[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6437\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003ECharged up \u2013 the batteries lighting the way to a more sustainable future\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat includes solar-powered street lamps that glow night after night, even when the sun has been feeble, and ration their brightness according to the weather forecast for the week ahead.\u003Cdiv class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-bg-bluelightest tw-p-12 tw-my-12 tw--mx-16\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3 class=\u0022tw-font-sans tw-font-bold tw-text-blue tw-uppercase tw-text-lg tw-mb-8\u0022\u003EThe Issue\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-inline-block tw-w-1\/6 tw-h-1 tw-bg-blue tw-mb-8\u0022\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ELast year, world governments agreed in Paris to keep global warming to within 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial times.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat will mean increasing reliance on electricity from renewable sources, and on the batteries that can store it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/energy\/en\/topics\/renewable-energy\/renewable-energy-directive\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EEU has made a commitment\u003C\/a\u003E that\u0026nbsp;20 % of the region\u2019s energy will come from renewable sources by 2020.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s all thanks to a quiet revolution that\u2019s taking place in the development of rechargeable batteries, making them a lot more robust and able to deliver on the increasing demands being made of them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile snazzy street lamps that can change colour, talk to each other and even emit a WiFi signal aren\u2019t exactly new, the problem\u2019s often been the battery.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe standard lead-acid batteries are cheap, but they last only about three years, and disposal poses an environmental problem. That\u2019s according to Dr Thanh Trung Nguyen, a physicist at Philips Research in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, who is leading a research project known as BATTMAN.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers at BATTMAN, a project funded by the EU\u2019s ENIAC public-private partnership in nanoelectronics, set themselves the challenge of designing and developing a new lithium battery pack systems for a solar street lamp that can endure tough environments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECold can be a death sentence for a battery. Unlike the battery for your rooftop solar panel, which nestles in the comfort of your heated home, a street lamp battery is outdoors \u2013 and this can mean surviving winter temperatures of -20 degrees Celsius, as well as hot summers in some countries.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Most batteries cannot handle a large range of temperatures, the impact of the environment is really big,\u2019 said Dr Nguyen. \u2018Cold is especially damaging.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESmall heater\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBATTMAN scientists worked with a lithium-ion battery and added a small heater, powered by some of the battery\u2019s own energy. They wrapped it in thick insulating material, resulting in a battery that Dr Nguyen says can last 10 years, after which it can be recycled.\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022@alignright-width35@\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022A solar-powered heater protects the BATTMAN battery pack against the cold. Image courtesy of Dr Thanh Trung Nguyen\u0022 height=\u0022576\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/street%20lamp%20in%20winter.PNG\u0022 title=\u0022A solar-powered heater protects the BATTMAN battery pack against the cold. Image courtesy of Dr Thanh Trung Nguyen\u0022 width=\u0022280\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EA solar-powered heater protects the BATTMAN battery pack against the cold. Image courtesy of Dr Thanh Trung Nguyen\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Nowadays the lithium-ion battery is 20 to 30 % more expensive than lead-acid, but the lifetime is five to six times longer,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo far, there are a few demonstration lamps operating in several cities, including Eindhoven.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDown on the street, the race to develop batteries capable of sustaining the electric car revolution is intense.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome firms are experimenting with the chemistry of lithium-ion batteries, but BVB-Innovate, a firm based in Stuttgart, Germany, is exploring another avenue. Its scientists have taken the best lithium-ion battery cells that are readily available, connected them in a new way, and added wheels.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt means that, if your car runs out of charge, you don\u2019t need to get to a charging station because a charging station can come to you.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA mobile charger gets round the fact that \u2018in a big city, people don\u2019t have a fixed spot where they can leave their electric car,\u2019 said Dr Felix Teufel, head of systems integration at BVB-Innovate in Stuttgart, Germany.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt also removes the need for utility companies to install charging stations that involve digging into the ground and putting in expensive cables.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHooks up\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead, wherever you are parked, if you are low on charge you can summon the battery-charger, which takes the form of a domed device that hooks up to the back of a vehicle.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDepending on your make of electric car, it can take between 15 minutes and an hour to charge the whole battery \u2013 much faster than home charging.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe mobile battery, of which six prototypes are being tested with funding from the European Commission\u2019s Horizon 2020 instrument for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), can carry up to 85 kilowatt hours of energy \u2013 depending on the model \u2013 and weighs under 750 kilogrammes. The 85-kilowatt-hour version can thus charge four BMW i3 electric cars before needing to recharge itself \u2013 or one Tesla Model S.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cfigure role=\u0022group\u0022 class=\u0022@aligncenter@\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cimg alt=\u0022It takes between 15 minutes and an hour for a solar-powered, mobile battery-charger to energise a parked electric car. Image courtesy of BVB-Innovate\u0022 height=\u0022673\u0022 src=\u0022\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/Car%20battery.jpg\u0022 title=\u0022It takes between 15 minutes and an hour for a solar-powered, mobile battery-charger to energise a parked electric car. Image courtesy of BVB-Innovate\u0022 width=\u00221200\u0022\u003E\n\u003Cfigcaption class=\u0022tw-italic tw-mb-4\u0022\u003EIt takes between 15 minutes and an hour for a solar-powered, mobile battery-charger to energise a parked electric car. Image courtesy of BVB-Innovate\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\n\u003C\/figure\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo start with, BVB-Innovate is eyeing company car fleets or electric car clubs that operate in cities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s because one of the big problems with hired electric cars from car clubs is that people tend to drive them until they are empty and then park them and leave, says Dr Teufel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhat if the out-of-charge car could alert the mobile charging team via GPS to its position and lack of juice, and the team could respond accordingly?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt the moment, these batteries are too expensive for widespread private use, costing approximately the same as the battery for an electric car \u2013 a few tens of thousands of dollars.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut Dr Teufel envisions a day when they will be cheaper, and your mobile battery will sit at home, absorbing surplus energy from solar panels on the roof and later deployed either in powering your house when the sun has gone down, charging your car swiftly, or being hooked to the back of your electric car to supply an extra 600 kilometres of distance when you go on a long journey.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-zrxuwc4vqkeb0qdqr0enxpe9l-3buhi26-fhos0teq0\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-zrXuWc4VqKEB0qdqR0eNXpe9L_3BUHi26_fhoS0teq0\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]