Blog Posts
The U.S. electric grid has limited ability to store excess energy, so electricity must constantly be over-generated to assure reliable supply. Advanced energy storage promises to play a key role in modernizing the nation’s electricity grid to enable the integration of increasing amounts of renewables, improve operating capabilities, enhance reliability, allow deferral of infrastructure investments and provide backup power during emergencies. The Primus Power and City University of New York Energy Institute (CUNY-EI) teams developed unique approaches to turning battery storage ideas into reality.
Blog Posts
Long-duration electricity storage (LDES) – storage systems that can discharge for 10 hours or more at their rated power – have recently gained a lot of attention and continue to be a technology space of interest in energy innovation discussions. The increased interest stems from a growing appreciation and acknowledgement of the need for “firm” low-carbon energy resources to complement variable renewable generators like wind and solar, and ARPA-E is actively working to increase storage capacity to help fill this need.
Blog Posts
ARPA-E focuses on next-generation energy innovation to create a sustainable energy future. The agency provides R&D support to businesses, universities, and national labs to develop technologies that could fundamentally change the way we get, use, and store energy. Since 2009, ARPA-E has provided approximately $2 billion in support to more than 800 energy technology projects. In January, we introduced a new series to highlight the transformational technology our project teams are developing across the energy portfolio. Check out these projects turning ideas into reality.
Blog Posts
ARPA-E focuses on next-generation energy innovations that will help create a sustainable energy future. The agency provides R&D funding for technologies that could fundamentally change the way we get, use, and store energy. Since 2009, ARPA-E has provided approximately $2 billion in R&D funding for more than 800 energy technology projects.
Slick Sheet: Project
Sylvatex will use a low-cost, high-yield, and simplified continuous approach to synthesize lithium iron phosphate iron (LFP) based cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) where the reactants flow and mix continuously. Sylvatex’s proprietary nanomaterial platform has already demonstrated a significant breakthrough in synthesizing cathode materials for LIBs.
Slick Sheet: Project
Inlyte Energy will engineer robust cyclability of the sodium metal halide (NaMx) battery’s iron chemistry for next-generation grid storage. The NaMx iron chemistry’s raw storage materials are table salt and iron, two of Earth’s most abundant and low-cost materials. The NaMx battery displays excellent safety, high efficiency, and a long life. Limited research on the sodium/iron chloride battery chemistry has shown variable cycling performance, the number of charge/discharge cycles it can complete before losing performance.
Slick Sheet: Project
To create energy storage that addresses Li-ion limitations, the project team has identified an unlikely source: inactive upstream oil and gas (O&G) wells. NREL will repurpose inactive O&G wells to create long-term, inexpensive energy storage. Team member Renewell Energy has invented a method of underground energy storage called Gravity Wells that will give a second life to ~$4 trillion worth of inactive upstream O&G infrastructure and result in the sealing of hundreds of thousands of idle O&G wells currently emitting methane.
Slick Sheet: Project
Low-cost H2 is the key to affordable long-term grid storage technologies that could work well with grid-scale battery storage to accommodate high penetration of wind and solar electricity generation in the next decades. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) seeks to develop a hybrid electrochemical/catalytic approach for direct generation of high-pressure H2. Caltech’s proposed system has the potential to reach <$2/kg of H2 produced and compressed at 700 bar using renewable energy sources.
Slick Sheet: Project
Columbia University aims to modulate the cycling behavior of conventional Li-ion battery materials in a bobbin cell format. The team will optimize electrode compositions, properties, and dimensions with corresponding cell configurations using standard commodity Li-ion materials and established bobbin cell manufacturing techniques. These cells will be suitable for 4-hour charge, and cost profiles amenable to 8-to-16-hour discharge.
Slick Sheet: Project
Precision Combustion Inc. (PCI) will develop a process-intensified, multi-functional SOFC architecture that permits a power dense, lightweight design and fast start-up for transportation applications. PCI will combine advanced concepts, process intensification, and additive manufacturing to develop a cost-effective and readily manufacturable SOFC system. It is analogous to a scalable electrochemical chip.