10 Predictions for the Solar and Storage Market in the 2020s

Branding and reputation will be increasingly important in the energy storage market.

 

The solar-plus-storage market is evolving rapidly and will look completely different a decade down the road. What can we expect on the way to 2030? Here are 10 predictions.

All-in-one systems will be the new normal

1. Lots of storage

Batteries will be incentivized or mandated for practically every new solar PV system across the U.S. by 2025. As more homeowners and businesses deploy PV systems to reduce their electricity bills and ensure backup power, simple net metering will increasingly be replaced by time-of-use rates and other billing mechanisms that aim to align power prices with utility costs. We already see these trends in California and several states in the Northeast.

 

Solar systems with batteries are going to be about twice as expensive as traditional grid-direct installations, so in that sense, we will see actual costs increase as the mix shifts toward batteries. But while system costs will go up, we need to be careful to parse the actual equipment and soft costs from the consumer’s cost net of tax credits and incentives. Equipment costs for batteries and other hardware are generally flat to slightly down.

3. More battery and inverter packages from the same brand

Since the battery represents the dominant cost in an energy storage system (ESS), inverter companies will increasingly offer branded batteries. In turn, inverter companies packaging third-party batteries will eventually make way for savvy battery companies that can package the whole system.

4. Energy storage systems treated like heat pumps and air conditioners

California’s new Title 21 requirements make solar PV systems standard issue, and we can expect a future update to do the same for energy storage. By then, builders will be able to choose the ESS line they want to work with, and the whole process will look almost exactly like it does for home mechanical appliances like water heaters and HVAC systems. The only question will be whether the ESS is packaged with solar panels or kept separate.

Standards will evolve

5. Reputation will matter — a lot

The lack of meaningful industry metrics in energy storage creates an environment where branding and reputation become important, since users have little information beyond messaging and word of mouth. Long-term, this will create a barrier to entry for new battery startups, so expect fewer total players once a handful of brands emerge as high-confidence choices.

6. New safety standards and code requirements catch up to technology

Last October, the National Fire Protection Association published the first edition of the NFPA 855 code, which establishes an industrywide safety standard for energy storage systems. Test standards, including UL 9540, and UL 9540A, as well as building and electrical codes, such as the National Electrical Code (NEC/NFPA 70), International Residential Code and International Fire Code, are already being updated to harmonize with NFPA 855. The upshot is that kilowatt-hour capacity limits, siting and protective equipment requirements are becoming standardized and more accessible for both installers and inspectors to understand and apply.

All things will remain technical

7. Real automation and optimization software will outpace flashy interfaces

Third-party owners have specific PV fleet-management needs and often have proprietary software that their ESS needs to interface with daily. IEEE 2030.5 and related standards will help facilitate this need. Local installers have little in the way of hard requirements, but they and their customers will expect systems to be easy to install and operate.

In the long term, we’ll see real automation and optimization rather than the data-palooza common today. Many interfaces report too much data, and simplifying systems to hide irrelevant data will be necessary to avoid alienating the more mainstream consumers.

8. Still waiting for vehicle-to-grid

While V2G is not primarily a technical challenge, some manufacturers like Nissan and Honda have made significant headway. The challenge is more procedural than technical. V2G applications will take off when vehicle manufacturers and interface providers come to terms with how and when an electric vehicle’s battery is used for grid services or backup and how that impacts the EV’s warranty.

There’s also a consumer confidence problem to overcome, especially for those relying solely on their EV for transportation. We’re more likely to see “second-life” EV batteries repackaged for stationary storage — which is much easier to manage than trying to use the battery in the car.

9. AC and DC coupling will both be around for the foreseeable future

Given the latest National Electrical Code requirements for rapid shutdown, as well as the fact that module-level systems (e.g., Enphase and SolarEdge) represent the majority of installed systems, AC coupling is the clear choice for existing system owners to add batteries.

AC coupling will enjoy at least a temporary boom in popularity as people with existing PV systems seek to add storage. However, most advantages of AC coupling are for retrofits, and the majority of new systems will enjoy lower costs and better performance via DC coupling. DC coupling is arguably going to become more dominant once the PV-only retrofit market is saturated.

10. Battery pack voltage will increase dramatically

A century of lead-acid battery dominance has entrenched 48 volts (DC) as the standard battery system voltage. Systems with voltages up to 1,000 VDC are deployed using standard lead-acid cells, but it is only practical for engineered commercial and industrial or utility systems.

