Construction Starting on World’s Largest Liquid-Air Battery

One of the big issues that needs to be solved in renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) is storage. That is, what happens when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing? Batteries are the answer. But batteries covers a lot of devices. Most of us know all about chemical batteries – like the ones in our cell phones. But there are lots of battery options. Enter the “liquid-air battery.”

How does it work? When the sun is shining and the wind is blowing, there is often excess electricity that is produced. This excess electricity is used to squeeze the air into liquid. (Yes, you heard correctly.) Then when the energy is needed, the liquid is allowed to expand into gas and that drives turbines to create electricity.

The genius of this type of battery is that it can be constructed anywhere – we all have air. And there are no special chemicals necessary, like there are with chemical batteries. The other advantage is that the power in this battery can be stored for a long time – several weeks.

By comparison, this battery will be able to store twice the electricity of the largest chemical battery built by Tesla in South Australia.

If you’d like to read the whole story on the new liquid-air battery being built near Manchester, UK, check out this link:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/18/worlds-biggest-liquid-air-battery-starts-construction-in-uk