NASA Battery Tech to Deliver for the Grid

A battery built for satellites brings grid-scale storage down to Earth

Technologies for space are designed to be tough, safe, and
long-lasting. So what happens when you bring the battery chemistry
deployed on the International Space Station, nickel-hydrogen, down to
Earth?

"[It's] the most durable battery ever invented," says Jorg Heinemann.
Nickel-hydrogen batteries, he says, can last for 30,000 charge cycles,
are fireproof, and outperform lithium-ion batteries on a number of key
metrics for energy storage at the large scale.

Heinemann is CEO of EnerVenue, a nickel-hydrogen battery manufacturer
based in Fremont, Calif. "Our cost is comparable to where lithium-ion
is going, and we use earth-abundant materials," he says. "Nickel is
the most expensive thing we use. We operate at a 90 percent round-trip
efficiency, more efficient than lithium-ion. And there's basically no
maintenance on this battery, it was designed for sending up on a
rocket ship into outer space."

Nickel-hydrogen batteries can run for tens of thousands of cycles,
giving them a life of over 30 years.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/grid-scale-battery-storage-nickel-hydrogen#toggle-gdpr

On Fri, 29 Sep 2023 20:04:07 -0500
JAB <here@is.invalid> wrote:

> NASA Battery Tech to Deliver for the Grid
>
> A battery built for satellites brings grid-scale storage down to Earth
>
> Technologies for space are designed to be tough, safe, and
> long-lasting. So what happens when you bring the battery chemistry
> deployed on the International Space Station, nickel-hydrogen, down to
> Earth?
>
> "[It's] the most durable battery ever invented," says Jorg Heinemann.
> Nickel-hydrogen batteries, he says, can last for 30,000 charge cycles,
> are fireproof, and outperform lithium-ion batteries on a number of key
> metrics for energy storage at the large scale.
>
> Heinemann is CEO of EnerVenue, a nickel-hydrogen battery manufacturer
> based in Fremont, Calif. "Our cost is comparable to where lithium-ion
> is going, and we use earth-abundant materials," he says. "Nickel is
> the most expensive thing we use. We operate at a 90 percent round-trip
> efficiency, more efficient than lithium-ion. And there's basically no
> maintenance on this battery, it was designed for sending up on a
> rocket ship into outer space."
>
> Nickel-hydrogen batteries can run for tens of thousands of cycles,
> giving them a life of over 30 years.
>
>
> https://spectrum.ieee.org/grid-scale-battery-storage-nickel-hydrogen#toggle-gdpr
>

Wasn't it this NG that gave me a link to glass battery technology?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_battery

If it's Goodenough! (/weak joke>

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 11:06:16 +0100, "Kerr-Mudd, John"
<admin@127.0.0.1> wrote:

>Wasn't it this NG that gave me a link to glass battery technology?

Trade offs must be considered....charge cycles....safety...raw
material available...battery dimensions, weight, etc

> Nickel-hydrogen batteries can run for tens of thousands of cycles,
> giving them a life of over 30 years.

On Sun, 01 Oct 2023 07:39:00 -0500
JAB <here@is.invalid> wrote:

> Trade offs must be considered....charge cycles....safety...raw
> material available...battery dimensions, weight, etc

The big one is, unfortunately, cost. Li-Ion works "pretty well" at far
lower cost. Some of that is economies of scale. And not just purchase
cost - cost of operation, maintenance, replacement, decommissioning,
safety features etc.

Li-Ion is currently 90% of the grid-scale battery market. Their
combustibility is being handled by new systems that automatically
monitor and control heat build up and deploy fire protection systems if
necessary. That's not ideal, but it seems to still be more cost
effective than alternatives.

I'm watching flow batteries carefully, but they're finicky and
expensive. Check out vanadium redox for example.

On Sat, 30 Sep 2023 11:06:16 +0100, "Kerr-Mudd, John"
<admin@127.0.0.1> wrote:

>Wasn't it this NG that gave me a link to glass battery technology?

Subject: John Goodenough - new glass battery
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2020 21:58:40 -0500

Li-ion co-inventor patents glass battery that could upturn auto
industry
...
...
And the new glass battery promises to accelerate the shift away from
internal combustion engines because it will deliver a significant
increase in storage capacity.

By "spiking" glass with either sodium or lithium to form an electrode
within the battery, the researchers say the new battery technology
provides three times the energy storage capacity of comparable
lithium-ion batteries.

It is also neither volatile nor flammable, and does not display issues
of lithium dendrite growth that plagues li-ion batteries, which can
cause short-circuits and present safety hazards.

<https://thedriven.io/2020/04/06/li-ion-co-inventor-patents-glass-battery-that-could-upturn-auto-industry/>

On Sun, 1 Oct 2023 11:27:12 -0400
Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> wrote:

> On Sun, 01 Oct 2023 07:39:00 -0500
> JAB <here@is.invalid> wrote:
>
> > Trade offs must be considered....charge cycles....safety...raw
> > material available...battery dimensions, weight, etc
>
> The big one is, unfortunately, cost. Li-Ion works "pretty well" at far
> lower cost. Some of that is economies of scale. And not just purchase
> cost - cost of operation, maintenance, replacement, decommissioning,
> safety features etc.
>
> Li-Ion is currently 90% of the grid-scale battery market. Their
> combustibility is being handled by new systems that automatically
> monitor and control heat build up and deploy fire protection systems if
> necessary. That's not ideal, but it seems to still be more cost
> effective than alternatives.

There's the scaling up problem - is there enough Lithium out there? (I
don't know it's a geniune question)

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201124-how-geothermal-lithium-could-revolutionise-green-energy
(I just get "Loading", maybe it works for othyer browsers)

>
> I'm watching flow batteries carefully, but they're finicky and
> expensive. Check out vanadium redox for example.

--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

On Sun, 1 Oct 2023 20:09:30 +0100, "Kerr-Mudd, John" <admin@127.0.0.1>
wrote:

>There's the scaling up problem - is there enough Lithium out there? (I
>don't know it's a geniune question)
>
>https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201124-how-geothermal-lithium-could-revolutionise-green-energy
>(I just get "Loading", maybe it works for othyer browsers)

URL works, but it's a dated article: 24th November 2020

Lithium discovery in US volcano could be biggest deposit ever found |
Research | Chemistry World

chemistryworld.com
Lithium discovery in US volcano could be biggest deposit ever found
Find could point to new ways to prospect for material in high demand
for batteries.

https://twitter.com/OrrellAEI/status/1700604848910037411