From ESS news

BASF Stationary Energy Storage, a subsidiary of chemical company BASF, and Japanese ceramics manufacturer NGK Insulators have launched a new version of their sodium-sulfur (NAS) batteries.

The containerized NAS MODEL L24 battery jointly developed by the partners, whose cooperation started in 2019, boasts a few technological improvements. Compared to the previously available battery type, the new NAS battery is characterized by a significantly lower degradation rate of less than 1% per year thanks to a reduced corrosion in battery cells.

Another technical achievement is an improved thermal management system in battery modules, which enables a longer continuous discharge. For instance, in the case of discharging at 200 kW-dc per NAS MODEL L24 unit, the continuous discharging duration is six hours.

The new technology elements have been incorporated into the field-proven battery design. Namely, NAS batteries were implemented practically for the first time in the world by NGK and since then installed at over 250 locations worldwide, with a total output of over 720 MW and total capacity of around 5 GWh installed.

Like the earlier version, the new concept complies with the latest safety standards for energy storage installations, such as UL1973 and UL9540A.

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From pv magazine ESS News

Battery manufacturers CATL and Gotion High-Tech have denied U.S. lawmakers’ claims of forced labor in their supply chains, calling the accusations groundless and false.

On June 6, a group of U.S. Republican lawmakers have called on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to immediately add CATL and Gotion High-Tech to a Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List and and block the shipments of these companies from entering the US.

“The Select Committee has uncovered indisputable evidence that Gotion High-Tech and CATL have supply chains that are deeply connected to forced labor and the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs in China,” House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman John Moolenaar said. “The American people expect companies in the U.S. to avoid all involvement with the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of genocide.”

CATL said in a press release on June 7 that the accusations are “groundless and completely false” and that information about some of its suppliers in the letter to the DHS is inaccurate and misleading.

“With some suppliers, business relations ceased long ago. With other suppliers, business relations have been conducted with different subsidiaries and with absolutely no connection to forced labor or anything that violates US applicable laws and regulations,” the company said.

CATL said it adheres to the highest business and ethical standards and has effective policies in place to ensure a responsible and sustainable supply chain according to the highest global standards.

Read more here.

From pv magazine ESS News site

US-based SorbiForce says it has designed its battery energy storage systems to be completely recyclable, reducing environmental impact and fostering a circular economy.

Its technology does not rely on fossil-based resources and instead utilizes agricultural by-products, like straw, and brine from desalination plants, making them a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

The company uses its own ultra-porous carbon, water, and salt to develop its battery storage systems. It employs locally sourced raw materials that are abundant in most locations in the USA, thereby mitigating supply chain risks associated with traditional battery components.

According to SorbiForce, its battery is resistant to mechanical damage, non-flammable, non-explosive, has no problem with overcharging, requires no cooling, and has no thermal runaway. “The bromine salt ZnBr2 in our battery is used in firefighting,” the company says.

The cost of 1 kWh is 1.8 times lower than the price of 1 kWh on the lithium-ion battery market, the company claims.

At the end of their lifetime, the batteries can be easily disposed, fully recycled, and repurposed as organic compost, leaving minimal environmental impact.

The technology is touted as easily scalable offering a power range from 120 kW to 1 MW and storage capacity from 500 to 700 kWh.

The system measures 6 meters in length, 2.4 meters in width, 2.6 meters in height and weighs 18.9 tons.

The system needs four hours to charge and as much to discharge. SorbiForce guarantees 5,000 charge-discharge cycles and has a goal to extend this to 10,000.

“At present, we are introducing batteries with 4-hour and 12-hour cycles. That means 4 hours of charging/4 hours of discharging and 12 hours of charging/12 hours of discharging. However, we can manufacture batteries ranging from 30 minutes to 24 hours,” Serhii Kaminskyi, founder and CEO of SorbiForce, tells pv magazine Energy Storage. “We are focused on industrial applications for intraday operations.”

To continue reading, please visit our new ESS News website.

From pv magazine ESS News site

Houston-based long-duration energy storage developer Quidnet Energy has announced a major deal that could see hundreds of megawatts of its innovative technology deployed in Texas to help address ERCOT’s urgent need for energy storage.

The company has announced a strategic partnership with a $10 million investment from Hunt Energy Network (HEN), a distributed energy resources developer with experience in subsurface development.

The two Texas-based companies will collaborate on a build-transfer program for 300 MW of projects utilizing Quidnet Energy’s GES technology, which relies on well-sealed underground reservoirs for energy storage.

The partnership will pair Quidnet’s solution with HEN’s similar subsurface technologies and its capabilities in developing energy storage projects, the companies said in a release.

“Quidnet Energy’s GES technology presents a unique opportunity to revolutionize energy storage, and we’re excited to invest in a solution that purposefully transforms existing resources to expand access to long-duration storage,” said Pat Wood, III, Chief Executive Officer for Hunt Energy Network.

To continue reading, please visit our ESS News website.

From pv magazine ESS News site

Interest in long-duration energy storage (LDES) is rising rapidly as demand for clean firm capacity grows. With most LDES technologies still nascent, information about their cost is not widely available. In its inaugural LDES cost survey, BloombergNEF is bringing transparency to the matter.

BNEF has surveyed seven LDES technology groups and 20 technology types in its report and found that the least expensive technologies are already providing cheaper storage than lithium-ion batteries for durations over eight hours.

Thermal energy storage and compressed air storage had an average capital expenditure, or capex, of $232/kWh and $293/kWh, respectively. For comparison, lithium-ion systems had an average capex of $304/kWh for four-hour duration systems in 2023, so generally shorter-term storage.

Storage duration, project size, and location are key factors affecting LDES capex. Gravity energy storage systems, which elevate weights when charging and controllably drop them when discharging, have the highest average capex, at $643/kWh.

The cost reduction rate of LDES technologies will largely depend on the expansion of deployment and the development of routes to market in major regions, BNEF notes.

To continue reading, please visit our ESS News website.

From pv magazine EES News

Lithium-sulfur batteries are a promising candidate for high-performance energy storage applications due to their low cost and high theoretical energy density of more than 500 Wh/kg when coupled with lithium metal anodes.

However, developing a highly durable sulfur cathode has been challenging due to the polysulfide shuttling and volume variation of sulfur that leads to chemical and mechanical degradation of the cathode during cycling.

Researchers at the University of South Carolina have made a huge step forward in addressing this issue by developing a simple electrode processing method for producing highly durable sulfur cathodes. These electrodes feature a self-structured binder confinement for sulfur particles using only commercially available sulfur, carbon black, and binder, with no additional components.

The researchers have controlled the dissolution of the binder during the slurry preparation step to form a porous binder/carbon shell structure around the sulfur particles that can entrap the soluble polysulfides and slow down the shuttling mechanism.

The sulfur cathodes achieved through this method offer an outstanding capacity retention of 74% over 1000 cycles, due to a considerable reduction in the lithium-polysulfide shuttling and active material loss. Electrodes with a high areal loading also showed excellent cyclability as well as a high capacity.

The researchers reported these results last year following the completion of the project’s first phase, in which they used coin cells. Now, they are moving to practical battery forms to determine if commercialization is possible.

The team’s current work focuses on pouch cells, which theoretically have the highest energy density since this type has the least amount of waste weight. “Pouch cells usually have lighter and thinner battery casing than the other forms, which leaves most of the volume and weight of the battery for the energy-providing components,” Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Golareh Jalilvand says.

While the challenges of batteries grow with their size, the USC researchers have reported a fast and successful transition from coin to pouch cells. “We have achieved outstanding lithium-sulfur pouch cells with competent energy densities,” Jalilvand says. “I’m looking forward to seeing the long cycle life and durability of our pouch cells because that’s the last check mark for us and our industrial partner. With that, it might be time to say we have a lithium-sulfur battery that is ready for commercialization.”

Given the long charge-discharge time, the researchers see lithium-sulfur batteries as best suited for applications that do not require fast charging. These include heavy-duty trucks, buses, and other means of transport that need long discharge time, commonly known as milage, and can be kept overnight at charging stations. The technology also shows great potential for stationary applications such as grid-level energy storage as well as space applications.

From pv magazine Global

Batteries need to lead a sixfold increase in global energy storage capacity to enable the world to meet 2030 targets, after deployment in the power sector more than doubled last year, the IEA said in its first assessment of the state of play across the entire battery ecosystem. In this scenario, battery energy storage systems would account for 90% of the increase and pumped hydro for most of the rest.

In its “Batteries and Secure Energy Transitions” report, the Paris-based watchdog described batteries as critical to delivering the climate and energy targets outlined at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai. It said that growth in batteries outpaced almost all other clean energy technologies in 2023, driven by falling costs, innovation, and supportive industrial policies.

Strong growth occurred for utility-scale battery projects, behind-the-meter batteries, minigrids and solar home systems, adding a total of 42 GW of battery storage capacity throughout the world, up by more than 130% year on year. Meanwhile, electric vehicle (EV) battery deployment increased by 40% in 2023, with 14 million new electric cars, accounting for the vast majority of batteries used in the energy sector.

“Despite the continuing use of lithium-ion batteries in billions of personal devices in the world, the energy sector now accounts for over 90% of annual lithium-ion battery demand,” the IEA report said. “This is up from 50% for the energy sector in 2016, when the total lithium-ion battery market was 10-times smaller.”

In less than 15 years, battery costs have fallen by more than 90% – one of the fastest declines ever seen in clean energy technologies. Nonetheless, the report found that costs need to come down further without compromising quality and technology to globally scale up batteries.

The expectation is that further innovation in battery chemistries and manufacturing could reduce global average lithium-ion battery costs by another 40% from 2023 to 2030 and bring sodium-ion batteries to the market. The IEA said that sodium-ion batteries would account for less than 10% of EV batteries to 2030, but they would make up a growing share of stationary storage batteries, as their costs are 30% lower than those of lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.

“The combination of solar PV and batteries is today competitive with new coal plants in India. And just in the next few years, it will be cheaper than new coal in China and gas-fired power in the United States. Batteries are changing the game before our eyes,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol.

The cost cuts also make standalone battery storage more competitive with natural gas peaking options, the IEA report said.

In the most ambitious scenario, total spending on batteries across all applications is set to increase to $800 billion by 2030, up almost 400% from 2023. This means doubling the share of batteries in overall clean energy investment within seven years.

Global battery manufacturing has more than tripled over the last three years. While China produces most batteries today, the report showed that 40% of all announced plans for new battery manufacturing are in advanced economies such as the United States and the European Union.

“If all those projects are built, those economies would have nearly enough manufacturing to meet their own needs to 2030 on the path to net zero emissions,” said the report.

From pv magazine Global

EcoFlow presented new solar-to-heat smart heating solutions, the PowerHeat Air-to-Water Heat Pump and the PowerGlow Smart Immersion Heater, at Solar Solutions Bremen 2024 this week.

The company said its smart solar-to-heat solutions are designed to integrate into the EcoFlow Residential Smart Energy Ecosystem, offering users energy independence and reduced energy expenses.

“With compatibility with the PowerOcean series solar storage systems, EcoFlow’s smart heating solutions enable users to harness the power of solar energy for home ambience and water heating, providing a sustainable and cost-effective alternative to traditional heating methods such as gas and fuel,” said the company.

The EcoFlow PowerHeat Air-to-Water Heat Pump, equipped with R290 refrigerant, is available in 9 kW and 20 kW versions. The system supports one-phase and three-phase connections.

The smaller device measures 1,263 mm x 440 mm x 875 mm and weighs 253.5 pounds (115 kg). The larger variant measures 1263 mm x 440 mm x 1375 mm and weighs 297 pounds (180 kg), according to the company.

The smaller heat pump features a cooling capacity of 1.53 kW to 5.96 kW, while the bigger one ranges from 4.40 kW to 14.40 kW. The heating capacity is between 3.50 kW and 8.81 kW for the smaller system, and 6.70 kW to 20.36 kW for the bigger version. The inlet water temperature is 86 F (30 C) and the outlet water temperature is 95 F (35 C).

At higher water temperatures of 122 F (50 C) inlet and 131 F (55 C) outlet, the heating capacity ranges from 3.15 kW to 7.98 kW for the smaller system and from 5.80 kW to 18.48 kW for the larger system. The maximum outlet water temperature for both is 167 F (75 C).

The smaller system has a power input voltage of 220 V to 240 V and a maximum input power of 4 kW. The 20 kW system has a power input voltage range of 380 V to 415 V and a maximum input power of 6.8 kW.

The operating temperature range for both products spans from -13 F to 109 F (-25 C to 43 C). The smaller system features a 2 liter expansion tank and the larger version has a 5 liter tank.

In addition to the new heat pump, EcoFlow has also unveiled its new PowerGlow Smart Immersion Heater as a solution to heat water use surplus PV energy.

The system can be operated in combination with the EcoFlow PowerOcean system or third-party PV systems, with the scheduling of energy use handled via the EcoFlow app. It is available in three versions: 3,5 kW, 6 kW, and 9 kW. All versions offer more than 99% efficiency at nominal power.

The 3.5 kW system is available in one-phase and three-phase variants, while the other two systems only offer three-phase connections. They have an operating temperature range from 32 F to 104 F (0 C to 40 C) at the casing and a storage temperature range from -4 F to 158 F (-20 C to 70 C). The heating rod length ranges from 375 mm to 550 mm and the entire system weights from 2.5 kg to 3 kg.

The PowerGlow Smart Immersion Heater will be available in May, while the PowerHeat Air-to-Water Heat Pump will hit the market in late June, EcoFlow said in a press release.

From pv magazine Global

Battery industry heavyweight CATL has unveiled its latest innovation in energy storage system design with enhanced energy density and efficiency, as well as zero degradation for both power and capacity.

Its new TENER product achieves 6.25 MW capacity in a 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container, increasing the energy density per unit area by 30% and reducing the overall station footprint by 20% compared to its previous 5 MWh containerized energy storage system. For example, a 200 MWh TENER power station would cover an area of 4,465 square meters.

According to CATL, TENER cells achieve an energy density of 430 Wh/L, which it says is “an impressive milestone for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries used in energy storage.”

CATL describes TENER as the world’s first mass-producible energy storage system with zero degradation in the first five years of use. Leveraging biomimetic solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) and self-assembled electrolyte technologies, it says that TENER enables unobstructed movement of lithium ions and achieves zero degradation for both power and capacity.

This represents a significant advancement in increasing the lifespan of batteries and creates the much coveted “ageless” energy storage system, at least in the first years of the system’s operation.

On the safety front, CATL has also introduced a few improvements.

“Powered by cutting-edge technologies and extreme manufacturing capabilities, CATL has resolved the challenges caused by highly active lithium metals in zero-degradation batteries, which effectively helps prevent thermal runaway caused by oxidation reaction,” it said.

It has also established a dedicated, end-to-end quality management system that includes technology development, proof testing, operation monitoring, and safety failure analysis. It sets different safety goals as required by different scenarios, and then develops the corresponding safety technology to meet those goals. In addition, it has built a validation platform to simulate the safety test of energy storage systems in different power grid scenarios.

After a project is put into operation, CATL continues to monitor its operational status through AI-powered risk monitoring and an intelligent early warning system. It calculates the failure rate of energy storage products throughout their life cycle, and thus verifies the safety design goals while continuing to optimize them.

The manufacturer says it has reduced the failure rate to the PPB (single defect rate per billion) level for cells used in TENER, which, when extended to the operation throughout its full lifecycle, can lower operating costs and significantly enhance the internal rate of return. CATL also says that TENER is equipped with long service life, without specifying the warranty specs.

The Chinese battery maker has ranked first in market share of global energy storage battery shipments for three straight years, with a global market share of 40% in 2023. In its latest annual report, it said that its sales of energy storage battery systems hit 69 GWh in in 2023, representing a year-on-year increase of 46.81%.

