bestmag

Energy Storage Publishing The International quarterly for manufacturers and

users of electrochemical power www.bestmag.co.uk

No. 51
Batteries & Energy Storage Technology Winter 2016

Inside:

The hybrid marine market bigger than EVs?

Second-life batteries business or myth?
Whats really happening in China?
Lithium safety issues heat up
Plus all our regulars
WATER GREMLIN COMPANY - USA
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steve.mende@watergrem.com
WATER GREMLIN AQUILA - EUROPE
Via Firenze, 1/3 - 25060 Cellatica
(Brescia) - Italy +39.(0)30.2522416
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 starthere 5
Storms ahead, but
BATTERIES & ENERGY STORAGE
TECHNOLOGY
Batteries and Energy Storage Technology

safety comes first

magazine (ISSN: 1741-8666) is published
four times a year (January, April, July and
October), by Energy Storage Publishing
Ltd., 70 Goring Road, Worthing BN12 4AB
ENGLAND and distributed in the USA by

C
Mail Right International, 1637 Stelton Road
B4, Piscataway, NJ 08854. Periodicals ommodity prices collapsing, renewed focus on renewables, signs
Postage Paid at New Brunswick, NJ. of another global slowdown? Theres no question that the big world
POSTMASTER
issues inevitably impinge on the battery industry. But this coming
Send U.S. address changes to year, the spotlight will be on lithium-ion safety more than ever before.
BEST C/o 1637 Stelton Road, B-4, Those of your who read my recent Publishers blog No fly lithium
Piscataway NJ 08854 looks very possible which went up on the BEST website toward the
end of November will be aware of the issues. The airline industry and in
EDITORIAL OFFICE
particular IATA, its trade association, are toughening up on transportation
Energy Storage Publishing Ltd
of lithiumion batteries.
70 Goring Road
Worthing BN12 4AB One of the biggest changes which is slated to come into effect as soon
ENGLAND as this April is restricting the shipping of lithium-ion batteries by air at
TEL +44 (0) 845 194 7338 no more than 30% state-of-charge as this is seen as mitigating the risk
FAX +44 (0) 845 194 7339 of cells going into thermal runaway. Some members of IATAs dangerous
E-mail: gerry@bestmag.co.uk goods panel are looking to an outright ban of shipping lithium by air. My
long experienced colleague Shep Wolsky happens to share that view (see
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER
Gerry Woolf
page 10). Quite how shippers are expected to police this new requirement
gerry@bestmag.co.uk is anyones guess (random testing of cells and batteries?).
This is only a first step as cell manufactures will eventually have to
DEPUTY EDITOR ship their products in new packaging, the specification of which has yet
Paul Crompton
to be developed. It will be closer to the toughened battery boxes in which
paul@energystoragepublishing.com
Boeing eventually enclosed its on-board lithium-ion systems, used in its
ASSISTANT EDITOR Dreamliner models, and it could be years in the making.
Debbie Mason We know that the incident of lithium-ion fires on planes is very low but
debbie@energystoragepublishing.com the consequences are severe. One fact that this writer found terrifying
ADVERTISING was that while some shippers are utterly scrupulous and declare their
Lynn James contents, others do not, so there may be many undeclared lithium-ion
advertising@bestmag.co.uk shipments in the skies. And not all cargo is checked. Ill leave you to
+44 7885 910 187 think about that And as Tom Chapin points out in ULs safety column
this issue, (page 86) some countries including China do not even have a
SOUTH ASIA ASSOCIATE
battery incident reporting system.
Dipak Sen Chaudhuri
dipaksc@yahoo.co.in
The inevitability of taking the slow route by sea is a strong possibility
+91 98314 37792 now. All of the above is going to add to cost. It may stifle and smother all
but the biggest lithium-ion makers. But maybe it will create opportunities.
OFFICE ADMINISTRATION More localised manufacture? Warehousing and lithium battery finishing
Monica Rossi
facilities on each continent? And perhaps all of these changes are
accounts@energystoragepublishing.com
overdue to make the business more sustainable. Ive always felt slightly
PRODUCTION uncomfortable with air freight for all but the most urgent goods.
Vic Giles None of this though will stop the march of lithium-ion any more than
vic@bestmag.co.uk the growth of portable electronics can be stopped. Tech is wedded to
lithium systems for the next two decades or more in all the applications
PRINTED IN ENGLAND we know. Its a fact we have to accept.

Gerry Woolf
Gerry Woolf
Editor and Editor and Publisher
Publisher

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

6 bestcontents
Regulars Features

5 108 33
Start here Truly eventful An Ocean of
Storms ahead, If its on, its in. Where to go and Opportunities
but safety comes first. what to see this winter and spring. The battery industry is evolving.
Neil Simmonds of Corvus Energy
discusses the less-than-obvious
market for marine hybrid power.

10
Second Opinion
No fly for lithiumion
Shep Wolsky argues the case for
keeping lithium-ion firmly on the
ground and out of the skies.
118
Advertisers index
Everybody who is anybody is in
the pages of BEST, are you?
39
Energy Storage
Update Europe
Energy Storage Update Europe
explored ways to store renewable
energy, but in a battery agnostic
industry not everything is equal.

12 120 50
News Groundpath Battery use in grid-
From battery innovations to Not having to do mega events, scale energy crisis
second-life applications, a round- student debt forgiveness and Younicos Philip Hiersemenzel
up of the industrys biggest news what disappearing butterflies tells explains why grid-scale utility
stories. us. firms believe batteries are the
future for renewable energy.

12 120 39
bestmagazine // Winter 2016

57
Lithium safety issues
heat up in Baltimore
With changing regulations and
air-freight bans, the Editor reports
from Knowledge Foundations
nervous lithium safety meeting.
61
Energy storage let
lead-acid do the job
In the emerging energy storage
industry, Mike McDonagh shows
the importance of design when
choosing the right battery for a job.
73
How batteries can
save you money
Batteries are more than just
storing energy as Dr Alex
Mardapittas explains the benefits
of voltage optimisation.
73
81
Profile: just how
good is Jinkeli?
Mike McDonagh reports on what
its really like to visit an industry
supplier, following his trip to meet
Chinas Shandong Jinkeli.
86
Li-ion fears prompt
safety summit
Underwriters Laboratories
Thomas Chapin reports on what
he believes could be an important
breakthrough in lithium-ion safety.
91
Doomed to fail: 2nd
use battery concerns
As more firms develop second-life
battery applications, the Editor
asks if falling lithium-ion prices
will cause the industry to crash.
81
7
99
Indias grand plans
for energy storage
Dipak Sen Chauduri marvels at his
homelands plans for multi GW
storage capacity by 2020 during
the Indian Energy Storage Alliance.
103
Is Chinas battery
industry in flux?
Debbie Mason talks to insiders
about what they believe is
happening in the worlds biggest
battery manufacturing sector.
112
Europes greatest
battery show
Europes largest and most-
attended exhibition is set to be
even bigger and better this year
when it kicks off this June.
103
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
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10 secondopinion
No fly for lithium-ion
Shep Wolsky argues the case for keeping lithium-ion firmly on
the ground and out of the skies
T
he International Civil Aviation
Organizations (ICAO) panel on
dangerous goods, which met in
Montreal toward the end of last year year,
rejected a ban on rechargeable lithium
batteries from being carried in the belly
holds of passenger aircraft. The panel
vote was 11-7.
The meeting was focused on the hotly
contested (no pun intended) question
of the safety of shipment of lithiumion
batteries via air. The majority of members
voted to continue to allow air transport
shipment of lithium-ion batteries.
Supporting a ban was Russia, U.S. (the FAA
and PRBA, (Portable Rechargeable Battery
association) Brazil Association, China and
Spain as well as representatives for airline
pilots unions and aircraft manufacturers.
The Netherlands, Canada, France,
Germany, Australia, Italy, United Arab
Emirates, South Korea, Japan, the United
Kingdom, and IATA voted against the ban.
The problem of fire and explosion of
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
lithium-ion batteries results from the
unpredictable and not yet well understood
thermal runaway phenomenon, i.e. a
sudden and extremely rapid heating of the
battery resulting in fire and explosion. This
phenomenon has plagued the transport
of the lithium batteries for years, causing
serious fires on transport vehicles and
has become increasingly important as
lithium-ion battery usage has spread
worldwide. It is now common to have the
possible presence of lithium-ion batteries
on board suggested as the cause of any
sudden, unexplained plane accident. It
has, for example, been mentioned as a
possible cause of the recent unexplained
disappearance of the Malaysian plane, the
remnants of which are still being sought.
Even the new Boeing Dreamliner, which
was designed to use lithium-ion batteries,
has experienced lithium battery thermal
runaway problems. As part of its solution
to the lithium-ion danger, Boeing placed
the batteries in an extra strong container
capable of limiting the effects of an out of
control battery. The container approach
has also been used in EVs to limit damage
in case of a battery problem. Unfortunately
in all instances it cannot be considered an
optimal solution.
In a discussion of the ICAO action with
a colleague well experienced in the lithium
battery field following the above vote, he
broached the following question in relation
to the current situation:
Do you know of any case in the
history of commercial aviation, where an
international aircraft organisation has
approved the shipping of a device known
to spontaneously ignite or explode?
That summarises the present situation
and problem for battery manufacturers,
airliners and, of course, all of us frequent
flyer passengers worldwide.
Even before the development of lithium-
ion batteries, I had occasionally talked to
groups of young, inquisitive elementary
grade students about batteries. The first
thing I always said was that A battery is
best described as a package of energy
and it should be respected as potentially
dangerous, if abused, e.g. hit repeatedly
with a hammer or heated in an oven.
(Yes, children do those things.) I was
once involved in a legal action, where
striking an alkaline battery with a hammer,
resulted in serious injury to a young boy.
I always warned my audience, that a
battery should be treated with the same
respect as a firework, which is also clearly
a package of energy. If we think about the
comparison of a firework and a lithiumion
battery carefully, a firework may even be
safer than a lithium-ion battery, since it
doesnt undergo spontaneous thermal
runaway. In the U.S. and most everywhere
else, fireworks can only be shipped via
common carrier ground and they cant be
shipped overseas. This type of comparison
is obviously not enough to convince a
majority of the ICAO members to treat
lithium-ion battery shipments as they do
fireworks.
The panels decision is a
recommendation to ICAOs air navigation
bureau, which will most likely follow the
recommendation. We as passengers will
have to continue to bear the risk.
So again we ask the question
Do you know of any case in the
history of commercial aviation, where an
international aircraft organisation has
approved the shipping of a device known
to spontaneously ignite or explode?
Unfortunately the answer is yes - the
lithium-ion battery. Can we live with that?
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12 newsinreview
Our quartely review section rounds-up and analyses the activity in the electrochemical
storage sector. Sign-up now for our news briefing, sent straight to your inbox each week.
Mixed fortunes for Pb-A
T
here have been as many
bright spots in the
lead-acid industry as
concerns in the past quarter.
Firstly US company East
Penn announced plans to
break ground on lead-acid
battery facilities in Iowa, US.
Construction of the
318,600-square-foot facility
in Oelwein is due to begin in
spring, and be completed by
summer 2018. East Penns
decision comes after the
Iowa Economic Development
Authority authorised more
than $3 million in tax credits,
plus $1.75 million in direct
financial assistance.
US boost to lead-acid
recycling
Staying in the US, lead-acid
recycling company Quemetco
applied for permission to run
its Californian production
facilities continuously.
The plant currently takes
some production equipment
offline each day to stay within
its permitted daily feed
limit, a spokesman for RSR
Corporation told American
Metals Market (AMM).
The company, a subsidiary
of private secondary lead
smelting firm RSR Corporation,
aims to improve operational
efficiency its lead-acid battery
recycling facility in the City of
Industry, reported the AMM in
December.
Production expansion is
reliant on gaining permission
from regulatory agencies.
Moves to increase
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
production came just a month
after the company was ordered
by the California Department
of Toxic Substances
Control (DTSC) to submit
a plan to measure for lead
contamination at the facility.
Novel US lead-acid battery
recycling firm Aqua Metals
moved closer to opening its
green recycling plant.
The California based start-
up began assembling the
modules a key element of its
AquaRefining system after
completing a manufacturing
line. The companys first
module was built in Alameda,
US, with the first 16 due to be
shipped to its AquaRefinery
in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial
Center in Nevada in the first
half of 2016.
New technology latest
sign of hope for Pb-A
Meanwhile US scientists
unveiled lightweight bipolar
lead-acid batteries using
conductive plastic plates to
allow top lead to be removed
from batteries.
ElectriPlast, a Integral
Technologies subsidiary,
unveiled a 12V bipolar battery
design based on a plate core
made of highly conductive
loaded resins with metal and
lead-covered surfaces.
The resin conducts like
metal, but has the insulation
properties of plastic, the
company claimed.
Integral Technologies CEO
Doug Bathauser said he was
working with lead-acid battery
manufacturers but could not
reveal which ones.
We are seeing the most
interest in applications where
size is a premium, such as
electric motorbikes, golf carts
and wheelchairs, he said.
The technology is
commercially ready and a pilot
production line is in place.
Lead-acid losing battle in
large-scale energy storage
However, spokesman for
German firm Younicos Philip
Alexander Hiersemenzel isnt
so upbeat about the industry.
He told BEST lead-acids
share in the exploding
large-scale energy storage
market was set to diminish as
firms concentrated on other
technologies.
Lead-acids limitations will
see alternative chemistries
gain ground, he predicted.
People wont stop using it,
you can use advanced lead-
acid, but its simply not the
future; it is lithium or other
chemistries such as sodium-
sulphur or vanadium redox
flow which will dominate in
the large-scale energy storage
industry, he told BEST.
The claims came weeks
after electronics maker
Panasonic agreed to sell its
lead-acid battery business to
battery manufacturer GS Yuasa
Corp for $250 million.
Panasonic is now looking
to concentrate on lithium-ion
batteries, particularly in the
automotive sector.
However, the sale marked
the latest in a series of lead-
acid expansions by GS Yuasa.
This year alone the Kyoto-
based company is set to boost
its lead-acid battery output by
2.3 million units to 30 million
in Indonesia by expanding its
Kawarang plant near Jakarta,
and adding an extra assembly
line at its lead-acid battery
factory in Tangerang.
In Ranjangaon, India, GS
Yuasa spent $1.6 million on a
plant to initially produce 1.2
million units a year, which
could double following the
addition of a second assembly
line in 2016.

Asia ramping up production
Despite stock market
crashes and fears over
worse to come, BESTs
view is Chinas battery
industry is holding its
own, even if the direction
it may take is less clear.
C
omments by Italian
firm Fiamms Asia-
Pacific general manager
Lorenzo Mancini on the
Chinese lead-acid battery
sector were supplemented
with his belief the government
would like the country to
become a world champion in
lithium-ion battery production.
(For Mancinis full interview,
see page 103)
China is seeing both foreign
and domestic companies
ramping up production among
them are Japans electronics
giant Panasonic, which is
set to open a lithium battery
plant in Dalian, China, in 2017.
This would be the firms first
dedicated plant for electric
vehicle batteries in China.
Korean firms LG Chem and
Samsung SDI opened lithium
battery plants in October,
each in the former Chinese
capital cities of Nanjing and
Xian. Samsung also confirmed
it going to supply lithium-
ion batteries to Chinese
automaker JAC for its new EVs.
Domestic demand for EVs
has fuelled expansion among
Chinese manufacturers, with
BYD announcing it would raise
$2.4 billion by selling stock
to fund a massive increase in
lithium-ion battery production.
EV battery maker Tianneng
Power announced plans to
newsinreview 13
increase its annual production the next ten years will see stop-start battery production in
capacity to 3GWh as it eyes a significant expansion Changxing, Zhejiang Province.
the lithium e-bike battery in the battery business, Construction of the $200
market. However, 30% of the and industries will face million plant in Chinas
companys capital expenditure large reshuffles as industry Shenyang, in Liaoning
is still invested in lead-acid. consolidation becomes the Province is slated to begin
But while lithium is new norm. early 2018 and will have the
gaining territory with the call capacity to produce six million
for greener Enhanced Flooded
transport, the and AGM batteries
waters look less a year.
than calm for
the industry. Oligarchs face
In November, price fix criticism
a senior Beijing There has been
official warned criticism of the
in the Chinese Chinese oligarchs
web portal who have been
OfWeek that accused of
the lithium-ion deliberately
battery industry keeping lead-acid
Workers at Samsung SDIs lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant
faced a similar battery prices low to
chaos to that of lead-acid. Lead not dead yet put off any new entrants to the
Lin Cheng, of Beijings Despite the growing sector.
Institute of Technology, competition from other Chinese publication Electric
warned that the EV industry battery chemistries, especially Vehicle Business Network
was facing three major issues: lithium-ion, and legislation by claimed oligarchs were
competing with traditional the government, Chinas lead- forcing prices down because
fuel vehicles which have a acid industry is far from over. any increases would lead to
much higher mileage before The goal has not more companies entering
re-fuelling; the high cost of changed, said Ministry of the industry. However,
lithium batteries; and in an Industry and Information years of price wars havent
echo of what happened in the Technology Consumer Goods cut production; instead,
lead-acid battery industry, the Industry deputy inspector manufacturing capacity has
increasing number of small, Wang Minyan. increased to three times the
scattered To survive in this market demand.
and highly competitive
unregulated market environment, Ventures into Vanadium
companies sustainable Chemistries such as vanadium
joining development policies are undergoing rapid rise
the rush must be put into with deals by Canada-based
to make conscious action. Sparton Resources and US-
the newer But the trend by based Imergy.
chemistry larger lead-acid firms, However, an interesting
batteries. be they Chinese or report in the journal PV
Lin, foreign, seems to be Magazine suggests China is
the deputy Lin Cheng, of Beijings focused on expansion, hoarding its resources of
Institute of Technology
director rather than closures. vanadium in expectation of
of the institutes EV National Johnson Controls, for rising demand for the element
Laboratory, said: We foresee example, plan to double its in the growing ESS market.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
14 newsinreview
What is the true cost of ESSs?
BEST reviews the
latest Energy Storage
System (ESS)
announcements from
the last quarter.
R
esidential and
commercial-scale ESS
are marketed as a
potential Band-aid to a global
warming crisis and a way to
save cash for many home and
business owners.
However, an Alternative
Technology Association (ATA)
report in November poured
cold water on the question of
cost for the Australian market,
which is predicted to grow to
AUS$630 million by 2020.
The report suggested
grid-connected battery
storage would not become
economically attractive for
many Australian homes until
around 2020.
Damien Moyse, the ATAs
policy and research manager,
was less optimistic.
He said: At todays prices,
most Australian households
wont be able to achieve a 10-
year return on their investment
which is the typical lifetime
of a well-designed and
operated battery system.
The short-term implications
for firms launching products
into the country like Tesla
(7kWh Powerwall), Panasonic
(8kWh domestic ESS), and LG
Chem (1-10kWh Residential
Energy Storage Unit) remain to
be seen.
Manufacturing key to
reducing ESS costs
The obvious way of making
the applications cheaper is
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
to improve design and lower
material costs.
Financial advisory firm
Lazards in-depth Levelized
Cost of Storage Analysis 1.0
study compared the costs of
energy storage technologies
within applications in
November.
The report covered lead-
acid, lithium-ion, pumped
hydro, sodium, zinc,
compressed air, flow batteries,
and flywheels.
It said the lead-acid
industry must reduce the
amount of lead used in
batteries while improving
engineering and design to gain
more usable energy and reach
a median fall of 24% in AUS
Dollars per kWh by 2020.
For lithium-ion the
equivalent price drop in
AUS$/kWh could be as
great as 47%, but needs
increased manufacturing scale
(think Teslas Gigafactory),
improvements in design and
a fall in material costs, the
report claimed.
The other main contender
in the ESS market is flow
batteries technology.
This could see costs fall as
much as 25% if manufacturing
improvements are made.
Commercial scale ESS up
as battery costs fall
However, a report from
analyst firm IHS claimed
that an average 53% fall in
lithium-ion battery prices in
2015 had already led to more
commercial-scale energy
storage installations.
The Grid-Connected Energy
Storage Report predicts costs
will continue to fall up to 2019,
leading to a 10MW/ 5MWh
battery system costing around
$4million.
However, the report states
more than 60% of the total
reduction in system costs up
to 2019 for a typical 30-minute
duration utility-scale lithium-
ion system will come from the
balance-of-plant equipment,
rather than from batteries
alone.
Big firms take first steps
into distributed ESSs
So with battery prices falling
it is little surprise November
saw a host of big companies
moving into the ESS market.
Johnson Controls (JCI)
installed its 85kWh lithium-
ion L1000 ESS battery storage
system in Chicagos 4.2 million
square foot Merchandise Mart.
JCI also secured a Super facility will help the country
ESPC (Energy Savings
Performance Contract) which
pre-qualifies the company to
work on US federal sites.
California-based battery
firm Pathion announced it was
to bring modular lithium-ion
energy storage platforms to
market a week after buying
technology from energy
storage company Spider9.
Under the name
PATHION Power, the system
automatically reconfigures
individual problem cells
without loss of power. It
also allows for advanced
chemistries and applications
to be added.
Pathion chairman and
CEO Mike Liddle said that
deals were being made with
two unnamed major global
companies to launch the
technology.
In Europe, Germany leads
the way in ESS innovation.
A joint venture under the
banner of E-Mobility thought
to the end between Daimler
AG, The Mobility House AG
and German Utility firm GETEC
is set to bring a 13 MWh
stationary storage unit on-line.
The battery packs will
come from the manufacture
and reprocessing of electric
and plug-in hybrid battery
systems at the Daimler
subsidiary ACCUMOTIVE. The
project begins next year at the
site of REMONDIS SE in the
Westphalian town of Lnen.
The Philippines is also getting
ESS savvy, having introduced its
first lithium battery-based energy
storage facility in 2015. Built by
US-based firm AES, the 10MW
maintain power during cyclones.
Could court hearing derail
future of USs ESS market?
A moment of caution for the
North American ESS industry
came in October.
The US Supreme Court
heard a case prompted by
the US Court of Appeals in
Washington, DC, vacated
Order 745 in May, 2014, which
was in response to Order 745,
or demand-response, which
pays people for cutting their
electricity consumption at
peak times, effectively, paying
consumers for peak shaving.
This qualifies owners of
small-scale ESSs for a rebate
each month and would make
investment into the technology
worthwhile.
The hearing is expected to
last until June, 2016.
something NEW is coming...

www.froetek.com
16 newsinreview
High profile industry deals
The last few months of 2015 saw advanced battery companies pooling resources and
knowledge to push the battery industry forward BEST looks at all the key deals.
I
n North America
Cambridge-based 24M
agreed to supply its
semisolid lithium-ion cells for
use in Westbourgh-based NEC
Energy Solutions integrated
energy storage systems.
The Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) was one
of 24Ms first since it unveiled
its technology in June, 2015. It
followed five years of research
fund-raising including
$50million from venture
partners and a $4.5million
grant from the US Department
of Energy (DoE).
The MoU was NECs
second energy storage deal
in October. An agreement
with Eos Energy Storage set
out plans to develop next-
generation energy storage
solutions based on Eoss
ZnythTM zinc hybrid cathode
battery chemistry and its
Aurora DC battery system.
Redox flow deal to push
technology forward
Major business developments
in the redox flow battery
market industry, especially in
the stationary storage market,
saw the technology gaining
traction in the battery industry.
Renewable energy
development company
SunEdison signed a 10-year
agreement to provide 5MW of
vanadium redox flow battery
storage in Canada.
Construction on the 20
MWh battery storage begins
in 2017 following the deal
with Ontarios Independent
Electricity System Operator
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
(IESO).
The project
aims to smooth
the flow of
renewable energy
into Ontarios
grid using US
firm Imergys
vanadium redox
flow battery
technology.
The project
is the US firms
first commercial
large-scale grid-
connected energy
storage project,
and one of
Canadas first commercial flow
battery applications.
Elsewhere, US firm
Vionx Energy is looking to
commercialise its batteries
and transform the way grids
are managed in a six-company
partnership.
The Massachusett-based
firm will license, finance,
manufacture and deploy
vanadium redox flow batteries
with United Technologies
Corp, Starwood Energy Group,
Siemens, 3M, VantagePoint
Capital Partners and Jabil.
Staying with the redox
technology, US firm Energy
Storage Systems secured $3.2
million to ramp up production
of its 125 kW/1 MWh all-
iron redox flow (IFP) battery
system.
The IFB is designed for
commercial, industrial and
utility-scale applications. The
Oregon-based company claims
the IFB can deliver 10,000
cycles with no degradation,
and store between six to 12
hours of energy.
IP sharing to boost lithium
sulphur technology
The end of 2015 saw a flurry of
activity by the US DoE.
An exclusive agreement
with US battery firm Solid
Power allowed IP from Oak
Ridge National Laboratory
to be used to develop higher
energy density lithium-sulphur
batteries.
Solid Power began
production of the first large-
scale prototypes last year
at its 700-square-foot dry
room facility with roll-to-roll
processing capabilities.
On paper, the technology
delivers more power by
replacing carbon-based
anodes with lithium metal,
however, finding a solid
electrolyte that can match
liquids conductivity, cycle life
and operating temperature is
proving difficult.
Boost for lithium-ion in
microinverter deal
Battery manufacturer Eliiy
Power made a deal back in
October to boost production
of its large-size lithium-ion
electricity storage battery cells
by 40%.
The Japanese firm will
supply US microinverter
company Enphase with six
years worth of cells, allowing it
to increase annual production
to around 1.5 million.
The project, at its Kawasaki
plant just south of Tokyo, will
cost up to $24.8 million. Eliiy
is also considering building a
new plant in the Osaka region
of Kansai by 2018.
New partnership makes
separator dream a reality
Back in December a
partnership between US firm
Dreamweaver International
and PH Glatfelter allowed
production of a nanofibre-
based supercapacitor

Boost Battery breakthroughs
separator technology to begin.
Produced in Oberschmitten,
Germany, the titanium
separators will be the first
supercapacitor separators to
be produced outside Asia, said
DreamWeaver President and
COO Brian Morin.
The companys products
use a combination of
nanofibres and microfibres
in lithium-ion batteries and
supercapacitors.
All material for the
supercapacitors is made
in Japan, with NKK and
Mitsubishi the two major
manufacturers.
Glatfelter is due to lead the
launch into the China market.
A month before, Australian
resource company Syrah
Resources bought the
exclusive rights to lithium-
ion coating technology from
Morgan Hairong.
The licensing agreement
allows Syrah to use the
Chinese firms spherical
graphite anode coating
technology around the world
in any of its projects, although
not in China.
A lithium battery deal was
newsinreview 17
made between Tesla and
South Korean giant LG Chem at
the end of October drew a wry
smile from many on-lookers.
The deal was no doubt a
blow to Japanese electronics
mammoth Panasonic, which
currently produces Teslas
electric vehicle (EV) batteries
in Osaka and soon Nevada,
US.
Meanwhile Nissan was
showing its hand in the
second life energy storage
market with a partnership with
Eatons Technology.
The UK-based power
management specialist will
use the Japanese automakers
30kW/h lithium-ion batteries
from its EV Leaf to create
energy storage and control
centres.
Nissan first moved beyond
experimenting with used EV
batteries when it launched a
full-scale commercial business
with California-based start-up
Green Charge Networks.
Nissan is believed to be
working with General Motors
and Swiss grid provider ABB
on second-life battery
applications.

