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White Paper

UltraBattery: Benefits of a Breakthrough Storage Technology

January 2014

Smart Storage Pty Ltd (trading as Ecoult)


Suite 402, Grafton Bond Building, 201 Kent Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
W www.ecoult.com www.ultrabattery.com | E info@ecoult.com | T +61 2 9241 3001 | Ecoult
Abbreviations Used in this Report
Abbreviation Meaning

AC Alternating Current

ALABC Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium

CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research


Organisation

DCDC To describe efficiency from direct current (DC) input to DC


output

DoD Depth of Discharge

HEV Hybrid Electric Vehicle

kW Kilowatt

kWh Kilowatt-hour (energy used in 1 hour by a 1 kW load)

NiMH Nickel-metal Hydride

pSoC Partial State-of-Charge

PV Photovoltaic

RAPS Remote-Area Power Supply

UPS Uninterruptible Power Supply

VRLA Valve-Regulated Lead-Acid

Wh Watt-hour (energy used in 1 hour by a 1 W load)

Full Technical White Paper Available


This paper provides a broad overview of the tests conducted in
support of the value proposition of the UltraBattery technology. The
most significant results from a decade of in-house and independent
testing, with links to original sources, are brought together in a
separate, technical White Paper, available from Ecoult.
For your free copy of the full technical White Paper, visit
ecoult.com or email info@ecoult.com.

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Contents
1. Opportunities for Active Storage Technologies .............................................................. 4
2. UltraBattery Key Technical Breakthrough .................................................................... 4
3. UltraBattery Value Proposition: Customer Benefits ...................................................... 5
4. Research and Testing ................................................................................................... 7
5. Proposed Applications of UltraBattery Technology .................................................... 14
6. UltraBattery Field Installations ................................................................................... 18
7. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 19
8. References .................................................................................................................. 20

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1. Opportunities for Active Storage Technologies
Energy storage, installed within grids and mircrogrids, can enhance grid stability and fossil
fuel efficiency. Storage also makes it possible to install a higher proportion of renewable
energy into the grid, since the inherent fluctuations of such sources can be smoothed out:
peaks can be stored and troughs can be filled.
To perform these functions, the technology must be able to perform active storage: it must
operate continuously, it must be designed for low-rate and high-rate charge and discharge
and it must be always available to store or release charge. Ideally it will also provide high
efficiency, be available at a low lifetime cost and have proven safe operation and high rates
of recyclability. Research shows that on every metric, UltraBattery delivers.
This White Paper has been developed by Ecoult in order to identify the unique aspects of
UltraBattery technology by bringing together the various scientific tests carried out by major
independent laboratories and by UltraBattery manufacturers and system developers around
the world.

2. UltraBattery Key Technical Breakthrough


During a decade of research and development multiple studies have published results
showing UltraBattery to have exceptional performance over conventional lead-acid cells
and competing chemistries. The technology is now installed in demonstration and
commercial projects globally, performing:
+ renewable smoothing;
+ grid ancillary support; and
+ hybrid electric vehicle power.

The fundamental innovation of UltraBattery technology is the introduction of an asymmetric


ultracapacitor inside a lead-acid battery (both storage methods using a common electrolyte)
in a manner that modifies the behavior of the lead-acid battery chemistry to enhance power
management and reduce negative plate sulfation.

Figure 1: Schematics of standard lead-acid cell (top left),


ultracapacitor (top right) and their combination in the

UltraBattery cell (bottom)

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3. UltraBattery Value Proposition: Customer Benefits

1.1. The New Dimension in Lead-Acid


UltraBattery technology balances the dependable storage capabilities of lead-acid cells with
the quick charge acceptance, power discharge, and longevity of an ultracapacitor. Its
performance:
+ greatly exceeds conventional lead-acid cells across partial State of Charge (pSoC)
applications; and
+ matches or exceeds non-lead-acid battery technologies in certain applications
(including hybrid electric vehicle use) at a lower lifetime cost.

