Liquid-metal battery developed for renewable energy storage

BBC : A cheaper, lower-temperature liquid-metal battery has been developed for use in the national electric grid. Such battery technology could improve the efficiency and reliability of intermittent renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines. The key component of the new battery design is lead, which is cheap and melts at low temperatures. The lead is mixed with antimony, and the combination makes up the bottom layer of the new three-layer battery. The top is composed of lithium, and a molten salt electrolyte is sandwiched in between. The lithium cycles between the top and bottom layers as the cell is charged and discharged. The lead allows the operating temperature to be about 450 °C, compared with the 700 °C required by an earlier design made of magnesium and antimony, but the lower-temperature mixture doesn’t affect the battery’s efficiency, according to Donald Sadoway of MIT, the project’s senior researcher. The group plans to test the design in Hawaii and at Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where both sunshine and wind are abundant.