Battery Chattery

Episode 4 - Potatoes and Voltage

Today we're going to teach you a little something about voltage! We're also going to delve into all the ways we've been misled (by yours truly BUT ALSO BY A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE) about the humble potato battery. Other topics of note: weddings, the curse of knowledge, theory of mind, reduction potentials again, and battery efficiency.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage

battery efficiencies: https://www.pv-magazine.com/magazine-archive/advancing-li-ion_10006681/#axzz4QbD0S6qc

research into catalysis of hydrogen reduction (aka hydrogen evolution): actually, why don't you just google it? https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C44&q=hydrogen+evolution+reaction+catalysts&btnG=&oq=hydrog there, now you've read some paper titles and you know as much as we do! (actually what the paper titles probably don't tell you is that platinum is REALLY a good catalyst but it's very expensive so that's why there's so much research into finding an alternative. Now you know!)

comparison of the ability of metals to catalyze a hydrogen reduction reaction: http://jes.ecsdl.org/content/152/3/J23.short

other questions? let us know at batterychattery@gmail.com 

 

Episode 3 - Basic Electrochemistry (with guests Spencer Johnson and Andrew Smith)

We start off this episode with a little bit of embarrassment and entropy, and then, with a little help from the humble potato, we answer that age-old question: between two electrode materials, how can you decide which one is going to be the anode and which one is going to be the cathode? In corrections corner, the focus is on nuclear power (special thanks to Rachel Bielajew for sending me lots of information!), but we also make time for butter and ionic liquids.

This episode features guests Spencer Johnson (check out his band, Ms. Mack and the Daddies: https://www.facebook.com/mackdaddymusic/ or follow him on Instagram @yonszenshpensz) and Andrew Smith! 

Sources:

study about nuclear power preventing deaths: https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/kh05000e.html

deaths per TWh for various energy sources: http://caravel.sc.edu/2012/09/what-in-the-fukushima-should-we-do-analyzing-the-costs-of-the-fukushima-daiichi-disaster-and-japans-reactions/ see Fig. 4 (and the following citations: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2012/06/deaths-by-energy-source-in-forbes.html, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-deathprint-a-price-always-paid/#1c9fa501709b)

Thanks for listening! Email us at batterychattery@gmail.com with questions and suggestions!

Episode 2, part 2 - Battery Basics

What is an anode? What is a cathode? Do we have mnemonics for remembering which is which? The answer to all three of these questions is YES

Also covered this episode: electrolytes, SOLID electrolytes, conductivity requirements for all of the aforementioned, and a little bit of entropy (more on that next time!)

No sources this episode - if you have followup questions, shoot us an email (batterychattery@gmail.com) and let us know so we can try to answer them in another episode!

Episode 2, part 1 - Corrections Corner

Welcome to Corrections (and Clarifications) Corner, where we focus on topics from previous episodes! Today it's definitely more of a clarifications corner. We start off with some talk about energy storage being centralized in few locations vs distributed to many locations, chat a little about duck curves and Nessie curves, and then move on to addressing the bipartisan-ness of the push towards renewable energy. Hope takes us on a winding detour about different ways to implement revenue-neutral carbon taxes (... sorry), Ana explains how not to write bad survey questions, and finally we wrap it all up by still being better people than Thomas Edison.

From here on out, we'll be including corrections corner at the end of full episodes. Bear with us as we figure out the optimal format for this podcast :)

Sources: 

literally everything Hope knows about how an aggregation of batteries can be used as large-scale storage: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/greater-than-the-sum-how-aggregation-is-making-storage-into-a-software-bus/420753/ 

Nessie curves: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/hawaiis-solar-grid-landscape-and-the-nessie-curve 

key findings of the Climate Change in the American Mind survey: http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-global-warming-may-2017/2/ (full report (pdf) here: http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Global-Warming-Policy-Politics-May-2017.pdf)

household impact survey for a carbon fee & dividend policy: https://citizensclimatelobby.org/household-impact-study/

episode cover art images taken from images taken from https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-california-duck-curve-is-real-and-bigger-than-expected (duck curve) and https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/hawaiis-solar-grid-landscape-and-the-nessie-curve (Nessie curve)

Questions? Suggestions? Contact us at batterychattery@gmail.com

Episode 1 - Battery Mattery

We talk about batteries and why they mattery.

Sources:

utilities survey - http://www.utilitydive.com/news/the-next-generation-utility-business-model-what-you-need-to-know/442421/

Duck curve - http://www.utilitydive.com/news/pressed-duck-clipping-the-curve-with-energy-storage/446179/

States that have passed legislation to encourage energy storage: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-york-expected-to-set-high-bar-for-energy-storage-after-target-bill-pass/445845/

Oncor + T&D- vs. generator-owned storage: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/esna-2015-why-energy-storage-is-key-to-a-future-with-no-more-gas-turbines/407409/

Storage + peaker plants: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/esna-2017-how-storage-enables-sce-to-avoid-siting-new-gas-plants/449068/

Germany paying customers to consume electricity: https://qz.com/680661/germany-had-so-much-renewable-energy-on-sunday-that-it-had-to-pay-people-to-use-electricity/

Some info about Crescent Dunes: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-concentrating-solar-tower-is-worth-its-salt-with-24-7-power/

Flywheel/gyroscope: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-flywheel-design/

Train storage (and other forms of storage): https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/business/energy-environment/biggest-batteries.html

the Amarillo song - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_This_the_Way_to_Amarillo