Publications Details

Terrestrial nickel/hydrogen battery evaluation

Bush, D.M.

The nickel/hydrogen battery was developed in the 1970s 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 directed cost-shared contracts at Comsat Laboratories and Johnson Controls, Inc. to reduce the cost, and a battery consisting of prismatic cells in a common pressure vessel has evolved. Contract deliverables include cells and batteries that are evaluated at Sandia. This report summarizes the results over the past two years of both cycle and solar testing. 6 refs., 12 figs., 5 tabs.