• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA June 4, 2023
Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest June 4, 2023
Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing June 4, 2023
2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season June 4, 2023
Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion? June 1, 2023
Next
Prev

Zinc-Air Battery Design Promises Cheap Alternative to Lithium-Ion

September 27, 2018
Reading time: 3 minutes

RudolfSimon/Wikimedia Commons

RudolfSimon/Wikimedia Commons

1
SHARES
 

A new design for a rechargeable zinc-air battery could bring down the cost of energy storage and reduce reliance on some of the rare minerals now used to manufacture lithium-ion cells.

Phoenix and El Segundo, California-based NantEnergy officially unveiled the new device Wednesday, in conjunction with the One Planet Summit in New York, the New York Times reports. “It could change and create completely new economies using purely the power of the sun, wind. and air,” said billionaire surgeon and biotech entrepreneur Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.

  • The climate news you need. Subscribe now to our engaging new weekly digest.
  • You’ll receive exclusive, never-before-seen-content, distilled and delivered to your inbox every weekend.
  • The Weekender: Succinct, solutions-focused, and designed with the discerning reader in mind.
Subscribe

Compared to a cost of US$300 to $400 per kilowatt-hour for lithium-ion, “NantEnergy says the technology costs less than $100 per kilowatt-hour, a figure that some in the energy industry have cited as low enough to transform the electric grid into a round-the-clock carbon-free system,” the Times states. And the system is simple: “plastic components and shell casing, a circuit board and zinc oxide, all in a package the size of a briefcase. In charging the batteries, electricity from solar installations is stored by converting zinc oxide to zinc and oxygen. In the discharge process, the system produces energy by oxidizing the zinc with air.”

NantEnergy developed the technology with support from the World Bank, and the International Finance Corporation was one of its early investors. The batteries have already been deployed in solar microgrids in 110 villages across nine countries in Asia and Africa, “including places that otherwise relied on generators or even lacked electricity,” the Times states.

During Climate Week, the World Bank announced a $1-billion battery deployment program for developing countries, with the hope of triggering another $4 billion in investment.

NantEnergy has already installed batteries on more than 1,000 communications towers in the U.S., Latin America, and Southeast Asia, including a Duke Energy site in North Carolina that withstood Hurricanes Florence and Irma, and “says it expects to expand the use of its product in telecommunications towers and eventually extend it to home energy storage, beginning in California and New York,” the paper adds. “Beyond that, it anticipates use in electric cars, buses, trains, and scooters.” The company holds more than 100 patents related to the battery, and foresees an eventual market worth $50 billion.

In North Carolina, Duke Energy senior engineer Sherif Abdelrazek “said that because the zinc air battery does not pose fire hazards as lithium-ion batteries can, it does not need external cooling systems to prevent overheating,” the Times states. “The system’s success means the Duke tower no longer needs to be connected to the electric grid,” so that “13 acres of land in the Great Smoky Mountains that was used for power lines is being turned over to the National Park Service.”

And that system was installed was before NantEnergy announced it had reached the $100/kWh price point. The company says the units can run 72 hours on a single charge, enough to withstand a hurricane like Florence.

The announcement is of obvious interest in California, where legislators have just set a 2045 deadline to hit a 100% renewable electricity target. “California is obviously in need of that kind of breakthrough to meet our goals,” said California Solar and Storage Association Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro. “I cannot claim to be in absolute certainty that this is everything they say it is, but it’s exciting. It’s this kind of breakthrough that we expect from our innovators.”



in Africa, Asia, Batteries / Storage, Clean Electricity Grid, Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Mexico, Caribbean & Latin America, Off-Grid, Solar, Sub-National Governments, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

sunrise windmill
International Agencies & Studies

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
145
Pixabay
Solar

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
130
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr
Cities & Communities

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
85

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

/MaxPixels

‘Substantial Damage’, No Injuries as Freight Train Hits Wind Turbine Blade

May 25, 2022
14.6k
sunrise windmill

Renewables ‘Set to Soar’ with 440 GW of New Installations in 2023: IEA

June 5, 2023
145
Natural Resources Canada

2.7M Hectares Lost, Nova Scotia at Ground Zero in ‘Unprecedented’ Early Wildfire Season

June 4, 2023
167
Pixabay

Greek Industrial Giant Announces 1.4-GW Alberta Solar Farm, Canada’s Biggest

June 4, 2023
130
Oregon Department of Transportation/flickr

Shift to Remote Work Cuts Commutes, Frees Downtown Space for Affordable Housing

June 5, 2023
85
debannja/Pixabay

Austin, Texas Council Committee Backs Fossil Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 4, 2023
90

Recent Posts

Clairewych/Pixabay

Demand Surges for Giant Heat Pumps as Europe Turns to District Heating

June 4, 2023
87
nicolasdebraypointcom/pixabay

Factor Gender into Transportation Planning, IISD Analyst Urges Policy-Makers

June 4, 2023
39
moerschy / Pixabay

Federal Climate Plans Must Embrace Community-Driven Resilience

June 4, 2023
55
Equinor

Is Equinor’s Bay du Nord ‘Delay’ a Cancellation in Slow Motion?

June 1, 2023
878
Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-op/Facebook

‘Hinge Moment’ for Humanity Demands ‘YIMBY’ Mentality: McKibben

June 1, 2023
79
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley

Notley Would Have Backed Carbon Capture Subsidies, Smith Less Certain: Ex-Pipeline Exec

June 1, 2023
100
Next Post
Anthony Farnell/Facebook

OREC: Ottawa Tornadoes Spotlight the Need for Distributed Electricity Production

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}