Low cost storage of renewable energy

Faraion、Moixa Technology和沃里克大学提议合作共同开发钠离子电池，阿萨锂离子电池的低成本替代品。这是一种与太阳能相结合的创新储能解决方案。将电能存储在电池组中，以便在高峰时段释放，这有利于减少排放，将其与太阳能结合使用也是如此。当其他形式的发电因任何原因离线时，切换到太阳能光伏和电池备份为电网提供支持，从而提高了供应安全性。钠是一种成本较低，比锂更丰富的硫化物材料，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，沃里克大学将利用其部分政府资助的能源创新中心（EIC）内的设施和技术专家，该中心已建立，为工业提供从小规模到代表性原型尺寸的新兴电池化学品的能力。EIC的特点是电极混合和涂层设备，采用了最新的技术来生产高质量，精确的电极。虽然主要设计考虑到锂离子技术，但钠离子技术代表了一种“直接”技术，可以使用所有相同的制造工艺来生产电极和电池，这使得钠离子技术成为现有锂离子电池制造商的一个有吸引力的提议，这有助于开发路线和项目产出的传播。这将使下一代能源存储的有效采用成为可能。Faradion已经证明其材料的电池性能在循环寿命，能量密度和速率能力方面与商业锂离子电池兼容。该项目将把技术从目前的TRL 3提升到TRL 5，并验证原型电池。能源创新中心是WMG的一部分。WMG是沃里克大学的一个部门，由教授库马尔·巴塔查里亚勋爵于1980年成立，目的是通过应用增值创新和尖端研究来重振英国制造业并提高竞争力。Lord Bhattacharyya教授在制造业领域拥有丰富的经验，是世界各地许多组织的极具影响力的顾问。WMG现在是一个世界知名的卓越中心，每年运营着一个研究，教育和知识转移的国际项目，价值1亿英镑。WMG与英国区域发展机构密切合作，以支持其经济战略的实施，并与全球公司合作，为全球市场培训管理人员并开发技术。沃里克大学将直接与Faradion合作，优化钠离子电极的循环寿命。电极将被生产出来，可以在项目的早期阶段转换成电池进行生命周期测试，为工艺优化提供反馈。基于预测建模和EIS（电化学阻抗谱）的加速老化概念将由UoW该领域的专家在纽扣电池水平上引入电池测试，以缩短生命周期评估的反馈时间，从而可以加速电极生产的改进。该研究的目的是为这种备用存储应用提供最高质量的钠离子电池电极。对学术界的好处是实际研究的传播，这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，同时通过Moixa Technology向最终用户提供低成本储能系统。

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.