据油价网报道，能源储存的风险与日俱增。考虑到欧洲、亚洲和美国的所有计划都在大力增加可再生能源在发电组合中的数量，世界需要能源储存，而且迫切需要廉价储能。因此，储能技术的突破已或多或少成为一种常态。这些最新的突破有望解决能源储存的两个挑战：价格和容量。
能源储存通过使用海水而不是溶剂作为电池的电解质，溶剂比水贵得多，而且也不安全。
美国《科学日报》日前援引发表这个研究的美国俄勒冈州立大学化学工程师冯兴兴(音译)的话说，“世界的能源需求在不断增长，但开发具有高储能密度和长循环寿命的下一代电化学储能系统在技术上仍然具有挑战性。”
他说，“使用水基传导溶液剂作为电解质的水电池是一种新兴的、更安全的锂离子电池替代品。但水系统的储能密度相对较低，而且水会与锂发生化学反应，这进一步阻碍了水电池的广泛使用。”
为了解决能量密度的挑战，研究人员制作了一种全新的纳米结构合金作为他们的水电池的阳极。阳极由锰、锌和其他金属制成。冯兴兴说，锌提高电池的储能密度，因为它可以转移两倍于锂的电荷。阳极的其他元素通过防止树枝晶的形成来提高电池的安全性，树枝晶往往会在过充电的锂离子电池中形成，有时会导致自燃。
由于世界各地的实验室在推动锂离子以外的领域，德国科学家也在致力于水电池。然而，这个团队专注于锌空气电池，这种电池有很多优点，比如储能密度和稳定性，但不幸的是，它们不能充电。
或者至少它们现在还不能充电。
来自德国威斯特法伦-威廉姆斯-明斯特大学的研究人员与来自中国和美国的科学家合作，开发了一种新的以海水为基础的锌空气电池电解质，取代了通常使用的碱性溶液。他们还推出了一种以锌盐为基础的阳极，使电池不仅可以充电，而且相当耐用，有可能与锂离子电池的化学成分相竞争。
这两种电池都需要更多的工作才能走出实验室并投入市场。因此，至少就目前而言，锂离子技术的主导地位是确定无疑的。但是，如果继续努力寻找更安全、或许更重要和更便宜的替代品，可能无法长期保证。
仅美国一个国家就计划到2025年前将其能源储存能力提高525%。储存量已经在快速增加：尽管疫情大流行肆虐，美国去年第三季度建立的能源储存量比第二季度高出了240%。
与此同时，目前的储能能力远远不足以为电网提供一两个小时以上的电力，这使得它适合取代峰值发电厂，但对其他地方来说就不太合适了，尤其是用太阳能和风能完全取代化石燃料。为此，电网需要储存足够的电力以维持数小时，以防天气模式干扰太阳能和风力发电场的发电，这是经常发生的事情。
公用事业规模的储存和电动汽车电池将几乎一手决定可再生能源革命的命运。太阳能和风能技术成本的下降一直是好消息，但如果没有能源储存，长期而言这些日益下降的成本并没有真正的意义。
李峻 编译自 油价网
原文如下：
Can Sea Water Batteries Solve Our Energy Storage Problem?
The stakes are rising with each passing day for energy storage. The world needs it, and it needs it cheaply and urgently, given all the plans in Europe, Asia, and the United States to considerably boost the amount of renewable energy in the power generation mix. As a result, breakthroughs in energy storage tech have become more or less a regular occurrence. The latest of these breakthroughs promises to solve the two challenges of energy storage: price and capacity.
It does that by using seawater for a battery's electrolytes instead of solvents, which are much more expensive but also less safe than water.
"The world's energy needs are increasing, but the development of next-generation electrochemical energy storage systems with high energy density and long cycling life remains technically challenging," says Xhenxing Feng, a chemical engineer from Oregon State University, which published the research, as quoted by Science Daily.
"Aqueous batteries, which use water-based conducting solutions as the electrolytes, are an emerging and much safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries. But the energy density of aqueous systems has been comparatively low, and also the water will react with the lithium, which has further hindered aqueous batteries' widespread use."
To solve the energy density challenge, the researchers made a whole new nanostructured alloy for the anode of their aqueous battery. The anode combines manganese, zinc, and other metals. The zinc boosted the battery's energy density because it could transfer twice as many charges as lithium, according to Feng. The other elements of the anode increased the battery's safety by preventing the formation of dendrites that tend to form in overcharged lithium-ion batteries, sometimes resulting in spontaneous combustion.
Scientists in Germany are also working Or at least they weren't rechargeable until now.
Working with scientists from China and the United States, the researchers from the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster developed a new electrolyte for a zinc-air battery that is based Both batteries would need a lot more work before they get out of the lab and reach the market. So at least for now, lithium-ion technology's dominance is ensured. But it may not be ensured for long if efforts persist in finding safer and, perhaps more importantly, cheaper alternatives.
The United States alone plans to boost its energy storage capacity by as much as 525 percent by 2025. Storage is already being added at a fast rate: the amount set up in the third quarter of 2020 was 240 percent higher than the amount set up in the second quarter, all despite the raging pandemic.
At the same time, current storage capacity is very far from sufficient to power the grid for more than an hour or two, which makes it fit for a replacement of peaker plants but not much else, especially the complete replacement of fossil fuels with solar and wind. For that, the grid would need enough stored electricity to last for many hours in case weather patterns interfere with power generation at solar and wind farms, which is a frequent occurrence.
Utility-scale storage and EV batteries will seal the fate of the renewable revolution pretty much single-handedly. Falling costs of solar and wind technology are always good news, but without storage, these falling costs are not really relevant for the long-term.