Advances in batteries/energy thread

[ScienceRocks]

"You republicans....."

Asshole, accusing me of being one of those left-wingers!

Does lack of reading comprehension affect you as badly as lack of lithium?

Please support your belief of lack of lithium by a supporting source.

 

[HenryBHough]

No shortage of lithium? Then why in hell are you off your meds!

And in other news, grid-size battery failure in Hawaii makes headlines......

Failed battery at Hawaii solar farm part of learning process says analyst PV-Tech Storage

Many a tear has to fall but it's alllllll in the game...... Just throw some more money at it and everything will be A-OK.

 

[Old Rocks]

Oncor proposes giant leap for grid batteries Dallas Morning News

In a move that stands to radically shift the dynamics of the industry, Oncor is set to announce Monday that it is prepared to invest more than $2 billion to store electricity in thousands of batteries across North and West Texas beginning in 2018.

Utility-scale batteries have been a holy grail within the energy sector for years. With enough storage space, surplus electricity can be generated at night, when plants usually sit idle, to be used the next day, when demand is highest. Power outages would become less frequent. Wind and solar power, susceptible to weather conditions, could be built on a larger scale. The only problem has been that the price of batteries has been too high to make economic sense. But if they’re purchased on a large enough scale, that won’t be the case for long, said Oncor CEO Bob Shapard.

“Everyone assumed the price point was five to six years out. We’re getting indications from everyone we’ve talked to they can get us to that price by 2018,” he said in an interview Wednesday.

The Dallas-based transmission company is proposing the installation of 5,000 megawatts of batteries not just in its service area but across Texas’ entire grid. That is the equivalent of four nuclear power plants on a grid with a capacity of about 81,000 megawatts.

Ranging from refrigerator- to dumpster-size, the batteries would be installed behind shopping centers and in neighborhoods. Statewide, Oncor estimates a total price tag of $5.2 billion. A study commissioned by Oncor with the Brattle Group, a Massachusetts consulting firm that provides power market analysis for state regulators, says the project would not raise bills. Revenue from rental of storage space on the batteries, along with a decrease in power prices and transmission costs, should actually decrease the average Texas residential power bill 34 cents to $179.66 a month, the report said.

And that would make solar and wind 24/7.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Graphene based solar panels will have energy efficiency of 60 percent

One of the major reasons that solar panels are facing such hurdles to replace conventional electricity sources is because they are very inefficient. The most efficient (and most expensive) panel is currently somewhere around 32 percent efficiency. However, scientists in Switzerland have figured out a way to utilize Graphene in solar panel design, raising its efficiency to an absolutely staggering 60% – a finally feasible amount.

 

[HenryBHough]

This is so silly.

What's coming is orbiting lenses and mirrors that will focus sunlight into narrow beams to boil water in structures positioned worldwide, each spinning turbines to produce electricity where needed; when needed.

The mirrors to allow the focused rays to be directed into areas that normally would be in darkness.

Lenses powerful enough to burn through the most dense of cloud cover.

Hell on birds, it is true. Also requires either sharply defined safe paths for aircraft.

Details.

Mere details.

The first step? Appropriation of only about $689,000,000,000 for politically connected consultants to define the details more precisely. That's for the first ten years.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Your idea is silly. really.

You just don't like innovation and investing in our country.

 

[ScienceRocks]

The man who brought us the lithium-ion battery at the age of 57 has an idea for a new one at 92

The chances are you have never heard of—nor, until looking at this page, ever seen—John Bannister Goodenough. But you know his work. In fact, you almost certainly own some. Today, at 92, Goodenough still goes to his smallish office every day at the University of Austin. That, he says, is because he’s not finished. Thirty-five years after his blockbuster, the electric car still can’t compete with the internal combustion engine on price. When solar and wind power produce electricity, it must be either used immediately or lost forever—there is no economic stationary battery in which to store the power. Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering: Oil is again cheap but, like all cyclical commodities, its price will go back up. The climate is warming and becoming generally more turbulent.

In short, the world needs a super-battery. That, “or I’m sorry we’re going to have wars on wars fighting over the last reserves of this, that or the other and we’re going to have global warming beyond anything we can bear,” Goodenough says.

The good news is that Goodenough has one last idea. He’s working on it with yet another crop of post-doctoral assistants. “I want to solve the problem before I throw my chips in,” he says. “I’m only 92. I still have time to go.”

Elon Musk is doing the best he can with what is available now.

