That sounds like a great start up. Are you allowed to clarify what you mean by efficient infrastructure? That is, do you mean the topology of the network, the routing on the links or the type of nodes? What type of algorithms do you use for load balancing? Are you storing on more efficient batteries for example? What is the chemistry of your batteries? Or are they the dual, fuel based?
Sorry, this has been a bit of a ramble just curious about your system.
He stresses that financing, generation and distribution must all be improved in sync for a successful transition to occur. This is based on his experience in Europe helping them transition to distributed renewable energy.
It's funny you mention that - that book has been making its way around at work, and I've got it sitting on my desk to read right now.
I think the author is right on, though I bet we'll see some significant incremental progress in the next couple years. I also think, based on the blurbs I've seen, that he's missing out on one key part of the equation that a lot of non-energy startups can go after - intelligence in the system. We'll be building the distribution, storage and generation side, and the smart grid will continue to plug into more and more devices, but it's the smarts of the system at scale, doing things like we've all been working on in the social space for a few years now, that will take those raw materials to the next level, and do something really clever that none of us have thought about yet.
For me, the biggest surprise in the interview was the reaction of the legacy energy companies. At first, they were very unhappy with the idea of independent, distributed generation (no surprise). But once it became clear that A) It's happening with or without them. And B) There's a new role for them in distribution intelligence. They got on board and now are actually pushing progress forward.
It's a great company to work for. Lots of smart, motivated folks with tons of experience both in the energy industry and other connected industries. I'm in the second wave of new hires, working as an architect on the software system that will be managing the scale of the infrastructure as we build out. That said, my knowledge is obviously fairly specific to the software, and the hardware bit that I've come to understand is primarily through osmosis :) To try and answer what I can without violating the usual secret squirrel stuff:
Efficient infrastructure - we're able to charge and discharge at a high level of input to output efficiency. Typically, in the energy storage business, you lose a lot of energy via inverters and other technology. Our secret sauce gets around a lot of this, though I don't think I'm able to disclose exactly how it works. It's incredibly elegant in it's simplicity though, and can plug directly into the wild west of the grid. We're also able to network together a significant amount of capacity in almost any configuration for a very reasonable cost per KW. That means we can take our storage system and sell you 80kw/h discharged over 4 hours (20kw per hour), or 40kw over 2 hours, or just keep adding capacity to change those numbers further. While we're a bit young to be just "plug and play", we'll get there as time goes by.
In terms of battery technology, we have a few tricks up our sleeves and are working with a variety of researchers, but for the most part we just work with what's on the market - meaning high end lead acid (best bang for the buck, and the maintenance story is improving), and lithium ion where people want it. This helps keep purchase and maintenance costs low, but we've also built our own battery management system that lets us plug and play any battery tech on the market today, as well as several that are on the way but haven't hit a decent economy of scale yet.
I can't comment on specifics of the BMS, other than we're building the hardware as well as the software, which lets us play with a variety of models for handling battery input and output.
It's a market that's seeing plenty of entries and new competition every day, but it's also really cool to see how people are approaching the problem and working with partners to drive the cost of energy down. That can only be a good thing for all of us!
Comments
That sounds like a great start up. Are you allowed to clarify what you mean by efficient infrastructure? That is, do you mean the topology of the network, the routing on the links or the type of nodes? What type of algorithms do you use for load balancing? Are you storing on more efficient batteries for example? What is the chemistry of your batteries? Or are they the dual, fuel based?
Sorry, this has been a bit of a ramble just curious about your system.
I really appreciated this interview http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail5059.html with the guy who wrote the book http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Industrial_Revolution
He stresses that financing, generation and distribution must all be improved in sync for a successful transition to occur. This is based on his experience in Europe helping them transition to distributed renewable energy.
It's funny you mention that - that book has been making its way around at work, and I've got it sitting on my desk to read right now.
I think the author is right on, though I bet we'll see some significant incremental progress in the next couple years. I also think, based on the blurbs I've seen, that he's missing out on one key part of the equation that a lot of non-energy startups can go after - intelligence in the system. We'll be building the distribution, storage and generation side, and the smart grid will continue to plug into more and more devices, but it's the smarts of the system at scale, doing things like we've all been working on in the social space for a few years now, that will take those raw materials to the next level, and do something really clever that none of us have thought about yet.
For me, the biggest surprise in the interview was the reaction of the legacy energy companies. At first, they were very unhappy with the idea of independent, distributed generation (no surprise). But once it became clear that A) It's happening with or without them. And B) There's a new role for them in distribution intelligence. They got on board and now are actually pushing progress forward.
It's a great company to work for. Lots of smart, motivated folks with tons of experience both in the energy industry and other connected industries. I'm in the second wave of new hires, working as an architect on the software system that will be managing the scale of the infrastructure as we build out. That said, my knowledge is obviously fairly specific to the software, and the hardware bit that I've come to understand is primarily through osmosis :) To try and answer what I can without violating the usual secret squirrel stuff:
Efficient infrastructure - we're able to charge and discharge at a high level of input to output efficiency. Typically, in the energy storage business, you lose a lot of energy via inverters and other technology. Our secret sauce gets around a lot of this, though I don't think I'm able to disclose exactly how it works. It's incredibly elegant in it's simplicity though, and can plug directly into the wild west of the grid. We're also able to network together a significant amount of capacity in almost any configuration for a very reasonable cost per KW. That means we can take our storage system and sell you 80kw/h discharged over 4 hours (20kw per hour), or 40kw over 2 hours, or just keep adding capacity to change those numbers further. While we're a bit young to be just "plug and play", we'll get there as time goes by.
In terms of battery technology, we have a few tricks up our sleeves and are working with a variety of researchers, but for the most part we just work with what's on the market - meaning high end lead acid (best bang for the buck, and the maintenance story is improving), and lithium ion where people want it. This helps keep purchase and maintenance costs low, but we've also built our own battery management system that lets us plug and play any battery tech on the market today, as well as several that are on the way but haven't hit a decent economy of scale yet.
I can't comment on specifics of the BMS, other than we're building the hardware as well as the software, which lets us play with a variety of models for handling battery input and output.
It's a market that's seeing plenty of entries and new competition every day, but it's also really cool to see how people are approaching the problem and working with partners to drive the cost of energy down. That can only be a good thing for all of us!