Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: What is a battery?

15 minutes

Find Out: Large-scale batteries

25 minutes

Take Action: Exploring battery materials

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions and success criteria

Students will:

explore the different types of grid-scale batteries and the materials they use, and evaluate the impacts of these materials on the environment, society and the economy to make informed decisions about sustainable energy storage.

Students can:

describe the different types of batteries used in grid-scale energy storage systems and their applications in renewable energy.
categorise the materials used in different battery storage systems explaining their properties and sources.
evaluate the environmental, social, and economic impacts of sourcing materials for battery technologies and recommend which battery type would be most suitable for future use in Queensland based on these factors.

Tune In: What is a battery?

Step 1

Display the image of the batteries on the first slide of the attached Visual Explainer to your class.

Pair your students and distribute post-it notes to everyone. Invite students to think about the questions on the slide and to work independently to record their responses on the post-it notes, sticking them to the quadrant the answer relates to.

Step 2

Discuss students’ answers using the suggested responses below to guide your discussion. Draw attention to responses mentioning renewable energy, large-scale battery storage systems or anything else beyond students' everyday interactions with the average battery.

Suggested responses:

What do batteries do, and where do you find them?
• store electrical energy
• provide electrical energy without being connected to external power
• transform chemical energy into electrical energy through a chemical reaction
• in small portable devices that need external power such as remotes, phones, laptops, toys and power tools.in larger objects such as cars
• in large grid-scale energy storage systems

What types of batteries are there, and what are they made of?
• made of metals such as lithium, lead and nickel, and other chemicals
• alkaline batteries: commonly used in household devices like remote controls, clocks and flashlights.
• lithium-ion batteries: used in smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles.lead-acid
• batteries: found in cars and backup power systems.
• nickel-cadmium batteries: used in older rechargeable devices, such as power tools.
• flow batteries: used in large-scale energy storage applications, such as storing renewable energy from solar or wind power.

Advantages of Batteries
• can be rechargeable and more sustainable
• portable
• store energy to use when we need it
• electric cars with batteries are more sustainable than regular cars that rely on fossil fuels
• scalable - can have tiny batteries for personal devices or large battery storage systems
can be paired with renewable energy to store energy

Disadvantages of batteries
• hard to recycle
• can be single-use even when rechargeable, they degrade over time and need to be replaced
• the extraction of raw materials needed to make batteries can have negative environmental impacts
• can be costly to make and purchase

Step 3

After your discussion, watch the following video with your students. It highlights a few different ways energy can be stored and explains how storage provides stability to electricity grids worldwide.

Give each student a copy of the Student Worksheet and invite them to take notes on the following questions on their worksheet as they watch.

Better batteries: the hunt for an energy storage solution - Financial Times (https://youtu.be/tjazxj3HA-0)

How do batteries fit in with renewable energy?
What other types of energy storage are there?
What is the importance of storing energy?
What are the benefits and limitations of energy storage solutions?

Discuss students' responses, ensuring to highlight that there are many different and exciting ways that energy can be stored and used that aren’t in a ‘regular’ battery. Explain that in this lesson, students will be focusing on how grid-scale energy storage systems can work in conjunction with renewable energy in Queensland to improve sustainability and reliability.

Find Out: Large-scale batteries

Step 1

Explain to your students that there are different sizes of battery storage systems. Some are designed for individual households to store the energy they generate themselves through solar panels, whereas others are larger, referred to as ‘grid-scale storage’. These are designed to store large amounts of energy from solar and wind farms to be used by the electricity grid.

Use the next slides on the Visual Explainer to show images of these types of energy storage and explain how they are used. Highlight that students will be focusing on large-scale batteries for the remainder of this lesson.

Step 2

Many large-scale battery projects are underway in Queensland and around Australia. Invite students to use their devices to explore the Queensland battery projects listed below. As they look at the information, encourage students to note down any information they can find about what type of batteries are used for grid-scale storage. Discuss their findings once they have completed their research.

