An experimental lithium-ion-titanate battery storage system has been inaugurated and connected to one of the largest solar parks in French-speaking Switzerland.
Manufactured by Swiss battery firm Leclanche, the system is based on high-performance lithium-ion titanate cells that have a charge-discharge cycle of around 15,000, in contrast to the more usual 3,000.
The cells have Leclanche-patented ceramic separators and are part of a fully integrated solution comprising storage and energy-conversion modules.
The battery uses software to communicate with smart grid developers from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), who are heading up the research into the experiment.
It has been scheduled to last for almost two years at the Romande Energie-SPFL Solar Park in Switzerland.
The ‘EPFL Smart Grid Project’ aims to study industrial-scale solutions for using renewable energies (especially solar energy) and feeding them into the power distribution grid.
The system will be able to hold up to 500 kWh, which is the equivalent of the average energy consumed by fifty Swiss households over the course of one day.
