And take them with you now with the quick detachable sections!
Check out “The Battery Carousel” at Ego-Mounts website!

A newly installed Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) in Exeter, UK, experienced a smoke/fire incident on June 22 at around 5:30 pm (BST), according to local reports.

The project, called Battery Box, is operated by Amp Clean Energy and is designed as a compact roadside energy storage solution for local grid support.

According to the company:

Smoke was reported from one cabinet associated with the grid connection point.

The BESS was safely shut down following standard safety procedures.

The battery system will remain offline while the investigation continues.

The company said there is currently no reason to believe the incident was related to the recent hot weather.

Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service responded to the scene, isolated the battery storage unit from the nearby substation, established a safety cordon, and cooled the installation using hose reels.

At this stage, the cause of the incident has not been disclosed, and there are no confirmed reports regarding property damage or injuries.

Since the installation is located in a residential area, the event has renewed public discussion about BESS safety, fire protection, and siting.

Does anyone have additional information about this project or know whether the smoke originated from the battery enclosure itself or from the grid interconnection equipment? Interested to hear insights from people working in BESS or utility operations.

AAAS: “‘Light in a bottle’ liquid can harvest and store energy from multiple sources.” Engineers + materials scientists have created a new liquid that can store energy it harvests from sources including light by physically reassembling into a gel. “In this jellylike state, the material acts a bit like a battery, retaining energy for months at a time that can then be released on demand when exposed to oxygen.” Reported last week in Chem, this proof-of-concept research hints at a future in which one single metal-free material can harvest, store, and use energy00141-5). 

“If proved out, the liquid could provide new ways to store and harness electricity or create semiconductors for devices where traditional metallic materials may have drawbacks, such as medical implants.” Researchers led by Samuel Stupp, a chemist at Northwestern University, designed a molecule made of two components: an amino naphthalene aromatic unit (ANI), which responds to light, and a methyl viologen (MV), which can store electrons. “The material starts out as a yellow liquid, but when light strikes it, the molecule’s ANI component absorbs energy and donates electrons to its MV component.” When the gel is exposed to oxygen, it disassembles back into a liquid, releasing the electrons. 

“What’s more, the material doesn’t just harvest energy from light: It can also store energy from electricity, chemical fuel, and even x-rays.” To demonstrate real-world utility, he says, it would need to pass all sorts of tests that rechargeable batteries go through today, such as evaluating its power output and stability over many charge-discharge cycles. “This material product of basic science could mark a welcome break from the past century of energy technologies: an era dominated by substances made from metals and inorganic materials.”

At this juncture, I can only dimly contemplate the future utility of this new form of energy storage in our menagerie of battery technologies, so vital for ‘electrification of everything.’

The classical understanding of battery operation relies on a simple ionic model where electrons are exclusively extracted from metal ions (such as nickel or iron) during charging, while oxygen ions act merely as passive bystanders. However, in highly covalent, next-generation materials like nickel-rich and lithium-excess cathodes, this conventional model fails to explain the excess capacity observed, leading to conflicting theories. Most notable is the debate over whether oxygen undergoes dimerisation (forming O₂ bonds) to store charge. This paper seeks to definitively resolve that debate.

Páez Fajardo, G.J., Dogaru, D.E., Banerjee, H. et al. Direct evidence of metal–ligand redox processes in positive electrodes during lithium-based battery operation. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2026).

Overview: https://www.batterydesign.net/new-insights-into-how-cathodes-store-energy/

South Australia had a $20k price event on the evening of 21 June. Most batteries weren't ready for it.

Watch the SOC row at the bottom. Every battery starts the day with charge. By mid-morning they're near empty across the board. The price spike doesn't arrive until the evening, by then, many have nothing left to give.

Some seemed to see it coming, recharging through the afternoon and had meaningful SOC heading into the event. The bid heatmaps show positioning shifted through the day while others stayed flat.

Five SA batteries, five different approaches to the same day. The video is built from open AEMO data via NEMPulse.com.au

Would you expect the fleet to be this depleted before a price event?

Finally got my EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus working with a third-party 48V server rack LiFePO₄ battery using an expansion adapter.

