Wednesday February 15, 2012

Panasonic develops high energy lithium-ion battery module

OSAKA —

Panasonic Corp has developed a 1.5 kWh battery module from 18650-type (18 mm in diameter x 65 mm in length) lithium-ion battery cells, which are widely used in laptop computers, to provide energy storage solutions for a wide range of environmentally friendly energy technologies.

For example, multiple units can be connected in series and/or parallel to store energy generated by home-use photovoltaic (PV) systems and fuel cells, and power electric vehicles (EV). A prototype of the new module will be shown at CEATEC JAPAN 2009 (Makuhari Messe, October 6-10, 2009) and New Energy Industry Fair Osaka (Intex Osaka, October 7-9, 2009).

Amid rising environmental concerns such as CO2 emissions, great expectations are placed
on widespread use of renewable energy technologies such as photovoltaics and
commercialization of electric vehicles to alleviate the concerns. However, these
technologies require storage systems to become commonplace in daily life.

Among a
number of energy storage technologies, storage systems using lithium-ion batteries in
particular are considered promising and practical, because such systems are lighter and
have greater capacity than those using other types of rechargeable batteries.
As applications of the storage systems using lithium-ion batteries increase, there will arise
demand for such systems with higher capacity, output, reliability and safety as well as
improved cost performance. Flexibility in voltage and capacity will also be required
according to the application.

Panasonic’s compact and high-energy battery module meets such demands. The module
having a volume of approximately 7 L and weighing 8 kg has a voltage of 25.2 V and a
capacity of 58 Ah. By connecting a plurality of this module, users can construct battery
packs for a variety of applications such as home electricity storage and electric vehicles.

The high-energy module is constructed from 140 pieces of 18650-type lithium-ion battery
cells - seven serially connected rows with each row made of 20 parallel connected battery
cells. This structure allows for avoiding serious loss in the system performance such as
system shutdown even if some individual cells fail.

  • 0

    Beelzebub

    This is not a news article, it's a corporate press release written in semi-technobabble. It's probably a great product, but you wouldn't know it from the way it's explained here.

  • 0

    Hurtado

    Technobabble? If your not educated enough to understand basic terminology then google the big words, dont be ignorant because you do not have any kind of grasp of electronics.

    The report is basically saying Panasonic has made a battery that may save the envirnoment...

  • 0

    PepinGalarga

    Don't see much innovation here. Lithium Ion technology is already a couple generations back from the newest prototypes. There's already laptops out there that run on Methanol, and other types of fuels. There's even a battery that uses chlorophyll...

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