Industry News

Solar plus storage is increasingly getting more popularity in domestic application. It is reported that a combination of residential solar, storage and smart controls could greatly reduce evening peak grid usage at homes in Britain. This has released by the UK’s Solar Trade Association (STA), which cooperates with academic institution Loughborough University and analytics and research consultancy Advanced Further Energy.

Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed a promising material that can be used in lithium batteries-- Carbon nanotubes. By incorporating these materials for the battery’s conductive plate, named the anode, the batteries not only enable the safe storage of a large quantity of lithium ions and lower the safety risk, but also has a potential faster charging time.

In recent research, researchers from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has developed a new class of cathodes for battery, which is a cobalt-free. This new high-energy lithium-ion battery has eliminated the cobalt and lowered the cost of producing lithium-ion batteries while improving the battery performance as well.

On July, 2020, The European Union (EU) has just published its strategy calls for better Energy System Integration. The Commission argued that “Double Charging” of fees for using the grid should not be applied to energy storage or to hydrogen resources. Through the end to “double charging”, the barrier to economic case for storage could relatively easily be removed.

Scientists has explored all kinds of alternative materials for the next-generation battery, and silicon has been seen as one of the ideal replacement. In recent research, scientists in Korea have come up with a solution to overcome a key obstacle for the development of using silicon as a lithium-ion battery’s anode to improve its energy density.

With recent research, researchers has taken advantage of the latest AI technology for lithium-ion battery. A team at Imperial College London has developed a new machine learning algorithm allowing them to explore the microstructure of fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries, and run 3D simulations to predict and improve cell performance on the basis of their microstructure.

The researcher at the University of California San Diego developed an ultrasound-emitting device that brings lithium metal batteries, one step closer to commercial viability. The devices which generate sound waves at extremely high frequencies that range from 100 million to 10 billion hertz, are used to filter the wireless cellular signal and identify and filter voice calls and data in a phone, while researchers used them to generate a current in the battery's electrolyte.

There is a new breakthrough of lithium electrolyte from the researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University, reporting that a new method has been developed to make ceramic-based flexible electrolyte sheets for lithium metal batteries. The researchers combined a garnet-type ceramic, a polymer binder, and an ionic liquid to produce a quasi-solid-state sheet electrolyte.

Current ion exchange membranes are used to purify water and store renewable energy output in fuel cells and batteries. However, the ion transport channels in Nafion membranes are not well defined and the membranes are very expensive. Low-cost polymer membranes have been widely used in the membrane industry in various contexts, from removal of salt and pollutants from water, to natural gas purification – but these membranes are usually not conductive or selective enough for ion transport.

Researchers have evaluated how solar plants could perform during hurricanes. Solar system generation could range from 18-60% of potential output when hurricanes happened – provided the arrays do not suffer damage. According to the scientists, solar installations could continue to provide back-up power when grids are down during hurricanes, especially if coupled with energy storage.

As time goes by, why lithium-ion battery face battery degradation? Scientists has worked out what happened in this process. This new interesting computer vision track the cathode's degradation over time and produce a detailed picture of how one battery component, the cathode, degrades with use. They discovered that particles detaching from the carbon matrix really do contribute significantly to a battery’s decline, at least under conditions one would typically see in consumer electronics, such as smart phones.

The team from the University of Maryland and the Army Research Laboratory have made an electrolyte that forms a protective layer on silicon, which is stable and resists the swelling that occurs in silicon anode particles. The new electrolyte—rationally designed with underlying principles in place—gives the anode particles room for Si to swell insight the protected layer.

By reformulating the materials used for manufacturing lithium-ion batteries, researchers have come up with a way to process and recycle the batteries’ electrodes without using organic solvents. The advance could reduce the costs, hazards, and environmental impact of manufacturing and recycling these common power sources.New process uses water-soluble binders to avoid the need for organic solvents in manufacturing and recycling.

The project is expected to produce 690 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 260,000 households — and annually offset greenhouse emissions of about 83,000 cars. Also, it includes 380 MW of 4 hour battery storage It will create about 2,000 direct and indirect jobs and inject an estimated $712.5 million in the economy as the nation tries to recover from the downturn brought on by the coronavirus outbreak, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said.

BYD puts the spotlight back on safety and stability in presenting the Blade Battery. The battery cells themselves provide the structural integrity for the pack, eliminating the need for modules and support beams. To complete the pack, BYD sandwiches the battery blades inside upper and lower high-strength panels, inspired by an aluminum honeycomb structure.