From current on-road vehicles to future electrified aircraft, the safety and reliability of energy storage systems is critical across battery applications. Before entering the market, all battery systems undergo thorough reviews and certifications to confirm they operate safely in both routine and extreme conditions, including fluctuating temperatures, repeated charging and discharging, and a full range of driving cycles.
"To ensure battery safety, manufacturers must design battery systems that mitigate risks during worst-case scenarios," said NREL's Donal Finegan, senior scientist in NREL's Electrochemical Energy Storage group. Catastrophic failures for individual cells are rare, but battery packs containing thousands of cells increase the overall risk.
Extreme temperatures due to single cell failure can lead to thermal runaway, igniting dangerous and toxic fires that spread across the entire battery pack.
Thermal safety is at the heart of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) battery research. The laboratory's scientists provide exhaustive thermal characterization of battery systems, looking beyond the industry-standard pass/fail certification process to understand what exactly occurs within battery structures before, during, and after failure.
As demand for batteries continues to grow, NREL experts are dedicated to developing fresh approaches to identify potential battery hazards and accelerate nationwide battery safety research.
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