Warren Buffet's Big Battery Play

While it may take a few years to build large storage systems for grid connected power systems in India, there is a growing market for efficient batteries in the transportation sector. Given that India has an electric car maker in Reva and multiple electric 2 wheeler manufacturers, this could be a market to explore.

Betterplace - India. com?



http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2009/05/26/warren-buffets-big-battery-play

"We've never really had storage capability on utility systems," Sokol told me recently, by phone. "Given the progress BYD has made on the technology of batteries for electric vehicles, the question is, how do we ramp that technology up so that we can use it for multiple purposes in the utility world?

"Probably the most obvious is the ability to store intermittent renewable resources, such as wind or solar," Sokol said.

Put simply, cheap battery storage at scale would address one of the biggest drawbacks to wind and solar energy, which is that, unlike coal or nuclear power, they are unpredictable -- you can only make electricity when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining.