Energy Storage

With its sonnenVPP, German battery company Sonnen wants to improve the efficiency of virtual power plants which it says can offer primary balancing energy from houses with solar and storage and can operate up to 90% more cost-effectively.

German companies Uniper and Siemens will cooperate on joint projects to advance the use of green hydrogen and sector coupling. Conventional, gas-fired hydrogen production plants will be gradually transformed as part of the initiative.

Griffith University scientists have unlocked a catalytic process to enhance the breakdown of water into hydrogen and oxygen and bring Australia a step nearer clean, efficient hydrogen fuel.

A group of scientists at Sweden’s Uppsala University have developed a proton battery based on abundant organic materials. They say the battery can be charged “in a matter of seconds” while operating at low temperatures, and can be cycled more than 500 times without significant capacity loss.

French renewable energy developer Neoen plans to develop a massive battery storage system near the Australian city of Geelong that will dwarf its largest project to date, the 100MW/129MWh Tesla big battery in South Australia.

Already responsible for changing the way we communicate and power portable devices, lithium-ion technology is now driving revolutions in both transport and energy supply the world over. A new paper published by Arumugam Manthiram of the University of Texas at Austin examines the technology’s development, from initial discoveries made in the 1970s to the considerations of today’s researchers working on the ‘batteries of the future’.

The Swiss equipment supplier already needed to shore up its bottom line and is now taking measures to help combat the spread of an epidemic which has also claimed November’s planned climate summit in Glasgow and an estimated 19% of this year’s demand for energy storage.

Scientists in the United States have developed a carbon nanotube method of fabricating a lithium-ion battery with a silicon anode. The device reportedly demonstrated better than 87% capacity retention after 1,500 cycles. The developers say their discovery overcomes many of the obstacles to the use of silicon as an anode and could open up the use of other materials for electrodes in lithium-ion devices.

pv magazine rounds up the latest Covid-19-related stories likely to affect the world of solar and energy storage.

During an online launch event, a Blade Battery pack was pierced with a nail without becoming unstable or experiencing dangerous high temperatures. The company says the device will be safer during car accidents.