Renewed and Expanded Interstate Batteries
Interstate Battery System of America Inc. has signed a long-term lease to extend and expand its headquarters at Park Central 8.
According to a news release issued by Parmenter Realty Partners,the lease of 132,714 square feet is one of the largest leases to be signed in the Park Central submarket in the last 20 years, compared with their former leased space of total 105,000 square feet.
Park Central, an 845,419-square-foot office complex at the intersection of LBJ Freeway and North Central Expressway, is owned and managed by Parmenter Realty Partners and leased by Cousins Properties.
Matt Schendle and Cynthia Cowen, vice presidents of leasing for Cousins Properties, represented Parmenter Realty Partners;while John Amend, president of The Amend Group, represented Interstate Batteries in lease negotiations.
EnerDel’s Purchase of 8 battery test systems
It is said that automotive lithium-ion battery maker EnerDel will use a portion of its stimulus grant to buy eight AeroVironment advance electric vehicle power cycling and test systems.
AeroVironment's 250 kilowatt AV-900 heavy-duty cyclers and the addition of its 170 kilowatt ABC-170CE cyclers will expand the advanced battery testing capabilities at EnerDel's Indiana facilities.
Both test systems are programmed to simulate real driving conditions by repeatedly charging and discharging EnerDel's hybrid and electric vehicle batteries to replicate actual operating conditions.
EnerDel, a subsidiary of Ener1 Inc., was given a $118.5 million grant in August from the government's stimulus package enacted in February to expand its domestic manufacturing capacity.
Ener1 shares finished up 23 cents, or 4 percent, at $5.86,while shares of AeroVironment,which designs and produces unmanned aircraft systems and efficient electric energy systems,fell 21 cents to close earlier at $28.74.
Boost U.S. Grid by Electric Cars’ Batteries
Nearly $5 million in federal money will be given to Detroit Edison Co. and five partners to show how advanced batteries similar to those in electric vehicles can store energy for later use in the nation's electrical grid.
Hawk Asgeirsson, the manager of power system technologies at DTE said "We want to show that you can charge the batteries at noon, and shift the energy coming out of the battery to later use for consumers."
DTE will lead the project; Michigan partners are A123 of Ann Arbor, Chrysler Group LLC of Auburn Hills and NextEnergy of Detroit.
Other partners are Kema of Massachusetts and National Grid, an international electricity and gas company in Great Britain and the northeastern United States.
With the partners contributing money beyond the federal funds,the DTE-led project will totally have $10.9 million.
"$620 million will be distributed to 32 demonstration projects nationwide to build a higher-tech, resilient electrical grid."Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
"Including large-scale energy storage, smart meters, distribution and transmission system monitoring devices, and a range of other smart technologies,the projects will act as models for deploying integrated Smart Grid systems on a broader scale," the department said in a statement.
These demonstration projects will further understanding of what works best and delivers the best results for the Smart Grid,what is more, setting the course for a modern grid is critical to achieving energy goals.
The DOE funding is divided into two groups: One focused on streamlined communication technologies,which lets parts of the grid to "talk" to each other in real time and avoid disruptions and outages.Depending on such renewables as solar and wind,the DTE-led project will do more reserch on utility-scale energy storage that reduce the need for new electricity plants.
Potential Green Algae-based Batteries
Almost every aspect of electronic devices has been vastly improved or at least miniaturized with fast technology development recently. Touchscreen displays are becoming common. Monitors and TVs are becoming thinner,larger, and the overall quality of their displays are improving as well.Processors are regularly miniaturized or get performance boosts.However,there have been few breakthroughs with batteries. We can’t enjoy all the rest of the new technology if our devices are dead. But fortunately,scientists at Uppsala University in Sweden are developing highly efficient and paper-thin batteries using cellulose produced by Cladophora, a type of green algae.
Cladophora,found in beaches worldwide, produce cellulose with an unusually large surface area, “100 times that of the cellulose found in paper”, which in turn made the scientists create batteries with a “dramatically larger amount” of conducting polymer. Conducting polymers are non-metallic conductors which can be used as battery material, but have been able to prove quite impractical for various reasons.
The algae cellulose-conducting polymer batteries made by the researchers in Uppsala University hold 50 to 200 percent more charge than similar conducting polymer batteries, and it is expected to compete with commercial lithium batteries… Charge times could also trump today’s rechargeables – the researchers managed to recharge their test batteries in anywhere from 8 minutes down to as little as 11 seconds.
In addition, these batteries are so thin that the Swedish researchers are looking into novel applications for them, like embedding them into wallpapers or clothes equipped with sensors that react to stimuli.This technology can also hopefully lead to laptops that literally last the whole day.
The Retail of Eneloopy, Sanyo’s battery-checking mutt, Will be Available in Asia soon
With Sanyo's Eneloopy mascot mutt giving Panasonic's Evolta mascot robot a run for its money ,it's a dog-eat-bot race. But whereas the latter risked battery life and limb to show off Panasonic's AA cells' endurance in a harrowing climb up the Grand Canyon, the Eneloopy doggie prefers to play cute and "nosey" with your AA- and AAA-sized rechargeables.
Full charged? It'll blink green. For partially juiced-up cells, this battery-checking mutt will show an orange nose. It is undoubted that , if there's no light, your battery's playing dead .Battery flatlining? Press a switch on the chest, and Eneloopy's LED button nose will light up in red.
Sanyo's kept to the dog theme with a "Bone" that you insert into a side slot to help along the extraction. It's bitsy enough for butter-fingered digits to lose this faster than you can say "fetch!" And one whiff from your curious pet pooch means it'll never be retrieved. Fortunately, there's a backup Bone in the package.
Evolta isn't for sale, while the Snoopy-like Eneloopy is. If you favotare collecting kawaii, kitschy memorabilia, this doggie in the window comes with a premium sticker--S$25 inclusive two AA rechargeable Ni-MH batteries bundled in. Look for it in Singapore stores this end-December.