Lifeboat Foundation

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola has revealed two new battery storage projects in Australia – its biggest yet in the country – that will take its total capacity to more than 1,500 gigawatt hours.

The new batteries are a 250 megawatt (MW)/ 500 megawatt hour (MWh) Gin Gin project near Bundaberg in Queensland – although its EPBC application describes it only as a 500 MW project – and the 270 MW, 1,080 MWh Kingswood project in New South Wales (NSW).

To date, Iberdrola’s non-gas firming portfolio has been on the smaller side, making up just a fraction of the company’s 2.4 GW of installed renewables in Australia.

Whoever Controls #Electrolytes will Pave the way for #ElectricVehicles.

Team from the Dept of Chemistry at POSTECH have achieved a breakthrough in creating a gel electrolyte-based battery that is both stable and commercially viable…

Team develops a commercially viable and safe gel electrolyte for lithium batteries. Professor Soojin Park, Seoha Nam, a PhD candidate, and Dr. Hye Bin Son from the Department of Chemistry at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) have achieved a breakthrough in creating a gel electrolyte-based battery that is both stable and commercially viable. Their research was recently published in the international journal Small.

Continue reading “Whoever Controls Electrolytes will Pave the way for Electric Vehicles” »

Successfully innovating optoelectronic semiconductor devices depends a lot on moving charges and excitons—electron-hole pairs—in specified directions for the purpose of creating fuels or electricity.

Researchers have successfully measured the quantum structure of radium monofluoride (RaF) using ion-trapping and specialized laser techniques, allowing for the detailed characterization of its rotational energy…

Tesla has secured an absurdly large contract to provide over 15 GWh of Megapack to California’s Intersect Power.

The Megapack has become the go-to, posterchild product for large-scale energy storage around the globe.

It’s by far Tesla’s fastest-growing product and enabled the company to deploy a record of 9.4 GWh of energy storage last quarter – more than twice the last record.

Researchers reported the discovery of a new cosmic conundrum. The new object, GPM J1839-10, operates similarly to a pulsar, emitting frequent bursts of radio radiation. However, the physics that drives pulsars dictates that they would cease generating if they slowed too much, and practically every pulsar we know of blinks at least once every minute.

GPM J1839-10 has a pulse interval of 22 minutes. We don’t know what type of physics or things can power it.

Due to rising environmental concerns, global energy production is shifting from fossil fuels to sustainable and renewable energy systems such as solar and wind power. Despite their advantages, they have two significant weaknesses: volatile power production and irregular supply. Hence, they are augmented with energy storage systems (ESSs).

Lithium-ion batteries are at the forefront of ESSs but are prone to fires due to flammable electrolytes and lithium-based materials. The flowless zinc-bromine battery (FLZBB), which uses non-flammable electrolytes, is a promising alternative, offering cost-effectiveness and a simple battery platform.

An FLZBB consists of a positive electrode, a negative electrode, an electrolyte, and a separator to keep the electrodes apart. Unlike conventional zinc-bromine batteries, the electrolyte in FLZBB does not need to be pumped and is instead held in a gel-like container. Graphite felt (GF) is widely used as an electrode in many redox batteries due to its stability in acidic electrolytes.

A newly developed stretchable lithium-ion battery retains efficient charge storage after 70 cycles and expands up to 5000%. This innovation caters to the growing demand for batteries in wearable electronics, ensuring flexibility and durability.

When you think of a battery, you probably don’t think of something stretchy. However, batteries will need this shape-shifting quality to be incorporated into flexible electronics, which are gaining traction for wearable health monitors. Now, researchers in ACS Energy Letters report a lithium-ion battery with entirely stretchable components, including an electrolyte layer that can expand by 5000%, and it retains its charge storage capacity after nearly 70 charge/discharge cycles.

Advancements in Flexible Electronics.

In the age of technology everywhere, we are all too familiar with the inconvenience of a dead battery. But for those relying on a wearable health care device to monitor glucose, reduce tremors, or even track heart function, taking time to recharge can pose a big risk.

For the first time, researchers in Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering have shown that a health care device can be powered using body heat alone. By combining a pulse oximetry sensor with a flexible, stretchable, wearable thermoelectric energy generator composed of liquid metal, semiconductors, and 3D printed rubber, the team has introduced a promising way to address battery life concerns.

“This is the first step towards battery-free wearable electronics,” said Mason Zadan, Ph.D. candidate and first author of the research published in Advanced Functional Materials.