Energy

Tesla’sTesla’s Battery Day is upon us. The September 22nd event in Palo Alto, California, “will blow your mind,” CEO Elon Musk promised in a recent earnings call. “It blows my mind, and I know it!” Musk also hinted that we should expect “many exciting things” at the event. Tesla Battery Day: It blows My Mind What sort of things? Musk has left a trail of breadcrumbs over the years in the form of tweets, public comments, patents, and research papers published by his team of battery scientists, hinting at what kinds of battery breakthroughs Tesla may unveil. Late Monday night, Musk penned a series of tweets meant to reset expectations about the event. “Important note about Tesla Battery Day unveil tomorrow,” began Musk’s tweet, “This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022.” This he pegged to the difficulty of ramping production. “It’s 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes,” said Musk in a followup tweet. “The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself.” Recommended:  Tesla Electric Cybertruck: Explorer’s Best Friend Musk also noted that Tesla would increase, not reduce, battery cell purchases from partners such as Panasonic and others. “We still foresee significant shortages in 2022 & beyond unless we also take action ourselves,” said Musk in another tweet. Tesla is already the industry leader in squeezing range out of lithium-ion batteries in electric cars, so it will be interesting to see what other advances get showcased on Battery Day. The company initially planned to hold the event in April, but it has had to reschedule it until later in the year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company held a similar event focused on self-driving technology in April 2019. Say what you will about Musk’s ability to meet deadlines and live up the expectations he sets, but he certainly knows how to put on a good show. But what does the billionaire CEO have up his sleeve that will blow our minds? Here’s our roundup of recent rumors as well as predictions from some experts we interviewed. Tesla Battery: Roadrunner Project Like most car companies, Tesla sources its batteries from major producers to focus on its core mission: building electric cars. The company’s so-called 2170 cells currently used in Model 3 and Model Y vehicles are produced by Panasonic at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada. But those supplies can become strained. In 2018, a shortage of cells at Panasonic added to Tesla’s 'production hell' woes just as it began ramping up its big push to make the Model 3. Musk has criticized Panasonic’s pace of battery production as constraining the output of the Model 3 and the Model Y. Panasonic CEO Kazuhiro Tsuga has predicted that its batteries will “run out” if Tesla continues to expand its business. This suggests Musk might announce that Tesla will begin manufacturing its batteries. Recent acquisitions, leaked photos, patent applications, and research published by Jeff Dahn, one of the pioneering developers of the lithium-ion battery and Tesla’s head of battery research, all point to Tesla making this significant shift in-house battery production. Several photos of Tesla’s supposed in-house batteries recently surfaced on  Electrek . The batteries, which are rumored to be from Tesla’s secretive “Roadrunner” project, appear to be twice the size of Panasonic’s 2170 cells. They also may be higher capacity while being lower cost for the company to produce by removing the tab, a part of the battery that forms a connection between the cell and what it is powering. Tesla’s Giant Australian Battery Tesla Battery: More Energy, Fewer Cells per Pack Caspar Rawles, an analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence who focuses on the raw materials that go into lithium-ion batteries, said his group had dubbed the new cells “the Tesla biscuit tin” because that’s what it looks like. More energy per cell means fewer cells per pack, which can help drive down the overall cost of production for Tesla. And that could mean a future where electric cars are comparably priced with gas-burning vehicles. It’s not just leaked photos of unknown origin that point to Tesla is making its batteries. The company posted job listings earlier this year seeking workers for “line cell manufacturing” engineers at its factory in Fremont, California. Tesla also struck a deal with South Korean company Hanwha Corporation to purchase battery formation equipment. The equipment headed to Fremont first and then to Gigafactories in Nevada, Shanghai, and Berlin. Million Mile Battery Tesla Tesla is also expected to reveal new details about its quest to build a 