Researchers have developed a water-based battery to store solar and wind energy

Post by slededit » Mon, May 07, 2018, 3:24 AM UTC

DennisP wrote: post #46

svantana wrote: post #14

>Cui estimated that, given the water-based battery’s expected lifespan, it would cost a penny to store enough electricity to power a 100-watt lightbulb for twelve hours. Oh dear, I hate university news "journalism" with a passion. For the life of me I cannot understand why they feel the need to dumb down parts of the content while other parts remain decidedly technical. Is it to have something that laymen can quote?…

Well that'd be 1.2 kWh, stored for a penny. Average electricity price in the U.S. is 10 cents/kWh. I've often criticized people for ignoring the cost of storage when talking about wind/solar prices, but at a penny per kWh it's pretty insignificant.

Post by TeMPOraL » Mon, May 07, 2018, 5:13 AM UTC

vvanders wrote: post #44

isoprophlex wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With adequate seals this is no more dangerous than existing chemical energy storage, such as gasoline and natural gas. The researchers state (in the paper itself) that they carefully control the charging voltage to avoid oxygen production in the same cell. Oxygen and hydrogen in the same device is dangerous, only hydrogen not so much.

Uh, doesn't hydrogen have a history of leaking through most materials due to its small atomic size?

Post by zaarn » Mon, May 07, 2018, 6:51 AM UTC

gsich wrote: post #7

freeone3000 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We currently put high-temperature, charged lithium in our pants pockets. The technology this is replacing uses lead and sulfuric acid. Hydrogen is probably fine.

In case of problems you can remove your pants very quickly.

Post by Tepix » Mon, May 07, 2018, 7:38 AM UTC

Post by picsao » Mon, May 07, 2018, 7:45 AM UTC

hedora wrote: post #47

fernly wrote: post #29

Could someone ELI5 how the recharge cycle works? On charging it evolves H2 gas; how does that get put back on recharge? This is very much NOT explained by the paragraph, > The researchers did this by re-attaching their power source to the depleted prototype, this time with the goal of inducing the manganese dioxide particles clinging to the electrode to combine with water, replenishing the manganese sulfate salt. Onc…

In the modern sense of the word, this is not a battery. It is a device that cracks water into hydrogen, which can then be fed into a fuel cell. Presumably, it consumes distilled water, which is why it is targeting utility scale storage and not home installations. The work sounds interesting, but the article is painfully written. Lead acid batteries produce hydrogen too. I think the insight is that this can’t produce…