Sodium Sulfur Battery In Abu Dhabi Is World’s Largest Storage Device at 108 MW/648 MWh
It is five times larger than the Hornsdale battery installed in Australia by Tesla a year ago. Compared to lithium-ion batteries, sodium sulfur batteries typically have a much longer useful life. 15 years or 4500 cycles is typical, according to Science Direct. Their efficiency is around 85% and they have a response time of 1 millisecond. Other advantages are that they use no lithium or cobalt, two elements that are in relatively short supply. Instead they use sodium and sulfur, both of which are abundant in nature and inexpensive.
They have their downsides too but what is interesting is that Ford explored this technology in the 1960's but sold it to Japan's NGK as it was not viable for wheeled vehicles back then. What it shows is that a good idea may actually peak many years later and one wonders too if the issues that we currently have with the distribution of hydrogen for cars may also not just be solved in 10 or 20 years. What we can be sure of is that we will have made big strides by then in further improving energy storage for vehicles.
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Sodium Sulfur Battery In Abu Dhabi Is World’s Largest Storage Device | CleanTechnica Abu Dhabi has commissioned the world’s largest energy storage battery, a 108 MW/648 MWh monster that uses sodium sulfur technology instead of conventional lithium-ion cells. |