That's Goodenough's point. Elon Musk is doing the best he can with what is available now and bringing in small, incremental updates. Goodenough doesn't want what's current, he wants to make something for the future. He wants to come up with a concept and prove it works, then leave the execution to others.

Musk is looking at the short term and is content with shuffling along, Goodenough doesn't care about the short term and wants to leap forward.

 

[ScienceRocks]

First Solar Achieves New World Conversion Efficiency Record For Cadmium-Telluride Solar Cells

First Solar Achieves New World Conversion Efficiency Record For Cadmium-Telluride Solar Cells CleanTechnica

February 9th, 2015 by James Ayre

Originally published on Solar Love.

A new world record conversion efficiency for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar photovoltaic cells was recently achieved by researchers at First Solar’s Research & Development Center in Perrysburg, Ohio.

The new record of 21.5% efficiency was verified and certified at the Newport Corporation’s Technology and Applications Center PV Lab — and keeps the solar developer on track with regard to its current research and development roadmap.

Its worth noting here that the processes and materials used in the creation of the new record-setting solar cell are all “suitable” for commercial-scale manufacturing, according to First Solar.

The new record represents the 8th notable update to the CdTe cell record efficiency since 2011 — demonstrating the rapid improvement seen in the technology over the last few years… which has been overwhelmingly driven by First Solar.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Lithium Batteries With 200% Typical Energy Density
Lithium Batteries With 200 Typical Energy Density CleanTechnica
February 9th, 2015 by Jake Richardson

Solid Energy, a Boston-based startup, recently said it has developed battery materials that have 200% greater energy density. The company has created an “anode-less” battery prototype with 1200 Wh/L in energy density. Some lithium-ion batteries with graphite anodes provide less than 600 Wh/L. A thin sheet of lithium foil was used to replace the more conventional electrode material, which is graphite.

 

[ScienceRocks]

This is a good idea!

Portland to generate electricity within its own water pipes
By Ben Coxworth
February 17, 2015
3 Pictures

There's a lot of water constantly moving through the municipal pipelines of most major cities. While the water itself is already destined for various uses, why not harness its flow to produce hydroelectric power? Well, that's exactly what Lucid Energy's LucidPipe Power System does, and Portland, Oregon has just become the latest city to adopt it.

 

[HenryBHough]

Remember, Portland, People's Republic of Oregon is big on adopting things.

Like unicorns.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Remember, Portland, People's Republic of Oregon is big on adopting things.

Like unicorns.

Seems to me that you oppose everything that isn't fossil fuel. We both know that hydro is dependable and a good source of energy right? This works the same way! Why not have a few of these on each street to help power our society.

 

[HenryBHough]

Seems to me that you oppose everything that isn't fossil fuel. We both know that hydro is dependable and a good source of energy right? This works the same way! Why not have a few of these on each street to help power our society.

Not at all!

Hydro is great if you don't mind killing fish. Also if Algore is right, hydro will be dependable once rivers no longer freeze but only until megadroughts dry them up entirely.

Solar, as in photo-voltaic, is good provided you have cloudless days or big enough storage capacity to get you through a succession of nights and cloudy days.

Wind is great so long as you don't mind killing birds, can stand the noise, and live far enough way so you aren't injured by fly-away blades.

Tidal has a lot of promise as the batteries required wouldn't need to be nearly as large though they would not be entirely unnecessary.

I'm not too big on solar as in focused beams as they're mechanically complex and require maintenance which may or may not be done at proper intervals.

Nope.

Most of the above are great for reducing the need for fossil-fueled generation so long as one is willing to accept the higher cost and can afford the capital investment.

But if we just finance all those thing with printed funny money then it's all free!

You know your dam, windmill, panel array or "sun tower" is ready to build when the weight of the paperwork is double that of the weight of all the components of the system.

Of course the greatest reduction in the need for electricity cannot be achieved. Because liberal bloggers won't park their SUVs and won't turn off their computers.

 

[CultureCitizen]

Lightsail Energy is creating the technology to for high efficiency energy storage using compressed air.
This could be a great boon for alternative energy. Energy can be stored for long periods of time without significant losses.
Also this is a very cheap way to store energy on large scale.

