article thumbnail

Molten-Salt Battery Freezes Energy Over a Whole Season

Cars That Think

Especially for sources like wind and solar, which have discontinuous availability. While rechargeable batteries are the solution of choice for consumer-level use, they are impractical for grid-scale consideration. He expects the battery to retain over 80% of its charge in that period.

article thumbnail

New long-duration, extended capacity Na-Al battery design for grid storage

Green Car Congress

Researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have extended the capacity and duration of sodium-aluminum batteries. The new sodium-based molten salt battery uses two distinct reactions. The team previously reported a neutral molten salt reaction. Weller et al.

article thumbnail

UP Catalyst offering carbon-negative graphite for European battery supply chain

Green Car Congress

Conventional production of graphite not only takes place far away from battery manufacturing centers but also poses environmental challenges. The valuable mineral for electric vehicle (EV) batteries is now considered a critical raw material. Every battery manufacturer is challenged by insufficient raw materials.

Carbon 186
article thumbnail

Estonian startup UP Catalyst secures €2.09M; sustainable carbon nanomaterials and graphite from CO2

Green Car Congress

The pre-seed round was led by Sunly, a developer of wind and solar parks in the Baltics and Poland, and joined by Scottish Baltic Invest, an investment company linked to Interconnect Product Assembly (IPA), which specializes in the production of electro-mechanical solutions; and Little Green Fund that focuses on investments in cleantech innovation.

article thumbnail

Gravity Batteries, Green Hydrogen, and a Thorium Reactor for China

Cars That Think

As power grids everywhere increasingly rely on intermittent renewable energy, batteries and other forms of energy storage that can even out the bumps in supply and demand are taking on a crucial role. No battery is perfect, however, so engineers keep pushing for new and improved ways to store those electrons.

Hydrogen 102
article thumbnail

Energy storage: the key to a decarbonised future

Setec Powerr

We are transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, and the use of energy storage is becoming more widespread. Battery storage. Batteries encompass a range of chemistries. Others solid battery types are nickel-cadmium and sodium-sulphur, while zinc-air is emerging.

article thumbnail

MIT team improves liquid metal batteries for grid-scale storage; lower operating temperature, cost

Green Car Congress

Researchers at MIT have improved a proposed liquid battery system that could enable renewable energy sources to compete with conventional power plants. The original system, which used magnesium for one of the battery’s electrodes and antimony for the other, required an operating temperature of 700 ?C. Earlier post.). Earlier post.).

MIT 256