Distributed Storage

U.S. start-up EnerVenue has secured funding to build a gigafactory to produce nickel-hydrogen batteries for large scale renewable and storage applications. The battery has an efficiency ranging from 80 to 90%, depending on the cycle rate, and its energy density per square foot is equal to, or better than lithium-ion batteries, according to the company.

SmartChargEV plans to set up electric vehicle charging facilities at 4,000+ locations in all the States and union territories of India by 2025, and 23,000+ locations by 2031.

The modular power station comes with two lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries and has a capacity of 6 kW/24.6 kWh. It relies on a 3 kW pure sine wave inverter which the manufacturer said is able to adjust the AC charging rate.

A report by BloombergNEF and Schneider Electric has pressed the case for governments to unlock the world’s potentially huge rooftop solar potential, and cited California’s solar mandate as a shining example.

The electric vehicle conversation is dominated by all-electric options, and sales figures back up the shift from the age of the Prius to the age of Tesla. However, the timeline for the Global South is very different and hybrid EVs are better than ever. Hybrid EVs shouldn’t be considered a legacy technology, and may be greatly significant for their role in the path to decarbonization, explains Gautham Ram, assistant professor at TU Delft.

Under the partnership, Tata Power will provide end-to-end electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions across Lodha Group’s residential and commercial projects in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune.

Scientists in Germany developed a new process for manufacturing battery electrodes, that they say could be both more cost effective and environmentally friendly compared to current technologies. The technique could be applied to a range of different battery materials/chemistries and its creators say they are in discussion with a number of battery cell manufacturers regarding pilot production.

Shouldn’t we all be driving in affordable electric cars with 800-plus kilometers of driving range by now? Surely yes, according to many of the announcements coming from battery scientists over the past decade. Yet for all the scientific breakthroughs, few in fact “break through” into commercial applications. Christian Kuss of the University of Manitoba makes the case for a holistic approach to battery materials development, and reminds us to look beyond the stars of the show and consider their interactions with the auxiliary materials that hold the whole thing together.

The Indian auto-components manufacturer will set up a semisolid lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility in Chennai under a technology licensing agreement with American startup 24M. The first phase of the planned 10 GWh fab would start production in the second half of 2023.

An international research team has conducted a techno-economical comparison between lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries for stationary energy storage and has found the former has a lower LCOE and net present cost. Through their analysis, which was performed assuming the use of the batteries in connection with a 10 kW, grid-tied PV system, the scientists concluded that lithium-ion batteries are the most viable solution.