Powering the Grid More Efficiently Using an All New Battery Design

Yi Cui holding the new lithium-polysulfide
flow battery lab model -- Source: R&D

A publication in May's issue of the journal Energy & Environmental Science reports on research results from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University. The researchers designed a low-cost, long-life battery that could enable solar and wind energy to become
major suppliers to the electrical grid.
The electrical grid has difficulties controlling the sudden/heavy fluctuations of power that stream through it due to swings in sunlight (cloud cover) or wind speed (wind fluctuations). At a combined 20% solar/wind contribution, leveling the peaks and troughs must be done using energy storage systems -- this energy storage is meant to hold the excess power during peaks and releases it during drops to smooth-en power moving through the grid.
The design idea for this battery was pulled from that of "flow" batteries because of their simple, less expensive, and high capacity design. This new Stanford/SLAC battery design allows one stream of molecules consisting of lithium and sulfur which through a series of chemical reactions allows the lithium coated metal to absorb and loose ions into a surrounding liquid.
"For solar and wind power to be used in a significant way, we need a battery made of economical materials that are easy to scale and still efficient"..."In initial lab tests, the new battery also retained excellent energy-storage performance through more than 2,000 charges and discharges, equivalent to more than 5.5 years of daily cycles," -- says Yi Cui, a member of the research team at Stanford (ref).
Source: Energy & Environmental Science