How Can You Stop Batteries From Catching Fire? Perhaps by Adding Some Water -- Journal Report

By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY -- When a lithium-ion battery catches fire, it can burn hotter than a blow torch. Cluster dozens or even hundreds of them together, as utilities often do to store wind and solar power, and the risk of a fire starting -- and spreading -- grows.

To get around that problem, some battery makers are using a special ingredient in their batteries: water.

Adoption is at an early stage, but proponents believe the technology could help to prevent fires such as the one in 2021 at an Australian power-storage facility when a battery caught fire as it was being installed.

The quest for water-based batteries that are difficult, or impossible, to set on fire has attracted millions of dollars in government funding, as well as backing from global investors and power companies lured by manufacturers' claims of not only improved safety but also lower costs.

Smaller and lighter

Water hasn't been used in lithium-ion batteries' electrolytes -- a component that is key to both the charging of the battery and the release of electricity -- because the high voltage common in those batteries can pull water apart into oxygen and highly flammable hydrogen. That high voltage is needed for small, light lithium-ion batteries to provide sufficient power for devices like electric vehicles, small appliances and electronic devices.

But so-called long-duration batteries, such as those destined to store energy generated by solar panels or wind farms, don't need to be small or light. That means lower voltages can be used, making water-based electrolytes viable. It also means metals that are heavier and cheaper than lithium can be used.

"The cost factor of course is important to our customers and that's usually the first thing that hooks them. But it's also not flammable," says Thomas Nann, chief executive of Australia's Allegro Energy, a maker of water-based batteries. Australia's largest power company, Origin Energy, has taken a 5% stake in Allegro and is about to start a trial of the Allegro battery.

Water-based batteries already are in use elsewhere. One made by ESS Tech, based in Wilsonville, Ore., is being used in so-called ground-power units, which provide electricity to planes while they're on the ground, at Amsterdam's main international airport.

Water is being used in a different way by Somerville, Mass.-based Form Energy, which produces batteries that create electricity from rusting iron. Form, which recently completed construction of a factory in West Virginia, says that all its batteries' active components are submerged in a water-based, nonflammable electrolyte, eliminating fire risk.

With backers including investment firms TPG and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Form is building a storage facility at the site of a former paper mill in rural Maine. Supported by a $147 million Energy Department grant, the project is expected to hold enough wind- and solar-generated power to serve up to 85,000 homes.

Hurdles to clear

But it can be hard to get battery ventures off the ground, or to expand them. Australia-based Redflow won two contracts with the U.S. Defense Department for its water-based batteries but recently became insolvent after it failed to secure funding for a manufacturing plant.

Higher costs from elevated interest rates and the post-Covid burst of inflation forced ESS to aggressively cut costs in an attempt to keep down product prices, which meant pushing back shipment targets as it slowed investment in ramping up production.

"We had to make a decision to shift strategy and focus on driving the cost optimization of the product at the expense of volume. That's been a disappointment for some people," says Eric Dresselhuys, chief executive of ESS. The company hopes to be profitable by late 2025 or early 2026.

For now, Dresselhuys says the biggest obstacle to faster adoption of water-based batteries and other storage solutions is regulatory. Incentives such as guaranteeing payment for providing battery power to the grid at times of high demand are crucial, he says, pointing to the role such inducements have played in helping to drive the adoption of rooftop solar panels.

Stuart Condie is a Wall Street Journal reporter in Sydney. He can be reached at stuart.condie@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 05, 2024 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT)

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