Can Bill Gates’ energy storage solution replace lithium-ion batteries?

Written by?/?Ma Xiaolei

Editor?/?Tu Yanping

Designed by?/?Du Kai

Source?/?Fttimes , by Henry Sanderson

Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are becoming cheaper than fossil fuels in much of the world, but they require storage to become viable, stable energy sources, looking for alternatives Energy storage methods are imminent.

On a windswept sea wall off the coast of North Kent, England, Mary King points to miles of empty marshy farmland that will soon be home to thousands of solar panels and one of the largest battery installations in the country. Such battery plants will become a familiar sight in the UK and elsewhere

On November 18, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to install enough wind turbines by 2030 to power everyone. Homes are provided with electricity, but this will require solutions to manage intermittent energy supplies.

That's why we need a battery, a device that can store electrical energy as chemical energy. Lithium-ion batteries, used in cell phones and Tesla electric cars, are currently the dominant energy storage technology and are being deployed from California to Australia and likely Kent to help grids manage surging renewable energy. supply.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he expects the company's energy business, which includes providing solar energy and giant lithium-ion batteries to the grid, to As big as the car business is.

But in addition to lithium-ion batteries, cheaper, longer-lasting energy storage technologies will be needed to fully replace fossil fuel power plants and achieve 100% use of renewable energy, most of which are not yet very cost-effective. Currently, gas-fired power plants bridge the gap with renewables, providing a stable supply of energy for longer periods of time than current batteries can.

One of the green industrial revolution initiatives launched by the British government is a ￡1 billion Energy Innovation Fund to help commercialize new low-carbon technologies. These include a liquid air battery being built by Highview Power outside Manchester.

Lithium-ion batteries are currently the dominant storage technology and are being deployed globally to help grids manage surging renewable energy supplies

Without energy storage, countries will It is difficult to significantly reduce the use of natural gas and coal-fired power plants, or to reduce the harmful effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and extreme weather conditions.

Companies are racing to develop the next breakthrough, including battery technology that uses abundant raw materials, volcanic rocks, liquid air storage tanks and systems to lower heavy objects underground in abandoned mines to open up by mid-century Large-scale renewable energy. This is backed by several prominent business leaders, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son. ?

“If we want comprehensive decarbonization, all of these technologies are going to be necessary,” said Rory McCarthy, an analyst at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. But the scale of investment you need is billions of dollars to make a difference. ”

A zero-inventory supply chain?

Every day, the grid must constantly match supply with demand. This process becomes even more difficult when coal and gas-fired power plants that provide a reliable, stable supply of energy are spun off. Donald Sadoway, a Canadian chemistry professor at MIT, likens the grid to "the largest supply chain in the world, but with zero inventory."

Hornsdale Power Reserve, one of the world's largest lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Tesla, near Jamestown, South Australia

First quarter of this year , renewable energy provided 47% of the UK's electricity, a record. However, this success created a problem just weeks later, when energy demand fell by as much as 20% after the first national coronavirus lockdown in March. When renewables account for around 50% of total electricity production, the National Grid's job becomes more difficult, requiring the help of large spinning turbines from fossil fuel plants to moderate the volatility of the system.

Falling demand means renewables make up more than half of the energy mix, and engineers at the State Grid Control Center have had to perform a delicate balancing act, part of which involves increasing the use of energy storage. Supporters say this vindicates the expansion of the technology.

It’s proving to be a test case for how the grid will look in the future, when there is a greater share of renewable energy, said Peter Kavanagh, CEO of Harmony Energy said the company uses six Tesla lithium-ion batteries to provide electricity to the grid in Poole on England's south coast.

“In many countries, solar and wind are the cheapest forms of electricity generation, but once renewables reach a certain scale in the energy mix, energy storage will be needed, as we have seen during the pandemic. "That's it." He said, "The epidemic has proven the business case for battery storage five years in advance."

More than 97% of the current energy storage methods in the world use electricity to pump water to high-level reservoirs. Releasing the water to drive turbines to generate more electricity is known as "pumped hydro". Reservoirs are a way of storing energy. However, these systems are greatly affected by geographical environment and may be limited by increasing water scarcity in the future.

The advantage of lithium-ion batteries is that they can be placed anywhere and can provide power to the grid very quickly, just like electric cars. They can react within milliseconds and typically provide up to four hours of storage, helping the grid deal with sudden blackouts in power generation, but are too costly in the long run. In the UK, most large lithium-ion batteries provide energy for 30-90 minutes.

Redox fluid current?

Alternative technologies that allow large amounts of energy to be stored more safely for longer periods of time will make wind and solar more integrated. But they need to scale up quickly to meet growing demand and become cost-competitive.

In January this year, the California Energy Commission, the main energy policy and planning agency in California, called for the establishment of long-term energy storage to provide energy for more than 10 hours, enough to store a day's solar energy for overnight use.

One of the winning bidders was Invenidi Energy Systems, which uses large batteries based on vanadium, a raw material used by the steel industry to make metals stronger. First developed by NASA in the 1970s, these redox flow batteries use large, individually charged electrolyte tanks to store energy, making them easier to scale than traditional batteries.