From pv magazine Global

It is often said that LFP batteries are safer than NMC storage systems, but recent research suggests that this is an overly simplified view.

In the rare event of catastrophic failure, the off-gas from lithium-ion battery thermal runaway is known to be flammable and toxic, making it a serious safety concern. But while off-gas generation has been widely investigated, until now there has been no comprehensive review on the topic.

In a new paper, researchers from the University of Sheffield, Imperial College London, and the University of St Andrews in the United Kingdom have conducted a detailed meta-analysis of 60 papers to investigate the most influential battery parameters and the probable off-gas characteristics to determine what kind of battery would be least hazardous.

They have found that while NMC batteries release more gas than LFP, but that LFP batteries are significantly more toxic than NMC ones in absolute terms.

Toxicity varies with state of charge (SOC). Generally, a higher SOC leads to greater specific gas volume generation.

When comparing the previous findings for both chemistries, the researchers found that LFP is more toxic at lower SOC, while NMC is more toxic at higher SOC. Namely, while at higher SOC LFP is typically shown to produce less off-gas than other chemistries, at lower SOC volumes can be comparable between chemistries, but in some cases LFP can generate more.

Prismatic cells also tend to generate larger specific off-gas volumes than offer cell forms.

The composition of off-gas on average is very similar between NMC and LFP cells, but LFP batteries have greater hydrogen content, while NMC batteries have greater carbon monoxide content.

To assess the fire hazard of each chemistry, the researchers calculated and compared the lower flammability limit (LFL) of the off-gasses. They have found that LFL for LFP and NMC are 6.2% and 7.9% (in an inert atmosphere) respectively. Given the LFL and the median off-gas volumes produced, LFP cells breach the LFL in a volume 18% smaller than NMC batteries.

“Hence LFP presents a greater flammability hazard even though they show less occurrence of flames in cell thermal runaway tests,” the researchers said.

They discussed their findings in “Review of gas emissions from lithium-ion battery thermal runaway failure – Considering toxic and flammable compounds,” which was recently published in the Journal of Energy Storage.

From pv magazine global

Tesla‘s energy generation and storage business is booming, despite a dramatic slowdown in its electric vehicle (EV) sales.

The company has reported its highest energy storage quarterly figures on record this week, with a cumulative 4,053 MWh of energy storage capacity deployed in the first quarter of 2024.

It was the first time ever for Tesla to include its energy storage figures in a quarterly breakdown, which is usually reserved for vehicle production and deliveries.

These figures were disappointing. Tesla said it produced more than 433,000 vehicles and delivered approximately 387,000, which is around 20,000 fewer EVs than even the most pessimistic estimates.

It said the decline in volumes was partially due to the early phase of the production ramp-up of the updated Model 3 at its Fremont factory and factory shutdowns resulting from shipping diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin.

However, the results came as no surprise. In its fourth-quarter 2023 investor filing, Tesla said that its vehicle volume growth rate would be notably lower in 2024, as it continues to work on the launch of a next-generation vehicle at Gigafactory Texas.

“In 2024, the growth rate of deployments and revenue in our Energy Storage business should outpace the Automotive business,” the company said.

It added that it expects continued growth on a 12-month basis going forward, while deployments will continue to be volatile on a sequential basis, impacted by logistics and the global distribution of projects.

“I predicted for many years that the storage business will grow much faster than the car business,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “It is doing that.”

At the end of last year, Tesla’s energy storage deployments reached 14.7 GWh. Total installations for 2023 were more than double than in 2022, up by 125%. The division’s profit nearly quadrupled.

Tesla said it will provide further information in its full quarterly earnings report, which is set to be released on April 23.

Iron-based flow batteries have been around for decades, and some are now commercially available. While vanadium redox flow batteries are the most mature and popular technology in the family of flow batteries, adopting iron complexes as the active materials of choice could alleviate the challenges associated with the supply chain, particularly in the context of large-scale energy storage applications.

A new battery designed by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is said to provide a pathway to a safe, economical, water-based, flow battery made with abundant materials, while also offering strong performances.

The researchers have developed a liquid chemical formula that combines charged iron with a neutral-pH phosphate-based liquid electrolyte. They used the chemical called nitrogenous triphosphonate, nitrilotri-methylphosphonic acid (NTMPA), which is commercially available in industrial quantities and typically used to inhibit corrosion in water treatment plants.

Phosphonates, including NTMPA, are a broad chemical family based on the element phosphorus. Many phosphonates dissolve well in water and are nontoxic chemicals used in fertilizers and detergents, among other uses.

“We were looking for an electrolyte that could bind and store charged iron in a liquid complex at room temperature and mild operating conditions with neutral pH,” said senior author Guosheng Li, a senior scientist at PNNL who leads materials development for rechargeable energy storage devices. “We are motivated to develop battery materials that are Earth-abundant and can be sourced domestically.”

The researchers reported that their lab-scale, iron-based battery exhibited remarkable cycling stability over one thousand consecutive charging cycles, while maintaining 98.7% of its capacity. For comparison, previous studies of similar iron-based batteries reported degradation of the charge capacity two orders of magnitude higher, over fewer charging cycles. The new battery also demonstrated high Coulombic efficiency and energy efficiency near 100% and 87%, respectively, they said.

“A BESS facility using the chemistry similar to what we have developed here would have the advantage of operating in water at neutral pH,” said Aaron Hollas, a study author and team leader in PNNL’s Battery Materials and Systems Group. “In addition, our system uses commercially available reagents that haven’t been previously investigated for use in flow batteries.”

The research team reported that their initial design can reach energy density up to 9 Wh/L, lagging behind commercialized vanadium-based systems that are more than twice as energy dense, at 25 Wh/L. Their next move is to improve the battery’s voltage output and electrolyte concentration, which will help to increase the energy density.

Their results were discussed in the study “Phosphonate-based iron complex for a cost-effective and long cycling aqueous iron redox flow battery,” published in nature communications.

From pv magazine print edition 3/24

Sodium ion batteries are undergoing a critical period of commercialization as industries from automotive to energy storage bet big on the technology. Established battery manufacturers and newcomers are jostling to get from lab to fab with a viable alternative to lithium ion. With the latter standard for electric mobility and stationary storage, new technology must offer proven advantages. Sodium ion looks well placed, with superior safety, raw material costs, and environmental credentials.

Sodium ion devices do not need critical materials, relying on abundant sodium instead of lithium, and no cobalt or nickel. As lithium ion prices rose in 2022, amid predictions of material shortages, sodium ion was tipped as a rival and interest remains strong, even as lithium ion prices have started to fall again.

“We are currently tracking 335.4 GWh of sodium ion cell production capacity out to 2030, highlighting that there is still considerable commitment to the technology,” said Evan Hartley, senior analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

In May 2023, the London-based consultant had tracked 150 GWh to 2030.

Cheaper

Sodium ion cells, produced at scale, could be 20% to 30% cheaper than lithium ferro/iron-phosphate (LFP), the dominant stationary storage battery technology, primarily thanks to abundant sodium and low extraction and purification costs. Sodium ion batteries can use aluminum for the anode current collector instead of copper – used in lithium ion – further reducing costs and supply chain risks. Those savings are still potential, however.

“Before sodium ion batteries can challenge existing lead acid and lithium iron phosphate batteries, industry players will need to reduce the technology’s cost by improving technical performance, establishing supply chains, and achieving economies of scale,” said Shazan Siddiqi, senior technology analyst at United Kingdom-based market research company IDTechEx. “Na-ion’s cost advantage is only achievable when the scale of production reaches a manufacturing scale comparable to lithium ion battery cells. Also, a further price drop of lithium carbonate could reduce the price advantage sodium offers.”

Sodium ion is unlikely to supplant lithium ion in applications prioritizing high performance, and will instead be used for stationary storage and micro electric vehicles. S&P Global analysts expect lithium ion to supply 80% of the battery market by 2030, with 90% of those devices based on LFP. Sodium ion could make up 10% of the market.

Right choices

Researchers have considered sodium ion since the mid-20th century and recent developments include improvements in storage capacity and device life cycle, as well as new anode and cathode materials. Sodium ions are bulkier than lithium counterparts, so sodium ion cells have lower voltage as well as lower gravimetric and volumetric energy density.

Sodium ion gravimetric energy density is currently around 130 Wh/kg to 160 Wh/kg, but is expected to top 200 Wh/kg in future, above the theoretical limit for LFP devices. In power density terms, however, sodium ion batteries could have 1 kW/kg, higher than nickel-manganese-cobalt’s (NMC) 340W/kg to 420 W/kg and LFP’s 175 W/kg to 425 W/kg.

While a sodium ion device life of 100 to 1,000 cycles is lower than LFP, Indian developer KPIT has reported a lifespan with 80% capacity retention for 6,000 cycles – dependent on cell chemistry – comparable to lithium ion devices.

“There is still no single winning chemistry within sodium ion batteries,” said IDTechEx’s Siddiqi. “Lots of R&D efforts are being undertaken to find the perfect anode/cathode active material that allows scalability beyond the lab stage.”

Referring to United States-based safety science organization Underwriter Laboratories, Siddiqi added that “UL standardization for sodium ion cells is, therefore, still a while away and this makes OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] hesitant to commit to such a technology.”

Prussian white, polyanion, and layered oxide are cathode candidates featuring cheaper materials than lithium ion counterparts. The former, used by Northvolt and CATL, is widely available and cheap but has relatively low volumetric energy density. United Kingdom-based company Faradion uses layered oxide, which promises higher energy density but is plagued by capacity fade over time. France’s Tiamat uses polyanion, which is more stable but features toxic vanadium.

“The majority of cell producers planning sodium ion battery capacity will be using layered oxide cathode technology,” said Benchmark’s Hartly. “In fact, 71% of the [cell] pipeline is layered oxide. Similarly, 90.8% of the sodium ion cathode pipeline is layered oxide.”

Whereas cathodes are the key cost driver for lithium ion, the anode is the most expensive component in sodium ion batteries. Hard carbon is the standard choice for sodium ion anodes but production capacity lags behind that of sodium ion cells, ramping up prices. Hard carbon materials have recently been derived from diverse precursors such as animal waste, sewage sludge, glucose, cellulose, wood, coal and petroleum derivatives. Synthetic graphite, a common lithium ion anode material, relies almost exclusively on the latter two precursors. With its developing supply chain, hard carbon is more costly than graphite and represents one of the key hurdles in sodium ion cell production.

Partially mitigating higher costs, sodium ion batteries exhibit better temperature tolerance, particularly in sub zero conditions. They are safer than lithium ion, as they can be discharged to zero volts, reducing risk during transportation and disposal. Lithium ion batteries are typically stored at around 30% charge. Sodium ion has less fire risk, as its electrolytes have a higher flashpoint – the minimum temperature at which a chemical can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture with air. With both chemistries featuring similar structure and working principles, sodium ion can often be dropped in to lithium ion production lines and equipment.

In fact, the world’s leading battery maker CATL is integrating sodium ion into its lithium ion infrastructure and products. Its first sodium ion battery, released in 2021, had an energy density of 160 Wh/kg, with a promised 200 Wh/kg in the future. In 2023, CATL said Chinese automaker Chery would be the first to use its sodium ion batteries. CATL told pv magazine late in 2023 that it has developed a basic industry chain for sodium ion batteries and established mass production. Production scale and shipments will depend on customer project implementation, said CATL, adding that more needs to be done for the large scale commercial rollout of sodium ion. “We hope that the whole industry will work together to promote the development of sodium ion batteries,” said the battery maker.

Charge to sodium

In January 2024, China’s biggest carmaker and second-biggest battery supplier, BYD, said it had started construction of a CNY 10 billion ($1.4 billion), 30 GWh per year sodium ion battery factory. The output will power “micromobility” devices. HiNa, spun out of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in December 2022 had commissioned a gigawatt-hour-scale sodium ion battery production line and announced a Na-ion battery product range and electric car prototype.

European battery maker Northvolt unveiled 160 Wh/kg-validated sodium ion battery cells in November 2023. Developed with Altris – spun out of Uppsala University, in Sweden – the technology will be used in the company’ next-generation energy storage device. Northvolt’s current offering is based on NMC chemistry. At the launch, Wilhelm Löwenhielm, Northvolt senior director of business development for energy storage systems, said the company wants a battery that is competitive with LFP at scale. “Over time, the technology is expected to surpass LFP significantly in terms of cost-competitiveness,” he said.

Northvolt wants a “plug-and-play” battery for fast market entry and scale-up. “Key activities for bringing this particular technology to market are scaling the supply chain for battery-grade materials, which Northvolt is currently doing, together with partners,” said Löwenhielm.

Smaller players are also doing their bit to bring sodium ion technology to commercialization. Faradion, which was acquired by Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries in 2021, says it is now transferring its next-generation cell design to production. “We have developed a new cell technology and footprint with 20% higher energy density, and increased cycle-life by a third compared to our previous cell design,” said Faradion Chief Executive Officer (CEO) James Quinn.

The company’s first-generation cells demonstrated an energy density of 160 Wh/kg. In 2022, Quinn said that Reliance’s plan was to build a double-digit-gigawatt sodium ion factory in India. For now, it seems that those plans are still in place. In August 2023, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani told the company’s annual shareholder meeting that the business is “focused on fast-track commercialization of our sodium ion battery technology … We will build on our technology leadership by industrializing sodium ion cell production at a megawatt level by 2025 and rapidly build up to gigascale thereafter,” he said.

Production

Startup Tiamat has moved forward on its plans to start construction of a 5 GWh production plant in France’s Hauts-de-France region. In January 2024, it raised €30 million ($32.4 million) in equity and debt financing and said that it expects to complete the financing of its industrial project in the coming months, bringing the total financing to around €150 million. The company, a spinoff from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, will initially manufacture sodium ion cells for power tools and stationary storage applications in its factory, “to fulfill the first orders that have already been received.” It will later target scaled-up production of second-generation products for battery electric vehicle applications.

In the United States, industry players are also ramping up their commercialization efforts. In January 2024, Acculon Energy announced series production of its sodium ion battery modules and packs for mobility and stationary energy storage applications and unveiled plans to scale its production to 2 GWh by mid-2024. Meanwhile, Natron Energy, a spinoff out of Stanford University, intended to start mass-producing its sodium ion batteries in 2023. Its goal was to make 600 MW of sodium ion cells at battery producer Clarios International’s exiting lithium ion Meadowbrook facility, in Michigan. Updates on progress have been limited, however.

Funding

In October 2023, Peak Energy emerged with $10 million in funding and a management team comprising ex-Northvolt, Enovix, Tesla, and SunPower executives. The company said it will initially import battery cells and that was not expected to change until early 2028. “You need around a billion dollars for a small scale gigawatt factory – think less than 10 GW,” Peak Energy CEO Landon Mossburg said at the launch. “So the fastest way to get to market is to build a system with cells available from a third party, and China is the only place building capacity to ship enough cells.” Eventually, the company hopes to qualify for domestic content credits under the US Inflation Reduction Act.

Some suppliers, such as India’s KPIT, have entered the space without any production plans. The automotive software and engineering solutions business unveiled its sodium ion battery technology in December 2023 and embarked on a search for manufacturing partners. Ravi Pandit, chairman of KPIT, said that the company has developed multiple variants with energy density ranging from 100 Wh/kg to 170 Wh/kg, and potentially reaching 220 Wh/kg.

“When we started work on sodium ion batteries, the initial expectation of energy density was quite low,” he said. “But over the last eight years the energy density has been going up because of the developments that we and other companies have been carrying out.” Others are on the lookout for supply partnerships. Last year, Finnish technology group Wärtsilä – one of the world’s leading battery energy storage system integrators – said that it was seeking potential partnerships or acquisitions in the field. At the time, it was moving toward testing the technology in its research facilities. “Our team remains committed to pursuing new opportunities in terms of diversifying energy storage technologies, such as incorporating sodium ion batteries into our future stationary energy storage solutions,” said Amy Liu, director of strategic solutions development at Wärtsilä Energy Storage and Optimization, in February 2024.

