Clean energy is the leading solution for climate change. But solar and wind power are inconsistent at producing enough energy for a reliable power grid. Alternatively, lithium-ion batteries can store energy but are a limited resource.
“The advantage of a coal power plant is it’s very steady,” said Nian Liu, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “If the power source fluctuates like it does with clean energy, it makes it more difficult to manage, so how can we use an energy storage device or system to smooth out these fluctuations?”
Flow batteries offer a solution. Electrolytes flow through electrochemical cells from storage tanks in this rechargeable battery. The existing flow battery technologies cost more than $200/kilowatt hour and are too expensive for practical application, but Liu’s lab in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE)…
Researchers create smaller, cheaper flow batteries for clean energy — ScienceDaily