UltraBattery is resistant to many of the typical lead-acid failure modes and its longevity,
safety, efficiency, long uptimes, and full recyclability all offer competitive advantages
through both revenue gains and environmental benefits.

Why UltraBattery?

Total lifetime energy throughput capacity, when used in pSoC applications, is far beyond
previous lead-acid technology

leads to lower lifetime cost per kWh

Ability to operate continuously in a pSoC regime (i.e. operating in a band of charge that is
neither totally full nor totally empty)

leads to viability of use models where energy is charged and discharged at significantly
higher efficiency

Enhanced charge acceptance (charge and discharge occur at similar or equal rates,
whereas traditional lead-acid cells can discharge quickly but charge more slowly)

leads to quicker recharge, increased uptime, and wider applicability

Consistency of behavior of individual cells in long strings

leads to lower maintenance

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1.2. Safety
Lead-acid batteries have been used for well over a century and this familiarity has created a
good understanding of safe practices. The UltraBattery has the same safety requirements
and benefits as any lead-acid battery. Its electrodes and electrolyte are non-flammable and
have fire retarding tendencies.
Such is the safety record of DOT/IATA-certified VRLA batteries that as long as they are
labelled and the terminals are capped they are not subject to the US Hazardous Materials
Regulations, meaning there are no restrictions on their shipment by air or other
transportation channels.

1.3. Recyclability
Lead-acid batteries of all kinds are virtually 100% recyclable, including the batterys plastic,
steel, acid, and lead. Lead-acid batteries have high recycling rates around the world and are
the most fully recycled product in many countries, including the USA. The US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) states that 96% of all
lead-acid batteries in the USA are recycled, and
that a typical lead-acid battery contains 60% to
80% recycled lead and plastic. Moreover, while
the lead-acid battery supply chain consumes
more than 80% of the lead used in the USA, due
to extraordinary levels of recycling it is
responsible for less than 1% of the countrys
lead emissions.
In Australia, the Australian Bureau of Statistics states that 60% of all lead used in Australia is
recycled, and that 93% of all motor vehicle batteries are recycled (Louey, 2010).
The European Union document Questions and Answers on the Batteries Directive
(2006/66/Ec) states that the collection of industrial and automotive lead-acid batteries in the
EU is close to 100%.
UltraBattery manufacturer East Penn Manufacturing has developed one of the worlds most
advanced lead-acid battery recycling facilities, which processes approximately 30,000 used
lead-acid batteries per day.

+ Batteries are collected, dismantled and separated. The lead is smelted, then refined.
Sulfur fumes created during the lead smelting are trapped and processed into a liquid
fertilizer solution.
+ The plastic jars, cases and covers are cleaned and ground into polypropylene pellets
that are molded into new cases and parts at the companys onsite injection molding
facility.
+ Finally, East Penns acid reclamation plant recycles approximately 23 million liters (6
million US gallons) of acid per year.

The motivations for recycling are both environmental and economic. Production of
secondary lead uses approximately one-third of the energy required to produce lead from

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lead ore, so recycling provides significant financial and energy savings as well as reducing
requirements for mining and smelting.

4. Research and Testing


Three classes of test results make the case for UltraBattery technology:
+ Firstly, many publicly funded or partially publicly funded laboratories have performed
experiments on UltraBattery. The methodologies and results of these tests are
generally available online.
+ Secondly, field results and system outputs are publicly available from UltraBattery
installations in hybrid electric vehicle (HEVs) trials and in MW- and kW-scale energy
storage projects on grids and microgrids.
+ Thirdly, manufacturer tests have been continuously carried out in the course of the
development of the technology. Some results from these tests have been made
publicly available.

The three key areas examined by the research have been the UltraBattery cells:

+ performance in pSoC;
+ rate of charge acceptance; and
+ longevity under various working conditions.

Most lead-acid batteries have reasonably long lifespans if they are regularly refreshed and
properly recharged. However, they generally quickly deteriorate under pSoC use (a regime
that is generally outside of the design parameters for lead-acid cells).

