Solar energy farms have a problem.
Large solar energy facilities often have limited ability to store their energy. That’s not a significant problem during the day when energy is generated and supplied to the electrical grid.
But… as people head home from work, that’s when energy demand often peaks. People want to charge their phones, computers and cars. Heat or cool their homes. Make dinner, do laundry, watch TV…
And that’s when the energy supply from solar farms often wanes.
Affordable, efficient, reliable energy storage could help supply electricity when people need it the most.
Meet Walt, Senior Applications Development Engineer at SABIC.
“We had an energy storage company that approached us and said, ‘Hey, we’re looking for a highly conductive thermoplastic material.’”
“The requirement for this plastic material was to replace metal plates that were used in their batteries. The metal plates were heavy. They required secondary operations or coating processes to prevent corrosion. So, we needed a thermoplastic material that could have longevity in the battery environment and have the conductivity to move electric current.”
At first, it seemed like a far-fetched idea: making batteries out of plastic.
Most plastic does a great job insulating (think electrical wiring, home insulation, refrigerators). And most plastic does a poor job conducting energy.
Walt could have said no. But what if he could harness the inherent benefits of plastic – lightweight, efficient, easy to mold, cost-effective – and tack on the ability to conduct and store energy?
“No solution existed at the time when the customer approached us. It was a matter of building a thermoplastic compound from scratch that had the electrical properties that were needed.”
Instead of saying no, he did what he does best.
“I guess what I enjoy the most of my workday is solving problems. My role is to support our customers, to understand their needs, what’s working, what’s not working, and then to help position the right material solution.”
“It requires breaking down the issue and then pulling it apart sort of like a puzzle. And then putting those pieces of the puzzle back together to come up with a solution.”
It’s taken a long time to build that puzzle.
“We’ve worked over the past, say, seven years, coming up with a solution. And it’s not as simple a path as going from just A to B. There was a lot of A to Z, back to B to D. It’s a matter of running lots of experiments, trying to see whether your ideas work in the application. But ultimately, the reward is that we got to a solution that actually works.”
And that solution will help solve a huge problem.
“When you look at solar farm production, it’s a use it or lose it issue. Without storage, if you’re not using the power, you’re losing it. So, if you’re generating power at a point in time when there’s very little energy demand, what happens is the power’s gone, and you can’t get it back.”
“By having batteries now in place, you can store that energy for a time, let’s say later in the day or at night, when you need that power and the sun is not there to generate it.”
That’s actually a really big leap for efficiency.
“I would think today the biggest demand is for utility energy storage.”
“You can now create systems to store energy for things like wind and solar. You’re taking these batteries and you make a container where you put hundreds of batteries into that container. So now we have the ability to put battery storage at solar farms to collect that energy to be used at a time of high energy demand.”
Simply put…
“We’re making solar power more reliable so communities can use it when they need it. And we’re making solar power more efficient and reliable to make America more energy efficient.”
Walt’s energy storage customer is impressed. And so were the “world’s most senior scientists, engineers, designers, marketers, educators and media leaders” who voted to honor SABIC with an Edison Award™. Sometimes called the Oscars of Innovation, the “Edison Awards are a global competition honoring excellence in new product and service development, marketing, human-centered design, and innovation.”
As the award noted: “Battery manufacturers achieve up to 70% weight/40% cost reductions and improve energy efficiency using it vs. metal electrode batteries.”
We wish Walt and his team continued success.