Developments in Battery Technology

Developments in Battery Technology

 Introduction

 Batteries have been around for ages, but the technological advancements of the near past have brought battery technology in the focus and forefront. Batteries provide power to mobile devices, wrist watches, notebooks; lap tops, smart phones etc., and battery life   have bearings o n the ease of using these mobile devices. Secondly the advent of the electric vehicle has brought battery life into focus. Presently the battery usage without a charge time   limits the range of such vehicles. Energy and power sector innovations have brought battery cost and life into sharp focus. Solar and Wind technologies promise to enable the planet to use renewable energy and avoid emissions, but this is conditional as both are intermittent and require back up , which presently is provide by base load coal or gas , battery life and more importantly cost  are important factors which may enable the power system to function on emission free technology .

 For the last 25 years, the lithium-ion battery has held sway. Packing a large amount of energy into a relatively small space and weight, these are in greater demand than ever for mobile phones and electric cars. In fact, 2017 has been a nirvana for lithium. The price of the commodity has been driven 240 per cent higher. Batteries accounted for 35 per cent of lithium use in 2015, up from 25 per cent in 2007, with electric vehicles, phones and personal computers accounting for 60 per cent of that market. Lithium-ion’s limitations are apparent, however, to anyone who has seen their mobile phone battery draining suddenly.

While smart phones, smart homes and even smart wearable’s are growing ever more advanced, they're still limited by power. The battery hasn't advanced in decades. But we're on the verge of a power revolution. Big technology and car companies are all too aware of the limitations of lithium-ion batteries. While chips and operating systems are becoming more efficient to save power we're still only looking at a day or two of use on a smart phone before having to recharge 

Battery Costs

The installed cost of battery grid storage has dropped 50% in the last four years and this rate is likely to continue for the next several years, the cost of storage has dropped much faster than most prediction.  Large-scale storage system prices will fall by more than 35% from 2017 to 2022 with declines expected on battery prices and balance of system costs. Battery prices dropped by 65% between 2012 and 2016 while balance of system costs fell 60%.

A steady drip of new wind-plus-storage projects is allowing operators to apply installation learnings. In September, E.ON started building the 20 MW Texas Waves energy storage projects, consisting of two 10 MW lithium ion LG Chem energy storage systems at the operational Pyron and Inadale wind farms in West Texas. E.ON has already used learnings from its 10 MW Iron Horse solar plus storage facility- completed in April 2017- to cut the costs for the Texas Waves projects, Mark Frigo, E.ON Vice President, Head of Energy Storage, North America, told New Energy Update in October. "We had learnings across the board, ranging from commercial to technical," he said. A key driver of cost reductions was the “right sizing” of the battery E.ON drew from LG Chem's experience in frequency regulation applications to optimize the battery size to minimize the storage life-cycle costs

Coupling

AC coupled storage means that the inverter to which the battery is connected is separate to the solar inverter. ... With no more than 3 components   a new or existing solar system can be “batteryready” thanks to AC-coupling.

Simple DC coupled solar battery systems were once used only for remote power systems and off-grid homes but over the last decade hybrid (solar and battery) inverter technology has advanced rapidly and led to the development of new AC coupled energy storage configurations. However DC coupled systems are far from dead, in fact charging a battery system using DC charge controllers or modern DC coupled hybrid inverters is still the most efficient method available.

As off-grid systems became larger and more advanced AC coupled systems evolved as the preferred configuration using multi-mode inverter/chargers coupled with one of more common lower cost string solar inverters. Over recent years battery technology has improved significantly with many new lithium battery types emerging as manufacturers explore different ways to add or couple batteries to new or existing solar systems. The original Tesla Powerwallwas the first 'high voltage' DC battery system and since then higher voltage (200-500V) batteries have become increasingly popular and are used with specialist hybrid inverters. More recently AC batteries have been developed by many leading solar manufacturers including Tesla, Sonnen and Enphase.

DC coupled systems have been used for decades in off-grid solar installations and small capacity automotive/boating power systems. DC coupled systems use solar charge controllers (also known as solar regulators) to charge the battery directly from solar, plus a battery inverter to supply AC power to appliances.

For micro systems such as those used in caravans/boats or huts, the PWM type solar controllers are very low cost way to use 1 or 2 solar panels to charge a 12 volt battery. PWM (pulse width modulation) controllers come in many different sizes and cost as little as $40 for a small 10A version.

 

AC coupled systems use a common solar inverter coupled to a multi-mode inverter or inverter/charger to charge the battery. Although simple to setup and very powerful they are slightly less efficient at charging than DC coupled systems (90-94%). However these systems are very efficient for powering AC loads during the day and are able to be expanded with multiple solar inverters to form micro-grids.

AC Batteries

AC batteries are a new evolution in battery storage for grid connected homes which allow batteries to be easily AC coupled to your new or existing solar installation. AC batteries consist of lithium battery cells, a battery management system (BMS) and inverter/charger all in one compact unit. These systems combine a DC battery with an AC battery Inverter but are only designed for grid-connected systems as the inverters are not powerful enough to run most homes completely off-grid.  .

Improved Lithium battery

  Alameda, California, has worked on a novel anode material that promises to significantly boost the performance of lithium-ion batteries. Sila Nanotechnologies emerged from stealth mode last month, partnering with BMW to put the company's silicon-based anode materials in at least some of the German automaker’s electric vehicles by 2023. A BMW spokesman told the Wall Street Journal the company expects that the deal will lead to a 10 to 15 percent increase in the amount of energy you can pack into a battery cell of a given volume. Sila’s CEO Gene Berdichevsky says the materials could eventually produce as much as a 40 percent improvement

For Electric Vehicles (EVs), an increase in so-called energy density either significantly extends the mileage range possible on a single charge or decreases the cost of the batteries needed to reach standard ranges. For consumer gadgets, it could alleviate the frustration of cell phones that can’t make it through the day, or it might enable power-hungry next-generation features like bigger cameras or ultrafast 5G networks. 

An anode is the battery’s negative electrode, which in this case stores lithium ions when a battery is charged. Engineers have long believed that silicon holds great potential as an anode material for a simple reason: it can bond with 25 times more lithium ions than graphite, the main material used in lithium-ion batteries today.

But this comes with a big catch. When silicon accommodates that many lithium ions, its volume expands, stressing the material in a way that tends to make it crumble during charging. That swelling also triggers electrochemical side reactions that reduce battery performance.

In 2010, Yushin coauthored a scientific paper that identified a method for producing rigid silicon-based nanoparticles that are internally porous enough to accommodate significant volume changes. He teamed up with Berdichevsky and another former Tesla battery engineer, Alex Jacobs, to form Sila the following year. The company has been working to commercialize that basic concept ever since, developing, producing, and testing tens of thousands of different varieties of increasingly sophisticated anode nanoparticles. It figured out ways to alter the internal structure to prevent the battery electrolyte from seeping into the particles, and it achieved dozens of incremental gains in energy density that ultimately added up to an improvement of about 20 percent over the best existing technology. Ultimately, Sila created a robust, micrometer-size spherical particle with a porous core, which directs much of the swelling within the internal structure. The outside of the particle doesn’t change shape or size during charging, ensuring otherwise normal performance and cycle life. The resulting composite anode powders work as a drop-in material for existing manufacturers of lithium-ion cells.

With any new battery technology, it takes at least five years to work through the automotive industry’s quality and safety assurance processes—hence the 2023 timeline with BMW. But Sila is on a faster track with consumer electronics, where it expects to see products carrying its battery materials on shelves early next year. Experts caution that gains in one battery metric often come at the expense of others—like safety, charging time, or cycle life—and that what works in the lab doesn’t always translate perfectly into end products.

Companies including Enovix and Enevate are also developing silicon-dominant anode materials. Meanwhile, other businesses are pursuing entirely different routes to higher-capacity storage, notably including solid-state batteries. These use materials such as glass, ceramics, or polymers to replace liquid electrolytes, which help carry lithium ions between the cathode and anode.

BMW has also partnered with Solid Power, a spinout from the University of Colorado Boulder, which claims that its solid-state technology relying on lithium-metal anodes can store two to three times more energy than traditional lithium-ion batteries. Meanwhile, Ionic Materials, which recently raised $65 million from Dyson and others, has developed a solid polymer electrolyte that it claims will enable safer, cheaper batteries that can operate at room temperature and will also work with lithium metal.

Some battery experts believe that solid-state technology ultimately promises bigger gains in energy density, if researchers can surmount some large remaining technical obstacles.But Berdichevsky stresses that Sila’s materials are ready for products now and, unlike solid-state lithium-metal batteries, don’t require any expensive equipment upgrades on the part of battery manufacturers.  As the company develops additional ways to limit volume change in the silicon-based particles, Berdichevsky and Yushin believe they’ll be able to extend energy density further, while also improving charging times and total cycle life.