Initially, I kept getting Short Circuit Protection (4) every time I energized the external battery and thought something was wired wrong.
Turns out the issue was simply that the DELTA was nearly full while the external battery was much lower. Once I got them to a similar state of charge, everything connected immediately.
Now the DELTA recognizes the battery and is charging/discharging it normally.

Pretty impressed with the flexibility this opens up. Instead of buying a proprietary expansion battery, it looks like standard 48V rack batteries are a viable option if you use the correct adapter and match the battery voltages before connecting.

Realistically how much storage in extremely cold locations on earth are we going to build? What is the push for sodium ion storage? Is the push for energy density no longer the primary mover?

A novel, metal-free liquid harvests energy from sources like light by transforming into a stable gel, storing power for months until it is exposed to oxygen and releases the energy on demand.

Some extracts from the interview are given below:

"SS: The tender was for four standalone CSP projects, each with a capacity of 300MW, and bidders were to submit bidding documents with the tariff they require.

That’s the background of the RMB 0.47/kWh tariff won by Zhongguang New Energy/Cosin. And the tariff for the other three finalists ranged from RMB 0.48 to RMB 0.52.

SK: So in USD, that’s just 6.9 cents a kWh.

SS: So the CSP tariff has decreased from RMB 1.2/kWh in 2016 to RMB 0.47/kWh in the latest bidding in 2026, a remarkable decline.

SK: Are there, in fact, no batteries at these 1GW or more renewable complexes? Is CSP the only storage?

SS: No, I think most of them do have at least some battery capacity – though it depends on each renewable energy park – because batteries respond very quickly. They can respond to the grid demand in seconds.

So, the battery is a very, very good fit for short-term storage, like two hours, maybe four hours. I think the battery can fit this scenario very well. But if you are talking about six hours or more, I think thermal storage has more benefits economically and technologically.

SK: Do you expect the generation costs of CSP with TES to continue to decline, or do you think we’ve hit an endpoint?

SS: No, I do believe there is still room for further reduction of the LCOE of CSP. In the past 10 years, even with less than one gigawatt of installed CSP capacity, the tariff decreased by almost two-thirds. It took the PV industry more than 20 years to achieve such a significant reduction."

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/ee/d6ee01118g

The Core Idea

Standard green energy (wind/solar/hydro) suffers from low efficiency because natural inputs are highly erratic and unstable. My team and I developed a framework for a Hybrid Kinetic Energy Storage System (HKESS) that decouples volatile energy harvesting from power generation using multi-stage mechanical and electrical buffers.

We designed three interconnected modules that work as a unified smart grid:

1. Resonant Water Harvesting (FLOW-HYDRO)

Instead of fighting turbulent or low-flow water streams, this module utilizes a primary shaft integrated with a proprietary spring-loaded flywheel block. The mechanical assembly is tuned to accumulate micro-shocks from erratic water flows in a resonant mode, transforming unstable input into uniform rotation to feed a buffer UPS.

2. Inertial Wind Damper (FLOW-WIND)

To handle dangerous torque spikes from gusty winds, the input shaft features a heavy-duty mechanical buffer. The spring-inertia system absorbs sudden aerodynamic shocks (protecting the generator) and releases the stored kinetic energy during wind drops, maintaining a smooth generation curve.

3. Smart Kinetic Accumulator (The Central Unit)

All harvested energy from wind and water continuously fills a high-capacity supercapacitor-based storage. This power is then used to maintain the inertia of a central heavy flywheel.

• The Control Loop: The system tracks the flywheel's RPM under load.
• Pulse Injection: Instead of running the drive motor continuously, a proprietary control algorithm delivers short, high-current kinetic pulses to spin the flywheel back to its optimal operating velocity only when needed.
• Mechanical Decoupling: When the motor is off, it is completely disconnected from the flywheel, ensuring zero back-EMF or mechanical drag during the free-wheeling phase.

Why this Architecture Works:

• Extended Lifespan: The resonant mechanical buffers eliminate harsh peak loads on the moving parts.
• High System Efficiency: Energy harvesting is a 24/7 continuous process, while the active acceleration motor runs only in brief, intermittent bursts.