The Ohm’s law tradeoff between current and voltage pushed the EV industry, which needs to reduce weight and cost everywhere it can, to quickly migrate to high-voltage battery packs using 3- to 4-VDC lithium-ion cells. Similarly, the stationary energy storage industry is adopting higher-voltage battery packs to reduce the cost of battery inverters. Since conductor losses increase and decrease exponentially with current, higher battery voltages also enable better system efficiency.

The decade of the 2020s will ring in the age of mass solar-plus-storage solution deployment, allowing businesses and residents to tap into renewables more efficiently, protect against outages, save money and live more sustainably.

*** Re-Posted from Green-Tech Media

Researchers develop technique to create nanomaterials which may help detect cancer earlier – U of Central Florida

Assistant Professor Xiaohu Xia works in his chemistry lab at the University of Central Florida. Credit: UCF, Karen Norum

For the first time, a team of scientists at the University of Central Florida has created functional nanomaterials with hollow interiors that can be used to create highly sensitive biosensors for early cancer detection.

Xiaohu Xia, an assistant professor of chemistry with a joint appointment in the NanoScience Technology Center, and his team developed the new method and recently published their work in the journal ACS Nano.

“These advanced hollow nanomaterials hold great potential to enable high-performance technologies in various areas,” says Xia. “Potentially we could be talking about a better and less expensive diagnostic tool, sensitive enough to detect biomarkers at low concentrations, which could make it invaluable for early detection of cancers and infectious diseases.”

Because hollow nanomaterials made of gold and silver alloys display superior optical properties, they could be particularly good for developing better test strip technology, similar to over-the-counter pregnancy tests. Currently the technology used to indicate positive or negative symbols on the test stick is not sensitive enough to pick up markers that indicate certain types of cancer. But Xia’s new method of creating hollow nanomaterials could change that.

More advance warning could help doctors save more lives.

In conventional test strips, solid gold nanoparticles are often used as labels, where they are connected with antibodies and specifically generate color signal due to an optical phenomenon called localized surface plasmon resonance. Under Xia’s technique, metallic nanomaterials can be crafted with hollow interiors. Compared to the solid counterparts, these hollow nanostructures possess much stronger LSPR activities and thus offer more intense color signal. Therefore, when the hollow nanomaterials are used as labels in test strips they can induce sensitive color change, enabling the strips to detect biomarkers at lower concentrations.

“Test-strip technology gets upgraded by simply replacing solid gold nanoparticles with the unique hollow nanoparticles, while all other components of a test strip are kept unchanged,” says Xia. “Just like the pregnancy test, the new test strip can be performed by non-skilled persons, and the results can be determined with the naked eye without the need of any equipment. These features make the strip extremely suitable for use in challenging locations such as remote villages.”

The UCF study focused on prostate-specific antigen, a biomarker for prostate cancer. The new test strip based on hollow nanomaterials was able to detect PSA as low as 0.1 nanogram per milliliter (ng/mL), which is sufficiently sensitive for clinical diagnostics of prostate cancer. The published study includes electron microscope images of the metallic hollow nanomaterials.

“I hope that by providing a general and versatile platform to engineer functional hollow nanomaterials with desired properties, new research with the potential for other applications beyond biosensing can be launched,” Xia says.

Collaborators on the study include Zhuangqiang Gao, Zheng Xi, Haihang Ye, Zhiyuan Wei and Shikuan Shao from UCF’s chemistry department; Qingxiao Wang and Moon J. Kim from the University of Texas at Dallas, and Dianyong Tang from Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences in China.

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Explore further

Test strips for cancer detection get upgraded with nanoparticle bling

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More information: Zhuangqiang Gao et al. Template Regeneration in Galvanic Replacement: A Route to Highly Diverse Hollow Nanostructures, ACS Nano (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.9b07781

Journal information: ACS Nano

Provided by University of Central Florida

Scientists create solar panel by combining protein and quantum dots

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Scientists at the National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Russia) have created a new type of solar panel based on hybrid material consisting of quantum dots (QDs) and photosensitive protein. The creators believe that it has great potential for solar energy and optical computing.

The results of the MEPhI study were published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

Archaeal proteins of unicellular organisms, bacteriorhodopsin, can convert the energy of light into the energy of chemical bonds (like chlorophyll in plants). This occurs due to the transfer of a positive charge through the cell membrane. Bacteriorhodopsin acts as a proton pump, which makes it a ready-to-use natural element of the solar panel.

A key difference between bacteriorhodopsin and chlorophyll is its ability to operate without oxygen, allowing the archaea to live in very aggressive environments like the depths of the Dead Sea. This ability has evolutionarily led to their high chemical, thermal, and optical stability. At the same time, by pumping protons, bacteriorhodopsin changes color many times in a billionth of a second. This is why it is a promising material for creating holographic processing units.