Nearshoring opportunity

Following many mass-production announcements, sodium ion batteries are now at the make-or-break point and investor interest will determine the technology’s fate. IDTechEx’s market analysis, carried out in November 2023, suggests anticipated growth of at least 40 GWh by 2030, with an additional 100 GWh of manufacturing capacity hinging on the market’s success by 2025.

“These projections assume an impending boom in the [sodium ion battery] industry, which is dependent upon commercial commitment within the next few years,” said Siddiqi.

Sodium ion could offer yet another opportunity to near-shore clean energy supply chains, with the required raw materials so readily available across the globe. It appears that train has already left the station, however.

“As with the early stages of the lithium ion battery market, the main bottleneck for the global industry will be the dominance of China,” said Benchmark’s Hartley. “As of 2023, 99.4% of sodium ion cell capacity was based in China and this figure is only forecast to fall to 90.6% by 2030. As policy in Europe and North America seeks to shift lithium ion battery supply chains away from China, due to the reliance on its domestic production, so too will a shift be needed in the sodium ion market to create localized supply chains.”

From pv magazine Global

Vanadium flow batteries are one of the most promising large-scale energy storage technologies due to their long cycle life, high recyclability, and safety credentials. However, they have lower energy density compared to ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries, and their uptake is held back by high upfront cost.

Now, researchers led by the University of Padua in Italy developed a techno-economic model, using experimental and market data, which can better inform investment decisions for this type of technology.

Their model considers the present and future competitivity of industrial flow batteries in operating specific services, which have not yet been developed to an accurate grade, and yields economic performance indicators such as capital costs, operative costs, levelized cost of storage (LCOS), and net present value.

To perform their calculations, the researchers used technical parameters taken from large-area multi-cell stacks, rather than from small single-cell experiments, to better characterize the behavior of real industrial-scale systems. They also used data from real financial markets and economic patterns of some major manufacturers.

The assessment was performed considering a lifespan of 20 years with a charge/discharge cycle per day. Each component affecting the capital and operative costs was analyzed, and the impact of side phenomena on capacity losses was considered.

As a result, their model showed where the economic indicators are heading and which parameters have a greater affect on investment profitability, thus tracking a possible roadmap for system optimization.

Their estimations indicate that technological and market evolutions are heading to much more competitive systems, with capital costs down to $284.2  per kWh at an energy/power duration of 10 hours. Namely, this is the breakeven point where the present values of total costs equate the present values of total revenues and no economic result is obtained.

“This is to be compared with a break-even point in the net present value of $434 per kWh, which suggests that flow batteries may play a major role in some expanding markets, notably the long duration energy storage,” the researchers stated.

Their results are published in the study “Techno-economic assessment of future vanadium-flow batteries based on real device/market parameters,” which was recently published in Applied Energy.

From pv magazine print edition 3/24

Innovation at material, cell, and system level has been just as important in lithium ion’s leap forward as supply chain development. Stationary energy storage cell design is trending toward large-format prismatic cells thanks to lithium ferro-phosphate (LFP) battery chemistry. Lower costs, a longer cycle life, and better safety have seen LFP batteries eat into nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) market share since 2020. The energy density and charge rate offered by NMC devices has instead seen them favored for mobility uses.

New materials

Both offer room for development. Reducing cobalt and raising nickel content in NMC batteries offers lower costs and better energy density. LFP energy density can be improved by replacing some iron cathode material with manganese – for an LMFP cathode. This emerging technology shows great promise, as it provides roughly 15% to 20% more energy density, or up to 230 Wh/kg, while maintaining the same level of cost and safety as LFP batteries. Financial services firm Ernst & Young calculates that the costs of LMFP batteries are about 21% higher than that of LFP devices on a dollars-per-kilogram basis. Considering their higher energy density, however, the cost per watt-hour is 5% lower, making them much more economical.

Although LMFP batteries offer higher voltage and energy density than LFP, there are trade-offs. “There are issues with lower power capability and lower cycle life which arise from the lower electrical conductivity of LMFP compared to LFP, which limits the power capability; and the dissolution of the manganese into the electrolyte over cycling, which limits cycle life,” said John-Joseph Marie, energy storage analyst at British research body The Faraday Institution. As a result, Marie doesn’t see LMFP replacing LFP for short-duration storage. “If the issue of cycle life could be solved, LMFP could be a cost-efficient technology for longer storage durations, e.g. four to eight hours,” he said.

Moves toward mass production of LMFP batteries are picking up pace, though – especially in China. CATL, Eve, BYD, and Gotion – as well as South Korea’s Samsung SDI and United States-based Mitra Chem – are now at various stages of commercialization and are producing this technology. In mid 2023, Gotion High-Tech set a precedent for developing NMC-free batteries with a range that reached 1,000 km with the launch of its L600 Astroinno battery cell and pack, featuring LMFP chemistry. The Chinese manufacturer said its new battery technology, which has undergone a research period of 10 years, is scheduled to begin mass production in 2024.

On the anode side, graphite remains the go-to material with efforts made to boost its lithium-holding capacity by adding a small amount of silicon. The addition of silicon is an attractive proposition, as it would allow for almost 10 times more capacity, due to its theoretical capacity of 3,600 milliampere-hours per gram (mAh/g), compared to graphite’s maximum of 372 mAh/g. In 2023, Tesla reportedly added up to 5% of silicon to its graphite anodes via intermetallic alloying. Startups are even more bullish on the technology, with a few of them proposing 100% silicon anodes.

The advantage on the cost side is also pronounced. “Silicon anodes, including silicon composite anodes and pure silicon anodes, are expected to be cheaper to produce on a dollar-per-kilowatt-hour basis than the incumbent graphite anode technology, thanks to their much higher capacity,” said Marie.

London-based consultants Rho Motion have modeled the cost pathway for lithium ion cells using various evolutions of silicon anode up to 2030. The results showed that the current anode active material accounts for around 7% to 9% of total cell costs in NMC811 (80% nickel, 10% manganese, and 10% cobalt) and LFP chemistries, a figure which is expected to reduce to around 2% by 2030 with the adoption of optimized microsilicon at scale.

Silicon anodes are set to increase their market share. Analyst BloombergNEF says anode technology could lean on silicon, lithium, and hard carbon to displace 46% of graphite demand in 2035, compared to scenarios in which the market doesn’t shift away from graphite. While the analysts expect hard carbon used in sodium ion batteries to already start entering the market in 2024, lithium metal anodes are projected to start playing a more prominent role only beyond 2030.

Bigger, better

As the search for new battery materials continues, so does innovation on the cell level. In battery energy storage system (BESS) applications, however, cost remains the key driver for adjustments at cell level. The obvious way of bringing down bill-of-materials (BOM) costs is by increasing the capacity and size of cells. Another benefit is that fewer cells means less work for the battery energy management system. Finally, the number of connection points and the complexity of mechanical trays are also reduced, making manufacturing processes easier.

Several manufacturers have already transferred from 280 ampere-hour (Ah) to 300 Ah-plus cells, with larger capacities in the pipeline. With the former seen as a standard in utility scale storage projects in 2023, the 300 Ah-plus cells stand ready to power commercial projects in 2024. Christoph Neef, senior scientist and project manager at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, observed that the trend toward high-capacity cells does not come from the electric vehicle (EV) industry, where only cells up to 200 Ah are usually deployed.

“The reason is simple: the system sizes are rather small compared to industrial BESS’, e.g. only 70 kWh,” said Neef. “Nevertheless, a system voltage of more than 300 V or, in future, 800 V should be achieved. This is simply not possible with a few high-capacity cells connected in series. The effects of the failure of a single cell would also be incalculably high.”

In other words, 300 Ah-plus cells are a clear indication battery cell manufacturers are increasingly developing products tailored to the BESS market and slowly moving away from the dominance of EV-customized cells.

Most cell manufacturers offer 300 Ah-plus cells with the same dimensions as 280 Ah devices, which makes the job easier for system integrators when designing their products. Large cells pose a greater challenge for safety management, however – particularly in terms of ensuring temperature uniformity within cells.

“The larger the individual cell, the greater the impact if a cell fails,” said Neef. “However, we do not assume that this has any effect on the fire risk.” Large-format cells, with more than 300 Ah with LFP chemistry, are likely to exhibit similar behavior in the event of a short-circuit as smaller units. The impact on the long-term reliability of the system could be higher, however. Precise cell monitoring and predictive maintenance are becoming increasingly important as a result.

“What is very interesting, however, is that the production quality of cell manufacturers is now so high that large-format cells are also worthwhile from the point of view of rejects,” added Neef. “The larger the cell capacity, the higher the risk of defects, e.g. in the electrode, and therefore the higher the risk of producing poor-quality cells. Only with very low defect rates is the production of these large cells worthwhile. [It is] a sign of the maturity of the industry.”

System evolution

Such bigger cells have led to bigger capacities at the container level. Average capacities have moved from more than 3 MWh to more than 5 MWh for the same 20-foot-equivalent units. Such higher energy-density BESS’ come with a host of advantages. For instance, they make it possible to install bigger capacities on a smaller footprint and thus save on land use – a particularly important consideration in regions facing space constraints.

“Less number of cells per watt-hour also reduces assembly and packaging and saves cost during production processes,” said Anqi Shi, senior analyst for batteries and energy storage at S&P Global. “However, challenges occur in system design and safety measures as heat dissipation and consistent temperature is harder to achieve.”

Another pronounced development at the system level is the move from air cooling to liquid cooling. In 2023, many system integrators released new BESS products with liquid cooling, describing it as an upgrade in terms of efficiency and the lifespan of grid scale products. Compared to the previously ubiquitous air cooling method, liquid cooling is better geared to deal with temperature-related challenges and is able to reduce land footprint, with some manufacturers reporting saving more than 20% of floor area.

That technology uptake has been particularly pronounced in China, where the lion’s share of large scale energy storage project tenders require liquid cooling technology. Shi said liquid cooling is especially suitable for high energy-density BESS’, or for projects where fast charging and discharging, and wide ambient temperature changes, are expected. “However, while liquid cooling offers better heat dissipation efficiency and temperature uniformity inside the BESS, the cost is higher than air cooling and there could be a risk of coolant leakage,” added Shi.

Finally, a potential new trend could be the emergence of alternating-current, “AC blocks” – containers with both battery and power conversion systems (PCS’) integrated inside. That type of product was pioneered by Tesla, in the company’s 2022 Megapack redesign. “AC blocks offer easier and quicker installation on site, less land occupation, and decentralized (pack-level or rack-level) control of BESS’,” said Shi. “They come at a cost premium, mostly due to using string PCS’, but the cost could be reduced by scaling up production.”

Currently, only Sungrow and Tesla have AC blocks that are larger than 3 MWh in a single container. Other relatively newer players, including Rimac Energy and JD Energy, have less-than-1 MWh AC block containers which might not have the same land-use advantage. It is not yet clear whether AC blocks can become a mainstream trend. After all, not all system integrators have in-house PCS capability. As Shi noted, however, AC blocks give developers increased choice and further squeeze established players in an already fiercely competitive market.

As lithium-ion batteries continue to improve in terms of both performance and cost, it is becoming increasingly difficult for alternative technologies to challenge the incumbent. However, interest in solid-state batteries, which promise better energy density and safety, has not waned, judging by recent announcements.

South Korea’s Samsung SDI is moving toward mass production of its all-solid-state battery technology with an energy density of 900 Wh/L. This week, the company is unveiling a technology roadmap at the InterBattery show in Seoul.

The document will demonstrate that every aspect of its plan for mass producing all solid-state batteries in 2027 is well on track, from development production line project launch to supply chain management, Samsung SDI said in a statement.

In December 2023, Samsung SDI established a dedicated team to promote the commercialization of its all solid-state business. Previously, it set up a pilot in its R&D Center in Suwon last year and is currently delivering proto samples.

“Our preparations for mass-producing next-generation products of various form factors such as all solid-state battery are well underway,” said Samsung SDI President and CEO Yoon-ho Choi.

Like CATL, BYD and Toyota, Samsung’s solid-state technology is based on sulfide-based solid electrolytes, which have the highest lithium ion conductivity compared to other solid state electrolytes. All solid-state batteries developed by Samsung SDI stand out for their anode-less configuration which is said to offer improved performance compared to devices featuring lithium metal anode and solid electrolyte.

Samsung’s roadmap release comes hot off the heals of the announcement of a Chinese national alliance of automakers and battery giants, including BYD, CATL, and Nio, aimed at developing all solid-state batteries.

In a bid to build a supply chain for solid-state batteries by 2030, Beijing in January set up a consortium, the China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform (CASIP), which brings together government, academia, and industry.

China already dominates the global battery market and looks determined to stay on top by boosting research and development of next-gen battery technologies, such as solid-state batteries which are particularly suited for electric mobility applications.

Among automakers, Japanese Toyota Motors has taken the lead with more the 1,000 solid-state battery patents. Last month, it said that it is preparing to mass-produce solid-state batteries by 2027 or 2028.

Nissan and Honda have previously revealed plans to establish solid-state battery manufacturing lines in-house. Meanwhile, Western automakers such as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, BMW, and Ford are also exploring solid-state batteries through partnerships with startups.

However, the production of solid-state batteries at scale is still held back by technological challenges and high costs, with industry analysts warning of a relatively tough path toward mass production in the coming years.

From pv magazine global

Swiss PV manufacturer Meyer Burger has decided to discontinue solar module production in March in Freiberg, Germany, in a bid to stop sustained losses in Europe. The company will instead concentrate on building up its production facilities in the United States.

“As there has not yet been any decision on policy support measures to remediate current market distortions created by oversupply and dumping prices of solar modules, the group has decided to start preparations for the closure of its Freiberg site,” the company said on Friday.

The company said it expects significant cost savings from April. Sales activities in Europe will be unaffected and customers will receive full -product warranties for up to 30 years, it added.

Europe’s solar manufacturers have urged the European Union to step in with emergency measures to protect them from insolvency. Earlier this month, the bloc finalized the Net Zero Industry Act, under which at least 40% of solar equipment deployed on the continent should be locally produced. However, thus far it has failed to introduce any emergency measures that would help to safeguard ailing businesses.

Meyer Burger said that it will seek shareholder approval for a rights issue of as much as CHF 250 million to finance the completion of its U.S. manufacturing facilities in Colorado and Arizona.

“The rights issue is an attractive proposal to our investors as they can invest into the highly attractive US business where we are positioned to have the potential to grow a profitable business,” Meyer Burger CEO Gunter Erfurt said on Friday. “Furthermore, a clear focus on our US business makes us independent of political decisions in Europe.”

Eventually, the company’s goal is to close the funding gap of CHF 450 million with a combination of the rights issue, an export agency credit guarantee from the German government of up to $95 million, and either the “45X” advanced manufacturing production tax credit under the US Inflation Reduction Act, in the amount to $300 million, or a US Department of Energy loan.

Meyer Burger said it expects to use these potential sources of financing to complete its solar cell manufacturing facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and its solar module manufacturing site in Goodyear, Arizona. Both facilities are currently under construction, with a targeted production capacity of 2 GW each.

“Due to a lack of European protection against unfair competition from China, nearly four years of hard work by great employees in Europe is at risk,” said Sentis, which is Meyer Burger’s largest shareholder with a 10.01% stake.

In reaction to Meyer Burger’s announcement on Friday, SolarPower Europe Walburga Hemetsberger said that “this only underlines the absolute urgency with which policymakers should act. Are governments happy to leave our energy transition goals entirely in the hands of others?”

