Low cost storage of renewable energy

Faraion, Moixa Technology and the University of Warwick propose to collaborate to jointly develop a sodium-ion battery, as
a lower cost alternative to lithium-ion. This as an innovative energy storage solution in tandem with solar energy.
Storing electrical energy in battery banks for release at peak times has the befit of reducing emissions, as does coupling
this with solar energy. Security of supply is improved as switching to solar PV and battery back-up provides support to the
grid when other forms of power generation go offline for any reason. Sodium is a lower cost, more abundant hence
sustainable material than lithium as it is more abundant in the earth's crust. Sodium carbonate is on tenth of the cost of
lithium carbonate.
In this project The University of Warwick will utilise facilities and technologists within its partly government funded Energy
Innovation Centre (EIC) which has been established to provide industry with a capability to take arising battery chemistries
from small scale through to representative prototype sizes. The EIC features electrode mixing and coating equipment which
incorporates the latest technology for producing high quality, accurate electrodes. Although principally designed with
lithium-ion technology in mind, sodium-ion represents a "drop-in" technology that can use all of the same fabrication
processes to produce electrodes and cells, this makes sodium-ion an attractive proposition for existing lithium-ion cell
manufacturers and this aids the exploitation route and dissemination of output from the project. This will enable efficient
adoption of next generation energy storage. Faradion has demonstrated cell performance of their materials as being
compatible to commercial lithium-ion cells in terms of cycle life, energy density and rate capability. This project will take the
technology from its current position at TRL3 to TRL5 and validate prototype batteries.
The Energy Innovation Centre is part of WMG. WMG is a department of the University of Warwick that was established by
Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya in 1980 in order to reinvigorate UK manufacturing and improve competitiveness
through the application of value-adding innovation and cutting-edge research. Professor Lord Bhattacharyya has published
extensively in the field of manufacturing and is a highly influential advisor to many organisations around the world. WMG is
now a world-renowned centre of excellence operating an international programme of research, education and knowledge
transfer amounting to £100m a year. WMG works closely with UK regional development agencies to support the delivery of
their economic strategies and also with global corporations to train executives and to develop technologies for markets
worldwide.
The University of Warwick will work directly with Faradion to optimise the sodium-ion electrodes for cycle life for this
application. Electrodes will be produced which can be converted into battery cells for life-cycle testing at an early stage of
the project to provide feedback for process optimisation. Accelerated aging concepts based on predictive modelling and
EIS (electrochemical impedance Spectroscopy) on cell testing at the coin cell level will be introduced by experts in this field
at UoW to shorten the feedback time of life cycle evaluation so improvements in electrode production can be introduced at
accelerated rates.
The aim of the research is to provide the highest quality sodium-ion cell electrodes optimised for this standby storage
application. The benefit to the academic community is the dissemination of practical research which accelerates the
adoption of sodium-ion battery technology into a high value manufacturing environment. The commercialisation strategy is
to license the sodium-ion technology IP to battery manufacturers but also to supply low cost energy storage systems
through Moixa Technology to end users.

The demand for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has grown considerably since their launch in 1991, with increases
in Li consumption having grown at rate of ca.22% per annum since 2000. As a result the battery industry faces a huge
challenge with supply and demand going forward, as Li is not an abundant element. Also many of the global Li reserves are
in remote or politically sensitive countries e.g. Chile and Afghanistan respectively.
Na-ion batteries have recently gained recognition as promising candidates for next generation large scale energy storage
systems. Unlike lithium, sodium is an abundant and inexpensive element that shares many properties with Li as an energy
storage material. The earth's crust contains more than 500x the amount of Na compared with Li. Sea water has a bigger
difference, with over 1% of its mass sodium but only 0.000017% of it being lithium. Since both Li and Na are alkali metals
they share similar chemical properties. This means that Na-ion batteries can be successfully developed using previously
applied approaches to LIBs. Na-ion systems therefore represent a much more sustainable technology than Li in the longer
term and will facilitate greater UK energy security. And in spite of the lower energy density and voltage of Na-ion based
technologies, they can be focused on applications where the weight and footprint requirement is less drastic, such as
electrical grid storage. on a strong research, development and manufacturing base for batteries.
Societal: Energy production and storage have become key issues concerning our welfare in daily life. The ability to locally
store renewable solar energy (off-peak) will significantly reduce the cost of domestic energy supply and will also enable Beneficiaries
Describe who will benefit from the research [up to 4000 chars].
access to energy in-situ at times of peak demand. This is because effective storage in a battery can stabilize the energy
supply - usually intermittent due to output variability from the sun in the case of solar cells. This can then result in
fluctuations in voltage and frequency on the power network. Thus the efficiency, stability and reliability of an electricity
supply system can be significantly improved. Layered Na-ion cathode materials are also based on low toxicity materials
(e.g. Na, Fe and Mn).
Economic: The distributed storage market is estimated to be ca. $17B by 2018. Manufacturing Faradion's innovative Na-ion
cathode materials within European economic areas (EEA) is a strategy set to gain a market share and thus opportunity to
generate significant economic value for the UK. Furthermore electrolyte systems of lower decomposition potential can be
used with sodium (higher half-reaction potential relative to Li). This low voltage operation would make Na-ion cells cheaper
if water-based electrolytes could be developed instead of their higher cost organic counterparts, but this will require
advances in electrode materials and chemistries. Such innovations could achieve a more economic production system by
being able to manufacture batteries in facilities that did not require ultra-dry environments. The low cost of sodium
precursors e.g. sodium bicarbonate (Na2(CO3)(HCO3).2H2O is 150 euros/ton, whereas lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) is
currently priced at 3850 euros/ton.
Environmental Legislation: The EU's 20-20-20 strategy plans for a 20% drop in CO2 emissions, a 20% improvement in
energy efficiency and an increase of the share of renewable energy to 20% by 2020. ENable has a clear role in all of these
areas. IEA's Energy Technology Perspectives scenario 2DS (global temperature increase limit of 2oC) proposes that PVderived
energy is expected to save 30Gt of CO2 by 2050. The ability to deploy new renewable technologies with energy
storage solutions is highly dependent on a strong research, development and manufacturing base for effective, durable
batteries.