Energy storage

Energy storage firm Imergy Power Systems (Imergy) and manufacturing services provider Foxsemicon have signed a manufacturing partnership for Imergy’s flow batteries.

Taiwanese Foxsemicon will supply Imergy with manufacturing, assembly and test services for the company’s complete energy storage product portfolio.

Alevo, a hitherto virtually unknown Swiss firm, cut the ribbon on a 4m sq ft lithium-ion battery cell/module manufacturing plant in Concord, North Carolina on 28 October.

Hyped in mainstream media as a “revolutionary” lithium-ion battery, Alevo’s cells are based on standard lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), albeit with an inorganic gel electrolyte containing sulphur dioxide and a conductive fluorosulphinate salt that is thermally stable, non-volatile and flame resistant.

California’s ultracapacitor firm Maxwell Technologies (Maxwell) and New York-based glass and ceramic material manufacturer Corning have teamed up for ultracapacitor-based energy storage development.

The partnership aims to research energy density, lifetime, operating environment, form factor and cost of ultracapactiors.

France’s nuclear and renewables company Areva and critical power supplier Schneider Electric have teamed up for the development of a flow battery storage solution.

The project, funded by the European Union, is aimed to optimise an existing 50kW flow battery prototype made by EnStorage to a 150kW demonstration module. The new energy storage solution will be designed to generate and store electricity from renewable energy by combining hydrobromic acid and hydrogen.

Gridstor, a project developed by energy consultancy and testing authority DNV GL to establish industry standards for grid-connected energy storage implementation, could fold due to lack of interest.

Launched in June 2014, the project aims to develop a practice through industry standardisation to drive the safe and secure implementation of grid-connected energy storage systems forward and to accelerate the integration of renewable energy sources into the grid.