Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries

[crowder...@gmail.com]

excerpt:

an obscure piece of technology known as the vanadium redox flow
battery. This unusual battery was invented more than 20 years ago by
Maria Skyllas-Kazacos, a tenacious professor of electro­chemistry at
the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The vanadium
battery has a marvelous advantage over lithium-ion and most other
types of batteries. It can absorb and release huge amounts of
electricity at the drop of a hat and do so over and over, making it
ideal for smoothing out the flow from wind turbines and solar cells.

The vanadium battery has some uniquely appealing traits that may make
it the best partner for renewable energy—not just for giant wind
farms, but also for small-scale turbines and solar cells that bring
renewable power directly into consumers’ homes. Currently, sodium-
sulfur technology doesn’t work well at sizes below 1 megawatt. For
smaller applications, such as regulating the flow of electricity from
a house’s solar panels, vanadium-based systems look more cost-
effective. They can be fit to more modest demands by using smaller
tanks.

These smaller applications are where Skyllas-Kazacos is currently
focusing her efforts. Three years ago she, along with her husband
Michael and sons Nick and George, founded V-Fuel to develop and
commercialize a second-generation vanadium battery

read more about Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries:
http://discovermagazine.com/2008/oct/29-the-element-that-could-change-the-world/article_view?searchterm=energy%20return%20systems&b_start:int=0

- - -


The new Chevy Volt battery - can it keep your car running longer than
your laptop?
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/09-can-smart-tech-keep-chevy-volt.s-battery-runninghttp://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/09-can-smart-tech-keep-chevy-volt.s-battery-running