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bestmagazine // Winter 2016

18 bestnews
SoC rules could ban Li-ion from air cargo
M
anufacturers
of lithium-ion
batteries may have
to guarantee their cells and
packs are charged to no
more than 30% SOC (state
of charge) when shipped
by air, following a technical
recommendation from IATA,
the International Air Transport
Association, which regulates,
on among other things, the
movement of dangerous goods
by air.
The potentially explosive
change in regulations was
revealed at the Baltimore lithium
battery conference in November.
Pressure is still mounting
from interested parties on an
outright ban on the movement
of lithium-ion products by air,
Nancy Rockbrune, head of Safety
Management Systems at IATA,
told the audience.
Manufacturers would
have less than three months
to implement the changes,
which George Kerchner,
Executive Director of the
Portable Rechargable Battery
Association (PRBA), said would
be impossible to achieve
and that PRBA had written to
IATA asking for a delay until at
least September 2016, with the
development of new standards
for battery shipping by air.
While IATA itself is not in
favour of a ban, the evidence
for the degree of catastrophic
damage that burning lithium-ion
batteries could do to an aircraft
cargo hold has grown massively
in the past year.
The US Federal Aviation
Authority (FAA) had conducted
tests in 2015 which showed
that as few as ten 18650 cells
going into thermal runaway
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
could create
sufficient volume
of flammable gas
to pop open an
aircrafts hold on a
Boeing 737.
Further, once
this had occurred,
the preferred fire
extinguishing
product, Halon,
was no longer
effective because
it would be
impossible A plane fire simulation showing the potential impact of shipping batteries in high SoC
to achieve a
5% concentration of the
Portable battery regs could
extinguishing gas. In these
circumstances, a lithium-ion
battery fire would become
uncontrollable.
affect EU recycling industry
R
The impact of the new
regulations, even if they are emoval of a recycling anomaly which saw 83% of
delayed until next September, grey area could see the UKs battery recycling
will have considerable financial increased costs for obligations being met through
impact on the battery industry, Europes battery recycling the collection of lead-acid
with new packaging methods industry after tougher batteries, despite the
having to be developed which are regulations came into effect on chemistry only making up 8%
capable of fully containing such a January 1st. of new batteries coming on to
fire and its gaseous products. Batteries weighing more the market.
New limitations on the than 4kg are now classed as We agree that action
numbers of cells and packs industrial, as are batteries needed to be taken to rectify
which can be shipped are also which are lighter, but designed the imbalance in the way
likely to appear, which may exclusively for professional or producers and recyclers define
effectively act as a ban on air industrial use. portable batteries, said
transportation, one source said. The portable classification compliance scheme Ecosurety
IATA believes a ban is not was revised under regulations commercial manager Robbie
necessary, given the incidence of by the UKs Department of Staniforth.
probable on-board battery fires Environment, Food & Rural We agree that the change
which have caused hull loss Affairs (DEFRA). in definition will lead to
and deaths. Previously batteries an increase in the cost of
Just three incidents are known weighing from 4-10kg, but batteries compliance for
to have occurred with two deaths which were transportable producers.
(of aircrew) over a ten-year by hand, were classed The changes could mean
period. as portable in the UKs more non-lead batteries will
The probability of a battery Government Guidance on the need to be recycled in the UK
fire is very low but the Waste Batteries Regulations to meet EU recycling targets,
consequences of one are severe, 2009. which require 45% of portable
and this is what we need to take The move will go some batteries to be collected by the
into account, said Rockbrune. way to eradicating an end of 2016.
20 bestnews
Exodus of Teslas German employees
R
enewable energy storage firm
Sonnenbatterie has made a
number of recruitments several
from Teslas German-based sales and
marketing teams.
Jonas Rabe rejoins the German firm
as marketing manager. He was formerly
Sonnenbatteries sales manager and
PR before becoming Teslas marketer in
Germany in March 2014.
He was joined by Alan Atzberger, the
firms new vice president of direct sales
and marketing. He moved after five years
in its sales and marketing department.
Lastly, Marcel Meub joined the firm as
head of sales for Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. He was previously Teslas
Frankfurt regional sales manager.
The new recruits bring the total
number of Tesla defectors to turn up at
Sonnebatterie to four in recent months.
Sonnenbatteries managing director
Philipp Schrder was the first of the four
to move from Tesla in October 2015. He
had served as the US firms Country
Director for Germany and Austria.

Exide rewards VP
U
S lead-
acid firm
Exide
Technologies
has named Brad
S. Kalter as its
executive vice
president.
Kalter was
promoted from
general counsel and corporate secretary
Take Control of Your Battery Quality Testing. of the firm to help the company rebuild its
brand and market presence.

Model 1656 Kalter now sits on the companys

executive leadership team and reports to
All New Digital Design the firms president and chief executive
Separator Insulation Tester officer. He has previously served as
Exides vice president, and deputy general
Designed for High Volume
counsel at the firm.
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Safe & Efficient
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l
Contact Your Nearest Representative:
ithium-ion developer and manufacturer
Asia United States
PPST (Shanghai) Co., Ltd STS Instruments, Inc. A123 Systems has announced Chris
Phone: +86 (021) 6763 9223 Phone: (1) 580 223 4773 Eisenhart as the companys new chief
Email: sales@ppst.com.cn Email: info@stsinstruments.com
Web: www.stsinstruments.com Web: www.stsinstruments.com operations officer.
Europe He will lead A123s manufacturing,
Caltest Instruments Ltd quality and supply chain organisations
Phone: +44 (0) 1483 302 700
Email: info@caltest.co.uk globally and oversee the companys plan
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For more information visit www.stsinstruments.com capacity within the next two years by
STS Instruments. Your trusted source for Battery Element Insulation Testers since 1964. helping A123 to execute its $300 million
expansion and development.

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

 bestnews 21 bestnews 21
ABERTAX founder dies
T
he founder of Maltese
R&D battery component
company ABERTAX has
died at the age of 81.
Werner Schmidt founded
the company in 1999 with the
goal of researching, designing
and producing innovative
battery products including
battery management units and
gas release valves.
Abertax president George
Schembri said: Werner will be
missed by all, especially those
who were close to him and
who knew him well. Werner Schmidt deliberately
He gave his very best transformed this enterprise
competence and continuous into a Foundation with the key
efforts to build up the Abertax intention of ensuring lasting
Companies. To a large extent reliability for Abertax
Abertax is his achievement. customers as well as for
In setting up Abertax, Abertax personnel.

Money man joins Aqua Metals

U
S green lead-acid where the
battery recycling firm firm says
Aqua Metals has production
added to its manufacturing is due to
and financial team. begin in
Alex Laleh joined Aqua December.
Metals as special projects Akright
manager and Thomas Akright will be Alex Laleh
joined the company as responsible for building the
corporate controller. companys financial systems,
Laleh will help to set up internal controls, performance
the companys AquaRefining metrics and reporting
module production line at capabilities.
its California headquarters,

Changes at Pb-A firm Hammond

L
ead-acid firm Hammond Group has named Gordon C.
Beckley as its new vice president and chief technical
officer.
Beckley will be responsible for all R&D efforts now
headquartered at the firms new Lead-Acid Battery Laboratory.
He reports directly to the companys president and CEO Terence
Murphy.

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

22 bestnews
Telecoms firm embraces flow battery technology
U
S advanced energy
storage solutions firm
Imergy Power Systems
has signed a deal to supply
105 vanadium redox flow
batteries to a South Africa-
based telecoms company.
The 5kW, 20-30kWh Imergy
ESP5 batteries will replace
diesel generators and leadacid
batteries to provide backup
power at telecom base stations
throughout South Africa.
The batteries will contain
electrolyte using South
African-sourced vanadium.
The countrys unreliable
grid power is known to quickly
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
degrade lead-acid batteries,
whereby the ESP5 batteries
can be charged or discharged
to any state of charge with
minimal degradation and
performance loss.
Imergys CEO Bill Watkins
said: Our energy storage
systems fast charge rates,
unlimited cycling and
durability in rugged, remote
outdoor environments
are the reasons why customers. Middle East.
customers like this mobile The unnamed mobile The new deal follows a pilot
telecommunications network telecommunications company of 20 systems which
group are choosing them to provides services to more successfully provided backup
help ensure uninterrupted than 200 million subscribers power to base station sites in
power service to millions of in Africa, Europe and the the country.
 bestnews 23
Pb-A surge in South Africa Hammond Asian expansion
I H
ndian lead-acid battery rooftop systems and solar ammond Group, The transaction provides
firm Greenvision reported streetlights, said Bruno. Inc. (HGI), a global HGI with a way to introduce its
huge strides into Africa We see significant producer of lead Freedom Line and K2
with its Relicell batteries. opportunity in the export of oxides, expanders, and Expanders to the growing
Greenvision founder batteries to Africa and other speciality chemicals for lead- Asian market for high
and managing director Biju countries, added Bruno, who acid batteries, has acquired performance expanders, for
Bruno told BEST 80% of the estimates the African lead-acid 100% ownership of Asia partial state-of-charge
companys Relicell brand battery market will grow by Litharge Sdn Bhd (ALSB), Port solutions.
exports were being sold in 5.3% to 2021 because of the Klang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Africa, many in Nigeria. increasing demand for lead- The company produces
5MW redox flow deal

Relicell batteries contain a
lead-calcium-tin-silver alloy,
a synthetic separator with
phosphoric acid added to
the electrolyte to improve life
cycle.
The major applications
for our batteries are in solar
acid batteries in uninterrupted
power and inverter systems.
The companys
manufacturing unit in
Bengaluru, India produces
around 100,000 small Relicell
batteries and 30,000 large
batteries a month.
the specialty battery additive
tetrabasic lead sulphate
under its SureCure trade. New
production at ALSB will allow
Asian customers to acquire
the speciality additive at
considerably lower cost than
from US sourcing.
A
ten- year deal will see
renewable energy firm
SunEdison provide
5MW of vanadium redox flow
battery storage to Ontarios
Independent Electricity System
Operator.

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bestmagazine // Winter 2016

24 bestnews
Salty solution to Li-ion safety issues
S
cientists in the US could
have opened a new era
for lithium-ion batteries
after doubling the voltage of
an aqueous electrolyte.
Researchers from the
University of Maryland (UMD)
and the US Army Research
Laboratory revealed the
Water-in-Salt aqueous
lithium-ion battery technology
in the journal Science.
The team doubled the
electrochemical window of
aqueous electrolyte to around
3V and demonstrated a high
voltage, aqueous, full lithium-
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
ion cell with 2.3V capacity.
The breakthrough could
pave the way for aqueous
batteries to seriously compete
in terms of power and energy
density with non-aqueous
lithium-ion batteries, said
team leader Chunsheng
Wang, an associate professor
in UMDs Department of
Chemical & Biomolecular
Engineering.
The key to the breakthrough
was the use of a water-
based electrolyte containing
ultrahigh concentrations of a
specially selected lithium salt.
This resulted in
the formation of
a thin protective
film on the anode
electrode for the
very first time in
a water-based
battery, claim
researchers.
A Solid
Electrolyte
Interphase (SEI) is essential Researchers hope the
to the high performance discovery could eventually be
characteristics of lithium-ion used in kilowatt or megawatt
batteries, but had previously level applications, such as
only been achieved in non- electric vehicles or grid-
aqueous electrolytes. storage devices.

Funding to cut flow battery costs
A F
cash boost from the
German government
will allow a multi-
agency joint R&D project to
develop better and cheaper
bi-polar plates for redox flow
batteries.
The countrys Ministry
for Economic Affairs and
Energy (BMWi) has provided
3.9 million funding for the
extruded plate project,
The cross-sector project
aims to reduce the unit
manufacturing costs of the
batteries by developing a
process to build bipolar plates
with surface areas in the m2
range.
The project involves
thyssenkrupp, Centroplast
and Eisenhuth along with
the research institutes
Energie-Forschungszentrum
Niedersachsen (EFZN)
and Zentrum fr
BrennstoffzellenTechnik (ZBT
Eisenhuth will transfer
the research results. ZBT,
supported by Eisenhuth,
will select and develop
materials suitable for the new
production technology.
Plastics specialist
Centroplast will scale up
the bipolar plates and
bestnews 25
demonstrating the feasibility
of manufacturing plates on
a m2 scale using the new
technology.
Thyssenkrupp Industrial
Solutions will integrate the
bipolar plates into redox flow
batteries and optimise the cell
design with a view to large-
scale applications.
The joint project is being
coordinated by Eisenhuth.
Thyssenkrupp expects to be
able to market the technology
from 2018.
The main focus will be on
the manufacturing defect-free,
high-quality bipolar plates.
Scientists develop
18650 Na-ion cell
rench researchers have
developed a sodium-ion
battery in the industry
standard 18650 format,
paving the way for a potential
sea-change in EV applications.
The cylindrical prototype is
1.8cm-diameter, 6.5cm-high
in shape and size, and can
facilitate technology transfer
to existing production units.
The team claims the
batteries reach 2,000 cycles
without degradation, however
performance is on par with
lithium-ion batteries of the
early 1990s.

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26 bestnews
Tyres recycled into Li-ion annodes GWh Li-ion deal

A
ES Energy Storage

C
heaper and more
effective carbon black
is set to come on to
the market after a licensing
agreement between the US
Department of Energys Oak
Ridge National Laboratory
Group (ORNL) and scientific
consultancy firm RJ Lee Group.
ORNL has developed a way
of turning rubber sources,
such as tyres, into carbon
black composites through
a proprietary pretreatment
process invented by its
researchers Amit Naskar,
Parans Paranthaman and
and LG Chem supply
Zhonghe agreement will bring
Bi. a GWh of lithium-ion battery
A team capacity on stream.
now aims The multi-year agreement
to develop will see Korean firm LG Chem
the carbon design and configure its
black to battery modules for AES
create Advancion grid-scale energy
a better storage application.The supply
anode for lithium-ion The next step is to scale up agreement covers battery
batteries. the production of the carbon modules with configurations
The ORNL team will materials to replicate the lab- ranging from 30 minutes to
collaborate with RJ Lee scale performance in larger four hours of discharge
Group to further develop the format cells. duration. US firm AES and LG
technology through a privately The research was funded by Chem have also agreed to
funded sponsored research the ORNLs Technology collaborate on joint
project. Innovation Program. development initiatives.

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LFP deal for cathodes New home for UL
B G
eijing-based Pulead has
entered a manufacturing
agreement with the
Belgian company Prayon.
The companys are now
set to manufacture and
sell lithium iron phosphate
(LFP) specifically for the
manufacture of cathodes.
It has also signed a
licensing agreement with
Prayons JV partner Umicore,
which has begun researching
nickel manganese cobalt
(NMC) and lithium cobaltite
(LCO) materials for cathodes.
Under the agreement,
Pulead has non-exclusive
rights to use Umicores
materials in lithium-ion
batteries for portable
electronics applications such
as smartphones and tablets.
Pulead specialises in
battery cathodes, and with
its subsidiary Pride Power
also manufactures large
format battery packs for
automotive and energy storage
applications.
As such, the company is
manoeuvering itself to take
advantage of the burgeoning
demand for lithium-ion as
applications switch to the
chemistry from lead-acid.
bestnews 27
lobal safety science
organisation
Underwriters
Laboratories (UL) has chosen
its North American testing and
validation centre.
The UL Battery & Energy
Storage Technology Test Center
will be based at the Battery
Innovation Center and the
energy storage laboratory near
Crane, Indiana.
The laboratory will cater for
most chemistries including
lithium, lead-acid, sodium
sulphur, and vanadium redox
(flow) batteries.
It can test and certify
batteries and energy storage
systems up to 1MW, 1,500
Volts and up to 200 Ah cells
through a 6.4MW net metering
agreement.
The centre combines ULs
expertise with the BIC facilitys
innovative test capabilities,
which includes a full suite of
mechanical and environmental
testing capabilities.
For more than 120 years UL
has aimed to accelerate
adoption of innovative energy
technology through client
collaboration, independent
safety review, and product
testing.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
28 bestnews
UK 1m BESS experiment Uks Na ESS
U
K-based Renewable
Energy Systems is set
to build and support a
lithium iron phosphate battery
energy storage system (BESS)
in England.
The fully contained 640kWh
BESS will be supplied by BYD
and includes battery cells,
power conversion equipment
and safety and monitoring
systems.
The 1million project with
Western Power Distribution
(WPD) is part of an
investigation into the technical
and commercial feasibility of
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
battery energy storage
combined within
distributed generation
installations in the UK.
The system will be
embedded at British Solar
Renewables Ltds 1.5MW
solar park at Copley Wood
near Butleigh, Somerset,
and connected to WPDs
South West network.
The battery will be installed
by RES and ready for
commissioning tests by
September 2016. After the
battery has been installed the
project will involve conducting
operational tests for
approximately two years and
subsequent analysis of the
results. The project is
expected to complete in early
2018.
A
small-scale renewable
energy sodium-ion
battery has been
installed for the first time on
UK shores by English energy
storage firm Wattstor.
Wattstor put together the
25kWh bespoke stationary ESS
using a battery, manufactured
by US Company Aquion.
Michael Danes, Director at
Wattstor, a specialist in the
design and supply of ESSs,
said the battery unit was quite
large, and so suitable for large
domestic or small commercial
and agricultural applications.
The installation is in County
Derry, Northern Ireland.
 bestnews 29
3D supercap Dream product Research MoU
C
hinese scientists will

S
wedish researchers
have developed a paper
supercapacitor that
has been dubbed a dream
product for storing energy.
Scientists at the Linkping
Universitys Laboratory of
Organic Electronics developed
the power paper material that
consists of nanocellulose and
a conductive polymer.
The team demonstrated
how a sheet 15 centimetres in
diameter and a few tenths of
a millimetre thick could store
as much as 1 Farad of electric
charge.
They claim the material can
be recharged in a few seconds
and has a cycle life in the
hundreds.
Thin films that function
as capacitors already exist,
but this is the first time the
material has been produced
in three dimensions to form
thick sheets, said Xavier
Crispin, professor of organic
electronics at the university.
In tests, the material set
new world records for: highest
charge and capacitance
in organic electronics, 1 C
Coulomb and 2 Farad; highest
measured current in an organic
conductor, 1Ampere; highest
capacity to simultaneously
conduct ions and electrons;
highest transconductance in a
transistor, 1 Siemens.
The team involves scientists
from the KTH Royal Institute
of Technology, Innventia,
Technical University of
Denmark and the University of
Kentucky.
The team is now planning to
develop the technology in an
industrial-scale process for
manufacturing the power
paper.
work with researchers
at the UKs University
of Birmingham to develop a
laboratory specialising in new
energy storage technologies.
A Memorandum of
Understanding has been
signed between the university
and the State Grid of Chinas
Smart Grid Research Institute,
which is owned by Chinas
State Grid (SGCC).
The partnership will focus
on grid-scale cryogenic energy
storage research and look at
different storage materials,
devices, system integration
and optimisation.

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 bestapplications 33
An Ocean of Opportunities
Paul Crompton talks to Neil Simmonds of Corvus Energy about the less-than-obvious market
for marine hybrid power, supported by highly ruggedised lithium-ion batteries.
T
he sun is rising above the
North Pacific Ocean. Oil
tankers, container ships
and barges are being moved into
position at the Port of Los Angeles.
Among the everyday scene of
big industry going about its daily
business, a small tugboat silently
chugs its way to its first ship assist
of the day. But this was no average
day in 2009, this day proved to
be a milestone for the merchant
shipping industry. Thats because
the small, unassuming green
tug had been fitted with lithium
polymer batteries; this was the
USs first hybrid tug.
Skip forward six years and
Corvus Energy has completed
30similar hybrid, plug-in hybrids
and pure electric projects using its
bespoke battery packs, fitted with
nickel manganese cobalt pouch
cells. This year the company is
scheduled to supply packs for four
more new build hybrid boats: three
ferries and one offshore vessel. To
date the majority of the Canadian
companys hybrid projects are
evenly split between retro-fit and
new build applications.
Transformation in shipping
industry
When the battery industry discusses
the brave new world of battery
power, electric vehicles, stationary
energy storage systems (ESS) and
of course personal gadgets fill the
agenda. But Neil Simmonds, Chief Neil Simmonds
Technical Officer at Corvus Energy lithium-ion module for use in heavy
believes the real market lays in the industrial applications would
merchant marine industry. transform the shipping industry.
Simmonds is one of the founders Whether thats for offshore
of the Vancouver based company, vessels, tug boats like the
and now along with his three senior companys Kotug applications
executives Andrew Morden, Chief or ferries, they could see a world
Executive Officer; Neil Lang, Chief where battery packs, albeit up to
Operating Officer and Halvard MW scale, could help companies
Hauso, Executive V.P. Sales and cut costs when ship assisting,
Marketing. With almost fifty years vessel escorting, dynamic
of combined history in the marine positioning or simply powering
and battery industries, they all the ground breaking Ampere pure
shared a vision that a ruggedised electric ferry in Norway.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
34 bestapplications
Simmonds, who holds more
than 70 battery-related patents and
helped produce the first lithiumion
batteries for the EV market, believes
the market has unlimited scope.
He said: I found lithium-ion
batteries to be too expensive to
work in cars, and so I moved to
the marine sector and found the
market is bigger than in cars. For
example, if a car uses a 50kWh
pack, our applications are using
500kWh, so OEMs are having to
produce 10 cars for every vessel
we supply. However, this is just
an example. With more the 30MW
of energy storage deployed to
date, the packs go from 78kWh
(tug boat) to 2,600kWh (a retro fit
ferry for Scandlines). With around
50,420 merchant ships trading as
of January 1, 2015, according to
statistics portal Statista, that is a lot
of potential MWs to be retro-fitted.
It is this scale of application,
and the number of ships that could
be using batteries, that makes
Simmonds believe the marine
sector will be a bigger market
than EVs, because EVs are not
economical from a customer point
of view, he says. The marine
market is dramatically growing. We
are at the forefront of the market.
The key word here is economic.
Simmonds sees customers in the
merchant vessel industry making
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
savings within two years of retro-
fitting a Corvus Energy pack. The
saving come straight away in
purpose built vessels.
With a life span of up to ten
years, it doesnt take a Nobel Prize
mathematician to work out the
financial benefits. The savings
come from having to use less fossil
fuels, ie diesel, because waiting
time is the most inefficient time for
a boat.
Take for example that little green
tug in North America. It will stay in
the dock until it is required to go
to a vessels location. Then when
required to push a ship around,
known as a Ballard Push, it will
use its big gen sets for power. If the
owner can turn off the engines and
go to and fro from the harbour to
ships under electric power, it can
reduce up to 30% off fuel bills, says
Simmonds.
A side effect of this cost saving
is companies can also reduce their Battery and packs
environmental impact. So what is it that Corvus offers
We could have pushed the that is unique? Well other than
environmental angle, but thats the system itself, they offer a
not what we did, said Simmonds. bespoke design, manufacture and
You can legislate for environmental commission/service. This involves
change, but if you make it cheaper Corvus application engineers
and economically better, people working closely with the customers
will go to it. We have customers now engineers prior to production of the
looking at it for economic reasons, batteries. This, the company says,
the environmental impact is nice, ensures a high level of coordination
but not what we are doing it for. and control of the battery alarms
and parameters in operation.
Look no diesels Simmonds says, We have a
strong design team that looks at
the ships load profile, matches
it to the performances of the cell
chemistry and integrates the pack
onto the ship at the customers
location.
He adds: These vessels are
doing a job and if they are not
working they are losing money. So
we monitor them all the time. We
can change the parameters of the
battery system from our offices in
Vancouver.
However, Corvus Energys
battery packs are only as good