Scientists of MEPhI have been able to significantly improve the properties of bacteriorhodopsin by binding it to quantum dots (QDs)—semiconductor nanoparticles capable of concentrating light energy on a scale of just a few nanometers and transmitting it to bacteriorhodopsin without emitting light.

“We have created a highly efficient, operating photosensitive cell that generates electrical current by converting light under very low photon excitation. Under normal conditions, such a cell doesn’t work because photosensitive molecules such as bacteriorhodopsin effectively absorb light only in a very narrow energy range. But quantum dots do this in a very wide range and can even convert two lower-energy photons into one high-energy photon as if stacking them,” a researcher at MEPhI and one of the authors of the study, Viktor Krivenkov said.

According to the researcher, creating conditions for the radiation of high-energy photon, a quantum dot may not radiate it but rather transmit it to bacteriorhodopsin. Thus, MEPhI scientists have engineered a cell capable of operating under the irradiation from the near-infrared to the ultraviolet regions of the optical spectrum.

“We use an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of chemistry, biology, particle physics and photonics. Quantum dots are produced using chemical synthesis methods, then they are coated with molecules that make their surface simultaneously biocompatible and charged, after which they are bound to the surface of the archean bacteriorhodopsin -containing purple membranes of Halobacterium salinarum. As a result, we have obtained hybrid complexes with very high (about 80%) efficiency of excitation energy transfer from quantum dots to bacteriorhodopsin,” the leading scientist of the MEPhI Nano-Bioengineering Laboratory, Igor Nabiev said.

According to the researchers, the obtained results show the potential for creating highly effective photosensitive elements based on biostructures. They may be used, not only to provide solar energy, but also in optical computing.

The authors emphasized the very high quality of the bio-hybrid nanostructured material and the prospect of surpassing the best commercial samples with a possible increase in efficiency by a substantial margin. The next goal of the research team in this direction is to optimize the structure of the photosensitive cell.

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Explore further

Protein changes precede photoisomerization of retinal chromophore

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More information: Victor Krivenkov et al. Remarkably enhanced photoelectrical efficiency of bacteriorhodopsin in quantum dot – Purple membrane complexes under two-photon excitation, Biosensors and Bioelectronics (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2019.05.009

Journal information: Biosensors and Bioelectronics

New pulmonary fibrosis inhalation therapy shows promise in mouse model

Lung stem cell secretions – nanosized exosomes and secretomes – delivered via a nebulizer has been shown to help in the repair of lung injuries from pulmonary fibrosis in mice and rats in research led by a team from North Carolina State University (NC State; USA).

Pulmonary fibrosis is a fatal and incurable disease characterized by a thickening and scarring of healthy lung tissue, inflammation and replacement of lung cells with fibrotic tissue. The current treatment options for pulmonary fibrosis are severely limited and not very effective apart from highly invasive lung transplants. To rectify this, Ke Cheng of NC State led the research into developing spheroid-produced lung stem cells (LSCs) as a potential therapeutic.

“The mixture of cells in LSCs recreates the stem cells’ natural microenvironment – known as the stem cell niche – where cells secrete exosomes to communicate with each other just as they would inside your body,” Cheng explained. “LSCs secrete many beneficial proteins and growth factors known collectively as ‘secretome’ – exosomes and soluble proteins, which can reproduce the regenerative microenvironment of the cells themselves. In this work we took it one step further and tested the secretome and exosomes from our spheroid-produced stem cells against two models of pulmonary fibrosis.”

Cheng’s lab used mouse and rat models of chemically, silica- or particle-induced pulmonary fibrosis to test lung spheroid cell secretome (LSC-Sec) and lung spheroid cell exosomes (LSC-Exo) against commonly used mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The stem cell-derived therapeutics – proteins, small molecules and nanosized exosomes – were delivered via inhalation directly to the lungs by a nebulizer.

In the mouse model of chemically induced fibrosis, improvements were seen in all stem cell therapies compared to the control, with a 32.4% reduction in fibrosis with MSC-Sec treatment and nearly 50% reduction with LSC-Sec treatment.

In the silica-induced fibrosis mouse model LSC-Sec treatment led to a 26% reduction in fibrosis compared to 16.9% with MSC-Sec treatment.

