Top 10 New Energy Buildings in the World

1. China’s First 0 Energy Consumption Ecological Building--- Suntech Research and Development Center
Energy source: solar energy
Location: Jiangsu, China

2. World’s First 0 Energy Consumption Antarctic Station---Elizabeth Antarctic Station
Energy source: solar energy + wind energy
Location: South Pole

3. Dubai Rotating Skyscraper
Energy source: solar energy + wind energy
Location: Dubai

4. World’s First “0 Carbon City” --- Masdar City
Energy source: solar energy + wind energy
Location: Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

5. Google Headquarter
Energy source: solar energy
Location: California, the United States

6. London Super Skyscraper Building--- New Town Tower
Energy source: solar energy
Location: California, the United States

7. Building of California Academy of Sciences
Energy source: solar energy
Location: California, the United States

8. French 0 Energy Consumption Office Building
Energy source: solar energy
Location: Paris, France

9. Solar Ark--- Sanyo Building (belong to Panadonic currently)
Energy source: solar energy
Location: Gifu, Japan

10. China’s First Media Wall Made of Solar Panels---Jingya Hotel
Energy source: solar energy
Location: Beijing, China

Graphene Battery

Graphene’s huge specific surface area enables it to carry more li-ions and get/loss li-ions more quickly, therefore provides the essential physical foundation for battery to have bigger capacity and quicker charge/discharge speed.

   Battery with graphene as negative electrode has very good charge/discharge rate but very bad cycle life. Researchers are always trying to find an appropriate negative electrode material so as to combine advantages such as fast charging/discharging, long cycle life, high energy density and low cost together.

    Recently, Spain’s El Mundo has reported that Spain’s university has developed a graphene battery which has combined all the above advantages together. It will be first tested in a German’s automotive enterprise.

    On condition that the report is true, this battery will be quite promising. If the recharging time is as short as refueling time, then the charging stations could take the place of gas stations, and electric vehicles could take the place of fuel vehicles.

Conclusion

    Everything real is rational. The lead acid battery and lithium batteryhttp://www.sacredsun.com/productsdetaillithium_125_125_125_125.html are still dominating the market of electric vehicles, not because the manufacturers are stupid, but for other technologies are not mature or lack supporting industrial chain.

    We need to be patient to wait for the next breakthrough in this area.

Flow Battery

 Flow battery belongs to ordinary chemical battery. Its utilization rate of active materials is improved through storing positive electrolyte and negative electrolyte separately.

      Due to the limit of materials and the concentration of the electrolyte, the flow battery didn’t achieve high energy density in past years. It can be applied in energy storage power stations, but not available on vehicles.

     Recently, Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, scientist of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has invented a semi-solid lithium flow battery. He has made innovations on material and electrolyte concentration, which enables the battery to reach applicable level on energy density and power density. This battery is still in the laboratory stage.

    NanoFlowcell AG has launched an automobile with flow battery, which seems have reached very high energy density in accordance with its technical index. However, its facticity remains to be verified.

    Compared with previous hydrogen fuel battery and metal fuel battery, flow battery is more feasible. Once the laboratory technology enters into mass production period, it will change the electric vehicle industry dramatically. With flow battery, electric vehicle could run further, become cheaper, and charge faster (charge through power grid or replace electrolyte).

Hydrogen Fuel Battery

  In previous article, we have discussed the technical requirements for electric vehicle batteries and have briefly introduced the basic characteristics of Li-ion batteries and lead acid batteries. Start from this article, we will introduce several advanced batteries for you one by one. In this article, we focus on hydrogen fuel battery.

    Fuel battery is usually nonrechargeable. As a kind of fuel battery, the “charging mode” of hydrogen fuel battery is actually hydrogen filling.

   The advantage of hydrogen fuel battery is 0 pollutant emission. Hydrogen generates electricity, motor drives vehicle. We change gas stations into hydrogen refueling stations and everything seems to be Ok.

   However, the entire process is not as simple as what you see. One problem we need to consider is the manufacture, transportation, and storage of hydrogen. Gaseous hydrogen needs to be stored in high pressure gasholder while liquid hydrogen needs to be maintained at very low temperature which costs excessive consumption of electric energy. It is far more troubling than fuel oil.

    Manufacturing of hydrogen is relatively simple. But if you want to transport hydrogen to hydrogen refueling station, special pipelines are needed. Considering the hydrogen embrittlement, the transportation, storage, and refilling of hydrogen demand facilities with high security.

     For fuel oil and natural gas, we have existing infrastructures to utilize; for lithium battery, we have existing power grid to utilize; while for hydrogen fuel battery, we have nothing. If we plan to manufacture vehicles with hydrogen fuel batteries, we need to build an entire system from hydrogen manufacture, to transportation and storage first. It is really a costly project.