Bulk carriers
General cargo ships
Crude oil tankers
Container ships
Chemical tankers
Ro-Ro/Passenger ships
Liquefied natural gas tankers
0 2,500 5,000 7,500 10,000 12,500 15,000 17,500 20,000
as the cells they use. That is why
they chose Kokam to manufacture
them. Simmonds says the Korean
firm was handpicked because they
were the first company to produce
nickel manganese cobalt pouch
cells, although, he adds, we will
consider using anybody who makes
the cells. Kokam had the original
cells because they held the patent,
which originally used a three fold
continuous separator in each cell,
43positive cathodes and 43negative
anodes layered inside, explains the
battery industry veteran.
The company claims to be able
to get up to 10,000 cycles from
packs, which can run safely for
10 years. To do this the company
uses battery management systems
to monitor the packs and change
the use profile of the pack when
required to increase the cycle life.
To do this the company uses its
proprietary modelling software to
calculate the load profiles of the
ship in combination with the cell
chemistry to get the most efficient
performance of the battery within
their propulsion system.
We know beforehand how many
cycles the batteries can take, says
Simmonds. We know the depth of
discharge and the user profile so we
can change the cycle-life, and that
decides the size of battery packs.
We know a certain size pack
is determined by the power
requirements and cycle needs of
bestapplications 35
Number of ships
The size of the the customer. So if a customer
merchant fleet.
requires 10,000 cycles, we know if
the battery goes to 50% depth of
discharge it will give 10,000 cycles,
so we have to build that into the
power requirement and we have
software which deals with that.
The company then manufactures
a rugged, marine-ready battery
pack which is built to the
customers customised design.
Simmonds says EV packs operate
at 300volts somewhere near 100
amps, but Corvus operate at 1,000
volts. In this respect, the marine
packs are similar as those used in
EVs, but the scale is very different.
The packs also allow customers
to run the vessels in full hybrid
mode. Simmonds said: A car hybrid
is more about acceleration assist, in
our case the vessels are in electric
mode or not, and are a true hybrid,
not a combination. This hybrid
mode also allows the battery in
applications to be charged using
excess energy generated by the
vessels diesel gen-set, which is run
at full RPM for the greatest efficiency.
But the company doesnt just
sell a pack and walk away. Through
its commissioning/service Corvus
ensures the battery is ready to be
installed and commissioned on the
ship. Integration of the battery pack
into the customers system is one
of the key services it provides. This
integration process, which sees
it working with the ships owner,
ensures the pack is installed to the
highest safety specifications.
Safety
Safety concerns are never too far
away when discussion turns to using
lithium. Airlines have banned cargo
shipments of the chemistry, and
consumer products are regularly
being recalled due to problems.
So safety is a key topic, after all we
are talking about huge amounts
of energy 500kWh and up. On
land a matter of thermal runaway
in an EV is a dangerous prospect,
fifty miles from shore and the issue
becomes deadly. That is why Corvus
Energy goes for safety as well as
performance, Simmonds said.
Safety measures include
housing the packs cells and
internal battery structure in a
proprietary thermal conductor,
which enables heat to be wicked
away from the inside to the external
enclosure using a passive cooling
system. The Battery Management
System (BMS) provides reports
on warnings, faults and the rack
system provides fire suppression.
Corvus recently performed
a series of thermal runaway
mitigation tests to show how
inherently safe and reliable its
battery technology is. The company
deliberately overrode all of the
built-in safety systems and induced
thermal runaway in a Corvus battery
module.
In total, Corvus has completed
11 separate tests to verify the
design of its module, racking, and
water mist system. The tests were
conducted at SP Fire Research
in Bors, Sweden. Ten of these
tests involved forcing a complete
Corvus AT6500 battery module
into thermal runaway. During these
tests key parameters were varied,
including whether or not there was
a source of ignition and the timing
and flowrate of the water mist
system.
On the basis of these tests, Corvis
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
36 bestapplications
AT6500 Module 24 Lithium Polymer Cells. Pack 21x AT6500
NMC Chemistry
confirmed the following conclusions
about the its battery system:
Battery modules surrounding the
module experiencing thermal
runaway do not reach dangerous
temperatures
Thermal runaway does not
propagate to other modules
The Corvus racking system
remains undamaged and keeps
the module lid in position
The Corvus battery module
design results in a controlled
release of pressure
Water mist quickly extinguishes
a fully-developed fire scenario
A fire external to battery room
does not cause dangerous
temperatures in the battery
system
So rigorous are the companys
safety standards that it guarantees
the IP67 rated packs can be
immersed under one metre of water
for 30 minutes, subjected to 30G
of shock and 8G of vibration, and
still operate. They also test each
module (containing 24 76amp cells)
for all types of shock vibration, and
saltwater ingress. This is stringent
self-regulation, but when you are
the only firm designing packs
specifically for the marine industry,
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
it pays to take it seriously.
That is why Corvus Energy
works with The American
Bureau of Shipping (ABS), ISO,
independent certification service
Lloyds Register Type Approval,
and maritime classification,
verification, risk management and
technical advisory service DNV-GL.
It means the company can boast
of having the only lithium battery
Type-Approved by DNV-GL, Lloyds
Register and ABS.
We are the first to make all the
safety requirements and achieve
the correct regulatory standards,
said Simmonds. The marine sector
is finally realising the requirements
of safety and we are demonstrating
to the industry that theres a lot of
energy in the packs if anything goes
wrong. We are the safest in the
marine industry right now.
Shore to be a bright future
The company aims to expand as
the demand in the marine world
rises. This doesnt just include new
builds, because the ESSs can be
retro fitted to any vessel thats
currently more than 5,000 potential
customers from private yacht
owners to ferry operators.
These applications are new to
us as well, we are breaking new
ground, said Simmonds. We are
the only company doing this for the
first time in the market for these
types of applications, so we are still
developing the market, he added.
Array 11 Packs
(231 modules)
Above: That development includes using
The AT6500
the ESSs in applications such as
module, its
constituent cranes, which Simmonds enthuses
components, built about. They are mobile and save
into a pack and
50% of fuel use because the energy
finally into an
array. during the motor lowering its load
is recoverable. And thats a true
hybrid application, which is very
similar to EV and can get back their
money within two years.
Untapped market on crest of a
wave
Constrained only by our own
imagination, perhaps we are only just
scratching the surface when it comes
to the true potential for battery
technology. Corvus Energy thought
outside the box when it set sail into
the untapped merchant marine
industry. They believe the real market
for lithium batteries is in EVs thats
Electric Vessels and have the
technology to back up their claims.
Environmentally speaking,
moving to hybrid and pure electric
vessels makes sense, but it will be
the accountants who will be rubbing
their hands about what Corvus
Energy is doing. Retro fit a battery
pack today, and in two years it has
paid for itself, giving ship-owners a
potential further eight years to reap
the 30% plus savings on fuel.
It seems too good to be true: a
technology proven in real world
applications, is safe, and will save
money. But then all good ideas
seem too good to be true until they
become the industry norm.
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bestshowreport 39
Energy Storage Update Europe
Tucked away in an upmarket corner of London, delegates from utility firms to venture
capitalists gathered at the Energy Storage Update Europe conference to discuss the future
of batteries in harnessing renewable energy but the lead-acid fraternity may want to look
away now. Paul Crompton reports.

B
y the standards of the New beginnings in an old Perhaps one solution would be
average battery conference, market to follow Germanys lead and sell or
this was a small and In the renewable market, energy buy excess power to neighbouring
intimate affair. Just two days, is being wasted every day, or to be countries, but you need somewhere
with around 200 delegates, from precise, its going unharvested. to store the energy before it is
mainly European utility companies, That means it is costing utility exported, or indeed when it is
startups and investors. All packed firms money, as James Tedd, imported when supplies fall.
into a side-room on the second Project Manager, Emerging Energy And as clean energy production
floor of the Royal Garden Hotel, Technologies at Irelands utility becomes more important as
located next to Londons famous company Electricity Supply Board, countries attempt to meet climate
Hyde Park. told delegates. He informed change demands, the ability to
However, this small conference delegates that Ireland had had store excess energy becomes
had big ambitions. This was a to curtail 250MW of wind power increasingly important.
nononsense, taut meeting of some every 30 minutes that morning Different researchers give
of the worlds biggest names, all (December 1st) at a cost of around different forecasts on how
gathered to explore the future 10,000 each half-hour. And this much storage will be required:
Wheres the
of renewable energy storage. technology to happens regularly, said Tedd. International Renewable Energy
Representatives from heavyweight mitigate the Storing that excess energy for Agency believes 150GW of storage
hidden cost of
firms such as E.ON, DONG Energy, another time is a big challenge for will be required by 2030; Broker
not running a wind
Samsung SDI, Younicos and Tesla farm. utilities. Research thinks 240GW will be
Motors (Energy) discussed the
why, where and how of bringing
large-scale storage to grid level
renewable energy production.
But why the need for energy
storage at grid level, and why now?
Depending on who you spoke
to, there are up to 52 ancillary
services energy storage can help
with in the next five years. And
its not just about storing energy,
apparently. Frequency regulation,
load levelling, peak shaving and
time-shifting were just some of
the words bandied around. And
batteries were at the heart of
discussions: flexible enough to
deploy energy at the flick of a
switch and meet the plethora of
ancillary demands.

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

40 bestshowreport
needed by 2020; and IEA says
between 125-150GW is a more
reasonable expectation by 2050.
Asif Rafique, Managing Director
of SUSI Partner Ag, a sustainable
energy infrastructure financier,
said: The scale of the market is
going to grow 300% up to 2030,
and one of the biggest needs is the
integration of renewables.
In Europe the so-called
202020 scheme sets out targets Its a cost gamble in a battery
to cut greenhouse emissions
by 20% while increasing energy
efficiency by 20%. To date the
European Union has an installed
50GW of storage capacity, which
corresponds to about 5% of the
areas daily generation. America is
already embracing the technology:
the third quarter of 2015 saw the
largest amount of energy storage
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
deployments since the fourth
quarter of 2012. According to
GTM Research and the Energy
Storage Associations U.S. Energy
Storage Monitor, the US deployed
60.3MWs of energy storage
capacity in 2015. This represents
53.1MW/h. The report predicts total
deployment of 192MWs for 2016,
triple 2015s total.
agnostic game
When it comes to the chemistry
of choice, most companies
represented at ESU were looking
at lithium-ion. Vanadium-redox
flow batteries, sodium-sulphur
and zinc-air were also discussed,
but not with the same enthusiasm.
Alternatives such as quinone
bromine flow batteries and zinc
bromine were also highlighted in
passing. Lead-acid, with its low
depth-of-discharge and cycle life,
was not on the agenda (see the
interview with Younicos following
this report). However, utility firms
are profit led and if costs for battery
storage are favourable, they will
choose whichever chemistry or
technology is the cheapest. In other
words the companies represented
at the conference were squarely
battery agnostic.
The reason for lithium-ions
popularity at the show was money.
Experts predict lithium-ion battery
prices will fall to under $200kW/h
by 2020, thanks to advances in the
The SmartRegion electric vehicle market. According
Pellworm project
addresses several to research firm Lux Research,
of the energy lithium-ion battery packs for
transformation automotive applications sit at
challenges at the
same time. Battery around the $300-350kW/h range,
agnostic, it uses depending on cell type. Rather
lithium-ion and more conservative estimates put
redox-flow battery
storage. packs as high as $500kW/h.
The reduction, say industry
forecasters, will be governed by
a combination of falling costs in
materials, chemistry, production
and increased manufacturing
volume such as that seen with
Teslas gigafactory. This is going
to have a knock on effect for other
applications including energy
storage markets, delegates heard.
Bernadino Ricci, Director of
Corporate Strategy and Business
BNEF battery price
survey, 2010-15 Development at Korean battery
[$/kWh]. firm Samsung SDI, said: We can
easily see 200kW/h by 2020, thats
reasonable. Theres still a lot of
room to improve batteries. Bigger
plants will also move the price
down further.
Its just a matter of time, but its
on the horizon; its not 20 years,
its more like five years.
Strong words from one of the
worlds biggest battery firms.
Especially when you think it
currently has 800 engineers, 400
with PhDs, working every day to
bring down costs. So $150-200kWh
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will be possible, if not by 2020 then
by 2021, said Ricci.
He added: But maybe 60-70%
of a batterys cost is the battery,
remember the rest is the synergies,
and we dont exploit the potential
of synergies yet.
Chris Wright, Co-founder and
CTO of UK energy storage firm
Moixa Corporation, said his firm
had noticed a 65% reduction
in costs per cell in the last nine
months. I believe, looking at Tesla
and EOS, that $150 per kWh, for
pretty long life systems, is doable,
he said. So that seems to be a
general point that people think we
need to be at in a relatively short
term.
Dr David Blood, Market Manager
EMEA for US conversion system
company Parker Energy Grid-Tie
Divisions, said that, from his
firms experience using lithiumion
technology, they had seen
significant cost reductions in the
past 18 months. The cheaper the
batteries are, the more economical
energy storage will be, he added.
In other words, volume of
demand and breakthroughs in
technology could bring down costs
to a point where large megawatt
batteries are installed at grid level.
As Heiko Staubitz, Senior Manager
for Smart Grids and Energy Storage
at Germany Trade and Investment,
said: The market is open for all
technologies, so it depends on
which ones can provide the best
flexibility for the cheapest price.
The upshot of larger battery
manufacturing set-ups is OEMS
and lets not forget the batteries
from military applications will
put electric vehicles on stream. Of
course, eventually, those battery
packs will need to be replaced or
upgraded. But with an estimated
80% capacity still left, the packs
used in 2nd life applications are
open for exploiting.
Matthew Lumsden, Managing
Director at Uk R&D company Future
bestshowreport 43
Future Transport
Systems 2nd Life
sytem in Norfolk.
Transport Systems, said: Theres a
problem with second life batteries
at the moment, they have a home.
But by 2020/22 they will come on
stream in big amounts.
In the future people will be able
to buy or lease battery packs from
the OEMs. Each battery will have a
passport to predict how good the
battery is; it will detail the lifestyle,
what the vehicle was used for etc.
People dont know how electric
2nd life batteries vehicle batteries will work in energy
an elegant
solution. storage applications, but we are
testing to see how they will operate
under certain work stresses.
However, not everyone is so
bombastic about lithium-ion EV
batteries. Robert Elrich, Executive
Chairman at US power systems
manufacturer Arotech Corporation,
a co-sponsor of the conference,
sounded a word of caution.
Elrich believes his companys
zinc-air technology can get prices
down to $150-175kW/h within
the next three years. And as a
side-swipe to lithium technology,
he said: Were still years from a
massive EV market, Tesla only sold
20,000 cars this year [2015]. Im
sure it will grow, but at the moment
we have to take numbers with a
pinch of salt.
Another reason to be cautious
about the rise of battery technology
in energy storage systems comes
with a glance at the European
Association for Storage of
Energy (EASE) website. It lists 78
companies throughout Europe
using energy storage. Of those the
majority (42) are pumpedhydro.
Lithium-ion accounts for 16
projects, vanadium-redox just four.
And lead-acid, well that isnt
used in a single project listed
on EASEs database. Its worth
noting, however, Europes first
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
44 bestshowreport
hybrid energy storage plant in
Rhode, County Offaly, Ireland, is
a mix of flywheel (160kW) and
Hitachi Chemicals valve regulated
leadacid batteries (up to 240kW).
The plant, owned and operated by
Irish storage plant firm Schwungrad
Energie, opened on November 4,
2015.
Energy storage is not just
about storing energy
It may sound like a paradox, but
energy storage at the grid level
is more than just storing energy.
Ancillary services such as frequency
regulation, ramping, load levelling,
isolated islands, and even black-
When do we need which storage?
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
The need for
energy storage.
start are among the potential uses
of batteries in energy storage.
In Europe, grids operate at
50Hz, in an ideal world. However,
renewable energy can be hard to
predict. Sometimes the supply is
more, sometimes less, depending
on the strength of the wind or how
cloudy the day is. But the corridor
in which a grid can fluctuate up
or down is only about 0.2Hz.
More than 50.2Hz, electronics
get frazzled; less than 49.8Hz,
and lights go out. Traditionally, a
grids equilibrium is kept in check
by conventional power plants,
such as gas turbines, taking or
adding energy depending on the
situation. But we live in a greener
world these days. Fossil fuels
are becoming a thing of the past.
Soon dirty old coal and gas-fired
generators will be phased out
and exhaust fumes from internal
combustion engines will be a thing
consigned to repeats of Top Gear.
This is where fast and efficient
batteries enter the fray, like a Clint
Eastwood style anti-hero, ready to
blast away fossil fuel and make the
day of environmentalists.
Lars Stephan, Manager of
Regulatory and Government
Relations at German energy storage
systems firm Younicos, said:
Today, energy storage is not about
storing energy. Rather its really
about the value of the service it
can provide. Its about the ancillary
services and how energy storage
can solve problems.
He said Younicos defined 23
services in which energy storage
could provide a solution, although
this number was eclipsed by
another speaker who suggested
there are 52 different ancillary uses
available.
Of the storage technologies out
there, batteries are getting the
most interest at the moment, and
will potentially overtake storage
systems such as pumped-hydro,
the conference heard. As we have
seen, falling battery prices will
help this transition. And it will
be cost that determines which
chemistry the battery agnostic
companies opt for. Alternatives
to electro-chemical storage
suggested at the conference for
harnessing renewable energy
included compressed air energy
storage (CEAS), pumped-hydro, and
flywheels. All of which are being
tested with good results across the
globe, delegates were informed.
Eliano Russo, Vice President
Energy Storage at E.ON, said he saw
a number of viable applications
for batteries, as the German utility
giant eyes up the market, starting
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with the launch of a new company
in January that will focus on energy
storage.
Russo said: The longer-term
goal of the industry is to use energy
storage for multiple uses. However,
the industry is currently on an
extremely steep learning curve.
We are at the beginning of the
industry. We are looking at making
investments in storage, but we are
technology agnostic.
We are expecting solutions that
are model scalable with ramping
capabilities, higher density and
KPI in 3-4 years; the improvements
already are quite impressive.
The company is investing
10-30million into the sector,
which will evolve when the market
matures and projects get larger,
said Russo. In terms of energy
storage that is not a huge amount of
cash, but if companies like E.ON are
dipping their toes into the market, it
is churlish not to take notice.
Not everything is on an equal
playing field
In the UK, energy demand is
increasing. However, the countrys
commitment to renewable energy
is suspect. Despite plans to
double investment in energy
research to 500m, and the
bestshowreport 47
Load Levelling Ancilliary Services
Asset Optimisation Power Quality
Peak Shaving Frequency
Renewables Integration Voltage
Peaker Replacement Operating Reserve
Primary
T&D deferral Secondary
Centralised Tertiary
Distributed Black Start
Numerous country committing to cease
applications for
energy storage.
coal-fired power generation
by 2025, it doesnt appear to
have any real commitments to
renewable energy. The UK wants
to build 20 new gas-fired power
stations over the next 20 years,
and see a new generation of
nuclear power plants. Although
the countrys government has
consented to 10billion worth of
offshore wind projects by 2020,
as weve seen with Ireland, wind
generated power is okay, if there is
somewhere to store the energy.
Now compare that to
Europes leading player in the
ESS battery
platforms. sector, Germany. The countrys
Energiewende (Energy Transition)
scheme has raised the bar in terms
Isolated Supply
Asset Optimisation
T&D Deferral
Power Quality
Operating Reserve
of renewable energy policies.
It states the country aims to
generate up to 60% of electricity
from renewables by 2035. Lofty
ambitions, but one which batteries
are ideally suited to meet.
Mick Barlow, Applications
Director at electric power systems
provider S&C Electric, said with
wind or solar energy generation the
problem comes if the grid needs
more power, and there is no means
to generate it it might be cloudy,
or windless for example during
peak times.
He suggested batteries could
provide up to 600 times the ramp
rate and four times the flexibility
of gas turbines, but at a price.
Storage, as in batteries, are
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
48 bestshowreport
at a higher cost but they give
companies better flexibility,
Barlow said. When comparing
flexible technology at 100MW gas
turbines and the same for energy
storage, then energy storage is way
more expensive. But, when you
look at performance, a battery can
take less than two seconds to ramp
up. So not everything is on an equal
playing field.
However, as a note of caution,
he added that not all batteries
were equal, and companies had
to research charge and discharge
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
rates, among other things, if
required for ancillary services. The
other key area is time shifting,
especially when it comes to
renewable energy, such as solar,
when the peak generation is in the
middle of the day, when the load on
the grid is usually lowest.
Barlow said: Energy storage
has great potential especially when
enabling renewable technology in
cities where demand is growing
quickly and the generation mix is
moving toward energy storage, so
the technology will be very, very
important.
The biggest problem is the
market doesnt understand storage
and has not put much in place at
the moment.
Crunch time for energy storage
If utility companies want to reap
the rewards of energy storage in the
long term, or at least the next ten
years, they must introduce systems
to the grid network NOW. Especially
if they want to make the most of
future commercial opportunities,
delegates were informed.
Anthony Price, Director at
Energy storage electricity industry group Electricity
technology
maturity Storage Network, said it was
nearing crunch time for decisions
to be made within the industry,
adding companies had to have the
mentality of the bookie and not the
bank to reap long-term rewards. Or,
like E.ON, spin the wheel, gamble a
few million on green and keep your
fingers crossed.
Not that battery storage is
a huge gamble in the next ten
years. Renewable energy will
Storage Methods come on stream more and more
and Markets as utility firms and homeowners
alike embrace the technology. The
conference heard how the flexibility
batteries currently afforded firms
made it one of the best solutions.
Speaker Dr David Hodgson,
Energy Specialist at UK
governmental department UK
Trade and Investment, told the
conference: Many companies
are looking at opportunities
and thinking if they can make a
reasonable return now, then once
they have the infrastructure in
place they can introduce additional
services on top of that.
However, cost is not the only
factor at play. Younicos Stephan
said the company was not happy
about the framework currently
in place. It was drawn up when
people didnt know much about
storage, but now weve things like
flywheels, he said.

We should look at redrafting
the framework at European level.
At the moment we dont have a
level playing field in energy storage
industry, he said.
Anthony Price, Director at
consultancy firm Electricity Storage
Network (ESN), said energy storage
was still under appreciated in
Europe. He used the analogy
that it was like Cinderella waiting
for a ticket to the ball, and now
just having to wait for its Prince
Charming to turn up.
He agreed with Stephan about
the need for a new, comprehensive
framework. He told the conference:
Pushing forward its about getting
the cost of systems down but at the
same time groups, such as ESN,
have been working for many years
toward this goal; we frequently
bestshowreport 49
tell people we need storage and
need a framework for it and not one
that was written in 1988. Theres a
tremendous amount of hard work
by the industry to ensure the right
framework is put in place.
However, one of the stumbling
blocks at the moment was
persuading Europes civil servants
of energy storages credentials, the
conference heard. This, delegates
were told, was failing because of
a lack of real-world examples in
which they could give their relative
country tangible results and hard
facts about storing energy. And
without these, the bureaucrats
are dragging their heels, for the
moment at least.
Russo said that any new
business had to get support from
regulators and investors to know
what to expect and a timeframe to
get back investment. In the US we
already have this and the market
is booming. I wish we could see
something similar in Europe as
quickly as possible, he said.
Get Green not complacent
The message was clear during the
two days: companies must utilise
energy storage within the next five
years to reap maximum commercial
opportunities. And to do this, at
least if a countrys overall
renewable energy generation
remains under 60%, then batteries
are the answer. A batterys inherent
flexibility makes it ideal for a
myriad of ancillary services. The
question is, what kind of
technology will dominate in a
rapidly expanding market?
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
50 bestinterview
How grid-scale batteries can
solve renewable energy crisis
In an exclusive interview with BEST, Philip Hiersemenzel,
spokesperson and consultant at Younicos, explains why the
German battery technology firm is looking to use the next
generation of batteries to store enewable energy.
Y
ounicos clients benefit from
their technical expertise,
commercial know-how and
in-depth experience based on
nearly 100 megawatts installed
in more than 20 energy storage
projects worldwide.
Batteries are becoming
mainstream
As more residential Energy
Storage Systems (ESS) come on
stream, storing energy becomes
an increasingly hot topic. The
same can be said for large-scale,
megawatt plus, ESSs as utility
firms struggle to maintain their
grids frequency as renewable
energy from wind and solar
becomes increasingly available
in higher quantities. Ireland,
for example, regularly has to
shut down wind generation, and
Germany has to export excess
energy to stabilise its grid.
With increasing demands for
energy, and especially clean
energy, utilities are looking for
alternative sources. Currently, if
they want to build the traditional
way, it can take three to four
years to complete the project,
whereas Younicos built its 5MW
energy commercial battery park in
Schwerin, northern Germany, within
a year. The system has a five-hour
capacity, but Hiersemenzal said
what really counts, for the way it
is being used, ie a grid asset, is
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
it being rated power rather than
energy.
The market in Germany is
beginning to boom, and batteries
with their inherent speed and
preciseness for charging and
discharging means companies are
already being rewarded for using
them, says Hiersemenzel.
With the right software they will
become like a Swiss army knife,
capable of doing many different
things from one source, he said.
He believes that within five years
most utility companies will be using
batteries to mostly balance the
system, not so much store large
amounts of energy. To balance the
system you need to store energy
of course, but comparatively little,
said Hiersemenzal.
If we are serious about moving
to renewables we have to look at
storage and companies have to
look very carefully at what kind of
storage they need.
Right now, there typically isnt chemistry as a serious contender,
a case for simply storing energy
for long periods of time, but
using storage for multiple, critical
services.
Batteries are so important
because they are electro-chemical
and they do all the things to keep
the grid stable. They are becoming
increasingly cheaper and can be
combined with intelligent software,
which can tell the batteries what to
do, maximise a batterys lifetime
and of course maximise the revenue
from the application, he said.
Money is king for chemistry
agnostic firms
Like many utility firms, those
seeking large-scale energy storage
are battery agnostic, concerned
only with the price and the
technologys ability to effectively
cater for a number of ancillary
services, from black-start to
frequency regulation.
Younicos has been looking at
the sector for more than 10 years,
but even then, when lead-acid was
still dominant in the market, the
company was not looking at the
said Hiersemenzel.
At that time there were three
technologies in which we saw
longterm potential: sodium-
sulphur, vanadium redox flow and
lithium-ion. The most promising
of which is currently lithium-ion,
because the prices are falling fast
due to large production capacities
for lithium-ion being constructed
in Asia and the US for electric
mobility.

