First impressions do count, as a modern idiom says. Our initial experience often makes-or-breaks our evaluation of a particular brand of battery too. Sometimes we are confused about grid energy storage. Here are two common battery mistakes we may make, when we overlook the facts, and focus on what other people may say.
The First of Two Common Battery Mistakes
Mechanical engineer, and materials scientist Neel Sanghvi was chatting with a student while on a short break in Darmstadt, Germany. His new pal was a second year mechanical engineering undergraduate at a local university. He understood the mechanical principles of electric vehicles, but had only superficial knowledge about their batteries.
Perhaps that’s why we find knowledge gaps when it comes to electric-vehicle-energy-storage. We assume there will always be electricity on tap to charge them up. Possibly our knowledge does not extend to power stations, transmission grids, and power outages. Maybe we have not yet grasped the key role that renewable energy already plays in our lives.
Energy storage systems enable us to store renewable energy for future use. This is abundantly important, because the sun does not always shine, nor the wind always blow. The first of two common battery mistakes Neel Sanghvi uncovered in the student’s mind, was that energy storage systems were less important than electric vehicles and their batteries.
The Second, Related Battery Mistake to Avoid
The second of Neel Sanghvi’s common battery mistakes is to assume all batteries are the same, especially those in electric vehicles. Battery swapping stations may create the impression that ‘any battery type will do’ but this is far from the truth. Especially if this creates the impression that all electric vehicles are liable to catch fire.
You see, the truth of the matter is electric vehicles, energy storage, and grid storage batteries use various kinds of materials for their cathodes, anodes, and electrolytes, and this affects their characteristics, including flammability.
These components perform differently too, and their safety ratings are not identical either. Batteries are not all the same to put it mildly, regardless of what our initial understanding may have been.
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