Developing Better Energy Storage Technology
Developing Better Energy Storage Technology
If we are to move towards a truely electrified economy where all transportation is electric as well as heating, cooling, ventilation,cooking and communications we must improve our energy storage options. Storing electicity made from clean energy sources such as wind, solar or bio-fuel is critical to allowing us to move away from fossil fuels.
Today we generally store electricity with batteries or reversable chemical reactions. Using electricity to drive the reaction in one way and allowing it move back while releasing electrons is the basis of all battery chemistry.
Another way to store electricity is using something called supercapacitors which store charge internally untill it is needed to be released. The advantage of supercapacitors is the speed at which they charge and discharge. This speed is a huge advantage for electric vehicles but for now it is only a future technology. Much of the research efforts are focused at developing better battery technology such as the video we included below.
Energy Storage Technology Research in The U.S.
At the U.S. Department of Energy ( D.O.E.) Battery Manufacturing R&D Facility, researchers are partnering with industry to increase energy density, reduce costs and hazardous materials, and improve the manufacturing process for batteries used in electric vehicles and other applications.
Gordon’s expertise in the area of industrial energy efficiency and alternative energy. He is an experienced electrical engineer with a Masters degree in Alternative Energy technology. He is the co-founder of several renewable energy media sites including Solar Thermal Magazine.
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