Corvus Energy of Vancouver has been looking into new ways to use lithium- ion batteries. One way is to use lithium- ion batteries to run big equipment. Corvus has just won an order to provide a 2.2 megawatt-hour battery the size of a shipping container for use in tests to back up a Chinese coal-fired power station. These lithium batteries are made with lithium nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) instead of the common lithium iron phosphate because it provides a greater energy density; Brent Perry, the boss of Corvus, says this makes the cells 22% more powerful than ones that use iron phosphate. The batteries are made by Dow Kokam from Townsend Kokam. In 2009, Dow Chemical and Townsend Kokam made a joint venture to produce advanced batteries.
Corvus assembles its cells into standard 6.2 kilowatt-hour modules, which when fitted together can make batteries capable of storing several megawatt-hours of energy, which is more than 40 megawatt-hours is technically possible. A module can be charged from flat in as little as 30 minutes and is able to discharge its full 6.2 kilowatt-hours in just six minutes. These batteries are expensive to build, costing about $9,300 each, about $2,000 more than a lithium iron phosphate battery. But Brent Perry assures that the expenses are justified by the performance of the battery. These batteries can withstand harsh environments and an operating life at full capacity of around 20 years. Even when these batteries start to lose capacity, they should be able to be powered by wind farms to produce electricity.
Kelsey Tomlinson
http://www.economist.com/node/17352944?story_id=17352944
No comments:
Post a Comment