Green Energy

The €17 million storage project is Enel’s first of its type in Germany and the first 2MW section of the site is expected to begin operating by April.

The lithium-ion battery will be located in Brandenburg, north-east Germany, and used to provide grid-frequency services and reduce wind curtailment from Enertrag’s projects.

A special purpose vehicle will own the facility, in which Enel Green Power’s Germany division holds a 90% majority stake and Enertrag the remaining 10% stake, the partners explained.

Leclanché will act as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the project, in charge of integrating battery and power conversion systems and energy management software.

“The project… is an important milestone for us because, after the success of similar projects in Italy and Chile, it will further demonstrate how beneficial storage is for energy systems, in particular when coupled with renewables,” said Enel Green Power CEO Antonio Cammisecra.

“Storage is increasingly becoming a key tool in ensuring grid stability and is also a pathway towards the widespread adoption of renewables worldwide, facilitating their integration into power grids,” Cammisecra added.

In 2017, battery storage systems provided about 200MW, or roughly 31%, of Germany’s of primary control reserve market.

Toyota Motor Corp. is readying electric motors that include as much as 50 percent less in rare earths amid concern of a supply crunch as automakers race to expand their electric-vehicle lineups.

Asia’s biggest carmaker has developed a magnet for the motors that as much as halves the use of a rare earth called neodymium and eliminates the use of others called terbium and dysprosium, the company said at a briefing in Tokyo on Tuesday. In their place, Toyota will use the rare earths lanthanum and cerium, which cost 20 times less than neodymium. The carmaker plans to ask suppliers to manufacture the magnets.

Toyota sees demand for neodymium exceeding supply from 2025, by which time the carmaker intends to be offering an electrified version of every vehicle in its lineup. By 2030, Toyota aims to sell 5.5 million electrified vehicles — including 1 million wholly battery- or hydrogen-powered cars — accounting for half of its projected deliveries. Motors with the magnets can be used in any electrified powertrain, the

Rare earths along with metals like lithium and cobalt are seeing soaring demand from a growing electric vehicle market, propelled mainly by increasingly stringent emissions restrictions worldwide. China, which is home to the world’s biggest auto market and the leader in electric vehicle sales, supplies more than 80 percent of rare earths globally. The potential for volatility in the market for the minerals was exposed last year when a clampdown on illegal Chinese miners caused neodymium prices to surge by almost a third in one month.

Sputnik News reported that after a new report suggesting that rare-earth metals have a bright future, the Swedish government has green-lit a further investigation into opportunities that could give a new lease on life for the country’s historic mining area of Bergslagen, the daily newspaper Helsingbors Dagblad reported.

The report published by the Geological Survey of Sweden highlighted opportunities for mining many innovation-critical resources in Sweden, including graphite, lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements and tungsten. In the coming years, SGU will receive SEK 10 million (USD 1.3 million) to explore mining possibilities in the historic area of Bergslagen as well as the northern Norrbotten and Västerbotten provinces. The first results will be presented in the first half of 2020.

The international demand for cobalt, lithium and REEs has skyrocketed due to their use in sought-after innovations, such as electric cars and wind power stations, together with mobile phone batteries.

In Sweden alone, the demand shows no signs of receding. Volvo Cars pledged to go totally electric by 2019. Additionally, Swedish battery developer Northvolt plans to construct Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery factory in the city of Skellefteå with a staff of up to 2,500.

However, an overwhelming majority of raw materials are imported, despite Sweden’s expertise in mining traditional minerals such as copper or zinc. Sweden previously tried mining lithium, but this activity was later put on ice. The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet went so far as to call Sweden the “Mecca of Battery Metals.”

At present, Congo is the world’s leading producer of cobalt, accounting for 65 % of the total output, whereas China dominates the REE market, mining an astonishing 95 % of the produce.