Intelligent Lithium Batteries

Designed and Engineered in the USA, Trillium, Trojan's Intelligent Lithium batteries feature more runtime, lifetime and are available in 3 popular sizes. From its superior cell and battery design to its intelligent, built-in diagnostics, Trillium offers a range of advanced safety; environmental and electronic features not found in competitive products and has a life expectancy over 5,000 cycles

Cheaper Batteries for Electric Vehicles and isolated grid

Battery technology for large-scale power storage represents a potentially disruptive force for utilities.  , demand for electric vehicles will influence battery development.Utilities are faced with high volatility both on the supply and on the demand side. The ability to store power effectively is critical to enable volatile generation types like wind or like solar to become a fully flexible part of the energy mix and to provide base load. But power storage is also required to counter volatility in demand, thus decreasing peak capacity requirements.      The game-changer will be the lithium-ion battery technology: the key enabler for everyday usability of electric vehicles. Even though lithium-ion batteries for vehicles are still at the beginning of their technological development, they are ready for market launch now. However, high costs of $500 kilowatt-hour (on the pack level) due to small-scale production still limit mass-market penetration. Nevertheless, Berthold, traction batteries will significantly gain share and will reach massive scale by 2015. Hence, significant cost reduction through mass production is possible and will lead to costs of less than $250 kilowatt-hour in 2020.  

 With the electric energy, which can be stored in a modern lithium-ion battery, a customer can drive between 100 and 150 kilometers per charge and per day. This is by far enough for 80 percent of typical usage of an average American household, for example. Seventy percent of the Europeans drive less than 40 kilometers per day. For those cars, electricity is also a perfect power to propel. Use it during the day and charge it overnight.

But on the other hand, customers want also total flexibility. For those customers you will see solutions like range extenders or plug-in hybrids. The customers will have the choice about the size of the battery on the board. Because this will determine the daily range and the overall usage of gasoline during the life cycle of the car. This is our opinion, that this decade will be more a decade for the automotive industry, and the next decade will see the application of the battery in the grid.

Cheaper batteries are critical for both the future of electric vehicles (EVs) and for the future electrical grid. Battery improvements are needed to increase the range of EVs, and cheaper batteries can help drive down the costs of EVs so more consumers can afford them.

For the electrical grid, increased penetration of renewables poses some challenges because of their intermittent nature. Since the wind could stop blowing at any time, and the sun's radiation can only be captured during the day, these sources of power need to be backed up. Cost-effective storage of power could enable essentially unlimited penetration of renewables into the grid with prices for battery cells falling by 70 percent between 2012 and 2017,  But costs need to continue to decline to make widespread use of utility-scale battery storage a reality.

Lithium-ion batteries have become the battery of choice in many consumer electronics such as laptops, and in electric vehicles such as those produced by Tesla. But there are a couple of problems with these types of batteries that need to be resolved. The use of lithium-metal electrodes enables a greater energy density than conventional lithium-ion batteries. But lithium-metal electrodes can develop finger-like structures called dendrites that will eventually short-circuit the battery.

The solution to this problem was to replace the lithium-metal electrode with a carbon electrode with a lattice structure that houses lithium ions. Thus, the lithium-ion battery was born, albeit with a lower energy storage capacity than a battery utilizing a solid lithium-metal electrode.

Lithium-ion batteries also suffer from one other shortcoming that has been the subject of numerous news articles. If these batteries are damaged, they can explode or catch fire. This has happened in laptops, cell phones, and EVs. If damaged, all of the energy stored inside the battery can release over a short period of time, and the result can be a hot, intense fire.

The NOVA documentary profiled the work of Professor Mike Zimmerman of Tufts University. Professor Zimmerman has developed a battery that replaces the liquid electrolyte in the battery with a flame-retardant plastic. This battery won't catch on fire if it is cut, punctured or crushed. In fact, it can continue to produce power despite significant damage.

Lithium ions produced at the lithium electrode travel through the plastic as quickly as they do a liquid electrolyte. The plastic also physically prevents the electrodes from forming the dendrites that can short out the battery. Lithium metal can be used for the negative electrode, which could potentially double the battery's energy density.

Professor Zimmerman's work has been done mostly in stealth. The NOVA special was reportedly the first television interview he had done on his work. He has formed a company, Ionic Materials, and recently raised $65 million to commercialize this solid-state  

Alternative technologies

 There is a growing interest in finding alternative technologies. There’s a sense that existing lithium-ion batteries and related charging technologies are reaching their limitations  Samsung in November revealed that it had developed a technology based on a “ graphene ball” that could potentially boost its battery capacity by 45 per cent and increase charging speed five-fold. Keen to put behind it the memories of the exploding batteries in its Galaxy Note 7 phone, Samsung has been putting a lot of effort into battery research, and news that the graphene-based power unit would take just 12 minutes to be fully charged was welcomed by many. Though the technology, similar to Qualcomm’s Quick Charge system, really only represents an enhancement, rather than a replacement, for lithium-ion. Graphene has long been seen as a vital ingredient for future energy needs. Other alternatives being researched include fuel cells, photosynthesis, solid state technologies, sodium-ion, solar, foam, aluminium graphite, sand and even human skin. Many of these have the advantage of being either safer or more abundant than lithium, the production of which is dominated by a handful of companies. However, research in these technologies largely remains in the labs with little sign of a full commercialisation on the horizon. Hydrogen fuel cells, first invented in the 1830s, have long been seen as the most viable alternative to lithium batteries. Yet the technology has been held back by high material costs since the 1990s heyday of hydrogen development. There has been some headway in harnessing hydrogen as an alternative power source but the ultimate aim is to use fuel cells to overhaul the transport market. Japan is leading the way with Toyota and Honda both pushing to develop the technology. Yet it remains a tough task. Intelligent Energy, a UK fuel cell company linked with developing the technology for use in smartphones, was quietly sold in October to one of its investors after admitting that a sales collapse risked leaving shareholders with little, or no, value. 50 ideas to change the world We asked readers, researchers and FT journalists to submit ideas with the potential to change the world. A panel of judges selected the 50 ideas worth looking at in more detail. This second tranche of 10 ideas  is about meeting growing needs for energy and resources. The next 10 ideas, looking at ways to change education and information management, will be published on February 5, 2018. New types of solar power Changing the economics of clean water Zero power electronics The search for a better battery Mining landfill sites Superconductivity at room temperature Making wind power cheaper Splitting hydrogen from water Seaweed as a biofuel One area where there is a pressing need for battery innovation is in the emerging market for wearable technology. A rigid battery would not work in emerging areas such as smart clothing so academics have been developing more flexible models. Researchers at the University of Manchester in August revealed that they had developed technology using graphene-oxide to create an ink-like substance that can be printed on to fabrics. The ink, which is as flexible as cotton, acts as a solid-state flexible supercapacitor that can rapidly charge electronic components. Dr Nazmul Karim, a fellow at the National Graphene Institute, said the breakthrough was a significant step in the development of new types of charging. “It will open up possibilities of making an environmental friendly and cost-effective smart e-textile that can store energy and monitor human activity and physiological condition at the same time,” he said. One Dutch company, meanwhile, has created a sustainable battery using only water and salt. AquaBattery has developed a system that involves brackish water flowing through a stack of membranes to store energy. The first ‘Blue Battery’ pilot project began in November in the Dutch city of Delft to prove that the system, which converts electrical energy into chemical energy, is as scalable as AquaBattery argues. The great battery race Mei Nelissen, part of the team that initially worked on the Blue Battery concept, said in a Ted X talk that she was “dancing like we had discovered fire” when it proved the system could work, as it opened up the possibility of solving one of the main conundrums facing the renewable energy industry — storing energy for use when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine. That remains the challenge for the battery market. Demand is growing exponentially in the here and now, particularly in the smartphone market where consumers are familiar with ‘red zone panic’ when their handset runs out of power. The Blue Battery won the ‘circular economy’ award from Accenture in October but the system remains a long way off commercialization. Paul Lee, head of technology, media and telecoms research at Deloitte, says he does not expect change any time soon. “Over the next five years, lithium-ion is likely to remain the basis of almost all batteries used in smart phones. At present there appear to be no battery technologies on the horizon that have evolved sufficiently to be tested and factored into supply chains that could displace lithium ion.”

Energy harvested from the device owner

You could be the source of power for your next device, if research into TENGs comes to fruition. A TENG - or triboelectric nanogenerator - is a power harvesting technology which captures the electric current generated through contact of two materials.

A research team at Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute and the University of Surrey have given an insight into how this technology might be put into place to power things like wearable devices. While we're some way from seeing it in action, the research should give designers the tools they need to effectively understand and optimize future TENG implementation.

Gold nanowire batteries

  University of California Irvine have  cracked nanowire batteriesthat can withstand plenty of recharging. The result could be future batteries that don't die. Nanowires, a thousand times thinner than a human hair, pose a great possibility for future batteries. But they've always broken down when recharging. This discovery uses gold nanowires in a gel electrolyte to avoid that. In fact these batteries were tested recharging over 200,000 times in three months and showed no degradation at all.

Solid state lithium-ion

Solid state batteries traditionally offer stability but at the cost of electrolyte transmissions.   solid state battery which uses sulfide superionic conductors would  means a superior battery.

The result is a battery that can operate at super capacitor levels to completely charge or discharge in just seven minutes - making it ideal for cars. Since its solid state that also means it's far more stable and safer than current batteries. The solid-state unit should also be able to work in as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius and up to one hundred. 

The electrolyte materials still pose challenges so don't expect to see these in cars soon, but it's a step in the right direction towards safer, faster charging batteries.

Grabat graphene batteries

Graphene batteries have the potential to be one of the most superior available. Grabat has developed graphene batteries that could offer electric cars a driving range of up to 500 miles on a charge. 

