battery

Under this project, the Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) is being funded together with the Idaho National Laboratory by the US Department of Energy (DOE). The principal objective is to gain a better understanding of battery life for batteries utilized in operation of electric vehicles. Emphasis is on analysis of existing lithium-ion battery systems and the aging of such batteries under a variety of conditions.

The primary HNEI contact for this project is Bor Yann Liaw. An important benefit of project activities would be a revolution in battery diagnosis and prognosis to provide improved battery management. For project details, see the Battery Diagnostics on Path-Dependent Aging pdf document.

Another project of interest involves operation of specialized GM electric vehicles.  See the Hydrogen for GM Equinox Electric Vehicles project section of our website for details. For information regarding other related HNEI research efforts, see the Electrochemical Power Sources, Energy Storage, Hydrogen, and Transportation research sections of our website.

This Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) project is being funded by the Office of Naval Research in collaboration with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The objective is to mitigate adverse impacts of integrating intermittent renewable energy sources onto electricity grids in Hawai‘i. For this project, the technology being evaluated is a fast-response battery energy storage system. In addition to HNEI, project partners include Altairnano, Inc., Hawi Renewable Development LLC, and SCADA Solutions. The initial effort is on the Big Island of Hawai‘I, but depending on project results, other similar projects might be possible on other islands.

The primary HNEI contacts for this project are Richard Rocheleau and Larry Cutshaw. For more information concerning the project, see the Batteries for Grid Management pdf document.

A similar project, evaluating a different technology for grid management (use of hydrogen and fuel cells) is also being funded by DOE, and for details see the Grid Management Using Hydrogen and Fuel Cells for Grid Support sections of our website. For general information on other related HNEI research activities, see the Energy Storage, Grid Systems, and Hydrogen research sections of our website.

The Hawai‘i Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) is actively involved with several issues of energy storage.  One important aspect relates to the increased utilization of renewable resources by electric utilities in the State of Hawaii.  Some of these resources (such as solar and wind energy) are intermittent and this can present the problem of storing the energy generated when it is not needed, so that it can subsequently be used when it is needed.   Among the possible options for storing such energy, HNEI is working with the use of: 1) batteries for energy storage, and 2) electrolyzers operating on solar and wind energy for generating hydrogen which can be stored and then used to drive fuel cells for generating energy as needed, as possible in HNEI’s Hawaii Hydrogen Power Park.  Details concerning specific projects using each of these options are presented in the sections of our website listed below (see also the section on Grid Storage Systems under Grid Systems):    

• Batteries for Grid Management
• Grid Management Using Hydrogen

Another aspect concerning energy storage is the matter of advanced batteries for use in a variety of applications.  HNEI is also involved in advanced battery research.  For details see the section covering HNEI’s Electrochemical Power Sources.