Energy Storage
Researchers from the U.S. National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have develpoed a new type of flow battery which could potentially provide low-cost, long-life storage for solar and wind energy. Current flow batteries pump two different liquids through an interaction chamber where dissolved molecules undergo chemical reactions that store or release energy. The chamber contains a membrane that only allows ions which are not involved in reactions to pass between the liquids. Flow batteries are among the most promising technologies for grid storage because they include tanks, pumps and pipes which are easily scaled up to whatever size is required. … Continue Reading
Researchers at MIT have proposed a method of storing the energy generated by offshore wind farms using concrete tanks on the seafloor under the wind turbines Their concept is to place spherical concrete tanks, about 25 metres in diameter, on the seafloor under floating wind turbines. The concrete tanks would serve both as anchors to moor the floating turbines and as a means of storing the energy they produce. When the wind turbines produce more power than is needed, that power would be used to pump seawater out of the tank. When power is needed, water would be allowed to … Continue Reading
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed new microbatteries which out-power even the best supercapacitors and could drive new applications in radio communications and compact electronics. Currently capacitors are used for applications that need a lot of power because they can release energy very quickly – however, can only store a small amount of energy. Batteries or fuel cells are used for applications that need a lot of energy because they can hold a large amount of energy but they release or recharge it slowly. The new microbatteries offer both power and energy. They owe their high … Continue Reading
Researchers at the University of Calgary have reported, in the journal Science, that they have developed a way to make new affordable and efficient catalysts for producing hydrogen and oxygen from water and electricity for storage and subsequent power generation. Current electrolyzer devices use catalysts to drive a chemical reaction that converts electricity into chemical energy by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen fuels. These fuels can then be stored and re-converted to electricity for use whenever wanted. The only byproduct from such a system is water, which can be recycled through the system. However, to date the catalysts have … Continue Reading
Scientists at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have announced an important breakthrough in the development of a redox flow battery that reaches stack power up to 25 kilowatts. This is eight times larger than previous systems. Redox flow batteries store electrical energy in chemical liquid electrolytes. The electrolytes are charged and discharged in small reaction chambers. Several of these cells are lined up in stacks. Redox flow batteries are cost-effective, robust and durable. However, the batteries that are currently available are roughly the size of A4 paper and can only generate 2.3 kilowatts of power.. The scientists tested new membrane materials and … Continue Reading
Researchers at Stanford University's Global Climate and Energy Project have published the results of a study of the energy efficiency of different ways of storing energy on the electricity grid. The study found that compressed air and pumped hydro storage are by far the most energy-efficient techniques. Over its lifetime, compressed air storage can store 240 times more energy than is needed in its construction. Pumped hydro can store 210 times more energy than is needed to build it. Of the five battery technologies tested, lithium-ion batteries were the best performers, storing 10 times as much energy as is required … Continue Reading
Wysips, a company based in Aix-en-Provence, in southern France, has developed a photovoltaic film which can be built into a mobile phone, laptop or tablet screen and charge the battery from any artificial or natural light source. According to Wysips chief executive, Ludovic Deblois, “With 10 minutes in the sun you will be able to communicate for two minutes. To recharge completely you will have to expose it for six hours, so our technology is not necessarily for a full recharge but rather for an energy boost for specific applications. For example, for security if you have to make an … Continue Reading
Researchers at UCLA had found a way to make a non-toxic, highly efficient energy storage medium out of pure carbon using absurdly simple technology that can be scaled up to mass-production levels. The discovery began when Maher El-Kady painted a DVD with a liquid carbon (graphite oxide) solution and put it into a standard DVD burner. He found that this produced sheets of graphene, a single carbon atom thick, covering the plastic DVD surface. Graphene can be used as the basic component of a supercapacitor. Supercapacitors store electricity and charge far more rapidly than chemical batteries. Unlike other supercapacitors, graphene … Continue Reading
Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a new lithium-ion battery design that uses porous silicon nanoparticles in place of the traditional graphite anodes. The new batteries hold three times as much energy as comparable graphite-based designs and recharge within 10 minutes. Silicon, which is cheap and has a high potential capacity, would seem ideal for battery anodes except that, in previous silicon anode designs, the silicon broke down from repeated swelling and shrinking during charging/discharging cycles. The research team has previously developed anodes using porous silicon nanowires, that are less than 100 nanometers in diameter and just … Continue Reading
A spokeswoman for Belgium's North Sea Minister, Johan Vande Lanotte, has revealed plans to build an artificial island in the North Sea to store wind energy. The plan is to build a donut-shaped island out of sand 3 kilometres off the Belgian coast near the town of Wenduine. Belgium is aiming to generate 2,300 megawatts of electricity from a network of wind farms in the North Sea. Water would be pumped out of the centre of the island when there was excess energy from the wind farms and let back in through turbines when the wind energy was insufficient. The … Continue Reading
Videos
Renewables News- Dysol Aiming to Print Storage with Solar CellsAustralia's Dyesol Limited has acquired an equity stake in Printed Power Pte Ltd, a spinoff company of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Printed Power is focussing on integrating dye solar cell technology with printed storage and power management systems to … Continue Reading → […]
- CSIRO Printer Makes 10m of Solar Cells a MinuteCSIRO researchers have built a gigantic printer that spits out solar cells at a rate of about ten metres a minute. The printer system uses existing technology to embed polymer solar cells (also known as organic solar cells) in thin … Continue Reading → […]
- New Aussie Technology to Clean Polluted WaterScientists from Deakin University, together with French colleagues, say that they have manufactured a lightweight and reusable material that can absorb up to 33 times its weight in a wide range of spilt oils, chemical solvents and dyes, while repelling … Continue Reading → […]
- Dysol Aiming to Print Storage with Solar Cells