Figure 2: History of lead-acid battery technology

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Figure 2 shows the charge/discharge characteristics of the UltraBattery cell (at right)
compared with those of traditional lead-acid technology. In early lead-acid cells, high power
was available for brief periods, depth of discharge needed to be quite low, and refresh to full
capacity needed to be performed frequently. Later enhancements allowed deep discharge to
be performed at increasing rates of charge and discharge, but constant refresh cycles (back
to full charge) were still required.
Unlike previous lead-acid types, UltraBattery cells
can sustain prolonged operation in the pSoC range.
This range is indicated schematically in the right-
hand trace in Figure 2.
National laboratories in the USA and Australia
(including Idaho National Laboratories, Argonne
National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories,
the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium, and
CSIRO) have undertaken independent
UltraBattery testing programs for both HEV and grid applications.

4.1. Longevity
Two organizations (Furukawa Battery and ALABC) have publicly released the results of their
tests on UltraBattery cells for HEV use. Both found that UltraBattery could tolerate
extremely long periods of use without suffering significant degradation.
A driving test carried out on a test circuit in January 2008 used a 144 V module with
prototype Furukawa UltraBattery cells installed in a Honda Insight HEV, and a drive of
100,000 miles (160,000 km) was achieved without recovery charging. The UltraBattery cells
remained in good condition after the drive (Furukawa & CSIRO, 2008).
Of particular significance is that this field driving test demonstrated no difference between
the driving performance of the HEV using the UltraBattery pack and that of the HEV using
the NiMH battery pack. It has also been shown that the cost of the UltraBattery cells was
dramatically less than that of the NiMH cells, and that fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide
emissions were similar for the two cell chemistries.
In one test, Furukawa set an aggressive target lifespan of 200,000 cycles for the cell.
UltraBattery exceeded this sevenfold, achieving
1,400,000 partial charge cycles (over 5,000 full
capacity cycles) with no signs of significant
degradation.
In 2008, Sandia National Laboratories devised
tests to examine how UltraBattery cells
responded in a simulation of wind smoothing and
grid support.
Traditional valve-regulated lead-acid (VRLA) batteries were also tested in the same regime.
+ The traditional VRLA cells dropped below 80% of initial capacity after 1,100 cycles.
+ UltraBattery lasted about 13 times longer, exceeding 15,000 cycles (Figure 3).

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+ The UltraBattery cell was also able to withstand more than 10 times (1000 vs 100)
the number of rapid cycles as compared to the VRLA battery.

Figure 3: 2008 Results from Sandia National


Laboratories

Subsequent to this 2008 Sandia study, Ecoult and its parent company (US battery
manufacturer East Penn Manufacturing) have experimented with various aspects of
UltraBattery technology to improve the chemistry, hardware, installation techniques, and
control and monitoring software for stationary storage applications. (Furukawa Battery Ltd,
headquartered in Japan, holds a license to develop HEV and EV solutions.)
Improvements made to the UltraBattery cell over the 5 years since 2008 have enhanced its
power and energy characteristics while even further reducing its tendency to suffer sulfation
in high rate pSoC operation. The result has been a significant increase in cell longevity.
Figure 4 shows 2013 testing (upper three traces) against the Sandia 2008 tests (lower three
traces including the results of a lithium-ion cell tested by Sandia).


Figure 4: Sandia National Laboratories tests on VRLA, Li-Ion and UltraBattery
technology in 2008 (bottom three traces) are compared with the most recent 2013 internal
testing (top three traces). Significant longevity increases have been achieved.

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4.2. High Efficiency
Figure 5 shows the results of Furukawa Battery Ltds tests, which indicate that UltraBattery
demonstrates high Wh efficiencies not only for low charge-discharge currents but also for
high charge-discharge currents (Furukawa, 2013).

