Norwegian entrepreneur, Jostein Eikeland, is finally unveiling the development his has been working on in secret for the past decade in hopes to jolt the world of energy storage.
Eikeland and his company Alevo plan to reveal a battery that will last longer and cost far less than the current rival technologies. To do this, they have developed a technology that is to store excess electricity generated by power plants.
This from Reuters:
The company has created what it calls GridBanks, which are shipping containers full of thousands of battery cells. Each container can deliver 2 megawatts of power, enough to power up to 1,300 homes for an hour. The batteries use lithium iron phosphate and graphite as active materials and an inorganic electrolyte – what Eikeland called the company’s “secret sauce” – that extends longevity and reduces the risk of burning. They can be charged and discharged over 40,000 times, the company said.
Eikeland hopes to deliver enough batteries to power 100,000 homes to the U.S. market by next year.
Though, many see the secrecy connected with the project as unusual. Additionally, claims of technological breakthroughs such as this from unfamiliar companies, like Alevo, are not new to the world of green technology.
While we hope that this new technology will revolutionize energy storage, we’ll be erring on the side of caution with this one due to the recent high-profile flameouts of developments such as the battery maker A123 and solar panel maker Solyndra.
At ECS, we’re devoted to all aspects of energy storage research, development, and engineering. Come together with other scientist and engineers at our ECS Conference on Electrochemical Energy Conversion & Storage with SOFC-XIV to discuss both fundamental advances and engineering innovations.