Graphenano, the company behind the development, says the batteries can be charged to full in just a few minutes and can charge and discharge 33 times faster than lithium ion. Discharge is also crucial for things like cars that want vast amounts of power in order to pull away quickly.

Laser-made microsupercapacitors

Scientists at Rice University have made a breakthrough in microsupercapacitors. Currently they are expensive to make but using lasers that could soon change.

By using lasers to burn electrode patterns into sheets of plastic manufacturing costs and effort drop massively. The result is a battery that can charge 50 times faster than current batteries and discharge even slower than current super capacitors. They're even tough, able to work after being bent over 10,000 times in testing.

Foam batteries

Prieto believes the future of batteries is 3D. The company has managed to crack this with its battery that uses a copper foam substrate. This means these batteries will not only be safer, thanks to no flammable electrolyte, but they will also offer longer life, faster charging, five times higher density, be cheaper to make and be smaller than current offerings.

Prieto aims to place its batteries into small items first, like wearables. But it says the batteries can be upscaled so we could see them in phones and maybe even cars in the future.

Foldable battery is paper-like but tough

The Jenax J.Flex battery has been developed to make bendable gadgets possible. The paper-like battery can fold and is waterproof meaning it can be integrated into clothing and wearables.

The battery has already been created and has even been safety tested, including being folded over 200,000 times without losing performance.

uBeam over the air charging

uBeam uses ultrasound to transmit electricity. Power is turned into sound waves, inaudible to humans and animals, which are transmitted and then converted back to power upon reaching the device. These transmitters can be attached to walls, or made into decorative art, to beam power to smart phones and laptops. The gadgets just need a thin receiver in order to receive the charge.

StoreDot charges mobiles in 30 seconds

StoreDot, a start-up born from the nanotechnology department at Tel Aviv University, has developed the StoreDot charger. It works with current smart phones and uses biological semiconductors made from naturally occurring organic compounds known as peptides – short chains of amino acids - which are the building blocks of proteins.

The result is a charger that can recharge smart phones in 60 seconds. The battery comprises "non-flammable organic compounds encased in a multi-layer safety-protection structure that prevents over-voltage and heating", so there should be no issues with it exploding.

The company has also revealed plans to build a battery for electric vehicles that charges in five minutes and offers a range of 300 miles.

There's no word on when StoreDot batteries will be available on a global scale - we were expecting them to arrive in 2017 - but when they do we expect them to become incredibly popular.

Transparent solar charger

Alcatel has demoed a mobile phone with a transparent solar panel over the screen that would let users charge their phone by simply placing it in the sun. Although it's not likely to be commercially available for some time, the company hopes that it will go some way to solving the daily issues of never having enough battery power. The phone will work with direct sunlight as well as standard lights, in the same way regular solar panels.

Aluminum-air battery gives 1,100 mile drive on a charge

A car has managed to drive 1,100 miles on a single battery charge. The secret to this super range is a type of battery technology called aluminum-air that uses oxygen from the air to fill its cathode. This makes it far lighter than liquid filled lithium-ion batteries to give car a far greater range.

Urine powered batteries

The Bill Gates Foundation is funding further research by Bristol Robotic Laboratory who discovered batteries that can be powered by urine. It’s efficient enough to charge a smart phone which the scientists have already shown off.   Using a Microbial Fuel Cell, micro-organisms take the urine, break it down and output electricity.

Sound powered

Researchers in the UK have built a phone that is able to charge using ambient sound in the atmosphere around it.

The smartphone was built using a principle called the piezoelectric effect. Nanogenerators were created that harvest ambient noise and convert it into electric current.The nanorods even respond to the human voice, meaning chatty mobile users could actually power their own phone while they talk.

Twenty times faster charge, Ryden dual carbon battery

Power Japan Plus has already announced this new battery technology called Ryden dual carbon. Not only will it last longer and charge faster than lithium but it can be made using the same factories where lithium batteries are built.

The batteries use carbon materials which mean they are more sustainable and environmentally friendly than current alternatives. It also means the batteries will charge twenty times faster than lithium ion. They will also be more durable, with the ability to last up to 3,000 charge cycles, plus they are safer with lower chance of fire or explosion.

Sand battery gives three times more battery life

This alternative type of lithium-ion battery uses sand to achieve three times better performance than current batteries. The battery is still lithium-ion like the one found in your smart phone, but it uses sand instead of graphite in the anodes. This means it not only offers three times better performance, but it's also low cost, non toxic and environmentally friendly.

  Scientists, at the University of California Riverside have been focused on nano silicon for a while, but it's been degrading too quickly and is tough to produce in large quantities. By using sand it can be purified, powdered then ground with salt and magnesium before being heated to remove oxygen resulting in pure silicon. This is porous and three-dimensional which helps in performance and, potentially, the life-span of the batteries.

Sodium-ion batteries

Scientists in Japan are working on new types of batteries that don't need lithium like your smart phone battery. These new batteries will use sodium, one of the most common materials on the planet rather than rare lithium – and they'll be up to seven times more efficient than conventional batteries.

Research into sodium-ion batteries has been going on since the eighties in an attempt to find a cheaper alternative to lithium. By using salt, the sixth most common element on the planet, batteries can be made much cheaper. Commercializing the batteries is expected to begin for smart phones, cars and more in the next five to 10 years.

Upp hydrogen fuel cell charger

The Upp hydrogen fuel cell portable charger is available now. It uses hydrogen to power your phone keeping you off the grid and remaining environmentally friendly. One hydrogen cell will provide five full charges of a mobile phone (25Wh capacity per cell). And the only by-product produced is water vapor. A USB type A socket means it will charge most USB devices with a 5V, 5W, 1000mA output.

Batteries with built-in fire extinguisher

It's not uncommon for lithium-ion batteries to overheat, catch on fire and possibly even explode. The battery in the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is a prime example. Researchers at Stanford university have come up with lithium-ion batteries with built-in fire extinguishers. 

The battery has a component called triphenyl phosphate, which is commonly used as a flame retardant in electronics, added to the plastic fibres to help keep the positive and negative electrodes apart. If the battery's temperature rises above 150 degrees C, the plastic fibres melt and the triphenyl phosphate chemical is released. Research shows this new method can stop batteries from catching fire in 0.4 seconds. 

Batteries that is safe from explosion

Lithium-ion batteries have a rather volatile liquid electrolyte porous material layer sandwiched between the anode and cathode layers. Mike Zimmerman, a researcher at Tufts University in Massachusetts, has developed a battery that has double the capacity of lithium-ion ones, but without the inherent dangers.

Zimmerman's battery is incredibly thin, being slightly thicker than two credit cards, and swaps out the electrolyte liquid with a plastic film that has similar properties. It can withstand being pierced, shredded, and can be exposed to heat as it's not flammable. There's still a lot of research to be done before the technology could make it to market, but it's good to know safer options are out there. 

Liquid Flow batteries

Harvard scientists have developed a battery that stores its energy in organic molecules dissolved in neutral pH water. The researchers say this new method will let the Flow battery last an exceptionally long time compared to the current lithium-ion batteries.

It's unlikely we'll see the technology in smart phones and the like, as the liquid solution associated with Flow batteries is stored in large tanks, the larger the better. It's thought they could be an ideal way to store energy created by renewable energy solutions such as wind and solar. 

Research from Stanford University has used liquid metal in a flow battery with potentially great results, claiming double the voltage of conventional flow batteries. The team has suggested this might be a great way to store intermittent energy sources, like wind or solar, for rapid release to the grid on demand.

IBM and ETH Zurich and have developed a much smaller liquid flow battery that could potentially be used in mobile devices. This new battery claims to be able to not only supply power to components, but cool them at the same time. The two companies have discovered two liquids that are up to the task, and will be used in a system that can produce 1.4 Watts of power per square cm, with 1 Watt of power reserved for powering the battery. 

Zap&Go Carbon-ion battery

Oxford-based company ZapGo has developed and produced the first carbon-ion battery that's ready for consumer use now. A carbon-ion battery combines the superfast charging capabilities of a super capacitor, with the performance of a Lithium-ion battery, all while being completely recyclable.

The company has a power bank charger that be fully charged in five minutes, and will then charge a smart phone up to full in two hours.

Zinc-air batteries

Scientists at Sydney University believe they've come up with a way of manufacturing zinc-air batteries for much cheaper than current methods. Zinc-air batteries can be considered superior to lithium-ion, because they don't catch fire. The only problem is they rely on expensive components to work. Sydney Uni has managed to create a zinc-air battery without the need for the expensive components, but rather some cheaper alternatives. Safer, cheaper batteries could be on their way!

Smart clothing

Researchers at the University of Surrey are developing a way of you being able to use your clothing as a source of power. The battery is called a Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs), which converts movement into stored energy. The stored electricity can then be used to power mobile phones or devices such as Fitbit fitness trackers.

The technology could be applied to more than just clothing too, it could be integrated into the pavement, so when people constantly walk over it, it can store electricity which can then be used to power streetlamps, or in a car's tyre so it can power a car.

Stretchable batteries

Engineers at the University of California in San Diego have developed a  stretchable biofuel cell that can generate electricity from sweat. The energy generated is said to be enough to power LEDs and Bluetooth radios, meaning it could one day power wearable devices like smart watches and fitness trackers.

