Actually battery storage will improve efficiency. The <10% loss for lion batteries is easily made up for other losses like spinning reserves or reserve capacity used for frequency regulation or in case the main power plant goes out. They can also even out production so you are at max efficiency for a longer period of time rather then trying to ramp up or down to try and match the load.
That being said, it is specific markets with higher prices and higher peaks that benefit most with the current gen battery technology. The next gen battery will be better.
Itās the whole structure that we have taken for granted that would have to be reconsidered. Cars killed all the local stores and corner stores, the entire social structure has been rebuilt around the personal vehicle.
It improves system performance, but the EROEI suffers. All grid systems need reserve capacity. And then thereās the issue that lithium is limited, and wanted for quite a number of other applicationsā¦
It is exactly the opposite. It buys time to ramp up sources of power. IE the coal plant doesnāt need to be up and running if you can supply the enough energy through batteries to meet demand while you bring it online. You only need it online if you actually need the power.
one thing we have no shortage of in this world is salt water. Storage is a matter of choosing the right medium for the right job. If everyone had one of these batteries at their house it would remove the need for peaker plants that are the least green of any power out there. At the moment these batteries are brand new and too expensive but if they are able to drop the price in about half it would be a great deal. It is not unreasonable to believe that these batteries will drop in half in the next 10 years. That of course assumes the technology is solid there have been plenty of alternative energy technologies that are not but having built a factory and gotten grid level contracts is a great start. There major target market is actually grid storage to replace peaker plants.
I would love to see a world with practical battery grid back up. On another thread @dbaillie had commented on the forever high hopes and claims of breakthrough batteries. The track record isnāt very encouraging. But part of that might have been for lack of incentive due to our near free energy economy. I still think that if it was easy or economical we wouldnāt have had lead acid batteries for over a century. Some upstart would have revolutionized the market.
I read an interesting analysis comparing various battery technologies, they made a good case for zinc - air batteries, despite their limitations. They fit the bill for abundant material, energy density, recyclability and function, but quite low life span.
Then there is the problem of old school thoughts. The local electric coop built a wind farm but only use it to peak for the coal plant. Often drive by on a windy day and see part or all shut down. Frustrating but Iām off grid so donāt comment.
Garry in the world of big business and vested interests the upstarts get bought out by the industry leaders. If you have the market for lead acid batteries it is cheaper to buy out the new guy and lock up the technology. I have seen it done. Actually know someone from a battery company that went to work on Monday only to find he didnāt have a job any more and was told the division was sold and the new company wasnāt planing on doing anything with it.
I can cite some credible examples in engine technology like that. That said, it explains what may happen within the sphere of influence of the corporate world, but doesnāt cover the old Soviet union, which should have been only too happy to throw a wrench into western strategic resources power politics, and for their own domestic use. China has shown keen interest in battery technology, is strategically hemmed in by energy needs, and is renowned for global industrial espionage, but they have no breakthroughs either, apparently putting efforts into zinc - air.
It goes something like this company Garry Batteries develops a new battery. General Electric finds out and offers the owners of Garry Batteries 1 million dollars to buy the company they merge it into Alternatively Batteries unlimited. Six months later Alternative Batteries Unlimited does some more testing and release studies of how the battery has a design flaw resulting is sudden explosion. Alternative Batteries Unlimited files bankruptcy and is never heard from again. The rest of the world only knows that Alternative Batteries Unlimited went out of business because their coffee beam battery caught fire and wasnāt practical. Maybe the report mentions how the engineers where lucky enough to be unharmed in the explosion. What they fail to mention is that the fully charged battery was dead shorted with a copper bus bar before it blew up. So all Russia china or anyone else has to go on is a pattern in the usa with press releases about how the product explodes. Thus they donāt even try to duplicate a failed technology.
I know of two examples of this type of thing happening in the battery industry in the last 20 years. Both āfailedā batteries used aluminum as a key element and thus where very light.
But these countries have excellent chemists and engineers too, if there was low hanging fruit out there they should have also come up with innovations not realized in the west.
That one was the direct injection 2 stroke developed by an Australian outfit around the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union. I believe bought by a large North American auto concern. Prior to that acquisition Pininfarina demonstrated 2 vehicles built for the engine meeting California emissions at 145mpg. Now it only exists in outboards. The Chinese from what I read are going forward now with opposed free piston generators etc, and have put significant efforts into EVās.
Regarding batteries, I take it that despite the promise of lab tests, nothing has proved through a development program
The batteries where used in electric lawn mower in the early 90s with good results full small scale production runs. We looked into using them in a solar car race when I was in college. Several engineers came to our college to measure the car for a custom battery pack. The flew home after one week only to find that the division was sold and they where out of a job. True story.
Sence them a very similar battery was designed and the company went out of business was a big deal in the alternative energy sector a few years back. It was highlighted as an example of wasted government funds in alternative energy R&D.
Here is the only OP I am familiar with that ever made it into a truck.
The Cormer TR3 ( a joint production with the Lister company and later killed off by the Chrysler corp when they bought Cormer ).
And this is a progressive rock band from early 70s Poland I like to listen too when I readā¦
Apparently China is going to be a greentech leader.
"The Chinese market had 44,874 new electric cars in December, far from the 60,000 expected by analysts, but still up 27% year over year (YoY) and far more than the electric car sales in the US and Europe. Overall, Chinaās plug-in market share rose to a record 1.45%, above the USA (0.8%) and Europe (1.3%).
Despite the ādisappointingā plateauing in December, which is a bit like what happens when you expect that Usain Bolt will break the 0ā100 meter world record every time he goes on the track, looking at the big picture, the 351,861 electric car sales registered in China during 2016 represent approximately 46% of ALL plug-ins sold worldwide this year, with Chinese carmakers responsible for 43% of all EV production in 2016."