Damberg predicted a further explosion in the demand for these minerals, venturing that Sweden could become a world-class contender in this area. Furthermore, he ventured that Europe might want to revise the idea of import-dependence from, say, Congo, where a lot of exploration is done “in pretty dire conditions.”

While praising the “unique assets in Sweden’s bedrock” as well as the country’s expertise in the mining area, Damberg, admitted, however, that it is unclear when large-scale industrial production may start.

Damberg also conceded that mining is an industry often associated with protests from environmental activists or causing conflicts with locals due to contradictory interests.

At present, Boliden and LKAB are Sweden’s largest mining companies. Privately-owned Boliden has a staff of 5,500 and a turnover of SEK 40 billion (5 billion). LKAB, by contrast, is wholly owned by the Swedish state; it has 4,000 employees and turns over SEK 16 billion (USD 2 billion).

Boliden was previously involved in a controversy in Chile, where it dumped approximately 20,000 tons of smelter sludge from its arsenic plant in Sweden in the 1980s. The controversy resurfaced in the 2010s, as 700 Chileans claimed arsenic poisoning and filed a lawsuit against Boliden, Swedish Radio reported.

?Bergslagen is a historical district located north of Lake Mälaren, where mining and metallurgy have been important since the Middle Ages. In the 20th century, though, Malmfälten, a region in northernmost Sweden, centered around the town of Kiruna, became the focal point of Sweden’s mining industry.

A SPORTIER, more exciting version of BMW’s compact i3 electric car has gone on sale in Australia, with more power, torque, width, functionality and driver appeal.

It’s called the BMW i3S and it joins the i3 range as part of the model’s mid-life facelift, fleshing out the line-up to four variants, with battery-only and range-extender hybrid versions of each version.

The i3S has greater outputs, up by 10kW and 20Nm to 135kW and 270Nm. Acceleration to 100km/h from zero takes 6.9sec for the i3S BEV (7.7sec for the REX), and the 80-120km/h overtaking sprint takes 4.3sec – or, as BMW will tell you, quicker than an M4 Competition… in fifth gear.

It’s not just the bump in outputs that make a difference to the way the i3S drives. BMW has recalibrated the power delivery to give peak performance across a broader chunk of the electric motor’s rev-range. The motor spins to 11,000rpm, as before, but can serve up maximum power beyond the 6000rpm point, which was where the old i3 tapered off.

Distinguishing the i3S in traffic are its 40mm wider wheel-arch flares, which sit over the car’s 40mm wider rear track. Its tyres are also 20mm wider in all corners and run on 1-inch larger wheels – 175/55R20 front and 195/55R20 rear. Standard sports suspension lowers the i3S by 10mm, much like the M Sport option on many in BMW’s non-electric vehicle range.

Other exterior tweaks include revised front and rear bumpers and fully LED headlights and indicators. Black paint has now been applied to the A-pillars and roofline, and there are more colours available for the rest of the car including the locally flavoured Melbourne Red.

Inside, the i3 range now comes with iDrive 6 – the latest version of BMW’s infotainment system – displayed on a wide, higher-resolution 10.25-inch screen that ‘floats’ above the sculpted dashboard.

BMW has also chosen the i3S to debut a revised, faster-acting DSC traction control tune that will eventually make its way across the entire BMW fleet. In this instance the system is “specifically adapted to the electric drivetrain’s requirements” and features a Dynamic Traction Control mode that allows “mild and safely controllable drifts when grip levels are reduced.” The i3S gets a Sport drive mode for the first time, which sharpens throttle and steering response.

Powering all updated i3s is the same 94Ah/33kWh battery introduced to the i3 in 2016, which has about 30 percent more capacity than the version in the COTY-winning i3 launched here in 2014. Claimed real-world range is 200km for BEV models and 330km for REX variants, the latter of which can top-up the battery using a 28kW 647cc two-cylinder petrol generator housed under the boot floor.

