News: Energy storage
Good news for EVs and energy storage costs as new
technology boosts battery storage capacity by 50%
T
he Energy research Centre of
the Netherlands (ECN) has
developed a new technology that
increases the storage capacity
of rechargeable batteries by 50%. With this
technology, the range of electric vehicles (EVs)
can be increased, batteries in smartphones,
laptops and other electronic devices will last
longer, and the costs of sustainable energy
storage will decrease.
To commercialise the new technology
and attract investors, entrepreneurs Christian
Rood and Gabriel de Scheemaker founded
LeydenJar Technologies BV, named after the
famous Leyden Jar of 1746, the precursor of
the battery. Having obtained funding for the
first year, the start-up company is already
having discussions with large international
battery manufacturers and wants to open a
demonstration plant in 2018.
The new technology replaces the
traditional graphite anode with a pure silicon
anode, increasing the storage capacity of
this component of the lithium-ion battery by
a factor of 10 and that of the whole battery
18 | www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk
by up to 50%. The problem with silicon is
that it expands when the battery is charged
and becomes three times larger, which can
make silicon layers brittle and cause the
battery material to fall apart. ECN applies the
silicon in columns onto copper foil using a
plasma-based nanotechnology, thus creating
enough space for expansion and allowing the
battery to remain stable. The layer eventually
needs to be 10 microns thick for commercial
application, which is ten times thinner than a
sheet of paper.
ECN researcher Wim Soppe discovered
the material 12 years ago, when he was
developing thin-film solar cells. “The material
was unsuitable for solar cells, but we found
that the technology is extremely promising for
lithium-ion batteries. An nice example of how
a failure can turn into a success,” he said.
Sjoerd Wittkampf, Technology Transfer
Manager at ECN, said tremendous effort is put
into research worldwide to improve lithiumion batteries, and a breakthrough is claimed
every few weeks. “These discoveries usually
concern materials that can only be produced
in a laboratory environment on a very small
scale,” he added. “What makes the invention
of ECN so promising is that the technology
for mass production of this material is already
within reach due to its similarity to an existing
production process for solar cells. We believe
that this gives us a unique advantage. Through
the founding of LeydenJar Technologies, we
will transfer this technology to the market and
create a fit between the battery industry and
venture capital investors.”
”Given the widespread use of Li-ion
batteries, the company focuses its efforts
on three market segments,” said co-founder
Christian Rood. These segments are EVs,
consumer electronics and renewable energy
storage. The goal is to supply the technology
to large battery manufacturers.
“In our future demonstration plant,
we want to produce silicon anodes for our
first clients and demonstrate that this
technology is competitive when massproduced. In other words, we want to
demonstrate that a better battery can be
produced for the same amount of money.”