Samsung's graphene battery

Samsung has managed to develop graphene balls that are capable of boosting the capacity of its current lithium-ion batteries by 45 per cent, and recharging five times faster than current batteries. To put that into context, Samsung says its new graphene-based battery can be recharged fully in 12 minutes, compared to roughly an hour for the current unit. 

Samsung also says it has uses beyond smart phones, saying it could be used for electric vehicles as it can withstand temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius. 

Safer, faster charging of current Lithium-ion batteries

Scientists at WMG at the University of Warwick have developed a new technology that allows current Lithium-ion batteries to be charged up to five times faster that current recommended limits. The technology constantly measures a battery's temperature far more precisely than current methods.

Scientists have found that current batteries can in fact be pushed beyond their recommended limits without affecting performance or overheating.  

Battery Energy Storage System (BESS),

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2035, developing nations will constitute 80% of total global energy production and consumption alike. A greater portion of this new generation will be derived from renewable sources in response to adhering to international policies for cleaner energy. While the costs of renewable generation are declining, concern for energy storage that is essential for the effective utilization of these renewable sources is on the rise. However, with the advent of a revolutionary concept known as Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), these concerns have been somewhat appeased. The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is a system that stores energy using a battery technology so that it can be utilized in the future. 

Spurred by the adoption of cleaner energy, declining prices and regulatory subsidies; solar photovoltaic, battery energy storage systems and mini-grids are being increasingly utilized across the electric system. These developments necessitate that utilities adapt their conventional centralized systems into more flexible, integrated and distributed power networks. This movement is evolving from preliminary phases to long-term investments that support the evolution of new business models.

While still expensive, the cost of energy storage is rapidly declining. A report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) stated that the cost of battery storage for stationary applications could fall by up to 66% by 2030. This rapid decline has made the economics of energy storage more appealing to investors, grid operators, utilities and end-users alike. The developing technology has evidently demonstrated that economies of scale are now possible.

The deployment of renewable energy is not only driven by cost efficiencies and environmental awareness, but when coupled with Battery Storage, a new dimension emerges where utilities are able to compete on a level playing field with conventional electricity power plants.  Furthermore, energy storage remains a flexible, scalable and efficient solution. Energy storage thwarts the need for power utilities to unearth and replace wires or spend money and time on constructing new plants. As an alternative, they can build a network of battery storage within 6 months.

Energy storage technologies are viewed as a potential game-changer for widespread adoption of renewable energy generation throughout Africa. They facilitate the management of renewable power intermittency, demand response services and the dispatchability of stable, clean and sustainable power into the local or national grid system.

African power generation has traditionally been centralized from costly (often antiquated), poorly managed and maintained, inefficient fossil fuel based plants on unreliable grid infrastructure. Renewable energy and storage technologies offer low cost utility scale and distributed generation opportunities to African countries to break their dependence on such expensive plants. Policy-makers and state utilities in many countries face a challenging journey of market reform and infrastructure improvement in order to make this shift. This is needed before they will be able (and willing) to support widespread cheap and efficient generation capacity from distributed renewable energy with storage plants running alongside larger centralized plants, each selling power at cost-reflective tariffs and across robust and reliable grid infrastructure.

The reality is that energy storage is going to unlock huge opportunities for more renewable energy investment in Africa at both a utility and distributed scale that will totally disrupt the traditional African power sector model. Governments and state utilities will need to adapt quickly to embrace the evolution and to avoid more and more potential customers going off-grid in the interim. *

Energy storage projects are now under development in various parts of the world thanks to the reduction of the technology’s costs and its necessity to manage the electricity networks and facilitate the renewable energy growth. But does this mean the time to develop energy storage in Africa has arrived too? The Africa Energy Indaba will be discussing the role and impact of energy storage in Africa through a focused dialogue, unpacking and exploring the opportunity for Africa.

Energy Storage Outlook for 2019

2018 was another defining year for the lithium supply chain as the global population continued to make remarkable strides towards the implementation of clean energy and transportation. Although the clean energy and transportation industries are only in their early days, it has become apparent that renewables and electrification of transportation are an irreversible trend, one that has begun to disrupt many established industries. On the battery manufacturing side of the lithium supply chain, 2018 was a defining year for all companies in common concerning the announcement of new production capacity. Throughout 2018, large players such as BYD, CATL, LG Chem and many others announced strategic plans to stay ahead of the industry. Expansion plans that were announced include LG Chem’s global expansion by 32GWh, CATL Chinese and German expansion by 38 GWh and BYD Chinese expansion by 60 GWh.

All categories of the stationary energy storage market saw dramatic growth in 2018, especially in utility- scale ‘mega’ projects and in the residential market. In the German residential market, the industry surpassed 100,000 systems installed, while the South Australian government continued to promote its residential energy storage program, which aims to have 40,000 systems installed over the next few years.

The Caribbean markets also saw a breakthrough as Puerto Rico and other islands moved to restore power grids after Hurricanes Irma and Maria. It was reported that all new solar installations in Puerto Rico are now being installed with battery systems and many existing system owners are retrofitting systems to include batteries.

In Q4 2018, California approved new building construction energy efficiency measures that will be a catalyst for solar power to be installed on certain types of buildings, including residential properties. These measures will encourage the procurement of energy storage systems for resiliency and monetary (demand response, rate arbitrage) purposes. The North American residential energy storage market is expected to grow from less than 15,000 systems installed in 2018 to between 40,000-50,000 systems installed in 2019.

The utility-scale segment of the stationary energy storage market has witnessed incredible demand and has had the most material impact on the lithium supply chain. Many utilities over the past 24 months have captured headlines by announcing major projects. In recent weeks, we have witnessed a California utility announce plans to deploy multiple energy storage parks amounting to 2.2 GWh of capacity. This is the equivalent of approximately 45,000 electric vehicles. These types of energy storage parks are quickly being financed while product is generally packaged as containerized solutions directly at or near the battery manufacturing plant. This allows for the solutions to be quickly installed, which creates a vacuum of demand over a very short period of time. According to one recent report, the US utility-scale energy storage pipeline amounted to over 30 GWh, which is equal to well over 500,000 electric vehicles.

  electric bus market has reached a tipping point led by full fleet transition in China, with a very encouraging list of pilot projects by nearly all major North American and European transit authorities.the largest opportunity is the North American yellow school bus fleet  Major North American transit authorities, including Toronto, New York and Los Angeles have already outlined plans to achieve a zero-emission fleet between the years 2030-2040

The transition to clean energy technologies is well underway. 2018 was another important year for the lithium supply chain as Tier 1 lithium battery production companies announced significant expansion plans and began to raise the necessary capital to deploy related strategies. The move to increase lithium battery production will ensure that supply is available to meet demand that arises from primary applications such as electric vehicles, which in turn will potentially increase supply for secondary applications such as stationary energy storage systems and EV charging infrastructure. Considering the slow ramp-up in global battery module and cell manufacturing capacity, and considering the rapid uptake of electric vehicles and mega utility-scale energy storage systems, it is difficult to visualize an oversupply of high-quality battery modules in the next years  High points of 2019 could be:

• Record number of electric vehicles sales in the global passenger market
• Increase in the number of electric vehicle options available to consumers
• Ongoing pilot projects and overall shift to electric municipal bus fleets
• Ramp in utility-scale mega-projects in the stationary energy storage market
• Hyper growth in the residential energy storage (RESS) markets in Europe, USA, Caribbean and Australia
• RESS integration with Energy Block Chain / Virtual Power Plants, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence
• Strong advancements in the micro grid markets focused on providing energy access to underdeveloped and developing regions of the world
• Hyper-growth in the EV charging infrastructure
• Battery plant development, including: new facilities, facilities expansion, financing (capital raises), construction development and other related information
• Entrance of new players into the lithium supply chain
• Mega-supply announcements throughout the supply chain (  cells, battery modules, chemicals)

Update: Mar., 14, 2019:

Lithium Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries power everything from cell phones to electric vehicles. Naturally, consumers want devices that last for longer and longer, but increasing energy density has proven challenging due to engineering roadblocks.  

Li-ion batteries are enabled by a protecting layer on the negative electrode, which self-forms as a result of electrolyte decomposition, a process called solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). This so-called passivation layer is important because it offers just enough electronic resistance to limit electrolyte decomposition. However, through repeated use, this layer’s growth leads to capacity fade and increased cell resistance. Over time, needle-like dendrites grow on the lithium electrode, inhibiting performance and safety.

To bypass this roadblock, the engineers devised a new SEI — a reactive polymer composite made up of polymeric lithium salt, lithium fluoride nanoparticles, and graphene oxide sheets. Many thin layers of this polymer react to make a claw-like bond to the lithium metal surface so that it doesn’t react with the electrolyte molecules. This was achieved by controlling the surface of the lithium at the level of individual atoms and molecules. The reactive polymer also decreases the weight and manufacturing cost, further enhancing the future of lithium metal  

Battery prices fell nearly 50% in the last 3 years — and there’s no sign of stopping

There’s a huge global market demand for high-density battery packs for electric vehicles and energy storage, which in turn has led to dramatic reductions in price. In 2010, the average market price for battery packs was $1,100/kWh. In 2019, this figure hovers at around $156/kWh, marking a whopping 87% reduction in price. Compared to three years ago, when battery prices were around $300/kWh, batteries are now at almost half as cheap.