'million-mile' battery, which refers to how long a battery can last in a car before needing to be replaced. This is where Dahn and his research team in Nova Scotia come into play. In May,  Reuters  reported that the new ' million-mile' battery will be jointly developed with Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) and will utilize technology developed by Dahn’s team of academic battery experts. It was also reported that Tesla was in advanced talks to use CATL’s lithium-ion phosphate batteries, which use no cobalt, the most expensive metal in EV batteries. The battery is expected to lower Tesla’s cost per kilowatt-hour — the unit of energy most commonly used to measure the capacity of the battery packs in modern electric vehicles — to under $100. Many experts believe that reaching that mark would allow Tesla to sell electric cars for the same prices as gasoline-powered ones, thereby making them far more accessible. One of Musk’s primary objectives has always been “making combustion seem obsolete to a consumer (and) making them feel that they have to go electric,” said Steve Photo by Vlad Tchomplov. Tesla Model 3 Headlights in Dever Recommended:  Insane Tesla Data: Are Robotaxis Coming Soon? Patens And Tesla Batteries Tesla has filed a flurry of patent applications in recent months based on Dahn’s research. In December 2019, the company submitted an application for a patent for “dioxazolones and nitrile sulfites as electrolyte additives for lithium-ion batteries.” The substance could enable a better, longer-lasting, and cheaper battery for electric cars and home storage products, the company said in its application. In April, another patent application was submitted, this time for something called a “single crystal” nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) electrode. The most successful lithium-ion battery systems involve using nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) electrodes. In a paper published by Dahn and his team in the  Journal of The Electrochemical Society  regarding the significance of the single crystal cathode, he says: “We conclude that cells of this type should be able to power an electric vehicle for over 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) and last at least two decades in grid energy storage.” In other words, these new single-crystal electrodes could enable Tesla to achieve similar or better energy density as NMC electrodes. Tabless Tesla Battery Cell Design: 1.6 Million Kilometers Tesla has also applied to a new “tabless” battery cell design that it says improves on existing designs. Musk tweeted that “it’s a lot more important than it sounds.” Indeed, the photos leaked to  Electrek  (which Rawles said looked like a biscuit tin)   show a tabless cell. Tesla’s patent outlines a battery design where features like bumps and small spikes act to connect different layers rather than relying on a welded, unifying conductive tab. Tabs are what make a clean connection to whatever the battery is powering. They also require a fair amount of finesse to manufacture. Streamlining that process by removing the tab could save Tesla a lot of time, materials, and money. Cobalt Batteries: Blood Dimond Batteries Musk has been vocal about wanting to eliminate cobalt from Tesla’s batteries. In 2018, he tweeted that Tesla uses less than 3 percent of cobalt in its batteries and that the next-generation versions would have “none.” Battery Day could be an opportunity for the company’s CEO to outline exactly how he could achieve that. Cobalt is a key component of batteries. It’s also the most expensive material in the battery and mined under conditions that often violate human rights, leading it to be called the “blood diamond of batteries.” As a result, scientists and startups are rushing to create a cobalt-free battery. Recommended:  Why Needs Renewable Technology Child Labor? Dahn is one of those scientists. He co-authored a paper in 2019 that concluded that cobalt brings little or no value to NCA-type batteries where nickel is at least 90 percent of the transition metal layer. The paper hoped that it would spur more interest in cobalt-free materials and specifically named aluminum, manganese, and magnesium as three elements with more use than cobalt. But Benchmark’s Rawles is skeptical, calling Tesla “very low cobalt exposed anyway.” Also, Tesla recently published a sustainability report in which the company declared it would work with the mining industry to find more sustainable sources of cobalt — which Rawles says is an indication that Tesla will be working with cobalt for some time. Tesla's Gigafactory To Terrafactory During the earnings call in which Musk