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The GreenBattery is a flow battery that can store excess renewable energy, at peak production periods, in water and salt.
About
The Innovation is a sustainable, cost-effective and scalable flow battery that can store excess renewable energy in water (H2O) and table-salt (NaCl). I have named this the GreenBattery. It is a combination of two well-established technologies. Renewable energy sources are intermittent, this means that electricity generation using these sources fluctuates. In order to supply the world with 100% renewable energy, energy storage is indispensable. Conventional battery technologies such as those based on lithium and lead-acid, use toxic materials, are expensive and sometimes unsafe. The GreenBattery use only H2O and NaCl as the storage medium, which are abundantly available on earth and cheap as well. Also, even at an event of an accident the GreenBattery is safe. I cannot explode, unlike some lithium batteries. The GreenBattery is highly scalable. As a matter of fact, the power (often expressed in kW) and the energy storage capacity (often expressed in kWh) are decoupled unlike lithium or lead acid batteries. This means that one can design a GreenBattery with a relatively small power and store energy for days to weeks. This can be cost-effective only with the GreenBattery. The GreenBattery is frankly quite simple to manufacture. A stack of ion-exchange and bipolar membranes needs to be made to perform charging and discharging. Other than that, one needs tanks to store water. Thus, it is easy to implement. As a matter of fact, a large-scale demonstration pilot of this technology is being built by AquaBattery in Italy. By scaling up production of the membranes, the cost can be lowered several orders of magnitude. This idea can play an important role in accelerating the transition to renewable energy sources. With the expected increase of installed renewable energy generation capacity, the demand for sustainable energy storage will also increase to balance energy supply and demand at various timescales. Energy storage systems that are cost-effective, sustainable and can handle energy storage for extended periods of time (storing energy to supply for days to weeks) are lacking. The GreenBattery is the first energy storage system that is truly sustainable, safe and highly scalable.
Key Benefits
The GreenBattery use only H2O and NaCl as the storage medium, which are abundantly available on earth and cheap as well. Also, even at an event of an accident the GreenBattery is safe. It cannot explode, unlike some lithium batteries. The GreenBattery is highly scalable. As a matter of fact, the power (often expressed in kW) and the energy storage capacity (often expressed in kWh) are decoupled unlike lithium or lead acid batteries. This means that one can design a GreenBattery with a relatively small power and store energy for days to weeks. This can be cost-effective only with the GreenBattery.
Applications
This idea can play an important role in accelerating the transition to renewable energy sources (e.g. solar or wind). With the expected increase of installed renewable energy generation capacity, the demand for sustainable energy storage will also increase to balance energy supply and demand at various timescales. Energy storage systems that are cost-effective, sustainable and can handle energy storage for extended periods of time (storing energy to supply for days to weeks) are lacking. The GreenBattery is the first energy storage system that is truly sustainable, safe and highly scalable.