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r/EnergyStorage

▲ 110 r/EnergyStorage+2 crossposts

The grid’s weirdest battery might be air. Not compressed air. Liquid air????

if I understand this correctly, so you cool ordinary air to around −196°C and it turns into liquid.

Store it in insulated tanks.

When electricity is needed, warm it back up, let it expand, and use that expansion to spin a turbine.

that sounds like sci-fi, but the strange part is how unsci-fi it apparently is. The components already exist across the LNG, industrial gas, and turbine industries...

And the pitch seems to not be “better than lithium-ion at everything.” cause It isn’t. Lithium wins short-duration storage by a bunch...

But for longer gaps like overnight, multi-day wind droughts, renewable curtailment events, lithium seems to get brutally expensive because adding duration means adding more battery cells...

Liquid air mostly adds tanks, right?

Could the future of renewable energy storage be less about exotic batteries and more about industrial plumbing at very cold temperatures?

Where does this idea break: efficiency, cost, maintenance, siting, grid economics, or something else?

reddit.com
u/Electric_Octopus_ — 4 days ago
▲ 0 r/EnergyStorage

Acoustic walls and barriers for BESS

I am looking for info from site engineers or those with direct experience of installing acoustic walls and sound barriers around large-scale BESS operational sites, particularly those with any experience of large-scale solar.

There is complex and confusing information online as it seems like this is a relatively under-researched area, with developers usually finding a way around it.

Do acoustic barriers work on large-scale BESS, or if this a bit of a myth and cumulative sound impact remains significant to nearby residential areas?

reddit.com
u/Ambitious_End_8946 — 3 days ago
▲ 0 r/EnergyStorage

How a Battery Makes Money - Energy Arbitrage

Hello fellow ESS enthusiasts!

Following up from the 2nd Article in my ongoing series on Why Batteries Matter - And How They Make Money, we now go into the details of the fundamental vehicle of revenue generation by BESS - Energy Arbitrage. We discuss the naive approach, its inadequacies, and the correct way to think about how a battery actually conducts arbitrage.

I apologize for the delay in this one - I really struggled with trimming this one. The complexities behind arbitrage is tough to boil down, and even more so for someone like me who is ingrained into it all. I hope you read this one, and provide feedback on the series so far and the website.

Link: How a Battery Makes Money: Energy Arbitrage

reddit.com
u/TheMihawk05 — 5 days ago
▲ 10 r/EnergyStorage

It doesn’t look like much yet – but this is where a 50 MW / 5‑hour BESS starts to take shape.

Location:Mid North, South Australia.

Hallett Battery Energy Storage System – first stage: 50 MW, five hours of storage.

Built alongside the existing Hallett gas‑fired power station.

Congratulations to Enerven and EnergyAustralia for kicking off another significant project. Bringing national capability back to South Australia’s own backyard – that’s something worth celebrating!

At Huaxia New Energy, we know that a successful BESS isn’t just about megawatts and duration numbers. It’s about the physical protection layer that keeps those megawatts available year after year – especially in South Australia’s demanding climate (summer heat, dust, and the occasional storm).

Three components we supply that help assets like Hallett stay reliable:

✅ IP66 + C5 weatherproof louvers – dust‑tight, pressure‑wash resistant, pressure drop <30 Pa. Cooling fans don’t fight the louver, even during heatwaves.

✅ Acoustic louvers – tuned for 1000–8000 Hz fan noise. Critical when BESS sites are located near rural homes or future mixed‑use zones.

✅ Explosion pressure relief louvers / rupture panels – pre‑set burst pressure vents flammable gases instantly. A silent safety net that works whether anyone’s watching or not.

We’re not the builders. We’re the ones who make sure the builders’ work lasts.

#QuestionForGroup:

When you look at a greenfield BESS site like Hallett, what’s the one passive protection feature you wish was specified more rigorously from day one – ingress, noise, or pressure relief?

If there is any need for IP52-65 Ventilation louver on your products feel free to let me know at: Arthur@huaxiavent.com

#HuaxiaNewEnergy #IP65 #BESS#EVCharging #ThermalManagement #IngressProtection #C5CorrosionProtection #VentilationEngineering hashtag#GridScaleStorage #ReliabilityByDesigng#OutdoorEnclosure #BatteryCabinet #DCFastCharger #FanCooling #Weatherproof #DustProtection #EnergyStorage #CriticalInfrastructure#IndustrialVentilation #DesignedForDecades

u/realfresharthur — 9 days ago
▲ 16 r/EnergyStorage+2 crossposts

Seeking Peer Review: Technical Comparison Table for LFP vs. Na-ion

​Hi everyone,

​I’m currently finalizing a research paper focusing on a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) analysis between Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) and Sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries. I’ve compiled the attached data table representing the 2026 market landscape, and I’d appreciate some feedback on my logic—specifically regarding cycle life and data selection.

