International Collaboration Scores Big Renewable Energy Win

When we work together great things are possible.

Six universities from around the world worked together to develop a breakthrough in solar flow battery technology that combines PV generation and storage in one device. The outstanding collaborative accomplishment was a product of: University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney in Australia, Utah State University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, the City University of Hong Kong and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Here's the story...

Solar flow battery breakthrough combines PV generation and storage in one device, Sophie Vorrath, reneweonomy.com, 14 July 2020.

"A US-led research collaboration including a team of PV scientists from Australia has produced an ultra-efficient and long-lasting solar flow battery – a way to generate, store and re-deliver renewable electricity from the sun in one device."

"Chemists from the Song Jin lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said on Tuesday that the new device was made of silicon solar cells combined with advanced solar materials and integrated with optimally designed chemical storage components."

"Essentially, they combine the advantages of photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity with the advantages of flow batteries, which use tanks of chemicals that can react to produce electricity and be recharged by the solar cells."

"The research team says that the solar flow battery produced through the collaboration has set a new record efficiency of 20 per cent, besting most commercially available silicon solar cells, and was 40 per cent more efficient than the previous record holder for solar flow batteries, also developed by the Jin lab."

"The work was done in collaboration with researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney in Australia, Utah State University, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and the City University of Hong Kong. It was published on July 13 in the journal Nature Materials."

Schematic illustration of an integrated solar flow battery. Image: Wenjie Li

"Lead author of the study, UW–Madison graduate student Wenjie Li, said that while solar flow batteries were years away from commercialisation, they offered the potential to provide reliable electricity generation and storage for lighting, cell phones or other fundamental uses for homes in remote areas."  -more-

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