A team in Cornell Engineering created a new lithium battery that can charge in under five minutes – faster than any such battery on the market – while maintaining stable performance over extended cycles of charging and discharging.
With continuous advances in lithium battery technologies, optimized energy storage solutions will unleash the full potential of PV power, ensure stable electricity supply throughout the day and night, and contribute to the restoration of the Earth.
Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a new lithium metal battery that can be charged and discharged at least 6,000 times — more than any other pouch battery cell — and can be recharged in a matter of minutes.
The new discovery — which the scientists say was unintended and builds off novel electronics work — could be the foundation for better battery life across consumer devices such as laptops or smartphones, as well as more flexibility in grid-scale energy storage.
Wind and solar power are widely available, and new long duration energy storage technology is emerging to help renewables replace fossil fuel power plants without a hitch. Lithium-ion battery arrays are currently the energy storage medium of choice for wind and solar power.
However, when the lithium-ion batteries participate in energy storage, peak shaving and frequency regulation, extremely harsh conditions, such as strong pulses, high loads, rapid frequencies, and extended durations, accelerate the life degradation significantly. Long-life battery is significant for safe and stable operation of ESSs.