“This work shows that lung spheroid cell secretome and exosomes are more effective than their mesenchymal stem cells counterparts in decreasing fibrotic tissue and inflammation in damaged lung tissue,” Cheng stated. “Hopefully we are taking our first steps toward an efficient, non-invasive and cost-effective way to repair damaged lungs.

“Given the therapy’s effectiveness in multiple models of lung fibrosis and inflammation, we are planning to expand the test into more pulmonary diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and pulmonary hypertension (PH).”

“The finding that products released by lung stem cells can be just as efficacious, if not more so, than the stem cells themselves in treating pulmonary fibrosis can be a major finding that can have implications in many other diseases where stem cell therapy is being developed,” commented Kenneth Adler, Professor at NC State and a co-author of the paper.

SOURCE

• Dinh PC, Paudel D, Brochu H et al., Inhalation of lung spheroid cell secretome and exosomes promotes lung repair in pulmonary fibrosis. Nat. Commun. 11, 1064. (2020).

New study allows brain and artificial neurons to link up over the web – Cutting Edge Nanotechnology

Brain-digital interface concept illustration (stock image). Credit: © knowhowfootage / 

Brain functions are made possible by circuits of spiking neurons, connected together by microscopic, but highly complex links called synapses.

In this new study, published in the scientific journal Nature Scientific Reports, the scientists created a hybrid neural network where biological and artificial neurons in different parts of the world were able to communicate with each other over the internet through a hub of artificial synapses made using cutting-edge nanotechnology.

This is the first time the three components have come together in a unified network.

During the study, researchers based at the University of Padova in Italy cultivated rat neurons in their laboratory, whilst partners from the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich created artificial neurons on Silicon microchips.

The virtual laboratory was brought together via an elaborate setup controlling nanoelectronic synapses developed at the University of Southampton. These synaptic devices are known as memristors.

The Southampton based researchers captured spiking events being sent over the internet from the biological neurons in Italy and then distributed them to the memristive synapses.

Responses were then sent onward to the artificial neurons in Zurich also in the form of spiking activity. The process simultaneously works in reverse too; from Zurich to Padova. Thus, artificial and biological neurons were able to communicate bidirectionally and in real time.

Themis Prodromakis, Professor of Nanotechnology and Director of the Centre for Electronics Frontiers at the University of Southampton said “One of the biggest challenges in conducting research of this kind and at this level has been integrating such distinct cutting edge technologies and specialist expertise that are not typically found under one roof. By creating a virtual lab we have been able to achieve this.”

The researchers now anticipate that their approach will ignite interest from a range of scientific disciplines and accelerate the pace of innovation and scientific advancement in the field of neural interfaces research.

In particular, the ability to seamlessly connect disparate technologies across the globe is a step towards the democratisation of these technologies, removing a significant barrier to collaboration.

Professor Prodromakis added “We are very excited with this new development. On one side it sets the basis for a novel scenario that was never encountered during natural evolution, where biological and artificial neurons are linked together and communicate across global networks; laying the foundations for the Internet of Neuro-electronics.

On the other hand, it brings new prospects to neuroprosthetic technologies, paving the way towards research into replacing dysfunctional parts of the brain with AI chips.”

The research was funded by the EU Future and Emerging Technologies programme as well as the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the UK. Professor Prodromakis also holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies with a focus on developing energy-efficient AI Hardware solutions.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Southampton. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Alexantrou Serb, Andrea Corna, Richard George, Ali Khiat, Federico Rocchi, Marco Reato, Marta Maschietto, Christian Mayr, Giacomo Indiveri, Stefano Vassanelli, Themistoklis Prodromakis. Memristive synapses connect brain and silicon spiking neurons. Scientific Reports, 2020; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-58831-9

A Peek into the Future of … The Battery Technology ‘Pipeline’

Berkeley Lab battery researcher Gerbrand Ceder (Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt/Berkeley Lab)

Scientist Gerbrand Ceder evaluates some of the most promising battery technologies in development

Lithium ion is probably the most advanced technology available for the packs of rechargeable batteries you’ll buy this holiday season. The batteries also power the vast majority of consumer devices, electric vehicles, and grid storage systems.

Despite their ubiquity, lithium-ion batteries have disadvantages. Metals used in the batteries are becoming expensive and one crucial metal, cobalt, is relatively rare and has had recent media focus on questionable mining practices in some regions. Plus, the batteries can overheat and, when damaged, occasionally catch fire.

With its deep expertise in materials research, materials design, and energy storage technologies, Berkeley Lab is working on better battery alternatives. Gerbrand Ceder, a battery researcher in the Materials Science Division, details four battery technologies being studied by Berkeley Lab scientists that could make a big difference in the future.