According to a recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), market demand and technological advances might push the price below a $100/kWh milestone by 2023.

The two most important challenges that prevent the wide-scale adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles are infrastructure and cost — both need to be addressed. You might buy an affordable electric car with adequate autonomy, but if consumers aren’t confident there’s a reliable charging infrastructure, they will likely think twice before making a purchase. Likewise, utilities and consumers alike might be interested in investing in solar farms and wind turbines, but if storing that energy overnight to meet the baseload is too expensive, fossil fuel power plants will still have a job.

Luckily, the future seems very optimistic. According to market analysts at BNEF, battery packs have experienced an insane downward curve in terms of price.

These cost reductions can be attributed to growth in electric vehicle sales and the increasing proliferation of high energy density cathodes.

Improved battery pack design and falling manufacturing costs associated with economies of scale will drive prices down even further. New technologies such as silicon or lithium anodes, solid state cells, and new cathode materials will also play a major role in reducing costs in the future.

“Factory costs are falling thanks to improvements in manufacturing equipment and increased energy density at the cathode and cell level. The expansion of existing facilities also offers companies a lower-cost route to expand capacity,” Logan Goldie-Scot, head of energy storage at BNEF, said in a statement.

The new BNEF report, which was presented last week in Shanghai, forecasts a battery market demand of 2TWh in 2024, around which time prices are expected to fall below $100/kWh. This is an important milestone because most experts agree that at this price range, electric vehicles reach price parity with internal combustion engine vehicles.

Of course, this will vary depending on the region and vehicle segment. For instance, Amazon placed an order for 100,000 all-electric vans from Rivian, a Michigan-based auto startup company. This kind of application, however, puts more emphasis on battery life cycle than the price per unit of stored energy.

Bloomberg analysts believe that important cost reductions will continue well into the future. The global lithium-ion battery market size is expected to grow from $20 billion today to $60 billion by 2025. By 2030, it could double to $120 billion, not counting investments in the supply chain. During this time, battery pack prices could fall below $60/kWh.

https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/battery-prices-fell-nearly-50-in-the-last-3-years-and-theres-no-sign-of-stopping/

Inverter air conditioners

Inverter air conditioners

Introduction

To understand DC Inverter ACs, we first need to understand how they work. Air conditioners use a refrigerant (a gas which exists in low pressure but turns liquid as the pressure increases), which is compressed and liquefied by the compressor. It is then cooled down in the condenser and later allowed to expand (become a gas) in the evaporator, albeit in a controlled manner. Those who have studied physics, would know that this expansion causes a cooling effect which, in turn, causing the condenser to become warm.

The same principle is used in refrigerators; they move the heat from the inside to the outside. When an AC is in cooling mode, the heat from the room is removed and pushed towards the outdoor unit of the split AC. If the AC has the ability to heat, it can reverse the process, the energy is absorbed from the outside while heating the room. In most cases, the reverse process, i.e. heating mode, consumes less power than the cooling mode because the compression energy is added to the overall heating cycle.

The remaining two important components of an AC are its motored fans. The outdoor fan chucks the air out of the condenser to the outside. However, the indoor unit makes use of the blower and louvers/fins to dissipate the cool air (or hot air if the AC is in heating mode) to the room.

Until a few years ago every single air conditioner unit was those of stable speed when we switched on our unit with a remote or wired remote our unit began to run and it worked at its full power, at its 100% of capacity, when it reached to the adjustable temperature or when we stopped it manually, the unit “stopped” completely and it didn’t keep throwing cold or heat (heat pump),the air conditioner stable speed units only have 2 speeds (0% and 100%) and when you start them they pass from being completely stopped to be at their full capacity because they give their maximum capacity right after switching on them. That’s the reason we could feel in the intensity of current of our house or office creating in many occasions a lowering in the light intensity of our room, dining hall, etc. It was noticed like the bulb didn’t give off much light just when you switched on the air conditioner (voltage descent) due to the big energy consumption the unit needs to pass from 0% to 100%, later the situation was settled and there weren’t more intensity descents (until the next starting), that’s why after starting the unit directly to 100% of its nominal capacity and maintain itself through all time the unit was running, we noticed that feeling of an intense cold so many people miss, the inverter air conditioner units don’t work this way, because these begin running slowly and then they accelerate to its full capacity reaching a 140% of its nominal capacity, but after reaching the desired temperature the unit scales down the power used and operates at much lower power  levels .

Non-Inverter Air Conditioners

Non inverter or fixed speed air conditioners operate on a fixed amount of power at a fixed speed. This means the compressor has to stop and start again to maintain the desired room temperature..In this type of arrangement the compressor is either off or on. When it is on, it works at full capacity consuming full electricity. When the thermostat reaches the required temperature setting, the compressor stops and the fan continues to function. When the thermostat senses that the temperature in the room has fluctuated, the compressor starts again.

Inverter Air Conditioners

This technology was developed in Japan and is now being used globally for air conditioners and refrigerators alike. In inverter air conditioning systems, the speed of the compressor varies to ensure energy efficient operations and precise cooling or heating as required.

A DC inverter converts AC current to DC current. It then uses a modulation technique (called Pulse Width Modulation) in another inverter to produce AC current based on the desired frequency and voltage. The variable frequency AC drives the brushless motor or induction motor. The speed of the motor is proportional to frequency of the new AC voltage. Thanks to this, the compressor can now run at multiple speeds.

The inverter technology acts like an accelerator in a car. When the compressor requires more power, it gives it more power. When it needs less power, it provides less power. In this kind of setting, the compressor is always turned on, but draws less power or more depending on the temperature of the incoming air and the setting adjusted in the thermostat. The speed and power of the compressor is also adjusted accordingly.

Major difference between the two

An air conditioner with DC inverter technology has the ability to control its cooling (or heat) transfer rate by changing the output from its compressor. The rate can be modified depending on the requirements of the room. To put it more simply, the AC uses electricity depending on the environment’s requirements.

The compressor in a common AC runs at full 100 percent all the time. When it is not needed it shuts off. So a common AC uses start/stop cycles to control the temperature.

When using a DC Inverter in an air conditioner, it uses a processor to check the surrounding temperature and adjusts the speed (power input) of the compressor based on it. It can provide different levels of cooling or heating. So the DC Inverter AC regulates its output capacity to uniformly control the temperature of the room.

Both the inverter and non-inverter systems offer similar functions but differ in terms of compressor motor type running in the system. The compressor is responsible for compressing the refrigerant into liquid after which it shuts off and allows it to expand. As this process takes place, the refrigerant begins to cool thus producing the desired effect of cooling. Inverter air conditioner units are designed in such a way that they save up to 30-50% of electricity units consumed as compared to a regular air conditioner.

The magnitude of cooling or heating required by an air conditioning unit varies depending upon the outdoor temperature and the amount of heat in the room. When the cooling or heating effect needs to be amplified, the compressor will operate at a higher speed and will upsurge the amount of refrigerant flow.

On the contrary, during moderate outside temperatures for example, when the cooling and heating capacity needs to be reduced, the compressor will run at a low speed and will decrease the amount of refrigerant flow. When the inverter air conditioner is switched on, the compressor operates at a high speed in order to cool or heat the area rapidly. As room temperature approaches the desired temperature, the compressor slows down, maintaining a constant temperature. Any spontaneous fluctuation in the room temperature will be detected and promptly adjusted to bring the room temperature back to the set temperature.

There are many benefits of the inverter ac First of all, it requires less electricity in comparison to traditional air conditioning unit. And the other benefit is that it comes with a compressed circuit board that is able to handle various cooling loads. You will not get this feature in the non-inverter air conditioners. Moreover, the traditional type of air conditioner or non-inverter type of air conditioner offers less cooling than the inverter ac. Inverter ac is not prone to voltage fluctuations like the traditional one. It is durable and requires less maintenance than the non-inverter type of air conditioners.

                         
The inverter type ac is energy efficient. This is one of the key features of this air conditioner. It consumes around thirty percent less electricity in comparison to the traditional and non-inverter type air conditioners. In this developed system, you do not need to keep the system on and off to get the required temperature. It comes with an automatic system that makes necessary adjustments to maintain temperature

Operating principles

The Inverter technology   is the latest evolution of technology concerning the electro motors of the compressors. An Inverter is used to control the speed of the compressor motor, so as to continuously regulate the temperature. The DC Inverter units have a variable-frequency drive that comprises an adjustable electrical inverter to control the speed of the electromotor, which means the compressor and the cooling / heating output. The drive converts the incoming AC current to DC and then through a modulation in an electrical inverter produces current of desired frequency. A microcontroller can sample each ambient air temperature and adjust accordingly the speed of the compressor.. The biggest difference between inverter and non-inverter AC is the fact that the motor of the inverter compressor has a variable speed. The speed of the non-inverter compressor is fixed. This means that it operates either at full or minimum speed. A censor in the inverter adjusts the power according to the temperature in the room, lowering the electrical consumption and saving energy.

