Publications Details
Development of the sodium/sulfur battery technology for utility applications
The US Department of Energy is sponsoring the development of battery energy storage systems for electric utilities. An important part of this DOE program is the engineering of the battery subsystem. Because lower costs are possible and less space is required compared with conventional battery technologies, two advanced battery systems are being developed: sodium/sulfur and zinc/bromine. A brief description of the development approach being followed along with the current status of the sodium/sulfur technology is described in this paper. Of immediate relevance, a factory integrated modular sodium/sulfur system has been designed that incorporates many of the advantages of this technology. Each module (designated as NAS-P{sub AC}) combines a 600-kWh sodium/sulfur battery, a 300 kW power converter and a control system. In addition to the potential for low life-cycle cost, other specific benefits include excellent portability and an installed system-level footprint that is about 20% of an equivalent system using lead-acid batteries. The sodium/sulfur battery is designed to deliver its rated energy for 1500 cycles or 5 years of maintenance-free operation.