Resource World Magazine

A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 6 www.resourceworld.com 59 play products with remarkable operational flexibility. This allows our customers to address demanding duty cycles, both today and in the future, as they adapt to the rap- idly changing power environment and tariff structures. We are particularly excited to bring our robust MW class technology to the kW scale to provide solutions to indus- trial and commercial, microgrid, and utility customers at that scale." UET's Mark Reynolds says, "UET's battery solution redefines the grid, and provides the ability to go off-grid forever, or to allow projects to succeed that have no grid access. There is nothing close to their packaged technology. The technology is so advanced, we cannot yet understand the savings or efficiencies that will accrete to the users of the electrical grid on the Uni- System, (which is pretty well everyone on earth). With storage and precise manage- ment we can reduce spinning reserves and peak load leveling to a fraction of today's limits. "For off-grid and hospitals worldwide it is a no brainer," said Reynolds. "It is not my favorite subject, but the military apps are enormous. The UET battery can ramp to full peak load (uni-system 2.2 MW for 1 hour) in 0.64 of a millisecond, which is less than a hertz cycle, so there is no inter- ruption to computers or software-based solutions. I know that is a huge statement; how- ever, if we want to develop a new standard we must be able to control electricity more effectively as we are still operating as we did 100 years ago. Nothing has changed since Edison and Tesla. UET has the solu- tion, even though it may not be glaringly obvious yet." Based in the Seattle, Washington area, UET operates a 67,000 square foot engi- neering and manufacturing facility scaling up to produce 100 megawatts annually. Planned deployments by UET in 2016 include projects in California, Italy, New York, Tennessee and Washington State. In 2015, UET deployed the largest container- ized flow battery now in operation in the world, as verified by the US Department of Energy Office of Electricity Global Energy Storage Database. vertiCal takeoff and landing eleCtriC jets get further thought According to a February 20, 2016 article in the Vancouver Sun, "A round trip flight from Vancouver to New York would generate the global warming equivalent of three tons of carbon dioxide per person. Four or five sim- ilar flights would equal a Canadian's average per capita output. The total effect of flying on climate change is estimated at between 2% and 5%, or, if the aviation industry was a nation, about equal to that of Germany. By 2013, the industry hit the 3 billion pas- senger mark and is expected to reach 6.4 billion passengers by 2030." Because airplanes and helicopters have become such an important part of modern life, and the only way to get them into the sky is by using fossil fuels, the idea of elec- tric airplanes holds great appeal. Electric airplanes are practically a non-existent technology, but that could change if Elon Musk decides to put his money and energy behind the concept he's been mulling over for a number of years. At the Hyperloop Pod competition awards ceremony at Texas A&M, in February 2016, the tesla Motors [TSLA- NASDAQ] and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, was asked, what their next great idea was. "I have been thinking about the vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) electric jet a bit more. I think I have something that might [be] close. I'm quite tempted to do something about it." He expounded, "If you're trying to cre- ate a company, it's important to limit the number of miracles in series. You want to start off with something that's the most doable, and then expand from there. Though we've never started any high-tech companies ourselves, along with other points concerning compelling design, utility, and letting fundamental physics and economics drive the true solution, we think that's about right." Musk said in an online chat that he's been thinking about the jet idea for "about four years." He said when the Concorde fleet was retired he felt it "seemed so sad that the world's only supersonic passenger aircraft would never fly again and there was nothing planned to replace it." He said, "I think that's sort of the ultimate form of transport. It would have environ- mental benefits," he said, "being quiet, it would be very fast, and it could fly high enough to minimize the impact of the sonic boom. The VTOL capability would make it possible to land much closer to the places where people want to go," he said. It's obviously easier said than done. Musk and team must jump a number of hurdles before they're able to develop an electric jet that's safe enough to ferry passengers, The entrepreneur is also looking at other new ways to travel. One of his lat- est projects, Hyperloop, involves sending passenger "pods" at 600 miles per hour though passageways not unlike the pneu- matic tubes used by banks. Plans are to test a full-sized model of the Hyperloop as early as next year. n UniEnergy Technologies produces turn-key, large-scale energy storage systems for utility, micro- grid, commercial, and industrial applications. Photo courtesy UniEnergy Technologies.

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