Charging the new i3 should be more convenient, as BMW has switched to the Type 2 plug used in Europe and chosen by local operators as the standard for Australia’s emerging electric vehicle infrastructure. An 80 percent charge at home using a conventional domestic plug takes 15 hours. That time is halved when using a BMW Wallbox on regular single phase power. The time needed to fill up the last 20 percent of the lithium-ion cells with electrons is apparently too variable to make a claim.

Pricing for the updated i3 range starts at $68,700 for the base BEV model, or pay an extra $1200 to get the i3S BEV for $69,900. REX versions are $74,700 or $75,900 for i3 and i3S respectively. All models are on sale in Australia now.

As new megatrends take shape in the automotive industry, there’s also a growing trend of collaborations. These are not the conventional collaborations between equals, but between parties with a wide age gap but equal in terms of value they each offer for mutual growth. 

The latest example of this growing trend in India is homegrown global auto component major Bharat Forge’s investment in Tork Motorcycles, a start-up which is preparing India’s first electric performance motorcycle. Bharat Forge will pick up a 45 percent stake in Tork Motorcycles with a cumulative investment of Rs 30 crore.

The start-up, founded by a youngster Kapil Shelke, is in the closing stages of prototyping and certification for the T6X, which is slated to become the first mass-market electric motorcycle in the country. It is powered by a 6KW lithium ion battery and manages an impressive 27Nm of torque and a range of 100km in a single charge. The top speed is limited to 100kph at present and the battery is good for 80,000-100,000km, the company claims. The bike’s battery can reach 80 percent capacity with just one hour of charging, and gets fully charged in two hours.

This investment is part of Bharat Forge’s transformation strategy to realign itself to tap the emerging megatrends in the automotive industry. Bharat Forge company is currently the world’s largest forging company, but with the advent of megatrends like mass scale electric mobility, autonomous driving, it is making efforts to venture into new business areas as some traditional business verticals will see a gradual decline due to technology shifts in the industry.

Hero MotoCorp and TVS invest in EV start-ups
In another instance of a well-established company investing in an EV start-up, Hero MotoCorp, which is also the world’s largest two-wheeler company, invested Rs 180 crore into Bengaluru-based electric two-wheeler start-up Ather Energy for stake of around 30 percent. This funding formed the bulk of an overall Rs 205 crore investment from Hero MotoCorp. The funding marked the third round of investments in Ather Energy, which is slated to launch the S340 smart, electric scooter later this year. This investment, made in October 2016, was the first such deal of a large organisation investing in an EV start-up in India.

Another homegrown organisation, TVS Motor, has also made a similar investment. In December 2017, it announced that it had picked up a 14.78 percent stake in a Bengaluru-based Ultraviolette Automotive, an electric two-wheeler and energy infrastructure start-up which was just a year old then. TVS showcased an all-electric scooter concept at the recently concluded Auto Expo. It is expected to launch an electric scooter soon in the market.

Given the Indian government’s heightened focus on electric mobility, two-wheeler OEMs and other vehicle segment manufacturers are stepping up their activities to prepare for an era of electric mobility. For large organisations, collaboration is seen as the fastest, less capital intensive and less complex growth strategy. It’s a win-win situation for both – while the EV start-up gets a new charge and an improved roadmap to production reality, the well-established automaker does not have to reinvent the wheel.

Bharat Forge’s UGV catches the eye
Bharat Forge also has a UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) on display at its stall in the Pune section of Magnetic Maharashtra. This four-wheeled ATV, which is designed to perform security, safety and security missions, has a skid-steer mechanism. It is a multi-tasker – it can carry riot control, weapondry, surveillance, fire extinguishing equipment, CBRN detection and containment systems and cargo.

The UGV has autonomous operation with video motion detection and a multi-functional, multi-sensor (positioning, mapping, path planning, obstacle detection) platform for a wide range of payload. This all-terrain and amphibious vehicle has a speed of up to 20kph on manual drive and 10-15kph on autonomous missions. It can climb a 30deg slope and can endure up to 48 hours of continuous operations (combining battery and generator).