From pv magazine global

Norway-based REC Silicon has announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, REC Advanced Silicon Materials LLC, is shutting down polysilicon production capacity at its facility in Butte, Montana. The plant employs about 300 people and is one of the top private employers in the region.

The manufacturer said the shutdown of the business in Butte is “primarily necessary due to the regional structural imbalance in supply and demand for electricity.” It is also said to be part of its strategy to ensure long-term profitable operations.

REC Silicon produces solar-grade polysilicon at its facility in Moses Lake, Washington, and electronics-grade polysilicon and silicon gas at its factory in Butte, Montana. The plants have an annual production capacity of more than 20,000 metric tons (MT) of polysilicon.

The company’s Washington facility restarted production in November 2023 after five years of idleness and following a 10-year take-or-pay supply agreement for high-purity fluidized bed reactor (FBR) granular polysilicon with Hanwha Q Cells, announced last September.

“Discontinuing the polysilicon production at Butte will significantly reduce annual energy consumption and operating costs,” the company said in press release this week.

The polysilicon business will continue to produce for approximately six to nine months to fulfill polysilicon supply obligations to the customers, said REC Silicon. After the supply obligations are satisfied, the company expects that the workforce in Butte will be reduced accordingly. Further details are to be announced.

“The decision to shut down the polysilicon business in Butte was very difficult from a human perspective because of the impact on REC’s workforce,” said Kurt Levens, REC Silicon’s CEO. “We did everything in our power to return profitability to the polysilicon business in Butte, however, forecasts for sustained high electricity costs that are outside of our control necessitated this decision.”

According to the manufacturer, short- and mid-term increases in electricity pricing in the region is not expected to abate and will not allow for profitable operations in the polysilicon business line.

The company took short-term mitigative measures that included electricity hedging, optimized production and increased sales prices. These efforts minimized the losses in the short term, but “the decision taken is primarily about the mid- to long-term viability of a very power-intensive polysilicon process located in a high electricity cost region, particularly relative to alternative manufacturers and regions,” said REC Silicon.

Polysilicon prices have been in free fall amid a growing supply glut, and manufacturers have struggled to turn a profit. In its recent market update for pv magazine, OPIS, a Dow Jones company, said that polysilicon prices in China fell to CNY 60.25 ($8.40)/kg on Jan. 16, down 51.8% year on year.

Suniva is proceeding with its plans to restart and modernize its manufacturing facility in Norcross, Georgia. Its goal is to kick off production this spring with a capacity of 1 GW and eventually scale up to 2.5 GW per year.

It has ordered equipment for the thermal process steps of annealing, diffusion and PECVD from Germany’s Centrotherm. The last of a total of three system packages for the 1 GW production line will be delivered in January, the German PV equipment supplier said this week.

“Centrotherm already supplied turnkey production lines to Suniva in 2008 and 2009, and we are proud to contribute to the resurgence of the photovoltaic industry in the USA,” said Jan von Schuckmann, CEO of Centrotherm. “As part of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which supports domestic manufacturing of clean energy equipment, we expect further impetus from the US market.”

Since its passage in August 2022, the IRA has ushered in a new era of US clean energy manufacturing and installation. Based on tracking by nonpartisan trade group Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), over 274 major clean energy projects have been announced across 41 states, leading to over $110 billion in private investment announcements and the creation of over 95,000 jobs. In 2023 alone, more than 80% of all projects and 95% of capital investments announced were in the manufacturing industry, said E2. 

Suniva announced plans in October to restart the idled factory in Georgia, which operated at around 450 MW of production capacity at the time of its closure in 2017.

“The reopening of production in Norcross is the first step in rebuilding solar cell manufacturing in the United States, which will bolster our country’s energy independence and security,” said Matt Card, president and COO of Suniva.

Once considered one of the largest solar cell and panel manufacturer in the United States, Suniva filed for bankruptcy in 2017 after claiming it could not compete with cheap solar imports.

In response to a Section 201 trade petition filed by Suniva and SolarWorld, the Trump administration imposed duties in 2018 on imported solar cells and panels for a period of four years. The tariffs were extended but somewhat eased by the US government in 2023.

According to Suniva’s Card, the tariffs have helped US panel production, but he credited subsidies contained in the IRA for finally enabling Suniva to produce solar cells again.

Suniva has been owned by New York investment firm Lion Point Capital since it exited bankruptcy in 2019. Last year, the manufacturer secured a $110 million financing commitment from Orion Infrastructure Capital which it said would use to purchase new manufacturing equipment.

From pv magazine Global

Lithium metal batteries could offer far better energy density and much lower weight than lithium-ion technology thanks to the replacement of heavier graphite with lithium metal as anode. However, one of the biggest challenges in the design of these batteries is the formation of dendrites on the anode’s surface, causing the battery to rapidly degrade, short, and even catch fire.

Researchers at Harvard John A. Paulson SEAS have developed a new lithium metal battery that withstand at least 6,000 charging cycles and can be recharged in a matter of minutes.

Their research not only describes a new way to make solid state batteries with a lithium metal anode but also offers new understanding into the interface reaction between lithium and materials at the anode in these type of batteries.

“Lithium metal anode batteries are considered the holy grail of batteries because they have ten times the capacity of commercial graphite anodes and could drastically increase the driving distance of electric vehicles,” said Xin Li, Associate Professor of Materials Science at SEAS and senior author of the paper. “Our research is an important step toward more practical solid-state batteries for industrial and commercial applications.”

In 2021, Li and his team offered one way to deal with dendrites by designing a multilayer battery that sandwiched different materials of varying stabilities between the anode and cathode. This multilayer, multi-material design prevented the penetration of lithium dendrites not by stopping them altogether, but rather by controlling and containing them.

In the new research, Li and his team stop dendrites from forming by using micron-sized silicon particles in the anode to constrict the lithiation reaction and facilitate homogeneous plating of a thick layer of lithium metal.

In this design, when lithium ions move from the cathode to the anode during charging, the lithiation reaction is constricted at the shallow surface and the ions attach to the surface of the silicon particle but do not penetrate further.

“In our design, lithium metal gets wrapped around the silicon particle, like a hard chocolate shell around a hazelnut core in a chocolate truffle,” said Li.

These coated particles create a homogenous surface across which the current density is evenly distributed, preventing the growth of dendrites. And, because plating and stripping can happen quickly on an even surface, the battery can recharge in only about 10 minutes.

The researchers built a postage stamp-sized pouch cell version of the battery, which is 10 to 20 times larger than the coin cell made in most university labs. The battery retained 80% of its capacity after 6,000 cycles, outperforming other pouch cell batteries on the market today, the reserchers reported in Fast cycling of lithium metal in solid-state batteries by constriction-susceptible anode materials published in nature materials.

The technology has been licensed through Harvard Office of Technology Development to Adden Energy, a Harvard spinoff company cofounded by Li and three Harvard alumni. The company has scaled up the technology to build a smart phone-sized pouch cell battery.

Li and his team also characterized the properties that allow silicon to constrict the diffusion of lithium to facilitate the dynamic process favoring homogeneous plating of thick lithium. They then defined a unique property descriptor to describe such a process and computed it for all known inorganic materials. In doing so, the team revealed dozens of other materials that could potentially yield similar performance.

“Previous research had found that other materials, including silver, could serve as good materials at the anode for solid state batteries,” said Li. “Our research explains one possible underlying mechanism of the process and provides a pathway to identify new materials for battery design.”

From pv magazine global

Fortress Power announced its entry into the high-voltage energy storage residential market. It marked this milestone with the installation of its first residential Avalon System in late December.

The Avalon HV ESS system features a smart energy panel, customizable battery stack, and inverter. The system works inside and outside and is scalable up from 14.4 kWh to 176 kWh. It can be DC- or AC-coupled, with 200 A pass-through.

Operating at 200 V to 300 V at the DC terminal, the Avalon System closely matches PV array voltage, reducing the need for DC to DC conversion which, according to the manufacturer, enhances overall operational efficiency by approximately from 6 to 8%. 

The system includes a 7.6 kW or 11.4 kW inverter. It has four MPPTs with a voltage range of 80 V to 520 V and maximum input current per string of 16 A.

The Avalon Smart Energy Panel manages large loads in the house to stop the inverter from tripping. It can intelligently manage up to twelve different 120 V circuits, six 240 V circuits, or any combination, providing flexible whole home backup without a dedicated emergency power panel. 

With the integrated smart load panel, pre-installed AC coupling circuit, 200 A pass-through and straightforward EV charger installation, the Avalon System reduces the need for extra components, such as back up panel, AC combiner, separate smart load panel, bypass, and other, the manufacturer says.

Avalon boast a cycle life of more than 8,000 cycles and comes with a 10-year warranty. The system is based on tier 1 automotive grade lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.

Furthermore, for homeowners, Avalon could be turned into a source of revenue through the company’s EnergyBroker program by selling energy into wholesale markets.

“This helps achieve a shorter payback period while contributing to a more resilient and efficient power grid,” Fortress Power says.

From pv magazine Global

As the sodium-ion battery technology continues to mature, new product and manufacturing announcements are coming thick and fast from newcomers and established players alike.

With mainly pilot plants or small manufacturing lines up and running today, U.S.-based battery system developer and manufacturer Acculon Energy has started the series production of its sodium-ion battery modules and packs and unveiled plans to scale its production to 2 GWh by mid-2024.

Acculon’s first two sodium-ion products support a range of applications and are available in small and large modules, capable of building into varying capacities and voltage levels. The product are meeting the safety requirements of UL standards like 2271, 2580, 1973, and 9540, and comply with stringent UN regulations.

The company has been conducting research and development with the technology since its inception in 2009, “culminating in the commercialization of sodium-ion products poised to meet the ever-growing power demands of its OEM customers.”

“We’ve seen the technology readiness level and availability of sodium cells improve impressively over the past two years,” said Acculon President Andrew Thomas. “Along the way, we’ve invested heavily to validate cells in our renowned test lab and conduct pre-certification destructive testing. Our customers demand durable performance and a compelling value proposition–our sodium-ion batteries will achieve both.”

Previously, Acculon Energy revealed some results of its own research into sodium-ion cells, which it described as “promising.”

“On one of the high-energy sodium-ion cell types, we are now about the 300th cycle of 0.5 C rate cycling at room temperature with full depth of discharge and getting 96.3% of maximum capacity,” the company said in a press release in October. “Based on the linear degradation trend, the 80% capacity limit is projected to be reached after about 1650 cycles. This impressive level of durability, if achieved, could open a door to numerous diverse applications.”

There are also other aspects that make sodium-ion batteries a viable alternative to lithium-ion technology, such as superior environmental credentials, enhanced safety, and better raw material costs.

According to UK-based market research company IDTechEx, a sodium ion battery with a layered metal oxide cathode and hard carbon anode will have approximately 25% to 30% lower material costs than an lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery. However, significant savings are unlikely initially as the technology will take time to scale.

Taking different chemistries into account, IDTechEx calculates that the average cell cost for sodium-ion batteries is $87/kWh. By the end of the decade, the production cost of sodium-ion battery cells using primarily iron and manganese will probably bottom out at around $40/kWh, which would be around $50/kWh at the pack level, the research company says. By comparison, BNEF’s analysis found LFP average cell prices fell below $100/kWh in 2023.

In its latest report on sodium-ion technology, IDTechEx calculates that the capacities that have been publicly announced by various raw material and battery manufacturers alone add up to well over 100 GWh by 2030. “By 2025, significantly more capacity can be built up than that has been financed so far if investors are found for it in the course of 2024,” the research firm said.

From pv magazine Global

While flow batteries have been around for a while, they have failed to gain traction and excite investors. However, one of the most promising startups in the field, Germany’s CMBlu Energy, recently pulled in more than $100 million in investments and is gradually expanding its market presence.

CMBlu’s technology recently caught the attention of the DoE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), which has tasked two prestigious labs, the DoE’s Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, with validating its credentials.

Over the course of the project, Argonne and Idaho National Laboratory will deploy and evaluate CMBlu Energy’s Organic SolidFlow battery technology with the goal to provide insights for bolstering the resilience of microgrids. The project also seeks to make fast charging of electric vehicles more affordable in rural and underserved communities by reducing charging facility installation and operational costs.

OCED selected the initiative in September to be one of six demonstration projects as part of a long-duration energy storage lab call.

“We’re honored to participate in this project with two preeminent research teams that are advancing clean energy,” said Ben Kaun, president of CMBlu Energy. “The unique capabilities and resources of Argonne and [Idaho National Laboratory] will enable CMBlu to accelerate the commercialization of our Organic SolidFlow battery solution. Our long-duration energy storage is designed to support grid resilience and integration for EV fast charging and microgrid applications, and this demonstration is an excellent opportunity to validate its real-world performance.”

The project will span two regions. In the Midwest, Argonne researchers plan to demonstrate the effectiveness of CMBlu’s technology at the lab’s Smart Energy Plaza. The plaza is a fully renovated and repurposed gas station designed to conduct research on the integration and management of electric vehicle charging, renewables, building systems, and energy storage. Argonne researchers will gather data and analyze how the technology can inform real-world scenarios.

“Demonstration projects, especially those at national labs, efficiently mature our understanding of new technologies in key use cases,” said battery scientist Sue Babinec, program lead for stationary storage at Argonne. “This collaborative project will validate CMBlu’s Organic SolidFlow battery while providing a path for expansion of electric vehicles to underserved communities.”

At the Idaho National Laboratory Battery Test Center in Idaho, researchers will conduct performance tests, including assessing how well the Organic SolidFlow batteries perform at different temperatures. This rigorous testing is crucial to ensure the technology’s reliability in diverse environments. The Idaho National Laboratory center serves as the DoE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) primary center for battery life and performance testing.

“This awarded work provides a unique avenue to showcase the strengths of [Idaho National Laboratory] and Argonne to explore flow battery performance at colder-than-room temperatures, relevant to energy storage needs at northern latitudes and winter conditions,” said Kevin Gering, a distinguished staff scientist at Idaho National Laboratory. “We are enthusiastic about applying our collective expertise to understand CMBlu’s Organic SolidFlow battery’s performance so the technology can find those critical niches it can thrive within.”

While other redox flow batteries use metal ions, CMBlu’s Organic SolidFlow batteries use carbon-based molecules for its electrolytes. According to the company, certain carbon-based molecules have the intrinsic ability to be oxidized and reduced or charged and discharged. These molecules are essential elements in the “redox” reactions that power all living cells. 

Energy converter stacks are at the heart of CMBlu’s modular redox flow battery technology. Both reduction and oxidation take place in these stacks although separate from each other. According to CMBlu, the battery output depends on the material and surface area of the electrodes, as well as the kinetics of the redox process. Increasing the stack size yields a higher output.

CMBlu fills two separate storage tanks with a solid polymer and then transfers it to and from the liquid electrolyte, which is pumped into an electrode stack for charging and discharging cycles.

The company’s storage technology is intended for use in large-scale, multi-hour stationary projects. The company says it has a “potentially unlimited” cycle life with proper maintenance. It offers up to 90% efficiency, approaching the 95% efficiency of lithium-ion batteries. It can be easily scaled to GWh scale, says CMBlu. The technology is touted as non-flammable.

The company is currently developing multiple pilot projects in the United States and Europe to demonstrate its technology. It has active projects with WEC Energy Group in Wisconsin, Salt River Project in Arizona, and several sites in Europe, including Austrian energy supplier Burgerland Energie’s 300 MWh project.

CMBlu was among the winners of the 2018 pv magazine Annual Award for its organic flow battery tech.

From pv magazine global

While thermal energy storage (TES) has struggled to take off to date, U.S.-based Fourth Power is taking a new technological approach to some of the cost and scale challenges. Its high-density TES system is based on its Guinness World Record achievement for high temperature in its patented liquid metal heat transfer system, which allows for operation at almost half the sun’s temperature.