Cobalt- and Nickel-Free Batteries

The reservoirs of a lithium-ion battery, the anode and the cathode, store lithium. When the battery is in use, lithium ions move to the cathode from the anode with the aid of a liquid electrolyte, typically an organic solvent, generating an electric current. When the battery charges, the reverse occurs.

Materials used to store lithium in lithium-ion batteries typically contain cobalt and nickel. Cobalt is scarce and expensive and has been linked with questionable practices in regions where it is mined.

The technology would solve these problems by eliminating cobalt and reducing or eliminating nickel. Iron or manganese, both of which are inexpensive, would ideally be used instead, Ceder said.

Possible uses: In consumer electronics and vehicles.

When available: Five to six years. 

Multi-Valent Batteries

Instead of using lithium ions, which are “single valent,” this technology would use materials with ions that carry more charge, like magnesium, calcium, or possibly aluminum. These so-called “multi-valent batteries” could therefore be much smaller and more powerful than lithium-ion batteries.

Possible uses: In portable electronics and electric vehicles “if we can make it work,” said Ceder, who is also a UC Berkeley professor in materials science and engineering.

When available: This technology is “the most ambitious but therefore probably also the most difficult,” Ceder said. It’s at least 10 years away.

Sodium-Ion Batteries

These batteries would replace the lithium in lithium-ion batteries with sodium. A sodium-ion battery would operate exactly the same as a lithium one, except instead of moving lithium ions, it would move sodium ions. Sodium is much cheaper than lithium, and the materials that would be used to store sodium could also be cheaper than those to store lithium, which are primarily cobalt and nickel-based oxides. Eventually, these batteries could cost less than half of lithium-ion batteries, Ceder said.

Possible uses: For electrical power grids to store excess power, often from solar and wind, for later use.

When available: The technology is “almost to the point where it can work,” Ceder said, “but the question is whether it will get market traction.” With market traction, the technology might be three to four years away, he said. 

Solid-State Batteries

This technology would replace the highly flammable liquid electrolytes of some lithium-ion batteries with an nonflammable solid material. The primary benefit would be improved safety, but it might be possible to use other storage materials and increase the energy content, Ceder said. In addition to being safer, such batteries could reduce costs and weight by eliminating the need for cooling and other safety devices.

Possible uses: In both electric vehicles to reduce costs and increase range and in consumer devices.

When available: At least four or five years away.

# # #

Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratoryand its scientists have been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe.

Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science. 

SOCAL Considering the Promise of a Project that Provides Desalinated Water AND … Renewable Energy

Oceanus Water & Power design for environment-friendly desalination plant

The contraption, reminiscent of Rube Goldberg, would produce two of Southern California’s most precious and essential resources: water and electricity.

The electricity would be renewable. And the drought-proof, desalinated ocean water could prove more environmentally friendly — and cheaper — than the water produced from three other desalters proposed for Southern California.

The idea, developed by Silicon Valley-based Neal Aronson and his Oceanus Power & Water venture, caught the attention of the Santa Margarita Water District. The agency quickly saw the project’s viability to fill a void.

“Somebody looked at a problem differently than anybody has in the past,” said district General Manager Dan Ferons. “It’s really creative and got us excited about it. … It could become a primary source of water for south Orange County.”

While Oceanus’s proposals at locations in Mexico and Chile have advanced to the preliminary engineering phases, it remains in the conceptual stage for a plant in northern Camp Pendleton.

But because south Orange County is almost entirely dependent on imported water — and vulnerable to shortages during droughts and earthquakes that can disrupt imported flows — the Santa Margarita Water District last summer signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Oceanus for possible participation.

“You don’t want to have just one source of water,” Ferons said, noting that the district is also interested in desalted water from two other plants proposed for the region.

“We thought, ‘Here’s another opportunity to increase our resilience.’ It made sense to encourage and support the project while they pull it together.”

How it works

The Oceanus process begins by pumping water from the ocean to a reservoir some 1,000 feet above sea level, using solar and wind energy to power the two-way pump turbines during daylight hours when those renewable sources are plentiful. During the evening and early morning, water would be released to run downhill, most of it churning through turbines to create electricity when solar and wind energy are unavailable.

Additionally, a portion of the downhill water would be diverted into a desalination operation, where gravity would force it through reverse osmosis membranes that remove the salt.

Relying on gravity rather than electricity to push water through the filters is key to making it cheaper than the water that someday could be produced at desalination plants proposed for Huntington Beach, Dana Point and El Segundo.

