By modifying the structures of molecules used in the positive and negative electrolyte solutions, and making them water soluble, the Harvard team was able to engineer a battery that loses only one percent of its capacity per 1000 cycles.
Harvard scientists have developed a new flow battery which stores energy in liquid, works 10 years without energy loss and is much safer than lithium-ion batteries.
After a few years of heavy use, most lithium-ion batteries suddenly loose a lot of storage capacity. You surely recognize this from your smartphone, but that’s also a problem for energy storage which should last a very long time to store solar energy. Scientists at Harvard University have found a possible solution.
The new technology promises a battery definitely lasting ten years without losing much capacity. The solution is applied to a so-called flow-battery. The flow battery stores energy in organic molecules dissolved in neutral pH water. This new chemistry allows for a non-toxic, non-corrosive battery with an exceptionally long lifetime and offers the potential to significantly decrease the costs of production.
Smart Grid projects Europe including investments 2014
Investing in renewables is increasingly interesting. The rise of renewable energy seems unstoppable.
In 2015, 50% of all energy was already renewable energy. Worldwide! And figures are growing. investment dollars are starting to move to renewable energy.
This system of capturing, concentrating, accelerating, and harvesting wind power in a funnel is a patented system we call INVELOX™
The SheerWind technology seems to be a cost-effective, high-performance alternative to conventional wind technology. Look at this trending new wind turbine.
According to Dr. Daryoush Allaei, founder of SheerWind, the industry is looking at the problem the wrong way.
Current wind turbines are really only an optimized step beyond the old sail based windmills of Europe, passively waiting for the appropriate wind. Read More
At present, we don’t have to burn fossils fuels anymore. We have all these renewable energy resources that will supply more than enough energy for current and future energy demands. Read More
We have to rush to limit climate change and to seize the economic opportunities that the transition entails. This WindWheel has released an architecture design for the wind turbine of the future
10 challenges we should overcome in order to transform successfully to a sustainable, strong and secure green energy economy.
Buildings, transport, industry, ICT, user behavior, energy storage, solar energy, wind energy, bio-energy, CO2 capture and more … Energy is one of the biggest changes in this century and has many aspects.
We present to you the ten important and urgent challenges, summarized by NERA. Read More
Tehachapi is nominally a wind energy-related project attached to the 4.5 GW. When it opened, in September 2014, it was credited with being the largest battery storage project in the North of the US, with 604,832 Li-ion cells housed in 10,872 modules.
This blog focuses on the Borrego Springs, Tehachapiand and Notrees energy storage projects and examines the long-term impact that they will have on the future project pipeline in the US.
According to the Energy Storage Association’s US Energy Storage Monitor, 60.3 MW of storage was deployed in the third quarter of 2015, a twofold year-on-year increase.
Last week the German government reported that the Portugal produced so much renewable energy on a particularly sunny, windy Sunday that there was a power surplus.
In may 2016, Portugal ran for more than half a week without having to resort to fossil fuels. Thanks to a big push toward solar, wind, and hydro power and a little nudge from the EU, for four days, Portugal produced enough clean, sustainable electricity to meet the needs of its people. Read More
Aquion did come up with a breakthrough saltwater battery. It is environmentally friendly, cost effective and has a life cycle way beyond any other battery: up to 5,000 cycles.
The development of sustainable saltwater batteries enters the next level.
The American company Aquion Energy has received $ 33 million extra finance.
Previously, Bill Gates invested in Aquion Energy.
Saltwater conductor
Aquion developed batteries that can store solar and wind energy to serve as backup for times when there is no wind nor sun. Saltwater batteries are not new, but the batteries from Aquion are special because they are using salt water as a conductor, instead of acids or bases.
Aquion has come up with a clever twist on a 200 year old salt water battery technology using:
Activated carbon (anode)
Manganese oxide (cathode)
And basically a salt water electrolyte
They have come up with a breakthrough solution. It is environmentally friendly, cost effective and has a life cycle way beyond any other battery: up to 5,000 cycles
So what’s Aquion’s energy storage innovation?
The startup — which was backed by Bill Gates and VCs like Kleiner Perkins and Foundation Capital — is making a low cost, modular grid battery made from basic materials like sodium and water.
