EAGER: High-Energy-Density Storage for Renewable Energy Sources for Environmental Sustainability

如果占所有能源用途三分之一的电力能够完全由风能和太阳能等可再生/可持续来源产生，就可以大大减少使用化石燃料作为能源对环境的影响。然而，这需要具有成本效益的长时间（3-5天）储能技术，这将使高度可变和不可预测的风能和太阳能变得像煤炭或天然气等基础能源一样可靠。氧化还原液流电池（RFB）储能系统非常适合这种大规模、长时间的存储应用。为了使该技术在该应用中更具成本效益，必须降低其成本。这是本工作的重点。将探讨一种创新的技术办法，如果成功，将大大增加储存能力。完全利用风能和太阳能等可再生能源发电将大大减少化石燃料排放对环境和世界气候的影响。提出的高能量密度存储技术将使高度可变和不可预测的可再生能源与煤炭、石油和天然气一样可靠，从而有助于实现100%由可再生能源发电的目标。在这一领域的领导地位将为美国带来许多经济机会。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The environmental impact of the use of fossil fuels for energy can be greatly reduced if electricity, which represents one third of all energy uses, can be generated totally from renewable/sustainable sources such as wind and solar. However, this requires cost-effective long-duration (3-5 days) energy storage technologies, which would allow the highly variable and unpredictable wind and solar energy sources to become as reliable as baseline energy sources like coal or natural gases. Redox flow battery (RFB) energy storage systems are potentially highly suitable for this large-scale, long-duration storage application. To make this technology more cost-effective for this application, its cost must be reduced. This is the focus of this proposed work. An innovative technical approach will be explored that, if successful, would increase storage capacity significantly. Electricity generation totally from renewable energy sources like wind and solar would greatly reduce the effect of fossil fuel emission on the environment and world climate. The proposed high energy density storage technology would facilitate reaching the goal of 100% electricity generation from renewable sources by making highly variable and unpredictable renewable energy sources as reliable as coal, oil, and natural gases. Leadership in this area will generate many economic opportunities for the US.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.