Figure 5: Results of efficiency testing undertaken at the Furukawa Battery Company. Note
that efficiency drops at high SoC. However, a key component of the value proposition of

UltraBattery technology is that it can operate continuously in pSoC and rarely needs to
enter the low-efficiency range (Furukawa, 2013).

Even at peak rates of discharge of 1C (a rate that would discharge the cells full capacity in
one hour) UltraBattery cells typically achieve DC-DC efficiency of 9395% when performing
variability management applications such as regulation services or renewable ramp rate
smoothing in a pSoC regime. Efficiencies above 85% are seen even in the most challenging
high-rate cycles.
Efficiency for HEV applications is measured in fuel usage. For example, test results
published in 2012 by Idaho National Laboratory describe the performance of a Honda Insight
HEV with an UltraBattery pack, used for fleet duties. The vehicle delivers around 44 mpg
(5.3 L/100 km) in flattish terrain and approximately 35 mpg (6.7 L/100 km) in hilly terrain. The
same test also made positive findings for the lifetime efficiency of the UltraBattery,
concluding that an UltraBattery pack installed in a new car would maintain operational
capacity for the design life of a modern HEV (INL, 2012).

4.3. Fewer Refresh Charges


Lead-acid batteries periodically require a refresh charge, typically at a 1C rate, followed by a
lengthy period of lower-rate charging at a float voltage so that all cells reach 100% state of
charge. During a refresh cycle, therefore, the battery is not serving the application, so it is
desirable to minimize this downtime.

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The UltraBattery requires less frequent refresh cycles than a conventional VRLA battery,
and this increases the time it spends on active duty.
An East Penn UltraBattery after 40 days without a refresh charge showed performance far
exceeding that of traditional VRLA batteries that had gone only seven days without a refresh
charge (Figure 6).

Figure 6: UltraBattery performance under PV hybrid cycling (adapted from Ferreira, Baca, Hund & Rose,
2012).

UltraBattery technology has also been tested with low rates of recovery charging in
stationary applications. The cells consistently show capacity ratios equal to or exceeding
100% of initial capacity despite having been cycled many times and only receiving infrequent
recovery cycles.

4.4. Less Downtime


UltraBattery cells have been shown in numerous tests to require very infrequent refresh
charging. Figure 6 shows one test result indicating performance with minimal refresh cycles,
and similar findings have been published by Furukawa (2013) and others. Refresh cycles
require cells to be removed from duty, so as a direct consequence of requiring fewer refresh
cycles, UltraBattery cells spend less time offline.
If refreshed for several hours once every 60 days, for example, UltraBattery cells can have
downtime of less than 1%, and therefore be available for use more than 99% of the time.
Furthermore, strings may be refreshed separately so that there is always storage capacity
available in appropriately sized, multi-string systems.

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4.5. High Charge Acceptance
When used in a pSoC regime performing variability management applications, such as
regulation services or renewable ramp rate smoothing, UltraBattery technology has
exceptional charge acceptance capability, which is a crucial driver of efficiency.
If the voltage rises to the cells or the packs upper limit then no further charge can be
accepted. In high-rate pSoC charge testing (Furukawa 2013) the voltage of a conventional
lead-acid battery frequently peaked to the charge terminal voltage, whereas an UltraBattery
cell scarcely reached the charge terminal voltage (Figure 7), indicating low internal
impedance and good charge acceptance.

Figure 7: Discharge terminal voltages during a high-rate pSoC cycling test adapted from
(Furukawa, 2013). The control battery frequently peaks, indicating that it cannot continue to
accept charge. Under the same conditions, UltraBattery cells rarely or never refuse charge.