​The "15,000 Cycles" Dilemma

​Most Tier-1 Na-ion manufacturers (like CATL and BYD) are advertising lab results of 15,000+ cycles. However, I have intentionally capped my analysis at 6,000 cycles for the "Field/Commercial" metric, aligning with international organization reports (e.g., IRENA).

​My reasoning: Lab conditions (constant temperature, low C-rates, narrow SoC windows) rarely translate to real-world grid or EV stress.

​Question: Is it standard practice in your experience to reject these "hero" lab numbers in favor of more conservative, commercially realistic estimates?

​Specific Models vs. General Averages

​Instead of using generic "industry averages," I decided to use specific commercial cells (e.g., EVE K280LF, BYD Blade, CATL Naxtra).

​Does this approach provide more robust results for MCDM, or does it risk making the study too "time-sensitive" as specific models evolve?

​The "Thermal Stability" Metric

​I’ve assigned Na-ion a near-perfect score (9.8-9.9) due to its inherent safety and ability to be transported at zero volts. However, I feel this metric is somewhat subjective and lacks a standardized quantitative scale in most literature.

​How are you all quantifying "safety" beyond basic thermal runaway temperatures?

​Primary Focus: Lifespan vs. Everything Else

​While my query centers on Cycle Life, I’ve also included LCOS (Levelized Cost of Storage) in $/kWh and performance at -20°C.

​I'd love to hear from engineers or researchers working with these chemistries. Does this table look "sane" for a high-impact journal submission?

u/Afraid-Blueberry6962 — 10 days ago
▲ 46 r/EnergyStorage

AAAS: “Pushed by Trump policies, top U.S. battery scientist is moving to Singapore.” Shirley Meng grew up in China + earned her degrees in Singapore, but the US is where she built her career trying to make better + cheaper batteries for a power-hungry world. “After 2 decades here, the University of Chicago materials scientist, who also heads a Department of Energy (DOE) research hub, is now heading back to Singapore. At odds with the Chinese Communist Party, she did not hesitate to relinquish her Chinese citizenship in 2004 + became a Singaporean citizen. 

“On 1 July, Meng will become vice president for innovation and global affairs at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU), her undergraduate alma mater and a growing research powerhouse.” Only 35 years old, NTU was ranked 12th this year in one global assessment of research universities—one rung above UChicago. “Meng took the job because she thinks the U.S. has turned away from a commitment to decarbonize its economy.” She’s leaving with mixed emotions—and the hope that the political environment for more sustainable energy sources will improve once Trump leaves office. 

“The last 15 months have been extraordinarily difficult for the energy storage field, with many important projects being sidelined.” Administration’s immigration policies, including its restrictions on Chinese-born scientists, were another factor in her decision to move to NTU. “I’ve always been an internationalist…and I think that Singapore is a place where people can collaborate, regardless of what country you come from.” 

For now, she will maintain a partial appointment at UChicago and continue to run her lab, which recently developed the first anode-free sodium solid-state battery, an alternative to lithium batteries that could allow more affordable and faster charging of electric vehicles. 

A final note: she was in Saudi Arabia this winter and the Saudi energy minister took took her aside at one point and said, “You know, your [Chris Wright, energy] secretary is more pro-oil than me.” Perhaps Singaporeans understand irony more than most Americans do.

science.org
u/swarrenlawrence — 13 days ago
▲ 8 r/EnergyStorage+4 crossposts

I came across a segment from Spectrum News 1 recently about this project in Texas called the Liberty American Multi-Sourced Power and Innovation Hub (LAMP), and it’s actually more interesting than I expected. 

It’s being developed by BaRupOn out in Liberty, Texas, and the scale alone is kind of wild, 700+ acres built around this idea of running large industrial operations without leaning heavily on the public grid.

What stood out to me is the energy setup. Instead of pulling from the grid like most data centers or industrial parks, the campus is designed to generate its own power (starting with natural gas, with plans for more advanced tech later). The pitch is basically: operate independently so you’re not stressing the local power supply.

Their founder, Balaji Tammabattula, said in the segment that the project shouldn’t impact local residents’ electricity or bills at all. That’s a pretty big claim, especially in Texas, where grid stability has been a real issue.

Another part I found interesting is how they’re handling water. Instead of just pulling heavily from local sources, they’re building large detention ponds to capture and reuse rainwater across the site. It’s one of those things you don’t usually hear about with projects like this, but it probably should be.

From what I understand, this isn’t a single-phase build either. The plan is to scale it up over time to support data centers, manufacturing, and other high-energy industries, potentially reaching gigawatt-level capacity.

So in theory, it’s trying to check a few boxes at once:

  • self-sustaining power
  • minimal strain on public infrastructure
  • water reuse is built into the system
  • long-term scalability

Obviously, a lot of this depends on how it actually plays out over time, but it’s an interesting approach, especially with how much pushback large energy and data projects have been getting lately.

Curious what people think. Is this a model that could actually work long-term, or does it sound better on paper than in reality?

u/Caeyy_666 — 12 days ago