Efficiency and Operating cost

The inverter air conditioning units have increased efficiency in comparison to traditional air conditioners. A conventional AC starts multiple times and always runs at peak capacity. This means that every time it starts it needs extra electricity to jump start its stationary motors and compressor, i.e. torque current. Without being too technical, you can think of it this way, it needs more power when it starts and it starts too many times. It also runs at full capacity each time requiring a lot of current.

In comparison, a DC Inverter AC never turns off its compressor or motors. It reduces the electricity it needs and constantly keeps cooling (or heating) the room. When it does start the first time, a DC Inverter AC starts off slowly so it doesn’t require a massive torque current. Inverter ACs can start at low voltages as well thanks to the inversion mechanism. By running in a low power consumption state, DC Inverter ACs save a lot of electricity.

DC Inverter ACs isn’t as effective when running at full capacity, however, when they are running at partial capacity, which is how ACs are normally used, they can save a lot of energy.

The inverter AC has lower operating cost and with less breakdowns .The inverter AC units is more expensive in upfront cost than the constant speed air conditioners, but this is balanced by lower energy bills. The payback time is approximately two years depending on the usage.

 Due to the sophisticated operational method of the inverter, its compressor does not work at its full capacity all the time. When the speed is lower, the needed energy is lower too and you pay less money for electricity.

 The inverter AC is able to cool or heat your room faster than the non-inverter. This is due to the fact that in the beginning of the process, the inverter uses more power than the non-inverter and diminishes the power when it gets close to the desired temperature. The inverter air conditioner units may vary its capacity according to their needs; this makes the consumption to get adapted and lowers the electrical consumption significantly.

The stable speed units were very old in comparison to that, for they don’t have such electronics and they couldn’t modify its way of running and they worked in the same conditions though the weather was a 24ºC normal day or an extreme hot day with 38ºC, some stable speed units had pressure relief valves and condensing controls or different fan speed in the condenser, but this is nothing in comparison with all the things an inverter unit can do, regulating the gas flow with the electronic expansion valve, reducing or increasing the compressor speed, such as the condenser fan motor does. 

Cooling capacity of 1 ton is equal to 3.517 kW of power. For 1 ton AC inverter, power consumption of ac = cooling capacity/EER = 1.5*3.517/2.7=1.954 kW. AC consists of two units, Indoor unit which is called the evaporator and the Outdoor Unit which called the Compressor.

If you have a 1-DC Inverter AC, it will save you around 40-50 percent in electricity bills under normal usage. 3-DC and 4-DC Inverter ACs can achieve over 60 percent in savings. You probably won’t get 75 percent in savings under normal usage and extreme heat in Pakistan. However, if your AC has the heating-mode, it will cause more cost savings compared to the cooling mode.

Normal conditions mean that the user does not set temperatures to extremes. If the temperature is set to extremely low (for cooling) or extremely high (for heating) then you cannot expect such huge savings. However, even at extremes, DC Inverter ACs beat the conventional ACs.

Noise level and other benefits

The variable speed function makes the inverter AC unit’s quieter, extends life of their parts and the sharp fluctuations in the load are eliminated.  As the compressor motor of the inverter air conditioner does not turn on and off all the time, but keeps working at low power, the operation is more quite. The technology of the inverters not only makes cooling and heating more efficient, but it also makes the AC’s life longer As the compressor motor of the inverter air conditioner does not turn on and off all the time, but keeps working at low power, the operation is more quite.
The inverter air conditioner units get more comfort and faster than the stable speed ones.the inverter units reach to an assigned temperature faster than the stable speed units, apart from that, being capable of regulating their refrigerating capacity these maintain the room in a much more precise way than the stable speed ones because they go reducing their capacity slowly while reaching the desired temperature, maintaining that temperature “never stopping”. And that is put in inverted commas because I have heard that a lot. The inverter units never stop, my machine never stops”.

 Speed in cooling and warming.

The inverter units start slowly, it’s like a long-distance race, starting this way there’s neither a change in the intensity of current nor we feel a change in the intensity of bulbs, but they began to increase its capacity until they reach a 140% capacity in some cases.  In comparison to steady speed air conditioner units which either go or don’t go, the inverter air conditioner units have a wide range of operations, that’s the reason why catalogues used to show three different capacities: the nominal capacity, which is the “real” capacity or “basic” of that air conditioner and it’s the one we have to use to do the numbers more accurately (there are so many people who are wrong when taking as a reference the maximum capacity), the minimum capacity and the maximum capacity.

  The inverter air conditioner units  do stop  but only a few times In comparison to a stable capacity unit which switches itself on when the temperature goes a degree over our assigned temperature (cold mode) and it stops when it exceeds -1ºC, the inverter units work in a different way, these go reducing its capacity slowly when they reach their objective, and that’s the reason why seldom they exceed or reduce the temperature more than what it’s needed because it will keep itself a few degrees over or below our assigned temperature. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t stop, it does, but in general reducing its capacity and therefore its consumption is enough to keep the desired temperature.

Much more capacity

The inverter air conditioners are way much more efficient than those which aren’t inverter and they achieve an energy coefficient wider. Thanks to its electronics and the obvious progressions over these years, an actual inverter unit can reach a 5, 15 energy coefficient, that in comparison with a 2,76 of a non-inverter unit but same model, it is something to be aware of, it is almost the double of capacity and for that it means the half of consumption when doing the same work and air-conditioning the same room. Just for this reason choosing between an inverter and non-inverter one should be an easy choice to anybody.

Wider working range

Another inverter air conditioner characteristic which makes it better than a not inverter one is its working range, for example in heat mode. When the outside temperature reaches between 5 and 0ºC, a not inverter unit starts to fall its capacity heavily, even becoming ineffective and useless if the temperature descends even more, This is due to working in heat mode, the condenser will be cooling and it reaches to a point when it produces frost and it finally freezes itself, making impossible the heat or cold exchange with the outside. This is a solution with the called “defrost”, which almost every inverter unit has. With this defrost mode, what the unit does during a few minutes is to send the heat that should be going to the outside in order to warm our house, it sends it to the external unit to defrost it, loosing with this process the heat that should be impelling in the internal unit. After that, the unit will work normally until the next defrost, which will be more usual and shortened in time if there is more cold and humidity in the outside.

The inverter units don’t have such problems, or, if they have it is much less pronounced due to its electronics regulate the gas flow for this not to happen thanks to measurements, being able to work to -15ºC and loosing much less capacity than not inverter air conditioner units. There also exists special inverter units which works to -25ºC, giving a full capacity when they reach -15ºC

What Are the Different Types of DC Inverter ACs

Some manufacturers claim they have 3-DC Inverter ACs, All DC Inverter ACs, 4-D Inverter ACs, etc, while others simply claim to have Inverter ACs. They also claim to have varying savings percentages from 60 percent to 75 percent. The reason behind that is, some manufacturers employ older technologies and only upgrade their compressors to DC inverters. Others also convert the indoor and outdoor fan motors hence, completely upgrading all motors to DC inverters.

Those, which claim to save about 50 or 60 percent in electricity bills and simply state DC Inverter (or only Inverter) ACs, are using the inverter tech for the compressor only. 3-DC Inverter or 4-D Inverter systems, sometimes referred to as All DC Inverter, upgrade other motors or major electrical components as well. This means more savings as more electrical components get the ability to vary their speeds. In short, a number besides the “D” or “DC” mean the number of components using the inverter technology.

Conclusions

The inverter unit gives more comfort, capacity, saving, and other benefits and it has more working possibilities given the weather. On the contrary, the benefit of a not inverter unit will be that it costs less (upfront cost) and it also will cost less if it need to be repaired, because they are easier and cheaper to fix.  Not only do these ACs help save money, their use is good for the environment. The DC inverter technology is being used in other products as well

Extract from unfinished novel:

 Extract from unfinished novel:

Nawaz along with his mother, father, three brothers and two sisters, climbed aboard the third class compartment of Karachi Express .The bogie was crowded and Nawaz and family found space between the door and the stinking lavatory .They plunked their crude battered tin case along with two bundles of bed sheets and quilts on top of their meager luggage.

The train left Lahore in the evening, yet Lahore was sizzling hot and the crowded car made it a very uncomfortable journey .Morning found the train entering Sindh, but this was even worse, as the temperature was a shade higher than at Lahore .Coping with the dripping sweat was an unbearable activity .The train-stop at railway stations did allow Nawaz and his brothers to stretch their legs but the two girls were not even allowed this brief respite from the stifling conditions.

The food at the station was stale, unappetizing and quite expensive .Nawaz and his family carried about 40 chapattis and some sagh and dal ,which they had for meals .A baked earthen pitcher filled with water was their lifeline .This they had to refill at every station .The crowded car was made even more crowded by the throngs of retailers  selling biscuits, stale boiled eggs ,tea in small glasses strung on  wire  holders ,over ripe bananas ,health medicines meant to give special sexual powers ,special oil to grow hair on bald people , lottas and multitudes of such small items . These gentlemen screamed on the top of their voices and added to the infernal din .Beggars further added to the confusion, all kinds and sex and type of beggars competed with each other and with the retailing boys .Their bogie was too crowded for any sleep to be possible, the heat and the noise made it pretty much impossible.

