Ultra-thin, flexible screen-printed batteries for cheap portable devices and intermittent renewable energy are closer to reality, thanks to a joint UNSW-University of Queensland project to further develop technology by battery energy storage firm Printed Energy and bring it to market.
Printed Energy’s solid state batteries are a thin, flexible format – printed in a roll-to-roll process like a newspaper – that can be adapted to almost any shape. It has potential applications in powering everything from disposable medical devices, smart cards and wearable electronics to large-scale solar panels and nergy storage.
“The highly innovative and unique nature of this technology makes it ideal for powering sensors, devices for the Internet or Things, disposable healthcare devices and eventually, even for large-scale application to help manage the intermittent nature of electricity generated by solar panels,” said Rodger Whitby, CEO of Printed Energy and of the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund.
Mark Hoffman, UNSW’s Dean of Engineering, agreed. “Storage has been the missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to renewable energy. The world is crying out for storage solutions, and this partnership has the potential to deliver on that urgent need. What’s exciting is that this technology also has immediate applications in wearables and small-scale devices.”
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-06-screen-printed-batteries-renewables.html#jCp
