Sunday, October 28, 2018

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.
future batteries coming soon charge in seconds last months and power over the air image 8
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.
future batteries coming soon charge in seconds last months and power over the air image 5
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.