Nottingham Uni unveils supercappatery ・EON gives €1.4m to renewable storage research

Reliability issues have weakened the popularity of wind farms
http://www.tcetoday.com/tcetoday/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=10520
by Rob Crossley 17/6/2008
CHEMICAL ENGINEERS ARE working with electrical engineers at the UK’s University of Nottingham to produce battery storage solutions for renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines. Renewable energy facilities such as wind farms and tidal generators are growing in popularity to help Kyoto-participating governments meet their renewable energy targets. Yet a significant drawback in renewable sources is how they can only provide power under favourable conditions; when the sun is out, for example. It means that power from renewable sources such as wind can be unpredictable and therefore unreliable.The research consortium at Nottingham has received €1.4m (2.2m) of funding from German gas firm EON to develop batteries that can hold energy drawn from such renewable sources. Using nanotechnology the two teams – led by George Chen in the University’s School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering school and Christian Klumpner in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering – are developing electrical storage systems based on power electronics.Their resulting energy storage device – known as a “supercapattery” – combines the properties of both a supercapacitor and a battery. “Electricity generated from renewable sources can be transported instantly through cables over long distances but storage is a problem – if you don’t use it, you lose it,” Chen says.“Our aim is to develop something which will bring together the best of both worlds – the high electrical energy storage capacity of a battery and the fast charge/discharge rates of a supercapacitor,” he adds. Constructed from carbon nanotubes and chemically engineered with traditional battery materials, the supercapatteries are currently best suited for powering portable electrical devices such as laptops. The research team is now looking into the possibilities of stacking the devices for large scale storage.

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