Scientists
have developed a water-based battery that can store power generated
by wind and solar energy. The battery could solve issues with storing
renewable energy, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and it will be
cheap.
Stanford
scientists revealed the manganese-hydrogen battery in a research
paper published in the journal Nature on Monday. The battery has the
ability to store wind and solar energy until it’s needed.
The
prototype battery is three inches tall and generates 20
milliwatt-hours of electricity. Although the output is currently
modest, the researchers are confident they can apply the prototype to
an industrial-grade level that could allow the battery to be
recharged up to 10,000 times. This would give the battery a
decade-long lifespan.
“We
believe this prototype technology will be able to meet Department of
Energy (DOE) goals for [making] utility-scale electrical storage
practical,” explained Yi Cui, a professor of materials science
at Stanford.
The
battery uses a reversible electron exchange reaction to store the
energy, using cheap manganese sulfate, or industrial salt. The salt
is dissolved in water, where it can interact with electrons coming
into the battery.
“What
we've done is thrown a special salt into water, dropped in an
electrode, and created a reversible chemical reaction that stores
electrons in the form of hydrogen gas,” Cui said.
Cui
hopes to patent the process as the team works to reduce the cost of
the battery. “We have identified catalysts that could bring us
below the $100-per-kilowatt-hour DOE target,” he said. The
development would nearly half battery costs, with lithium ion battery
packs currently priced at around $209/kilowatt-hour.
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