They are the often unseen workhorses that power modern computing, and the devices workers use to get their jobs done: batteries.

Feb. 18 is National Battery Day, the unofficial holiday designed to show appreciation for the convenience of batteries, without which modern notebooks, smartphones, tablets and other critical office equipment would not be able to function.

Batteries have a long history, dating back to 1800 with Alessandro Volta’s invention of the first battery, which came to be known as the voltaic pile. In 1836, British chemist John Frederic Daniell created the first practical battery with the Daniell cell. Then, in 1859, Gaston Planté invented the lead-acid battery, the first battery that could be recharged via passing a reverse current through it. The modern lithium-ion batteries that power laptops and smartphones were invented in the 1980s, and Sony commercialized the lithium-ion battery in 1991.

Since then, battery technology has largely been stuck. Technology companies have invented ways to recharge batteries faster, but lithium-ion batteries remain the main industry standard for powering electronic devices. Researchers and tech companies are trying to push the envelope with advances in battery technology that will make them more efficient.

Here is a roundup of some of the latest developments:

Lithium-Metal Batteries Show Promise

SolidEnergy Systems has developed a lithium-metal battery, which, as MIT Technology Review reports, “has a metallic anode, rather than the graphite material used for the anode in traditional lithium-ion batteries.”

The company’s batteries could offer much better energy density over today’s devices, the publication notes. However, it is unclear if or when they might be commercialized.

“In terms of moving from an idea to a product,” Qichao Hu, the founder of SolidEnergy Systems, tells MIT Technology Review, “it’s hard for batteries, because when you improve one aspect, you compromise other aspects.”

New Approach Combines the Best of Both Worlds in Batteries

Another company, Ionic Materials, which is funded in part by tech luminary Bill Joy, thinks it has solved the battery dilemma by creating a new kind of battery.

Joy tells Wired that the company’s technology combines “the advantages of the familiar alkaline batteries we buy at the drugstore (cheap, safe and reliable) with those of the more expensive, fire-prone lithium batteries in our computers and phones (powerful, rechargeable and more earth-friendly).”

Ionic’s batteries replace the liquids common in lithium-ion batteries with a polymer, according to Joy. “It also turns out that this polymer just happens to be essentially a fire-retardant material,” he says. “So, when you build batteries with this polymer, you don’t have a safety problem.” Using the polymer also essentially makes the battery into an alkaline battery that can be recharged like a lithium-ion battery.

Companies could use this technology to improve their lithium-ion batteries, Joy says, but in the long run, Joy tells Wired, “advanced alkaline — the chemistry used in the ones you buy in the drugstore [that have been] made rechargeable — has a chance of upending the reign of lithium-ion batteries, because the materials are cheaper,” he says to Wired.

“You can potentially make alkaline batteries with aluminum. We’ve made some. We don’t have as many cycles as we need yet, but, you know, we’re working on it,” he adds. “We think that ultimately things like aluminum-alkaline batteries will meet the performance of lithium, but with abundant materials and way cheaper. And it’s also recyclable.”

Joy, who spoke to Wired in August, believes that new battery technology could enable a smart grid by providing low-cost solutions that can power renewable energy sources such as wind and hydroelectric. But he warned that it might be two or three years before the technology is generally available.

Samsung Promotes Graphene Ball Tech

In November, Samsung Electronics’ research arm announced that it has developed a “graphene ball”that can be used to make lithium-ion batteries last longer and charge faster.

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology said that by using graphene ball material to make batteries it will increase existing batteries’ capacity by 45 percent and increase their charging speed by five times. Lithium-ion batteries take an hour to fully charge, but this will be reduced to 12 minuteswith the new tech, Samsung notes. SAIT has filed two applications for the graphene ball technology patent in the United States and South Korea.