Rechargeable Zinc batteries in the news
We collect and share the latest information on rechargeable zinc batteries.
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Apr. 21, 2024 Zinc battery people feeling confident, Dr. Josef Daniel Ivad Zinc batteries are generating confidence in 2024. Damian Lopusinski, who leads McKinsey & Company’s Zinc Commodity Group, told delegates that the amount of zinc used in batteries – combined with zinc used to galvanise solar panels and wind turbines – is predicted to increase from 380 kilotonnes in 2023 to 540–620 kilotonnes by 2035. More promising news comes from the Shanghai Metals Market’s Yanchen Wang, who addressed the energy demands in China, which increased investment in power generation by 34% last year. The demands for sustainable energy storage have escalated as wind power-generating capacity has tripled and solar power generating capacity has increased nine-fold during the past four years. These new wind and solar growth assessments highlight the need for commensurate development in energy storage, he said. Following these projections, Brendan Hawkins of Urban Electric Power (UEP) presented his company’s growing list of battery storage projects, including installing a 2MWh BESS with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and a 5MWh BESS with the US Department of Energy. The batteries are in production and due to be installed in 2025. Nickel-zinc battery producer AEsir Technologies recently announced an alliance with Celgard, a provider of battery separator technology. Celgard will provide AEsir with separators for both its current work and its new gigafactory planned for 2024. AEsir’s batteries are used in aviation, data centres and defense applications. Nickel-zinc producer ZincFive recently announced a partnership with Advanced Power & Energy and Kaizen Clean Energy to develop a battery charging network for EVs in California and Pennsylvania. ZincFive has also joined forces with Econolite to license its uninterruptible power supply technology for traffic management solutions across the US. Last November, it introduced new UPS battery cabinets with a compact footprint for data centres. They are suitable for the new high-power AI computing demands. E-zinc is partnering with Sandia National Lab to demonstrate its zinc-air batteries’ ability to provide energy during power safety shutoffs from the local utility, providing 500kW of power over a 24-hour period in data centres. Zinc-bromine battery producer Eos Energy Enterprises has received DOE funding to install its 10-hour duration batteries at numerous sites in the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest regions. The DOE Loan Program Office also has provided a $398 million conditional loan to fund the expansion of Eos’ factory in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, with the goal of building 8GWh of energy storage production capacity. Another zinc-bromine battery producer, Australia-based Redflow, has been tapped to provide battery installations across the US, including a 34.4MWh project at the Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera, California. It is designed to replace diesel generators with zinc batteries and solar power. The US Department of Defense is funding Redflow to provide energy storage at the Stewart Air National Guard Base in New York, while the California Energy Commission is funding Redflow’s construction of a 20MWh energy system for a solar and storage project for the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians. More projects, whether funded by government or private sources, are expected throughout 2024 and the coming years, as zinc batteries find a permanent and growing position in the energy storage landscape. |
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May 1, 2024 The race to reduce UPS runtime – Tod Higinbotham – COO at Zinc Five
Due to their chemistries, traditional lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries require data center owners to purchase more cabinets than ultimately needed to provide adequate short-term power. Nickel-zinc batteries offer three times the power density of lead-acid, twice the current carrying capability of industry-leading lithium-ion batteries, and a BMS that won’t interrupt runtime operations (since there’s no risk of thermal runaway). This further reduces the cabinets needed and the UPS room’s space requirements, allowing more room within the data center for revenue-generating equipment like servers. Read more |
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May 7, 2024 
DHS launched the prize competition on Earth Day 2023. This Challenge sought innovative power solutions to keep critical facilities such as hospitals, water and wastewater treatment facilities, police and first responders, and places of refuge operating during power outages. The Grand Prize citation for Urban Electric Power called its solution “easy to use and safer for critical infrastructure in most need of protection than lithium batteries and cleaner than fossil fuels.” |
Harry Handlin, US data center segment leader at ABB says, “Many data centers are selecting runtimes less than five minutes to optimize cost and minimize footprint. These customers have realized long ago that five minutes of UPS battery runtime does not provide added protection. If a generator fails to start, the problem cannot be corrected in five minutes or even 15 minutes.”