In the industry right now
the sheer scale of automotive
lithium-ion battery production
is driving battery prices down,
which is also directly impacting
the market for stationary battery
technology because we can
take electro-mobility cells and,
through software, transform
them into stationary storage.
For us that means a demand for
more sophisticated software to
transform automotive batteries to
a stationary system. For example,
bestinterview 51
at the Wemag plant we use exactly
the same battery that is used in the
BMWi vehicle.
And Samsung gives us a 20-year
performance guarantee on these
batteries because of our software,
whereas in the BMWi application it
is only seven years.
He added that if you design a
lithium-ion battery for stationary
Below: Insel storage in mind, energy density is
Technologie Center
test stand layout. not so important, which means the
Bottom pics: The batteries can be bigger.
completed facility. The point is that if you mass
see below for constructed view
produce stationary batteries the
way we now mass produce e-mobile
batteries, theyll be cheaper.
If the price for that is that
theyre larger, who cares? he said.
This is true because such units
are typically placed next to a sub-
station in an industrial area where
space is not that much of a concern.
But what does this mean for
other chemistries, including
leadacid? People will continue
to use lead-acid, perhaps even
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
54 bestinterview
use more lead-acid batteries than
today, but in terms of the exploding
market, its share will diminish,
Hiersemenzel said.
The game for lead-acid is
essentially over. People wont
stop using it, but it is lithium
or other chemistries such as
sodium-sulphur or vanadium
redox flow that have much higher
costreduction potential, which
means they will gain traction within
the industry.
Yes, you can use advanced
lead-acid but its simply not
the future. I dont believe it will
grow rapidly because it has been
outinvented just like the thermal
engine.
When a new generator type
is invented these days, with
enormous effort, it is 1-2, perhaps
4% more efficient, but thats it. It
has been out-invented, its reached
maturity. The same holds for
leadacid.
Hiersemenzel also believes
that the argument that lead-acid is
cheaper is mistaken. For him what
matters is how much a battery will
cost over a lifetime and how much
a kilowatt of energy costs. So for
him, the low initial cost of lead-acid
is out-weighed by its lower cycle
rate at state-of-charge.
You cannot drop below 40%
state-of-charge and you get a lot
fewer cycles. Lithium-ion batteries
you might get 5,000cycles,
whereas lead-acid you get
8001,000 of which you can also
use 60%. So per used lifetime kWh,
lithium-ion is already cheaper in
most cases.
Batteries are the future for
Green energy
So the industry, according to
Hiersemenzel, is moving in one
definite direction when it comes
to using batteries, at least while
renewable energy storage targets
remain low.
If you add clean but intermittent
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
sources of energy into a traditional
grid the annual share of renewables
is limited to 20-30%. This, he
says, is because in the grid you
always need exactly the equal
amount of demand as you have
supply. Demand fluctuates and
with renewable energy supply is not
easily predicted.
Already in the old world we
had to ramp the generators up
and down to meet demand, even
for short-term fluctuations, and
thus they keep the lights on,
Hiersemenzel said.
The catch is in order to adjust
the grid a little, the machine must
be online and the energy must be
off-loaded onto the grid. At the
moment even the most efficient
gas turbines run at a minimum of
Yes, you can use advanced
lead-acid but its simply not the
future. I dont believe it will
grow rapidly because it has
been outinvented Hiersemenzel
30% of capacity. But if you want
to reduce power to the system,
perhaps go down 10%, you have to
run it at 40%.
Most new power plants are less
flexible and run at 80% of capacity.
All this power is on the grid, but we
never have more renewable energy
on the grid than is needed.
If people are serious about
going to 15-20%, even 30%, of
the annual supply coming from
renewable sources, he says, then
utility companies need to be able
to power this down when they have
enough power.
Alternatively, from an electric
technology point of view, theres
no difference whether its a diesel
engine or a power plant which
supplies the power when needing
to ramp up supply. However,
batteries are a lot faster and more
precise than conventional power
plants, and thats why from a
technology point of view you want
batteries for other reasons beyond
storing energy, Hiersemenzel said.
The point right now is electric
clean technology cannot be added
to the grid, because it might
potentially be blocked by the old
generators keeping the grid stable.
If you have a coal-fired energy plant
keeping the grid stable the price
you pay is the generator produces
energy and you have to take that
energy, even if its a particularly
sunny day with a nice wind supply;
utility firms then have no choice,
and have to throw away the
renewable energy. And thats where
batteries come in.
If you think of it like this, he
says, 50Hz is the market price
and that should ideally stay at 50.
What happens is the frequency, if
you do not have enough power, is
stretched and hence the frequency
is just a function of power that is
available on the grid at any given
time.
Over 50Hz you have more
power than is needed and you
have to take some power out of
the system, he said. Then, under
50Hz, you dont have enough power
to meet demand.
The frequency can only operate
in a relatively small corridor.
Typically a safe corridor is 49.8 to
50.2hz. If you go above or below
that then serious things start to
happen, which is why the system
today has to retain the ability
to react to changes, even if that
means curtailing renewable energy.
The only reason we in
Germany dont have a problem
like in Ireland, is that, for once,
our geography has been kind to
us. Our position in the middle of
Europe means we can export and
import power to our neighbours to
stabilise the grid.

Thats the only reason we can
have 30% renewable energy and
still have a stable grid. We dont
simply have a German, but a pan-
European synchronous grid, where
the overall share of renewables is
more like 8% renewables.
Which brings us to the real
question we have to ask about
storage: How much do we need
and when do we need it? Our
calculations have shown time
and again that for about a 50%
renewable energy share you only
need very, very short-term storage;
a couple of minutes or perhaps
hours of storage allow you to only
need fossil back-up generation
when you really need it and get you
to the 50-60% target.
Beyond 60% you have to start
bestinterview 55
talking about storing energy for
days at a time. Once you hit 80%
you really need to start thinking
about other ways to store energy
rather than batteries.
At the moment, at least, utilities
are focusing on getting to 10-15
or even 20% annual renewable
energy, that is the task really at
hand, he said.
Europe only just catching on
If all this sounds fantastic for
Europe and the battery industry, a
quick look to our North American
comrades will see a country which
is leading the way when it comes
to harnessing renewable power.
It helps that the US has
very good renewable potential
because much of the US is
both windy and sunny, said
Hiersemenzel.
Also, its a combination of
things as to why the US market is
the main market. These include
incentives, the California mandate
and the way the markets are
shaped.
If they see batteries being
cheaper they will just use them.
In Germany we are faced with
obstacles from large-scale coal
plants. In the US you dont have
that.
The US is also much quicker to
adopt to changing technology, he
says, whereas Europe has been
very slow to adopt.
In Germany and Europe people
are a lot more ideological, claims
Hiersemenzel.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
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 bestsafety 57
Lithium safety issues heat up
in Baltimore
With new shipping regulations in the offing and a not unrealistic
possibility of a ban on lithium air-freight, there was a lot of
nervous energy at Knowledge Foundations lithium safety
meeting. The Editor reports.
B
attery safety is many things
to many people from
the erudite finite-analysis
approach, to designing cells which
may run warm (but never get hot),
to the balls-achingly tedious but
necessary development of technical
standards, which are designed to
keep everyone safe. Then there are
guides and procedures for the guys
that have to do the shipping and
then theres the politics.
It was all there at the 6th
Knowledge Foundations battery
safety conference event in
Baltimore and required rapid
switching of mental gears to speed
up and slow down, depending
on the intellectual pace of the
presentation.
Some were downright folksy
from the first responders. And some
went clean over this writers head.
The buzz phrase, in case you
havent heard in trying to make
sense of what goes on when lithium
cells go wrong, is multi-physics
multi-scale.
Practically every speaker used
it as a new PC way of looking at
phenomena. Were looking at
everything here from cell domain
and electrode domain, right down
to particle domain. There are
electrical processes going on,
thermal process and boundary
events. Hell, this is micro-chemical
engineering! You could look at
everything like this from social
unrest to international terrorism.
Youll need the computing
power and modelling skills to
keep up and judging by the
clients list for CAEBAT (computer
aided engineering for batteries) At the heart of it all though there
developed in partnership with the is still a huge lack of understanding
US Department of Energys office of what really happens within
of engineering efficiency and short circuits (at the material and
renewable energy, the club is small mechanical level).
and of elite standing. VIBE brings together the
The partners include all the infrastructure pieces: OAS
top names in auto engineering (Open Architecture Software),
modelling: CD Adapco, Battery which provides a Python-based
Design and Ansys, three national computational infrastructure for
laboratories (NREL. ORNL and INI as interaction and orchestration
well as Ford and JCI). between the various components;
The fruits of the US Government- BatML, an XML standard for battery
backed efforts are seen in a piece
of Software called VIBE virtual
integrated battery environment,
launched in the spring of 2015.
Success can be judged not by how
many copies of the software have
been downloaded but by which
companies and research institutes
have downloaded it Apple for one
(perhaps they really are looking at
the car market?), Lockheed Martin,
Ford, Bosch and Samsung.
Modelling failure is the only way
forward, using modelling to design
tests that can indicate failure, with
thermal runaway a key indicator.
Modelling the These models need to build up
ideal placement
of electrode tabs from the cell level right up through
using VIBE. to module and pack.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
58 bestsafety
inputs along with translators
to other formats; Battery State,
a standard for the state file to
exchange information between
the components; and ICE,
the Integrated Computational
Environment to provide a user
environment to simplify the
workflow of modelling and
visualising batteries.
DOE started the CAEBAT program
in 2010 and ORNL had a limited
release of the software in 2012.
The latest release includes many
enhancements in both physics
capabilities and usability.
The latest software package
includes an easy-to-use
configuration, setup, launch
and post-processing feature,
standardised input and information
exchange between physics
components, and a unique
tool for performing coupled
electrochemical-electrical-thermal
simulations known as Advanced
MultiPhysics for Electrochemical
and Renewable Energy Storage
(AMPERES).
According to Sreekanth Pannala,
one of the Oakridge developers,
No previous tool has provided
this level of integration between
the various physics components.
This program is bridging the gap
between theory and experiment, so
that you can now design a battery
cell and integrate all the associated
processes in order to more
accurately predict performance.
That is where modelling is very
beneficial.
A large computing resource
is not necessary to run the
software, although it depends on
the complexity of the problem.
Additionally, the software is
designed so the user can submit
a large parametric sweep or
optimisation case to run overnight,
eliminating the need to wrestle
for primetime computer hours and
allowing users to concentrate on
data analysis and problem set-up
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
during the day. wonders? A battery has to remain
Together, these features help safe in the event that a single cell
users analyse the effects of undergoes an internal short circuit
their specific lithium-ion battery and all that follows.
design requirements and develop It would seem designers of
increasingly affordable, safer Now you see em, such systems would want to be
batteries with longer life and higher now you dont. able to ensure the following:
performance. Fire propagation the prevention of overcharge
in lithium-ion
VIBE can be downloaded from packaging can be and overdischarge conditions,
the CAEBAT website, and ORNL remarkably fast. and should those conditions be
researchers are available for user
outreach and support to build this
community capability.
From the cutting edge of
modelling software, which may
yet make its contribution to
safety, to the painful and tedious
process of writing the rules for
battery standards, a lot of industry
people give up their time to deal
with the arcane rules and do so
voluntarily. Its in their companys
interest to do so. Dave Vutetakis
of Concorde Battery is one such
man and has been intimately
involved with the drafting of a new
standard for onboard lithium-ion
aircraft batteries which bears the
inspiring title DO-311A (draft). It
was a painful tale.
There are currently six separate
guideline and documents
governing lithium-ion batteries
on planes. The purpose of this
new piece of legislation was to
produce guidance notes covering
all lithiumion batteries from the
smallest to the largest youll likely
find in an aeroplane.
The inspiration for all this? The breached, there should be suitable
Dreamliner battery fires, what else? containment of flame and gases
The National Transportations Safety and possible safe venting, right?
Board came up with no less than 23 You might want to add some cell
recommendations and six of these balancing and some state of health
directly affected the new code. and malfunction testing. Beyond
But unfortunately the draft was this, one seriously wonders. Even
rejected halfway through 2015 due the smallest lithium-ion cell can
to wrong organisational format fail in a cockpit or in some other
and did not include appropriate confined space. Containment of the
battery classifications, according consequences is the key: surely that
to Vutetakis. This writer couldnt could all be wrapped up in a day?
work out what Vutetakis and his And then comes to the
colleagues had done wrong. nightmare of transportation: Or
Whats really required, one more specifically air-freighting

of lithium-ion. We reported the
headlines through BEST Battery
Briefing on November 23rd. Theres
a lot of talk about a ban.
IATA, the International Air
Transport Association, is not in
favour of a blanket ban on the air
shipping of lithium-ion batteries,
even though they are considered
and covered by dangerous goods
regulations.
Why? Well, be cynical. Freight is
money. And IATA says a blanket ban
is not conducive to performance-
based management.
Lets unpeel this little nugget of
management speak. Look at the
facts. Whats the probability of
an aircraft loss as a consequence
of a battery fire in an aircraft
hold? Slim? Two incidents in ten
years. But the consequences are
severe loss of the plane and
death of the crews. Balancing
slim chances against severe
consequences isnt easy.
What IATA recommends is that
each air operator carries out their
own risk assessment.
The greatest risk to airline
safety comes from the shipment
of counterfeit batteries or worse,
undeclared batteries.
It is assumed that genuine
batteries will have been extensively
tested and shipped appropriately in
terms of quantities and packaging.
And there would have to be a 100%
inspection and verification of
freight carried which makes one
very suspicious of the security
passengers have to endure today
pointless if the freight isnt 100%
inspected.
bestsafety 59
The US Federal Aviation
Administrations findings arent
helpful to the case of continued
shipment of lithium-ion batteries
by air. Its findings have shown that
even if a fire resulting from thermal
runaway is detected, Halon fire
suppression systems are ineffective
for less than obvious reasons.
Of the two known incidents
where lithium-ion batteries were
the most probable cause of fires
on board a plane, the fires began
mid cruise and the planes needed
more than 20 minutes to descend,
at which point the fires were out of
control. The FAAs demonstration
of 5000 18650 cells going up in
smoke was particularly spectacular.
But the FAAs findings were even
more disconcerting than that. As
few as 10 18650 cells in thermal
runaway will produce a pressure
pulse inside a Boeing 737 cargo
hold which will dislodge pressure
release panels in the hold, which
would then dilute the concentration
of Halon fire suppressant to make
it ineffective. Large format cells?
Forget it.
The only good news coming
from FAA testing was the finding
that less flammable quantities of
gases are produced when cells are
held at a lower state of charge,
hence the ruling that lithium-ion
batteries can only be shipped from
April 2016 by air if their state of
charge is at 30% or less.
Reduced state of But George Kerchner of the
charge in lithium-
ion cells leads to Portable Rechargeable Battery
reduced evolution Association told the meeting he
of flammable didnt think it was possible for the
gases if the cells
combust. organisations members to meet
that target and it would be more
appropriate to wait until January
2017 to introduce such a significant
change.
Nothing is set in stone
until January 2016, when the
International Civil Aviation
Organisations council meets to
ratify decisions of, among others,
the dangerous goods panel. If not
banned from planes, lithiumion
batteries are going to have to be
packed to a new standard, which
has yet to be developed.
The aim of the standard is
containment not unlike FAAs
recommendations for fixed
batteries after the Dreamliner
incidents.
There will be limitations on
how hot the packaging surface
can get should there be a fire, no
hazardous fragments or flames can
exit the package and the quantity
of gases released when mixed with
air and ignited must not cause an
overpressure event (3.45kPa)
an almost bombproof box. And
the packaging must prevent the
contained batteries from being
subjected to other fires that might
take place with the hold an
unprecedented move.
Such a standard might take up
to four years to develop and the
costs of new packaging could be
prohibitive.
And in the interim, public
pressure to ban the shipment of
batteries might rise, given recent
press coverage which one speaker
described as hysterical. Certainly
the lithium-ion industry is going to
feel the heat for some time to come
when it comes to battery shipping.
Will the challenge of developing
almost bomb-proof packaging
to transport smaller numbers of
batteries make economic sense in a
climate of public hostility?
Perhaps it might be easier and
cheaper to concede now and accept
that lithium-ion is definitely a no-fly
cargo?
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
OUR PEOPLE, YOUR ADVANTAGE

PEAK PERFORMANCE

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Energy Storage
let lead-acid do the job
Lead-acid, just like its sexier lithium-ion cousins, can take on the
new fangled energy storage role but you have to be sure about
the duty cycle youll be subjecting the battery to. In this article
Mike McDonagh goes through the design critieria to match the right battery for the job.
T
he global stationary battery
market represents around
5billion USD. This is rapidly
increasing as the benefit of
battery storage, namely instant
availability of power, is gaining
interest in the energy supply
market. One growing application
is national grid frequency control,
where traditional methods of
switching to alternative power
sources can take minutes rather
than the microseconds required
with battery storage. Whilst still
a relatively new application for
battery technologies, it is gaining
momentum in many countries and
states across the globe.
The number of stationary
applications is increasing and there
are widely differing properties
which are required to meet these
new applications. In this article
the emphasis will be on the
leadacid system, concentrating
on the most popular variations of
design and construction widely
available. However, the benefits of
new developments, in particular
the emerging lead-acid carbon
technologies, will be discussed in
the final part of this design series.
The main properties which a battery
possesses are not complicated.
These are:
1. Power delivery
2. Energy delivery
bestknowhow 61
3. Charge acceptance
4. Internal resistance
5. Operating voltage
These properties are the result
of the materials used and the
processing methods. The most
frequently used types are:
1. Flat plate and tubular flooded
two volt cells, and 6V and 12V
monoblocs
2. Flat plate and tubular VRLA
2 volt cells, and 6V and 12V
monoblocs
3. Plant
The type of battery used
depends on many factors inherent
in the applications. Some of these
factors are not related to the output
and input requirements but to the
physical location and operating
conditions for the batteries. Some
of these practical requirements are
as follows:
Location of the battery
stations, remote or local
Ease of access to the
batteries
Climate
Proximity of delicate or
sensitive equipment
These properties will be
discussed with a view to specifying
the most appropriate battery design
and processing methods to provide
the required characteristics.
The stationary market can
be broadly subdivided into the
following categories:
UPS
Telecom/Broadband
Utility
Standby Power
The last category is often
considered the same as UPS
but I have listed it as a separate
category. This is in order to
differentiate between the
applications where there is a
frequent or occasional discharge
requirement of more than 50% DOD
and those applications where the
maximum discharge is less than
20% but require many shallow
cycles at a high discharge rate.
This is important for the choice of
design and also the rating of the
battery to ensure that the capacity
of the battery meets the autonomy
time required by the application.
It is also important to consider the
type of load which is in use and
simply looking at the power ratings
and projected outage times is
insufficient to accurately predict the
required battery capacity. The type
of load, i.e. inductive or resistive
and the operating profile have to
be considered. Equally important
are the recharge time and the rates
of discharge as well as the time of
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
62 bestknowhow
discharge. The cut off voltage will NORMAL OPERATION MAINS FAILURE UPS FAILURE
determine the time that a battery Static
switch
will provide a particular current Bypass
at, say, the C10 rating. If the load a)
Charger Output
is variable and higher discharge Mains OFFLINE
supply
rates are encountered then the Inverter

cutoff voltage may be reached well

before the capacity of the battery is Bypass
Static
switch
depleted.
Transformer b)
In general we need to consider Output
TRANSFORMER
the following as the factors Mains
employed in determining the supply Charger Inverter

correct battery design and the

correct rating of the battery: Bypass Static
supply switch
c)
Load and duration of load on Mains Rectifier Output
the battery in an outage supply ONLINE

Inverter

The equipment to be powered

during the outage, i.e. the
power factor to be considered
The frequency and depth of
the discharges
The recharge time available
The environment of the
battery, humidity and
temperature, earthquake
zone, accessibility
The location, e.g. enclosed,
open, near delicate
equipment, in an office or
separate room, availability
of extraction, cooling fans,
maintenance and charging
requirements
associated with protection of IT
equipment and a clean-office
environment, however it also
has other guises, one such is the
London Underground application.
In this the battery provides the
power to prevent the lights from
flickering when the train crosses a
gap in the power supply rail, as well
as acting as an emergency supply
in the event of a power failure.
However, the major application is
computer backup in offices. This
can however vary considerably
depending on the amount and type
of the equipment, the location
of the office and the type of UPS
system installed. For the majority
of UPS installations the battery
Figure 1 cabinets are kept inside the office
Simplified
UPS systems or in a separate room near the
operational offices but always, invariably,
characteristics. indoors in a room continuously
accessible to office staff. This
requires that the batteries have
a clean operation and in general
there are 3 types of UPS systems
for office backup: Offline, Line
Interactive and Online. Typical
configurations are shown in Fig 1.
In the offline system, the
battery is switched on generally
by a solid state switch (SSS)
when the supply falls below
Table 1 a specific trigger voltage. The
Standby Power
operation
battery provides the power via an
characteristics by inverter and is directed through
Market sector the charger/DC supply module.

