NOT ALWAYS BLOWING IN THE WIND: Energy storage is crucial to handle the intermittent nature of wind power.
Image: Courtesy Energy.gov
EaglePicher Technologies, a manufacturer of specialized batteries for military and space programs, is partnered with the federal government to develop a powerful battery storage technology to help utilities smooth out the ups and downs of renewable power.
It's a familiar path for the Joplin, Mo., company.
EaglePicher began developing a battery for space applications in the mid-1980s that used sodium and sulfur components. Its model performed successfully on the Columbia space shuttle in 1997.
But by then, the focus for military and space batteries had shifted to lithium-ion models in the United States and the impetus for a sodium sulfur battery vanished in this country. EaglePicher mothballed its work.
Now EaglePicher is back in the game, working on a sodium sulfur battery with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), backed by a $7.2 million grant from the Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). It was one of 37 such awards made in 2009 to foster clean energy breakthroughs. EaglePicher is funding the $1.8 million balance of the three-year project.
With Energy Department research and development budgets facing an uncertain future in Congress, the future for such clean energy partnerships is also uncertain. This week, ARPA-E will show off its grantees at the 2011 Innovation Summit in Washington, bringing together scientists, venture capital funders and elected officials in a bid for political support for President Obama's goal of producing 80 percent of the U.S. electricity supply from clean energy sources by 2035.
PNNL estimates that more than 200,000 megawatt-hours of power from energy storage would be needed in 2030 if the United States were to get 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources then. The concept is to store electricity made from renewable energy when it is in surplus -- such as wind energy at night -- and use it during during peak demand periods during the day.
The characteristics of sodium sulfur batteries are well-suited for that. While the technology was pioneered in this country, but then abandoned, Japan saw the promise and picked it up. Its Ministry of International Trade and Industry chose it as a targeted opportunity.
Japan takes the idea and runs with it
Tokyo Electric Power Co. and NGK Insulators pushed sodium sulfur development in the 1990s, and today, NGK is the primary commercial manufacturer. U.S. utilities seeking large storage batteries for renewable energy can face a wait of a year or more.
It amounts to the second big battery technology fumble the United States has been involved with. The technology that underpins the ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics products was invented by American physicist John Goodenough in the late 1970s, helped by a $20,000 grant from the U.S. Air Force. Ignored by U.S. manufacturers, it was commercialized by Sony and other Japanese companies in the 1990s.
PNNL scientist and project coordinator Gordon Graff says the laboratory's partnership with EaglePicher seeks to leapfrog NGK's design to perfect a more compact architecture that could significantly boost the battery's efficiency and performance while also greatly simplifying the manufacturing process.
"This is a radical change in design," said Graff, who holds 22 patents. "This is one of the ways we can make this step jump."
In the PNNL facility in Richland, Wash., Graff hefts one of the NGK batteries as he explains the opportunities that PNNL and EaglePicher team hope to exploit.
The NGK battery is a cylinder with sodium in the center, separated from molten sulfur by a ceramic membrane that allows the passage of sodium ions to create the battery's current. The tubular design of the NGK membrane and casings simplifies maintaining a secure seal on the volatile chemicals within the battery, whose internal temperature reaches 350 degrees Celsius.
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5 Comments
Add CommentActually achieving effective storage of energy would be of huge benefit for storing conventionally produced power & probably contribute more than all the power produced by alternative means combined. For instance a nuclear power station is virtually the same cost to operate at full power as at reduced power. Coal fired power stations also can not instantly be throttled back when demand temporarily slumps but the excess could be stored given a suitable system. It is technically a very difficult task of course.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy can't we store electricity like the nature does, namely in clouds. Electricity in man made clouds then can be harvested when needed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI had a thought about storing energy from renewables or from nuclear reactors going at full non-stop. But being a laymen I figure this probably has already been thought about and dismissed. But I had not seen anything on it so thought I'd give it go here. Please let me know if you think it's feasible.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Use the extra power to desalinate ocean water.
2. Use siphoning to get the fresh water flowing upwards into reservoirs in the Sierra Nevada or Appalachian Mountains.
3. Then get Hydro Power from it as needed in two forms.
-Large Hydro from release at the reservoir site.
-Small Hydro from use of miniature turbines built into pipelines as the water flows downhill.
4. The down flow would end in either irrigation systems or used to recharge underground aquifers.
Project to be paid for by surcharge on the electrical energy generated, and the water supplied to farm districts, cities and townships that draw from recharged aquifers or direct irrigation.
My biggest concern in this whole ideal is dealing with freezing in the winter. I thought that by keeping the reservoirs low with lots of flow during the winter could help reduce freezing. During the other seasons the reservoirs could be keep at higher levels.
What are your thoughts? Could this work?
Thanks for your comments.
Best Regards,
trey61
Molten metal batteries should have already been in mass production. It is a shame that we have to depend on Japan to come in and redo our jobs and technology and make it work for us. What would we do without Japan? Those molten batteries, if the U.S. had stayed with it, could already been storing excess solar energy at homes and businesses and super charging our electric cars and airplanes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor the last three decades, America has picked up a bad habit of buying up and shelving our best and most productive technologies. Look at what GM did with the hydrogen fuel cell battery on wheels...it is still sitting on their shelf.
Sodium-sulfer batteries sounded good to me years ago. How large would a 10 kilowatt-hour battery be? Does it have to be hot at all times, or can it be shipped cold with a full charge and heated to use? If cold, can a small part by heated and used to heat the rest?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTrey61, you're talking beyond perpetual motion here. Siphoning can't be used to move water uphill to produce power. You get it to go a little ways up by the power of it going a long ways down. But don't feel too bad about it. Many of us have had such ideas over the years.