The battery pairs a carbon anode with a sodium-based cathode, and a water-based electrolyte shuttles ions between the two electrodes during charging and discharging.
The technology was developed out of Carnegie Mellon University by founder and chief technology officer Jay Whitacre.
By using basic materials, Aquion is hoping its product is inexpensive enough to disrupt the current grid battery market.
Aquion’s CEO Scott Pearson:
“When the battery has been manufactured at a commercial scale for awhile, the price point of the battery could be $300 per kilowatt hour. That’s about a third of the cost of some of the more expensive lithium ion battery grid products.”
Advantages
Saltwater batteries are tolerant to wide temperature ranges, partial state of charge cycling, and daily deep cycling with minimal degradation.
In addition to the safety and sustainability advantages of using water as electrolyte, another advantage is the thermal mass of the embodied water means that Aquion products neither heat nor cool rapidly. As such, the products can operate in a very wide operating temperature window because they simply take so long to heat and to cool.
The saltwater battery chemistry relies on charge/discharge mechanisms which are unaffected by partial state of charge – these batteries can sit indefinitely at partial, or even no state of charge, without irreversible capacity loss like lead acid batteries.
In June 2016, Aquion Energy has introduced the Aspen 24S, a 24-volt version of its award-winning Aqueous Hybrid Ion (AHI) battery.
The new product is designed for energy-intensive applications that use solar panels, such as off-grid solar-powered LED lighting, as well as small pumps and motors. It is also an ideal drop-in replacement for existing systems using 24-volt lead-acid batteries.
President Obama is committed to taking responsible steps to address climate change, promote clean energy and energy efficiency, drive innovation, and ensure a cleaner, more stable environment for future generations
The milestone was reached when the city rounded out its existing portfolio of wind, water, and biomass energy by purchasing the Winooski One hydroelectric dam
Burlington (Vermont) is the first city to use 100% renewables for all electricity cities household’s need.
PBS NewsHour’s William Brangham reported on the implications for Vermont’s green movement.
An atlas of pollution: the world in carbon dioxide emissions
This Renewable Energy Policy Report 2014 presents an in-depth analysis of the renewable energy policies across the major countries in North and South America namely the US, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
It also presents the major renewable policy frameworks in place in some of the major states in the US and Canada.
A new Irena report, examines the biomass potential in world regions and with different technologies for rapid and sustainable scale-up
Biomass Could Reach 60% of Total Global Renewable Energy Use by 2030.
Sustainable biomass can reduce global CO2 emissions, new IRENA report tell us.
For example: Algae-based biofuel absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows. This biomass energy source wastes CO2 and the wastewater can be used as nutrients. Algae give higher energy per-acre than other bio-fuels and can be grown on land unsuitable for other types of agriculture. Let’s have a look at the potentials of Biomass Power.
New energy projects from hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and waste gas
Africa launches a renewable energy fund to develop projects across sub-Sahara. 100 million dollars has already been resiled for the African Renewable Energy Fund and will probably be doubled.
The money will support small and medium-sized independent power producers with grid-tied projects of 5-50 megawatts in size: small hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and waste gas.
The Report presents an in-depth analysis of the Renewable Energy Policies of Wind, Solar, Geothermal, Biopower and Biofuels. The involved countries are: Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. Read More
Buffett’s investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is spending billions of dollars on the construction of wind and solar power plants. Speaking at the Edison Electric Institute’s annual convention in Las Vegas on Monday, Buffett said that Berkshire Hathaway has committed $15 billion to renewable energy already. More importantly, Buffett said that he is ready to invest another $15 billion in the sector. Read More
China sets goals for new energy resources up to 2017
China speeds up solar power development, targeting a more than tripling of installed capacity to 70 gigawatts by 2017 to cut its reliance on coal.The goal would be double a previous target set for 2015, according to a statement posted today on the National Development and Reform Commission’s website. China also plans to have 150 gigawatts of installed wind power capacity by 2017, 11 gigawatts of biomass power and 330 gigawatts of hydro power. Read More
The Report presents an in-depth analysis of the Renewable Energy Policies of Wind, Solar, Geothermal, Biopower and Biofuels. The involved countries are: Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. 