The battery connection and Rate /DOD Frequency of

layout, i.e. number of parallel Application Nature of loads Environment
Time/VPC Discharges
and series connections
Usually a controlled
UPS Constant VA 15 m /1.67V 10 20/year
temperature
Table 1 gives an overview of the
factors to consider when specifying Varying, can have high
a battery design. It is evident from TELECOM Constant A 8 h /1.75V 5 15/year temperatures in tropical
locations
this that there are various designs
of battery each of which may be Varying, can have high
suited to a range of applications. UTILITY Variable A 1 h/1.75V 2 5/year temperatures in tropical
For this article we will concentrate locations
on the Uninterrupted Power Supply Varying, can have high
market (UPS). STANDBY Constant A 8h/1.75V 20 -50/year temperatures in tropical
This is the application generally locations

bestmagazine // Winter 2016


There is an inevitable delay during
the switching operation leading to
several milliseconds of power loss.
Under most conditions this does
not prevent continuous equipment
operation.
With the line interactive, the
power supply is corrected via a
transformer to keep the online
voltage close to the operating
voltage within the specified limits.
When this no longer is possible,
the battery supply will be switched
in to provide the power. There
is still a lag in the supply as the
switch operates and the battery
is engaged. However, the main
benefit is that the battery is used
less frequently due the buck/boost
transformer correcting the incoming
supply and preventing the voltage
from dropping to the cutoff
voltage. The battery bank will
only be deployed when the power
supply is extremely low.
The online method has a
transformer, battery bank and
inverter directly in the mains
input supply. The transformer
charges the battery from the
mains supply and the battery bank
automatically provides the power
when there is a drop or a failure
in the power supply. Because the
battery is effectively inline there
is no switching and there is a
seamless transition from mains
supply to battery backup with
no delay. In this case the battery
supply is through both rectifier and
inverter. Many systems incorporate
a secondary power supply to
switchin should the battery supply
reach its capacity limit.
The classification of UPS
systems is generally by size and
falls into 5 categories: Micro, Mini,
Medium, High Power and Large.
Table 2 shows the description
and the ratings for each size.
The ratings for the battery have
to consider the loading on the
battery which can contain reactive
loads from equipment such as
bestknowhow 63
laser printers which have a very
low power factor and should be
taken into consideration for the
calculation.
The power factor correction
can seriously affect the size of the
battery required. Simply adding
up the ratings of the equipment
from the rating labels can lead
to significant underrating of the
battery capacity required.
What is often not appreciated
is the fact that the inverter and/or
charger/rectifier in the UPS supply
circuit also has a power factor
which can reduce the output of the
UPS system. Although the inverter
is often quoted as 0.95 it can be
considerably less and as low as
0.5 when the discontinuity of the
current is taken into account. This
is in addition to simply using the
phase angle to calculate the power
factor. It can result in the capacity
of the battery being under rated
which can lead to system failures
on a large scale.
As can be seen from Fig 1 the
type of UPS system can also affect
the total power factor. In the offline
system, using the bypass method
(Fig 1a) the battery provides power
through the charger and inverter.
In the case of the line interactive
method (Fig 1b), the battery power
is channelled through the inverter
Table 2 alone, resulting in a lower power
Classification of
UPS systems by factor correction.
size. With the online method (Fig 1c)
System size Rating Applications
Micro Up to 0.25 kVA Desktop
Single work station with
Mini 0.5 2.0 kVA
file server and printer
Complete office network,
Medium 3 20 kVA multiple stations with
server and printer
High Power 30 300 kVA Data centre
the battery has to provide power
through both the transformer
and the inverter. This results in
an increase in the power factor
correction and requires a higher
rated battery.
Fig. 2 shows the relationship
between the reactant load and the
power factor correction needed
for inductive type of equipment.
The other consideration is the
conversion of VA to watts in an
alternating current supply. For
resistive loads and inphase
alternating loads, this is
straightforward and is simply:
rms volts x rms amps = VA = Watts.
For the case of inductive loads
where the current lags the voltage,
the multiplication of the wave
forms results in a lower rms value
for the watts
Watts = VA cos
A typical calculation for the
battery rating would be:
DC current (amp) = kVAxPFx1000+AL
EFFxDCV
Where:
kVA = Apparent load
PF = Load power factor
EFF = Efficiency of the UPS
components, inverter etc.
(load dependant)
DCV = Average discharge voltage
Typical floor area/cubic
volume M2/M3
Desk mounted very small
Desk/floor mounted same
area as a PC
From 0.3/0.2 to 0.4/0.5
Generally located in the office
area probably in a separate
room along with a server
From 1.0/1.3 to 10/30
Located remotely in separate
part of building or in separate
outbuildings
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
64 bestknowhow
(usually 104% of the battery
end of discharge voltage)
AL = Any additional load in amps
Typical of the UPS application is
the duration and rate of discharge,
generally high currents for several
minutes. For this reason the
ratings for UPS systems specify a
discharge current for 15 minutes
to 1.67 VPC at 25C. A typical
catalogue rating would be in WPC
(watts per cell), and is the load in
watts that the battery must sustain
for 15 minutes to reach 1.67 volts
per cell. This constant power load
is more realistic than a constant
current load, it also presents an
increasing current during the
discharge, from an initial 2 volts
down to 1.67 volts This represents
an increase of around 16% in the
current load. These features mean
that the battery must be designed
Power Triangle
I the high power requirements
XL
Apparent Power, S
(VA or kVA)
Power
Triangle
Real Power, P (W or kW)
P = VI cos, S = VI, Q = VI sin
VA = P2 + VAr2
Pure inductive load
+ Self-induced
emf
Vmax Vmax
Imax
180 I
90 240
0v
f f f f
- inductive circuits.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
and processed for high power in
short bursts for a high number of
cycles.
These electrical characteristics
demand low resistance, high AM
utilisation and resistance to rapid
volume changes in the plates as
they are cycled between lead/
lead dioxide in the fully charged
state and lead sulphate in the
discharged state. Due to the rapid
current delivery for short bursts it is
likely that only a shallow depth of
penetration of discharged material
into the surface of the AM of the
plates will occur.
Putting aside maintenance
location and other practical
considerations, the battery design
should be able to provide high
power, i.e. high current densities
without excessive voltage drop
for short bursts. This will require
the following design and process
Reactive Power, Q
(VA or kVA)
360
Vmax VL
90
IL
IL lags VL by 90
features:
A high number of thin plates
A small crystal size in the
active material
Low resistance grids using
alloys with low levels of
alloying elements e.g. Pb/Ca
or low antimony selenium
Good chemical bond between
AM and grids
Low resistance joints between
plate lugs and the bus bar
and also good inter-cell welds
The characteristic requirement
for long cycle and calendar life,
typically 5 to 20 years, requires
resistance to positive grid growth
and larger crystal sizes for the AM
to prevent early cycle life failure
during service. These requirements
appear to be contradictory to
and indeed the battery design
and processing methods are a
compromise. The performance
design and process summary
can be translated into practical
guidelines as follows:
Thin plates with sufficient
cross sectional area to
minimise creep during
overcharge
A grid alloy with minimum
electrical resistance with high
creep strength/UTS
Crystal size of the AM
optimised for power output
and cycle life
Good interface bonding
Figure 2 established during initial
Relationship curing conditions
between apparent
power and real
power with Low resistance joints to
be enhanced by using a

suitable wetting interface
alloy such as 70/30 solder
and flux. Large area inter-cell
connections.
In consideration of the
application specific requirements
we have to be aware of the
environment and the connection
layout. Many applications require
a large number of parallel strings
typically having 10 batteries or
cells in parallel. The environmental
requirements such as proximity
to people or delicate equipment
especially in a confined space such
as a cabinet, obviously require
maintenance free, preferably
VRLA technology, to ensure that
there are no fumes or explosive
gases produced during the battery
charging cycle. Regarding the
layout, the higher the number
of parallel connections, the
more critical is consistency in
manufacture of the batteries or
cells. In particular the internal
resistance or impedance (dont
get me started on that chestnut) is
vitally important. This means the
curing process to ensure active
material to grid bonding is good
bestknowhow 67
and consistent.
The corrosion layer which
bonds the grid and AM interface
is established during the curing
process. It is thought to progress
by movement of oxygen vacancies
(O2+n) as well as electrons (e-),
(a well recognised process for
conduction in metal oxides).
According to Pavlov these species
react with H2O and O2 in the pores
of the corrosion layer forming PbO
or Pb(OH-)2. The resulting overall
reaction is proposed as:
PbO2+n + 2e- + O2 + H2O = Pb(OH-)2
This occurs during the whole of
the curing process and it is clear
that both oxygen and humidity are
required to enhance the formation
of this bonding layer. For this
reason, air as well as humidity
should be introduced during the
curing process.
Other factors, such as the
amount of water used on the
finishing roller at pasting and the
length of time between plate flash
Table 3 drying and the curing process
UPS Design
and Process starting, can also have an influence
Parameters on the finished cured product. This
is often related to the procedure
of pasted plate transfer to the
curing ovens during a pasting
shift. Factors such as overtime and
extended hours working must be
taken into account when operating
the curing process.
The other consideration for
consistency is the OCV which is
related to the Specific Gravity
of the battery or cell. There is
the mistaken belief within some
companies, that the higher the
capacity of the battery when
compared to its rating, the longer
the life, in particular the cycle life,
due to the perception that the
depth of discharge will be reduced
within a given application if the
battery capacity is maximised.
This is not only erroneous, it
is dangerous and can lead to
electrolyte SG values so high that
the on charge battery voltage
is very close to the charging
voltage which gives poor charge
acceptance and an increased risk
battery failure from plate corrosion.
This is particularly important when
operating temperatures exceed
30C. Table 3 gives the design
parameters with suggested values.

Design Design Process

Design solution Process solutions
parameter Requirements requirements
Positive alloy with Good casting
Lead calcium-tin alloy Control of casting pot temperatures to
Corrosion/creep maximum creep conditions to minimise
lead antimony alloy or minimise solution and oxidation losses,
resistance strength and secondary element
Plante style plate good drossing practice
minimum corrosion losses
Grids with positive High level of 3BS
Thin plates with high Low temperature paste mixing (< 60C) and
High power thickness range 1.5 to with some 4BS paste
utilisation AM mixed curing temperatures
2,8 mm structure
Good AM/grid bond Proper curing conditions to promote
Pb/Ca grids rather than
Low internal Low secondary Good welded joints growth of interfacial corrosion layer,
Pb/Sb and pure lead as
resistance element grid alloys with low contact angle and high tin alloy for group strap alloys,
in Plante
contact areas preferably using a flux.
Good AM/grid bond to See above for AM/grid bond.
See above for grid alloy.
Good shallow Strong grid alloy with minimise shedding. Curing conditions: part of the cycle
Pos/neg AM ratio:
cycle life balanced AM Some 4BS in the AM should be at temps above 70C and
1.0-1.1/0.9-1.0
matrix humidity above 80%
VRLA for recombination Low internal resistance
Minimal Gas recombination see above for low resistance process
Plante or low Sb/Ca to minimise voltage
maintenence or low water loss parameters
lead alloys for flooded rise on charge

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

68 bestknowhow
Figure 3 the battery when the I2R effect of
Side view of Plate group bus bar and plate lug Lug to strap weld
the high currents generates heat.
manual group bar
burning. The question now is which of
the commonly available lead-acid
Plate lug technologies are used for UPS and
how do they measure up to satisfy
the required operating parameters?
To summarise the suitability of
these designs for the electrical and
Negative
meniscus at operating requirements, we can use
weld joint the following criteria:

Plate group bus bar (strap) Power output

Internal resistance

Gap in the lug/strap Consistency of manufacture

interface, showing (OCV, IR. SG)
a reduced weld
contact area
Creep resistance of positive
Plate separator plate

Shallow high rate cycle life

Underside view of Plate group bus bar
Maintenance requirements
Fig. 3 shows a typical group of lid is attached using resin or hot
lugs welded to the cell strap by melt. This has the side effect of Corrosion resistance
hand using conventional welding not being able to use through the particularly at higher
combs and gas welding flame. It wall squeeze welding methods for operating temperatures.
is an adequate but not ideal weld inter-cell connections. Instead the
where the lugs were very clean lid is recessed to accommodate The basic design and process
from brushing but no intermediate inter-cell over the wall connectors parameters have been discussed
welding alloy was used to dip and resin is poured into the lid, and the common battery types
the lugs. It is possible to see that then the battery is inverted and used for these applications
there is a negative meniscus at placed in the lid whilst the resin along with their advantages and
the interface rather than a positive sets. A typical hand welded inter disadvantages are listed in Table4.
meniscus, indicating that the lead cell connector is shown in Fig. 4, Comparing the technologies is
strap has not adequately wetted The depth of weld and the cross Table 4 relatively straightforward. The flat
the lug alloy. Dipping the lugs sectional area are vital factors Comparison of plate designs have grid and plate
different Lead acid
individually is quite impractical which influence the internal battery designs for structures which enable high rate
for hand welding groups. For this resistance and the temperature of UPS applications. discharge due to a large number
reason a high tin lead alloy is
often used in the strap. The use of Corrosion Cycle and
stearic acid to rub on the lugs in the Power Internal Positive AM
and growth calendar
welding combs before adding the Battery type delivery resistance utilisation
resistance life No/
strap alloy can give some measure Scale 1-10 Scale 1-10 (g/ah)
Scale 1-10 years
of improvement to the weld quality.
AGM 8 3 13-16 6 400/10
The cross sectional area as well
as the weld quality is a significant GEL Tubular 5 6 12-14 5 800/10
factor in the inter-cell group GEL Flat-plate 7 3 13-16 6 400/10
welding. From Table 2 it is evident Flooded Flat-plate 9 3 13-15 6 400/10
that the majority of batteries and
Flooded Tubular 6 5 12-13 5 1200/10
cells used in UPS operations are
made with ABS cases and the Plante 10 2 - 8 1500/20

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

 batterie fllungs systeme gmbh
ing. klaus oschmann

the bfs-system

the structure for

battery watering

35 years of research, development and distribution of

single point watering and degassing systems for
lead acid batteries have given the company its unique profile.
Plug IV and the new connection system - consisting of coupling,
filter cartridge and flow indicator - won the iF-design award.

synthesis of technology and design

batterie fllungs systeme gmbh ing. klaus oschmann mitterweg 9-11 d-85232 bergkirchen / Germany
phone: +49 8131 36400 email: info@bfsgmbh.de www.batteryfillingsystems.com www.bfsgmbh.de

of thin plates and lower internal
resistance. The tubular designs
have a lower power rating but
have a better cycle life due to the
spine and tube construction (see
previous BEST article). The Plante
design has a very low resistance
due to its pure lead grid and
integral active material and grid
structure. The active material is
created from the thin sections of
the grid and there is therefore no
AM/grid interface and therefore a
lower internal resistance. This also
ensures that there is no spalling
or shedding of AM during the
discharge/charge cycles during
the batterys operational life. There
is however some maintenance
requirement as the construction
is a flooded design. However,
the pure lead grid ensures the
maximum hydrogen overvoltage
value to minimise water loss.
It is evident that for many
applications the Plant cell has
the optimum properties for UPS
applications. However the low
AM utilisation and the production
methods make it an expensive
option. This, as well as the water
loss over its operating life, means
it is not the ideal choice for some
applications.
In summary, a good UPS battery
should have:
Corrosion and growth
resistant grids with high
power output. Pb/Ca/Sn grids
with a good cross sectional
area within the grid frames
should minimise plate
growth. The end of life of UPS
batteries is often caused by
the positive group touching
the negative bus bar due to
positive growth in service.
Some manufacturers place
a plastic insert under the
negative bus bar in order
to prevent this occurrence.
This can extend the batteries
operational life, particularly
bestknowhow 71
Figure 4
Hand welded
intercell connector.
Depth of weld
Quality of all welded areas
at higher temperatures.
High surface area of
electrodes to provide high
power outputs for short
bursts and fast recharge
capability. This favours more
plates probably of flat plate
design. The processing
methods to provide the
correct crystal structure are
necessary; namely higher
levels of tri basic lead
sulphate formed by the curing
process are favoured.
Minimal or no maintenance
designs favour VRLA rather
than VLA. This depends on
the application, as previously
discussed.
Minimal variation in OCV
and IR/impedance values
to ensure cells are balanced
in series parallel arrays.
This is dependent upon the
manufacturing methods to
ensure that internal welds
are minimum resistance and
that the AM/ grid cementation
stage in the curing process is
optimised (see previous BEST
article).
This article has considered a
range of battery designs currently
available for the UPS market.
There are newer lead acid
designs and different chemistries
which are also installed in limited
quantities in a small number of
locations. Technologies such as
lead carbon or enhanced lead
carbon are relatively new and this
author has little practical
experience of the initial and long
term performance of these
technologies. However, there will
be a summary and a discussion
and comparison of the new lead
acid technologies and the
alternative chemistries which are
available, at the end of the Fit for
Purpose series of articles. In
these articles, as with this one,
references will be made to
processing conditions and design
aspects which have been more
fully covered in previous articles.
It is intended that the information
in these articles will not be fully
repeated and that if any further
detail is needed, then these back
issues can act as a data base to
further the understanding of the
complex design and process
aspects of Lead-Acid battery
manufacture.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
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 besttechnology 73
Voltage optimisation + storage
save money and protect your business
Dr Alex Mardapittas, MD of EMSc UK, explains how voltage
optimisation and energy storage could save UK businesses 10bn
a year (US$14bn) by 2050. What could it save your business?

V
oltage optimisation (VO)
is a proven and effective
technology that has been
saving industry millions of pounds
in wasted electrical energy.
The market-leading VO system
delivers average annual electricity
savings of 12%-15%, extending to
17% on High Voltage side electronic
variable optimisation, with the
significant proportion of these
savings achieved through induced
negative power (back EMF). Typical
return on investment is between
two and three years depending on
kWh cost. Capture that back EMF
through energy storage systems
and you can save even more.
The concept behind the
technology is simple. On the whole,
power is supplied to businesses at
a higher voltage than is necessary.
Although the ideal voltage required
for most electrical equipment in the
UK is 220V, the average delivered
is actually 242V and it can be
delivered at levels as high as 253V.
The mismatch between voltage
required and voltage delivered
results in a waste of energy and of
course money.
VO corrects the over-voltage
and brings it in line with the actual
needs of the equipment on site,
through use of a device installed
in series with the mains electricity
supply. True voltage optimisation
systems will also clean and
condition the power supply and
reduce power quality issues such
as suppressing harmonics, and
provide some protection against
small power spikes.
Why is voltage optimisation
required?
Voltage optimisation is needed to
correct the supply issues caused
by the High Voltage infrastructure.
The voltage supplied to a site will
generally be at a higher level than
the equipment on site needs to High Voltage side optimisation
run effectively. The extra voltage High Voltage (HV) side optimisation
supplied is not needed but technologies offer optimisation
ultimately the user will be paying solutions to sites that own their
for this. own distribution transformers.
If a company operates its own Many technologies exist, but there
HV/LV infrastructure then it is more is only one system currently on the
efficient to tackle these issues at market that provides HV, electronic
source (HV side optimisation). If a variable voltage optimisation. This
company only has a LV supply then is a combined solution, which
the most effective approach will be replaces an on-site, inefficient HV
addressing the issues at the LV side transformer with an amorphous
(LV optimisation). core super-low loss HV transformer,
Figure 2.
High Voltage side
optimisation

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

74 besttechnology
with integrated electronic-dynamic
VO technology.
The system can take up to
33,000V input and provides a fully
electronically regulated 380V,
or user-defined, voltage output.
Technology also exists that will
allow the user to alter the defined
voltage locally through a Human
Machine Interface (HMI) on site
or remotely via the Internet. The
HMI allows users to manage and
monitor the system in real time
to ensure maximum savings are
being realised.
Depending on the age and type
of the transformer that it replaces,
an amorphous core transformer
can provide 1% to 5% savings
simply because it is so much more
efficient. In addition to savings on
replacement of the transformer, the
integrated VO technology can be
expected to provide a further 12%
to 15% savings.
For more efficient transformers
which can provide greater return
on investment over its lifespan it is
important to source transformers
which exceed Eco Design 2021
efficiency specifications.
Low Voltage side optimisation
Low Voltage (LV) side optimisation
is connected to the low voltage
side (see figure 2). There are two
variations of LV side optimisation
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
technology available: fixed and
variable (also known as electronic-
dynamic, electronic or intelligent
VO). Fixed VO systems reduce the
incoming voltage by a set amount
to the optimum level for site
operations. However, output varies
as the input voltage varies.
Variable VO systems set the
output voltage at the optimum level
and maintain this by systematically
managing the peaks and troughs in
the power supplied irrespective
of the incoming voltage levels to
ensure that voltage is supplied at a
constant, stable level.
How does voltage optimisation
save energy?
VO is a transformer-based system
used to optimise the characteristics
of the current supplied at the source
(first current), according to current
characteristics required at the load
(second current). The first current
is typically an alternating voltage,
in which case the resultant voltage
is increased or decreased. This
transformation routinely results in
excess transformed voltage.
The supply current flows from
the first winding into the second
winding of a VO system, wherein
the magnetic flux causes the
induction of a reverse current,
which is a fraction of the supply
current, typically 10%. The reverse
current flows in the opposite
direction to the supply current,
wherein it is directed back to the
electricity supply. Because the
reverse current is real energy, which
is distinct from apparent or reactive
energy, there is a direct effect
on the consumption of the load.
This effect is a reduction of power
consumed by a load, seen by actual
kWh savings.
In simple terms, any excess
voltage above the VO set-point
is chopped and returned back
to the grid, generating induced
negative power (back EMF), which
flows towards the supply and is
Figure 2: subtracted from the incoming
Low Voltage side power (the subtraction process
optimisation
occurs within the VO transformer).
The negative power feedback
(back EMF) accounts for 70%
to 80% of VO savings with the
remaining 20% to 30% savings
coming from equipment efficiency
improvements.
Improving equipment
performance
Optimising the supply voltage
for a building can also prevent
equipment and machinery from
early burn-out and reduces
maintenance costs. Operating
equipment at a higher voltage than
it is designed for does not improve
performance; on the contrary
it has the effect of reducing its
lifespan. For example a 230V rated
incandescent lamp used at 240V
will achieve only 55% of its rated
life. It will also take 4.3% more
current and consume almost 9%
more energy.
If you supply a motor with more
voltage than it needs, it doesnt
spin any faster, it just wastes the
extra energy as heat. VO extends
the life of motors by lowering their
operating temperatures.
Improving harmonics
In theory, most electricity is
supplied as an Alternating Current
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(AC) sine wave, which rises, falls,
and reverses direction smoothly
around 50 to 60 times a second
(the ordinary supply frequency).
In practice, AC supplies can also
include irregular, higher-frequency
waveforms called harmonics. If
the level of harmonics becomes
too high, sensitive electronic
equipment can be damaged.
The efficiency of electrical loads
can be improved by attenuating
harmonics at the supply, or by
preventing their generation (see
figure 3).
Protection from transient
events
Transients are large, very brief and
potentially destructive increases
in voltage. They can be caused
by lightning, switching of large
electrical loads such as motors,
transformers and electrical drives
and by switching between power
generation sources to balance
supply and demand. The voltage
that a building receives can rise
and fall quite dramatically from
hour to hour even from minute
to minute or second to second.
Specific VO systems can protect
a facility up to 25,000V transient
events.
besttechnology 77
Figure 3: Correcting voltage imbalance
Graph showing
effects of
Phase voltage imbalances can also
harmonics be addressed by VO. Industrial
before and after and commercial sites are supplied
installation
with 3-phase electricity. Imbalance
of voltage
optimisation between the phases causes
problems such as heating in
motors and existing wiring, leading
to wasteful energy consumption
(see figure 4). Some VO devices
are able to improve balance on
the buildings electrical supply,
reducing losses and improving the
longevity of three-phase induction
motors, typically used in a variety of
Figure 4: equipment including refrigeration,
Effects of voltage
imbalance on a pumps, air conditioning and
motor conveyor drives.
Identifying how VO can help
specific sites
VO provides savings on a variety
of loads but not all equipment will
consume less energy. The greatest
savings come from inductive
loads such as lighting and motors,
especially if motors are not always
loaded at 100% of their capacity.
A building that has fixed speed
devices such as air-handling
units, multi stage compressors
(i.e. chillers), pumps and standard
switch-start fluorescent fittings will
achieve high savings.
Some loads such as VSDs will
also see savings but at reduced
levels and some loads will yield
zero savings but will benefit in
other ways. It is important to
understand the electrical loading
characteristics of your site and to
remember that no two sites are the
same.
Savings
Analysis of an education facility pre
and post installation of the market-
leading voltage optimisation
product shows a reduction of
163,074kWh, which gives savings
of 11.3% per annum, equivalent to
12,591 per annum. This delivers
a carbon dioxide reduction of
85.5tonnes4.
Analysis is based on provided
Half Hour Data (HHD) - data that is
supplied by the electricity supplier
based on consumption every half
hour for a full year pre and post
installation. (see figure 5)
The future of voltage
optimisation
It is predicted that energy storage
systems which use VO technology
to harness the induced negative
power feedback to divert the
energy saved from a VO system to a
storage medium like the recently
launched Powerstar Virtue system
could help alleviate the growing
struggle to cope with electricity
demand, which is set to rise sixfold
by 2050.
Imperial College Londons
Energy Laboratory has estimated
that energy storage technologies
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
 78 besttechnology
120 Figure 5. phase voltages to give a smoother
Average electricity
power supply and extend the life of
consumption
Average half hour period consumption (kWh)

100
by half hourly equipment.
periods pre and With no moving parts, VO
post installation of
80 systems require no maintenance
market-leading VO
system or monitoring and operate
60 effectively for many years without
replacement. They also have
40 a payback for the planet. By
cutting energy consumption and
20 thereby reducing greenhouse gas
emissions, they enable companies
0 to make a positive environmental
contribution.
00:30
01:00
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00:00
Average Pre half hour period
Time
Average Post half hour period Continuous improvements in VO
technology, such as energy storage,
have ensured that these systems
could generate savings of 10bn energy storage solutions like will complement existing energy-
a year by 2050 in the UK. This, Powerstar Virtue. This blueprint saving initiatives already installed
coupled with the volatile nature of will improve the financial viability by many facilities and will play a
renewable generation sources of small-scale energy generation part in the growing development of
solar and wind, for example, from wind, solar and fuel cells and Microgrids within smart cities.
generate little amounts of power will make it easier for informed
if the sun doesnt shine or wind decisions to be made on when and References
doesnt blow highlights the need how local energy can be stored and
for flexibility and greater control of used. 1. 16th edition; Wiring Regulations
electricity usage. BS7671.
Energy storage systems Conclusion
incorporating VO technology allow VO systems work to address 2. Proceedings of the 8th
energy to be stored during periods the issue of wasted energy that International Conference on
of low demand and used at times exists as a result of an imbalance Harmonics and Power Quality
of high tariffs, or indeed when it is between a buildings incoming 1998-10-14.
most beneficial. Users can come supply and its usage. Voltage is
off-grid during times of high tariffs, generally supplied to a site at a 3. Faiz, J; Ebrahimpour, H Precise
diverting the energy stored, to considerably higher level than the derating of three phase induction
make noticeable savings on energy optimal amount of 220V required motors with unbalanced
costs. by modern electrical equipment. voltages. Energy Conversion and
As the prominence of smart This is because utility companies Management 48 (9): 2579-2586
cities where traditional networks cannot precisely target voltage
and services will be made more over varying distances and simply 4. Defra 2011 factor 0.5246kg/kWh.
efficient with the use of innovative transmit power in a way which
technologies, for the benefit of ensures that all sites receive
inhabitants and businesses between 216V and 253V. About the Author
evolves, energy storage systems The average voltage delivered
incorporating VO technology will in the UK is actually 242V. This Dr Alex Mardapittas is managing
become an integral part of the local excess energy is still factored into director of EMSc (UK) Limited.
energy Microgrid system. a buildings energy bills despite He has extensive knowledge
A Microgrid is a smaller version the fact that it offers no benefit to of software programming and
of an electricity grid, the main the business and can actually be innovative engineering design.
difference being they are powered detrimental to equipment. In 2001 he set up EMSc (UK)
by local energy sources that match VO technology ensures that Ltd to provide energy and
power with local demand rather companies only pay for the energy environmental consultancy to UK
than national demand. that they need. In addition, it filters organisations.
Microgid systems will rely on out harmonics, transients and

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

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 bestsupplierfocus 81

Lets face it, it takes a real battery making man to

work out whether an industry supplier really cuts
the mustard. So when our man Dr Mike McDonagh got the opportunity to visit Shandong
Jinkeli at the end of 2015, we knew it would be one our readers would want to know about.
Heres his report.

