Liquid metal battery technology, a specialty of Ambri, an MIT spin-off, will be developed and produced in a new facility, which opened its doors in Massachusetts last week.
Here, scientists and engineers will be manufacturing, what they claim is, a much cheaper technology, which makes large-scale energy storage possible and could transform electrics grids around the world.
The first prototype of liquid metal battery technology will be ready in late 2014, early 2015. The technology, which consists of cells with three self-separating floating liquid layers, two different metals and a salt, works at a self-controlled temperatures. The cells are placed in separate modules, which are then put into shipping containers, each having a storage capacity between 500kWh and 2MWh.
Ambri aims to have their first ever full-scale manufacturing facility in operation by 2015. Their first prototype will be installed in the Joint Base Cape Cod, where it is expected to provide better power quality, and drastically cut electricity bills. The company also aims to install another system near Hawaii sometime next year, where citizens are currently paying enormous electricity bills because of a poor-quality storage system, operating on diesel fuel.
The reduction in costs comes from the much cheaper materials used in the manufacturing process and the much simpler system. In addition to this, the technology is much safer, because it does not require numerous wires and connections. The developers are certain that their technology will finally provide the much needed system for large-scale storage of energy by renewables.