“Until this innovation, I don’t think there has been an innovation in thermal fluid infrastructure in almost 100 years,” Fourth Power CTO Asegun Henry told pv magazine. “Utilizing PVC, steel, or nickel-alloy pipes has been around for a very long time, and that’s what everyone is doing.”

He said Fourth Power’s approach is based on knowledge of the struggles that other TES companies have faced in trying to scale the technology.

“The key is our liquid metal handling infrastructure, which allows us to transfer heat at fluxes more than an order of magnitude higher than traditional thermofluid systems,” Henry said. “This leads to higher power density and lower cost.”

Fourth Power’s system converts renewable energy to heat, or thermal energy in a fully enclosed system roughly the size of half of a football field. The thermal battery heats liquid tin and moves it through a closed-loop piping system to heat stacks of carbon blocks until they glow white hot.

The system then exposes TPV cells to the light and converts it into electricity. This is similar to traditional solar generation but uses light from very hot — up to 2,400 C — graphite rather than light from the sun to produce electricity. The battery is sealed in a warehouse of argon gas to maximize system lifetime and ensure safety.

“We’re primarily focused on electricity and industrial heat,” Henry said. “To be more specific, we aspire for our technology to replace peaker plants in combination with renewable electricity generation.”

For power generation alone, Fourth Power’s roundtrip efficiency target is 50%.

“Our TPV cells have already set a world record at 41% – and we have designs to reach 50%,” Henry said. “For co-generation, the efficiency is near 100%.”

Finally, by using readily available and less expensive materials, the overall system cost is lower, enabling energy storage that is 10 times cheaper than lithium-ion batteries ($25/kWh-e vs. $330/kWh-e), according to the company.

On Tuesday, Fourth Power announced that it had received $19 million in Series A funding to scale its TES technology. The investment round was led by the venture capital firm DCVC, with participation from Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Black Venture Capital Consortium.

“After more than 10 years of research and development, we are grateful to reach this crucial milestone in our journey thanks to our funding partners who recognized the innovation and potential of Fourth Power’s thermal battery technology,” said Henry, who developed Fourth Power’s thermal battery technology when he was a professor at Georgia Tech.

The funds will also support the construction of a 1 MWh-e prototype facility outside of Boston, with a targeted completion date in 2026. In addition, it will facilitate rigorous durability tests and expand the company’s engineering team.

“Following the 1 MWH-e prototype facility’s successful completion, we plan to partner with utilities to conduct pilot projects designed for commercialization throughout 2026 and 2027,” Henry said. “We anticipate achieving our goal of installing full-scale, 100 MWh-e systems by 2028.”

From pv magazine global

While the BESS supply chain has stabilized in terms of prices and supply of raw materials, lead times for certain components, such as transformers, have greatly extended.

“While global battery supply eased in 2023, after experiencing tightness in supply the previous year, the limited supply of transformers has become the new bottleneck of the energy storage supply chain,” says Kevin Shang, a senior research analyst in Wood Mackenzie.

Transformers are critically important as they enable the BESS connection at all grid levels by stepping up the output voltage to the same level as the grid voltage. Presently, the global transformer market is observing shortages and subsequent increases in prices, mainly due to increased raw material demand, pandemic-related shortages and backlogs, labor constraints, shipping issues, and geopolitical tensions. In some parts of the world, the shortages are acute.

“We have seen a significantly tight supply of transformers in the U.S. and European markets. The prices of transformers used to trend with metal prices. Nowadays, the prices of transformers are more driven up by demand and the industry will have to pay whatever is needed,” Shang tells pv magazine.

According to Shang, there is a minimum lead time of more than one year for transformers of all sizes. “This has a direct impact on system integrators as transformers are integral for grid connection,” Shang says.

In 2022, the global BESS integrator market grew increasingly competitive. According to WoodMac, the the top five global system integrators accounted for 62% of overall BESS shipments (MWh).

Leading vendor, Sungrow dominated the market with 16% of global market share rankings by shipment, followed by Fluence (14%) and Tesla (14%), Huawei (9%), and BYD (9%).

“A common feature behind the leading BESS integrators is that their global presence allows them to access a larger customer base and unlock additional revenue streams. In addition, many BESS integrators have been seeking to enhance the vertical integration of their supply chain,” Shang says.

BESS integrators are usually responsible for procuring individual components, assembling the system, providing a wrap on warranties, integrating the controls and energy management system, and often providing project design and engineering expertise. The are also providing operation, monitoring, and maintenance services.

As the energy storage market continues to expand so does the number of companies active in this space. In China, the BESS integrator market is becoming increasingly competitive, squeezed by both upstream and downstream supply chain participants.

“Possessing manufacturing capacity on key components, like cell, PCS, BMS and EMS, tends to be a necessity rather than a plus as bid requirements for energy storage projects become more detailed and stringent,” Shang says.

In such a surrounding, price has become the most significant distinction and key winning bid factor in the region.

“The price war among system integrators has started in China. We’ve observed an increasing number of players willing to sacrifice profits in exchange for market share, dragging down the profitability of the whole industry,” Shang says.

Consolidation seems imminent in the short and middle term. “We forecast that aggressive bid strategies with little margin will not be sustained. Intensifying market competition will make it difficult for companies with low profitability and no clear competitiveness to survive over the coming years,” Shang says.

According to S&P Global Commodity Insights, mainland China battery energy storage market grew by over 400% in 2022 and is exclusively supplied by local players. This has led to Chinese system integrators moving up on the global rankings. “Competition in international markets will intensify as these Chinese suppliers look to expand globally offering highly competitively priced products,” says S&P Global.

According to the number of installed projects completed as of July this year, S&P Global ranks Sungrow, Fluence and Tesla as the top three BESS integrators globally, followed by Wartsila and Hyperstrong.  Together, these five company have installed over a quarter of global BESS projects, S&P said.

The analysts have also highlighted oversupply as a key reason behind the intense competition in the BESS integrator market amid a large number of battery manufacturing announcements targeted exclusively at the energy storage industry.

“By offering easy-to-install direct current (DC) containers and looking to offer standardized alternating current (AC) solutions in the future, cell manufacturers will further add to the competition in the space,” S&P Global writes in its recently released article.

From pv magazine global

Four-plus-hour energy storage accounts for less than 10% of the cumulative 9 GW of energy storage deployed in the United States in the 2010-22 period. However, this type of technology is likely to assume a more important and versatile role on the grid in the years to come, according to NREL’s new publication.

NREL’s earlier studies identified economic opportunities for hundreds of gigawatts of six to 10-hour storage even without new policies targeted at reducing carbon emissions.

“Longer-duration energy storage may lead to better grid resilience,” said Paul Denholm, NREL model engineering senior research fellow and lead author. “There’s an upside to developing and deploying greater storage, whether that value is in the ability to store more renewable energy or meeting winter energy demand.”

Historically, four-hour storage has been well-suited to providing capacity during summer peaks, and its ability to serve summer peaks is enhanced with greater deployments of solar energy.

As a result, several wholesale market regions have adopted a fixed “four-hour capacity rule” that fully compensates storage with at least four hours of duration and has no additional capacity revenues for longer durations. That means that a six-hour battery does not receive any more revenue than a four-hour one.

“This rule, along with limited additional energy arbitrage value for longer durations and the cost structure of Li-ion batteries, has created a disincentive for durations beyond 4 hours. Based in part on this rule, in 2021 and 2022, about 40% of storage capacity installed was exactly 4 hours of duration, and less than 6% had durations of greater than 4 hours,” NREL writes in its new publication.

However, the addition of solar, extreme weather conditions and building heating electrification are changing the equation and peak demand is becoming more significant in the winter than in the summer, as already seen in the Southeast and Texas.

“Energy storage could help meet increasing winter demand,” Denholm said. “Increased storage can also support transmission and resilience, further increasing the value of developing energy storage with more than four hours of capacity.”

Various technologies – such as thermal storage or next-generation compressed-air energy storage – have the potential to reach cost parity with lithium-ion batteries and longer service lifetimes. However, the new technologies must compete with the established lithium-ion, which had a decades-long head-start, and will require deployment at scale.

“We have promising technologies that, with development, can meet winter demand peaks and compete with lithium-ion technology,” Denholm said. “Reliability of the grid is the goal – greater storage can help us get there.”

Redox flow batteries that incorporate solid energy-storing materials are attractive for high-capacity grid-scale energy storage due to their high theoretical energy densities. However, their practical implementation is held back by low rate capability.

Now, a group of researchers led by Albuquerque-based Sandia National Laboratories have demonstrated a lithium-sulfur redox mediated flow battery that utilizes a high surface area lithium scaffold to enable even 10 times faster cycling.

In their previous research, the group had designed a redox mediated lithium-sulfur hybrid flow battery containing a lithium metal anode and sulfur in the catholyte reservoir. However, they had observed that the charge rate was limited by dendrite growth on the lithium anode.

This issue, which is common to many lithium-metal-based redox flow batteries, imposes considerable design constraints. Namely, the limited charge rate increases the minimum required electrochemical cell size for a given power output and drives system costs upwards.

To address these limitations, the researchers have replaced the planar lithium anode in redox mediated lithium sulfur redox flow batteries with a high surface area scaffold, which enabled 10 times faster cycling, up to 10 mA cm⁻², compared to the same systems with planar anodes, without short circuit or voltage instability.

In their latest study, the researchers first tested the high surface area nickel foam in lithium/lithium symmetric cells and then in a full prelithiated redox flow battery.

They have further improved the cell performance with the addition of zinc oxide to the nickel foam, which promotes better lithium wetting, improving the Coulombic efficiency of the cells.

Finally, they demonstrated that the use of the zinc oxide-nickel foam scaffold also allows the redox flow batteries to be built in an “anode-less” configuration, improving the safety and decreasing the cost to assemble and ship a battery.

Importantly, these improved cells have also shown scalability. Namely, when the sulfur loading is increased from 2.4 to 5 mg cm⁻² the capacity is also increased. In fact, with loadings at 5 mg_S cm⁻² the power density of their redox flow battery was over 20 Wh L⁻¹, making it comparable to vanadium redox flow batteries.

“Having addressed the limitations of the Li anode, there is now further room for improvement of the system by investigating kinetic limitations of the Li-S reaction and capacity fade caused by polysulfide shuttling,” the researchers write. “The fast cycle rate and scalability of the system shows that it is viable for grid scale energy storage in the future.”

Their findings are discussed in “Fast cycling of ‘anode-less’ redox-mediated Li-S flow batteries,” published in the Journal of Energy Storage.

From pv magazine global

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered that cement and water, combined with with a small amount of carbon black, create a powerful, low-cost supercapacitor that could provide a scalable, bulk energy storage solution suitable for a variety of applications.

The key to the new supercapacitors comes from a method of producing a cement-based material with an extremely high internal surface area due to a dense, interconnected network of conductive material within its bulk volume, allowing for high energy storage capacity.

The researchers achieved this by introducing carbon black into a mixture along with cement powder and water, and letting it cure. The water naturally forms a branching network of openings within the structure as it reacts with cement, and the carbon migrates into these spaces to make conductive, wire-like structures within the hardened cement.

The material was then soaked in a standard electrolyte material, such as potassium chloride, which provides the charged particles that accumulate on the carbon structures. Two electrodes made of this material, separated by a thin space or an insulating layer, form a very powerful supercapacitor, the researchers found. They also pointed out that the amount of carbon needed is very small –as little as 3% by volume of the mix–to achieve a percolated carbon network.

“The material is fascinating because you have the most-used manmade material in the world, cement, that is combined with carbon black, that is a well-known historical material–the Dead Sea Scrolls were written with it,” said MIT professor Admir Masic. “You have these at least two-millennia-old materials that when you combine them in a specific manner you come up with a conductive nanocomposite, and that’s when things get really interesting.”

The team calculated that a block of nanocarbon-black-doped concrete that is 45 cubic meters in size–equivalent to a cube about 3.5 meters across–would have enough capacity to store about 10 kWh of energy.

However, they also found that there is a tradeoff between the storage capacity of the material and its structural strength. By adding more carbon black, the resulting supercapacitor can store more energy, but the concrete is slightly weaker. Therefore, for applications such as a foundation, or structural elements of the base of a wind turbine, the “sweet spot” is around 10% carbon black in the mix, the researchers found.

According to the researchers, the availability, scalability and versatility of the carbon-cement supercapacitors opens a horizon for design of multifunctional structures. There is a big opportunity for employing these supercapacitors for bulk energy storage in both residential and industrial applications ranging from energy autarkic shelters and self-charging roads for electric vehicles, to intermittent energy storage for wind turbines.

Having proved their principle on a 1 V and 3 V supercapacitors, the researchers now plan to build a series of larger versions, starting with ones about the size of a typical 12 V car battery, then working up to a 45-cubic-meter version to demonstrate its ability to store a house-worth of power.

Their findings were discussed in Cement supercapacitors as a scalable energy storage solution published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

From pv magazine global

When used in a conventional lithium-ion battery, aluminum fractures and fails within a few charge-discharge cycles, due to expansion and contraction as lithium travels in and out of the material. The material’s potential application in batteries was investigated in the past, but to no avail.

Now, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States have developed lab-scale lithium-ion battery cells with non-pre-lithiated aluminum-foil-based negative electrodes with improved energy density and stability.

“This is a story about a material that was known about for a long time, but was largely abandoned early on in battery development,” said Associate Professor Matthew McDowell. “But with new knowledge, combined with a new technology — the solid-state battery — we’ve figured out how we can rejuvenate the idea and achieve really promising performance.”

Instead of using pure aluminum in the foils, which would fail rapidly when tested in batteries, the research team added small amounts of other materials to the aluminum to create foils with particular “microstructures,” or arrangements of different materials. They tested over 100 different materials to understand how they would behave in batteries.

The new aluminum foil anode demonstrated markedly improved performance and stability when implemented in solid-state batteries, as opposed to conventional lithium-ion batteries. The lab-scale cells deliver hundreds of stable cycles with practically relevant areal capacities at high current densities (6.5 mA cm⁻²)

“One of the benefits of our aluminum anode that we’re excited about is that it enables performance improvements, but it also can be very cost-effective,” McDowell said. “On top of that, when using a foil directly as a battery component, we actually remove a lot of the manufacturing steps that would normally be required to produce a battery material.”

The project began as a collaboration between the Georgia Tech team and Atlanta-based aluminum manufacturer and recycler Novelis. The researchers are now working to scale up the size of the batteries to understand how size influences the behavior of aluminum.

From pv magazine global

Nuvola Technology has unveiled its patented direct deposition separator technology, which could replace conventional film separators and deliver incremental improvements in safety and performance.

The SafeCoat Direct Deposition Separator material is the first product launched by the Los Angeles-based startup, formerly known as Millibatt. Under its previous name, the venture-funded company focused on small, rechargeable, high-density batteries for wearables, biomedical uses, and Internet of Things sensor applications.

Nuvola said that it has been selected as one of 10 winners in LG Energy Solution’s annual 2022 Battery Challenge. The competition brought together more than 100 companies with new battery technologies and business models.

SafeCoat is described as a chemistry-agnostic, drop-in solution for lithium-ion batteries compatible with mainstream lithium-ion manufacturing techniques. The porous polymer coating sprayed directly on the entire electrode surface encapsulates and protects them from a thermal runaway and a potential fire.

According to Nuvola, the battery system’s weak point are thousands of tissue-paper thin folded sheets of a porous plastic membrane that keep electrodes apart and make the battery prone to manufacturing errors and failure.

“During the battery assembly process, a single sheet separator can become damaged, creating an undetectable wrinkle, misalignment, misfolding, or even a tiny tear allowing the electrodes to come in contact. This may cause a fire – days, months, or years later,” said the company.

In addition to improving safety, Safe Coat is said to increase the active battery material volume, improving the energy density by up to 20%. Decreasing the thickness of the separator from the plastic film separator’s 20µm to SafeCoat’s 5 µm layer leaves more room for lithium ions in the same physical space.

