Energy Storage Systems & Grid Battery Tech
- Exponential Industry
- Technology Area
- 13 Milestones
Systems that hold electricity or heat and return it later—home batteries, utility/C&I BESS, long-duration chemistries, and thermal stores. Lithium-ion (from the 1991 Sony cell) is the default for hours-scale storage; iron-air, flow, and thermal stacks target 10–100 hour duration. Operators include Tesla (Powerwall/Megapack), Fluence, CATL, and Form Energy; virtual power plants aggregate the distributed fleet.
Hidden Factory
Energy Storage Systems & Grid Battery Tech
MISO Order 2222 Phase 2
FERC Order 2222 explainer (timelines as of August 2024): MISO final implementation through Phase 2 by June 1, 2029 /FERC/.
PJM Order 2222 energy and ancillary services DER aggregation
FERC Order 2222 explainer (timelines as of August 2024): PJM energy and ancillary services implementation February 1, 2028 /FERC/.
MISO Order 2222 Phase 1
FERC Order 2222 explainer (timelines as of August 2024): MISO Phase 1 to be completed by June 1, 2027 /FERC/.
PJM Order 2222 capacity-market DER aggregation
FERC Order 2222 explainer (timelines as of August 2024): PJM capacity-market implementation February 1, 2027, for the 2028/2029 capacity year /FERC/.
Base Core Manufacturing at Factory 1
In-house production of Base Core home batteries at Base Factory 1 in Austin (thousands of systems per month per COO Justin Lopas). Vertical integration of modules, inverters, and deployment logistics.
Lunar Energy NJBPU VPP comments (pursue PJM / New Jersey)
Lunar filed as a prospective third-party DER aggregator and Gridshare platform provider in NJBPU VPP/GSESP dockets, stating it is pursuing VPP and DERMS opportunities in PJM territory including the Mid-Atlantic /Lunar Energy / NJBPU/.
Virtual Peaker–SMECO–ICF FlexHome Maryland pilot
Maryland residential DR pilot (Wi-Fi water heaters, up to 500 devices, three years) powered by Virtual Peaker VPP software. SMECO serves southern Maryland counties (PJM footprint); the PR names Maryland, not PJM /Virtual Peaker/.
Form Energy – GE Vernova manufacturing MOU (2024)
MOU for strategic collaboration on manufacturing ramp and commercial deployments of iron-air systems /Form Energy/.
Virtual Peaker–MidSouth Electric ERCOT+MISO DERMS
MidSouth adopted Virtual Peaker’s DERMS to run its smart-thermostat demand-response program across both ERCOT and MISO /Virtual Peaker/.
Tesla unveils Powerwall and Tesla Energy
Elon Musk unveiled Tesla Energy and the Powerwall home battery at $3,000 (7 kWh) / $3,500 (10 kWh); pre-orders open; first shipments 'late summer' /TechCrunch/.
Sony introduces commercial lithium-ion battery
Sony introduced rechargeable Li-ion in 1991 after engineering the Yoshino/Goodenough chemistry; first used in camcorders, then phones. This follows previous failed commercialization efforts from Exxon (1972) and Oxford LCO (1980) /IEEE Spectrum/.
Goodenough lithium-cobalt-oxide cathode
Goodenough and Mizushima at Oxford replace TiS2 with LiCoO2 by 1980, raising cell voltage to 4 V /IEEE Spectrum/.
Whittingham intercalation cell at Exxon
Stanley Whittingham develops the first lithium intercalation battery at Exxon in 1972 (TiS2 cathode) /IEEE Spectrum/.