I'm a founder of an energy storage company, Lightsail Energy.
To say all government funded energy storage companies went belly up is an exaggeration. Many still survive, although you will note a strange anti-correlation between government funding and survival. In my opinion a lot of money did go in the wrong hands. The main problem is that the government is totally confused as to its actual funding strategy -- you need significant, continuous supplies of capital to develop and commercialize hard technology -- every time it fluctuates you impose major stresses and delays.
In at least a few cases, the problem was that the government provided support, and thereafter withdrew it. This was most problematic for the DOE Government Loan Guarantee program -- after Solyndra (a major recipient) went belly up, the government called on their debt in a series of energy storage companies, particularly A123 and Beacon Power. That was the bankruptcy trigger.
On the other hand, it is not exactly like those companies were doing so well anyway. They were fragile, though they might have had a bright future.
> This was most problematic for the DOE Government Loan Guarantee program -- after Solyndra (a major recipient) went belly up, the government called on their debt in a series of energy storage companies, particularly A123 and Beacon Power. That was the bankruptcy trigger.
Is it possible Tesla paid their DOE loan back early to prevent any volatility from that liability hanging out there?
As a user of an off grid solar system I would like to replace my lead batteries with your compressed air solution, even with efficiency of less than 70% it will work for my needs, because with larger capacity I will be able to collect a lot of energy during summer and use it during cloudy winter.
Also I think you should consider doing a MVP (minimal viable product) with less efficiency but fully functional (as I understood from your blog you're struggling now with improving efficiency) and test it in real life, I think there are a lot of off the grid users in US who would like to test it, because real usage is very different than testing it in lab. You'll be able to test a lot of hardware components and be prepared for larger adoption.
An MVP is a totally different think when you're talking about electromechanical equipment that needs to attach to the grid. You need to work so hard just to get something out of the door, you might as well make it good.
Luckily, the market is decently easy to figure out by discussions and logic.
Speaking as a engineer who generally applauds the competitive attempts but is sometimes freaked out by the technical challenges they put ahead of themselves...
Gravity Power: I hope they have a good idea for how they can make and seal a giant concrete piston and boreshaft. I think engineered pumped hydro has a major edge on these guys -- and energy cache.
Isentropic: potentially lower cost than us (gravel's not too expensive), but significantly more loss channels, so a tougher efficiency problem. Serious loss channel potential in the thermal gradient, plus both heat stores need to be pressurized in their main design.
Wouldn't trade places with them, but maybe they'd say the same.
We might eventually do a ~10kw version for homes or a ~100kw version for cars but that is very speculative / in the future.
I am modestly excited by Ambri, Aquion, and Tesla.
Random question after reading a bunch about your company: Are you working at all on using wind turbines to compress the air directly, instead of converting it to electricity first? Seems like that could improve efficiency? Although it seems like your goal is scaling, so maybe it makes sense to stay focused on single product line.
To say all government funded energy storage companies went belly up is an exaggeration. Many still survive, although you will note a strange anti-correlation between government funding and survival. In my opinion a lot of money did go in the wrong hands. The main problem is that the government is totally confused as to its actual funding strategy -- you need significant, continuous supplies of capital to develop and commercialize hard technology -- every time it fluctuates you impose major stresses and delays.
In at least a few cases, the problem was that the government provided support, and thereafter withdrew it. This was most problematic for the DOE Government Loan Guarantee program -- after Solyndra (a major recipient) went belly up, the government called on their debt in a series of energy storage companies, particularly A123 and Beacon Power. That was the bankruptcy trigger.
On the other hand, it is not exactly like those companies were doing so well anyway. They were fragile, though they might have had a bright future.