The train shrieked past the yellowish brown farm lands, spewing clouds of black smoke, the environmentalists had not got their act together as yet .The farmland mosaic had just turned brown, the wheat crop was ripening and was close to being reaped .The farmland mosaic changed every few months from yellowish brown of the summer to the lush green of the autumn to the bright yellow of the winter .Nature along with human endeavor kept changing this mosaic as if  with a huge paint brush, the color scheme was never the same and each year brought different shades of brown, yellow and green .This seemingly cyclic change resulted in a different color mosaic every year.

                                                                             

The farmland was stretched across the irrigated part of the Punjab and Sindh plains. These had been formed out of gigantic cataclysms .The Indian plate, which was set adrift from the mother continent, after drifting for centuries across the ocean, struck with a immense impact the Asian plate .Like two male rams head butting to decide who is to be the owner of the harem. Only in this case it seems to have been inconclusive as after irregular intervals the plates seem to lock horns and create frightening shivers and quakes that destroyed many a community. In reality the collision and impact is still going on, the initial impact was dramatic but some 50 million after the fact it had not completely subsided.

The impact sandwiched smaller islands and impounded the sea in between the two plates .The impact resulted in a rapid uplift of the land .The high and imposing mountain that seem so stable and static are in fact very alive and dynamic .These generate ,from time to time, great destructive forces that shake the land and destroy communities like flies .Less dramatically ,but more importantly ,the mountains generate large amount of water that nourish the great plains that the mountains created in the first place and also the sediment which kept on depositing to extend the shore line further south-wards .

The sea that was trapped in between was squeezed out in a mad rush akin to a gigantic river swollen in a great deluge ,the water flowed to the Indian Ocean  .Some of the water that was trapped was to assist farmers many centuries later and some was trapped to form huge salt deposits that exist to this day .The water etched a deep ravine through which the river flowed .Over time ,when the great flood subsided , the river seemed to flow very deep down and from the bank on top looked to be a trickle .This was misleading as the great mountains shed large amounts of water all over the year and the river flow is always significant .

The water carried tones of sediment that got deposited after the water slowed down when it descended from the piedmont to form the Punjab and Sindh plains .Gradually and slowly, over countless centuries this plain gradually developed and slowly encroached upon the sea .Each year the shore line drifted further South, a process that is going on to this day, 50 millions years after the occurrence of the great impact.

The uplift also created a bifurcation in the huge river and instead of one great mass of water flowing east- west and then south wards many rivers started to flow .Some of these changed and reversed direction, due to the continued uplift, to drain into the Bay of Bengal .The uplift created a rift in the lands that were to be known to as Punjab and Sindh or the Indus Valley and between what came to be known as India.

This rift it seems was sanctioned by nature itself, as centuries later, after the formation of the plains, human populations also generally adhered to this rift, rarely did people of these two land unify .Strangely enough unification when it did take place happened under the influence of people who were alien to these lands and the union was political and not social or religious. The last of these outsiders were the British who were Christians and before them the Mogul, Pathan and Turkish tribes who were nominally Muslim.

Nawaz had bitter memories of the more recent reversion to the natural status quo between these two lands, Nawaz's father had in fact very painful memories of this division of lands .He had lost a younger sister, who was kidnapped and never returned and the entire family of eight of his brother was brutally massacred .The hatred of Sikhs and Hindus was therefore etched in his mind.

The forced travel to the new land was, to Nawaz’s parents, as violent and cataclysmic as the banging of the Indian and Asian plates century’s earlier .It was not without incident. The train ride to Lahore was harrowing ,he and his wife survived because they played dead and the karpan yielding Sikh youth left them for dead .They emerged from their crowded boogie at Lahore station ,except for them  not a single person was left alive .Both of Nawaz’s parents were drenched in the blood of the now dead fellow travelers .Nawaz his brothers and sisters, who had migrated to Sahiwal well before this great divide ,came to receive his parents .Both parents were unable to narrate the ordeal they had undergone to Nawaz or to the inquiring Army Captain .Both of them took many weeks before they could speak and then also they were still  unable to describe the horror they had undergone .Both of them frequently awoke, drenched in sweat ,in the middle of the night having reenacted the horror in their nightmare.

Nawaz, in all this confusion and clamor was happy .He had persuaded his father to sell his quarter acre land in Sahiwal that was allocated to them and from the proceeds he managed to buy 40 acres of land, on the edge of the dessert .This land he had bought from Arshad Ahmed Khan who had been allocated this land in lieu for lands that Arshad’s family had claimed to have lost near Delhi .Arshad in fact came from an urban environment and had no love or feel for the land ,the harsh conditions persuaded him to sell his bequest at some what lower than normal rates .The one visit to the land was enough to convince him that this definitely was not his cup of tea. Nawaz was oblivious to all the heat and noise , he was deep in thought about his plans to develop this land.

The train reached Nawabshah station seven hours late .Nawaz and his family got down and searched for the local train which would take them to Bandhi .From where they could walk to their land, but the train had left and Nawaz and his family had to spend the night on the platform.

They had by now eaten all the food they had brought .Nawaz was reluctant to buy any food from the platform .He had just enough money to buy the pair of bullocks he had sold at Sahiwal and for his seeds for the first crops .A little was left over for the train ride to Bandhi .They had purchased 20 chapattis and a few onions, these were crushed to provide the meal which unsurprisingly was very delicious as they were very hungry.

Although Nawaz seemed oblivious of his surroundings his brothers and sisters were not .Nawabshah station platform at night became very pleasant .Cool sea breeze from 300 km away made the night very enjoyable .Clear sky and the cool breeze helped the family to partly forget the miserable train journey .They spent a rather comfortable night in the platform .Morning sun, however, completely changed all this .The pleasant, cool evening and night turned into a blazing, hot morning.

They finally found their local train which was in no hurry to leave .It finally did leave about four hours later than it should have. Leisurely the train passed through lush green land, which was browner than green this time of the year, on both sides of the car they were traveling .This was a third class compartment and it was smaller than the one they had traveled on Karachi Express, but this one was even more crowded and was dirtier.

Hungry , thirsty and sweating to their toes they reached Bandhi .A small sleepy town ,which was the market place for farmers to bring their produce to sell to the middlemen ,from whom they had already taken cash loans for seeds ,fertilizer and their other needs .The town had a small post office and a police station .

The dusty main street had small shops on both sides .The middlemen also had their somewhat larger offices along the road, most had godowns, that were larger, but away form the main street .The shops had very high roofs and a wooden plank was strung across the roof .Hanging from the plank was a tough piece of cloth made taut by stretching across a thick rope. .A man sat half dozing, he would pull the string attached to the plank, when ever he awoke from his rather fitful slumber and this generated a whisper of a breeze.

These shops and other houses behind it were surprisingly cool, these were mostly building constructed by the by the Hindus who had left for India after partition These building were cool in spite of the stifling heat and the blazing sun .The roof was very high, the walls were made of mud bricks plastered with shredded jute bags kneaded in the limestone and sand mixture .The roof was thick and made similar to the walls,

The post office was made in modern style, with baked bricks, cement mortar plaster and this rendered it as hot as an oven .It was simply impossible to enter this building from late morning to early evening, which was why the postman sat outside on his depilated cot, under a small tree, puffing on his hookah.

Khadim was one of the partners in a middleman business, his partner Ibrahim had inherited the business from the Hindu baniya Randho Mal, who tried to keep his business running much after partition, but old age and migration of family and relatives forced him to sell his business. Ibrahim who also belonged to Sahiwal purchased all of Randho Mal’s business, his house and his position in the local economy .This meant that Ibrahim was also the unofficial banker .He like Randho, advanced money against collateral, which usually was jewelry and less frequently title documents to the land. Ibrahim had also purchased the main store of the town from Rando, this store carried cloth and food stuff that was obtained from Karachi and sold at a handsome profit to the farmers.

 Ibrahim was as shrewd as Rahdo and did fit in Ranho’s shoes rather well. There was ,however , one area where Ibrahim and his partner failed and that was to become a part of the power structure .Randho and his like had evolved a method by which they ensured protection and a free license to exhort money from hapless farmers .Randho would advance money at rather high rates and this was secured credit as it was covered by either Jewelry ,of about three times the value of the loan or land documents which were also valued many times the amount of the loan .It was his greed that finally did his kind in .They had ,over time ,obtained claims to ownership a large percentage of the land in the district and the Province .Unfortunately for Randho ,and his kind ,most of the large landowners, protectors of Randho and co, found the partition a very convenient excuse to get out of the loan obligations of the Hindu Baniya .Ibrahim did avoid this pitfall and lent money to smaller landowners at somewhat less than exorbitant rates .

The system that Randho and his community had perfected was that one of the their daughter was always married to the Baluch Wadera ,who was the virtual king in the area .His authority was only superseded by the Pirs who had an arrangement by which they controlled most of Sindh .The Pir and Wadera thus controlled the whole of Sindh ,both professed to be outsiders ,one Syed and the other Baluch .Ibrahim and his kind lacked the instinctive knowledge of how to integrate within the local power structure .Very hard working , frugal and shrewd Ibrahim was more than equal replacement to Randho but Ibrahim was not prepared to have family ties with the Wadera and the Pir .This was an odd reluctance .The Hindu Binaya was willing  to have his daughter wed the wadera but the Muslim Ibrahim and his kind were not .It was this failure that was to nullify all his toil and acumen for in the end the Pir and wadera managed to exhort money in one form or other and his life time of struggle was severely devalued.

