Comments on: Stanford Researchers Explore Large-Scale Renewable Energy Storage

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:26:00 +0000

I hope/imagine they are all keeping an eye on each other and collaborating where it makes sense to. But good call..

By: Andy G

Andy G — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:11:00 +0000

Someone get these guys in touch with the MIT folks who invented the Li-ion flow battery this summer. Multiple breakthrough innovations in batteries could give us the competitive advantage we desperately need to jump start job growth and further the transition to renewables.
http://cleantechnica.com/2011/06/07/li-ion-flow-batteries-refill-quickly-and-easily-could-cut-cost-of-li-ion-batteries-in-half/

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:27:00 +0000

Nissan is guaranteeing their battery for 8 years OR 100,000 miles.

If you did a full charge/discharge, drove 100 miles, each day you would use up your guarantee in 1,000 cycles/days.

The ‘8 year’ part assumes that many/most people will not drive that many miles a year but will string out their charge cycles over more years.

The Volt is also 8 years OR 100,000 miles.

Lithium-ion are better than lead acid, but they aren’t the 5,000 – 40,000 cycles of what it looks like sodium-ion batteries will give us. Unfortunately sodium-ion batteries are not as lightweight and small as lithium-ion so it looks like we won’t get their higher cycle rates in EVs.

By: Reality

Reality — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:07:00 +0000

The lithium ion batteries in both the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt are warrantied to maintain 80% of their capacity for 10 years. This is 3,650 charge-discharge cycles (far more than the claimed 400). They are already in production and not just a professo’rs estimate of some future device.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 04:50:00 +0000

Aquion seems to be getting to market first with a sodium-ion storage battery. They’re in the plant establishment phase right now with $30 million startup funds and expect to be producing next year or early 2013.

Their battery has been tested in independent labs at 5,000 100% DoD (depth of discharge) cycles and have stated that they think they can raise the cycle number to 20k as they go along.

High tolerance to battery mismatch.

No self discharge or problems in high heat conditions.

Smaller and lighter than lead acid. Easier/cheaper to ship.

100% recyclable.

About the same price point as lead-acid batteries but capable of much deeper discharge and many more cycles. This makes them a fraction of the cost of lead-acid batteries per cycle.

Only 5,000 cycles would mean that these batteries could move nighttime wind to day peak hours every day for over 13 years. Stanford’s 40,000 cycles is a mind-blower. Looks to me like the problem of intermittent wind and Sun might be soon to fall.