The division hosts two world-class research facilities that link transportation and the electric grid: The Battery Manufacturing Facility, or BMF, and the Grid Research Integration and Deployment C.
Why are lithium-ion batteries being deployed on the electrical grid?
Abstract— Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are being deployed on the electrical grid for a variety of purposes, such as to smooth fluctuations in solar renewable power generation. The lifetime of these batteries will vary depending on their thermal environment and how they are charged and discharged.
Are lithium-ion batteries a viable energy storage system?
That cost reduction has made lithium-ion batteries a practical way to store large amounts of electrical energy from renewable resources and has resulted in the development of extremely large grid-scale storage systems. These modern EES systems are characterized by rated power in megawatts (MW) and energy storage capacity in megawatt-hours (MWh).
What is the market for grid-scale battery storage?
The current market for grid-scale battery storage in the United States and globally is dominated by lithium-ion chemistries (Figure 1).
What is the largest lithium-ion battery installation in the world?
One example is the Hornsdale Power Reserve, a 100 MW/129 MWh lithium-ion battery installation, the largest lithium-ion BESS in the world, which has been in operation in South Australia since December 2017. The Hornsdale Power Reserve provides two distinct services: 1) energy arbitrage; and 2) contingency spinning reserve.
Indeed, a decade ago, the price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of lithium-ion battery storage was around $1,200. Today, thanks to a huge push to develop cheaper and more powerful lithium-ion batteries for use in electric vehicles (EVs), that cost has dropped to between $150 and $200 per kWh, and by 2025 it could be under $100/kWh.
S.B. Peterson, J. Apt, J.F. Whitacre, “Lithium-ion battery cell degradation resulting from realistic vehicle and vehicle-to-grid utilization,” J. Power Sources, 195 (2010) 2385-2392.