promised to blow our minds, he also hinted at a possible future direction for its manufacturing footprint. Tesla’s next factories won’t be called Gigafactories, he said — they may be called “Terafactories.” If Giga implies a billion of something, then tera equals a trillion. Tesla decided to call its facilities Gigafactories because it was going to produce “gigawatt-hours” (GWh) of battery capacity. A Terafactory could imply a 'terawatt-hour' of the battery capacity or 1,000 GWh. That’s 20 times the current capacity of Panasonic’s production at Gigafactory Nevada. Terawatt-Hour Of Battery Capacity  One of Tesla’s recent acquisitions provides a clue as to how Tesla could achieve this exponential increase in battery capacity. Back in 2018, Tesla acquired a company called Maxwell Technologies in an all-stock deal worth $218 million. Maxwell’s big innovation is dry electrode technology, which is more environmentally friendly than the more commonly used wet electrode technology. Maxwell’s technology eliminates the solvents in a battery cell through which electric current flows. The company says this dry electrode technology, which can be applied to batteries of varying chemistries, also boosts performance and is more cost-effective than wet electrode technology. Transitioning to dry electrode technology could allow Tesla to eliminate a lot of the manufacturing space currently dedicated to wet electrode production, which, in turn, would enable it to pack more cell production into its facilities. Thus, a Gigafactory becomes a Terafactory. Tesla And Utilities Earlier this year, Tesla unveiled a new product called Autobidder, which allows customers involved in Tesla’s home storage projects, like its Australian battery farm, to sell energy back to the grid when they don’t need it. Think of it as a virtual power plant network. It’s not just aspirational: Tesla has also applied to become an electricity supplier in the UK. There have also been leaked screenshots from one of Dahn’s presentations that imply that Tesla’s new in-house produced battery cells would be “suitable for grid-tied vehicles.” The presentation, which was later made private, said (emphasis ours): With the smart grid, the driver should be able to make their vehicle available to be charged or discharged when parked at home or at work up to set maximum and minimum charge points so that the next needed drive is possible. Vehicle owners should be paid for this by utilities. The future is very exciting. This would have huge implications for the ownership of Tesla’s electric cars and how customers could monetize their vehicles as batteries on wheels. But don’t expect Musk to announce Tesla as the second coming of PG&E. While there is value in staking out a position in energy platforms, Tesla is still far off from becoming its utility. Tesla, Alon Musk Feeding The Techno Beast A trademark of Musk’s public presentations has been revealing “one more thing,” whether it’s an updated Roadster or an electric-powered All-Terrain Vehicle. Battery Day isn’t a product event, but Musk is nothing if not a showman. “Musk knows how to feed the techno beast by giving red meat to the folks who like these tech details,” LeVine said. Musk is also acutely aware of the competition, whether it’s QuantumScape, the 10-year-old San Jose, California, a startup backed by Bill Gates (another Musk antagonist), or Lucid Motors, the EV startup founded by the former lead engineer on the Model S. QuantumScape claims its lithium-ion batteries can extend the range of electric vehicles by 50 percent. And Lucid says it recently unveiled sedan, the Air, can achieve a range that is 20 percent better than the best Tesla. EV batteries are no longer the sole province of Tesla. Legacy automakers like Volkswagen, General Motors, and Ford are funneling billions of dollars into EV development, and batteries will play a major role. Musk needs to seize the moment if he’s to remain in the pole position, LeVine said. “The headlines say that these are Tesla killers,” he said of companies like QuantumScape and Lucid Motors. “This Battery Day is about Tesla saying, ‘Not so fast.’” Cover photo by  Qilai Shen.  Elon Musk gestures during Tesla’s China-made Model 3 delivery ceremony at the company's factory near Shanghai. Before you go! Recommended:  How Inexhaustible Is Earth’s Geothermal Energy Did you find this an interesting article, or do you have a question or remark? Leave a comment below. We try to respond the same day. Like to write your article about batteries, storage, and electric cars? Send your writing & scribble with a photo to [email protected] , and we will write an interesting article based on your input.

