News

Conventional wisdom has it that lithium-ion batteries are the state of the art, and that nickel-metal hydride chemistry, which is used in most conventional hybrids (some of the newer Prius models now use Li-ion), is pretty much obsolete. However, scientists at BASF believe that NiMH technology still has much to […]

One of the biggest statements on Tesla’s last quarterly conference call was that it would be unveiling a battery storage system for home use within 1–2 months. I know that several competing energy storage companies are watching closely to see what the details (especially price) end up being… while surely also being […]

Liechtenstein-based nanoFlowcell AG has taken a different approach to battery design. Its vehicles use a flow battery system which works like a combination of a battery and a fuel cell, using liquid electrolytes kept in two tanks and pumped through the cell. At the heart of the system is a membrane that […]

Nanostructured electrodes in Li-ion batteries have several advantages, including shorter distances for charge-carrying particles to travel and a high surface area that provides more active sites for electrochemical reactions to occur. However, working with nanoscale materials is tricky – due to their tiny size, they can be hard to control […]

Tesla and Samsung are talking about expanding their battery partnership, industry officials have told the Korea Times. “With Tesla seeking to diversify its battery sourcing channels beyond its key partner Panasonic, Samsung SDI will have greater room to supply more EV batteries to Tesla,” said an unnamed source. Samsung is […]

Renewable energy won’t die from cheap oil. With oil prices hitting six-year lows, you would think cleantech’s momentum would stop. After all, history has not been kind to renewables when oil prices have fallen. However, Bloomberg Business paints a different picture. In his analysis, author Tom Randall cites 7 key reasons […]

The latest advance in lithium-sulfur technology comes courtesy of a research team from Samsung and the University of Rome, who have built a solid-state Li-S battery with a capacity (∼1600 mAhg−1) approaching the theoretical value and Coulombic efficiency approaching 99%. In a paper published in the Journal of The Electrochemical […]

Ioxus has launched its iMOD X-Series, a family of 22 ultracapacitor modules that are designed to simplify system design and installation for end users by offering a wide array of possible mounting configurations. The new modules use off-the-shelf T-slots to mount from any side in any configuration. They feature internally […]

SolidEnergy, an MIT spin-out company commercializing solid electrolyte technology, plans to release a 20 Ah EV battery in 2017, which it says will offer more than two times the range of current Li-ion batteries. The core of SolidEnergy’s technology is a Solid Polymer Ionic Liquid (SPIL) electrolyte, which enables the […]

A new high-performance, high-energy-density lithium-tellurium (Li-Te) battery system — based around a Li-metal anode and a Te-based cathode — was recently developed by researchers at the Kumoh National Institute of Technology in Korea. The mechanically reduced (MR) Te/C nanocomposite electrode material that the researchers created shows “high energy density, excellent […]

Those doggone dendrites are a bane of battery builders. These pesky fern-like growths can form on the surfaces of anodes during cycling, reducing battery life or even causing a catastrophic short circuit – this is how the battery fires on the Boeing 787 are thought to have started. A team […]

Battery-maker Energy Power Systems plans to establish a high-volume manufacturing facility in Pontiac, Michigan. The new 150,000-square-foot facility will produce batteries for use in start/stop and micro-hybrid vehicles; utility-scale distributed energy storage; renewable energy integration; and fast-charging infrastructure for EVs. Full-scale production is expected to begin in early 2016. Initial […]