S
handong Jinkeli is one of the
largest manufacturer and
supplier of battery additives
with over 70% domestic market
share in China.
And it has a simple philosophy:
To establish a closer technical
strategic relationship with lead acid
battery manufacturers to improve
battery performance and promote
the development of the lead acid
battery industry
Sounds very good and is
easy to say. However, in order
to deliver, you need to have the
ability, dedication and resources to
achieve this. I was looking forward
to this visit and was very keen to
meet the people and to view the
facility capable of delivering this
goal.
The opportunity arose following
a meeting with Mr Xing Yanchao
the President of Shandong Jinkeli
Power Sources Technology Co Ltd
at the Lead acid Battery Conference
in Edinburgh an 0pportunity to
witness at first hand this exciting
new area of battery technology,
particularly with a company
which claims to be dedicated to
improvement and original research.
And this was no PR trip (Write
flattering copy and secure an
advertisement?) No. My purpose
was fact finding pure and
simple. For this particular visit in
December, I had been engaged
to visit a company in Dongying
to assist in product and process
improvements. I mentioned to the
owner, (a customer of Jinkeli) that
I had a long-standing invitation
from Xing Yanchao the President of
Jinkeli to visit their facility in Zibo.
Dr Mike McDonagh
and
Mr Xing Yanchao
Rather than letting me take a train
trip, the factory owner in Dongying
insisted that he would arrange a
company car and driver to take me
to Zibo. It was a relatively short
distance and it was a Sunday, the
one day in the week which the
Chinese seem to take off work. This
level of hospitality is common in
China and derives from a traditional
culture of treating visitors with
respect. And its appreciated.
The weather was unseasonably
cold with an early snowfall and
temperatures down to -10C. The
journey through the city and along
the motorways was characterised
by new building activity, highly
industrialised agriculture and large
industrial estates, some containing
traditional coal fired power
stations. The weather was grey with
a pervading low mist for the entire
journey, which further added to
industrial feel of the landscape.
Once at the hotel, Mr Xing
invited me to dinner where I had
my initial introduction to some of
his team. As usual, the meal and
venue were faultless, and if I were
to add to my list of improvements
in China, I would have to include
the red wine. Yet another benefit
of the collaboration with foreign
companies.

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

82 bestsupplierfocus
Production Flow
Materials feeding Blending
Storage
silo
Batching
first weighing
Batching silo
second weighing
The next morning we arrived at
the Jinkeli factory located in the
Zichuan Economic Development
Zone. My first impressions of the
36,000 square meter site were
of cleanliness, busy activity, a
minimal presence of working staff
and well maintained buildings
logically arranged for access
and product flow. My second
impression was that a bit more
heating in the offices would be
quite welcome. The company
distributes Vanisperse from
Borregaard and the Cabot tailored
forms of Carbon Black, and
other main additives like humic
acid, barium sulphate, their own
patented CuringBon(R)which is
a seeding mixture to form a 4BS
structure in the paste and Nano-
silica sol are produced in other
production bases of Jinkeli.
Also, quite surprisingly, there
is a manufacturing process to
produce seamless pasting belts.
In all there are around 16 products
selected and developed specifically
to enhance battery performance
and where possible reduce cost
and waste.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
Finished products
first weighing
Sealing and
packing
The factory tour started with
the premix expanders. Automated
equipment, based on customer
orders, selects the correct mix and
weighs the additives individually
before mixing in the patented
system. Precision, uniformity and
consistency are guaranteed by
a combination of quality control
and innovative technology. This
involves sampling of the blended
additives from different parts of the
blender, then comparing the ash
content of the blended expander
against a pre mix standard for
the individual components. The
blending process itself is part of
a uniquely engineered solution
devised by Jinkeli, which provides
a high degree of homogeneity and
uniformity within and between
batches.
After mixing, each bag is
weighed automatically and has
a very small tolerance band for
acceptance. Of course, I had
to ask the obvious question:
what happens if there is an out
of tolerance bag? The machine
dutifully showed me by sounding
an alarm reminiscent of an intruder
Second NG
weighing
OK
Automatic
Coding
elimination
Inspection
Finished products
warehouse
Ensuring alert, and pushing one of the
customers get the bags off the conveyor into a reject
right additive mix.
catchment area. I am assuming
it was a coincidence and not a
demonstration. This was verified
when the bag weight was recorded
and found to be a little more than
one gram out of tolerance.
The majority of the building
spaces are used for storage, order
picking and packing for despatch.
Again, the stock and order system
is computer controlled. However,
there was an area dedicated to
production of short fibre floc which
involved spinning the yarn and
cutting to size. Precise control of
the tension in the fibre is the key
to obtaining the reliability and
consistency, which is the hallmark
of the Jinkeli customer service.
Why manufacture and not simply
find a supplier who can match the
quality? The simple answer, typical
of the company philosophy is that
if you cannot find the product
on the market then you have to
manufacture it yourself and if
necessary, develop the methods
required to produce the results
you want. Rather than compromise

for convenience, Jinkeli is
adamant that it will provide
products which will perform to the
highest standards. If that means
developing manufacturing methods
for the purpose, then that is what
the company will do.
The dedication to excellence
and customer service is not
limited to quality of product and
systems and methods for providing
this. Jinkeli also have extensive
research laboratories. The research
facility, formed in 2007, provides
pure research, investigating the
effects of additives in the battery
active materials (including acid).
I was shown around the battery
test facility and the materials
preparation laboratories.
There were many experiments
involving single cell and battery
combinations, including VRLA
bestsupplierfocus 83
which would not only provide multi
categories of products, but which
also provided an enhanced after-
sale service to customers. To this
end Jinkeli entered into a strategic
partnership with Borregaard AS in
China in 2012. This provided the
perfect stimulus and confidence to
realize this goal Jinkeli were able
to capitalise on this partnership
to expand its market share and to
consolidate its brand image.
Fancy being profiled by one of our industry experts?
Contact Gerry Woolf: gerry@bestmag.co.uk
The development of the
company, which includes the
opening of the dedicated Research
Centre in 2007, the partnership
with Borregard and then Cabot
in 2014 and the technology
exchange agreement with the
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, is
impressive. With this level of focus
and achievement, How likely is it
that Mr Yanchao might possibly be
on track to achieve his ambition for
Jinkelli:
To be the global leader
providing complete solutions for
battery additives.
Time of course will tell.

HIGH GRADE RED LEAD

and flooded lead acid chemistries
on test. The level of expertise,
enthusiasm, and background
knowledge of the research team
was impressive. With three senior
lead acid experts along with
Professor Hua Chounan from the
Dept of Chemistry and Chemical
engineering at Shangdong
University forming their research
team, it becomes evident how the
goals of Mr Xing can be realised
its more than marketing
By 1998 Jinkeli had achieved,
in their own words, the status of
the best humic acid supplier in
China. It was at this time that Mr
Xing had realised that in order
to provide the highest standards
and to ensure the technology
was as well-crafted as possible,
it was necessary to form strategic
partnerships with industry leaders
in the chemicals supply markets.
Mr Xing decided to bring the
company to a new level, which
was to provide battery additive
PENOX DELIVERS
one-stop procurement. However
it did not stop there. In accordance
with Mr Xings distinctive customer www.penoxgroup.com
philosophy, Jinkeli wanted a service

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

86 bestsafety Underwriters Laboratories

Li-ion incidents
prompt
US-China
safety summit
J. Thomas Chapin, Ph.D., Vice President Research, Underwriters Laboratories Inc. reports
on a major conference which took place in China at the end of last year and which could
represent an important breakthrough in lithium-ion safety on a global scale.

A
significant event occurred
in Beijing in early November
that has set in motion a
new dialogue between the US and
China on lithium-ion battery (LiB)
safety. This unique summit was
attended by eighty experts from
a diverse range of organisations
involved with LiB technology.
The U.S. and China experts came
from academia and government
research laboratories, testing and
standards bodies, state and local
governments, manufacturers,
end users, first responders and
airline shipping and transportation
companies. It was organised by
UL and Tsinghua University and in
total five organisations sponsored
the event China Electronics
Standardisation Institute (CESI),
Tsinghua University, Beijing
Institute of Technology (BIT), China
Battery Industry Association (CBIA)
and UL.
The Safety Summit was
organised around four central
safety topics:
a. LiB Incidents and Emergency
Response,
b. LiB Chemistry,
c. LiB Applications and
d. LiB Standards and Test
Methods.
The welcome and opening
remarks were made by Mr.Wang
Weiwei, Director from the
Electronic Information Department,

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

 Underwriters Laboratories bestsafety 87
China Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology (MIIT), Mr.
Clyde Kofman, UL Chief Operating
Officer, Mr. Zhao Jinsheng, CBIA
Secretary General and Mr. Zhao
Xinua, CESI Vice President. The
keynote presentations were made
by Professor Wu Feng of BIT and
Professor Stan Whittingham of
the State University of New York
(SUNY).
There were several key aspects
that contributed to the intensity
and benefit of the event:
a. the exclusive focus on LiB safety
from four perspectives,
b. the diversity and selection
of the attendees based upon
expertise and background,
c. the intimate setting combined
with an open format that
encouraged information
exchange and exploration of
ideas rather than emphasising
formal presentations. In
short, the expert panels
in each session provided
their perspectives in brief
presentations to highlight
issues, while the majority of
the time was devoted to open
discussion and dialog with the
attendees and panelists. All
sessions and documentation
were simultaneously translated
in Mandarin and English to
promote dialogue.
During the welcome address,
Clyde Kofman of UL emphasised
that it is better to convene rather
than intervene when it comes to
safety and that safety needs to be
designed from within and verified
throughout the process to be most
beneficial to society. LiB incidents
are a global issue that has occurred
across every aspect of the LiB
supply chain from discovery,
prototyping, manufacture, use and
end of life. Improvements in safety
require dialog and information
sharing across diverse disciplines
and expertise.
Session 1 LiB Incidents and
Emergency Response
Safety research is driven by
fact-based scientific methods to
quantify hazards. This is especially
true for battery incidents. While
the risks are relatively low based
on the quantity of rechargeable
devices in commerce relative to
the frequency of the incidents,
however the severity of the
hazards posed by LiB failures is
high. The analysis of incidents
allows researchers and safety
officials to deconstruct the event
and ascertain root cause.
Understanding the patterns of
LiB incidents across the supply
chain is important, but a complete
set of information is often not
available for many reasons.
The first session of the Summit
embraced these concepts and it
was clear that China and the US
places a high priority on battery
safety.
The international first responder
community is relying on the battery
Clyde Kofman of UL
research community to provide
education and training programs
to understand the dynamics of LiB
failure, propagation and means
to mitigate these incidents.
This involves an understanding
of the failure mechanisms and
associated hazards posed by cell
breaching, venting, ignition of
flammable electrolytes and arcing
followed by propagation and
spread to surrounding materials.
This poses new questions about
fire suppressants and fire ground
tactics, personal protective
equipment (PPE) and sensing
technologies.
Session 2 - LiB Technology and
Reports of New Discoveries
The second session of the Summit
dealt with existing and emerging
LiB technologies, potential
failure mechanisms and test
methods. One common theme is
the need for guidance for battery
technology developers to validate
performance and safety behavior
using standardised test methods.
The significant absence of safety
data validating claims of new
discoveries and inventions was
apparent. Independent validation
is the first step in enhanced safety
protocols. It is well understood
that many factors affect cell
performance and safety including:
a. LiB chemistry(active ingredients
and additives),
b. separator technology,
c. electrolytes,
d. protection circuits, etc.
But performance, safety and
reliability can be affected by other
factors, such as cell format, raw
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
88 bestsafety
material quality, processing and
handling of the active materials,
calendaring operations, factory
cleanliness, foreign objects and
debris (FOD) and other factors.
A variety of research-based
destructive and nondestructive
methods have been developed
internationally that can be used
by researchers to understand the
limits of safety with regards to
internal and external stressors.
Clearly, the assessment of single
cell thermal runaway and thermal
runaway propagation under
various conditions of cell charge/
discharge history is needed along
with other tests identified in
various domestic and international
battery standards.
Assessment of cell safety
through testing and validation
is only the first step in the safety
process. Integration of cells into
larger assemblies and associated
batter management systems
(BMS, BMU) requires hardware
and software functional safety
analysis and further testing to
assess overall system safety.
Thus, the effects of scale cannot
be overstated with regards to
accurately determining the limits
of performance and safety.
Lastly, safety officials must
embrace and understand the
magnitude, complexity and
extent of the LiB global supply
chain, which can often reach
tens of thousands of miles from
cell creation to the end user. In
between, the steps include cell
manufacture, various assembly
and integration steps to packaging
and aggregation of components
and/or finished products to
warehouses.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
Assessment of the safety of
packaging, handling, warehousing
and shipping by aircraft cargo
carriers is absolutely critical before
it even reaches the consumer or
end user.
Session 3 - LiB Applications
The next area of focus at the
summit discussed the proliferation
of cells and battery technology in
consumer, motive and stationary
applications and associated
incidents. Many countries do not
have a mechanism for reporting on
safety incidents.
In the US, government
organisations such as the CPSC and
FAA monitor and report on battery-
related recalls and incidents.
UL has also privately tracked
CPSC reports of recalls and has
amassed more than 65 primary and
secondary battery incidents from
1992 to 2014 totaling more than 17
million units.
As of June 30, 2015, the
U.S. FAA has recorded
158 air/airport battery
incidents related
to carried as cargo
or baggage that
have been
recorded
since March 20, 1991.
The US Fire Administration has
a comprehensive fire incident
reporting system called National
Fire Incident Reporting System
or NFIRS that is connected to the
32,000 fire jurisdictions in the US.
The NFIRS system is constantly
being updated to embrace new
technologies that are involved in
fire incidents.
Lastly, the U.S. National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
investigates transportation-related
field incidents including the Boeing
787 Incident at Logan Airport in
January 2013. NTSB engaged UL in
the cell, battery and battery system
investigations and a series of
reports is now posted on the NTSB
website.
The system for collecting battery
incidents in China is still under
development, but it is apparent
that incidents occur in various
modes of transportation (e-bikes,
e-taxis, e-buses) as well as in
cell manufacturing and recycling
facilities and these are under
investigation by Chinese experts.
Session 4 - Improved and
Enhanced Battery Standards
The final session of the Safety
Summit focused on the
identification of LiB safety
standards that embrace the
full range of cell designs and
applications. A large number
of international organisations
have developed testing and
certification standards and a partial
list of organisations includes:
CESI, UL,
International

Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC), International Organisation
for Standardisation (ISO), United
Nations (UN), FAA, Society of
Automotive Engineers (SAE),
National Electrical Manufacturers
Association (NEMA), Society of
Automotive Engineers (SAE),
Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and
Japanese Standards Association
(JSA), Battery Safety Organisation
(BATSO).
The key discussion issue was
the analysis of various standards
to determine if they are sufficiently
advanced to address emerging LiB
technologies and applications.
A balance must be achieved to
assemble the appropriate number
of accurate tests that establish
the threshold of performance and
safety in a reliable and economical
fashion. Researchers focus on
testing to failure while safety
standards establish tests and
requirements for compliance.
What is lacking is a complete
understanding of the gap between
compliance and failure under
various use conditions. This
gap represents the limits of
performance and boundary for
safety. Performance embraces
various factors including charge/
discharge rates (duty cycle),
temperature range (use and
cycling to advertised high and
low temperature extremes),
mechanical abuse (impact, drop,
shock, vibration, crush), aging
(isothermal or cycling heating)
and altitude (when appropriate).
bestsafety 89
Other tests may be required based
upon the intended application. The
boundary of safety is defined as the
thresholds by which the chemistry
fails to perform in a safe and
predictable manner. This can lead
to a variety of hazards including
cell expansion, breaching, arcing,
ignition of vented contents and
propagation.
The Path Forward
The China LiB Safety Summit was
the beginning of the journey of
collaboration. The origins of this
event were established back in
2010 when the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) and China Ministry
of Science & Technology (MOST)
created the US-China Electric
Vehicle (EV) and Battery Technology
Workshop. This program identified
50 key battery experts from
the U.S., and China to discuss
technology and research related to
EV batteries.
To-date, this group has held 11
meetings to exchange information
discuss concepts and identify areas
of opportunity for collaboration
between these two nations. It is
from these relationships that the
current Safety Summit was borne.
From the discussions that
ensued in Beijing, here are the key
takeaways:
1. The language of safety is based
in fundamental scientific
principles. These principles
do not recognise national or
regional boundaries.
2. LiB failures and incidents are
a universal concern as the LiB
supply chain is a vast global
network of suppliers. The
intermediate raw materials,
components, products traverse
the planet before they are used
or installed.
3. LiB incidents have been
recorded throughout the entire
global design and life cycle that
have resulted in deaths, injuries
and property loss.
4. LiB incidents can affect
companies (or countries) brand
reputation if they are associated
with product recalls or incidents.
5. Everybody wins when safety is
enhanced. Customer confidence
and demand for products and
systems rises and commerce
increases.
6. Failure follows predictable laws
of physics and chemistry, so the
relentless pursuit of root cause
(when possible) can lead to
new insights and theories. This
precious knowledge can then
fuel new programs to enhance
safety throughout the life cycle.
Conclusion
Enhanced LiB safety standards
and test methods can only
be developed from research
investigations across the entire
global battery stakeholder
community. This open safety
science concept is preferable to
closed and proprietary programs
that precede commercial
introduction. Sometimes we dont
know what we dont know.
Time and energy is conserved
and confidence is increased by
the aggregation of new ideas
and knowledge confirmed by
independent and impartial testing.
Fundamental research generates
this knowledge through a network
of dedicated individuals. This
cannot occur unless we have
collaboration, trust and aligned
mission. In the end, we all have the
same goals of enhanced safety.
Convening is far better than
intervening when it comes to
safety. This China LiB Safety
Summit is an example of this type
of collaboration and UL is honored
to be a part of it.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
 bestinsight 91
B2U battery second life looks
set for miscarriage
The Editor questions whether battery second life has any chance
of success as lithium costs begin to tumble.
F
or as long as this author
can remember, there have
always been proponents of
second-life batteries the spent
power sources of the electric
vehicle market that, once past their
capacity peak, could theoretically
provide the energy sources for
stationary energy storage.
For the best part of a decade this
almost mythical role was discussed
at length but there was a massive
commercial hole in the argument.
EVs sold in very small numbers and
stationary energy storage was more
conceptual than real.
In the last two years all this has
changed, as the pages in BEST
have reflected. EVs are beginning
to shift at last and
commercial
energy
storage
is kicking and screaming into the
market.
Its hard to believe but probably
the most popular electric vehicle,
the Nissan Leaf, has been on sale
for over five years and the 200,000
Leafs will probably have been
delivered as this issue went to
press (January 2016).
What we dont know is how
many of these vehicles are still
on the road or how many are on
a second set of batteries. This
authors guess is that, barring
accidents, the vast majority of
vehicles are running and because
Well have to wait of range limitations (accepted by
a decade or more
for these batteries purchasers), very few vehicles will
to be repurposed. have clocked up mileages such
as push the initial battery pack
beyond its predicted life.
But thats not stopped
the second-life
battery
business from springing into life.
Last summer, German
automaker Daimler AG announced
the launch of a new stationary
storage business, utilising its fully
owned EV battery maker subsidiary
Deutsche Accumotive. The
automakers plan is to sell batteries
to residential and commercial
customers in partnership with
the German utility EnBW Energie
Baden-Wuerttemberg AG.
The company has gone further:
it has announced the creation
of a 13MW-hour energy storage
unit at a recycling plant in Lnen
using second-life EV batteries
supposedly the largest deployment
of second-life batteries in the
world.
Nissan was not to be beaten.
Again last June, Nissan
Motor Company and Green
Charge Networks, which
claimed to be the
largest provider of
commercial energy
storage in California,
joined forces to
deploy secondlife
lithiumion vehicle
batteries for stationary
commercial energy storage
in the U.S. and international
markets.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
 92 bestinsight
Cost Estimates with Production Volume Left: big news story concerning lithium-
Lithium batteries
1000 ion last year was not battery fires or
ANL (2009) are going down in
900
EPRI (2007) price says: bans but the amazing price drops of
800 Miller (2006) 1) EPRI lithium-ion cells from consumer
CARB (2007) 2) NREL
700 devices to large format and this
TIAX (2009) 3) Bloomberg
Cost ($/kWh)

600 and (right) is likely to continue. And its not

85% experience curve Cost range for 4) Ramez Naam
fitted to points from all models lead-acid just the usual suspects like Lux,
500
Navigant, the banks, Anderman
400
and Musk saying so.
300 Futurologist and former
200 Microsoft whizz Ramez Naam wrote
100 a pretty powerful account of why
90% experience curve projection based on ANL model on his blog a few months back:
0
0 2,000,000 4,000,000 6,000,000 8,000,000 10,000,000
How cheap can energy storage get?
Production Volume (packs/yr) Pretty darn cheap.
1) EPRI
www.rameznaam.com
800
Deutsche Bank
Production Volume (packs/yr)

700 EIA (Base Scenario)

600 EIA (High Scenario)

500 McKinsey

Roland Berger
400
Anderman
300
Tesla Target
200 Navigant

100 Lux Research

2) NREL
Nissan Battery Replacement Cost
0
2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040

LITHIUM-ION EV BATTERY EXPERIENCE CURVE

COMPARED WITH SOLAR PV EXPERIENCE CURVE The usual arguments apply
100 to those that have affected flat-
Historical price (USD/W, USD/Wh)

1976
Crystalline Si PV module
10 1998
2004
1988 2008
2010
1 become at innovating and cost
2014
H1 2014
Li-ion EV battery pack
0.1
1 10 100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000 10,000,000
Cumulative production (MW, MWh) 3) Bloomberg
A lithium-ion battery from business in the US. Nissan looks
a Nissan Leaf still holds a great forward to working with Green
deal of value as energy storage, Charge Networks to get second-life
even after it is removed from the vehicle batteries into the hands
vehicle, so Nissan expects to be of customers who can realise
able to reuse a majority of Leaf benefits that include improved
battery packs in non-automotive sustainability and lower energy
applications, said Brad Smith, costs. These customers may well
director of Nissans 4R Energy have to wait a long time. The real
screen TVs, cars and cellphones.
Everything gets cheaper with scale
but theres another factor at work
what Naam calls a learning curve.
The more we make, the better we
reducing.
m=24.3% Naam quotes the US electric
m=21.6%
Power Research Institute, which
shows a 15% drop in price in
lithiumion costs when production
volume is doubled. Naam calls this
a 15% learning rate.
Others go further. Bloomberg
New Energy Finance (BNEF),
meanwhile, uses more recent
data, and finds a 21.6% learning
rate in electric vehicle batteries. In
fact, the learning rate they find is
strikingly similar to the learning
rate for solar panels.

bestmagazine // Winter 2016


And this concept gets a high
level of scientific credibility. A
paper published by Nykvist and
Nilson in Nature Climate Change
last spring showed that industry-
wide cost estimates declined
by approximately 14% annually
between 2007 and 2014, from
above US$1,000 per kWh to around
US$410 per kWh, and that the cost
of battery packs used by market-
leading BEV manufacturers are
even lower, at US$300 per kWh,
and has declined by 8% annually.
Learning rate, the cost reduction
following accumulative doubling
of production, is found to be
between 6 and 9%, in line with
earlier studies on vehicle battery
technology.
Nykvist and Nilson claimed the
costs of lithium-ion battery packs
would continue to decline and that
the costs among market leaders
are much lower than previously
reported. This has significant
implications for the assumptions
used when modelling future
energy and transport systems and
permits an optimistic outlook for
BEVs contributing to low-carbon
transport.
So how low can things go?
Naam believes lithium-ion costs
will fall to be literally cents per
kilowatt capacity reaches one
days worth of global generated
capacity.
And this must have implications
for potential second-use batteries
when future batteries will be as
cheap as chips. Who wants a used
battery when a new one will be
cheaper in the future?
Battery second-use has not
only got the interest of the auto
industry. Its got the fervent support
of the US Department of Energy and
one of its prestigious laboratories,
the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL), which published
an extensive and in-depth report on
the matter a little over a year ago.
How many 8,000,000
Maximum Deployment Scenario
batteries can be
repurposed? It all Minimum Deployment Scenario
depends on EV
Annual PEV Sales
6,000,000
sales. Navigant EVMF2014
4,000,000
2,000,000
0
2010
Maximum and Minimum PEV Sales Projections
Essentially NREL tried to answer
three big questions:
1. When will these second-life
batteries be available and how
healthy will they be?
2. How can such batteries be
repurposed and how much will
it cost?
3. How will these repurposed
batteries be used, how long
will they last and what will their
value be?
On the surface and in the
executive summary it looks rosy
but, as you dig deeper, you soon
learn that youre at the mercy of
market projections particularly EV
sales.
The most obvious point is that
batteries suitable for repurposing
are going to be a while in coming.
Even as far as plug-in hybrids are
concerned (and thats where NREL
concentrated its efforts), theres
little economic gain in replacing
batteries until the vehicle has
reached the end of its service life.
NREL says PEV batteries will retain
more than 70% of their original
performance over the first ten
years of operation, and replacing
batteries within the anticipated
15year lifetime of a vehicle will not
be economically justified.
So dont expect to recruit staff
to your repurposing plant till the
bestinsight 95
2020 2030 2040 2050
mid 2020s.
And dont expect all the vehicles
that are sold to yield batteries fit for
repurposing.
Perhaps 20% of all the vehicles
sold will be involved in accidents
which may well damage the battery
packs.
And what will be the availability
of used automotive batteries
for repurposing? That is very
dependent on market projections
for EV sales.
And the cost of the repurposed
batteries? Again a tricky answer full
of ifs and buts.
It is only possible to determine
a price if all the costs associated
with removing a vehicle battery
are known (collection, testing,
repackaging, warranty, etc).
And these are fraught with
complications: how the battery was
used in its automotive lifetime;
where it was operated (hot or cold
climates), and so forth.
NREL examined everything
from shipping used batteries to a
collection and repurposing centre
to the cost of testing including
technician labour. For a facility
to be viable, it would have to
repurpose at least 100,000kW
hour per year not that many
vehicle packs. But the fault rate
of the batteries would need to be
exceptionally low.
NRELs investigation found that
regional repurposing facilities
dedicated to a single model of PEV
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
96 bestinsight
is likely to minimise repurposing
costs while avoiding the increased
transportation costs of nationwide
battery collection and the
complexities of repurposing a wide
variation of batteries.
As technician labour is the
primary cost element of such an
operation, repurposing facilities
are expected to repurpose
battery modules not cells
to minimise total costs. Use
of vehicle diagnostics data to
confirm the state of health and
absence of faulty cells in modules
prior to their purchase would be
of great value to repurposers.
When such data is available,
repurposing costs can be as low as
$20/kilowatthour (kWh) thats costs (battery extraction, disposal,
cheap, but new batteries costing
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
cents per kilowatt hour are even
cheaper.
And where might these batteries
be used? Low hanging fruit-type
applications.
The most promising application
identified for second-use batteries
is to replace grid-connected
combustion turbine peaker plants
and provide peak-shaving services.
In comparison to automotive
service, use in this application will
entail relatively benign duty cycles,
under which it is anticipated that
second-use battery lifetimes will
be in the order of 10 years. While
the value to the original automotive
battery owner is restricted primarily
to the elimination of end-ofservice
are) the second-life argument will
recycling, etc.), the value to the
broader community could be
significant: decreased cost of
peaker plant operation, reduction
of greenhouse gas emissions
and fossil fuel consumption, and
deferral of battery recycling. But
thats almost socialism!
But is it a business? This writer
doesnt think so.
NRELs study also shows that the
economic margins that make
second-use viable are often small,
and so many other factors could
weaken these margins. Ultimately
used batteries will have to go
somewhere and thats disposal.
But if Naan and others are right
(and so much other technology
introduction has shown us that they
be proven to be stillborn.
 Expertly
tailored
battery
technology

