Electricity consumption bills may raise if you live in an extreme temperature place, when at the same time you have plenty of sun to use as renewable energy. In commercial, industrial and office buildings the energy supply requirements may include insuring uninterruptible power supply.
How to store solar energy?
To store energy in battery units, we have actually three solutions:
- Lead-acid : toxic, flammable,
- Lithium-ion : toxic, flammable,
- Zinc and manganese dioxide / alkaline : abundant,
- Sodium-ion : safe, cheap,
Lithium battery units
Electric vehicle battery life expectancy is between 8 and 17 years.
MOMENT ENERGY is re-purposing electric vehicle lithium ion batteries, giving them a second life. It's an energy storage system that stores solar energy when it's available and provide access to clean electricity for off-grid homes and on-grid commercial industries.
On the 21. Apr. 2021, the simon fraser university published a post announcing moment energy as the winner of coast capital savings venture connection social impact award with 2,500CAD cash prize. MOMENT ENERGY also won the national impact investor challenge with 100,000USD investment prize according to a SPRING ACTIVATOR tweet on the 18 June 2021.
Alkaline-battery technology
alkaline-battery utilizes zinc and manganese dioxide, which provide high energy density, low self-discharge and are safe to handle. On the 22. Jan. 2021, future energy week published an article announcing URBAN ELECTRIC POWER as the winner of startup pitch competition decarbonization category, it's a modular alkaline-battery technology for energy storage.
Sodium-ion batteries
Compared to lithium, sodium is abundant and cheap, sodium-ion is the favorite for some researchers as a more durable way to store energy for large scale applications. On the 9. Jul. 2021, ACEON group published a post announcing that they are the winner of ENERGY CATALYST 8 FUND funding competition grant of 1M GBP to develop a mobile solar energy storage unit based on FARADION's sodium-ion batteries.
ACEON is a company with 25 years experience within the battery industry. ENERGY CATALYST 8 FUND is a innovate UK competition part of UK research and innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government and managing more than 15 innovation competitions.
Expanding battery lifetime
On the 19. Mar. 2021, Singapore management university announced the 185,000USD Infinity prize / Lee kuan global business plan competition winner, it's relectrify, a startup that develops a BMS battery management system that solve the problem of asymmetric cell health by balancing usage of strong and weak cells. The BESS offered by relectrify, a battery energy storage system is a power electronics hardware and control software package that allows for granular control over individual battery cells or modules within a larger battery pack or system.
Relectrify extends the battery cycle lifetime by up to 30%.
Stationary energy storage
Photovoltaic panels are a good solution for sustainable energy supply in buildings, the problem is that the sunlight is available during the day only, So how to store energy excess energy to use between sunset and sunrise? Cowa thermal solutions developed Capsule filled with high energy density material intended for heat pump systems that increase storage capacity up to a factor of 4. On the 4 June 2021, Venture twitted Cowa thermal solutions as one of the industrials & engineering vertical winners.
Depending on the location climate, a building need energy for different usage:
- air cooling or heating,
- water cooling or heating,
- lighting,
- household appliances usage,
Heat pump systems are mostly for air conditioning, you will need an other energy storage equipment if you want to store electric energy, like the one offered by MOMENT ENERGY cited above.
Mobile energy storage
if you want to move somewhere away from home or a facility where you work, you can not take a stationary energy storage with you, you will need a mobile energy storage unit, this unit must be light weight with a sufficient storage capacity to extend supply duration. NUNAM is a startup developing stationary storage and also small energy storage units that you can take with you where aver you go, NUNAM batteries for example are used by fruit and vegetable street vendors.
On the 29. Jun. 2021, NUNAM has been declared as the winner of fourth runner-up CISCO global problem solver challenge with 10,000 USD prize.
Charging stations for phones
Stationary solar energy storage is charged in the day when there's enough sunlight, what about mobile batteries? Batteryxchange is a portable batteries rental platform that connects businesses, communities and users. The platform available in selected kiosk and users can access the batteries with a mobile application.
On the 16. April. 2021, Black men ventures published a video announcing batteryXchange as the second place winner with 5,000 USD prize. NC IDEA also twitted batteryXchange as a winner of 50,000USD grant in 13 May 2021.
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