The transition to renewable energy does not make sense without networked energy storage devices that would smooth out peaks in consumption and generation. For this task, China created the world’s most capacious battery in the form factor of a standard six-meter container. It can store 8 MWh, which is enough to power the average US home for almost a month.
Image source: Envision Energy
The Chinese company Envision Energy marked the production of a record network battery. The batteries of the Japanese company AESC occupied only half of the container, and the rest of the space was given over to a liquid cooling system for batteries, control electronics (even with elements of artificial intelligence!) and solutions for organizing the safe operation of the installation, including a flame extinguishing system and limiting the explosive spread of combustion products, which could have formed in an accident.
However, the container contains the safest lithium iron phosphate batteries (LiFePO4) with 700 Ah banks. The batteries are designed for operating voltages from 1500 V to 2000 V DC with a guarantee of 16 thousand recharge cycles. A fully charged 8 MWh battery can power the average US household for up to 640 hours, or almost 27 days. The weight of the container reaches 55 tons.
But this is not a home storage device. The battery is configured to deliver accumulated power for 2–8 hours. It will help cope with peaks in consumption and production, which will facilitate the utilization of renewable energy, and China, according to some rumors, no longer knows what to do with excess solar energy. In discharge mode every two hours, the battery will exhaust its life in about 3.5 years, which can be considered a reasonable sacrifice in an attempt to make the energy sector cleaner.