area for the battery industry. This program is a breakthrough opportunity for EnerDel to prove the capabilities of our systems in partnership with one of the most innovative electric utilities in the country.”
Installation of equipment for this project will take place at 15 sites over the next couple years followed by three years of testing, so it’s a ways off, but certainly exciting news for EnerDel. In my opinion, they stand a much better chance of succeeding in this market than in the electric car market where competition is greater.
Shares of EnerDel (HEV) are soaring on the news, up about 15%.
Having followed the on going change of batteries just in the hand tools used in by all of the different trakes and do-it-your self users I am woundering where does the lithium come from?