Meanwhile, the salty brine byproduct would be mixed with the other outward-bound seawater, greatly diluting it before entering the ocean. Concerns linger among some environmentalists about the harm that the brine would inflict on marine life at other proposed plants, something that would be minimized by the Oceanus approach.

“No one has done this type of project anywhere in the world,” said Oceanus CEO Aronson, whose background is in real estate development and renewable energy projects. “It’s climate resilient. And we’re not planning to use any energy beyond pumping water from the ocean. … I’m a huge believer in the value this integration can bring.”

Inspiration and invention

The idea of creating energy by releasing water to drive turbines is hardly a new one — that’s how hydroelectric dams work. Even the idea of pumping water into reservoirs when electric rates are low and releasing it when they spike — a process known as pumped-storage hydroelectricity — has been used for over a century, Aronson said.

He recalled seeing such plants while vacationing with his parents in Switzerland and France as a child.

Neal Aronson, CEO of Oceanus Power & Water. (Courtesy of Oceanus Power & Water)

And then, in 2014, while developing a solar farm project near the San Luis Reservoir in Merced County, he sized up his project sitting in the shadow of the reservoir and began imagining future sites for pumped-storage hydroelectricity.

Solar and wind are great but what do you do at night?” Aronson said. “Chemical batteries aren’t the right solution for large-scale energy storage.”

While batteries increasingly are being used in California to store solar and wind energy for use during off hours, Aronson points out that those batteries have a limited life span, are still expensive, and can have negative environmental consequences as they have a carbon footprint and are not yet recyclable.

After Aronson began thinking about pumped-storage hyrdoelectricity plants, his focus sharpened to the possibility of building such plants along the coast, using ocean water — something that was only being done in Japan.

Next, the desalter portion of the plant clicked into place.

“In conversations with engineers, one kind of flippantly said, ‘If you’re going to stick a straw in the ocean and suck water out, why don’t you desalinate it while you’re at it,’ ” Aronson recalled. “And we figured out, yeah, you can do that.”

Next steps

Oceanus, founded in 2015, is farthest along with its plans in Chile, where Aronson said he may have all permits necessary to break ground within two years.

The proposal in Sonora, Mexico, on the Sea of Cortez sounds more tentative. While Oceanus has a site, a feasibility study is still underway by the Binational Desalination Work Group. If the U.S.-Mexico entity decides to go forward, Oceanus would likely compete with other bidders. The water would go to both Mexico and to southernmost U.S. states that depend on increasingly uncertain water supplies from the Colorado River.

Camp Pendleton is farther off still. Aronson said he has had talks with the base, the Navy and the Department of Defense, but the decision to go forward has not yet been made. A selling point for the military is that the plant could help the base become more resilient and self-sufficient in terms of water and electricity, which is of particular interest to the Department of Defense, Aronson said.

“The first step is to get them to draft and issue a solicitation for something like this, and we would bid into it,” Aronson said. He declined to speculate on how long it might take for the project to get off the ground, but Santa Margarita Water District’s Ferons estimated a minimum of five years.

While Aronson envisions building a solar farm to power a plant in Sonora, he said a Camp Pendleton plant would likely use power from the state electrical grid during hours when it’s being fed by renewable sources.

Scientists find an effective way to obtain fuel for hydrogen engines

Credit: Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University

One of the most promising alternative energy sources is hydrogen, which can be extracted from water and air. A catalyst is needed for a chemical process that releases hydrogen from an H₂O molecule.

It can be made, for example, from platinum or from molybdenum. But these are quite expensive materials. Therefore, the output energy is expensive too. The group of Russian scientists have invented a new approach to solving this problem and published the thesis on this topic in the Nanomaterials journal.

Director of the IKBFU “Functional Nanomaterials” Science and Education Center, Alexander Goykhman said: “We propose molybdenum sulfide as a material for the catalysts which is, firstly, more effective than molybdenum, and, secondly, much cheaper since the total amount of expensive metal in catalysts is reduced, and the sulfur is not scarce and very cheap.”

According to Alexander Goykhman, the material was created in the Moscow National Nuclear Research University, and the IKBFU scientists were to study the sulfur and find out whether it has all necessary parameters or not.

Prof. Goykhman said: “Usually we grow the nanostructures and our colleagues in Moscow study them. But in this case, our roles are reversed. Nevertheless, the structures are fine and fully meet the expectations. We have managed to get the best materials suitable for the catalyst process, molybdenum sulfur.”