New Zealand is home to many incredible things. Rugby. Haka, Kiwifruit. Lord of the Rings. And EMROD. This start-up has risen to fame with a first in the world, a long-range, high-power, wireless power transmission - meant to replace existing copper line technology.  Electromagnetic Waves Transmitting Energy Founded by tech entrepreneur Greg Kushnir, it is the brainchild of a man who envisioned a technology that would reduce power distribution costs, avoid outages, and be capable of supporting renewable energy. The technology they designed is based on electromagnetic waves, which wirelessly transmit energy. This can be done over great distances and is both safe and highly efficient. The Kiwi government was so impressed with the concept that they funded its development, which was done in a warehouse in Auckland, as a shared effort with Callaghan Innovation. Photo by EMROD. EMROD Truck for wireless power transmission. Since its launch, critical reception has been nothing short of phenomenal. The EMROD technology was nominated for the Royal Society Award and was presented a contract by the country’s second largest electricity distribution company, Powerco. This company intents to be the first one to test the technology.   Recommended:  Exclusive: World’s Biggest Battery Is A CO2 Killer Green Appeal: Renewable Energy Transmission The green appeal of the company is one of its main advantages. Kushnir says: “ We have an abundance of clean hydro, solar, and wind energy available around the world but there are costly challenges that come with delivering that energy using traditional methods, for example, offshore wind farms or the Cook Strait here in New Zealand requiring underwater cables which are expensive to install and maintain. ”   He seized the opportunity he saw and came up with a solution for moving clean energy from where it was available abundantly to where it was needed most. “ Energy generation and storage methods have progressed tremendously over the last century, but energy transmission has remained virtually unchanged since Edison, Siemens, and Westinghouse first introduced electric networks based on copper wires 150 years ago. Everyone seems to be fixated on the notion that energy comes to consumers as electricity over copper wires, and I knew there had to be a better way .” Recommended:  Solar Floating Energy: A Smart Blue Innovation Delivering Energy To Remote Places He teamed up with the famous scientist Dr. Ray Simpkin of Callaghan Innovation to test his concept. Together, the two companies managed to find a way of transmitting energy wirelessly over great distances at a low cost. This would be ideal for, for instance, remote villages - that the ‘traditional’ energy transmission companies have deemed unfeasible for connection as the costs for wiring are too high. This would especially apply to areas in Africa and the Pacific Islands. Villages could be connected to receive cheap and sustainable energy for their schools, hospitals, governments, and businesses.   Photo by EMROD. Pole with an EMROD power transmission plate. Electricity distributors have expressed their interest, with the Powerco mentioned above now about to invest in a proof of concept. According to their Network Transformation Manager Nicolas Vessiot, “ We're interested to see whether Emrod's technology can complement the conventional ways we deliver power. We envisage using this to deliver electricity in remote places, or across areas with challenging terrain. There's also potential to use it to keep the lights on for our customers when we're doing maintenance on our existing infrastructure .” Recommended:  Blue Floating Energy: Wind, Solar, Hydrogen, Waves Prototyping In Progress This prototype is expected by October. After October, two to three months will be spent on training Powerco personnel and extensive testing. This means that by early 2021, the project will begin its field trials. For this prototype, safety was the keyword. They are using a non-ionizing Industrial, Scientific and Medical frequency (ISM) band to transmit the energy. " We have chosen this widely used and well-regulated frequency because there's a long history of using it safely around humans and its scientifically proven safety guidelines, which are accepted internationally ,” according to Kushnir.   While this trial is only capable of transmitting a few kilowatts of energy, there is plenty of room to scale up if proven successful. It could be the long-awaited dream for those eager to connect their remote village’s infrastructure. Before you go! Recommended:  How Inexhaustible Is Earth’s Geothermal Energy Did you find this an interesting article, or do you have a question or remark? Leave a comment below. We try to respond the same day. Like to write your article about energy transmission? Send your writing & scribble with a photo to [email protected] , and we will write an interesting article based on your input.

