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Menlo Park, California — Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have designed a low-cost, long-life battery that could enable solar and wind energy to become major suppliers to the electrical grid.
“For solar and wind power to be used in a significant way, we need a battery made of economical materials that are easy to scale and still efficient,” said Yi Cui, a Stanford associate professor of materials science and engineering and a member of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, a SLAC/Stanford joint institute. “We believe our new battery may be the best yet designed to regulate the natural fluctuations of these alternative energies.”
Cui and colleagues report their research results, some of the earliest supported by the DOE’s new Joint Center for Energy Storage Research battery hub, in the May issue of Energy & Environmental Science.
In this video, Stanford graduate student Wesley Zheng demonstrates the new low-cost, long-lived flow battery he helped create. The researchers created this miniature system using simple glassware. Adding a lithium polysulfide solution to the flask immediately produces electricity that lights an LED. A utility version of the new battery would be scaled up to store many megawatt-hours of energy. Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Currently the electrical grid cannot tolerate large and sudden power fluctuations caused by wide swings in sunlight and wind. As solar and wind’s combined contributions to an electrical grid approach 20 percent, energy storage systems must be available to smooth out the peaks and valleys of this “intermittent” power – storing excess energy and discharging when input drops.
Read more at New Durable High Power Lithium Ion Battery from GermanyScientists at the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (ZSW) in Ulm, Germany have developed a top-class lithium-ion battery, in terms of cycle stability – an important parameter for the lifetime. It is exceeding the current international state of technology for high-performance battery cells.
More than 10,000 full cycles have been achieved so far. With other values, such as the power density, the batteries are equivalent to those produced by leading Asian manufacturers. The active materials for the batteries exclusively originate from German companies. The ZSW has designed the cells, developed the manufacturing process, and produced a small sample series in the 18650-format. The technology has created the basis for manufacturing large-size pouch cells and large-size prismatic cells. The lithium-ion batteries are intended for use in electric vehicles and as solar power storage systems.
“After 10,000 complete charging and discharging cycles with a complete charge and discharge cycle per hour (2 C), our lithium batteries still have more than 85% of the initial capacity,” reports Dr. Margret Wohlfahrt-Mehrens, head of the Accumulator Material Research Department in Ulm. “That also provides excellent prospects for a long calendar life.” A long service life is an essential requirement from automotive companies. Lithium-ion batteries need to be able to do their work in cars for at least ten years without the battery capacity dropping to less than 80% of the rated value.
