Expert proposes Australian manufacturing pilot for new type of battery

A US battery expert has visited Australia to discuss a new type of battery that can store power from renewable energy sources.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Professor Donald Sadaway, a materials chemistry expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the co-inventor of the liquid metal battery, visited Canberra recently in an effort to establish a research partnership with the Australian National University.

Professor Sadoway is also seeking to create a $50 million pilot manufacturing plant for the liquid metal batteries, a low-cost, long-life cell that can be used as an alternative to solid-state lithium-ion batteries.

Australia is considered to be well suited to the technology because of its renewable resources, vast distances and expensive electricity grid.

The batteries have a working life of 300 years and retain over 99% of initial storage capacity after 10 years of continuous use.

Sadoway’s company Ambri is planning to introduce the first of its batteries into commercial use in the US within the next year.