By JD DiGiacomandrea, Green Cubes Technology As the number of cell sites increase and their sizes decrease, engineers have options to consider for battery backup. Differing battery chemistries offer more choices and different performance levels. Selecting the right battery chemistry for each application is critical to ensure reliable, long lasting, and cost-effective power delivery. The…
What are the battery-selection criteria for low-power design?
A battery is not an ideal finite power supply. The energy stored in a fully charged battery cannot be supplied to the digital circuitry to its full extent because the amount of energy a battery can provide depends on the current drawn from the battery itself. In other words, the higher the discharge current, the…
What are alternatives to Li-ion batteries?
There are many alternatives to Li-ion batteries, including fuel cells, various types of supercapacitors, redox flow batteries, novel Li-based chemistries such as lithium-sulfur (LiS), and more. This FAQ focuses on alternative non-lithium rechargeable battery chemistries, including calcium-ion (Ca-ion), magnesium-ion (Mg-ion), sodium-ion (Na-ion), zinc-ion (Zn-ion), iron-air (Fe-air), and sodium-sulfur (NaS) that can be more readily integrated…
What are six key considerations when choosing a Li-ion battery chemistry?
Designers have choices and tradeoffs when choosing the ideal Li-ion battery chemistry. Batteries affect the cost, lifetime, and usefulness of an application. An optimal energy storage system is critical to ensure the life and performance of an application, so it’s essential to start with the best battery chemistry for the job. This FAQ reviews six…
What are the top five Li-ion battery safety standards?
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are complex electrochemical and mechanical systems subject to dozens of international safety standards. In this FAQ, we’ll discuss the key environmental aspects of LIB safety, review the top five LIB safety standards, and consider using custom-battery testing rooms for the safety of testing personnel. Many of the LIBs’ safety concerns are because…
How fast can Li-on batteries be charged?
What battery chemistries are used in grid-scale energy storage?
Expansion of grid-scale energy storage is important to enable the transition to variable renewable energy (VRE) sources such as wind and solar, and a green energy economy. The use of battery energy storage systems (BESS) is a key to enabling the growing penetration of VREs. BESS installations are classified as behind-the-meter (BTM) or front of…
Long-life batteries harness the passivation effect
A little known chemical reaction helps extend battery life. Sol Jacobs, Tadiran Batteries As remote wireless devices become increasingly essential to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), there is a growing need to understand the principles behind extended battery life. Many IIoT nodes require a battery-driven energy source. These off-grid low-power applications fall into two […]
What’s the status of EV charging connector standards?
Connectors for electric vehicle (EV) charging are both standardized and changing. On one level, EV charging connectors are standardized based on today’s technology limitations. There are standards in major regional markets, including North America, Japan, the European Union, and China. But current charging technologies are power limited. This FAQ begins with a review of EV […]
Battery Management Systems: Effective ways to measure state-of-charge and state-of-health
By Denis Larkin, Integra Sources Ltd. One of the purposes of battery management systems is to monitor the state-of-charge and state-of-health of rechargeable batteries. This article will tell you about these two metrics and the methods used to measure them. Rechargeable batteries are used in many solutions, but industries use battery management systems (BMSs) to […]