White Room

A research team at the University of Texas has made interesting new structures from graphene. The one atom thick material forms a network of tunnels, leading to high surface areas and potentially high energy storage.

A new development in vanadium redox batteries from DOE's Pacific Northwest Regional Laboratory could make them a promising option for grid-scale energy storage.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority won a grant to install an energy storage system to capture regenerative braking energy when the subway approaches a station. Some excess energy will be stored and made available to the wholesale power market for grid services.

The DOE has funded a factory to produce activated carbon materials that could improve ultracapacitors for batteries and energy-storage devices, but it's not clear that battery manufacturers and automakers will have much use for the material in the next few years.