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Effective battery capacity must expand by more than 12 times today’s levels to meet the expected demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy storage by 2025, when the global battery market is projected to be worth US$100 billion, according to World Economic Forum.

With EVs forecast to make up more than half of car sales within two decades, the electrification revolution is going to be built around six key commodities: copper, nickel, lithium, cobalt, manganese and graphite. Copper and nickel are already key industrial metals, traded on global exchanges with consumers experienced in managing supply risk. Manganese and graphite supply give no cause for concern at the moment, which leaves cobalt and lithium.

Securing supply

Cobalt, mined as a by-product with 60 per cent of supply coming from the Congo, will be the most challenging material on the supply front. Prices have tripled since the start of 2016 in anticipation of future demand. Apple, Samsung and BMW are among companies that have already sought to tie down long-term supply arrangements, but have met significant resistance from miners reluctant to agree to deals at a time of sharply rising prices. Lithium prices have surged in the last three years amid a shortage of the material, and deficits are expected to continue in the short term. However, there are dozens of new projects in development, and the existing dominant suppliers have latent capacity they can bring online.

But the big challenge-especially for car makers-will be securing high quality product that can be refined into battery-grade material. Major automakers are already beginning to make their move. Ford has announced it will invest US$11 billion by 2022 in electrification, and expand its suite to 40 EVs globally including 16 full battery vehicles by the same year. Toyota has started making investments too, taking a 15 per cent stake in Australian-listed lithium producer Orocobre. Competition for supply from the low cost, high quality producers will increase, while miners whose product is not in demand will fall by the wayside.

Battery mix

While the scramble for materials is at the forefront, there’s another race going on behind the scenes. The R&D departments of the biggest chemicals manufacturers and car makers are focused on not only building the best battery, but the one that uses the least cobalt. Given concerns about the supply, there is a heavy push to substitute or thrift the use of the material. NMC (nickel, manganese, cobalt) batteries have already moved from equal parts of the three materials to six parts nickel and two parts manganese and cobalt. This is likely to continue: One market leader announced last year that it had managed to significantly cut the amount of cobalt in its batteries.

With new technologies come new challenges, however. Mass EV adoption will lead to a glut of spent batteries that will need to be recycled. Over the 11 million tonnes of spent lithium-ion batteries are forecast to be discarded by 2030. China, the dominant consumer, is already pushing EV manufacturers to be responsible for curbing pollution around their disposal.

Blockchain

The ability to create an incorruptible digital ledger is a tantalising prospect for both miners and consumer-facing companies using battery materials. Diamond producer De Beers is already rolling out a pilot scheme to ensure consumers can trust the provenance of the gems they buy. As consumers demand the same of the cars, auto manufacturers are beginning to follow suit. BMW is creating a cobalt blockchain to track its supplies, while others are using the technology to track the material from the Congo, where much of supply comes from artisanal miners that sometimes use child labour. The trend is rapidly extending: Those that cannot guarantee an ethical supply chain will come under increasing pressure.

Trends to watch

While EVs have dominated the battery focus, there’s a wider picture emerging. Battery storage is one area that has the potential to radically change the way we consume and generate power. The vanadium flow battery for stationary energy storage using chemical liquid rather than cell storage can last decades, removing one of the big hurdles of ion batteries. Its usage will help alleviate some of the problems associated with the intermittent nature of renewable generation, enabling power to be consumed when demand peaks as opposed to only being available when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.

The discovery of supercapacitors, sometimes also called ultra-capacitors, with their ability to charge and offload their power rapidly, could become one of the most important developments in the future. These devices don’t produce electricity through chemical reactions in the same way as conventional batteries. Instead, they create electrostatic fields, making them good at providing quick bursts of power, ideal for frequency response services. However, supercapacitors, which don’t require cobalt, are not particularly effective at holding much energy or retaining it for very long. This poor energy density-the amount of energy they can hold per kilogramme-has put them at a significant disadvantage to lithium-ion batteries, as it means an EV would need recharging every few miles. Once this is overcome, they have the potential to become a key segment in the sustainable energy story of the future.

A voluntary software recall on the 2017 Chevy Bolt EV has been extended to 2018 models, a General Motors spokesman told Green Car Reports on Thursday.

Last month, we reported that some owners of early 2017 Chevy Bolt EVs had failed batteries and would receive new batteries from GM.

The fix also involved a software update to the computer that controls battery output, even in cars that without battery failure. Now the software update is being extended to 2018 models.

