Energy Storage

Carbon-Capture Batteries Developed to Store Renewable Energy, Help Climate

A new battery formulation captures carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and converts it into a solid form that has the potential to be used in other products. Read on to learn more.

Sodium Battery Is Capable of Rapid Charging in Just a Few Seconds

A research team has developed a high-energy, high-power hybrid sodium-ion battery capable of rapid charging. The innovative hybrid energy storage system integrates anode materials typically used in batteries with cathodes suitable for supercapacitors. Read on to learn more.

How Much Do You Know About Capacitors?

Capacitors are fundamental components that are used in a wide variety of applications, from the tiniest electronics to high-power applications. What are capacitors, what are the differences among them, and what is common to all of them? Check your knowledge with this quiz.

My Opinion: Energy Storage, Part 2

My opinion: I take a look at some cases where it makes sense to use non-battery methods to store energy.

New Products

See the new products, including Nexperia's latest Energy Balance Calculator, StoreDot's new I-BEAM XFCTM concept, Bourns Inc.'s latest miniature resettable thermal cutoff device series, Rohde & Schwarz's wireless battery management system technology, Weidmuller USA's rugged battery connectors, Littelfuse Inc.'s overtemperature detection platform, and more.

Recyclable ‘Water Batteries’ That Won’t Catch Fire

A global team of researchers and industry collaborators led by RMIT University has invented recyclable ’water batteries’ that won’t catch fire or explode. Read on to learn more.

Cobalt-Free Electrodes Achieved with Nickel Ions

A team of researchers from Japanese and French universities has developed a practical nickel-based electrode material that opens new avenues to cobalt-free batteries for electric vehicles. Read on to learn more.

Thicker, Denser, Better Electrodes May Hold the Key to Advanced Batteries

The improved method for fabricating battery electrodes may lead to high-performance batteries that would enable more energy-efficient EVs, as well as such benefits as enhancing power grid storage, according to Hongtao Sun, Assistant Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Penn State.

An All-Liquid Iron Flow Battery for Better Energy Storage

Flow batteries can serve as backup generators for the electric grid. Flow batteries are one of the key pillars of a decarbonization strategy to store energy from renewable energy resources. Their advantage is that they can be built at any scale, from the lab-bench scale, as in this PNNL study, to the size of a city block.

My Opinion: We Should Take a Broad View of Energy Storage

My opinion: We need a holistic approach to energy storage — we should start with the general category and then analyze the pros and cons of different technologies to solve different problems.

All-Liquid Iron Flow Battery Is Safe, Economical

A commonplace chemical used in water treatment facilities has been repurposed for large-scale energy storage in a new battery design by researchers at the DoE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Improving and Increasing Energy Density of Batteries

When it comes to making batteries that last longer, a team of researchers including engineers at Brown University and Idaho National Laboratory believes the key might be in how things get clean — specifically how soap works in this process.

New Cathode Material for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have invented and patented a new cathode material that replaces lithium ions with sodium and would be significantly cheaper.

How To Shift Gears in a Molecular Motor

Scientists have long strived to develop artificial molecular motors that can convert energy into directed motion. Researchers at Linköping University have now presented a solution to a challenging...

Fast-Charging Li Battery Could Make ‘Range Anxiety’ a Thing of the Past

A team at Cornell University 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.

A New Carbon Material Sets Energy-Storage Record, Likely to Advance Supercapacitors

Guided by machine learning, chemists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory designed a record-setting carbonaceous supercapacitor...

How Much Do You Know About Energy Storage?

Renewable energy sources like wind and solar require energy storage in order to be practical and reliable. Test your knowledge of energy storage with this quiz.

Hot Rocks Store Energy

Sandia engineers convert excess renewable electricity into heat that gets stored in piles of gravel.

3D Battery Imaging Reveals Real-Time Life of Lithium Metal Cells

A team from Chalmers University of Technology has succeeded in observing how the lithium metal in the cell behaves as it charges and discharges. The new method may contribute to batteries with higher capacity and increased safety in our future cars and devices.

A New Design for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are researching solutions to these Li-ion battery issues by testing new materials in battery construction. One such material is sulfur.

Stretchable Micro-Supercapacitors to Self-Power Wearable Devices

A stretchable system that can harvest energy from human breathing and motion for use in wearable health-monitoring devices may be possible, according to an international team of researchers.

Self-Powered Sensor Automatically Harvests Magnetic Energy

MIT researchers have developed a battery-free, self-powered sensor that can harvest energy from its environment.

Managing the Evolution of the EV Charging Standard

Grayson Brulte, host of SAE’s Tomorrow Today podcast, interviewed Christian Thiele, Director, Global Ground Vehicle Standards, SAE International, and Dr. Rodney McGee, P.E. Chairman, SAE J3400 NACS Task Force, regarding the work of the J3400 Task Force. This Q&A is an abbreviated portion of that interview.

Wearable Device Makes Memories and Powers Up with The Flex of a Finger

Researchers have invented an experimental wearable device that generates power from a user’s bending finger and can create and store memories, in a promising step...

Electric Vehicles Play a Surprising Role in Supporting Grid Resiliency

Widespread electrification initiatives are increasing the demands on America’s aging power grid, but utilities and consumers may have an unlikely ally in electric...

Continuously Tunable Thermal Regulators for Batteries and Electronic Devices

Battery safety and performance in electronic devices and systems like battery thermal management, space conditioning, vehicle thermal comfort, and thermal energy...

A Li-ion Battery Material for Faster, More Efficient EV Charging

ORNL researchers recently developed a Li-ion battery material that not only recharges 80 percent of its capacity in 10 minutes but keeps that ability for 1,500 charging cycles.