4.6. Lower Variability of Cell Voltage within Strings


Battery packs are made from strings of individual cells connected in series so that their
voltage sums to a high enough level for efficient power conversion. Maximizing the
suppression of voltage deviations between cells in a string is fundamental to longevity and
hence to low lifetime costs.
The presence of both the supercapacitor and battery chemistry in a single electrolyte in
UltraBattery helps the cells in a string to equalize their voltages and state of charge levels
during extended periods of cycling.
A direct field comparison of the performance of four lead-acid battery technologies, including
the UltraBattery, was undertaken as part of a trial of renewable energy smoothing at
Hampton Wind Farm in Australia.
Over 10 months, the variability of UltraBattery cell voltages increased by only 32%, while
the variability of cell voltages of other lead-acid technologies increased between 140% and
251% (Figure 8).

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Figure 8: Comparison of daily variation of cell voltages over four lead-acid battery technologies after 10
months of operation at a wind farm, in which the UltraBattery (thick blue line) shows much greater stability
(CSIRO, 2012).

ALABC testing of a Honda Civic HEV


retrofitted with an UltraBattery pack and
subjected to fleet usage also demonstrated
cell voltage stability. After reaching
50,000 miles (80,000 km), the battery pack
of this car showed no performance
degradation and the individual battery
voltages of the pack actually converged as
they aged (ALABC, 2013).

4.7. Separate Low-Rate and High-Rate Energy Capacities


Typically, when lead-acid batteries are discharged quickly, only a small portion of the total
available stored energy can be accessed. Slower discharging allows for the diffusion of the
reaction deeper into the plates, utilizing more of the available active material.
UltraBattery technology has been shown to extend longevity whether use of the storage is
at high rate for power functions or low rate cycling. New Mexico's largest electricity provider,
PNM, has installed an UltraBattery storage solution at its Prosperity solar energy
technology project. This mixed application combining low-rate (energy) and high-rate
(power) use is designed to better manage:
+ the misalignment between PV output and utility distribution grid and system peaks;
and
+ intermittency and the volatile ramp rates of renewable energy sources that cause
voltage fluctuations.

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5. Proposed Applications of UltraBattery Technology

5.1. UltraBattery Use Case in Proposed Applications


For all proposed applications, UltraBattery excels due to:
+ performance in continuous pSoC;
+ high rates of charge and discharge;
+ performance in low-rate energy shifting
applications; and
+ low lifetime cost (a factor of upfront costs,
long uptime periods, and longevity).

These fundamental strengths of UltraBattery are


well documented in published research and
testing. Ecoults full technical White Paper
describes these tests in more detail.

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5.2. Frequency Regulation
Electricity grid operators must constantly maintain the balance between electricity supply
and demand. At any one time a number of generators on the grid are assigned the role of
frequency regulation, receiving a control signal from the power system operator to increase
or decrease their output so that the supplydemand balance and frequency are maintained.
While generators are paid to provide frequency regulation services, the role requires a fossil
fuel generator to operate below its most efficient output and inhibits its ability to earn
maximum energy revenue. Furthermore, the rapid response that is required for frequency
regulation is beyond the ramp rate capability of fossil generators beginning from a cold
start, hence they sit running in spinning reserve.
Figure 9 shows a sample of system output from an UltraBattery installation providing
frequency regulation at PJM Interconnection, the largest of 10 Regional Transmission
Organizations/Independent System Operators in the USA. Small surges of power are
continuously either supplied or absorbed by the frequency regulation solution to meet the
instantaneous needs of the grid.

Figure 9: Regulation services on the PJM grid

UltraBattery technology responds rapidly and can ramp much faster than any conventional
generator, following the regulation control signal accurately and providing a better service to
the system operator.

5.3. Smoothing and Ramp-Rate Control


There is limited scope to connect renewable energy sources directly to the grid, as the
inherent variability of the source makes renewables unsuitable to maintain a steady power
output.
Energy storage is an excellent method for ramp-rate management, because only a small
energy storage capacity is required compared to the peak renewable power generated.
Ramp-rate control is equally applicable to large-scale and small-scale renewable generation
systems.

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The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in the USA has published detailed information
and system outputs for an UltraBattery solar smoothing and shifting project installed in the
PNM grid. For details, search for Ecoult on the EPRI website (epri.com).

