How Britishtechnology aims to drive the battery revolution

To cut carbon emissions and provide energy to keep the lights on, minsters are backing battery innovation. Gareth Taylor reports.

Moves to cut air pollution and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels have suddenly become even more controversial than they were.

First the Government announced plans to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 by ensuring they’re ‘zeroemission’, prompting an outcry among petrol and diesel enthusiasts. Then came news that Honda is to close its UK vehicle manufacturing plant, potentially costing thousands of jobs.

Brexit uncertainty, a long-term fall in global car sales and new EU diesel emission rules have been variously blamed but most agree Honda’s decision is a further signal the tide has turned for fossil fuel-powered transport. Electric vehicles are the future.

The UK is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050 – England accounts for four fifths of current emissions and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the rest.

To achieve this we’ll need to switch reliance from fossil fuels to renewable sources. However, wind, sun and tidal energy are by nature unreliable, and ministers are relying on energy storage to even out the peaks and troughs and guarantee supply. It’s a big ask – present-day battery technologies are nowhere near able to fill these gaps.

That said, major advances have been made. Renewable energy capacity overtook that of fossil fuels in the UK for the first time between July and September, according to Imperial college. The capacity of wind, solar, biomass and hydropower reached 41.9GW, beating 41.2GW from coal, gas and oil-fired power plants.

That progress will stall without major technology improvements, so ministers are intent on turning the UK into a battery powerhouse. In July 2017 the Government launched the Faraday Battery challenge, part of the ‘Industrial Strategy challenge Fund’, investing £246m to address the productivity gap in a growing market worth an estimated £5bn in the UK and £50bn across Europe by 2025.

They also established the Faraday Institution, a charitable trust that supports research, training and analysis for innovation in electrochemical energy storage. Focusing on automotive technology, ministers hope the advances achieved will translate into other transport modes such as aerospace and rail.

Four initial research projects, involving 20 universities and 30 industry partners, have been awarded £42m – to look into extending battery life, battery system modelling, recycling and reuse, and next-generation solid-state batteries.

For Ian Ellerington, the institution’s Head of Technology Transfer, batteries can do more than address Britain’s long-term energy needs – they can be a catalyst for the country’s industrial revival.

“The world is approaching a tipping point and the electric vehicle is becoming the preferred transportation alternative to the internal combustion engine, on the grounds of efficiency, cost, and environmental footprint,” he said. “Car battery prices are falling in real terms, driven by volume manufacturing in response to consumer demand, with one-year waiting lists. This presents an enormous opportunity, not only to make renewable energy work for everyone, but also to restore Britain’s leading position in auto manufacturing, while providing the innovation needed to integrate electric vehicles into the energy distribution system.”

Lithium-ion batteries, with their high energy density and adaptability, have revolutionised electronics. In 1990 the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, near Oxford, licensed the technology to Sony of Japan for its camcorders. Since then, li-ion has become the preferred cell for electric vehicles (EVs), mobile phones and the on-board electronics in jetliners.

Aside from consumer electronics, batteries are also crucial for the reinvention – yet to come – of power generation and distribution, financial services, healthcare – in fact most activities in the new economy.

Cars will play a big role in electricity distribution by acting as mobile storage units, with drivers recharging when demand and prices are low, and being paid to feed power back into the grid at peak times, said Mr Ellerington, an engineer who led the Government’s energy innovation programme before becoming its Head of Disruptive Energy Technologies and Green Finance Innovation.

But he is less certain about how and where land-based “battery banks” will be located to ensure continuity of supply to Britain’s homes, hospitals, businesses and schools once the last coal-fired plants are gone.

The Harwell-based Faraday Institution, named after the 19th-century scientist Michael Faraday, who pioneered the technology behind electric motors, has brought together scientists and industry partners with the aim of reducing battery cost, weight, and volume; improving performance and reliability; and developing ‘whole-life strategies’ from mining to recycling and second use.

‘Round 2’ projects, to be launched by the Faraday Institution later this year, embrace yet bigger challenges such as electrode manufacturing and alternative cell chemistry beyond lithium-ion batteries.

Batteries are currently unable to cope with the peaks and troughs of grid-scale energy supply meaning Britain continues to rely on natural gas which combines high energy density with low emissions, hence the determination to find alternatives before our reserves run out or we become over-reliant on potentially unstable sources abroad.

“Batteries are really good at coping with peaks and troughs of four to five hours but are as yet nowhere near able to cope with days, months or seasonal shifts. That remains far more difficult to engineer cost-effectively,” said Mr Ellerington.

“I’m not too worried as we have natural gas, but longer-term, we’ll need alternatives that provide similar flexibility,” he said, adding that heat storage was also a challenge, with demand for heat and electricity for transport approximately matching.