LightSail Energy
A lot of hot air Why energy storage matters

 

[ScienceRocks]

CorPower system gives wave power the gears
By Ben Coxworth
February 18, 2015
3 Pictures

Harnessing wave power can be a tricky business. It's one thing to build a device that simply moves up and down with the waves, but another to build one that's efficient enough to be cost-effective. Swedish company CorPower Ocean claims to have done just that, however. Its wave energy converter buoys reportedly generate five times more energy per ton of device, at a third the cost of other wave power systems.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New paper-like material could boost electric vehicle batteries
13 hours ago by Sean Nealon

Scanning electron microscope images of (a) SiO2 nanofibers after drying, (b) SiO2 nanofibers under high magnification (c) silicon nanofibers after etching, and (d) silicon nanofibers under high magnification.

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have developed a novel paper-like material for lithium-ion batteries. It has the potential to boost by several times the specific energy, or amount of energy that can be delivered per unit weight of the battery.

Read more at: New paper-like material could boost electric vehicle batteries

 

[ScienceRocks]

Sandia magnetized fusion technique produces significant results

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine have produced a significant output of fusion neutrons, using a method fully functioning for only little more than a year.
It only took the two magnetic fields and the laser, focused on a small amount of fusible material called deuterium (hydrogen with a neutron added to its nucleus), to produce a trillion fusion neutrons (neutrons created by the fusing of atomic nuclei). Had tritium (which carries two neutrons) been included in the fuel, scientific rule-of-thumb says that 100 times more fusion neutrons would have been released. (That is, the actual release of 10 to the 12th neutrons would be upgraded, by the more reactive nature of the fuel, to 10 to the 14th neutrons.)

Still, even with this larger output, to achieve break-even fusion—as much power out of the fuel as placed into it—100 times more neutrons (10 to the 16th) would have to be produced.

The gap is sizable, but the technique is a toddler, with researchers still figuring out the simplest measures: how thick or thin key structural elements of the design should be and the relation between the three key aspects of the approach—the two magnetic fields and the laser.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Laser ignition demonstrated in a real engine could boost engine efficiency by 27%

Spark plugs can only ignite the fuel at one end of the chamber. A laser ignites the fuel in the middle of the chamber instead, burning more of the fuel and improving combustion efficiency by 27 per cent.Laser ignition could boost the fuel efficiency of a car from 40 miles per gallan up to around 50 miles per gallon, for example. The more complete burn emits fewer polluting by-products such as nitrogen dioxide. New Scientist reported on an ARPA-e energy innovation summit presentation

Lasers are also better at keeping up with the thousands of cycles a minute at which a car engine runs. They can be tuned more precisely than spark plugs so that they fire at the optimal instant for ignition. They can even be fired multiple times during the same cycle into different parts of the cylinder to maximise fuel burn.

Princeton Optronics is the first to show that it works in a real engine.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Windwheel concept combines tourist attraction with "silent turbine"
By Stu Robarts
February 25, 2015
1 Comment
4 Pictures

The Dutch have long used windmills to harness wind energy. A new concept proposed for city of Rotterdam, however, is surely one of the most elaborate windmills ever conceived. The Dutch Windwheel is a huge circular wind energy converter that houses apartments, a hotel and a giant coaster ride.

The concept is designed to be part energy icon, part tourist attraction and part residential building. It is a 174-m (571-ft) structure comprising two huge rings that appear to lean against each other. "We wanted to combine a big attraction for Rotterdam with a state-of-the-art sustainable concept," explains Lennart Graaff of the Dutch Windwheel Corporation, to Gizmag.

The larger outer ring houses 40 pods on rails that move around the ring and provide those who visit with views of Rotterdam and its port. The smaller inner ring, meanwhile, houses 72 apartments, a 160-room hotel across seven floors and a panoramic restaurant and viewing gallery. Perhaps most remarkable feature of of all, however, is a huge "bladeless turbine" that spans the center smaller ring.

 

[ScienceRocks]

ZSW + Manz Acheive 21% Conversion Efficiency With Cadmium-Free CIGS Solar Cell
ZSW Manz Acheive 21 Conversion Efficiency With Cadmium-Free CIGS Solar Cell CleanTechnica
February 26th, 2015 by James Ayre

A cadmium-free small-area CIGS solar cell created by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and its partner, Manz, possesses a conversion efficiency of 21%, as verified by Fraunhofer ISE, according to a recent press release.

The 21% conversion efficiency marks a new record for cadmium-free solar cells in this surface area category — but not for CIGS solar cells overall, where ZSW holds the current record (21.7%), and Solexel holds the current record for concentrator CIGS solar cells (23.3%).