Suggested responses: all of these batteries use Lithium-ion batteries, specifically Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, commonly found in Tesla megapacks.

Step 3

You might like to prompt some discussion with your students about what a Lithium-ion battery is. Where have they heard this term before? Do they know of any Lithium-ion batteries? What does it suggest about this style of battery if lots of everyday devices and large-scale projects are utilising the same type?

Suggested responses: students might mention hearing about Lithium-ion batteries in relation to smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, or other consumer electronics. Lithium-ion batteries are a popular form of energy storage. They are in devices like mobile phones, laptops, toys and even power tools. All of these smaller devices require long life spans, quick charging, and portability. Large-scale systems require long life spans, quick charging and the capacity to store large amounts of energy. This suggests that Lithium-ion batteries have these characteristics.

Step 4

Watch the following video with your students, which showcases the Gannawarra large-scale battery. Highlight to students that this is a Victorian battery system but uses the same type of technology as the Queensland batteries. As students watch the video, encourage them to note what they see, think and wonder about the system using the guiding questions (also available on the Student Worksheet).

Gannawarra Large Scale Battery - Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEUiqYu28OA)

See	Think	Wonder
What do you notice about the energy storage system?What is the battery connected to?What is inside the systems?	What is the purpose of the battery? What impact do these systems have on the economy? Why is it great for the planet?	What do you think the energy storage system is constructed from?What do you wonder about what you’ve watched?
Suggested responses: • Tesla powerpacks, large boxes, connected together. • connected to a solar farm with 180,000 panels inside each large box are Pods, each one containing multiple thumb-sized Lithium-ion batteries strung together. There are 400 batteries in total..	Suggested responses: • stabilise the grid and feed the renewable energy power into the system at night when the sun isn't around • bring money into the local community and provide jobs • being able to provide renewable energy and use it more consistently means less reliance on fossil fuels, more sustainable communities and the use of resources	Suggested responses: • lithium, other metals, plastics, wiring • student responses will vary

Take Action: Exploring battery materials

Step 1

Explain to your students that these grid-scale battery storage systems have many advantages in their use. But there is an aspect to consider before we get to this stage: What materials are used in the batteries, why are they suitable, how do we get them and what factors are there to consider in choosing these materials?

There are many different battery technologies. For this lesson, we will focus on three popular types:

Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC)
Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP)
Vanadium Flow

When choosing to construct or use a type of battery, designers and planners must consider the product's whole life cycle. Based on the battery names listed above, brainstorm ideas in response to the following questions:

What materials would these batteries use?
What are these materials?
How might we get these materials?

In your discussion, highlight to students that lithium, manganese, nickel, cobalt, iron, phosphate and vanadium are all important materials to be used. Some are metals, some are minerals but all raw materials must be obtained through mining, which raises extra points to consider.

Step 2

Divide students into groups of 3 and direct them to their Student Worksheets. Their task is to research more about the materials used to create the batteries used for large-scale storage purposes.

Allocate each group to one type of battery. Groups need to research the materials in their battery technology so that they can communicate this information to the rest of the class. Using the information below in the table as well as their own research, students should find out the following for each material in their battery type (questions with a * can be used for student extension).

What are the properties of this material, and why is it used in batteries?
How is this material obtained? What positive or negative impacts does its extraction have? (Think environmental, social and economic)
What sourcing advantages or disadvantages are associated with this material? Can it be found in Australia? Is it in short supply?
Can this material be recycled, or does it have to be disposed of after use?
*The news has recently been reporting on ‘exploding’ batteries on e-bikes. Are there any risks associated with battery storage, and how can these be minimised?
*Opinion: the extraction of some of these materials - particularly cobalt and lithium - currently comes with an increased risk of negative social impacts. How might we balance the social costs of mining with the environmental gains of renewable energy battery storage?
*Careers: battery storage is an exciting new industry and the scale of battery development means lots of jobs are created in order to design, plan, manufacture, install and maintain battery systems. Use the Future Energy Jobs Guide to highlight some of the roles needed in this industry and explain how they fit into the topics you are researching

