Progress in renewable electricity storage

The problem with renewable energy like solar and wind is intermittency. When sun goes down or when the wind isn’t blowing, no generation happens. Lithium batteries are one solution. Pumped hydroelectric is another.

Lithium-ion batteries store power in their electrodes. Flow batteries store power in their liquid electrolytes.

“Electrolyte solutions are stored in external tanks and pumped through a reactor where chemical reactions take place at inert electrodes to produce energy. 

 

“Flow batteries can be altered to suit requirements of a task. You can change how much power you generate (in kilowatts) and how much storage (in kilowatt-hours). If you want more storage, you increase the volume of electrolytes in the tanks. 

 

“As you increase storage capacity, the cost per kWh of stored energy decreases dramatically. This is because you only have to add more liquid electrolytes rather than adding entirely new battery packs, as in conventional batteries. 

 

“This means flow batteries are currently the cheapest way to store electricity for longer durations (over 8 hours). Unlike lithium-ion batteries, flow batteries can run for tens of thousands of cycles and the electrolyte can last much longer – or even indefinitely. “

 

A problem with flow storage is weight; these batteries are very heavy. They won’t be showing up in Teslas.

 

Vanadium redox flow batteries were pioneered in Australia in the 1980s.

“After decades of development, vanadium flow batteries are now being commercially produced by companies in Japan, China and Europe, with several gigawatt hours worth of capacity now installed globally. 

 

“China, the world’s largest vanadium producer, has recently approved many large new vanadium flow battery projects. In December, the world’s largest came online in Dalian, China, with 175MW capacity and 700 mWH of storage.”

There are other electrolyte chemistries being explored. Here’s hoping that storage technology continues to improve—the transition to renewables depends on it.

 https://www.juancole.com/2025/01/renewable-electricity-batteries.html

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