According to the company, the Nuvola SafeCoat product is now under evaluation by several major battery producers and car manufacturers. It expect products using the technology to hit the market in 2025.

From pv magazine global

First Solar said it is buying Swedish manufacturer Evolar AB in a bid to accelerate its efforts to develop tandem PV technology. The U.S. solar module maker will initially pay around $38 million, but it might later pay an additional $42 million, subject to certain technical milestones being achieved in the future.

First Solar said in a statement on Friday that the acquisition will accelerate the development of next generation PV technology, including high-efficiency tandem devices. It aims to integrate Evolar’s know-how with its existing research and development streams, intellectual property portfolio, and expertise in developing and commercially scaling thin-film PV.

“This acquisition supplements our existing R&D streams with expertise in thin film semiconductors that complement CadTel. We expect that it will accelerate our efforts to develop tandem technology that continues our commitment to ultra-low carbon, responsibly produced solar,” said Mark Widmar, chief executive officer of First Solar.

Evolar, which was founded in 2019 by now-insolvent CIGS thin-film manufacturer Solibro, focuses on developing solutions, including manufacturing equipment, to commercialize tandem solar technology with perovskite thin films.

From pv magazine global

Sono Motors has decided to terminate the development of Sion solar electric vehicles, so it can focus on a capital-light, “solar-only business.” The Munich-based company, which went public in November 2021, said on Friday that it is laying off 300 employees due to the change in its business model. COO Thomas Hausch is also stepping down from his role.

The company’s decision to end the Sion program appears to be driven by the high cost of its business plan, coupled with “depressed capital market conditions.” Sono Motors said an estimated 90% of its funding needs for 2023 were dedicated to the solar car program.

Sono Motors first publicly presented its plans for the Sion solar electric car in 2017. The Sion was marketed as the world’s first affordable solar EV, with a price tag of about $26,000.

Sion’s outer shell featured 456 monocrystalline solar half cells to extend the time between charges and enable self-sufficiency on short journeys. Its 54 kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery would allow for a maximum charging capacity of up to 75 kW (DC) and 11 kW (AC). The vehicle also had an 11 kW, on-board bidirectional charger.

However, pre-series production of the Sion remained beyond reach, as Sono Motors has repeatedly failed to secure enough funding. In December, it launched the #savesion campaign to offer customers €3,000 ($3,180) discounts in exchange for advance payments. It aimed to secure €100 million ($106 million).

Sono’s plan was to start production of the Sion car in Finland in the second half of 2023. However, “given the resource-intensive nature of the Sion program, including personnel requirements, the company is now implementing a significant cost reduction program,” it said in a statement.

“It was a difficult decision and despite more than 45,000 reservations and pre-orders for the Sion, we were compelled to react to the ongoing financial market instability and streamline our business,” said Laurin Hahn, the CEO of Sono Motors.

The company said the success of its 18-vehicle series-validation program proved the viability of its solar electric vehicle concept. This is why it will continue to use its proprietary polymer-based vehicle-integrated solar technology, but only by retrofitting and integrating the tech into third-party vehicles.

It also plans to sell its Sion program. In addition to the passenger car program, it will offer PV solutions for buses, e-vans, and refrigerated vehicles. It will launch its Solar Bus Kit retrofit solution in the second half of 2023, the company said on Friday.

From pv magazine global.

Thermal energy storage systems use temperature shifts to store energy for later use, or for use at other locations. The most commonly used ways to capture energy are based on latent and sensible heat transfers.

The former heat method uses the amount of thermal energy needed for a phase change – which is a change in physical state, such as from solid to liquid, or liquid to gas – without altering the temperature of a material. This technique is associated with large energy densities. The latter is the thermal energy required to raise the temperature of a material without causing any phase transitions. A major advantage of this heat transfer method is its low cost.

Now, engineers at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, have developed a new thermal energy system that combines the best of both techniques. The Lehigh Thermal Battery consists of engineered cementitious materials and thermosiphons in a combination that enables fast, efficient thermal performance at low cost. The technology can operate with heat or electricity as the charging energy input.

The team has announced that, after three years of research and development, the Lehigh Thermal Battery is now market-ready. The process involved integrated system testing at 3, 10 and 150 kilowatt-hours thermal (kWhth) in a relevant environment.

The 150-kWhth prototype built at the Energy Research Center is a fully instrumented structure containing 22 finned thermosyphons. The 150-kWhth prototype has been tested extensively using compressed air at 896 F, producing an energy-to-energy charge/discharge efficiency of the solid media of more than 95%, uniform temperature distribution in the solid media during charging, and consistent cyclic repeatability.

The average power rates achieved during charging and discharging were 16.4 kWth and 19.8 kWth, respectively, with a very fast energy gradient of the thermal battery of 0.51 kWhth/min during the first hour of discharge.

Co-principal investigator Sudhakar Neti, professor emeritus in the Department of Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering at Lehigh, claimed that the technology is innovative on many levels.

“It is modular, designed for independent energy input/output streams during charging/discharging, which is feasible with the help of the thermosyphons, and the two-phase change process inside the thermosyphon tubes allows rapid isothermal heat transfer to/from the storage media at very high heat transfer coefficients and heat rates,” said Neti.

Carlos Romero, co-principal investigator on the project and the director of the Energy Research Center at Lehigh, said that the concrete plus thermosiphon concept is unique among heat energy storage concepts.

“The technology offers the potential for adaptation over a broad range of temperatures, and heat transfer media and operating conditions,” said Romero.

These qualities make the Lehigh Thermal Battery suitable for decarbonization opportunities in energy-intense industry sectors, the flexibilization of conventional power plants, and advancements and penetration of concentrated solar power.

“Another opportunity for the Lehigh Thermal Battery to play an important role in the decarbonization effort is the integration of thermal energy storage in a system that includes heat pumps and Organic Rankine Cycles, working with surplus renewable electricity,” said Neti.

From pv magazine global

With gigawatts of batteries on wheels expected to enter electricity markets around the world this decade, much ink has been spilt debating the theoretical benefits of V2G technology. While it has been around for over a decade, the sector has been struggling to identify a viable commercial model and make V2G attractive for EV owners reluctant to cede control of their vehicles.

However, numerous analyses and trials have shown that a two-way flow of electricity from EV batteries could deliver substantial opportunities for both soaking up excess renewables generation and releasing electricity back into the grid to manage issues in real time. And now a new research paper adds further evidence of the technology’s potential.

According researchers from the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, in the Netherlands, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), EV batteries alone could be used to satisfy short-term grid storage demand across most regions by as early as 2030.

In their assessment, the researchers considered both EV batteries in the vehicles that can be used via V2G and after the end of vehicle life, when they are removed and used in stationary storage. They estimated a total technical capacity of 32-62 TWh by 2050.

“This is significantly higher than the 3.4 TWh to 19.2 TWh required by 2050 in [International Renewable Energy Agency] and Storage lab scenarios,” said the paper.

In addition to quantifying the global EV battery capacity available for grid storage using an integrated model incorporating future EV battery deployment, the researchers also factored in battery degradation and market participation which for V2G may vary regionally depending on future market incentives and infrastructure, along with other factors.

Their focus was on the main EV battery markets of China, India, the European Union, and the United States, and what was called the “Rest of the World region.” In what they describe as conservative estimates, the researchers assess that low V2G participation rates of just 12% to 43% are needed to provide short-term grid storage demand globally without any second-use batteries in stationary storage.

If it is assumed that only half of second-use batteries are used on the grid, the required participation rate of V2G drops to below 10%, the researchers found. They discussed their findings in “Electric vehicle batteries alone could satisfy short-term grid storage demand by as early as 2030”, which was recently published in Nature Communications.

From pv magazine global

NOMAD, a newcomer to the battery scene, recently unveiled a portfolio of utility-scale transportable battery energy storage solutions. Its plug-and-play solution combines a fully enclosed trailer chassis with high-density lithium-ion battery cells and a proprietary docking system. There are three versions of the system: a 1 MW/ 2 MWh unit called “The Traveler,” a 500 kW/1.3 MWh unit called “The Voyager,” and a 250 kW/ 660 kWh unit called “The Rover.”

The mobile units – when paired with the company’s patent-pending PowerDock  system for easy connection/ disconnection, setup, upkeep, and secure system control – allow the fleet to arrive on-site in a completely weather-tight enclosure, with all wires contained within its unique interconnection system. All NOMAD systems also share a common interconnection design, allowing a single unit platform to be expanded with more PowerDocks. Each version uses lithium-ion cells made by KORE Power.

NOMAD units are said to combine the benefits of a fixed-site energy storage system that can be relocated, “enabling a single unit to serve multiple locations for seasonal, intermittent (outages) or temporary use (capital deferral), increasing asset utilization versus a fixed asset.”

The units have a range of use cases, including power backup and emergency response and seasonal load mitigation. The company says customers well suited to the technology include utilities, C&I entities, disaster relief organizations, and renewable generation assets.

NOMAD has also revealed that it has sold “the industry’s first mobile energy storage unit with 2 MWh capacity” to Vermont-based utility Green Mountain Power (GMP). Mari McClure, the CEO of GMP, said The Traveler offers a range of applications and provides another important innovation to join GMP’s storage fleet, increasing resilience and reliability while lowering costs for customers.

NOMAD Transportable Power Systems is based in Waterbury, Vermont, founded by KORE Power.

From pv magazine global

The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) said that a lithium-ion battery – possibly in an e-bike or e-scooter – triggered a blaze in a 37-floor Manhattan apartment building, injuring more than three dozen people, according to the Associated Press. Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn reportedly said there were at least five bikes in the apartment where the fire started. Citywide, nearly 200 blazes and six fire-related deaths this year have been tied to micromobility device batteries, marking “an exponential increase” in such fires in recent years, said Flynn. The FDNY has urged users of such batteries to follow charging and storage instructions, in addition to other safety guidance.

In September a fire broke out in a battery energy storage facility housing a 182.5 MW Tesla Megapack system, where at least one of the battery units caught on fire. The facility is operated by utility PG&E and is located in Monterey County, California, in the United States. The Californian facility is one of the biggest utility-owned, lithium-ion battery energy storage systems in the world. A Tesla Megapack also caught fire last year in the Victorian Big Battery in Moorabool, Australia.

In June a joint recall was issued with Health Canada, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (US CPSC) and SunVilla Corporation for all 10-foot solar LED Market Umbrellas. The umbrellas have LED lights on the arms of the umbrella that are powered by a lithium-ion battery charged with a small solar panel. The recall was issued after reports of batteries overheating and causing fires in the United States and Canada. In three reported incidents, the solar panels caught fire while charging via the AC adapter indoors.

Redox flow batteries are one of the most attractive technologies for large-scale stationary storage applications due to their low capital cost, excellent safety, and environmental credentials. Their most unique feature is the independent scalability of energy and power. However, the latter is normally not possible in hybrid flow battery systems.

Now, researchers at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio, have come up with a concept for a slurry iron redox flow battery. It offers the potential for very low-cost, large-scale energy storage with safe and sustainable materials. By incorporating a conducting carbon slurry into the negative electrolyte of an all-iron flow battery, the researchers have ensured that the iron plating reaction occurs in such a way that makes the decoupling of power from energy possible for their hybrid flow battery system.

“Our iron slurry battery has advantages over the hybrid iron flow battery, where metal is plated into the electrochemical cell,” Nicholas Sinclair, research engineer at the CWRU Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, told pv magazine.

The slurry electrode allows for the plated metal to be directed into tanks for long-duration energy storage, Sinclair said. The hybrid system is limited in how much energy they can store by how much metal fits into the cell.

“In the slurry system, you can simply add more electrolyte and make the tanks bigger without changing the size of the electrochemical cell, which determines the power output,” Sinclair said.

The researchers described the scalability of the novel redox flow battery in “A perspective on the design and scale up of a novel redox flow battery” which was recently published in MRS Energy and Sustainability. They said that while the scaling of flow batteries is simple due to their modular nature, it becomes complicated when making large-scale increases in a single step. Nonetheless, their  proposed battery technology is now edging toward commercialization.

“The battery technology was developed under an ARPA-E program for several years. During that project the technology matured to a point where commercial scale units are now being designed and tested by a company who licensed the technology from us,” said Sinclair. “We have follow-on funding for developing the technology further and expanding it to other battery chemistries as well.”

While the final price tag of the novel battery could change when it is commercialized, cost estimates calculated under the ARPA-E project stand at around $50/kWh.

from pv magazine global

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has secured approval to establish the first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) export compensation mechanism in the United States for commercial EV charging customers. The new export rate structure in its California service area was agreed between PG&E and the Vehicle-Grid Integration Council, Electrify America LLC, and the Public Advocates Office at the California Public Utilities Commission. Commercial EV owners will receive upfront incentives to help offset fleet costs, while encouraging vehicles to export power to support the grid during peak demand periods. The charging equipment will be paired with stationary energy storage systems, which will be available to support the grid and provide backup power to charge vehicles during grid outages. PG&E says more than 420,000 EVs have been sold in its service area, representing one in six EVs in the United States.

Sono Motors has brought its Sion EV for a seven-city US tour ahead of its expected delivery next year. The Sion is marketed as the world’s first affordable solar EV, with a price tag of about €25,000 ($24,700). Its outer shell features 456 solar half-cells to extend the time between charges and enable self-sufficiency on short journeys, according to the Munich-based manufacturer. Sion’s 54 kWh LFP battery will allow for a maximum charging capacity of up to 75 kW (DC) and 11 kW (AC). The vehicle also has an on-board bidirectional charger of up to 11 kW. The company says it has received more than 20,000 private reservations and more than 22,000 pre-orders from fleet operators to date. In partnership with Valmet Automotive, Sono Motors plans to start production in Finland in the second half of 2023, and aims to produce approximately 257,000 vehicles within seven years.

Toyota and Jera have commissioned a second-life battery at the Japanese utility’s Yokkaichi Thermal Power Station. They have combined lithium-ion, nickel metal-hydride and lead-acid batteries into a single system. The 485 kW/1,260 kWh Sweep Energy Storage System was built with batteries reclaimed from electric vehicles (HEV, PHEV, BEV, FCEV) and is connected to the grid to “feed around 100,000 kWh of electricity into the public grid by the middle of the decade.” Its sweep function, developed by Toyota Central R&D Labs, Inc., allows retired EV batteries to be reused regardless of their level of deterioration. It can freely control energy discharge by switching electricity flow on and off through series-connected batteries in microseconds. It also enables direct AC output from the batteries to reduce costs and avoid power loss when converting from AC to DC.

Solar Botanic Trees has agreed to supply UK-based Raw Charging with 200 solar trees for its network of commercial EV charging sites. Deliveries will start in mid-2023 and will finish in 2024. The solar trees feature thin-film cell technology, are 5 meters tall, with a 5-meter dome and 5 kW of output. The order was signed just six weeks after SolarBotanic Trees was launched as a company. “We are currently starting to look at various regional locations for our manufacturing,” says Chris Shelley, SolarBotanic CEO.

Evergrande has started deliveries of the Hengchi 5, its first electric vehicle model. The first 100 customers received their cars on Saturday, the Chinese company said on its official WeChat account. Evergrande plans to shift its parent company’s primary business from real estate to car manufacturing over the next decade. Its goal is to make 1 million vehicles by 2025.

BP Pulse has announced plans for a Gigahub network: a series of large, fast EV-charging hubs to serve taxi fleets in the United States. The first planned location will be built near Los Angeles International Airport in collaboration with Hertz and will be partially funded by a $2 million grant from the California Energy Commission. The initiative aims to mitigate the environmental impact of ride-hailing services in Los Angeles. “Vehicles employed by California’s ride-hailing fleets make up 2.5% of the vehicle population, but consume 30% of all public fast charging,” said Patty Monahan, Lead California Energy Commissioner for Transportation.