The scientists that have found the more effective material for catalysts production also offered the most efficient way of using it. Alexander Goykhman continues:

“To make an effective hydrogen engine one must pay attention not only to the constitution of the catalyst but also to the shape of it. We suggest using thin films of molybdenum sulfide deposited on the surface of glassy carbon.

In this case, the material consumption will be minimal, and the surface area of the catalyst will be the same as if it was completely made from molybdenum sulfide. In the published work, a method for the deposition of such functional molybdenum sulfide films is proposed. It is also shown under what conditions of formation it is possible to achieve maximum catalyst efficiency.”

According to Alexander Goykhman, this research may give an impetus to the hydrogen-based energy sector.

More information: V. Fominski et al, Comparative Study of the Structure, Composition, and Electrocatalytic Performance of Hydrogen Evolution in MoSx~2+δ/Mo and MoSx~3+δ Films Obtained by Pulsed Laser Deposition, Nanomaterials (2020).  DOI: 10.3390/nano10020201

Provided by Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University

New green technology from UMass Amherst generates electricity ‘out of thin air’ Renewable device could help mitigate climate change, power medical devices

 

Graphic image of a thin film of protein nanowires generating electricity from atmospheric humidity. UMass Amherst researchers say the device can literally make electricity out of thin air. CREDIT UMass Amherst/Yao and Lovley labs

Abstract:

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a device that uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in the air, a new technology they say could have significant implications for the future of renewable energy, climate change and in the future of medicine.

As reported today in Nature, the laboratories of electrical engineer Jun Yao and microbiologist Derek Lovley at UMass Amherst have created a device they call an “Air-gen.” or air-powered generator, with electrically conductive protein nanowires produced by the microbe Geobacter. The Air-gen connects electrodes to the protein nanowires in such a way that electrical current is generated from the water vapor naturally present in the atmosphere.

“We are literally making electricity out of thin air,” says Yao. “The Air-gen generates clean energy 24/7.” Lovely, who has advanced sustainable biology-based electronic materials over three decades, adds, “It’s the most amazing and exciting application of protein nanowires yet.”

The new technology developed in Yao’s lab is non-polluting, renewable and low-cost. It can generate power even in areas with extremely low humidity such as the Sahara Desert. It has significant advantages over other forms of renewable energy including solar and wind, Lovley says, because unlike these other renewable energy sources, the Air-gen does not require sunlight or wind, and “it even works indoors.”

The Air-gen device requires only a thin film of protein nanowires less than 10 microns thick, the researchers explain. The bottom of the film rests on an electrode, while a smaller electrode that covers only part of the nanowire film sits on top. The film adsorbs water vapor from the atmosphere. A combination of the electrical conductivity and surface chemistry of the protein nanowires, coupled with the fine pores between the nanowires within the film, establishes the conditions that generate an electrical current between the two electrodes.

The researchers say that the current generation of Air-gen devices are able to power small electronics, and they expect to bring the invention to commercial scale soon.

Next steps they plan include developing a small Air-gen “patch” that can power electronic wearables such as health and fitness monitors and smart watches, which would eliminate the requirement for traditional batteries. They also hope to develop Air-gens to apply to cell phones to eliminate periodic charging.

Yao says, “The ultimate goal is to make large-scale systems. For example, the technology might be incorporated into wall paint that could help power your home.

Or, we may develop stand-alone air-powered generators that supply electricity off the grid. Once we get to an industrial scale for wire production, I fully expect that we can make large systems that will make a major contribution to sustainable energy production.”

Continuing to advance the practical biological capabilities of Geobacter, Lovley’s lab recently developed a new microbial strain to more rapidly and inexpensively mass produce protein nanowires. “We turned E. coli into a protein nanowire factory,” he says. “With this new scalable process, protein nanowire supply will no longer be a bottleneck to developing these applications.”

The Air-gen discovery reflects an unusual interdisciplinary collaboration, they say. Lovley discovered the Geobacter microbe in the mud of the Potomac River more than 30 years ago.

His lab later discovered its ability to produce electrically conductive protein nanowires. Before coming to UMass Amherst, Yao had worked for years at Harvard University, where he engineered electronic devices with silicon nanowires.

They joined forces to see if useful electronic devices could be made with the protein nanowires harvested from Geobacter.

Xiaomeng Liu, a Ph.D. student in Yao’s lab, was developing sensor devices when he noticed something unexpected. He recalls, “I saw that when the nanowires were contacted with electrodes in a specific way the devices generated a current. I found that that exposure to atmospheric humidity was essential and that protein nanowires adsorbed water, producing a voltage gradient across the device.”

