If you want to install a big battery in New York City, you have to cut through a notoriously tough tangle of regulations. Faced with those obstacles, some startups are finding ways to use relatively small batteries in unexpected places, from induction stovetops to food carts. These consumer-focused batteries help people directly, cutting pollution or power bills, and could add up to a lot of capacity.
Large, utility-scale battery installations face pushback from communities like NYC due to concerns about battery fires. “The number-one challenge that large-scale centralized energy storage providers have is the fact that their benefits are abstract and their costs are concrete,” said David Hammer, cofounder of Pop Wheels, at a New York Climate Week event on September 24. Pop Wheels built a battery-swapping system for e-bike delivery drivers and recently started providing batteries to food cart operators.
Copper is building induction stoves with integrated batteries. “We’re not just selling a battery for resilience—we’re selling it for cost savings,” Sam Calisch, cofounder and CEO of Copper, said. Other companies like Every Electric and David Energy sell plug-in batteries for homes and businesses. Because these batteries are small or integrated into another device, they don’t require grid upgrades or extensive permitting.
“This is the biggest thing to happen in the power grid sector in the last 20 years,” says James Mc Ginniss, cofounder and CEO of David Energy. If every stove in America were shipped with a battery, it would add up to tens of gigawatts of power. As batteries get cheaper, they’ll likely find their way into more corners of our lives, bringing cleaner air and cheaper power bills.
Source: MIT Technology Review · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing