EW E, a German energy company, announced that it has made some progress in building the world's largest flow battery in underground salt caverns in northwestern Germany. The polymer developed by researchers for this purpose has passed the preliminary test.
The accumulator system of a flow battery generally includes two reservoirs containing two different types of electrolytes, and the connection between them is a power generation zone where the two electrolytes are ion-exchanged with a thin film therebetween Storage and release of electrical energy. The larger the reservoir, the more energy stored.
EWE, in cooperation with the University of Jena in Germany, plans to use underground salt pits as storage tanks in the municipality of Yemgum in the northwestern part of Germany, which are mined holes left after salt mining, are bulky and well-sealed, Sealed Repository, EWE currently operates natural gas storage at eight underground salt caverns in Jumgum, it is reported that the storage capacity of two medium-sized salt caverns is enough to power a large city like Berlin Hours, which means it will be the largest battery in the world.
However, the project is also facing some technical problems.For example, the common electrolyte in flow batteries is made of vanadium dissolved in sulfuric acid, this solution is more environmentally polluting. EWE company recently held a press conference in Berlin Said that researchers at the University of Jena have successfully developed a polymer that dissolves in brine as an electrolyte to meet environmental requirements and that the polymer has now passed its initial test.
The project leader, Ralf Rickenberg, said that this project is a big step toward creating the world's largest battery, but more tests are still needed and the saltwater cell system is expected to grow at 2023 Put into operation by the end of the year
Germany is currently implementing its energy transformation strategy and plans to bring the proportion of renewable energy to 80% by 2005 with the ultimate goal of replacing traditional energy with renewable energy, but one of the problems with renewable energy such as wind energy and solar energy is the Power generation in different weather conditions is not stable, so a huge battery can play a regulatory role.