Nothing great has come from the nominator ‘concrete block’. We associate it with big, ugly looking buildings, or boring grey areas of the neighborhood. This negative rep is about to change, and we have a Swiss company to thank for it. Concrete Blocks Help To Store Energy: Energy Vault In a world that is collapsing under its consumption of fossil fuels, we are struggling to find a worthy alternative. Renewable energy is on the rise, but still battling its most prominent problem: energy storage. When the wind stops blowing and the sun stops shining, the energy flow from windmills and solar panels stops. And the excess energy generated cannot yet be stored in bulk, providing enough for us to get by on while we wait for the wind to pick up or the sun to start shining again. Photo by Energy Vault. Cranes and concrete blocks. Meet Energy Vault, a company from Switzerland that is looking to revolutionize the world of energy storage. Their plan is to provide a low-cost solution for both governments and commercial enterprises to store energy as generated from renewable sources. They received various awards and honors for this work, including the World-Changing Ideas Award and a mention in the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers of 2020 list. As fossil fuel consumption has dropped pretty significantly during the recent COVID-19 pandemic and demand for renewables continues to rise, this might just be their time to shine. R ecommended:  Great Renewable Energy  Storage : Compressed Air Concrete Blocks Store Energy Potential energy is stored using a stack of concrete blocks. With this premise, Energy Vault is geared up and ready to start testing using two full-scale models in Italy and India. Quite a big leap for a small company that only started two years ago, following the founder’s vision that there should be a way for renewable energy to be stored more efficiently. Graph by Energy Vault. 35 MWh storage. The dream here is that a solar panel farm in Rome, for instance, generates energy as the sun shines over the Italian land. Some of these generated energy would then be fed to a concrete block storage facility. Then, when the sun goes down or clouds roll in, this facility could take over the job of energy distribution. Recommended:  Home Solar Energy Storage By Nissan Store Energy With Concrete Blocks: How It Works The picture is alluring. In their initial designs, Energy Vault came up with a six-armed crane, standing tall at close to 120 meters, hoisting special concrete blocks that weigh about 35,000 kilograms each. As the energy comes in, it will be used to lift the blocks up in the air. Eventually, they will be, or so the company claims, “ returned to the ground and the kinetic energy generated from the falling brick is turned back into electricity .” {youtube}                                                                         Energy Vault 3D Simulation   This kinetic energy powers a motor, after which the energy is inverted and sent back to the grid. According to Energy Vault, this leads to a “ round-trip efficiency between 80 to 90 percent ,” meaning that 80 to 90 percent of the ‘original’ energy is re-created. Simple, yet efficient, so it seems. And the best part? The towers are very scalable, allowing for different storage capacities. We are curious to see what happens in Italy and India. Cover photo by Artem Beliaikin Before you go! Recommended:  Hydrogen Is The Fuel Of The Future: Questions & Answers Did you find this article about hydrogen energy in the Netherlands interesting? Or do you have a question or remark? Leave a comment below. We try to respond the same day. Like to write your article about energy storage? Send your writing & scribble with a photo to [email protected] , and we will write an interesting article based on your input.