The Hindu Binaya had integrated into the social fabric but his replacement, co-religionist of the local population, failed to do so and thereby created a fissure in the social set up .The Sindh rural set up was perhaps brutal and repressive but for all that there was cohesion and the society was closely knit in intricate relationships, all of this was fractured by the arrival of Ibrahim and Nawaz and Arshad and their kind.

Nawaz and his family got out of the station and with their meager luggage on their head started their trudge to their land .They passed the main street, which was rather quite in the hot late afternoon.

Walking out of the town they were greeted with the same yellowish brown hue that the land had leaving Lahore only here it was more brown that yellow as the wheat crop had ripened and was in the process of being reaped ,being located South and nearer to the equator the crops ripened earlier in Sindh than in Punjab . Walking a few mile out of the town they found the landscape turning to a semi desert, it was not as brown and was much less cultivated, at about the end of this semi arid landscape Nawaz finally reached his land .For this he and his father had traveled many miles, had undergone numerous mishaps but finally he was at the land of his dream.

For all of Nawaz’s excitement the land that they had reached was a sorry looking piece .It was a far cry from the lush green village in Indian Punjab that they had belonged to .That village, in East Punjab, was situated at the bottom of the hilly-mountainous area, small streams and ponds dotted the country side and for most of the year it was very green and comfortable. Even the village in Sahiwal was greener and the land more hospitable than this desolate desert that was Nawaz’s farm .It was not leveled and was dotted by sand dunes and small desert shrub .Yet he was happy and seemed to have achieved the dream that generations of his family had pined for .He considered himself extremely lucky .His new farm land was in reality a part of the desert, only Nawaz was fortunate as the irrigation canal did reach his land and this ensured that every fourteen days or so he would get enough water to irrigate less than half his land. The water was available only because the provincial government, in order to establish rights, used the British built canal feeding the area at significantly higher discharge than the design discharge

They reached the centre of their land and chose a spot where they would build their rather modest house .There was not even a tree which could provide shelter and Nawaz and his brothers went out to collect twigs and some stout sticks to rig a makeshift shelter .By now it had cooled down and the blazing hot sun was turning various hues of orange ,the same sea breeze that greeted them at Nawabshah started blowing, the desert started to cool down and some of the misery of the journey began to wear away .

The temporary shelter only solved one problem but the more important one of feeding the family was still to be resolved .They still had a few chappaties with them, these were barely edible as the great heat they had traveled through made these almost stale, but their greater problem was that they did not have even the onions that made up the meal at Nawabshah.

The only asset that Nawaz had was a double barrel gun and a few shots. The money that they had was enough for the first seed and for the pair of bullocks that were crucial for their farming effort .Nawaz was not prepared to use any of this money.

He took his gun and started walking towards the desert .The desert which formed a part of the Thar-Cholistan desert had not always been as unwelcoming as it was to Nawaz .One of the lesser rivers, that drained towards the sea ,passed through what had now become the desert .The river was once host to perhaps the greatest urban civilization of its time ,The Harappan and Mohenjadaroen people evolved the earliest and the most systematic urban community .The civilization was also perhaps the one that evolved or discovered the One God concept which was passed on to Abraham pbuh and resulted in the three Monist religions .The land uplift ,that resulted from the great head butt, was perhaps responsible for the drying out of the river and over centuries the land turned in a harsh desert .

Nawaz was completely unfamiliar with the desert .He kept on walking deeper into the desert and after a while saw large amount of pebbles the size of small grapefruits lying scattered around few shrubs .This was unexpected as these stones seemed to be completely out of place .Nawaz got curious and started walking towards these stone as he neared he heard the sound of many wings flapping and incredibly the pebbles turned into birds and flew away .He was so shocked and surprised that he forgot to aim and fire his gun ,this meant that he lost the only chance they had of a proper meal that afternoon .They had to eat their chapattis with water from their earthen water urn but the encounter with stone turning into birds did teach Nawaz the way to get high class proteins for their many a next meals .

By now it was getting dark and the desert suddenly turned unfamiliar as Nawaz lost his bearings .He was completely lost and the desert with very few landmarks seemed the same in all directions .Fortunately for Nawaz he found his footsteps still visible in the sand and retreated back to his farm .This was another lesson that he learned about the desert .This also put a fear and respect for the desert in his mind.

Next morning he got up very early and trudged back to the desert .This time he was more careful and froze as soon as saw the pebbles .He cocked his gun and fired as soon as the partridges started to flee .He got six birds and that morning his mother helped by her daughters cooked the most delicious meal that they had eaten for a long time .For many months the partridges stood between hunger and Nawaz’s family.

Nawaz’s immediate neighbor was Allah Dino who was the local Wadera and owned larger tracts of land in the district .He was the Baluch wadera who had taken over political and social control of the area after the last Baluch incursion unto the area .Although Dino was a wadera, a feudal. and a outsider he and his like integrated into the social fabric of the land .They immediately shifted to Sindhi ,the local language  , and owned the local heroes and icons .Shah Abdul Latif became the defining poet ,his sufic poetry ,which was immensely powerful ,described the sufic concepts in simple but very beautiful language ,much like Bulah Shah who did the same in Punjabi . The Baluch control of most of Sindh occurred in phases which continues to this day .The early efforts were war like and aggressive but the modern efforts are more subtle but equally successful .The modern Baluch control occurs due to fact that the lazy and indolent local slowly loses control of his land and other means of production to the more dynamic and aggressive outsider .The old and new Baluch incursions ,however ,did not create a rift in the social fabric as the outsiders accepted and adopted the more sophisticated local culture and arrangements and are therefore fully assimilated into the local population .

Allah Dino had large land holdings which were cultivated through the Hari system .About 16 acre pieces were allocated to hari families who cultivated the land .The produce was shared between the Wadera and the hari after deduction of direct expenses .This meant that the hari was barely able to meet his most basic of his basic needs .The wadera was in fact owner of the hari ,his women were free game for the wadera and his sons .The wadera did provide insurance against catastrophic events and in that sense gave insurance against hunger and other calamities .This arrangement did not result in a environment that gave encouragement to hari to work hard ,as any wind fall profits that did accrue to the hari for usurped by the Wadera anyway .This meant that Dino got very low yields and his large holding barely provided him with a reasonable living .He ,however , used this arrangement in other ways which did provide him with much more income than the land did .

Nawaz ,unlike Dino ,did not identify with he local population .He did learn the local language but always had a vague sense of superiority and a sense of different-ness that kept him from totally accepting the local ways .His sense of superiority was related more to his working habits as compared to that of the haris .Arshad on the other hand had a marked sense of superiority emanating from his sense of belonging to the ruling mogul class and the association to the supposedly higher culture and language ,Arshad made no attempt to learn the Sindhi as he considered it as inferior .Had he made the attempt he would have realized the beauty in the language and the sufic poetry that was of great beauty and simplicity .He would also have realized that his language –Urdu , was akin to both Dino’s language i.e. Sindhi and to Nawaz’s language –Punjabi .All these three are sister languages, Urdu evolved from Punjabi which itself evolved from Sindhi and Serieki .All of these had more in common with the Tamil languages than with Sanskrit and possibly all or some of these languages still carried words and even the structure of the Harrapan or Mellehuan language of the Harrapan or Mohenjadaroen people .These languages seem to echo the theme of the rift caused ,by the great head butt, between the Indus lands and the Ganges-Jummna lands , as these language do differ from the Sanskrit related Aryan languages .

Allah Dino was unable to buy Arshad’s land because his attention and more importantly his cash flow were attracted by the young ,buxom dancing girl , Shazia from F.B. Area .This for the land was fortuitous because it would have lain desolate and unattended if Dino had managed to scrape together the price of the land demanded by Arshad .Nawaz and his family on the other hand ,with back breaking labor, ,managed to arrange the land and prepare the land like a poor  bride  .They revered the land much like the ancients worshipped the promiscuous goddess who slept with different gods and men and accepted their seeds .The land similarly was prepared to receive various seeds which over time would bloom to full grown plants .This would be a part of natures color scheme .This to Nawaz was more beautiful then a miniature painting from Chughtai or even more than the allures of Shazia .Dino on the other hand looked at the land as his passport to political and social mobility .

Latif the youngest of the brothers was not too infected by the land bug, he found the harsh hot fringe of the desert barely tolerable .He was a young strapping lad with even features. The harsh landscape and lack of any friends did depress Latif , who one morning walking around his land came across Marvi the young daughter of Rusal Bux , one of the Hari of the wadera Allah Dino . Marvi , who had just turned sixteen , felt an uncontrollable attraction for the strapping lad , she had a vague sense of doing something forbidden . They could not talk with each other as both did not understand the others language but they did lock eyes, Latif with unabashed greed and Marvi with a shy indefinable exciting feeling. Their first meeting on the edge of the desert lasted only a few minutes, no words were exchanged but the universal language, did communicate the mutual attraction that both of them felt for each other, although the nature of attraction and expectation of each from the other was widely different. The brief encounter did arouse interest in Latif to learn Marvi’s language. Latif did  imbruse himself whole heartedly towards a crash course of learning to speak Sindhi and surprisingly it did not take long for him to be adequately fluent in the language , which is not surprising as both Sindhi and Punjabi are sister languages .