PEAK
PERFORMANCE

Dont buy off the rack.

www.hmndgroup.com

Indias grand plans for
energy storage start to roll
Dipak Sen Chaudhuri reports from the Indian Energy Storage Alliance in Delhi and marvels
at his homelands plans for multi-gigawatt storage capacity by the end of the decade. But
will it really happen?
T
hey were all here!
Siemens, AES, Panasonic,
SAFT, Coslight and so
many others they had all
come from every corner of the
world, patiently waiting, for the
great Indian renewable energy
storage story to begin. Most
importantly, no one went home
disappointed. There was a slew of
announcements, made by Indias
apex policy makers, reeling out
the details of one of the most
ambitious green energy plans
that any government has ever
put in place. There was business
in the air, a lot of deals being
discussed. What more can one
say of a good conference?
The Indian Energy Storage
Alliance Conference in its
3rd edition was organized
in Delhi on 8th and 9th of
December. In the view of this
correspondent, this was one of
the best attended conferences
on the subject in India, with
very serious participation of the
top bureaucrats of the relevant
ministries of the government.
There was also a very large
contingent of international
manufacturers present, who
anyway have been camping
in Delhi, or Mumbai, for the
past two years or so, in a state
of readiness to do immediate
business, once the Indian energy
storage business really opens
up be it for telecoms or for
indiantakeaway 99
renewable. The visibility of Indian
manufacturers was relatively
muted, and mostly, though not
all, restricted to organisations
that were essentially fronting for
some of the international battery
manufacturers.
Just a week before the
conference got going, Indias
prime minister, Narendra Modi,
had launched an international
solar alliance of 127 countries
with the French president,
Francois Hollande, at the Paris
COP21 climate summit. The
India has committed, in
the Paris summit, that by 2030
at least 40% of all her energy
needs would come from
renewable sources.
Indian government is investing
an initial US$30m in setting up
the alliance headquarters in
India. The alliance is expected to
pool knowledge resources and
develop production technologies
appropriate for tropical countries
in particular. The aim is to bring
affordable solar power to tropical
villages and communities across
the world. While the majority of
the signatories of the alliance
are tropical countries, a number
of European countries, including
France, had come together to give
the group a sound technological
base.
India has committed itself, in
the Paris summit, to supplying at
least 40% of all her energy needs
from renewable sources by 2030.
This is very ambitious indeed!
Coming down to the figures,
which were confirmed during
the various announcements
made during the conference, the
country proposes to add 175GW
of renewable energy by 2022!
Of this, 100GW would be solar
and 40GW wind. The solar is
further segmented into 40GW of
rooftop, 20GW of solar parks and
the balance 40GW of land-based
distributed generation. Bear in
mind that current total installed
capacity, in the entire country,
totals to around 240GW and it is
largely thermal and hydro with
renewable being a few percent
only. With this background the
figures of an additional 175GW
from renewables look very
daunting.
The conference was formally
declared open by Dr. Shailendra
Tripathi, Secretary, Ministry
of New and Renewable Energy
(MNRE), who simply stated that
Indias ambition of achieving
175GW of renewable energy in
seven years would just not be
possible without the availability
of technically and economically
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
100 indiantakeaway
viable energy storage solutions.
He exhorted the dignitaries
attending the conference to help
India document a formal National
Energy Storage Policy.
MNRE, the Indian governments
apex department dealing with
making this dream come true,
has quickly announced a set
of demonstration projects in
the country that would test and
establish the offered technologies
which can, subsequently, be
rapidly deployed across the
whole country. Tarun Kapoor, Joint
Secretary, MNRE announced three
such pilot sites which would have
solar, wind and storage. The one
in the state of Himachal Pradesh
would be of 2.5MW whilst the
other two in Kargil and Ladakh
would be 20MW size. The off-
grid market too was highlighted
by Kapoor as he informed the
delegates that a programme of
providing energy to 110thousand
homes in the state of Rajasthan
has already been laid out.
The major pilot project
announced during the conference,
other than MNRE, is the one being
pursued by the Solar Energy
Centre of India (SECI). This is
comprised again of combined
solar and wind generation
together with 1MWh of storage.
In line with the optimistic
mood of the house, J S Chandok
of the National Thermal Power
Centre (NTPC), the nations
largest thermal energy producer,
announced their project of
providing green energy to the
island of Andamans. They were
looking at a storage capacity of
20MW for 6 hours! Surely, this
would be the largest storage
facility that is being planned
in the country, at least for the
moment. Although, it may be
added, that within the knowledge
of this correspondent there is a
utility company in the western
part of the country who is looking
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
at the possibility of storing 50MW
for 3hours. The expectations keep
going higher!
It was left to Dr. Sathish
Agnihotri, former Secretary,
Cabinet Secretariat, Government
of India, who was chairing one
of the several panel discussions
that took place over the two days
of the conference, to rein in the
excitement somewhat and talk
about the ground realities. These
included issues of developing
the right technology that would
work in a tropical environment.
It was his submission that the
solution providers would need to
study the application conditions
vis--vis the offered technologies
that may have worked elsewhere
but may not be equally effective
From him [Dr. Sathish
Agnihotri] came the most
useful advice for all achieve
the do-able rather than chase
the desirable.
in India. From him came the most
useful advice for all achieve
the do-able rather than chase
the desirable. Dr. Agnihotri also
highlighted the need for a policy
framework and regulations for
grid-connected systems, storage-
time and time-of-the-day tariff.
There were a number of
technical presentations made by
a series of organisations, mostly
overseas, presenting generally
case studies of their systems
deployed in various parts of the
globe. One of the first speakers
was Guy-Patrick De Broglie of SAFT
who spoke of their installations
in Puerto Rico. Earlier, Chris
Shelton, Vice Chairman, AES and
keynote speaker had emphasised
that energy storage is expensive
but inevitable, if one really has
to make renewables a success.
Bridgit Hartland-Johnson of
Siemens in her talk highlighted
the modular solutions that her
company offered for bulk energy
storage. Then there were Alevo,
CATL Batteries, NEC Energy
Solutions, ACME representing
Samsung, all of whom spoke of
their deployments globally and
a few in India, though these
happened to be at best in KWh
levels only.
The main sessions of the
conference were preceded by a
one-day workshop, on the 7th of
December, covering the topic of
latest trends in energy storage
technology. While this was a
well attended programme, the
quality of the presentations was
very general and could have been
much better if specialists dealing
with the different technologies
under consideration could be
brought in as faculty.
The main conference was
basically only on policy and
regulation aspects of energy
storage, and what was missing
altogether was any discussion
on the storage technologies
themselves. The unstated
assumption was simply that it is
already decided it is lithiumion
and only lithium-ion. No other
chemistry had much of a mention
nor were any of the other non-
electrochemical storage systems
spoken of.
Whether this had something to
do with almost all major sponsors
being of thelithiumion school is
anybodys guess. Nevertheless,
it took off a little bit of the sheen
of the conference in as much of
its stated objective of bringing
the most appropriate storage
technology to the country which
would help the country realise
her passion for renewable
integration. Those who were

busy coordinating the podium
events were unabashedly lithium
followers!
It was left to the speaker
from Exide Industries Limited,
the countrys lead-acid giant, to
throw in a challenge on behalf of
the age-old lead-acid technology
to all other chemistries by
introducing the concept of cost
per unit of stored electricity over
a period of 25 years the typical
lifetime of a solar photovoltaic
system. A back-of-the-envelope
costing indicated that the cost
for a lead-acid system was some
60 70% of a typical lithium-
iron-phosphate system! The
deliberations drew quite a few
hard stares and some pretended
having not heard it.
This only brought to the
front the reason why there was
a tendency of most speakers
to skirt around the aspects of
cost whenever they spoke of
lithium-ion technology as the
only-fit storage technology for
mass energy storage systems.
The high capital cost and a
not-soattractive life in Indian
conditions perhaps prompted
most of the speakers to remain
vague on this aspect. Some
had even tried to brazen it out
by sumptuously declaring that
lithium-ion is the iPhone or the
Samsung Galaxy whereas all other
technologies are nothing but
other cheaper phones!
For a country that does not
produce any lithium cells as of
now and has no available lithium
metal reserves either, it is unlikely
that lithium-ion technology would
be a financially viable package.
Moreover, the over-dependence of
this technology on electronics, for
safe and efficient performance,
itself raises questions on the
reliability of the total system for
sustained operation for years in
the hot and humid conditions
that prevail in the country for the
indiantakeaway 101
larger part of the year. Yes, the
Indian telecom industry has been
looking into lithium-ion for quite
some time but there has been,
to date, no major shift in that
direction. Rather, the information
available in the market says
that the telcos and the tower-
companies actually faced major
failures with lithiumion even
though those tried out included
some of the biggest brand names
in the world. In most cases the
failures have been attributed to
non-functioning of the BMS and
in a few others it has been due
overheating inside the packs.
For a country that does not
produce any lithium cells as of
now and has no available
lithium metal reserves either, it
is unlikely that lithium-ion
technology would be a
financially viable package.
Looking at it finally, the IESA
conference was a success.
The great Indian renewable
story has begun. The pilots are
being discussed and should
be deployed in the near future.
The market is huge and the
government is very keen to take
this business forward. However,
the key feature of any solution
would be the cost. Cost per unit
of stored electricity. So, instead
of getting carried away by the
sophistication of lithium-ion
one may have to seek solutions
elsewhere.
Other chemistries, sodium-
sulphur, flow batteries and even
lead-acid may turn up to be more
optimal energy storage solutions
for this country. The policy makers
in the government need to specify
their requirement of power and
energy to be delivered while
remaining storage technology
agnostic. This will be important
to attract the best in the world
and from these iterations the
government can evolve a national
energy storage technology
policy. If so, then this will be
a level playing ground for all
technologies and over the years
the optimal would emerge.
As a final word on the subject
it would be apt to say that the
promised market is about to
take birth. The government is
putting in all the support and
encouragement to technology
providers to make this Indian
dream come true. Most important
they are prepared to listen to
suggestions which will help
accelerate the development and
deployment process, and take
necessary decisions fast. It is now
up to the global industry at large
to respond. Act fast and act fair.
In the haste to look at the
immediate top and bottom lines,
corporate houses of both India
and abroad need not over-sell
their respective packages. India
is a very demanding country to
do business with. It is highly
sensitive to cost and at the same
time the application conditions
of the country are often quite
harsh and put even the best
of technologies under severe
pressure.
Under such trying conditions, it
is essential to be careful and
understand the conditions
carefully and patiently.
Adventurism will not only result in
swift rejection but, more
important, can jeopardise the
future of the respective
technology, at least so far as this
country is concerned. There are
lessons to be taken with the
telecom industrys experiments
with different storage
technologies.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016

Chinas battery industry:
Whats really going on?
Debbie Mason talks to insiders about what is happening in the worlds biggest battery
manufacturing sector.
T
he situation in any Chinese
industry is murky even at
its most transparent, but
one thing the battery industry can
be clear about is the future is not
going to be dull.
With some saying the leadacid
battery industry is slowing
down to make way for the rise of
other chemistries, in particular
lithiumion, other industry
analysts say that in fact the bigger
players in the lead-acid sector are
drawing up expansion plans.
With the Chinese stock market
suspended not once but twice
in the first week of January
alone, many would suppose the
economic climate in China would
have some impact on the industry.
But at the moment, it still seems to
be going strong.
Waiting for the West?
Lorenzo Mancini is the general
manager of Italian battery firm
Fiamms Asia-Pacific arm, based in
Singapore.
He believes some of the larger
Chinese lead-acid firms would be
quite happy to see western firms
step in and simply buy them out.
The Chinese government
might want to switch its focus to
lithiumion or other chemistries
more than lead-acid, whatever
is strategic for the Chinese
Government because its one of the
segments where they can become
market leader, he says.
bestinsight 103
China will develop the market
because there is sufficient demand
at home, and they can become
world-class champions. Whatever
they do there will always be some US
or European manufacturer stronger
in lead-acid EnerSys, for example,
is all over the world. It would be
impossible to overtake them.
I think the major Chinese
battery manufacturers would
be happy to be bought out by
European or American investors,
who are waiting on the side-lines
for the market to deflate, and thats
when they can make their move.
Most of the stock owned by
State-owned companies is held by
local governments and local banks,
Lorenzo Mancini
? strong environmental industry,
where management has to see a
healthy return on investment in the
relatively short term.
If they dont see this they have
to sell out or allow foreigners to
come in and I think they will do
it, says Mancini. They are not
concerned about foreigners coming
in and getting a technological
advantage; its strategic.
What Im not so clear on is the
4% consumption tax on lead-acid
batteries only. The manufacturers
will have to pass this on to their
customers somehow, but its
a mixed signal because the
government isnt clear what it
wants to do with this tax.
Mancini believes insiders in the
Chinese lead-acid battery industry
have realised that having caught up
with western competitors, they do
not now want China to be seen as
the worlds lead-acid battery factory.
Beijing has successfully
developed the Chinese lead-acid
industry to achieve self-sufficiency.
But having reached that goal,
it does not want the industry to
develop further, says Mancini.
State-controlled capitalism
means the government chooses
which strategic industries to
develop, and lead-acid batteries is
not one of them.
Lead-acid battery
manufacturing is a labour-
intensive, small profit margin,
and its further development
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
104 bestinsight
does not fall within the Chinese
governments five-year plans.
Environmental concerns are a
major factor of any shift away from
lead-acid, says Mancini and one
way to do this, but at the same
time keep the business, is to take
the industry to countries where
regulations are not so strict yet.
Joint ventures have been set up
in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Sri Lanka and there are new JVs
in Bangladesh and Pakistan, says
Mancini.
Its happening relatively
fast and mostly because of
environmental issues: they are
much less concerned about the
issues than China so its easier to
get away with it.
These countries also have a
pretty big domestic market. Its a
long distance from China to these
markets, and China is pragmatic: its
doing the same thing the States and
European companies were doing
30 or 40 years ago, when they sent
their manufacturing to China.
Another factor is the narrowing
cost gap between manufacturing in
China and in the West, says Mancini.
Our production facility in Italy
has turned around now because
the cost of batteries made in China
is now comparable to the costs in
Europe, he says.
This is partly because of the
new consumption tax, and partly
because of the exchange rate
and the yuan being pegged to
the dollar, which led to a 25%
difference last year.
China Industrial Association of
Power Sources (CIAPS) secretary
general Liu Yanlong said it was
inevitable that the government was
considering other chemistries.
Of course the governments
policy of support is more inclined to
lithium-ion batteries and other new
batteries, but the lead-acid battery
market is still strong and there will
still be a stable increase in the
future, he said.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
The lead-acid battery
market is still big, and in the
future it will continue a stable
increase. Liu Yanlong
I think the Chinese government
wants the management of the lead-
acid battery industry to be more
stringent because of the problems
with lead pollution incidents.
But I havent heard that any
companies are looking to be
bought out by the West.
Hell-bent on expansion
Industry analyst and consultant
Mike McDonagh calls the situation
in Chinas lead-acid industry a
dichotomy.
It could be that the economy is
waning because of the stock market
crash, and it may be that when the
tax legislation was announced,
some of the companies had a knee-
jerk reaction and said they wanted
to be bought out, he said.
But the battery industry seems
to be bucking the trend of the larger
economy. Most of the companies
I have seen seem hell-bent on
expanding and they are making
reasonable profits, which we cant
seem to manage in Europe.
What it might be is that they
realise the domestic market is
saturated and they are intending to
expand overseas.
McDonagh says battery maker
Sacred Sun is planning to expand
capacity by a third, although details
were not available at the time of
going to press.
He says Chinas largest battery
firm, Chaowei Power Holdings, is
building a tubular lead-acid battery
factory to bring its number of
factories in China up to 18.
Its a bit of a dichotomy, says
McDonagh. The economy is not
in good shape, so the government
needs to recoup some of the
tax revenue its lost by failing
companies.
With the 2011 lead-acid battery
cull, the smaller firms were forced
to shut up shop and many were
assimilated by the larger ones.
This means that although the
number of companies was slashed
from around 2,000 to just over 300,
the overall production capacity
did not change and China remains
the only net exporter of lead-acid
batteries in the world.
When it comes to lithium-ion
versus lead-acid, if lithium-ion is
the only contender it can replace
it in some circumstances but it
hasnt got a hope in hell in car
starter batteries, and so on, says
McDonagh.
Apart from the fact that there is
no recycling stream, it would take
a decade before it could fulfil even
a quarter of the requirements of
lead-acid.
Leoch chairman Dong Li said the
lead-acid battery sector still had a
strong life in China.
I do not believe that Chinese
manufacturers want to be bought by
western companies, he said. I see
some activity in reverse, that a lot
of western companies want Chinese
companies to buy THEM. The buying
and selling is going both ways.
The domestic Chinese market is
still there, whether the government
wants it or not. The country still
needs plenty of batteries.

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Thickness Density 1655% Strength 0.52d (<2.0mm)
5%
Tolerance (%) (g/m2mm) (20kpa) (KN/m) >1.1 (d>2.0)
Maximum diameter Pressure acid 5.2
18 Wet Elastic (%) 95
of hole(m) uptake (g/g) (50kpa)
Absorption 80 Electrolyte
Porosity (%) 93.5 750 (mm/24h)
rate (mm/5min) Retention
Puncture Water content Acid leaching
4.0 1.0 3.0
resistance (N/mm) (%) loss (%)
Chlorinity
Iron content (ppm) 25 30 Cauterant (%) 10
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Surface Area
Acid proof time (h) 100 1.80
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Start-Stop Battery Separator

Thickness Density 1505% Strength 0.42d (<2.0mm)
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Maximum diameter Pressure acid 5.8
22 Wet Elastic (%) 95
of hole (m) uptake (g/g) (50KPa)
Absorption 80 Electrolyte
Porosity (%) 94 750 (mm/24h)
rate (mm/5min) Retention
Resistance Water content Acid leaching
0.0005 1.0 3.0
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Iron content (ppm) 25 30 Cauterant (%) 15
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Surface Area
Acid proof time (h) 100 1.60
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Pasting Paper
Thickness 0.20.02 Grammage Strength
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Tolerance (%) (10KPa) (g/m2) (KN/m)
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bestmagazine // Winter 2016
12th China International Battery Fair
(China International Conference on the Technology Frontier of Advanced Batteries)
Accompanied by the 1st China International Energy Storage Exhibition
& the 1st China International Power Bank Exhibition
May 24-26, Shenzhen Convention Center, Third Fuhua Avenue, Futian Center, Shenzhen, China
Organiser: China Industrial Association of Power Sources

Call for Papers

We warmly welcome experts, scholars, active researchers and graduates in the 'technology frontier of advanced
batteries' to prepare paper abstracts based on their most recent research achievements and submit a one page topic
and abstract as soon as possible for pre-screening and categorising. The official language is English (Chinese accepted
for attendees with difficulties in English). Register and submit papers via the website: http://www.cibf.org.cn.
The deadline for title and abstract submission is March 1, 2016. CIBF2016 will mainly focus on the latest progress in
R&D and applications for advanced batteries for electric vehicle and energy storage, in particular the latest progress
in advanced materials for next generation xEV battery and energy storage.

The conference will contain the following 6 sessions:

1. Comprehensive session: Government supported policies and R&D plans, market/application evaluation of xEV &
BESS batteries.
2. xEV advanced battery session: Latest progress in R&D and practical running of various advanced batteries for
stop/start systems, HEV, PHEV and EV, etc.
3. BESS advanced battery session: Latest progress in R&D and practical running of various advanced batteries for
micro & smart grids, etc.
4. New generation battery material session: Latest progress in R&D and practical application of various anode,
cathode, electrolyte and separator materials, etc.
5. New battery chemistries session: Latest progress in R&D and application evaluation of new generation
lithium-ion, sodium-ion, pure lithium & other light metal chemistries, including all-solid systems, etc.
6. Battery module & pack and life & reliability evaluation session: Safety issues for lithium-ion batteries in EV and
energy storage applications, R&D in cell, module and system design; evaluation via simulation and road tests;
new standards and regulations for cells & modules and systems evaluations, etc.

Accepted papers will be categorised into poster and oral presentations and accepted authors will receive a notice
from CIAPS of acceptance and category. There will be a poster competition if the total number of posters reaches 150.
The method for evaluating and rewarding the best poster will be announced after March 15, 2016.

Any questions about the battery fair and the paper submission please contact: Cheng Liwen at the CIBF 2016 office
Phone: 022-23959269, 23959049 Fax: 4008875666 ext 460002 QQ: 787578195 E-mail: chengliwen@ciaps.org.cn

www.cibf.org.cn
Chairman: Wang, Jiqiang E-mail: wangjiqiang@ciaps.org.cn Phone: 022-23959636
108 forthcomingevents
Pack your bags, book your flights and kiss the family goodbye once again, as we bring
you the BEST events for buying, discussing or simply schmoozing in the battery world.
29 February- 3 March
NAAtBatt
California, US
A great chance for European
delegates to get some winter
sun and recharge their
proverbial batteries at this
lithium-ion focused event.The
conference draws together
decision makers to discuss the
latest commercial applications
of advanced electrochemical
energy storage technology
and to learn about whats
new in the market. However,
registration is limited to 300
attendees with preference
given to NAATBatt members
and C-level executives.
Info:
www.naatbatt.org
2-4 March
Battery Japan
Tokyo, Japan
Last year BEST questioned
if this event was running out
of charge. Hopefully the big
names and machine makers
will return this year to showcase
components, materials,
devices, rechargeable battery
R&D and manufacturing. Then,
perhaps, the 7th International
Rechargeable Battery Expo will
have something more to offer
delegates in 2016 and live up
to the organisers promise of
being a leading exhibition in
the sector.
Info:
www.batteryjapan.jp
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
15 -16 March, 2016
19th Power &
Electricity World
Africa
Johannesburg, South
Africa
Conferences need delegates,
and this African event is not
shy of casting the net wide to
attract the biggest number of
delegates. By bringing four
events together under one roof,
you get to choose the sessions
most applicable for helping your
business develop. In Africa,
utilities must deliver more
reliable services, invest in new
technologies, and streamline
operational process.
Info: www.terrapinn.com/
exhibition/power-electricity-
world-africa
15-17 March
International
Renewable Energy
Storage Conference
(IRES 2016)
Messe Dusseldorf,
Germany
As the ESS market comes of
age, this event celebrates a
decade of banging the drum
for renewable energy storage.
Join experts from the fields
of science, politics, law and
society to discuss the potential
of storage from technical,
political, legal and social
perspectives.
Info:
www.eurosolar.de/en/index.
php/ires-conference-series/
ires2016
15-17 March
Energy Storage
Europe
Dusseldorf, Germany
Pack your bags and be part of
the energy storage revolution
and join experts from all walks
of the energy storage industry
from production to utilities
to gather on the east bank of
the Rhine. The annual expo
and conference will see top
players in the industry reveal
methods to help your company
gain from developments in the
industry from keynote speeches
from global leaders of energy,
economics and research.
Info:
www.energy-storage-online.
com
21-24 March
33rd International
Battery Seminar &
Exhibit
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Not many events can boast
having John Goodenough as a
plenary speaker. But then this
four-day conference focusing
on energy storage technology
developments for consumer,
automotive, military and
industrial applications is not
your average event.
Info:www.
internationalbatteryseminar.
com
13 -14 April, 2016
Critical Power 2016
Illinois, US
This conference serves
the needs of white-collar
professionals who worry about
ensuring their company has
reliable and continuous power.
Explore the strategies and
solutions coming onstream
and how to choose best
practices in testing and
maintenance, how to assess
new and emerging technologies
and monitor for reliability. It will
be co-located with Internet of
Things North America.
Info:
www.criticalpowershow.com
1-3 May
BCI 128th
Convention
San Antonio, Texas +
Power Mart Expo
A mainstay in the conference
calendar, this event will see
the businesses good ole
boys discussing topics at the
foreground of the lead-acid
industry. Last year there was a
call to arms to make lead-acid
sexy. It will be interesting to
see if BCI and its members have
made that happen in a city
used to hosting major battles.
Info:
batterycouncil.
org/?128Convention

10-12 May
Battcon:
International
Stationary Battery
Conference
Boca Raton, Florida, US
Like all good conferences, this
event kicks off with a game of
golf. Then, after the serious
business of working on your
handicap, the conference
turns its attention to special
activities such as a Stationary
Battery Basics Seminar and
a talk entitled Beyond the
Fundamentals: Advanced
Topics in Lead-acid Batteries.
Info:
www.battcon.com
24-26 May
China International
Battery Fair
China
Who knows where the China
battery industry will be next
year as legislation and the
countrys economic dip
continues. What we do know is
this conference will involve six
sessions covering everything
to do with new battery
technologies in the world of
xEV and ESSs and the newest
R&D developments to battery
module pack evaluation via
advanced generation batteries.
Refreshingly that means all
chemistries will be represented.
Info:
www.cibf.org.cn/indexen.asp
19 - 24 June, 2016
18th International
Meeting on Lithium
Batteries
Chicago, US
What better place than
downtown Chicago to discuss
recent progress in advanced
lithium batteries for energy
storage and conversion. Billed,
by itself we hasten to add,
as the premier international
conference on the state of
lithium battery advancements
and applications, this event
will address recent advances
in beyond lithium-ion
technologies.
Info:
www.imlb.org
With three events coming up in Germany, youll have time to be distracted by a bier or two.
feb16-jun16 109
22 - 24 June, 2016 26 -30 June, 2016
eesEurope ASME Power &
Munich, Gemany Energy Conference
The event has grown in stature & Exhibition
to be perhaps the most Charlotte, North
significant battery event in
Europe, and in terms of its Carolina, US
If you like your conferences
impact on ordinary people,
with a sprinkle of not-for-profit
perhaps the world. Book your
ethics, then this five-day event,
tickets and be one of around
which welcomes everyone from
40,000 plus visitors expecting
manufacturers to academics,
to discuss stationary and
is the one for you. With four
mobile electrical energy storage
conferences under one roof,
solutions. This annual event
this mix of conference and
is held in conjunction with
exhibition brings together all of
Intersolar Europe, the worlds
ASMEs conferences on power
largest exhibition for the solar
generation, energy sources and
industry. And dont forget, if you
exhibit here, you can enter your energy sustainability.
outstanding products for the Info: www.asme.org/events/
ees Award. power-energy
Info: www.ees-europe.com/en/
home.html
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
 Fuel Cells Science and Technology 2016
1314 April 2016 | Glasgow, UK

Submit abstracts now to join the programme

Submit abstracts by
Join international researchers and technologists from academia
29 January 2016
and the fuel cell industry to discuss the state-of-the-art,
highlight new developments and propose research priorities
relating to the development of fuel cell systems.

