UK-based Sri Lankan engineer perfects power storage facility for all purposes
Due to the harmful effects and environmental pollution from burning fuel for energy, the world is now moving fast towards renewables like solar and wind energy. Though this energy could be harnessed adequately, storing a large quantity in a small space has been one of the biggest challenges.
A Sri Lankan national, Pasidu Pallawela hailing from Wattala, studied at Royal College and graduated as an engineer from the Moratuwa University, recently floated a company in the United Kingdom – Power Migration Partners Ltd, Edinburgh, UK (PMP) and has found a solution to this problem.
The product - Single Liquid Flow Battery (SLFB Battery), is now patented and sold throughout the UK and also exported to several countries including Australia and Sri Lanka.
Mr. Pallawela, during a visit to Sri Lanka met the Business Times (BT) at his Wattala residence this week and said that he not only promotes this unique power storage product in Sri Lanka but is also engaged in a more humanitarian mission to save lives during sudden disasters like floods and cyclones.
When the victims are moved to safety camps they are usually without power which led to around 30 to 40 fatalities last year unnoticed among a sheltered million flood victims. He said; “You plug in the SLFB Battery and then there is electricity that could save lives”.
PMP has developed the novel flow battery storage system and a GaN (Maximum Energy Efficiency) semiconductor based power electronic platform for renewable energy. The main development is the SLFB Battery which could be used to store electric energy.
Mr. Pallawela said that this technology is a ‘game changer’ in the energy storage market as it can now store energy in a liquid and use it for either stationary or mobile applications. He indicated that they provide a complete solution for energy storage, demand side management and active power control of renewable energy.
The PMP Battery device replaces the traditional two tank flow battery systems and Mr. Pallawela says their dense storage system is revolutionising the present electrical energy storage market. This system is suitable for renewable energy storage, micro grid power storage, utility scale power storage, telecommunication systems and for transportation systems.
The total storage unit could store the energy sufficient (5 Kwh) for a normal household with lights and appliances for 24 hours. Further, Mr. Pallawela said that if one plans out the household energy consumption and fixes a solar panel to get the required supply, that energy need not be pumped into the grid but with the converter SLFB Battery the supply could straightaway be used continuously.
After his graduation, Mr Pallawela became the youngest GM at Nikini Power Systems, Sri Lanka and then joined General Electric in 2007 – a US based worldwide company mainly operating in the US and UK and he worked in both countries. After a tremendous spell of hard research work, he floated his own company in UK - PMP in 2013. His initial investment was around Sterling Pounds 50,000 and the present net assets value could be estimated at around Sterling Pounds 40 million.
In UK he said that people started fixing solar panels on the roofs around 10 years ago and now around 7.5 per cent obtain power through solar and another 12.5 per cent through wind power. The balance is still obtained through other conventional energy supplied. In this scenario, Mr. Pallawela said that their product would have a steady market.
The UK and the European Union are targeting to reach 80 per cent energy through solar and wind power by 2040. France would stop selling vehicles with petrol and diesel by that year.
He said that the importance of storage comes in during the changeover in a power stoppage in the normal supply and even when the power is obtained through solar power as during the stoppage the storage stands by to take over the uninterrupted continuous power supply. He said that the revolution in the technology not only helps storage capacity but also provides uninterrupted power during changeover or when there is a cloud affecting solar power generation.
Mr. Pallawela said that in the UK it would take more time to introduce this method to vehicles due to the need for certification but the company plans to release a suitable battery in 2023 for vehicles, he indicated.
He said that he is now working on a plan to bring in this technology to Sri Lanka and as a first step has got the fulltime services of a PhD student from the Kelaniya University to set up a small laboratory inside that university and the total funding for this exercise would be handled by his company.
His present visit to Sri Lanka made his heart melt, to learn how the rural Sri Lankans miserably suffer. And when he recalled an experience he encountered where a household of around six – all using one tooth brush and not three meals a day, but only two impoverished ones, spontaneous tears oozed in his eyes. He was building a house for this family.