Renewable Technology

USING BATTERIES AS A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SOURCE

Aceleron Essential battery

Carlton Cummins, Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder of clean technology company Aceleron, explains the part that battery technology has to play in reducing our carbon emissions.

According to the Government’s Energy Trends report (April to June 2021), renewable energy generation fell, compared to the same period the year before, due to less favourable weather conditions. This led to an increased reliance on gas to make up for the shortfall which may have worked in the short term but clearly isn’t going to work longer term – especially if we want to reach net zero by 2050.

The truth is, we have become accustomed to using ever-increasing quantities of energy – thanks, in large part, to our reliance on technology and the use of electric vehicles. This is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future and has resulted in an increased focus on how energy can be sourced, stored and managed more sustainably.

We need to be able to store renewablysourced energy to provide supplementary power even on cloudy or windless days and this is where battery technology comes in. If energy storage in the form of batteries is added to a building’s infrastructure, we should be able to meet the increased demand for power without needing to rely so heavily on less sustainable energy sources.

The benefits of adding battery storage to a building’s energy infrastructure:

Increased operational capacity

There are times when a building will need to draw a lot of power at once – for running highpower machinery or recharging a fleet of electric vehicles, for instance – and this can result in requiring extra grid capacity.

Battery storage allows power to be unlocked faster than a typical grid can deploy, meaning that electric vehicles can recharge and go quickly and efficiently – or using high-power machinery will not mean compromising on power use in other areas.

Keeping costs down

It is really important to consider the lifecycle of a battery when adding to a building’s energy infrastructure, as they can be a costly investment. A typical battery will need to be replaced when it no longer works as they can’t easily be serviced and this puts costs up.

The technology we have designed at Aceleron means that our batteries are built to last a lifetime. Using a unique compression technology, every part of an Aceleron battery can be repaired or replaced, with the replaced parts being fully recyclable – or even reusable. This means that once the initial purchase is covered, the battery storage system can be serviced and repaired on an ongoing basis, reducing long-term costs significantly.

Energy management and sustainability

Businesses are now evaluated for Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) and the conversation about what we can do to reach net zero is only going to get louder and more intense.

Backup power supply

Historically, backup power has been supplied by diesel generators – harmful to the environment and costly to run, repair and replace. Battery technology has advanced to the point where diesel generators will soon become obsolete. Batteries, such as the Essential, can provide a reliable, clean power source, which can be monitored and controlled remotely, making it sustainable as well as ‘smart’.

Using battery storage, as a means of efficiently managing energy use and supply, is a valid and – perhaps more crucially for some – cost-effective means of contributing to our goal of reaching net zero by 2050. 

Carlton Cummins is Chief Technical Officer and Co-Founder of clean technology company, Aceleron