What do you folks think?

Sharp to make solar power storage batteries: report

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sharp Corp will team up with Daiwa House Industry Co Ltd and Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd to develop large lithium-ion batteries that can store solar energy for houses, the Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday.

The deal will help Sharp, the world's largest producer of solar cells, expand its solar power system business while enabling Japanese homebuilder Daiwa House add value to its homes with energy-saving technologies, the Nikkei said.

Sharp plans to invest around 600 million yen ($5.56 million) in large lithium-ion battery developer Eliiy Power Co Ltd in March, the Nikkei said.

Currently, Daiwa House and Dai Nippon Printing, provider of electrode materials used in lithium-ion batteries, each hold stakes worth about 600 million yen in Eliiy Power, a spokesman for Eliiy Power said.

 While existing household solar power systems can convert sunlight to energy, they cannot store power for later use. Homes thus rely on other forms of power on cloudy days or at night, a Daiwa House spokesman said.

But with large lithium-ion batteries, with up to 40 times the storage capacity of existing smaller batteries used in mobile phones and laptop computers, homes can have power even when the sun is not out, the Eliiy Power spokesman said.

Eliiy Power plans to build a factory to produce large lithium-ion batteries in the business year 2009/10, the Nikkei reported.

A Sharp spokeswoman said the firm is looking into storage batteries for households, but nothing has been determined. Daiwa House and Dai Nippon Printing spokesmen declined to confirm the Nikkei report. The Eliiy Power spokesman said the company is considering bringing another partner into its lithium-ion venture, but did not provide details.

Shares of Sharp rose 1.7 percent to 2,135 yen as of the morning close on Tuesday. Daiwa House shares climbed 1.5 percent to 1,121 yen, while shares of Dai Nippon Printing fell 0.6 percent to 1,699 yen.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

I had always thought that  Vandadium Redox Flow Batteries were likely candidates for large scale energy storage.

ericy:

I had always thought that  Vandadium Redox Flow Batteries were likely candidates for large scale energy storage.

I had always thought that  Flywheels  were likely candidates for large scale energy storage.

Froggy flywheel UPS, I think that is what is being referred too, are only good for a few seconds of energy to carry through for very short power outages..

As for lithium being used for home solar PV systems is a really bad idea because of the very short life span of lithium technology. Lithium batteries are good at quick charges and quick discharges, but poor at deep-cycle applications.

froggy:

ericy:

I had always thought that  Vandadium Redox Flow Batteries were likely candidates for large scale energy storage.

I had always thought that  Flywheels  were likely candidates for large scale energy storage.

It's hard to beat compressed air (in underground caverns) and pumped hydro energy storage for large scale energy storage.

 There are now several designs around for small, quiet, cheap wind turbines that lend themselves very well to integration in buildings. I would have thought forward-looking house makers ought to be looking into some of these ideas to cover more of those times when the sun don't shine.

I have a slight suspicion that this might be an attempt to stave off a future where people just use truck batteries on their own initiative to get off the grid - sell 'em something 'high tech' instead.

 We are manufacturer of battery and all energy sectors will need batteries to store power. We are studying about this subject but this batteries is very high price .We think How we can do very more cheap a battery for store power.

Batteries are ok for residential power systems, but the large scale plant that PG&E ordered uses heated oil as the energy storage medium:

Press Release 

The chairman of Ausra, the company building the plant, was on a Science Friday episode last month...really interesting.  

Todd