{"id":39644,"date":"2015-02-04T10:11:26","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T16:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=39644"},"modified":"2015-02-04T10:11:26","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T16:11:26","slug":"better-batteries-might-hold-enough-to-power-your-neighborhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2015\/02\/04\/better-batteries-might-hold-enough-to-power-your-neighborhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Batteries Might Hold Enough To Power Your Neighborhood"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_39645\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"James Tour leads research at Rice University to develop smaller, more powerful batteries.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/James-Tour-leads-research-at-Rice-University-batteries.png\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-39645\" alt=\"James Tour leads research at Rice University to develop smaller, more powerful batteries.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/James-Tour-leads-research-at-Rice-University-batteries-300x195.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/James-Tour-leads-research-at-Rice-University-batteries-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/James-Tour-leads-research-at-Rice-University-batteries-620x404.png 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/02\/James-Tour-leads-research-at-Rice-University-batteries.png 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Davew Fehling<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Tour leads research at Rice University to develop smaller, more powerful batteries.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One of the nation\u2019s leading researchers who\u2019s trying to make batteries better is James Tour and his colleagues at Rice University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody\u2019s investing billions. If you say millions they scoff at you,\u201d Tour told News 88.7.<\/p>\n<p>Tour says there are three categories of things that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/news.rice.edu\/2014\/04\/28\/flexible-battery-no-lithium-required\/\">need better batteries<\/a>: portable electronic devices, electric vehicles, and a use we wanted to learn more about: batteries to store huge amounts of electricity to power homes and businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not there yet to be able to store large amounts of electricity. So in other words you have huge banks where you can store electricity at night while people are sleeping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/189188253&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Storing electricity could be great for Texas.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ercot.com\/news\/press_releases\/show\/51654\">Statewide demand<\/a>\u00a0is growing with big spikes during a few hours a day, like late afternoons in August when everyone gets home and cranks up the AC. That\u2019s when the batteries could release the electricity they stored over-night when there was less demand.<\/p>\n<p>Theoretically, having power stored up for peak times could lessen the need to build big and expensive new power plants in Texas. But there are a couple problems: the batteries need to have giant capacity but be small enough to be practical. And there\u2019s a political problem.<\/p>\n<p>o far, the one company proposing such a project is Dallas\u2019s utility company Oncor who would place batteries as big as dumpsters in communities in North and West Texas. Oncor\u2019s counterpart in Houston, CenterPoint Energy, told us while Oncor\u2019s project might have promise, it has one big problem: In Texas, it would be illegal.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/12\/18\/how-denmark-and-texas-became-wind-energy-kings\/\">How Denmark and Texas Became Wind Energy Kings<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/11\/18\/texas-grid-operator-says-clean-energy-plan-could-raise-bills-and-lead-to-blackouts\/\">Texas Grid Operator Says Clean Energy Plan Could Raise Bills and Lead to Blackouts<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/07\/29\/4-ways-texas-could-win-big-under-new-climate-change-rules\/\">4 Ways Texas Could Win Big Under New Climate Change Rules<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/03\/03\/why-texans-are-using-less-energy-than-expected\/\">Why Texans Are Using Less Energy Than Expected<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/07\/ERCOT-Power-Electricity-By-Daniel-Reese-05-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/ercot\/\">What Is The Electric Reliability Council Of Texas (ERCOT)?<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>S\u201cOncor is just strictly a wires company, they can\u2019t own any generation. Under current law, they can\u2019t generate,\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lglawfirm.com\/attorneys\/gay-geoffrey-m\/\" target=\"_blank\">Geoffrey Gay<\/a>\u00a0is a lawyer who specializes in utility regulation.<\/p>\n<p>He explains that when Texas de-regulated its electricity market years ago, lawmakers decided that the companies like Oncor and CenterPoint should only distribute electricity, not make and sell it. But that\u2019s what Oncor would be doing if it set up a network of batteries to store electricity then sell it back into the grid. To actually implement its project, Oncor would have to convince Texas lawmakers to change the law.<\/p>\n<p>Gay, who represents city governments in utility rate cases, says customers shouldn\u2019t have to battery project which could cost a couple billion dollars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the cities will oppose it if they don\u2019t see all the profit from these batteries flowing back to benefit ratepayers,\u201d Gay said.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Oncor did not provide a representative for us to interview.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Meantime, there are experimental projects already in place, like\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.duke-energy.com\/commercial-renewables\/notrees-battery-storage.asp\" target=\"_blank\">one in West Texas at the site of some wind turbines<\/a>.\u00a0 That project is funded in part by the federal government and is said to be the largest such energy storage facility in the nation. It uses batteries stacked together in a small warehouse-style building. Wind-generated electricity is stored in the batteries and when the wind stops blowing, they release the electricity into the grid.<\/p>\n<p>Even more futuristic work is underway at the University of Houston. Using part of a $2 million dollar federal grant, the school\u2019s engineering department is trying to find a way to store energy in magnets.<\/p>\n<p>It involves the technology called \u201csuperconductivity\u201d which uses ribbons of wire made of expensive metals.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcsuh.com\/people\/facultypl\/selvamanickham_venkat\/\" target=\"_blank\">Researchers at UH<\/a>\u00a0are looking for cheaper alternatives. Venkat Selvamanickamis the lead scientist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think in the next ten years some of this new technology will happen,\u201d said Selvamanickam. \u201cBiggest thing is, they want to keep the lights on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Which someday might be accomplished by running whole neighborhoods &#8230; on batteries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the nation\u2019s leading researchers who\u2019s trying to make batteries better is James Tour and his colleagues at Rice University. \u201cEverybody\u2019s investing billions. If you say millions they scoff at you,\u201d Tour told News 88.7. Tour says there are three categories of things that\u00a0need better batteries: portable electronic devices, electric vehicles, and a use [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[14,253],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39644"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39651,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39644\/revisions\/39651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}