Distributed Storage

In other news, Toyota unveiled plans to roll out light-duty hydrogen fuel-cell trucks for the Japanese market next year and the UK has launched a contract for difference scheme for large scale hydrogen projects. Furthermore, Japanese scientists have designed a ruthenium complex with a nitrogen-containing organic compound to improve high-temperature proton conduction in fuel cells.

Spanish scientists developed a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with a bipolar plate based on a nature-inspired structure. This architecture, according to its creators, shows remarkable performance when operating at high relative humidity values of 90%.

Researchers in the United Arab Emirates have compared the performance of compressed air storage and lead-acid batteries in terms of energy stored per cubic meter, costs, and payback period. They found the former has a considerably lower Capex and a payback time of only two years.

Researchers at Deakin University in Australia have discovered a novel way to separate, store and transport large amounts of gas without waste.

Greener says that battery storage could help large electricity consumers in Brazil to cope with sharp differences between peak tariffs and off-peak tariffs.

US scientist have developed a new electrolyte design for sodium-ion batteries to improve their long cycling performance. The low-solvation electrolyte was designed for high-voltage sodium-ion batteries, which retained 90% of their capacity after 300 cycles.

Interest and investment in heat pumps have surged in Europe, but in Australia the technology has struggled to find a serious foothold. Despite the potential, dodgy technology suppliers and schemes gone awry have left a bad taste in Australia’s mouth, CEO Jarrod Leak tells pv magazine Australia

Estimating the total cost of energy storage connected to a rooftop PV installation is a complex affair, involving factors such as tax, the policy environment, system lifetimes, and even the weather. As part of its extensive overview of distributed energy storage in Germany, pv magazine Germany analyzed the efficiency of different battery energy storage systems to create a comparable index that illustrates the cost of a stored kilowatt-hour.

The Germany-based heating specialist wants to invest more than €200 million (US$200.5 million) in the new heat pump facility.

REC Solar has announced plans for a PV module gigafactory in France, along with 17 other clean tech projects that will share €1.8 billion ($1.8 billion) of grants from the European Union’s Innovation Fund.