Publications Details

A Nickel/Hydrogen Battery for PV Systems

Bush, Donald M.

The nickel/hydrogen battery was developed in the early nineteen-seventies as an energy storage subsystem for commercial communication satellites. The advantages offered by nickel/hydrogen batteries, including long life, low maintenance and high reliability, make it very attractive for terrestrial applications such as stand-alone photovoltaic systems. The major drawback to the wider use of the nickel/hydrogen battery is its high initial cost. Sandia National Laboratories has placed cost-shared contracts with Comsat Laboratories and Johnson Controls, Inc., to reduce the cost, and a battery consisting of prismatic cells in a common pressure vessel has evolved. A 7-kWh battery has been on test at Sandia since January 1988 using a flat-plate photovoltaic array for charging. © 1990 IEEE