Low cost storage of renewable energy

Faraion、Moixa Technology和华威大学提议合作开发一种钠离子电池，作为锂离子的低成本替代品。这是一种与太阳能相结合的创新能源存储解决方案。将电能储存在电池组中，以便在高峰时间释放，适合减少排放，将其与太阳能耦合也是如此。由于改用太阳能光伏发电，当其他形式的发电因任何原因而离线时，备用电池为电网提供支持，从而提高了供电的安全性。与锂相比，钠是一种成本更低、储量更丰富的可持续材料，因为它在地壳中更丰富。碳酸钠的成本是碳酸锂的十分之一。在这个项目中，华威大学将利用其部分由政府资助的能源创新中心(EIC)内的设施和技术人员，该中心的建立旨在为工业提供能力，将新兴的电池化学从小规模发展到具有代表性的原型尺寸。EIC以电极混合和涂覆设备为特色，该设备结合了生产高质量、准确电极的最新技术。虽然钠离子的主要设计考虑到了锂离子技术，但钠离子代表了一种可以使用所有相同的制造工艺来生产电极和电池的“插入式”技术，这使得钠离子对现有的锂离子电池制造商来说是一个有吸引力的提议，这有助于该项目的开发路线和成果的传播。这将使下一代能源存储得到有效采用。Faradion已经展示了他们材料的电池性能，在循环寿命、能量密度和倍率能力方面与商用锂离子电池兼容。该项目将把技术从目前在TRL3的位置带到TRL5，并验证原型电池。能源创新中心是WMG的一部分。WMG是华威大学的一个系，由Kumar Bhattacharyya勋爵教授于1980年成立，旨在通过应用增值创新和尖端研究来振兴英国制造业并提高竞争力。巴塔查里亚勋爵教授在制造业领域发表了一本精辟的著作，是世界各地许多组织的极具影响力的顾问。WMG现在是世界著名的卓越中心，运营着每年1亿GB的国际研究、教育和知识转移计划。WMG与英国地区发展机构密切合作，支持其经济战略的实施，也与全球企业合作，培训高管并为全球市场开发技术。华威大学将直接与Faradion合作，为这一应用优化循环寿命的钠离子电极。在该项目的早期阶段，将生产可转换为电池单元的电极，用于生命周期测试，为工艺优化提供反馈。UOW这一领域的专家将引入基于预测建模和EIS(电化学阻抗谱)的加速老化概念，用于硬币电池水平的电池测试，以缩短生命周期评估的反馈时间，从而加速电极生产的改进。研究的目的是提供最高质量的钠离子电池电极，为这种备用存储应用进行优化。对学术界的好处是实用研究的传播，加速了钠离子电池技术在高价值制造环境中的采用。商业化战略是将钠离子技术知识产权授权给电池制造商，但也通过Moixa技术向最终用户提供低成本的能量存储系统。

Faraion, Moixa Technology and the University of Warwick propose to collaborate to jointly develop a sodium-ion battery, asa lower cost alternative to lithium-ion. This as an innovative energy storage solution in tandem with solar energy.Storing electrical energy in battery banks for release at peak times has the befit of reducing emissions, as does couplingthis with solar energy. Security of supply is improved as switching to solar PV and battery back-up provides support to thegrid when other forms of power generation go offline for any reason. Sodium is a lower cost, more abundant hencesustainable material than lithium as it is more abundant in the earth's crust. Sodium carbonate is on tenth of the cost oflithium carbonate.In this project The University of Warwick will utilise facilities and technologists within its partly government funded EnergyInnovation Centre (EIC) which has been established to provide industry with a capability to take arising battery chemistriesfrom small scale through to representative prototype sizes. The EIC features electrode mixing and coating equipment whichincorporates the latest technology for producing high quality, accurate electrodes. Although principally designed withlithium-ion technology in mind, sodium-ion represents a "drop-in" technology that can use all of the same fabricationprocesses to produce electrodes and cells, this makes sodium-ion an attractive proposition for existing lithium-ion cellmanufacturers and this aids the exploitation route and dissemination of output from the project. This will enable efficientadoption of next generation energy storage. Faradion has demonstrated cell performance of their materials as beingcompatible to commercial lithium-ion cells in terms of cycle life, energy density and rate capability. This project will take thetechnology from its current position at TRL3 to TRL5 and validate prototype batteries.The Energy Innovation Centre is part of WMG. WMG is a department of the University of Warwick that was established byProfessor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980 in order to reinvigorate UK manufacturing and improve competitivenessthrough the application of value-adding innovation and cutting-edge research. Professor Lord Bhattacharyya has publishedextensively in the field of manufacturing and is a highly influential advisor to many organisations around the world. WMG isnow a world-renowned centre of excellence operating an international programme of research, education and knowledgetransfer amounting to £100m a year. WMG works closely with UK regional development agencies to support the delivery oftheir economic strategies and also with global corporations to train executives and to develop technologies for marketsworldwide.The University of Warwick will work directly with Faradion to optimise the sodium-ion electrodes for cycle life for thisapplication. Electrodes will be produced which can be converted into battery cells for life-cycle testing at an early stage ofthe project to provide feedback for process optimisation. Accelerated aging concepts based on predictive modelling andEIS (electrochemical impedance Spectroscopy) on cell testing at the coin cell level will be introduced by experts in this fieldat UoW to shorten the feedback time of life cycle evaluation so improvements in electrode production can be introduced ataccelerated rates.The aim of the research is to provide the highest quality sodium-ion cell electrodes optimised for this standby storageapplication. The benefit to the academic community is the dissemination of practical research which accelerates theadoption of sodium-ion battery technology into a high value manufacturing environment. The commercialisation strategy isto license the sodium-ion technology IP to battery manufacturers but also to supply low cost energy storage systemsthrough Moixa Technology to end users.