SCPS, HELION (Areva Group), SAFT, the University of Nantes (LGMPA) and the University of Montpellier 2 (ICG-IEM-LCVN) obtained the financial support of the ANR (French National Research Agency) for their demonstration program of the potentialities of the new NiZn secondary battery developed by SCPS, for the various industrial stationary applications.

The program applies to energy storage in stationary batteries, which constitutes a considerable group of diversified and strongly increasing markets.

The battery systems proposed today do not answer ideally all the technical, environmental and economic criteria requested by markets and legislations.

The partners of the ANZAS program notice that, for these applications, important R&D efforts are dedicated to lithium batteries, in the lesser level, to nickel-metal hydride batteries. But the high cost of raw materials used by these systems (cobalt for Li-ion, rare earths for NiMH), the restricted availability for some of their components (lithium carbonate), and the difficulty of their end of life recycling, create a strong appeal for a development policy of alternative systems.

Such a system exists: the nickel-zinc battery, which operates easily recyclable compounds, raw materials of which have sure, plentiful sources of supply, widely distributed on the globe. It became an economic and efficient system today. For industrial type batteries, the European full costs per kWh, any equal things besides, are approximately 300 € for NiZn, 390 € for NiCd, and 580 € for NiMH. For Li-ion batteries, whose production would answer the same basic hypotheses, they would be situated at more than 1.000 €. From a technical point of view, SCPS’ NiZn batteries were tested in multiple conditions of use, and by different battery manufacturers and users. These tests demonstrate both the ability for long term cycling, and for float charge.

For the partners, the concepts operated through the SCPS’ Technology constitute the solid and demonstrated base to make the NiZn system a product capable of answering the requirements of the stationary markets, the advantages of the NiZn battery (performances, cost, absence of heavy metals, safety, recycling) making even this system a choice solution.

Concerned stationary applications:

- storage for renewable energies
The photovoltaic or wind electric productions are intermittent, and generally not simultaneous with the consumers’ demand. The storage of the produced energy allows to manage this gap, and constitutes in certain cases a technological or economic necessity. The storage finds applications for the electrification of isolated sites, and for the stabilization of electrical networks.
- uninterruptible power supply is used for the electric supply to various equipment in case of supply breakdown by the network.
Backup batteries are supposed to be under permanent “floating” (in charge with constant voltage or under low constant current), and to be discharged only in case of exceptional breakdown of the network.
But the imperfect functioning of certain networks (deregulations, developing countries, consequences of natural disasters) induces more severe conditions of exploitation : weekly, even daily discharges in developing countries; batteries ageing is then provoked as much because of the cycling as because of the floating.

HELION conceives and supplies turnkey solutions for electric and thermal generators in medium and high power ranges, able to meet the needs of strong added value markets, such as the decentralized stationary energy, and onboard energy supplies. The main scientific and technical outcome expected by Hélion from the ANZAS program is a new demonstration of techno-economic feasibility of the field of hybrid electrification Renewable Energy – NiZn battery – Fuel cell.

SAFT, leader in the manufacture of nickel-cadmium batteries for industrial applications, developed large technological competences which could be useful in the NiZn system industrialization phase. SAFT is interested in the potentialities of the SCPS’ NiZn Technology, in particular the total absence of maintenance: it is not possible today to propose a new battery with maintenance.