Imperial College London

When it comes to gravity batteries, pumped-hydro storage is the gold standard, but its cost and topography-specific limitations are driving innovations ranging from freight-train braking to super-dense liquids. We consider whether any of the new technologies can punch above their weight.

UK researchers have developed organic electrode materials to integrate redox-active organic molecules into long-chain polymers. The new electrodes exhibit better cycling performance in lithium-ion batteries, with no apparent capacity decay over more than a thousand charge-discharge cycles.

UK scientists have developed a process using laser and x-ray pulses to observe what happens in the initial fractions of a second after light hits a solar cell. By applying the technique to various organic PV materials, they expect to gain insights that could quickly the improve the efficiency of such materials.

UK researchers have developed a stable alkaline-based hybrid polysulfide-air redox flow battery that reduces “crossover” issues via a new dual-membrane-structured flow cell.

The levelized cost of rooftop solar generation is the lowest in India ($66/MWh) and China ($68/MWh), while the United States ($238/MWh) and the United Kingdom ($251/MWh) are some of the most expensive countries, according to a new international study.

Scientists in South Korea and the UK demonstrated a new cathode material for an aluminum-ion battery, which achieved impressive results in both specific capacity and cycle life. The material allows researchers to better take advantage of aluminum’s energy storage characteristics, and produce batteries with much higher capacity.

The International Energy Agency has acknowledged dramatic falls in energy investment caused by the Covid-19 crisis but said renewables, including PV, offered an attractive proposition to investors as the dust settled, given their enticing economics and short turnaround times.

The asset manager has seen good returns on the 70 MW it has already acquired. Despite the U.K. government cutting subsidies for renewable energy, the fund manager believes the country will be a high growth market for storage.

A report published today by U.K.-headquartered energy company Drax says that, for the first time ever, total generation capacity available from renewables has overtaken that of fossil fuels on Britain’s electric grid.

The New Climate Economy and OVO Energy, together with the Imperial College London, have published two independent reports pointing at the tremendous financial advantages resulting from clean tech transitions. Carbon pricing schemes could reap global sales of around US$2.8 billion, they say. Wide-spread use of storage, V2G, and electric heating could further save U.K. homes around $258 per year.