A vanadium mine in Bahia, Brazil. Matt Harper of Invinity Energy Systems, which uses the material, said vanadium batteries can store renewable energy for eight to 10 hours during the day and use it when demand peaks.

The company's chief executive Commercial officer Matt Harper said the vanadium batteries could store renewable energy for eight to 10 hours during the day and be deployed during peak demand periods, or at night, setting a floor on electricity prices. Because vanadium batteries use a water-based electrolyte, they are more likely to put out a fire than start one, he said. They also last longer than lithium-ion batteries, which can last up to 30 years.

In downtown Dalian in northeastern China, Raycom Power is building the world's largest vanadium battery.

With a capacity of 800 megawatt hours, it will be more than three times the size of the world's largest lithium-ion battery installation in California. It will help Liaoning Province's power grid better integrate wind power.

However, the price of vanadium is highly volatile, soaring to US$127/kg in November 2018 and now falling to US$25/kg, which may have an impact on production costs.

Siemens' volcanic rock energy storage

Those looking for other energy storage options are avoiding batteries altogether and trying natural and physical solutions similar to water pumps, which can pump water in 20 hours Dispatch energy without the need for natural reservoirs.

On the outskirts of Hamburg, Germany, a gray concrete windowless building reads "Welcome to the Neolithic Age" in purple fonts on the facade. The factory is operated by Siemens Gamesa, the world's second largest wind turbine manufacturer

Siemens Gamesa's Hamburg plant uses 1,000 tons of volcanic rock from Norway to store 130 megawatt hours of energy in the form of thermal energy, providing enough energy to power about 3,000 German households, or about 750 electric cars.

First use electricity to heat the volcanic rock to at least 600°C. The energy can be stored for a week, but the goal is to dispatch power overnight. Hasan Oezdem, head of innovation projects at Siemens Gamesa, said the system could be installed in coal-fired power plants that are being phased out and use their turbines.

“You can turn them into huge storage facilities,” he said. “The largest utilities are struggling to come back because you can’t sell them and no one is buying coal plants. What we offer is Keep it running with a green purpose."

A similar project is taking shape on the site of a decommissioned power station on the outskirts of Manchester, using containers of liquid air instead of volcanic rock. Highview Power broke ground on the 250MWh plant at Trafford Energy Park in November after winning a ￡10m grant from the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

"Lithium-ion batteries are great technology, but they are too small for the challenges faced by the grid." The company's CEO Javier Cavada said, "For a long time The business model for energy storage is to ensure that all wind and solar power is harnessed ”

Wind turbines off the coast of Essex, UK. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to install enough wind turbines to power every home by 2030

Despite their advantages, these technologies will struggle to beat the scale of lithium-ion manufacturing, Lithium-ion development has been fueled by a surge in investment in electric vehicles over the past decade. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the price of lithium-ion batteries actually dropped by 87% from 2010 to last year, to about $156/kWh.

This price may fall further. According to Wood Mackenzie, global battery installations for grid storage will rise to 741 gigawatt hours by 2030, with the majority being lithium-ion batteries and led by the United States and China. 1 gigawatt hour is enough to power 1 million homes for one hour.

In addition, hydrogen produced by electrolyzing water using electricity could become a competitive solution for storing energy for longer periods of time. Hydrogen can be stored in underground caverns or depleted oil and gas fields.

Gravini near Cleve?Hill, where Hive?Energy plans to establish its solar and storage sites.

The company is deciding which technology to use to produce the batteries, but lithium-ion is likely to be chosen?

Hive Energy is planning the Cleve Hill solar and storage site near Graveney, where the company's total Manager Hugh Brennan said the company is deciding which technology to use to make the batteries, but will likely choose lithium-ion.

In Graveney, placards were erected outside churches and on roadsides with pictures of gas masks and the slogan "No solar farms"

A look at energy storage technologies beyond lithium ion

Vanadium redox flow battery energy storage: uses two tanks containing positively and negatively charged liquid vanadium electrolytes that are pumped through the separator in the battery. This battery degrades less than lithium-ion batteries and has a longer cycle life.

Compressed air energy storage: Liquid air is cooled to minus 196°C and then stored in a storage tank. It is then heated to drive a turbine to generate electricity. Another method is to use heated compressed air to store energy in purpose-built caverns.

Gravity energy storage: involves lifting heavy blocks of minerals up and down in abandoned mines as a way to store and generate electricity.

Molten Salt Energy Storage: Thermal Energy Storage Malta, backed by Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures, stores energy in the form of heat in the form of molten salt. The company says the technology can last more than 20 years and is suitable for storage for more than six hours.

Liquid metal battery energy storage "" uses metals to naturally separate when heated, forming a cathode and anode, separated by a salt electrolyte. Once initially heated, the battery generates heat as it discharges and charges, maintaining a higher operating temperature.

Low-cost batteries using cheap raw materials such as iron, sulfur and zinc provide an alternative to lithium-ion battery technology. For example, zinc-based battery developer EOS says its batteries have the ability to release energy within three to 12 hours. Form?Energy, a startup backed by Bill Gates, says its batteries can cost-effectively store energy for up to 150 hours.

Hydrogen energy storage: Using electricity to produce hydrogen is a way to store energy, but a large amount of energy is lost in the process, so it is not as efficient as batteries.

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.