Aquion Energy Aqueous Hybrid Ion Battery Is Cradle To Cradle Certified
Originally published on Solar Love.
Aquion Energy has announced that its Aquion AHI battery is the first to be awarded Cradle To Cradle Bronze status by the Cradle to Cradle Certified (C2CC) organization. C2CC was created in 1995 by world renowned architect William McDonough and chemist Dr. Michael Braungart, two leading advocates for sustainable products and business practices. The award was announced on Business Wire News.
What’s so special about the Aquion Energy Aqueous Hybrid Ion battery? Unlike virtually every other storage battery in the world, it is built from components that are 100% safe for the environment both in the manufacturing process and when the product reaches the end of its useful service life. It uses a salt water electrolyte, carbon composite anode, manganese oxide cathode, and synthetic cotton separator.
Dr. Jay Whitacre, founder and chief technology officer of Aquion Energy says, “We set out to see if we could create a new battery technology that was environmentally sustainable, safe, and cost-effective while meeting the strict performance requirements of off-grid and grid-tied stationary energy storage applications. In thinking about the quantity of batteries that will be deployed globally alongside renewable energy systems, it makes sense to use clean and sustainable batteries.”
The Aquion battery has several advantages over traditional home and grid storage systems, which typically use lithium ion batteries. It can be fully discharged without damage, can tolerate far more charge/discharge cycles, has a wide range of operating temperatures and can operate effectively when partially discharged.
In addition, it costs less than an equivalent lithium ion battery and cannot catch fire or explode the way a lithium ion battery can. It requires no external heating or cooling mechanism, which helps keep cost down. It is made from environmentally benign components and has no corrosive acids that give off noxious fumes. Taken together, all these attributes make it ideal for residential storage, microgrid installations or large scale grid storage.
Residential and small business battery storage is a very hot topic in the solar power world these days, with Tesla scheduled to announce next week that it is jumping into the battery storage business in a big way. But environmentally conscious consumers might want to weigh the advantages of an Aquion Energy storage battery versus a traditional lithium ion solution. If Aquion really can deliver a superior product at a lower price, it should find an almost inexhaustible market for its products.
Reprinted with permission.