5.4. Power Quality


Electric power provided to customers should fulfill a range of power quality requirements for
the benefit of both customers and the distribution networks that deliver the power.
Important elements in power quality include filtering harmonic content, voltage regulation,
phase balancing, power factor correction, and voltage sag.
Battery energy storage systems designed to operate in pSoC are particularly suited to
managing power quality because they have the potential to manipulate the AC waveform in
sophisticated ways to improve power quality measures.

If the storage technology can provide both high- and low-rate charge delivery, as
UltraBattery can, then power quality functions can be performed by a dual-purpose system
that is primarily installed with another purpose in mind. So an UltraBattery storage solution
providing network peak shifting, or providing industrial or residential energy management,
could be simultaneously earning revenue selling power-quality services to the grid operator.

5.5. Spinning Reserve


Reserve capacity for shorter timescales, which must be available when needed within
minutes or even seconds, needs to be kept spinning if provided by fossil-fuel generators so
that it is ready to ramp up rapidly. However, while operating as spinning reserve, fuel-based
generators will suffer inefficiencies and incur high operating costs due to fuel consumption
and wear and tear. There is also the opportunity cost of lost energy revenue while their
output is held at a level that is much lower than their nameplate capacity.
UltraBattery has a high-rate charge/discharge capacity and is well suited to performing or
offsetting spinning reserve functions on the grid.

5.6. Residential Energy Management


Residential electricity production has recently become quite commonplace. The electricity
grid (designed to deliver energy from source to load) often now has to manage domestic
loads that alternate between load and generator depending on the sun. Localized cloud
cover can see available power drop with steep ramp rates in areas with high rooftop PV

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penetration. UltraBattery is already being used for community-level kW-scale projects -
examples are given in Section 6 below.

5.7. Energy Shifting and Demand Management


Peak demand management by energy shifting can be desirable in a variety of circumstances
on the electricity network. Growth of peak demand has been a longstanding phenomenon
globally, particularly due to increasing use of air conditioning, increasing house sizes and
population growth.
UltraBattery is suitable as an energy shifting technology because its charge/discharge
characteristics make it a multipurpose storage technology able to perform valuable grid
support services on a second-by-second timescale as well as performing longer term energy
shifting over hours and days.

5.8. Diesel Efficiencies


In a diesel/renewable microgrid, energy
storage is used to absorb rapid changes in
both renewable energy output and system
demand, so the diesel generators are exposed
only to a slowly changing operating regime.
With appropriate storage in place the diesel
generator operates far more efficiently as it
does not need to operate at low load (i.e. as
spinning reserve) since the storage can cover
moments when the renewable energy output drops suddenly.

5.9. Multipurpose for Data Centers and Buildings


Data centers are large electricity users and they usually have an existing energy storage
resource in the form of a battery backup system. These storage systems typically use
traditional lead-acid batteries which must be held on float current (full charge).
Nevertheless, data centers are already grid-connected and (if active storage devices are
installed) present an opportunity to provide services to the grid including frequency, voltage,
or power quality regulation services as well as demand management.

UltraBattery storage units are fully compatible with traditional UPS batteries in data centers,
and can operate in continuous charge and discharge to provide grid services, offering a new
source of revenue for what is today a cost only investment for data center operators.

The widespread presence of backup energy in data centers today presents a substantial
potential buffer for the grid, and an enormously valuable, already-existing resource that
UltraBattery technology can unlock to support variability management and accelerated
renewable integration.

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5.10. Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV)
Several public-domain UltraBattery test programs have targeted HEV applications, with
published field results showing UltraBattery cells to be well suited to HEV installation due to
their ability to accept and release charge at high rates, operate in continuous pSoC and
deliver long periods of service without refresh charging. The ability to work in constant
continuous pSoC is crucial for HEV energy storage, where braking and acceleration occur in
rapid repetition. UltraBattery technology shows comparable performance (in miles per
gallon terms) to that of a vehicle of the same model powered by NiMH batteries, at
significantly lower cost (ALABC, 2013).

