Energy Storage

Australia-based mining giant Fortescue has started the development of an electric train that recharges itself using gravity, after settling its recent purchase of UK-based Williams Advanced Engineering.

A UK consortium is developing an organic flow battery technology that could be used in ports to supply power to visiting vessels and in-port assets such as cranes and port vehicles. The electro-chemistry for the batteries is being supplied by German battery manufacturer CMBlu, which developed a flow battery relying on high-performance energy storage molecules that are entirely organic.

Built by Korean oil provider SK Energy and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the “Energy Super Station” is equipped with 20kW of solar panels and 300kW of fuel cell stacks. It can refuel conventional combustion vehicles as well as electric vehicles and fuel cell cars.

The 22 nations which have had their “recovery and resilience” spending plans approved by the European Commission are set to devote billions to clean energy facilities, with the cash set to be disbursed in three payments to the end of next year.

A consortium of developers led by ACWA Power has secured financing for the Red Sea project, on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, which is set to feature a 320MW solar array and a 1.3GWh off-grid battery.

The realization of biodegradable batteries is a step closer thanks to research from South Australia’s Flinders University, which has developed a 2.8V organic polymer battery. While this battery was made from synthetic polymers, research lead Zhongfan Jia told pv magazine Australia the team’s future iterations will source “materials directly from nature” saying this promises to reduce waste and reliance on mined materials and could have novel applications in fields like biotech.

Michigan’s Our Next Energy (ONE) said it will use the funding led by BMW to accelerate R&D and build a US manufacturing facility.

Luminous has revealed its new Li-ON series 1250 inverter with integrated lithium-ion battery. It offers a compact, safe, plug-and-play power backup solution for retail and domestic applications.

Developed by Germany-based hydrogen specialist Enapter, the EL 4.0 electrolyzer is based on a patented anion exchange membrane (AEM) technology. Commercial production is currently being prepared at the company’s Italian plant and the first shipments should be made in the summer.

Researchers from the University of Waterloo, Canada, have developed a new solid chloride electrolyte that swaps out half of the indium for scandium and offers several important advantages, such as high voltage operation.