Owners of 2018 Bolt EVs should get a letter in the mail in the next few weeks advising them to take their Bolt EVs into their dealerships for the update.

“Though our estimates of affected owners haven’t changed and still remain a small percentage, we are adding yet another level of detection by giving all of our customers the most up-to-date software,” GM’s Coordinator for Global Advanced Technology Communications Chris Bonelli said in a statement.

The software measures the discharge of each of the cells in the battery pack to make sure they’re even. If any cells become overtaxed compared with the rest of the battery, the whole pack can be shut down.

The recall will update the software to give drivers more warning before that happens to let them know they need to get their car into a dealership to service the battery pack.

In an emailed statement, the company said:

General Motors is looking at the entire Bolt EV fleet to ensure everyone has the most updated software available. Through letters we are asking all Bolt EV customers to schedule a service appointment to receive the latest software, including the 2017 owners who received the previously released software calibration. In the event of a cell low voltage condition, this new software increases the accuracy of the range estimation, in addition to providing more warning at low states of charge. We understand this is an inconvenience for some customers to service their vehicles again so soon. However, we want to give our customers the most updated software as soon as it’s available.”

A project to derive lithium from a planned geothermal plant at the Salton Sea in California will receive $2.5 million from a Federal Trust Fund under a Bill that was set up to utilise revenues from geothermal plants on federal land to projects utilising highly mineralized geothermal brines at existing geothermal facilities.

Over the years, the potential and opportunity represented by Lithium production at the Salton Sea has been topic of numerous studies and reports, but now seems to become a reality. With new plans, Imperial County could actually become the lithium capital of the United States.

In news this week, it has been reported that $2.5 million will be invested in lithium production from a planned 50 MW geothermal plant. This was reported by Senator Ben Hueso at a recent event at the El Centro Chamber of Commerce. The funds will come Bill SB-1074 which Senator Hueso created two years ago.

Entered into force in September 2016, the Bill SB-1074, opens the opportunities to use funds under the Federal Trust Fund for geothermal projects.

“Existing law requires that all revenues received by the state pursuant to specified federal laws be deposited in the Geothermal Resources Development Account and continuously appropriated as specified. Existing law requires some of those revenues to be disbursed to counties in which the federal government has leased land for geothermal development and another portion of those revenues to be available for distribution by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) as grants or loans made to local jurisdictions or private entities. Existing law specifies purposes primarily relating to geothermal energy development and mitigation for which recipients may expend these moneys.

This bill would additionally authorize those recipients to expend those revenues to undertake projects to recover lithium, metals, agricultural products, and other beneficial minerals from highly mineralized geothermal brines at existing geothermal facilities that are in disadvantaged communities and provide local employment opportunities.”

With that bill and the funding now provided it will “… put Imperial County on the map as an energy producer and also as a county that will, in addition to important agricultural products, be producing important elements such as Lithium,” Hueso said.

It is planned that the project will start design work this month and is expected to get off the ground in about one year with hopes to create hundreds of jobs. The geothermal project will be located at the south end of the Salton Sea and developed by Controlled Thermal Resources.

Siemens is now providing for off-shore installations an advanced lithium-ion battery based solution, known as BlueVault. The energy storage solution is suited for both all-electric and hybrid energy-storage applications, and is designed to help ensure continuity of power while maximizing life, performance and safety.

Since 2013, Siemens has been supplying the marine industry with an innovative diesel-electric propulsion (DEP) system, BlueDrive Plus C, designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fuel consumption and maintenance costs when compared to traditional diesel-electric propulsion systems.

The company has a track record of developing cost- and emission-reducing solutions for marine applications. In 2015, Siemens jointly developed the world’s first electric car ferry, Ampere, with Fjellstrand shipyard and ship-owner, Norled.

Today, the Ampere ferry’s zero-emission propulsion solution has no direct or indirect emissions, because the batteries are recharged using hydro-electric power. The all electric ferry weighs approximately half that of a regular car ferry due to the aluminum hull, and uses only 150 kWh of renewable energy/crossing which eliminates emissions and reduces fuel costs by 60%.

Pursuant to its research and development efforts and experience with harsh offshore operating environments, the company will open a fully robotized and digitalized plant in Norway that will develop and manufacture energy storage technologies for both marine and offshore oil and gas applications. The same battery storage solutions for marine and offshore environments are also applicable to offshore wind farms. In the longer term, Siemens hopes to leverage its expertise to develop a low-emissions offshore platform.

