evervenue is an American startup that claims to have solved the great handicap of nickel hydrogen batteries currently only used in space applications. You have found a way to make your manufacturing affordableso much so that they could be viable for your use in the automotive industry and in stationary energy storage systems. With 5 GWh of orders already accumulated, the Fremont-based company assures that it will start production at the end of this year.
The lithium batteries that currently power all mobile and electronic devices such as electric vehicles have come to where they are because they meet a series of properties, although they are not the best in any of them: the perfect battery is impossible to achieve. They offer sufficient energy density, limited by the weight and the final volume of the battery although its Lifecycle in some occasions, depending on the use, it can be fair. In addition, they offer high percentages of reuse and recycling at a cost that makes them economically viable. Another of its drawbacks is that can be unstable to the extent that it is necessary to implement very expensive security systems to avoid catastrophic fires.
This is why science is searching for better energy storage systems. Whether it is changing the chemistry, adding additives or using electrolytes with a different nature, whether it is completely innovating with brilliant new ideas, countless investigations try to find a substitute for lithium batteries.
The nickel-hydrogen batteries They are devices that could be described as strange. They have such unique characteristics that they are only used in space applications. Among them is his great resistance to degradationwithstanding tens of thousands of charge and discharge cycles with little loss of energy capacity and operating over a wide temperature rangeyes They can also become overcharged or deeply discharged without being damaged and are considerably safer than lithium-ion batteries. However, despite all these features that are far better than any known technology, are not used in the automotive industry because they are not economically viable.
Pressurized hydrogen must be contained in a container capable of withstanding up to 82.7 bar depression. This is the reason why they are not yet used in commercial applications. Furthermore, the energy density of nickel-hydrogen batteries is also significantly lower than that of Li-Ion. This means we probably won’t see an electric vehicle powered by a nickel-hydrogen battery anytime soon. For now, the EInternational Space Station, Mars Odyssey and the Mars Global Surveyor they will be the only ‘vehicles’ equipped with this type of batteries.
Nevertheless, evervenuea startup based in Fremont (the same city that was Tesla’s main home for many years), claims to have found a way to reduce the cost of nickel-hydrogen batteries to the extent that they are affordable. So much so that it would make them suitable for use in terrestrial applications. With its announcement and launch, the company claims to have accumulated 5 GWh on orders of their customers who will use them in stationary energy storage systems. Large-volume production is expected to start at the end of the year. The startup also plans to build a gigabattery factory in the US Midwest.
EverVenue intends to manufacture containers of 1.2 kWh that can be stacked to create network-level storage systems. The company claims to have improved the technology, achieving more than 85% efficiency during full charge and discharge cycles, which is on par with lithium-ion batteries.