6. UltraBattery Field Installations


In real-world HEV use, UltraBattery cells have outperformed both traditional lead-acid cells
and competing storage technologies. Grid-scale projects have also been installed in the
USA, Japan and Australia. Some UltraBattery field installations are listed below. Table 1
shows images of selected installations.
Table 1: Current projects showing the range of applications suited to UltraBattery technology

UltraBattery FIELD INSTALLATIONS

Application Location Highlight

HEV in courier fleet 5,000 driving miles per month with very
Arizona, USA
operation little cell degradation

Smoothing ramp rates of 136 kW per


MW-scale smoothing of
New Mexico, USA second and shifting energy from
PV solar energy plant
midday to evening peak

3 MW storage performing frequency


MW-scale grid regulation
Pennsylvania, USA and voltage regulation on the grid of
services
PJM Interconnection

3 MW storage performing hybrid


MW-scale microgrid microgrid (wind, solar, diesel) support
King Island, Australia
storage and control including high-penetration renewable
functions

kW-scale building Shimizu Corporation 500 Ah smart


Japan
storage building application

Furukawa factory 10 kW facility peak


kW-scale load leveling Japan
shifting application

kW-scale load leveling Kitakyushu, Japan 300 kW smart grid demonstration

Two projects within Kitakyushu


kW-scale community Museum of Natural History and Human
Kitakyushu, Japan
storage History: 10 kW and 100 kW facility
peak shifting applications

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7. Conclusion
A wide range of tests and installations have demonstrated that the UltraBattery is a highly
capable and long-lasting multipurpose energy storage technology. The tests have been
performed by government laboratories and through collaborations between organizations.
Much of the data is available in the public domain. Many reports and system outputs from
UltraBattery installations are also available online.
Research, testing, and installation of UltraBattery technology continue, and the value of this
breakthrough technology is rapidly becoming better understood by energy experts and
energy storage customers around the world.
Summaries of many results and outputs are also available in the full technical White Paper
published by Ecoult and available on Ecoults website (ecoult.com). The full technical White
Paper assembles some of the significant publicly available test data in support of the key
benefits of the UltraBattery technology, in particular, long life, high efficiency, few refresh
cycles, high charge acceptance, and cell voltage stability.

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8. References
ALABC, 2013. ALABC UltraBattery Hybrid Surpasses 100,000 Miles of Fleet Duty. Press
Release, 6 May 2013. Durham: The Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Consortium. Available at
http://www.alabc.org/press-releases/PR_ALABC_UB_Civic_100K_060513.pdf.
CSIRO, 2012. UltraBattery Energy Storage System for Hampton Wind Farm Field Trial:
Summary of Activities and Outcomes. Contract report to Smart Storage Pty Ltd (t/a Ecoult).
Canberra: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
Ferreira, S. Baca, W. Hund, T. & Rose, D. 2012. Life Cycle Testing and Evaluation of
Energy Storage Devices. Albuquerque: Sandia National Laboratories. Available at
http://www.sandia.gov/ess/docs/pr_conferences/2012/papers/Friday/Session1/03_Ferreira_
PeerReview_Print.pdf.
Furukawa, 2013. Development of UltraBattery. Furukawa Review, no. 43. Furukawa
Electric Company Ltd. Available at http://www.furukawa.co.jp/review/fr043/fr43_02.pdf.
Furukawa & CSIRO, 2008. Development of UltraBattery: 3rd Report. Furukawa Electric
Company Ltd. Available at www.furukawadenchi.co.jp/english/research/new/pdf/ultra_03.pdf.
INL, 2012. Development and Testing of an UltraBattery-Equipped Honda Civic Hybrid.
Idaho Falls: Idaho National Laboratory. Available at
http://www.inl.gov/technicalpublications/Documents/5680924.pdf.
Louey, R. 2010. Recycling of automotive lead-acid batteries. Melbourne: CSIRO Australia.

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