Establishment of Performance Metrics for Batteries in Large‐Scale Energy Storage Systems from Perspective of Technique, Economics, Environment, and Safety

Abstract

The battery is the core of large‐scale battery energy storage systems (LBESS). It is important to develop high‐performance batteries that can meet the requirements of LBESS for different application scenarios. However, large gaps exist between studies and practical applications because there are no uniform metrics for evaluating the performance of batteries. Herein, based on the fundamental requirements of LBESS, this perspective establishes the performance metrics of batteries for scenarios of load leveling, frequency regulation, and reserve application, respectively. Performance metrics include the technical metrics (e.g., the energy density, cycling performance, rate performance), economic metrics (levelized cost of energy), environmental metrics (sustainability of the material, recyclability of batteries, etc.), and safety metrics. The relationship between the proposed metrics and the application of the LBESS are discussed to guide the future studies.

Zinc–Air Flow Batteries at the Nexus of Materials Innovation and Reaction Engineering

“…Mitigating human society’s heavy dependence on fossil resources makes it imperative to improve the utilization of renewable energies such as solar, wind, and hydro energies. However, the inherent intermittence of these renewable energies, as well as geographical constraints often on them, has limited the widespread deployment of renewable power plants. , Advanced electrochemical technologies that can store electric energy in chemicals or materials are anticipated to break the above temporal and spatial limitations when utilizing renewable energies at a large scale. − Many of these technologies, including fuel cells, primary/secondary metal–air batteries, and renewable-powered electrolyzers, are based on gas-involved reactions, of which the performance is usually limited by the sluggish kinetics and largely dependent on transport phenomena of gas reactants. − By taking inspiration from conventional reaction engineering, the flow-type electrochemical reactor has emerged as an effective solution to manipulate gas-involved reactions. For instance, electrochemical reductions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen have both been substantially improved through flow-cell reaction engineering, demonstrating desirable product yields at high current densities. , Similar improvements through rational reaction engineering are anticipated for novel secondary battery chemistries based on gas-involved reactions.…”