JAB
2023-09-30 01:04:07 UTC
NASA Battery Tech to Deliver for the Grid
A battery built for satellites brings grid-scale storage down to Earth
Technologies for space are designed to be tough, safe, and
long-lasting. So what happens when you bring the battery chemistry
deployed on the International Space Station, nickel-hydrogen, down to
Earth?
"[It's] the most durable battery ever invented," says Jorg Heinemann.
Nickel-hydrogen batteries, he says, can last for 30,000 charge cycles,
are fireproof, and outperform lithium-ion batteries on a number of key
metrics for energy storage at the large scale.
Heinemann is CEO of EnerVenue, a nickel-hydrogen battery manufacturer
based in Fremont, Calif. "Our cost is comparable to where lithium-ion
is going, and we use earth-abundant materials," he says. "Nickel is
the most expensive thing we use. We operate at a 90 percent round-trip
efficiency, more efficient than lithium-ion. And there's basically no
maintenance on this battery, it was designed for sending up on a
rocket ship into outer space."
Nickel-hydrogen batteries can run for tens of thousands of cycles,
giving them a life of over 30 years.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/grid-scale-battery-storage-nickel-hydrogen#toggle-gdpr
A battery built for satellites brings grid-scale storage down to Earth
Technologies for space are designed to be tough, safe, and
long-lasting. So what happens when you bring the battery chemistry
deployed on the International Space Station, nickel-hydrogen, down to
Earth?
"[It's] the most durable battery ever invented," says Jorg Heinemann.
Nickel-hydrogen batteries, he says, can last for 30,000 charge cycles,
are fireproof, and outperform lithium-ion batteries on a number of key
metrics for energy storage at the large scale.
Heinemann is CEO of EnerVenue, a nickel-hydrogen battery manufacturer
based in Fremont, Calif. "Our cost is comparable to where lithium-ion
is going, and we use earth-abundant materials," he says. "Nickel is
the most expensive thing we use. We operate at a 90 percent round-trip
efficiency, more efficient than lithium-ion. And there's basically no
maintenance on this battery, it was designed for sending up on a
rocket ship into outer space."
Nickel-hydrogen batteries can run for tens of thousands of cycles,
giving them a life of over 30 years.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/grid-scale-battery-storage-nickel-hydrogen#toggle-gdpr