Battery Type	Materials used	Description
Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC)	lithium nickel manganese cobalt	NMC batteries are widely used because they have high power and energy density, making them ideal for devices like laptops, phones, and cameras. There have also been cases of using NMC in energy storage applications. NMC batteries have a shorter lifespan, up to 2,000 cycles, and use expensive, less abundant materials like nickel and cobalt. The way these materials are extracted and processed is more harmful to the environment.
Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP)	lithium iron phosphate	The energy storage sector is slowly moving away from other types of Lithium-ion batteries and adopting LFP as the main chemistry. While LFP batteries have a lower energy density, meaning they store less energy in the same amount of space, this isn’t a big problem for stationary energy storage where space isn’t an issue. In an electric vehicle, space is more important, and chemistries with high energy density are prioritised.LFP batteries use iron, which is cheaper and more widely available than cobalt and nickel. This helps reduce the cost of processing and manufacturing. Another reason to adopt LFP batteries is their safety and durability. LFP batteries have a lower risk of fire (or thermal runaway), and they last longer, up to 5,000 cycles.
Vanadium Flow Battery	vanadium	A Vanadium Redox Flow battery is a type of rechargeable battery that stores energy in liquid form. It uses vanadium, a metal, in two different liquid solutions that flow through the battery to create electricity. Unlike regular batteries, where the energy is stored in solid materials, this battery stores energy in liquids, making it easier to scale up for large energy storage, like in renewable energy projects. It's durable, can last a long time and is great for storing large amounts of energy, but it's bulkier and more expensive than some other battery types.Vanadium Redox Flow batteries can store energy for long periods of time, can be reused many times over and have a long lifespan, lasting at least 20 years. They can be attached to an existing energy grid or used to store energy off-grid to be used when needed.

Note: You may like to allocate more groups to LFP and NMC batteries as these have more materials to consider than Vanadium Flow. Some resources to assist students' research are listed below, however, students should be encouraged to conduct their own research. When researching information like this, it is important for students to pay close attention to the sources they use. There are many different stakeholders when it comes to the mining of materials so it is important to look out for possible sources of bias in any information students are using. You might like to discuss this with your class.

All	Royal Society of Chemistry - Element information
Vanadium	Vanadium - Department of Resources Queensland Government What is vanadium, and why are we mining it in Queensland? - State Development and Infrastructure Queensland Government
Cobalt	Cobalt - Department of Resources Queensland Government The Environmental Impacts of Lithium and Cobalt Mining - Earth.org
Phosphate	Don’t forget phosphate when securing critical raw materials for electrification \| Hotter Commodities - Fastmarkets
Lithium	The Environmental Impacts of Lithium and Cobalt Mining - Earth.org An Overview of Commercial Lithium Production - ThoughtCo.
Nickel	Nickel - a mineral with a challenging role in clean tech - International Energy Forum
Iron	Iron Ore - UK GBC

Step 3

Once students have researched their materials and batteries, bring the class together to discuss their findings. Draw a table on the board with three columns, one for each battery. Encourage volunteers from each group to talk about the information they have gathered and highlight the main points, writing them on the board as you go. Encourage students to note down these points as you discuss them in their Student Worksheet.

These main points could be:

properties
extraction and sourcing
advantages and disadvantages
recycling.

Note: Depending on the time you have available, you may like to complete this discussion jigsaw style, grouping students so that they have one representative from each battery. Each expert can teach their peers about the materials found in the battery.

Step 4

Close out the research task and discussion by posing this final question:

“Which battery type would you want to see used more in the future in Queensland, based on the materials it contains as well as the operation of the battery?”

Encourage students to write a one-paragraph answer to this question in their Student Worksheet. They should consider the information they have researched, learned about and heard to formulate their response, considering the operation of the battery, as well as the materials it contains.

Reflection

Reflect on the lesson with your students using the following question:

What was the most surprising or important thing you learned about battery technologies and their role in renewable energy?

Analysing Materials in Battery Storage

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