New Battery Technology

Shadowcatcher

Nanoparticle electrode for batteries could make large-scale power storage on the energy grid feasible, say Stanford researchers

Stanford researchers have used nanoparticles of a copper compound to develop a high-power battery electrode that is so inexpensive to make, so efficient and so durable that it could be used to build batteries big enough for economical large-scale energy storage on the electrical grid – something researchers have sought for years.
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Source: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/november/longlife-power-storage-112311.html

TnAndy

Re: New Battery Technology

Yeah....I saw that too the other day.

And like so many other things I've seen over the years from a research lab, my question it "will it ever make it to the shelf so I can buy it".

RCinFLA

Re: New Battery Technology

"Even though they haven't constructed a full battery yet, the performance of the new electrode is so superior to any other existing battery electrode"

"The researchers need to find another material to use for the anode before they can build an actual battery."


Sounds like half a theoretical battery.

westbranch

Re: New Battery Technology

here is an article about NaS battery technology, that received lots of press in June and was cancelled last week due to ???

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bc-hydro-and-sc-electric-company-partner-on-energy-storage-project-to-improve-reliability-provide-peak-shaving-124342789.html

niel

Re: New Battery Technology

read this almost like an editorial comment.........
you know i was tossing around this notion as to why utility companies would want this battery backup for peak loads when solar fills the bill quite nicely. don't get me wrong here as i welcome new and innovating battery technology for us, but just why do they push batteries for the purpose of peak power relief? the answer might be that they, the utility companies, can then state to their state agency or puc that they now have that aspect under control and would like to eliminate these, now rogue and dangerous solar grid connections as they would put it, from over-supplying power to their grid lines. this would be totally aimed at pv because pv only supplies power during daylight hours when peak power is used, which one would think is a match made in heaven.

now would utilities do such a thing? imo they would because it would then be in their full control and give them another excuse to charge their customers more money. they may call it a reserve charge or something similar and i guarantee it will be overly charged to the utility customers.

remember that the only resistance to solar came from the utility companies in the past. some of their concerns were legit, but overplayed to stop solar connections rather than just make them safe. solar is generally limited to about 1% here in the u s, but peak power consumption is more than that, even though i don't have the exact figure. i'd like to think i read the writing on the wall pretty well in this case, but i'm hoping i could be wrong. unlikely.:-)

Cariboocoot

Re: New Battery Technology

Or because the grid itself already has problems with power storage to meet fluctuating demands, solar notwithstanding. The batteries would be a quicker way to mitigate the fluctuations than bringing power plants on/off line, as that process has quite a long delay to it. Utilities view solar as another unpredictable variation in grid supply/demand that they don't know how to deal with. Most of the management teams, I fear, would be quite happy if RE disappeared and they could go back to their comfortable ways of brown-outs and black-outs whenever they couldn't keep up with demand.

We've already seen the shift towards greater connection fees vs. per kW hour charges as conservation and self-generation reduce the demand for power - but the cost of supplying the infrastructure remains (and goes up). You can't blame them entirely, as it is certain that RE, along with conservation methods, is having an effect on over-all power supply and usage. It is a time of change, and as yet no one really knows how to deal with it.

Stepping down off the soapbox now. :roll:

niel

Re: New Battery Technology

coot,
good point that solar isn't always available to handle the peak as the sun doesn't always shine brightly, but even a perfected battery backups makes 0 difference as they would still have a huge generator actively going for standby as it can go beyond what they might anticipate and beyond the backups capabilities. this not only makes the pv grid tie insignificant, but also would make a full battery backups system by them totally moot too.

i also don't see them coming up with battery banks that large to be able to encompass the output of some of these generators and, if they did, the area of land required to house that many batteries and associated electronics would stagger my imagination. also picture, if applicable to the new battery technology, that many batteries gassing or the result of a short.

techntrek

Re: New Battery Technology

niel wrote: »

also picture, if applicable to the new battery technology, that many batteries gassing or the result of a short.