The most recent breakthroughs largely focus on either perfecting lithium-based power storage or moving to other materials that are less fire-prone, charge faster, last longer, and can be mass-produced cheaply.
Among the latest milestones are:
Add to these the latest announcements about a battery that is made from organic materials that store protons and a battery that would use the carbon dioxide (CO2) abundance in the Martian atmosphere for a battery designed to have potential applications for future missions on Mars.
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia recently announced that scientists in its chemistry department have created a rechargeable proton battery that does not run on lithium. Its name is the Benzoqauinone Derivative Anode for All-organic Long-cycle Aqueous Proton Battery according to a research paper published last October in Angewandte Chemie, a German chemical society journal.
The organic material used for the battery anode is tetromino-benzoquinone. The battery rather than using lithium uses protons from hydrogen atoms that have shed their electron. Finding the right material has taken time and the UNSW team feels it finally has found it although currently it is not cheap to produce. In addressing the cost of the battery material, Professor Chuan Zhao, seen in the picture at the top of this posting, notes that “because it’s made of abundant light elements, it will be easy and affordable to eventually scale up.”
The battery’s electrodes are both made from tetromino-benzoquinone. The electrodes are separated by a water solution. Compared to Li-ion which uses lithium salt and an inflammable solvent, the proton battery is safe. No exploding Teslas and laptop computers will happen using proton battery technology. Because protons from stripped hydrogen atoms are used, there is no fear of hydrogen explosions. He notes that the growth in hydrogen infrastructure as the gas becomes increasingly used as an alternative to fossil fuels will allow hydrogen protons to become available anywhere for harvest as needed combined with the new proton-storing material discovered by him and his UNSW colleagues.
An article recently published in Elsevier’s Science Bulletin describes the invention of a high-energy, high-density battery that could become the go-to technology for providing battery storage to power a future Martian infrastructure.
The current active NASA rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance run on energy packs that use nuclear batteries that generate electricity from heat produced from natural radioactive decay of onboard plutonium-238. Other Martian rovers and the first deployed helicopter used solar energy generated from photovoltaic panels.
For long-term Martian presence, using in-situ materials would be ideal in the creation of an energy source to back up renewable solar. A research team at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) decided to try and build a new battery that would use the Martian atmosphere as its fuel source. The result is a Lithium-carbon dioxide (CO2) battery.
The atmosphere of Mars is over 95% CO2 making the material abundant and easy to harvest in making a lithium carbonate battery. The bigger challenge is getting the battery to operate consistently in the low-temperature Martian environment where temperatures can plunge at night to -73 Celsius (-100 Fahrenheit) at the equator, and -143 Celsius (-225 Fahrenheit) at the poles.
The USTC team simulated a narrower temperature range than the most extreme Martian environments. They tested the battery’s operation in temperatures between -20 and -60 Celsius (-4 and -76 Fahrenheit) and were able to produce reliable output running over two months using a design with an integrated electrode and foldable battery as a proof of concept. The battery was able to run several electronic devices (see image below) in these simulated Martian conditions. The research team sees future iterations of their technology as being part of a multi-energy supply system for Martian exploration.
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In 2019, I described how South Australia was adopting mass storage technology to provide reliable backup to renewable electricity projects. Among the projects being built was a 100-megawatt Tesla-designed battery system in Hornsdale, South Australia, billed as the world’s largest lithium-ion backup system. Another slated for completion in South Australia was a combination wind farm, solar array and a 900-megawatt battery, significantly larger than the one built by Tesla. Other mass storage installations in the works were to add over 410 Megawatts of battery backup to renewable energy sites. At the time the goal for South Australia was to generate continuous electricity to match demand without using fossil fuel power plants.
The Australian state’s transition to renewable energy sources has continued unabated with it having achieved in two decades a power supply that is now 60% coming from zero-carbon sources. This has been accomplished in an energy market where the state is not the owner of the power being delivered. But the state has been involved very much the way the U.S. Biden administration has through its Inflation Reduction Act incentives to businesses to get off coal, oil, and gas.
South Australia has done it by setting renewable energy generation targets, attracting private investors, and staying true and consistent in its environmental policies. Legislation to facilitate wind and solar farms has spurred development. The government has attracted mass storage developers to come and build facilities. Meanwhile, it has phased out coal-fired power plants while implementing programs to find new employment for industry workers.
There were hiccoughs in the beginning including energy price hikes and occasional blackouts, but the zero-emission script has continued to be followed. The result is the 2030 60% zero-emissions energy target has been reached seven years early. Today, the state has more rooftop solar energy than any other jurisdiction in the country. More than 40% of homes in 2020 already had rooftop solar installed and it was reducing demand from the grid by 13%. That number continues to grow causing wholesale electricity rates to fall. One expert noted that South Australia was able to provide 100% of its daytime power requirements from the volume of installed rooftop solar.
South Australia is aiming to reach 500% renewable energy capacity by 2050, exporting the surplus to neighbouring states. In May, it signed an agreement with New South Wales to build an interconnector to supply its neighbour with renewable-sourced energy.
If successful, South Australia will be the first jurisdiction of its size to achieve a zero-emissions grid with a mix of large-scale wind, solar, battery and distributed rooftop solar, an example for other states and nations to follow.
An article published by the Institute for Energy and Financial Analysis (IEFA), points to seven lessons other energy planners can learn from South Australia’s success. These include:
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The latest project on the Island of Kauai involves a 20-year contract between SolarCity and the island’s utility cooperative. SolarCity is to install a 52 Megawatt hour grid-connected battery storage system that will supply up to 13 Megawatts of supplemental energy during peak requirements between the hours of 5 and 10 p.m. each day. Electricity will be supplied at a lower cost than energy currently produced through fossil fuel sources.
Kauai is playing catchup with the other islands as you can see from the map below. The investment in Solar City should push them over the 20% renewable mark once the system goes online.
Hawaii is getting very aggressive about renewable energy. This summer the state passed legislation to mandate a 100% move to renewable energy by mid-century. Currently at 20% its next milestone target is 30% by 2020, then 70% by 2040 and 100% by no later than 2045. That will make Hawaii the first American state to rid itself of carbon energy dependence.
According to the Blue Planet Foundation which issues an annual Energy Report Card for the state, Hawaii currently gets a B- based on five metrics: transportation, energy efficiency, renewable energy, smart grids and economics. In renewables the state gets an A-. But transportation is a D- and smart grid a D. energy efficiency was rated B+.
