Engineering news
Researchers at the Univeristy of Warwick and energy storage firm Moixa are to help battery developer Faradion develop its sodium-ion battery technology.
The three organisations are to collaborate on a joint research project that aims to develop Faradion’s sodium-ion based battery technology for a solar energy storage system. The three year project is funded by a £330,000 grant from Innovate UK and will conclude in October 2018 with the development of a prototype demonstrator.
Sodium salts are an abundant resource and Sheffield-based Faradion has been developing its sodium-ion battery chemistry for several years. It predicts its sodium-ion batteries will be 30% cheaper to produce than lithium-ion batteries.
This significant cost reduction opens up the possibility of developing energy storage for domestic renewable systems such as solar, that could be used in a greater number of households and businesses, it said.
A key part of the partnership will be to prove that sodium-ion technology can meet the life cycle requirements of solar energy storage. A conventional lead-acid battery would need to be replaced up to five times throughout the lifetime of a photovoltaic (PV) solar system.
Francis Massin, chief executive of Faradion, said: “This partnership with Moixa Technology and WMG, University of Warwick, offers a great opportunity, not just for Faradion, but for global CO2 reduction. Solar energy storage is an important growth market of the next five years and this partnership means that the UK has the opportunity to be at the forefront of technology development.”
Moixa Technology, has experience in the design, build and testing of photovoltaic energy storage systems and WMG at the University of Warwick will supply the large scale prototype manufacturing and electrode coating capabilities.
Rohit Bhagat, Associate Professor at WMG, said “We have invested heavily in our Energy Innovation Centre, and are pleased to be part of this project as we see sodium-ion batteries offering strategic and technological advantages for solar and grid energy storage applications.”
Faradion showed off a
sodium-ion battery powered bicycle, in one of the first demonstrations of its technology last year. Williams Advanced Engineering designed and made the sodium-ion battery modules for the bike, while the cell chemistry and active materials were developed by Faradion.