Posts Tagged ‘batteries’
Texas Town Installs a Monster Battery for Backup Power
The sodium sulfur battery is the largest of its type
The huge battery began charging up this week and can store up to four megawatts of power for up to eight hours. It represents the first NaS battery in Texas and the biggest in the U.S., and has already earned the local nickname of BOB (big-old battery).
Before BOB's arrival, the Texas town had an agreement with the Mexican government that allowed it to transfer the town's electrical load over to Mexico -- but that took time and left people without power for a certain period.
Similar room-sized sodium sulfur (NaS) batteries have already found growing use among U.S. utility companies that want to put off expensive upgrades for the power grid or building new transmission lines. USA Today notes that the batteries, built by NGK Insulators of Japan, store energy and can help ease blackouts for cities.
Electric Transmission Texas helped put the battery project together for around $25 million. But the utility has also agreed to build a second 60-mile transmission line to Presidio for about $44 million by 2012.
Such a battery could also serve as a test bed for utility companies to see how the devices can help with energy storage regarding renewable energy, such as wind power or solar power. That sounds good to us, as long as utility companies don't simply lean on the batteries as a technological crutch to avoid giving the power grid its much-needed makeover.
[via NPR]
New Lithium Batteries Could Remove Pesky Explosion Problem
The Stanford group has created a prototype lithium-sulfide cathode that forms the partner electrode to an earlier anode developed in 2007. The non-metallic form of lithium avoids a safety issue where the lithium metal can grow branchlike structures that penetrate the polymer layer which keeps the battery's two electrodes apart. Such incidents can lead to short circuits and possible explosions.
Each of the lithium-sulfide electrodes can also hold 10 times as much charge as regular lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, but a lithium-sulfur battery wouldn't have 10 times the energy storage capacity, because it has lower conductivity than the lithium metals in conventional batteries.
The current prototype lithium-sulfur battery managed an 80 percent increase in energy density compared to current li-ion batteries on the market, and could eventually achieve an energy density four times greater.
But a huge problem remains in making the lithium-sulfur battery's lifetime comparable to that of li-ion batteries. The prototypes lose one-third of their energy storage capacity after just five discharge and recharge cycles, and stop working completely after 40 to 50 cycles. That's because of polysulfide chemicals that dissolve into the battery's liquid electrolyte and interfere with charging and discharging.
Technology Review noted two possible solutions, including electrolyte additives that protect the electrodes or membranes that keep the polysulfides contained. But for now, consumers can look forward to nanotube-coated paper batteries from the same Stanford group.
[via Technology Review]
U.S. scientists have developed a quantum batteries
American scientists from the University of Illinois developed the concept of quantum battery, reports Technology Review. It is assumed that the new batteries will be up to 10 times more succinct than this common lithium-ion batteries.
According to the developers each quantum battery would consist of billions of nanometer-sized capacitors. Due to quantum effects nanocapacitors capacity will increase significantly as a result of which they will be able to accumulate a huge amount of energy.
The developers also promise a quantum battery in addition to increased capacity of new battery will have a high rate charging. Therefore to fully charge the phone equipped with a quantum battery it only takes a few minutes.
Unfortunately the practical realization of the concept of American scientists far. At present quantum battery exists only on paper.
