A new kind of battery invented by Jay Whitacre, a professor of materials science at Carnegie Mellon University and founder of the startup Aquion Energy, could make renewable electricity more practical and economical around the world.Aquion is about to start full-scale production of the batteries at a new factory in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania.
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| Jay Withacre |
Whitacre says his batteries’ most promising near-term application lies in storing energy from solar panels or other renewable sources in off-grid homes or rural areas, providing a much cheaper 24-hour power source than a common alternative: diesel power.
Whitacre’s batteries are expected to last twice as long as lead-acid batteries and cost about the same to make.
A pallet of 84 batteries, about a meter tall, will store 19.2 kilowatt-hours of electricity.
And while the batteries are cheaper than other kinds, pairing them with solar panels still can’t beat the economics of conventional power plants in most areas. That is why Whitacre is focusing initially on regions without an existing electricity grid. The company expects to start full-scale production by this spring, making enough batteries each year to store about 200 megawatt-hours of electricity—enough for roughly 150 solar-powered villages. “If our technology proves out, we won’t be able to make them fast enough,” Whitacre says.
http://www.technologyreview.com/demo/524466/storing-the-sun/
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