Category: Battery

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Batteries, Battery, Energy, Green Friendly, Science & Technology News, Solar Power

Battery storage is the fastest-growing industry sector on the planet (which could save the planet)

 

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Billions of dollars are being invested worldwide in the developing battery boom, involving research into storage techniques to use the growing surpluses of cheap renewable energy now becoming available. Recent developments in batteries are set to sweep aside the old arguments about renewables being intermittent, dismissing any need to continue building nuclear power plants and burning fossil fuels to act as a back-up when the wind does not blow, or the sun does not shine.

Batteries as large as the average family house and controlled by digital technology are being positioned across electricity networks. They are being charged when electricity is in surplus and therefore cheap, and the power they store is resold to the grid at a higher price during peak periods.

Continue reading… “Battery storage is the fastest-growing industry sector on the planet (which could save the planet)”

Battery, Energy, Wind Power

Using molten salt to store electricity isn’t just for solar thermal plants

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Startup follows on a number of innovative ideas to make renewable energy more flexible.

How can we make wind a more versatile energy source? By adding storage.

An energy storage startup that found its footing at Alphabet’s X “moonshot” division announced last week that it will receive $26 million in funding from a group of investors led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund that counts Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg as investors and whose chairman is Bill Gates. The startup, called Malta, uses separate vats of molten salt and antifreeze-like liquid to store electricity as thermal energy and dispatch it to the grid when it’s needed.

Continue reading… “Using molten salt to store electricity isn’t just for solar thermal plants”

Battery, Energy, Solar Energy, Solar Power

Scientists develop liquid fuel that can store the Sun’s energy for up to 18 years

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No matter how abundant or renewable, solar power has a thorn in its side. There is still no cheap and efficient long-term storage for the energy that it generates.

The solar industry has been snagged on this branch for a while, but in the past year alone, a series of four papers has ushered in an intriguing new solution.

Scientists in Sweden have developed a specialised fluid, called a solar thermal fuel, that can store energy from the sun for well over a decade.

“A solar thermal fuel is like a rechargeable battery, but instead of electricity, you put sunlight in and get heat out, triggered on demand,” Jeffrey Grossman, an engineer works with these materials at MIT explained to NBC News.

Continue reading… “Scientists develop liquid fuel that can store the Sun’s energy for up to 18 years”

Batteries, Battery, Energy, Engineering, Environment

This new Lithium battery tech can simply suck up CO2 to power itself

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We need this right now!

Everybody knows the world’s got a serious carbon dioxide problem, but an ingenious and potentially cost-effective way of dealing with our surplus CO2 could provide the means of tomorrow’s battery technology.

For years scientists have looked at ways of capturing carbon and storing it underground or even potentially in the ocean. But a new system might offer a powerful advantage over these efforts.

Continue reading… “This new Lithium battery tech can simply suck up CO2 to power itself”

Batteries, Battery, Breakthrough Thinking, Electric Vehicles

Tenfold improvement in liquid batteries mean electric car refuelling could take minutes

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Tenfold improvement in liquid batteries mean electric car refuelling could take minutes.

Big companies from around the world have already shown interest in Prof. Lee Cronin’s energy-dense liquid battery.

One of the biggest drawbacks of electric vehicles – that they require hours and hours to charge – could be obliterated by new type of liquid battery that is roughly ten times more energy-dense than existing models, according to Professor Lee Cronin, the Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, UK.

Continue reading… “Tenfold improvement in liquid batteries mean electric car refuelling could take minutes”

Batteries, Battery, Breakthrough Thinking, Energy

A new flow battery prototype aims to store vast amounts of renewable power for the grid

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This ‘flow battery’ could power green homes when the sun goes down and the wind stops blowing.

With solar and wind electricity prices plunging, the hunt is on for cheap batteries to store all this power for use around the clock. Now, researchers have made an advance with a flow battery, the type of battery being developed to soak up enough excess wind and solar power to fuel whole cities. They report the discovery of a potentially cheap, organic molecule that can power a flow battery for years instead of days.

Continue reading… “A new flow battery prototype aims to store vast amounts of renewable power for the grid”

Battery, Business, Energy, Latest News, New Discoveries

A massive, ‘semi-infinite’ trove of rare-earth metals has been found in Japan

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Researchers have found hundreds of years’ worth of rare-earth materials underneath Japanese waters — enough to supply to the world on a “semi-infinite basis,” according to a study published in Nature Publishing Group’s Scientific Reports.

Rare-earth metals are crucial in the making of high-tech products such as electric vehicles and batteries, and most of the world has relied on China for almost all of its needs.

Continue reading… “A massive, ‘semi-infinite’ trove of rare-earth metals has been found in Japan”

Batteries, Battery, Electric Automobile, Science & Technology News, Transportation

48-volt systems could be the new standard in the future’s vehicles

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Electric cars won’t only be good for the environment — they’ll be good for your power-hungry tendencies, too. As per a new report from the New York Times, companies are looking to turn away from the traditional 12-volt systems to provide the juice for these cars of the future, and looking to a 48-volt standard instead.

Continue reading… “48-volt systems could be the new standard in the future’s vehicles”

Batteries, Battery, Clothing, Energy

A stretchable battery, powered by sweat, could revolutionize wearables

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Whether it’s the AA batteries that go in TV remotes or the lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones, you probably have a pretty definite image that springs to mind when someone mentions “battery.” That could soon change, however, based on research coming out of the Binghamton University in New York, where scientists have developed a stretchy, textile-based, bacteria-powered bio-battery that could one day be used to power wearable devices. In demonstrations, the battery was shown to be able to exhibit stable electricity-generating capabilities even after repeated stretching and twisting cycles.

 

Continue reading… “A stretchable battery, powered by sweat, could revolutionize wearables”

Batteries, Battery, Elon Musk, Energy, government

Elon Musk has finished building the world’s biggest battery in less than 100 days

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Elon Musk looks to have delivered on his promise to build the biggest lithium ion battery in the world in an effort to help South Australia with its crippling energy problems. “100 days from contract signature or it’s free,” Musk tweeted at the time, in a deal initially negotiated over Twitter. Musk is well ahead of schedule (a rarity for Tesla!), with the 100MW battery set to be energised and tested in the coming days, according to a press release from the local state government.

Continue reading… “Elon Musk has finished building the world’s biggest battery in less than 100 days”

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