Low cost storage of renewable energy

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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.