Innovative rechargeable carbon-free zinc-air cells

Efficient use of energy from renewable sources (RES) in households, transport and industry, provided in the European Commission's long-term strategy "Clean Energy for All Europeans", in synergy with the updated European Green Deal to achieve a climate-neutral European economy by 2050, is identified as a key priority of our time. In order to answer to this challenge, it is necessary to ensure a suitable method for storage and re-generation of the renewable energy and its inclusion in smart power grids that gradually become a leading economic and social priority.

It is clearly indicated in the EU Energy Roadmap that decentralized energy storage should be developed in large (MWh) and small (kWh) battery power stations (farms) in order to achieve intelligent power management of the grid. Between 2030 and 2050, large-scale storage and regeneration systems - from small solar panels or wind parks in remote country areas to large solar and/or wind farms should be introduced. Battery power stations will serve for load shifting, pick shaving, time shifting, frequency leveling, thus providing for efficient integration of renewable energy and intelligent grid balancing. They should be able to withstand heavy load at charge and discharge in a time interval of few seconds to few hours and to be charged/discharged from one/two to dozens of cycles per day. Since batteries constantly operate in highly dynamic conditions where one type of battery can not cover all functions, integrated highly efficient hybrid solutions have been developed applying modeling. They are based on combination of different types of battery systems and superconductors that compensate abrupt daily and/or seasonal fluctuations. On the Figure bellow a more general positioning of energy storage technologies is presented. On the one hand it outlines zinc-air batteries as one of the promising systems for the storage of energy from RES and on the other hand shows the need for their targeted development for effective usage for renewables energy storge.

Grant Agreement № KP-06-Н27-15/14.12.2018 -National Science Fond of Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Sciences

Competition for financial support of basic research projects (2018)

The project "Innovative Rechargeable Carbon-free Zinc-Air Cells (INOVI)" refers to research for development of innovative solutions for rechargeable zinc-air batteries with an application for solar energy accumulation. It is a continuation of the European Horizon 2020 project (ZAS, GA 646186), which ended in June 2018, and concerns the realization of post-project ideas based on the experience and knowledge accumulated during the implementation of the project.

INOVI is directly related to the priorities of the European Energy Policy, which makes it topical and significant at both European and national level.