From pv magazine global

Startup Mango Power recently unveiled a 3.5 kWh battery system that can be used to meet both home backup needs and portable power requirements. The system can be expanded up to 14 kWh.

Up to two standalone or expanded units can be connected to further increase the total capacity to 28 kWh. The system provides a 3 kW output capability (expandable to 6 kW) and supports a 240 V output to power heavy-duty appliances.

Mango Power has incorporated four charging methods, as well as 16 output ports, to make the Mango Power E suitable for various scenarios. Input methods include AC wall outlets (up to 3,000 W), solar panels (up to 2,000 W, 60 V to 150 V), EV charging (EV1772), or generators. It charges up to 80% in one hour in quick-charge mode.

In terms of output, the Mango Power E includes four 20 A (AC) output ports, six 27 W USB-A ports, 2 USB-C ports (65 W and 100 W), one car power output at 12 V/10 A, two DC 551 ports, and one AC RV port at 30 A.

The system features CATL’s lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells. Its lifespan exceeds 2,000 cycles. The Mango Power E also comes with a five-year warranty.

Mango Power is a newcomer to the battery energy storage space. It said it launched late last year, after crowdfunding more than $1 million for its “two-in-one, home-and-portable battery system” in a matter of “minutes.”

Its latest product announcement follows the launch of the Mango Power M Series earlier this year. The product  can be used as an 18 kW PV energy system, as storage with a 15 kWh to 20 kWh battery for daily use and emergency purposes, and to provide full house power backup, including fast charging for EVs.

In addition, the M Series uses CATL LFP battery cells and comes with a 10-year warranty. It comes in different versions for the US and EU markets, and supports single- and triple-phase connections with 12 kW of output capability.

The recommended retail price for a 12 kW/15 kWh system is $19,499 ($19,899 with 9.6 kW home EV charger), and $22,999 for a 12 kW/20 kWh system ($23,399 with a 9.6 kW home EV charger).

From pv magazine global

24M Technologies, based in Cambridge, Mass., says it has simplified lithium-ion battery production with a new design that requires fewer materials and fewer steps to manufacture each cell. Its solution is a semi-solid flow battery in which the gooey electrodes are mixed directly into the electrolyte.

According to 24M, its SemiSolid cell manufacturing process and chemistry-agnostic platform can reduce manufacturing costs by up to 40%.

24M’s gooey electrode mix eliminates the energy-intensive process of drying and solidifying the electrodes in traditional lithium-ion production. The company says it also reduces the need for more than 80% of the inactive materials in traditional batteries, such as copper and aluminum.

The SemiSolid electrodes and unit cell construction are said to offer superb abuse tolerance, whereas their binder-free structure eliminates the need for hydro- or pyrometallurgical processes for battery recycling. According to the company’s website, 24M’s lithium-ion cells have energy density between 400-500 Wh/kg, specifically those made for the aviation industry.

In January of this year, 24M received a grant from the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E program to develop and scale a high-energy-density battery that uses a lithium metal anode and semi-solid cathode for use in electric aviation.

After being spun out of A123 Systems in 2010, 24M went on to acquire a renowned customer base, including license agreements with Volkswagen Group, Fujifilm Corporation, Kyrocera Corporation, Lucas TVS, Axxiva and FREYR. The last three companies are planning to build gigafactories based on 24M’s technology in India, China, Norway and the United States.

“The SemiSolid platform has been proven at the scale of hundreds of megawatts being produced for residential energy-storage systems. Now we want to prove it at the gigawatt scale,” says 24M CEO Naoki Ota.

More recently, 24M has entered a joint development agreement with ASX-listed graphite producer Volt Resources. The agreement will focus on coated spheronised purified graphite and also nonspherical graphite products to enhance lithium-ion battery performance.

The ongoing test work is being undertaken by Volt’s technology partner in the US, American Energy Technologies Co. (AETC), and progressing to support 24M’s commercialization activities in multiple markets, including electric vehicles, stationary storage and electric aviation.

At a later stage, the companies will be looking to enter into a binding offtake agreement that will leverage AETC’s inverted LIB anode materials flowsheet design to produce graphite products sourced from Volt’s 70% owned Zavalievsky Graphite business in Ukraine and future supply from its Bunyu Graphite Project in Tanzania.

From pv magazine global

Los Angeles-based technology start-up Nanotech Energy says its proprietary, graphene-based, nanotechnology overcomes the safety challenges of traditional lithium-ion batteries, and its latest announcement signals it might be making progress in bringing its products to the mass market.

Nanotech’s battery uses lithium-ion chemistry supported by graphene and a proprietary nonflammable electrolyte technology that improves the electrochemical properties and safety of its electrodes.

According to the company, graphene provides ideal electronic and mechanical support to increase the reversible capacity, power and cycling stability of standard cathodes. Nanotech produces its own graphene, which allows it to be vertically integrated.

On Thursday, the company announced it would supply more than 1 GWh of battery energy storage systems (BESS) to Athens-headquartered Smile Energy, acting as the distributor for Greece and the surrounding region with Nanotech Energy BESS products through to 2028. Greece has recently doubled its 2030 energy storage target to 3 GW.

Smile Energy will potentially use Nanotech’s products to develop BESS for private homes, commercial real estate, and the marine sector and building on its pipeline of 700 MWh of energy storage across Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania.

Battery tech

The startup uses a solution processing method that allows graphene to be coated on “any substrate” along with a laser process step that forms a graphene foam. The company had originally applied its graphene technology to making better supercapacitors, but now focuses on its “super battery.”

“Nanotech Energy is the first and only producer to break the 50% content barrier by reaching 98% monolayer graphene, the wonder material that powers our products. We’ve already developed groundbreaking energy storage using technology that has the high capacity of a battery and the power performance of supercapacitors in a single solution,” said Nanotech Energy CEO Jack Kavanaugh.

According to the technical data sheet for Nanotech Energy Nonflammable GOC18650A batteries, it has a cycle life of 1200 cycles before it degrades to 88%. Its gravimetric density is 215 Wh/kg, while volumetric density stands at 557 Wh/l. The operating temperature range is from -20 to 60 degrees Celsius.

In August 2021, Nanotech Energy raised $64 million in a Series D at a $550 million valuation, with total funding thus far standing at $94.9 million. The privately held company has been backed by Multiverse Investment Fund, Fubon Financial Group, and Volkswagen, among others.

Meanwhile, Nanotech has announced it is expanding its operations with a new manufacturing facility in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, Nevada. The first of two buildings planned will produce 2.5 GWh of batteries annually, with the plan to continue expansion to 15 GWh over the next several years, the company said.

The first building is slated to open in Q4 2022, and Nanotech is currently taking battery pre-orders. Limited production will kick off in 2023 with full production starting in 2024.

From pv magazine global

The record-breaking run in power prices, particularly in Europe, is creating a favorable investment case for solar and wind projects, making it increasingly compelling to develop renewable assets purely based on project economics.

According to Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy, current spot prices in Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom would all result in payback of 12 months or less. Considering the average monthly spot prices for August in these countries were all well over €400/MWh and the relatively low operating costs of renewables, investing in utility-scale projects appear to be a no-brainer.

For instance, for a generic 250 MW solar project, assuming a long-term electricity price of €50/MWh (USD 49/MWh), the expected post tax return is approximately 6% with a payback period of 11 years, Rystad calculates. A price of €350/MWh or above results in a payback period of only one year while a price of approximately €180 – the European Commission’s proposed price threshold – halves the payback to five to six years.

Investors are seeing the opportunity. According to Rystad, capital investments in renewables have increased significantly and are set to reach USD 494 billion in 2022, outstripping upstream oil and gas at USD 446 billion for the year.

“Capital investments in renewables are set to outstrip oil and gas for the first time this year as countries scramble to source secure and affordable energy,” says Michael Sarich, senior vice president, Rystad Energy. “Investments into renewables are likely to increase further moving forward as renewable project payback times shorten to less than a year in some cases.”

Rise of storage

High energy prices but also newly adopted climate legislation, including the US inflation Reduction Act and European Union’s REPowerEU plan, are expected to give a big boost to the global energy storage market.

In its latest forecast, BloombergNEF says that energy storage installations around the world are projected to reach a cumulative 411 GW/1,194 GWh by 2030. That is 15 times the 27 GW/56 GWh of storage that was online at the end of 2021.

Driven by recent policy developments, BNEF has revised its previous estimates up by 13% from the ones presented in its 2H 2022 Energy Storage Market Outlook. This is equal to an extra 46 GW/145 GWh. While an estimated 387 GW/1,143 GWh will be added from 2022 to 2030, supply chain constraints will cloud deployment expectations until 2024, says BNEF.

The United States and China are set to remain the two largest markets, representing more than half of global storage installations by the end of the decade. Europe, however, is catching up with a significant ramp-up in capacity, driven by the current energy crisis.

BNEF’s forecast suggests that the majority of energy storage build by 2030, equivalent to 61% of megawatts, will be to provide energy shifting – that is, advancing or delaying the time of electricity dispatch. Co-located renewables-plus-storage projects, in particular solar-plus-storage, are becoming commonplace throughout the world, notes BNEF.

From pv magazine global

The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have collaborated the development of a novel fast-charging battery anode material via a scalable synthesis method. The researchers said in a recent paper in Advanced Energy Materials that a novel compound of molybdenum-tungsten-niobate (MWNO) with fast rechargeability and high efficiency could potentially replace graphite in commercial batteries. They focused on a problem that graphite anodes encounter during the charging process, when the electrolyte decomposes and forms a buildup on the anode. This buildup slows the movement of lithium ions and can limit battery stability and performance. “Because of this sluggish lithium-ion movement, graphite anodes are seen as a roadblock to extreme fast charging. We are looking for new, low-cost materials that can outperform graphite,” said ORNL postdoctoral researcher Runming Tao. The Department of Energy’s extreme fast-charging goal for EVs is set at 15 minutes or less to compete with refuel times on gas-powered vehicles – a milestone that has not been met with graphite. “This material operates at a higher voltage than graphite and is not prone to forming what is called a ‘passivation solid electrolyte layer’ that slows down the lithium-ion movement during charging. Its exceptional capacity and fast-charging rate, combined with a scalable synthesis method, make it an attractive candidate for future battery materials,” said Tao.

General Motors and EV battery developer OneD Battery Sciences have signed a joint R&D agreement focused for the potential use of OneD’s silicon nanotechnology in GM’s Ultium battery cells. GM Ventures and Volta Energy Technologies also participated in OneD’s Series C funding round, which the company recently closed at $25 million. The focus of the collaboration is OneD’s SINANODE platform, which adds more silicon onto the anode battery cells by fusing silicon nanowires into EV-grade graphite. Silicon can store 10 times more energy than graphite but most attempts to include more silicon in the anode faced challenges of silicon expansion and breakage. “This limited the amount used to extremely small percentages and only modest performance improvements,” OneD said. “Being able to add larger amounts of silicon – efficiently – is the essential breakthrough needed to produce competitive EVs that meet market demand for high-performance, affordable vehicles.” Under a licensing business model, GM will tap OneD’s 15-year, 240-patent track record, with a focus on increasing energy density and reducing the cost of future GM EV batteries. “GM designed Ultium to be a supremely flexible platform so we can continuously improve our cells as battery technology advances,” said Kent Helfrich, GM CTO, vice president of GM R&D. GM will scale its Ultium EV Platform to 1 million units of annual EV production capacity in North America by 2025. Earlier this year, GM’s first joint venture battery plant with LG Energy for Ultium Cells began production in Ohio, with two additional US plants now under construction and a fourth in the planning stage.

Volvo has unveiled it first electric vehicle with bidirectional charging. Its upcoming all-electric flagship SUV EX90 will support both V2G and V2H applications, so car owners will be able to decide whether to keep their electricity to power their homes or send it back to grid. The EVs will also operate as vehicle-to-load (V2L) battery storage systems. “With the Volvo EX90 you can power your life,” said Olivier Loedel, Volvo’s head of electrification ecosystem. “You could use its battery in many ways, from topping up your electric bike when you’re out and about, to hooking up an outdoor cooking appliance for your weekend camping trip. It could even power your house during the expensive peak hours of the day.” Volvo sees potential to pool EVs in virtual power plants to relieve strain on the grid and cover short periods of instability. But not all of those features and capabilities will be available in all markets, it said. “The bi-directional charging offer will initially be launched in selected markets,” said the carmaker. “We are currently investigating which use cases we will be able to offer in different markets.”

Shoals Technologies has achieved UL Standards certification for its first set of aboveground eMobility charging solutions. The listed products include its Fuel Power Center, Big Lead Assembly (BLA) for DC or AC power, raceways and quick connect bases for chargers. Shoals, a major provider of balance-of-system equipment for solar and energy storage projects, claims its system to lay cables and wires above the ground could help slash 20% of 40% off the cost of typical EV charger installations.

From pv magazine global

University of California researchers and academics from four U.S. national laboratories have devised a way to make lithium-ion battery cathodes without using cobalt – a metal that is rare, costly, and linked to unethical mining practices.

In a recent paper in Nature, the scientists describe how they overcame thermal and chemical-mechanical instabilities of cathodes composed substantially of nickel by mixing in several other metallic elements.

“Through a technique we refer to as ‘high-entropy doping,’ we were able to successfully fabricate a cobalt-free layered cathode with extremely high heat tolerance and stability over repeated charge and discharge cycles,” said researcher Huolin Xin. “This achievement resolves long-standing safety and stability concerns around high-nickel battery materials, paving the way for broad-based commercial applications.”

High-nickel cathodes come with their own challenges, such as poor heat tolerance, which can lead to the oxidization of battery materials, thermal runaway, and even explosion. Although high-nickel cathodes accommodate larger capacities, volume strain from repeated expansion and cont raction can result in poor stability and safety concerns.

The researchers sought to address these issues through compositionally complex high-entropy doping using HE-LMNO, an amalgamation of transition metals magnesium, titanium, manganese, molybdenum, and niobium in the structure’s interior, with a subset of these minerals used on its surface and interface with other battery materials. Xin and his colleagues employed an array of synchrotron X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and 3D nanotomography instruments to determine that their zero-cobalt cathode exhibited an unprecedented volumetric change of zero during repeated use. The highly stable structure is capable of withstanding more than 1,000 cycles and high temperatures, which makes it comparable to cathodes with much lower nickel content.

Ford has broken ground on a $5.6 billion complex for electric vehicles and batteries at BlueOval City in Stanton, Tennessee. The company’s largest and most advanced auto production complex, which is a joint venture with Korean SK Innovation’s SK On, is planned to lay the foundation for Ford to achieve a 2 million EV annual run rate throughout the world by late 2026. “Structural steel is erected less than one year after Ford and SK On announced their $5.6 billion investment to build a revolutionary all-new electric truck and advanced batteries for future Ford and Lincoln vehicles in West Tennessee,” the company said. The nearly 6-square-mile campus will create approximately 6,000 new jobs when production begins in 2025.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that EV sales are on course to hit an all-time high this year, lifting them to 13% of global light duty vehicle sales. It said that EV sales doubled worldwide last year to account for almost 9% of the total car market. It also noted that EVs and lighting are the only two components still fully on track for their 2030 milestones in the IEA’s “Net Zero by 2050” scenario. Despite the outlook for EVs, the IEA said they are “not yet a global phenomenon. Sales in developing and emerging countries have been slow due to higher purchase costs and a lack of charging infrastructure availability.”

