Distributed Storage

NanoGra’s silicon-oxide anode material can increase battery capacity in the 18650 form factor by an initial 12% at commercially competitive prices.

An international research team has designed a residential solar-plus-storage system based on gravity. The system was built with a solar power generator, a bulk booster charge controller, an inverter, a solenoid device, a deep cycle battery, a pulley block, a geared motor, a microcontroller, and wire ropes. Its creators said the system is ideal for regions with high solar radiation. They found that, due to its high electrical requirements, the system needs to rely on high-power solar modules with an output of over 500 W.

A new project offers a design and validation framework for renewables-based microgrid configurations that deliver electric vehicle fast charging, energy security, and value-added grid services.

The Scottish government wants to deploy renewable-powered heat pumps on at least 1 million homes and 50,000 non-domestic buildings by the end of this decade. For this purpose, it has created an advisory group and is now seeking to gather all potential stakeholders.

State-run power company NTPC wants to explore the feasibility of using hydrogen instead of diesel for back-up power and micro-grid application.

According to a new study from LUT University, domestic water heating costs may be reduced by combining rooftop PV with geothermal heat pumps. Scientists developed a control method to minimize these costs by taking advantage of cheap spot market electricity and maximized PV power generation, as well as considering heat demand, PV generation forecasts, and heat pump efficiency.

The system is based on a power-to-gas hydrogen technology and is intended to enable one and two-family homes to have an independent power supply throughout the year.

Greece’s energy storage sector is heating up, with the government confirming plans to publish an energy storage policy framework and hold tenders for 700 MW of battery storage.

Poland-based Green Cell is offering two versions of its new inverter, with power outputs of 1 kW and 3 kW. The inverters feature an efficiency of 90% and are recommended for small buildings such as cottages or year-round homes.

Scientists in South Korea tested a new cathode material as part of a calcium-ion battery (CIB), achieving some impressive results. The material retained more than 90% of it initial capacity after 500 cycles, alongside some of the best performance results seen so far for this technology. The scientists say that this discovery opens up “an unexplored pathway toward the realization of stable and high-power cathodes in CIBs.”