Liquid Metal Battery in Energy Conservation

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Energy conservation is becoming a global issue as the earth is nearing its carrying capacity. Energy consumption has steadily been increasing around the globe despite the drive for more energy efficient machines and devices. Rapid advancements in alternative energy sources have shed new light to the use of renewable energy sources in replace of fossils. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are able to be converted to electrical energy to power the daily needs of human beings. However, renewable energy sources can only provide so much as they can only be used in certain circumstances. Renewable energy sources lack the ability to contribute to the grid at any time which poses a problem for when the demand for electricity can’t be met. To avoid such a phenomenon, humans will have to resort to storing the energy produced from renewable sources. The liquid battery is the future for electricity storage because its impact will have profound effects both economically and efficiently as it will make renewable energy a more suitable and useful option in this developing world.
The liquid metal battery is an unfamiliar term in the public eye because it is a recent innovation. The prototype for this battery was created in 2011 by Donald Sadoway, a materials chemist professor at MIT. (3) Sadoway was influenced by the idea of drawing electricity from the sun even when the sun wasn’t shining. This notion of storing energy sparked Sadoway’s interest in making renewable energy more competitive than coal burning power plants which are able to provide electricity at any given time. Previously, there was no grand scale way of saving the energy created from wind farms and solar panels. In addition, even when the energy was saved it wouldn’t...

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13. http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

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