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Research turbine. Based on the known costs of thermo-
solar devices (about 7 cents per kWh) and of
solar panels (2 cents per kWh), we estimate that
the per-kWh cost of using our technology will
drop below 3 cents and will enable increased
use of solar energy. The Technion is currently
leading negotiations with entrepreneurs about
commercializing this technology,” says Rotschild.
The Utility-Scale Batteries to Come
Wind and sun are found everywhere on the planet,
but their quantity varies over the course of a year
and even over the course of a single day. At noon,
solar panels and solar power plants produce large
quantities of energy, but at night they remain idle.
Similarly, the wind can change its speed from one
hour to the next, making it impossible to know
in advance how much energy a wind turbine will
produce. Theoretically, too much energy doesn’t
sound like a problem, but in reality, a surplus of
energy can overload the electricity grid and even
cause infrastructures to collapse. The problem
with a sudden lack of energy is, of course,
obvious. “It is difficult to construct entire energy
grids based on renewable energy,” explains the
Technion’s Prof. Matthew Suss. “What we need
is to build energy storage systems, so that when
there’s abundant sunshine and we get more
energy than we need, we’d be able to store it for
future use. Then, when it’s dark outside, we would
be able to feed this energy to the electricity grid.” innovations could enable many additional
Suss is a global expert in energy storage. In his
lab at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, he
is trying to solve one of the biggest problems
with lithium-ion batteries. These are the
batteries found in our portable computers and
smartphones, and they have a high energy
density. They can store large quantities of energy
with very little physical space, but their Achilles
heel is their high cost, which makes it impossible
to manufacture larger batteries of this type, for
example, the batteries that could power an entire
city and store excess energy from millions of solar
panels during the day.
14 | MEgazine | Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Suss’ research team has developed batteries
whose chemical makeup differs from conventional
lithium-ion batteries—storing energy in giant
tanks of zinc-bromine, instead of lithium-ion.
These batteries do not have high energy density,
but because they are stationary, the tanks can
be enlarged, or additional tanks can be added as
necessary. Suss is pursuing a quick and efficient
method for charging zinc-bromine batteries,
hoping that this technology will enable even
countries such as Israel to move to renewable
energy. “At present, Israel is totally reliant on
fossil fuels, despite the fact that we have plenty
of sunshine,” he explains. “We want to limit this
reliance. If we succeed in developing batteries
with a long shelf life at low costs, extensive use
of wind and solar energy will become possible in
Israel.”
Prof. Matthew Suss: In the future, we could
have a single system that simultaneously
stores energy and desalinates water.
This could have applications in areas
not covered by the electricity grid.
Israel represents a large number of countries that
cannot trade excess energy with their neighbors.
It also does not have the benefit of the economics
of scale of such superpowers as China, India,
and the U.S., which can transport energy over
long distances within their own territory. Suss’
countries to use renewables.
“We have developed and patented a new zinc-
bromine battery, and I think it could really solve
all the problems existing zinc-bromine batteries
encounter. It’s still in early stages of development,
but looks very promising,” he adds. In the future,
his batteries may help small countries, even
villages, in additional ways; Suss is developing
ways of coupling the battery charging and
discharging processes with another process
that is important in dry environments: Water
desalination.