Europe can score with geothermal energy, says geologist Jon Limberger. Recently he got awarded a PhD in Utrecht (the Netherlands) for a study on this subject. Good news. Inexhaustible Geothermal Energy: Is It A Good Alternative? The wind, you feel when you have to struggle against it on the bike. The sun glows on the skin in the summer. Logically, therefore, windmills and solar panels appear all over the world. The forces of nature report themselves, as an inexhaustible clean source of energy. They replace dirty coal, oil and natural gas. "What fascinates me," says geologist Jon Limberger (31), "is that there is still another great renewable energy source." It's under our feet, miles in the bottom. Heat, stored in water reservoirs. Even if companies would only pump a fraction of it up, the PhD student discovered that this would provide enough energy for the entire world. In this the soil does not differ much from wind and sunshine. Geothermal Energy Is Still In Its Infancy "The pinch is in the actual winning of the energy," says Limberger. How this can be done with geothermal heat, also known as geothermal energy, he describes in the study with which he is currently awarded a PhD at the University of Utrecht (the Netherlands). The deeper the heat is hidden, the higher the costs. The best opportunities are there in countries with active, preferably volcanic soil. The Geysirs of the Haukadalur Geothermal Area (Geysir Strokkur) - Island/ Iceland {youtube} Iceland therefore counts as the Mecca of geothermal energy. Nearly all households are already warming themselves with soil energy, says Limberger, who made a study trip with knowledge institute TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research). The Italian volcano region of Tuscany also belongs to the top scouts with geothermics. "Turkey is the rising star with geothermal energy," says Limberger. Just like the border area between France and Germany, because there are fault lines that are favorable for soil energy. Geothermal area Toscana (Italy) The PhD research of Limberger contains nice prospects for the Netherlands. Based on his calculations, the geologist estimates that the Netherlands is ideally suited for geothermal energy. "We are in a favorable delta." There seems to be heat in the soil, about 100 degrees Celsius at three kilometers depth. Also important: the Netherlands is densely populated. The costs of transporting geothermal energy to homes, horticultural greenhouses and offices are therefore relatively low. Geothermal area Pamukkale (Turkey) There are already heat networks in various places in the Netherlands. They are still getting heat from polluting factories. Geothermal energy can replace this. The Netherlands also benefits from all previous drilling for natural gas. "There is extraordinary knowledge of the subsurface," says Limberger. Other European countries have less soil information, or only strict secrecy. Dutch companies can easily request it. The first geothermal heat projects are already in the Netherlands. Furthermore, 48 companies now have permission to search for heat. They have an official search license for that. It always remains to be seen whether there really is a source of heat where you expect. Geothermal Energy For The Earthquake-Ridden Groningen  The government also provides a guarantee for mis-drilling. "A good thing," says Limberger. According to him, teething problems occur with every new technique. A bankruptcy, as happened with the pioneering compagny ‘Aardwarmte’ Den Haag, is, according to Limberger, no reason to lose faith in geothermal energy. The costs must be reduced. That will happen, predicts the PhD student, through experience and better technology. Geothermal energy is still expensive in Europe, but in 2030 and 2050 it looks bright. It was scaring, but not baffling that oil and gas were coming up at the very first drillings. Technically speaking, a heat drilling appears to be a gas drilling. The earthquake-ridden Groningen wants geothermal energy instead of natural gas. Solar panels  and  wind turbines PhD student Limberger thinks that geothermal energy can be a wonderful addition to clean energy from solar panels and wind turbines. The sun only shines during the day, especially in the summer. The wind does not always blow. "That is the nice thing about geothermal heat: you can use it 24 hours a day." Bottom water where the heat has been extracted goes back into the soil, where it can warm up again. Geothermal power plant graphic Those who drill deeper than four kilometers officially do 'ultra-deep geothermal energy'. That is more expensive than a normal bore, which also costs a few million euros. The yield is higher. The rule of thumb for Dutch soil is: with every kilometer the temperature rises by 30 degrees Celsius. Ultradiep is the heat source about 130 to 250 degrees Celsius. That is so hot that you can do more with it than just heat heat a greenhouse or house . "You can also make electricity from ultra-deep heat," says Limberger. The heat can make a generator run, which produces power. It is therefore conceivable that clean electricity from the socket will not only come from the wind or the sun in the future, but deep from the bottom. Technically it is possible, says the geologist. And maybe it does not take a long time. It seems to Limberger something, to use such a current at home. Now it becomes even more technical, but perhaps even more interesting. What is also possible is to convert the energy the other way around. So: from electricity from the energy grid to heat. Then you can convert wind and solar energy into heat. "So you can keep it in the groundwater and pump it up if necessary," says Limberger. There is still a lot of energy loss. There are more technical hooks and eyes that might be solved. The energy sector would jump a hole in the air. Green electricity is still difficult to store. In the summer, the Netherlands produces the most solar power, while the demand for energy in the winter is high. Companies build large batteries to store energy. But, says the PhD student, perhaps the very best, natural buffer vessel for energy is now under our feet. Before you go! Recommended:  Home Solar Energy Storage By Nissan Did you find this an interesting article, or do you have a question or remark? Leave a comment below. We try to respond the same day. Like to write your article about renewable energy? Click on  'Register'  or push the button 'Write An Article' on the  'HomePage.'