LG Energy Solution (LGES) has reinforced its cobalt and lithium supply chain in North America by forging comprehensive collaborations with key suppliers in Canada. The latest arrangements are in line with the South Korean battery maker’s mid- to long-term strategy focusing on the fast-growing North American EV market, as well as the recently adopted Inflation Reduction Act. They envisage that EVs will need to have 80% of critical materials sourced domestically or from a country with which the United States has a free trade agreement in order to access a $7,500 tax credit. LGES signed a binding term sheet with Electra, securing the supply of 7,000 tonnes of cobalt sulphate for three years from 2023. In addition, it signed two non-binding agreements with Avalon and Snow Lake to secure a stable supply of lithium. Under the terms of the deals, Avalon will initially supply LGES with lithium hydroxide (11,000 tons per year) for five years, starting in 2025. LGES will also be provided with Snow Lake’s lithium hydroxide (20,000 tons per year) for 10 years once production starts in 2025.

Elli, a Volkswagen subsidiary that manages the group’s charging and energy-related activities in Europe, electricity grid operator Elia Group, and its startup, re.alto, have signed an agreement to accelerate the integration of EVs into the electricity grid. Over the next few years, the signatories will identify possible barriers to EV integration and explore how to showcase its benefits, for example by developing demonstrators. The memorandum of understanding includes four pillars of exploration: price signals/incentives, market design, trusted data, and data security and safe connectivity. “Using the electric vehicle battery as a mobile power bank delivers a triple benefit: Firstly, the climate benefits as renewable energy can be stored and therefore be used more efficiently. Secondly, the electric grid benefits, as the car can contribute toward grid stability, and thirdly, the customer can earn additional revenue with vehicle-to-grid services,” said Elli CEO Elke Temme. “To explore the benefits of this consumer-centric approach, this cooperation with Elia Group is crucial for us.”

Sunwoda plans to build a new battery production facility in Yiwu, in China’s Zhejiang province, with an annual capacity of 50 GWh. According to a stock exchange statement, the battery maker will invest around €3 billion ($2.9 billion) in the new factory to produce cells, modules, packs, and complete battery systems. Construction will be carried out in two phases, with an initial annual capacity of 30 GWh and a further 20 GWh at a later date. The initial investment will be around €1.8 billion, followed by another €1.2 billion for the second phase.

Nio has shipped its first battery swapping station from Hungary to Germany. The Chinese EV manufacturer announced its plant in Hungary in July, as part of its efforts to build 1,000 battery exchange stations outside of China by 2025. The Hungarian plant will serve as the manufacturing, service, and R&D center for Nio’s power products in Europe.

The Climate Group has launched a new zero-emission road transport leadership commitment, EV100+. Five globally recognized businesses – IKEA, Unilever, JSW Steel Limited, A.P. Moller-Maersk, and GeoPost/DPDgroup – are the founding members of the initiative, which aims to get rid of the heaviest, most polluting vehicles currently on roads. Together they have committed to transition their fleet of vehicles over 7.5 tones, known as medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs), to zero emission by 2040 in OECD markets, China and India. The new EV100+ complements the EV100 initiative founded by the Climate Group in 2017, in which more than 120 businesses worldwide have committed to convert their fleets with more than over 5.5 million vehicles to electric by 2030.

From pv magazine global

Despite the headwinds the US solar industry faced in the second quarter of 2022, following the Department of Commerce’s (DoC) announcement of a solar antidumping investigation in late March, balance-of-system (BoS) manufacturer Shoals has reported record revenue and gross profit, as well as a gross margin within its targeted range.

The US-based provider of BoS solutions for solar, battery storage, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure attributed the results to a significant number of new customers purchasing components, as well as strong demand for its combine-as-you-go system.

Earlier this year, Shoals adjusted its guidance for the year due to the “challenging environment” caused by the DoC’s March 28 decision to act on a petition filed by California-based solar module manufacturer Auxin Solar. It asked the DoC to review solar panel imports from Chinese companies in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, resulting in an antidumping investigation. Despite this, Shoals reported robust growth across its business.

“Demand for our combine-as-you-go solution continues to grow,” said Jason Whitaker, chief executive officer of Shoals. “During the quarter we converted four additional customers, bringing the total BLA [Shoals’ in-line fuse and wire manufacturing technology] customers to 29. Customer interest in our recently introduced products is strong, particularly within battery storage, wire management, and EV charging.”

Turning point

According to Whitaker, the White House’s two-year tariff exemption for solar panels manufactured in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam was “a turning point in customer sentiment, and we have seen order patterns normalize as a result.” The company’s revenue grew 23% year 0n year to $73.5 million, driven by increases in its components and system solutions divisions.

The growth in components-related revenue was driven by increases in shipments of battery storage products and solar products to a significant number of new customers, the company said. It noted that new customers typically purchase components first, before transitioning to system solutions.

The company said the growth in system solutions revenue underscored strong demand for its combine-as-you-go system. Its system solutions division accounted for 77% of revenue in the quarter, from 86% a year earlier and 69% in the prior quarter.

Gross profit increased 9% to $28.6 million, compared to $26.2 million in the preceding year. Gross profit as a percentage of revenue was 38.9%, compared to 43.8% in the prior-year period. The company attributed this to a higher mix of components sales in the quarter, as they have lower margins than system solutions, as well as higher raw material prices and logistics costs.

For its full-year outlook, Shoals still expects revenues to be in the range of $300 million to $325 million, adjusted EBITDA between $77 million and $86 million, and adjusted net income between $45 million and $53 million.

Earlier this year, Shoals opened a new manufacturing facility in Tennessee. It is expected to double the company’s manufacturing capacity as demand continues to grow. It said that its BoS solutions have now been deployed on more than 20 GW of solar systems across the world.

From pv magazing global

FlexGen, a US battery energy storage system integrator, has launched a new suite of products for distributed and behind-the-meter applications. The FlexPod battery energy storage system (BESS) products are fully containerized, modular, scalable and come in a range of sizes to fit every project.

All of FlexGen’s FlexPods include lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, power conversion electronics, thermal management, and fire suppression in a single container solution. Each FlexPod is enabled with the company’s proprietary energy management software, HybridOS, which is said to enable advanced functionality, simplicity in operation, and adaptability over time.

The FlexPod BESS comes in 920 kW, 1,200 kW, and 1,500 kW power configurations, with 920 kWh, 1.2 MWh or 1.5 MWh of battery capacity in 20-foot containers. The DC nameplate capacity is 920 kWh, 1200 kWh, or 1,500 kWh. There is also a 2-hour and 4-hour solution starting at 125kW.

The systems’ auxiliary consumption at 1C charge/discharge stands at 20 kW, 21 kW, and 22 kW. With UL9540 pending, FlexPods is said to safely operate in a wide temperature range from -30 C to 45 C, and in altitudes below 2,000 meters.

The company said the benefits of its FlexPods include advanced capabilities to manage power quality, “out- of-the-box” integration with solar, advanced microgrid functionality, black start function, and integration with EV charging infrastructure. Earlier this year, FlexGen launched an electric vehicle charging solution that combined its energy management system platform and battery energy storage.

“Commercial and Industrial businesses need scalable, flexible energy solutions now more than ever. This is a sector that is bearing the brunt of energy inflation and the high costs of fossil fuels right now,” said Kelcy Pegler, CEO of FlexGen. “We’re committed to delivering solutions that allow our customers to meet the full-range of operational and commercial demands today, while anticipating the needs of tomorrow.”

The North Carolina-based company recently raised $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Rotterdam-based energy trader Vitol. In December 2021, the company was contracted to provide software and integration services for a massive 2.1 GWh battery storage rollout by Ameresco across three sites in southern California.

Since its founding in 2009, FlexGen has installed more than 3 GWh of energy storage systems across the United States for utility, microgrid, and C&I customers.

From pv magazine global

Against a backdrop of soaring prices and predicted shortfalls of lithium-ion battery materials, the search for inexpensive, abundant, safe, and sustainable battery chemistries has never been more critical. Calcium has been considered in batteries, but the larger size and higher charge density of its ions, relative to lithium, have posed challenges for their insertion into electrode materials.

Now, researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the United States have reported progress in addressing this issue and unlocking the potential of high-performing calcium-ion batteries.

“The calcium ion is divalent, and hence one ion insertion will deliver two electrons per ion during battery operation,” said Nikhil Koratkar, the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor of Engineering at Rensselaer. “This allows for a highly efficient battery with reduced mass and volume of calcium ions.”

However, the larger size and higher charge density of calcium ions relative to lithium impairs diffusion kinetics and cyclic stability, he added. The team has overcome this problem by developing oxide structures containing big open spaces (heptagonal and hexagonal channels). In their work, an aqueous calcium-ion battery is demonstrated using orthorhombic and trigonal polymorphs of molybdenum vanadium oxide (MoVO) as a host for calcium ions.

The researchers have demonstrated that calcium ions can be rapidly inserted and extracted from the material, with these tunnels acting as “conduits” for reversible and fast ion transport. The findings indicate that MoVO provides one of the best performances reported to date for the storage of calcium ions.

Specifically, for trigonal MoVO, a specific capacity of ∼203 mAh g⁻¹ was obtained at 0.2C and at a 100 times faster rate of 20C, an ∼60 mAh g⁻¹ capacity was achieved. The open-tunnel trigonal and orthorhombic polymorphs also promoted cyclic stability and reversibility. These findings were recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

“Calcium-ion batteries might one day, in the not-so-distant future, replace lithium-ion technology as the battery chemistry of choice that powers our society,” says Koratkar. “This work can lead of a new class of high-performing calcium-based batteries that use earth abundant and safe materials and are therefore affordable and sustainable. Such batteries could find widespread use in portable and consumer electronics, electric vehicles, as well as grid and renewable energy storage.”

From pv magazine global

The adoption of EV in the US is picking up pace as gasoline prices soar to record levels. According to a national survey by the American Automobile Association (AAA), a quarter of Americans surveyed say they will buy an EV as their next automobile, with millennials most eager to go electric. Of those looking to buy a plug-in vehicle, 77% said the interest was driven by a desire to save on fuel costs. When comparing two popular EV sedans against popular gasoline-powered vehicles, the AAA found that fueling a gasoline-powered vehicle (about $70 for a full tank) is twice as expensive as charging an EV at a public station (around $20 per full charge) and about four times pricier than charging an EV at home (around $10 per full charge).

In addition to fuel savings, EVs cost less to maintain because they don’t have spark plugs, need oil changes or air-filter replacements. However, upon the conclusion of a federally mandated 100,000-mile vehicle warranty, EV owners may need to cover the cost of new batteries, which range in price from $2,500 to over $10,000, the AAA notes. Even as more Americans lean into electric options, the AAA found lingering consumer hesitation surrounding price (cited by 60% of consumers), range (60%), and accessibility to charging (58%). Regarding the latter, data from the US Department of Energy suggests there are nearly 55,674 charging stations throughout the nation.

In the UK, EVs are expected to make up close to a third of used car sales by 2030. According to a report by LV= General Insurance, 31% of cars on the used market will be EVs by the time the government introduces a ban on sale of new petrol and diesel cars. “While the average annual running costs of electric cars are significantly cheaper than petrol or diesel cars, the sticker price remains one of the big barriers for drivers considering making the switch, which is why these projections for a thriving second-hand market by 2030 are so encouraging,” Gill Nowell, head of EV at LV= General Insurance said. In 2021, fully electric vehicles made up only 1.3% of cars on UK roads, numbering 399,981. That figure is expected to exceed 1 million in 2023 (3.1%) and 6.4 million in 2025 (6%). In 2021, EVs are only expected to make up 2% of the total second-hand car market with 129,032 sold. The figure is expected to grow steadily by 2026, when 1 million are expected on the road, equating to 15% of the used car annual sales market. Used EVs are forecast to rise to more than 3 million by 2030.

Volkswagen Group of America has teamed with recycling start-up Redwood Materials, founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, to establish a closed-loop battery supply chain in the US. Redwood will work directly with Volkswagen Group of America’s network of more than 1,000 dealers to recover, safely package, transport, and recycle end-of-life EV battery packs from Volkswagen and Audi vehicles. According to Redwood, the batteries will be processed at its northern Nevada facilities, where more than 95% of metals, like nickel, cobalt, lithium and copper, will be recovered and then used to re-manufacture anode and cathode components that it will supply back to US battery cell manufacturers. The partnership is “the first step in creating circularity for current and future vehicles” of Volkswagen, which is aiming for 55% of its US sales to be fully electric by 2030. In Nevada, Redwood says it already recycles more than 6 GWh of lithium-ion batteries each year, enough to power more than 60,000 electric vehicles — the “majority of lithium-ion batteries recycled in North America today.” Redwood previously partnered with Ford, Volvo and Toyota in EV battery recycling. The company is also planning to establish two recycling factories in Europe.

In Germany, Volkswagen has commissioned a fast-charging park at its electric car plant in Zwickau, which is supplied with energy largely from a so-called Power Storage Container (PSC). The PSC consists of 96 cell modules with a net capacity of 570 kWh, which were formerly installed as batteries in pre-production ID.3⁰² and ID.4⁰³ models and have now been given a second purpose. According to VW, the advantage is this fast-charging infrastructure can be built nearly anywhere, even in places with a low-capacity grid connection. It is also described as a “cost-effective alternative to the transformer station.” The automotive power bank could enable high power charger infrastructure to be built in the future where previously only AC charging at a maximum of 11 kW has been possible, for instance in residential areas, according to the car maker. The charging park at the west gate of the Zwickau plant is made up of four charging stations, each with an output of 150 kW, which can also be divided into two outputs of 75 kW. This means that up to eight vehicles can charge at the same time. The electricity comes from an adjacent PV installation, from which Volkswagen Sachsen has been purchasing green electricity since 2017, among other  renewable energy sources. Three fast-charging parks will be in operation on the plant grounds by the end of the year. For the PSC, Volkswagen Sachsen is relying on a solution that Audi already successfully used as part of its charging hub  in Nuremberg. The container cubes consist of used lithium-ion batteries from disassembled Audi test vehicles that are used as buffer storage for DC electricity.

From pv magazine global

Trina Solar’s energy storage unit officially launched the Trina Storage Elementa grid-scale energy storage system at the Smarter E event in Munich last week, featuring its proprietary lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.

The 2.1 MWh DC All-New Elementa is a modular LFP battery cabinet with a plug-in concept to connect multiple units. The standardized design and factory-installed configuration purportedly reduces installation times by up to 70%. The system is designed to make on-site installation simpler, cutting capex by up to 8%, said the manufacturer.

Elementa has fully integrated battery management systems and thermal runaway and safety features such as a bi-directional liquid cooling system, gas sensors, and heat and smoke detectors. On the back of improved LFP battery cell performance, Elementa is able to provide up to 10,000 cycles, which according to Trina, is 25% more than the Tier 1 market average.

Furthermore, the manufacturer claims that its grid-scale storage solution cuts the total cost of ownership by 25% per MWh compared to Tier-1 market average. While massive in size, the system can fit into a shipping container.

Elementa was first unveiled in October last year as part of Trina Storage’s debut at Intersolar Europe. Trina Solar’s storage division was founded in February last year. In the meantime, the business has already supplied its first project, 50 MW/56.2 MWh fully integrated battery storage system in Burwell, England, for energy infrastructure provider SMS plc to provide balancing services to the UK National Grid. The system was commissioned in February.

Unlike some other major PV manufacturers that have decided to step into the battery storage arena, Trina is producing all battery components from the bottom up. “We control the supply chain ourselves,” Ken Rush, Trina Storage’s head of product and engineering, told pv magazine.

Nonetheless, demand is ramping up so fast that Trina Storage is struggling to keep up. The business already has more than 100 customers throughout the world. As Rush told pv magazine, Trina Storage is sold out for the year and continues to scale up production as we speak.

Current order waiting times are around six to seven months and a “large portion” of Trina’s 3 GWh LFP capacity in China’s Jiangsu province, is in production and will be scaled up in the near future. The business has also set up an integration base that enables a customizable battery energy storage system design with an annual capacity of 5 GWh.