Breakthrough For Storing Power

For decades, one of the biggest obstacles to widespread adoption of renewal energy sources such as wind and solar has been the fact that storing the power generated is prohibitively expensive. Current battery technologies run about $700 per kilowatt hour of capacity, which, according to the U.S. Department of Energy is about seven times what it needs to be to make economic sense.

Recently, researchers at Harvard developed a new battery based on an organic molecule in place of the metal ions that are typically used. Known as a quinone, the molecule is found in plants (including rhubarb) and can be synthesized from crude oil inexpensively. When used in a flow battery – where energy is stored in liquid form – they could cut the cost to just $27 per kilowatt hour, well below DOE estimates for viability as a commercial system.

The developers tested 10,000 varieties to find a few candidates with the right properties for a battery such as voltage levels, ability to withstand multiple charge/discharge cycles and water solubility. Currently, the quinones are being used only on the anode side of the battery, however, new versions of the quinones are being developed that will also be able to replace the cathode components as well.