There is an ambitious project out there that is looking to store renewable energy while reducing emissions that are responsible for global warming. Recently, construction started on something that is slated to become the world’s most massive liquid air battery. If it works just like it was imagined, renewable energy might just be in for a revolution. Meet the CO2 killer. Storage As The Bottleneck Most forms of renewable energy are suffering from the same problem. While the sun is shining or the wind is blowing, there will be sufficient energy. Generally, more is generated than is consumed at the time. This is not the problem yet. There are times that the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow. No energy is created. Ideally, we would like to use the ‘extra’ energy generated in periods of heavy sunlight or wind speeds, but unfortunately, that is not as easy as it sounds. As it stands, we are mainly unable to store this excess renewable energy. That is the problem. Recommended:  Gravitricity: Key Energy Storage Or Too Good To Be True? This Manchester-area launched project takes this ‘extra’ green energy and uses it to compress air into a liquid. This liquid is subsequently stored. At times when demand exceeds supply, this liquid air will be released back into a gas, which is used to power a turbine that will ‘re-create’ the green energy - that can eventually be fed back into the grid. The liquid air storage facility in Manchester It might just be part of the solution to global warming. We need much more wind and solar energy, but the storage problem is a significant bottleneck. Now, a company named Highview Power is developing this battery, which is to be operational by 2022. At that time, the company predicts, it should be able to provide green energy to some 200,000 homes for five hours. Also, power could be stored for many weeks. {youtube}                                                                 Liquid Air Energy Storage | TTN Clips Storing Excess Energy The concept is not entirely new. Many have experimented with chemical batteries as a means of storing excess energy. While the battery’s prices have dropped significantly, they are still looking at a serious issue when it comes to the amount of energy that can be stored. Plus, they can be pretty polluting to make. The liquid air battery once again avoids these issues, as it can be constructed anywhere. Air is all around us and not a scarce resource. It is all that is needed. Recommended:  Blue Floating Energy: Wind, Solar, Hydrogen, Waves Recognizing its potential, the government of the UK has supported this project with a whopping £10 million grant, meant to set up the facility to house this exciting technology. The company estimates that they will need a total of £85 million to make the first facility in the Trafford Energy Park a reality. Most of it was funded through governments, although some private companies have pitched in as well. The United Kingdom Wants More Renewables It fits in rather well with the UK government’s mission to make its economy greener. As of now, only 30% of the total electricity grid is comprised of renewable energy. The reliance on fossil fuels is still too high, with all experts citing the storage-issue as having effectively capped renewable energy’s potential. The hole in the market for medium-to-long duration electricity storage technologies is glaring, while other technologies - including pumped hydro and gravity storage - are still at the infant stage. Graph storage liquid air The solution of liquid air storage is not just more developed; it might also be more scalable. This puts Highview Power in a high position. It is up to them to prove the technology’s worth in years to come. We are hopeful. Before you go! Recommended:  Home Solar Energy Storage By Nissan Did you find this an interesting article, or do you have a question or remark? Leave a comment below. We try to respond the same day. Like to write your article about renewable energy storage? Send your writing & scribble with a photo to [email protected] , and we will write an interesting article based on your input.