Bly said GM has been fortunate to get loans from Michigan, the United States and Canada. "But having said all of that, we have to run a business, and we have to make sure we have cost-competitive solutions that meet all of our technical requirements."

"We would not want to be limited [in] other countries because our flag's here in the U.S.," he said. "So we kind of think that way of the supply base."

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500

7 Comments

1. 1. Wayne Williamson 08:10 PM 2/2/11

   so sad to see the comment about Florida....why say more...
   It sounds like A123 needs some sales people...why aren't they promoting household standbys....100 of millions of opportunities...(probably billions world wide)....
   

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2. 2. Carlyle 01:32 AM 2/3/11

   The first thing the USA & Australia also needs, is cheap reliable & bountiful electrical energy to power its industry. This is not possible while resources are used to play around with fringe technologies that will never perform according to specs. & the real alternative is shackled by ignorance & restrictions that bear no relationship to reality. To give the alternative energy sector a boost, such as carbon taxes being proposed for existing power stations without first clearing the way for the expansion of nuclear power. You will not see restrictions on nuclear power in China or any other Asian economy. Industry in Australia is also being driven off shore by this madness. Even the threat of a carbon tax has halted construction of coal fired power stations while maintaining an outright ban on nuclear. We deserve the consequences if we do not call a halt to this green inspired ignorance.
   The other big risk is Governments trying to pick winners. The Australian Government last year granted a geothermal company $90M. Turns out the deep well hydro thermal water is highly corrosive. Ate all the well pipes. Down the gurgler you might say. Only tax payers money.
   

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3. 3. bucketofsquid 12:41 PM 2/7/11

   I'm with Wayne Williamson on this one, A123 is missing a huge market for both home and commercial electricity storage. Off peak electricity costs less than peak electricity. By having battery storage a home or business can store up during low cost times and cut high cost time usage by using stored power. Solar and wind facilities can do the same. To be viable the price difference between peak generation and off peak needs to be returned in sufficient ammount to pay for the cost of the batteries. For the utility I work for Winter peak is over $0.17 per kwh and off peak is less than $0.2. That would give a price difference of around $0.15 per kWh. To make up the $800 per kWh you would need to charge and drain the lithium-ion batteries from A123 about 5,333 times to break even. Since high cost peak hits in summer and I don't have easy access to summer peak and off peak data all I can say is the price difference is much larger so use to break even would be lower. Unless the summer peak generation costs are much higher I don't see these batteries being overly cost effective just yet but different utilities would have different generation costs.

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4. 4. leandeleon 12:28 AM 7/15/11

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