Industry news

17
Jan

South Australia’s new big battery unveiled in bid to improve power security

South Australia has received another boost in its battle for improved power security following the completion of a new 30-megawatt battery on the Yorke Peninsula. Key points: The battery is to provide power to the Yorke Peninsula region of SA It can provide back-up power to 4,500 customers in the region The storage facility took more than 30,000 hours to

Read more

17
Jan

Ion age: why the future will be battery powered

Why have batteries become important? In a world increasingly anxious about climate change, the surge in the generation of renewable energy over the past 20 years offers a sliver of hope. But the variable nature of wind and solar power means that storing energy until consumers need it has become the next big challenge. And so, large-scale battery installations are

Read more

16
Jan

Cartilage could be key to safe ‘structural batteries’

Your knees and your smartphone battery have some surprisingly similar needs, a professor has discovered, and that new insight has led to a ‘structural battery’ prototype that incorporates a cartilage-like material to make the batteries highly durable and easy to shape.

16
Jan

Silicon Nano particles Found to Increase Lithium-Ion Battery Capacity Ten Times

University of Alberta, Canada chemists Jillian Buriak (pictured above in a photo by John Ulan), Jonathan Veinot and their team found that nano-sized silicon particles overcome a shortcoming of using silicon in lithium-ion batteries. The discovery could lead to a new lithium-ion battery design with ten times the capacity of current lithium-ion batteries. “We wanted to test how different sizes

Read more

15
Jan

Electric car batteries souped-up with fluorinated electrolytes for longer-range driving

The success of electric car batteries depends on the miles that can be driven on a single charge, but the current crop of lithium-ion batteries are reaching their natural limit of how much charge can be packed into any given space, keeping drivers on a short tether. Now, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD), the U.S. Army Research Laboratory

Read more

15
Jan

Model predicts lithium-ion batteries most competitive for storage applications by 2030

This visual abstract depicts an analysis of 9 energy storage technologies between 2015 and 2050. Credit: Schmidt et al./Joule When leasing or buying a car, it’s important to consider not just the sticker price, but the long-term recurring costs, such as gas and maintenance. Deciding how we’re going to invest in clean energy storage requires a similar analysis, say researchers

Read more

15
Jan

VW is investing $800 million in US factory to build electric cars

Volkswagen has confirmed today that it will be investing $800 million in its factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee to prepare the location for production of new electric cars using the MEB platform. Dr. Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen AG, made the announcement: “The US is one of the most important locations for us and producing electric cars in Chattanooga is a

Read more

9
Jan

Germany’s Varta steps up plans to mass produce electric car battery cells

German battery maker Varta has sealed a research agreement to lay the groundwork for mass production of lithium-ion battery cells for electric cars as it seeks to take on Asian leaders in the sector. Varta, which currently specializes in batteries for hearing aids and large storage systems for solar energy, has agreed a cooperation deal with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, a

Read more

8
Jan

REFILE-FOCUS-Recharge: LG and Samsung take heart as China flags more open car battery market

SEOUL/BEIJING, Dec 20 (Reuters) – For automotive battery makers LG Chem Ltd and Samsung SDI Co Ltd , the Chinese market has begun to offer promise after painful loss-making investments. The reason for their hardship: a government list of recommended battery suppliers published three years ago that became linked to generous car subsidies and did not include foreign firms. Since

Read more

8
Jan

Lithium-ion battery to help power a 200-room hotel in Scotland

•A 200-room Premier Inn in Edinburgh is trialing the 100-kilowatt battery.•The battery weighs around 5 metric tons and takes two hours to fully charge up. A hotel in Scotland has started to use a lithium-ion battery to help power its operations. The Edinburgh Park hotel, a 200-room Premier Inn in Edinburgh, is trialing the 100-kilowatt battery with the aim of

Read more