“Energy storage solutions provide a means to establish a stable, reliable electrical network by buffering intermittency and providing clean, dispatch-able power,” said Terje Krogh, CEO of Siemens Offshore Solutions. “The Ampere ferry, which is entirely emission-free, serves as an example of how an energy storage system could also be successfully applied in an oil and gas environment.”

Siemens has signed several contracts for its new energy storage system and expects to deliver the first one this summer.

Once considered an inconsequential niche in the automotive market, electric vehicles are becoming more widespread. And it’s not just all the new plug-in options available today — EV batteries and charging stations are also proliferating around the globe. To that end, some tell-tale charts (recently published via Statista) demonstrate the trajectory of the electric vehicle movement and who might be best positioned to win the EV race in the coming years.

Statista reports, “For many years, drivers thinking about switching to an electric car have had very limited choices … in recent years, however, with the growing acceptance of electric cars, more and more manufacturers decided to enter the EV market.” That said, “Tesla, one of the very early movers in the market, is still the best-selling EV brand in the United States.”

To power these electric cars, battery production needs to increase at a rapid rate. Deutsche Welle reports, “The future of Europe’s carmakers depends on reliable supplies of cheap lithium-ion cells … [and] at least seven big new ‘Gigafactory’-scale battery pack production plants are planned for Europe.” While European automakers mull over plans, Tesla has leapfrogged the industry with its Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. As a result, Tesla’s partner Panasonic maintains the lion’s share (see below) of the market for lithium-ion batteries.

Electric vehicle charging points, another key signifier, also show substantial growth over the past decade. Statista reports, “Tesla Model X and S cars have become increasingly common on U.S. roads, as have a multitude of other electric cars such as the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. [In turn] the number of outlets has also grown as the technology has matured with 47,000 of them now scattered across the country, including 6,270 fast charging outlets.”

To put this into perspective, InsideEVs notes, “The number of charging points in the U.S. increased in 2017 by about 17.5% … which is more than 100 times [what it was] back in 2008.” However, the future looks to be DC fast charging outlets. And in the U.S., the fastest growth of charging points in this category comes from Tesla’s Superchargers (45%) versus CHAdeMO (30%) and CCS (23%).

Researchers at Stanford University developed a battery that runs on saltwater. Low cost and durable, this new type of battery could solve the common issues currently facing renewable energy.

By 2020, residents of California will have to comply with a new law that requires them to incorporate solar panels into their new homes.

The California Energy Commission voted to approve the new legislation yesterday. Now passed, it will make the sun-drenched state the first in the U.S. state to mandate the installation of solar panels.

The solar-energy regulations could cause the cost of the construction of new homes to soar by up to $30,000. However, homeowners would save up to $60,000 in the long run from using solar power.

Scalable and Cheap Saltwater Batteries

Until other states follow suit, Californians better start looking for an efficient solar energy storage system.

It just so happens that one of California’s leading research centers has been working on renewable saltwater batteries that could ease a lot of these costs.

When it comes to a home battery for renewables, there are a few main concerns that any storage solution must answer: how much electricity it can store, how much energy is lost on charge and discharge, and for how long can the system operate.

Materials scientists at Stanford University developed a manganese-hydrogen storage technique to accommodate solar and wind-generated power.

The new saltwater batteries are easy to produce as they only require manganese sulfate (a type of salt), water, and simple electrodes for the necessary catalytic reactions to take place.

“What we’ve done,” said Yi Cui, who led the research, “is thrown a special salt into water, dropped in an electrode, and created a reversible chemical reaction that stores electrons in the form of hydrogen gas.”

A Backup for Intermittent Renewables

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, solar and wind are the two fastest-growing energy sources in America.

However, these two renewable sources suffer from an inherent critical setback due to their power generation method: intermittency.

If the sky is cloudy, photovoltaic panels can go days without producing any electricity. If there’s no wind blowing, wind turbines stay off.

When there’s no sunshine and no wind, power companies have to go back to fossil fuel generation methods as a backup, which offsets the benefits of renewables.

A renewable grid needs backup batteries that store excess power and redistribute it when solar panels and wind turbines aren’t running.

However, current battery solutions, lithium-ion batteries included, are hard to build on a scale that fits the grid needs. The reasons for this range from their short lifespan to safety concerns to financial constraints.

Stanford University’s new saltwater batteries solve all these issues.

It’s low cost and safe because it runs on water and common salt. On top of that, it has a long life cycle as it can charge and recharge for 10,000 cycles (over a decade of use) before it shows signs of decay.

Although the prototype battery researchers tested generates only a small amount of power (20 milliwatt hours), researchers think they can scale their system up to fit grid-scale storage.