Abstracts invited for oral and poster presentation on the

following topics:
Fuel cell electrochemistry The Grove Fuel Cell series of events
provides an authoritative and
Materials for fuel cells comprehensive review of scientific
Cell and stack technology and technical advances relating to the
development of fuel cell systems.
Fuels and fuel infrastructure
Fuel cell systems and applications Organised by:

Fuel processing
Modelling and control
Fuel cell components

fuelcelladvances.com A Grove Fuel Cell Event

A reprint from BEST can say so much more about you

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Contact Lynn James: advertising@bestmag.co.uk

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

 The International Includes a vi
flow battery
sit to the new
installation
Flow Battery Forum TM at

7th to 9th June

IFBF 2016
Karlsruhe, Germany
The seventh International Conference for all aspects of
flow battery research, development, technology, manufacturing,
commercialisation and deployment of flow batteries.
The conference will include an industry day and our introductory session.
Opportunity to discuss Valuable speakers from all over
commercial issues and explore the world brought together.
and create business links.
Photo by Meph666

The breadth of coverage Interaction, discussion and

is excellent and has the developing collaboration with
best take-home value. industry and academia.

For further information, exhibition and sponsorship opportunities visit:

www.flowbatteryforum.com or email: info@flowbatteryforum.com

2016: the year for storage?

O
ne of my aims in organising the
annual International Flow Battery
Forum is to give delegates the
opportunity to see a flow battery to
show that flow batteries can be a real
part of our future energy networks. The
industry needs to show a bold public
image, and in Glasgow in 2015, we
were able to visit the Power Networks
Demonstration Centre at Cumbernauld
to see the recently delivered flow battery
supplied by Lotte of South Korea. The
Power Networks Demonstration Centre is
a fascinating place where the engineers
can simulate almost every condition on
a power system that a large battery or
other equipment is likely to experience,
from over and under frequency, a
range of harmonics and over and under
voltage. If you want to see if your battery
works, let the PNDC try it out. I hope
our visit last year will have helped IFBF
delegates understand more about the
interactions between energy storage and
the power system.
IFBF 2016 is going to be an equally
exciting event with a meeting in
Karlsruhe, on the edge of the Black
Forest. Our host is Fraunhofer ICT,
who are mid-way through an exciting
project to build their own vanadium
flow battery system, which is alongside
a wind turbine on their site just a few
minutes drive from the edge of town
and delegates to the conference will be
invited to see the construction of their
new flow battery.
The real purpose of a conference is
to confer with similar minded people,
and the benefit of the IFBF is to build
up the flow battery community. There
is much to learn from the researchers
and developers who are developing new
materials, improving manufacturing
techniques and developing better
financial and commercial models for flow
battery deployment, but we can also
learn from the members of the finance
and project development community who
are coming along to discuss how to move
the industry forward. Recent high profile
sales of flow battery systems have been
welcome
publicity,
but although
battery
development
is high
profile in
the power
industry, Anthony Price
some users of storage consider that
if the battery is not lithium it is not a
proper battery. But that is not the case,
and there are strong reasons why we
need reliable, safe electricity storage
where the ability to add an extra hours
storage at low cost brings great benefits.
If you know what a flow battery is, then
you really should be at this flow battery
meeting in Karlsruhe this June. If you
dont know why a flow battery could help
you, then you really should come along
to find out more. The enthusiasm for
developing flow batteries continues to
amaze me and I look forward to meeting
you this summer and making 2016 the
year for electricity storage.

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

112 besteespreview
The greatest battery show thats earthed?
Europes largest and most-attended exhibition for batteries and energy storage systems is
set to be even bigger and better this year when it kicks off this June.
A
nd what better backdrop for
ees Europe 2016 and the
concurrent Intersolar Europe
than Germanys city of Munich?
After all, Germany heads up
the PV storage system markets in
Europe; not least because of the
governments decision to extend
subsidies for PV storage by three
years last December.
Around 40,000 plus visitors
including leading manufacturers,
researchers, dealers and suppliers
across the energy storage sector
are expected to attend this June.
Filling the 12,000 square metres
of exhibition space this year,
around 380 of the more than 1,000
exhibitors will present products,
solutions and services relating to
all stages of the value chain.
Organisers Solar Promotions
and Management Marketing FWTM
Freiburg have increased the size of
the event by 25% due to growing
interest in the industry.
An interest which reflects the
energy storage industrys vast
market potential as well as its
relevance for the energy transition
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
and future energy supply.
Also worth mentioning is
the valuable fringe programme
on offer at ees Europe. The ees
exhibitions are accompanied by
forums, workshops and special
exhibits, which provide an insight
into renewable energy storage
solutions, from residential and
commercial applications to
large-scale storage systems for
stabilising the grid.
Smart Renewable Energy
This year both the Intersolar Europe
as well as ees Europe trade fairs
will focus on the topic of Smart
Renewable Energy: Solar and
smart thats the future of modern
energy supply.
This includes decentralised
photovoltaics installations and
battery storage systems for
domestic power supplies combined
in intelligent networks providing
balanced power to the public grid.
The devices and communication
technology needed for the
integration of these elements
small and large electrical storage
systems, intelligent transformers
and virtual power plants will be
presented at Intersolar and ees
Europe 2016.
Electric vehicles are also part
of the power grid of the future,
both as consumers and as energy
storage devices. Predictive energy
management systems will control
air conditioning and heating,
charge management for electric
vehicles and the smart grid function
for feeding power into the grid.
Intelligent power grids, or smart
grids, will control and monitor
power generation, store, distribute
and consume electricity.
But why visit ees Europe?
The continents biggest event of
its kind is the perfect place to
exchange information and engage
in the type of conversation that will
pay dividends when you get back to
the office.
Exhibitors this year will focus
on rechargeable batteries,
energy storage systems, charging
technologies and battery production
equipment and materials.

A typical exhibitor at ees
represents manufacturer suppliers,
distributors, service providers,
project developers/EPCs, system
integrators, research institutes and
battery production equipment and
materials firms.
The event is also the perfect
place to gain comprehensive
information on batteries and
energy storage systems (as well as
reading BEST magazine ED). To
help delegates achieve this goal
a number of forums and special
exhibitions at the trade show
will dovetail with the specialist
conference, thus providing a
unique platform to get insight into
the development of tomorrows
markets.
Finally the unique combination
of Intersolar Europe, the worlds
leading exhibition for the solar
industry, and ees Europe, the
largest European exhibition for
batteries and energy storage
systems, is ideal for observing
future issues as they emerge under
one roof.
From generation to storage and
the renewable energy systems
integration, the event links the
classic energy industry with
renewable energy, divining new
ways forward in the transition to
clean energy in the electricity
sector, renewable heating and
transportation.
And if you are an exhibitor, you
can rest assured of the best value
for your companys money and
time. According to feedback, a
besteespreview 113
sensational 97% of ees exhibitors
rated ees Europe as excellent to
good last year.
In addition, ees exhibitors stated
they were incredibly satisfied
with their achievement of crucial
targets they had set for trade show
participation with high scores for
post-trade show business, customer
acquisition and access to new
markets. This makes ees Europe a
must-attend event: dont miss it.
Industry whos who meets at
ees Europe
Manufacturers, suppliers,
distributors and research institutes
will once again showcase the entire
value-added chain of battery and
energy storage technologies.
Eight of the ten leading
suppliers of PV storage systems
in Germany have already booked
their exhibition space, including
Deutsche Energieversorgung,
E3/DC, Hoppecke, Sonnenbatterie
and Varta. Key industry players
IBC and SMA will be exhibiting
at Intersolar Europe, which takes
place in parallel with ees Europe.
Leading battery producers such
as Fiamm, LG Chem, Panasonic,
SAFT and Trojan will be there,
along with companies specializing
in intelligent systems integration,
such as ABB, ads-tec, Bosch,
Imeon Energy, Nidec, RRC Power
Solutions and Solarwatt.
A rising number of exhibitors,
among them Deutsche Accumotive,
Tesla and Mitsubishi Motors, have
a product portfolio that covers both
the storage of renewable energies
and e-mobility.
Special areas, such as the shared
booth for start-up companies
supported by the Federal Ministry
for Economic Affairs and Energy
(BMWi), offer an effective platform
for presenting products and services
to exhibitors of both ees Europe and
Intersolar Europe.
China and Taiwan are co-
presenting at their own country
pavilions and the special exhibit
on E-Mobility & Renewable Energy
provides exposure to suppliers of
electric vehicle and charge systems.
Conference to spark the
imagination and business
The two-day conference starts on
Tuesday, June 21 and this year it
will be chaired by Dr. Matthias
Vetter,Head of Department PV
OffGrid Solutions and Battery
System Technology Division
Electrical Energy Systems EES,
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar
Energy Systems ISE, Germany.
The conference begins with
a discussion titled Policies,
Markets and Emerging
Opportunities. It closes the next
day with a talk titled Technology
Focus 2016: Advancements in
Battery Management Solutions
via discussions on evolutionary
improvements and revolutionary
concepts of battery technologies
and insights and experiences with
large-scale applications.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
114 besteespreview
The AWARD: How to enter How to win
I
n order to shine a spotlight on the
innovative power of companies in
the solar industry and to publicly
recognise their achievements, the
Intersolar AWARD 2016 will honour
pioneering solutions in the solar
industry for the ninth year in a row. In
2014 the ees AWARD was introduced.
The ees AWARD celebrates
outstanding products and solutions for
energy storage technology in the areas
of materials, production, systems
technology, applications, second-use
concepts and recycling.
Last year US-based Aquion Energy,
Germanys Kostal and Solarwatt
impressed the judges.
How to win
Prize winners are selected using a
multi-stage selection process. First, a
body of recognised experts selects the
best entries in each of the categories.
This year the juries will particularly
be looking for new technologies and
products in the solar and energy
storage industry, which not only pave
the way for the energy transition in
Germany but worldwide.
Since the first Intersolar AWARD
was presented in Photovoltaics and
Solar Thermal Technologies in 2008, it
has continued to build a reputation for
recognising pioneering ideas and new
approaches.
Beginning in 2016, the Intersolar
AWARD will recognize outstanding
solar projects that set a particularly
inspiring example in driving the
global energy transition forward. More
information about the categories:
www.intersolargobal.com/award ->
prize categories
Entry Criteria
Any company that exhibits at one of
the global Intersolar or ees (electrical
energy storage) events in 2016 is
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
eligible to participate. or solutions: which are or were on
Requirements for a successful display at any Intersolar event in
entry into the photovolatics and ees 2016 or Intersolar India 2015 and/or
Award categories include products represent a significant development;
have undergone industrial trials
and/or are already in industrial use;
Evaluation Criteria have particular innovative merit in
The following evaluation criteria will play technological and economical terms;
a decisive role in the assessment process: create scope for cost reductions in
production and/or sales with the
For Photovoltaics: potential to make an important
Degree of Technological Innovation contribution towards satisfying
Technical and Environmental Benefits industrial or societal needs.
Safety Entrants in the outstanding solar
Economic Benefits project category must demonstrate:
Proof of Innovation being exemplary for global future
Presentation applications; the product is unique in
its expression and realisation; and has
For Outstanding Solar Projects: only been implemented and in use for
Degree of Technological Innovation two years.
Pioneering Character
Uniqueness Registering
Economic Benefits Anyone wishing to apply for the
Benefits for the Environment and Intersolar and ees AWARD 2016 must
Society first complete a registration form.
Proof of Innovation Companies that exhibit at one of the
Presentation global Intersolar or electrical energy
storage (ees) events can now register
For the ees AWARD: in advance at www.intersolarglobal.
Degree of Technological Innovation com/en/award/participation/
Technical and Environmental Benefits registration-form.
System Integration Documentation may be submitted
Safety online from February 1 to March 24,
Economic Benefits 2016. The finalists will be announced at
Proof of Innovation the end of April with winners announced
Presentation during the event on June 22.
 EUROPES LARGEST
JUNE 2224, 2016
EXHIBITION FOR
BATTERIES AND ENERGY
MUNICH
STORAGE SYSTEMS GERMANY

CHARGING THE FUTURE

ENERGY STORAGE
JULY 1214, 2016
MEETS NORTH AMERICA'S
MOST-ATTENDED SAN FRANCISCO
SOLAR EVENT! USA
INDIAS LARGEST SOLAR
OCT 1921, 2016
EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
ENERGY STORAGE MUMBAI
INNOVATIONS INDIA

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION SERIES

FOR BATTERIES AND
ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS

www.ees-events.com
 For more information, visit www.batterycouncil.org/BCIConvention +
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118 advertisersindex
Company E-mail Website Page
Accumalux SA sales@accumalux.com accumalux.com 75

Accurate Products ApS mhc@accurate.dk accurate.dk 27

Aqua Metals aquametals.com 56

Arbin Instruments sales@arbin.com arbin.com 93

Atomized Products Group Inc atomizedproductsgroup.com 43

Batek Makina Ltd info@batekeng.com batekeng.com 21

Batterie Fullungs Systeme GmbH (BFS) info@bfsgmbh.de batteryfillingsystems.com 69

Battery Council International batterycouncil.org 116

Battery Technology Source Co Ltd (BTS) sales@btscl.com btscl.com 66

Bernard Dumas SA bdumas@bernard-dumas.fr bernard-dumas.fr 19

Bitrode Corporation info@bitrode.com bitrode.com 25

Buhler AG grinding.dispersion@buhlergroup.com buhlergroup.com 26

CAM Srl cam@cam-srl.com cam-srl.com 102

Cellusuede Products, Inc. sales@cellusuede.com cellusuede.com 55

China Industrial Association of Power Sources ciaps.org.cn 107

Coplosa S.A. engineering@penox.de penoxgroup.com 83

Coulometrics ebuiel@coulometrics.com coulometrics.com 29

Daramic LLC daramic.com IFC/3

Dexmet dexmet.com 49

Digatron Power Electronics digatron.de 45

Eagle Oxide Services eaglesales@eagleoxide.com eagleoxide.com 65

Ferrazza S R L info@ferrazzanet.com ferrazzanet.com 29

Froetek info@froetek.de froetek.de 15

Grove Fuel Cells fuelcelladvances.com 110

Hammond Group, Inc. info@hmndgroup.com hmndgroup.com 60/98

IMERYS Graphite and Carbon imerys-graphite-and-carbon.com 41

Inbatec GmbH info@inbatec.de inbatec.de 52/53

International Lead Association - Europe 15elbc@ila-lead.org ila-lead.org 117

JBI Corporation joe@jbicorp.com bicorp.com 22

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

 Wheres your listing? Contact Gerry Woolf on advertising@bestmag.co.uk 119
Company E-mail Website Page
Jiangsu Jinfan Power public@jsjf.com.cn jsjf.com.cn 94

Jinkeli jkl@jinkeli.com jinkeli.com 80

Kllstrm Engineering A.B. office@kallstrom.com kallstrom.com 24

Kustan GmbH geku@kustan.de kustan.de IBC

La Pneumatica SRL info@lapneumatica.com lapneumatica.com 28

MAC Engineering and Equipment Co., Inc. maceng@mac-eng.com mac-eng.com BC

Maccor Inc sales@maccor.com maccor.com 70

Microporous, LLC microporous.net 72

O.M. Impianti S R L info@omi-nbe.com omi-nbe.com 84/85

Oak Press Solutions Inc sales@oakpresses.com oak-battery.com 46

Officina Meccanica Romanese s.r.l. omr@omroff.it omroff.it 38

Penox GmbH engineering@penox.de penoxgroup.com 79

Pinco SA info@pinco-sa.com pinco-sa.com 97

Polyworld Sendirian Berhad info@polyworld.com.my polyworld.com.my 96

Powerstar powerstar.com 17

Quanzhou Yucry Traffic Appliances Co ltd yucry@yucry.com yucry.com 106

Rosendahl Nextrom GmbH r.jonach@rosendahlnextrom.com rosendahlnextrom.com 37

Ross & Son mixers.com 11

Shenzhen Chaosisi Tech qq.com 76

Solar Promotion GMBH ees-europe.com 115

Sorfin Yoshimura Ltd sorfin@sorfin.com sorfin.com 90

Sovema SpA stella.fermo@sovema.it sovema.it 30/31

STS Instruments info@stsinstruments.com stsinstruments.com 20

Swanbarton Ltd info@flowbatteryforum.com flowbatteryforum.com 111

UKB (Unikor Battery) Co., Ltd ukb@ukbkorea.com ukbkorea.com 23

UL LLC ulhelps@ul.com ul.com/batteries 32

Water Gremlin Company steve.mende@watergrem.com watergrem.com 4

Wirtz Manufacturing Co. Inc. sales@wirtzusa.com wirtzusa.com 8/9

Yingkou Shida Separator Co Ltd sales@ykzhongjie.com ykzhongjie.com 105

bestmagazine // Winter 2016

120 bestgroundpath
Where lethal voltages and rhetoric pass harmlessly to earth

Not having to do mega events,

student debt forgiveness and what
disappearing butterflies tell us.

O
ne of the pleasures of being As BYDs press release stated: choking smog, generated largely
an old journalist, long in It is absolutely imperative that from emissions from coal-fired
the tooth, is that you dont our leaders reach an agreement electricity generation. Theres
have to attend the mega events at COP21 said BYDs founder and little doubt that theres a will to do
anymore. When I mean mega, I chairman, Wang Chuanfu. Our the right thing. But China added
mean events with thousands of message as the private sector 22million conventional cars to its
delegates and exhibitors. Like the is that we have been working car fleet this year alone.
Farnborough air show or one of hard for decades now and finally
those AIDS jamborees back in in have technologies that can now Another one of the pleasures of
the 80s, or a massive trade fair substitute fully for their fossil fuel being an old hack like your Scribe is
your Scribe attended in another life competition. A great example is our being able to trouble you the reader
called Pittcon (which is still going city buses. Our 12m city bus can go with the Scribes more worrying
strong), battery events dont even as long on one charge as a diesel thoughts. No Im not planning
come close except maybe Battery bus does on a tank of fuel, creates a mass murder or Jihad but Ive
Japan or CIBF. Crowds, crowds and no emissions and saves operators begun thinking about student debt.
more crowds. thousands of dollars each week! And only because I had to deal
The hassle includes getting said Wang. Yes, well with a payroll query with one of my
press registration to begin with And then I thought of the staff a paltry sum which will be
and sometimes security clearance. images coming out of Beijing just with that employee for years. When
Then getting your delegate pass, days before a city enveloped in I write this column I feel as if Im
learning the layout of the event and talking mainly to Americans, who
where the key press conferences have lived with student debt a lot
will be held, schmoozing the PRs longer than we Brits.
and filing your story back to base.
And then the fact that youre very
manipulated to file the right story.
And thats how I felt, one
Saturday in December, listening
to the excitement of the release of
the final communiqu from Paris
on the climate change talks and so
glad not to be there, caught up in
the moment of the good news as
if it was a seasonal advertisement
for a department store. Agreeing to
cut carbon emissions is one thing.
Doing it is something else.
And then I wondered how long
it would be before a limp industry
press release linking itself to the
climate change talks would drift into
my work e-mail box. It wasnt long.

bestmagazine // Winter 2016


When the Scribe went to
University more than 40 years ago,
tuition was free. And there was a
bonus. I got a grant from my local
metropolitan area for living costs.
And I could get well paid casual
work during vacations. I graduated
in 1975 without any savings but
with no debt.
How the world has changed:
Todays average UK graduate
owes 50,000, repayable when
the students income is greater
than 85% of the national average
wage. The UK Government lends
10billion annually and the amount
outstanding will be 100 billion by
2018. Not an insignificant sum.
But this is as nothing compared
to American student debt currently
around US1.3 trillion dollars and
mainly private and growing at
US$2726.00 every second. The
Scribe doesnt have the resources
to determine the level of student
debt across the OECD but it
doesnt take much to realise what
a drag on the economy this must
be. Far be it from this writer to
mix it with American politics, but
the Democratic hopeful Bernie
Sanders (who probably doesnt
have a cat in hells chance of
getting the nomination) has
advocated free public college
tuition for obvious reasons a
degree is beyond the pockets of so
many. That kid who doesnt get to
college to study electrochemistry
could be your best production
technician, your best researcher
or maybe your best technical
salesman youll never know.
If youre not concerned about
Beijings smog, debt or wild
weather everywhere, consider
this: More than three-quarters of
Britains 59butterfly species have
declined over the last 40 years,
with particularly dramatic declines
for once common farmland species
such as the Essex Skipper and
Small Heath, according to the most
bestgroundpath 121
authoritative annual survey of
population trends.
This is the final warning bell,
said Chris Packham, Butterfly
Conservation vice-president,
calling for urgent research to
identify the causes for the
disappearance of butterflies from
ordinary farmland. If butterflies
are going down like this, whats
happening to our grasshoppers,
our beetles, our solitary bees?
If butterflies are in trouble, rest
assured everything else is. There,
youve been told.
High tech toilets or
virtual raality? You
tell me!
The other event Im glad Im
not at this month is the Consumer
Electronics show in Las Vegas.
Looking at CNETs online coverage
of this mega event is enough
to give the averagely enthused
tech enthusiast a migraine. How
much more stuff do I need thats
cordless? Im on my second or third
generation tablet, weve all had
digital cameras for years, noise-
cancelling headphones, smart TVs
and wireless speakers. And all the
music I can listen to. But theres
more every year like Samsungs
family hub refrigerator and its
21inch touch screen, endless
home security systems, intelligent
thermostats animatronic pets and
wearables.
Remember when battery
salesman on the conference circuit
used to put up those tiny thumbnail
pics of all the applications for
batteries? Video cameras, electric
scooters and power tools? How
so-last-century that looks. Today
youd add security drones,
domestic robots in all shapes and
forms, wearables and thats before
weve hit upon the entertainment
streams. And lets not forget
automobiles. In case youre
wondering where all this is leading,
its a battery bonanza and most of
it is lithium powered for now and
will continue to be so. Its 25 years
this year that Sony began
introducing lithium as a power
source for video cameras. The
industry has come a long way. And
there will always be black sheep
battery makers like the idiots who
made the batteries for those stupid
hover boards. Dangerous as they
were, this writer doubts this kind of
screw-up will weaken the demand
for portable electronics and the
lithium systems that power them.
And our friends in the more
traditional world of leadacid will
need to find something smarter and
cleverer to promote themselves
rather than bleat on about the
weaknesses of lithium.
bestmagazine // Winter 2016
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