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In addition to the Air-gen, Yao’s laboratory has developed several other applications with the protein nanowires. “This is just the beginning of new era of protein-based electronic devices” said Yao.

The research was supported in part from a seed fund through the Office of Technology Commercialization and Ventures at UMass Amherst and research development funds from the campus’s College of Natural Sciences.

Copyright © University of Massachusetts Amherst

Three Innovations To Upend The Energy Storage Market

The battery craze isn’t really about batteries at all. It’s about something far grander than a battery, which is simply a conduit to a much bigger story.

Batteries are like the internet without Wifi. 

The holy grail is energy storage.

And while perpetually bigger batteries themselves have emerged as the dominant solution to our energy storage needs, their reliance on rare earths elements and some metals that are controversially sourced, as well as the fact that their product life is quite limited, indicates they are simply a stop along the way to more creative innovations. 

Already, there are several challenger solutions that have the potential to rise above the battery as the answer to our energy storage needs.

Gravity 

One of these solutions is gravity. Several companies across the world are using gravity for energy storage or rather, moving objects up and down to store and, respectively, release stored electricity.

One of these, Swiss-based Energy Vault, uses a six headed crane to lift bricks when renewable installations are producing electricity than can be consumed and drop them back down when demand for electricity outweighs supply. The idea may sound eccentric but kinetic energy, according to a Wall Street Journal report on these companies, is getting increasingly popular.

The idea draws on hydropower storage: that involves pushing water uphill and storing it until it is needed to power the turbines, when it is released downhill. On instead of water, these companies use gravity, essentially lifting and dropping heavy objects. Energy Vault uses bricks and says 20 brick towers could power up to 40,000 households for a period of 24 hours. Related: Oil Suppliers Slash Prices To Save Asian Market Share

Another company, in the UK, lifts and drops weights in abandoned mine shafts. 

Gravitricity, which last year ran a crowdfunding campaign that raised $978,000 (750,000 pounds), is using abandoned shafts to raise and lower weights of between 500 and 5,000 tons with a system of winches. According to the company, the system could be configured for between 1 and 20 MW peak capacity. The duration of power supply, however, is even more limited than Energy Vault’s, at 15 minutes to 8 hours.

The duration of power supply is an important issue. When the wind dies down and the sky is overcast, this could last more than a day as evidenced by the wind drought in the UK two years ago, when wind turbines were forced to idle for a week.

Heat

Gravity-base storage is one alternative to batteries, some of it cheaper than batteries, but for the time being, less reliable than batteries if we are thinking about a 100-percent renewable-powered grid. Another solution is thermal storage.

EnergyNest is one developer of thermal energy storage. It works by pumping a heated fluid along a system of pipes and storing it in a solid material. The heat flows into the material from top to bottom and is released into this material where it stays until it is needed again. Then, the flow gets reversed, with cold fluid (thermal oil or water) flowing from the bottom up, heating up in the process and exiting the storage system. Related: Restarted Saudi, Kuwaiti Oilfields To Pump 550,000 Bpd By End-2020

Then there is liquid air storage as an alternative to batteries. It works by separating the carbon dioxide and the oxygen from the nitrogen in the air and then storing this nitrogen in liquefied form. When needed to generate electricity, it is regasified. The process of liquefaction is powered by the excess electricity that needs to be stored and when a peak in demand requires more electricity generation, it is reheated and regasified, and used to power a turbine. According to experts, the process is not 100-percent efficient, with rates ranging from 25 percent to 70 percent.

Geothermal

Yet another potential alternative to batteries for energy storage is using geothermal energy to store heat and then releasing it to generate more electricity. The so-called sensitized thermal cells developed by researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Technology are technically batteries, as they use electrodes to move electrons. But on the flip side, it does not work with intermittent energy such as solar or wind. It taps the potential of geothermal energy, an underused renewable source.

Not all of these energy storage idea swill take off. Not all of them will prove viable enough to become widely adopted. Yet some alternatives to batteries will likely work well enough to provide an alternative to the dominant technology. Alternatives are important when you are aiming for 100-percent renewable electricity. 

EVs

Failing that, we could simply use our EV batteries as energy storage for excess power from solar and wind installations, as the International Renewable Energy Agency said earlier this month. While a strain on the grid when they charge, IRENA said, electric cars could juice up at the right time to take in surplus power and then release it back into the grid if that grid is a smart one. In 2050, around 14 terawatt-hours (TWh) of EV batteries would be available to provide grid services, compared to 9 TWh of stationary batteries, according to the agency. One way or another, slowly and with difficulty, we are heading into a much more renewable energy future.