Proposals to deploy lead battery technology as part of two projects to provide innovative energy storage systems for an African nation have been drawn up by partners including the Consortium for Battery Innovation.
CBI has teamed up with UK-based Loughborough University and partners organizations to submit a funding bid to a UK government agency for just over £1.3 million ($1.5 million) to develop a novel hydrogen-production energy storage system that uses lead battery components (battolyser) in the East African nation of Malawi,
The Modular Energy Storage with Clean Hydrogen (MESCH) project will, if the funding application is successful, develop a first unit to support operations at a hospital in Malawi.
The system will provide essential backup power and also turn excess solar power into hydrogen for cooking.
CBI research and innovation manager Carl Telford, who visited Malawi for talks about the projects earlier this month, said CBI member companies would provide the lead battery technology for MESCH.
Carl Telford (pictured above) told LB360: “The role of battery energy storage in low and middle-income economies is becoming increasingly important, because reliable power supplies support health, education, cooking, business and agriculture.
“The proposed projects are also an example of how investments in the further deployment of sustainable, advanced lead battery technology, can energize the wider African continent.”