Energy Storage

Construction has started on a 350 MW/1.4 GWh compressed air energy storage project in Shangdong, China.

As part of Aurora Solar’s Empower 2022 online solar summit, Bernadette Del Chiaro, from the California Solar & Storage Association, will moderate a talk about electric utilities and how they have abused their monopoly position to discriminate against solar in the US. Here, she gives pv magazine a taste of the presentation.

Four people who were carrying out inspection work at the Chilean Cerro Dominador solar thermal plant have suffered burns due to a high-temperature water leak. Two are in intensive care.

While still using conventional lithium-ion raw materials, 24M’s technology is said to reduce the number of steps required to manufacture battery cells and thereby the cost by up to 40%. The US company’s SemiSolid design is also said to deliver improved energy density, safety and recyclability.

The Southeast Asian country considers hydrogen as a key potential decarbonisation pathway, seeing business opportunities in three related specific fields: finance, shipping and aviation. Meanwhile, Evos, Hydrogenious, and Port of Amsterdam bet on thermal oil benzyl toluene for delivery of hydrogen before 2028.

Su-vastika introduced a three-phase uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system with power ratings of 10 kVA to 500 kVA. The backup time provided by the system can be extended by using solar power in conjunction with the battery bank.

German company Mefa Befestigungs- und Montagetechnik has developed absorbers made of polypropylene that are intended to simplify the use of brine heat pumps. The novel technology should make it possible to combine multiple heat sources, including water, earth, air and also ice storage all within a single system.

US-based Nanotech Energy’s graphene battery uses proprietary electrodes with a thermally stable separator, and non-flammable electrolyte that is said to be inexpensive to manufacture. The technology is said to be superior in terms of safety and competitive in terms of cell performance.

Australian startup Vulcan Energy announced it produced high grade lithium hydroxide which ‘easily exceeds’ battery grade specification.

The worst effects of the pandemic may have passed but supply chain disruptions continue to be felt across the world. The effects of the war in Ukraine are also evident to all of us in our daily lives, from commodities to energy, food supply chains and beyond. The disruption in the battery energy storage system (BESS) supply chain is no different, writes Cormac O’Laoire, senior manager of market intelligence at Clean Energy Associates. Indeed, as the cost of raw materials such as lithium climbs, battery prices are being driven materially higher, on some accounts by 20% to 30%, rendering some projects uneconomical.