The present invention relates to a secondary battery comprising an electrode assembly. The electrode assembly comprises: a first unit electrode in which a plurality of first electrodes entirely made of a first electrode mixture having a solid shape are connected to each other; a second unit electrode in which a plurality of second electrodes entirely made of a second electrode mixture having a solid shape are connected to each other; a separator interposed between the first unit electrode and the second unit electrode; and an electrode tab comprising a plurality of first electrode tab provided on the first unit electrode and a plurality of second electrode tab provided on the second unit electrode.

A portable power bank including a rechargeable battery and/or a remote server may detect loss of capacity in the power bank battery. The power bank and/or remote server determines a nominal capacity of the power bank, and an actual capacity of the power bank, the actual capacity being less than the nominal capacity. The power bank and/or remote server compares the actual capacity to the nominal capacity to determine a health value of the power bank battery. When the power bank battery health value is at or below a threshold value, the power bank and/or remote server transmits an indication of the health value.

An apparatus and method for electrochemical energy storage for high-power and high-energy autonomous applications, including autonomous electric vehicles having remote active drive cycle monitoring and/or governance and thermal management control, are described. For autonomous vehicles, the apparatus includes: at least one high-power, low-energy density tertiary storage battery having low cost, and designed to wear and be replaceable; at least one high energy density core battery; at least one intermediate power and energy density secondary battery for buffering the load on the core battery; and a battery controller. The autonomous vehicle energy requirement and consumption rate are provided in such a manner that performance degradation over the life of the system is reduced.

The present disclosure provides a circuit for balancing voltages of battery packs to be connected in parallel, comprising: IN-side switches and OUT-side switches; a DC-DC converter with an IN terminal connected to the IN-side switches and an OUT terminal connected to the OUT-side switches; and a controller to operate an IN-side switch to connect a V.sub.max battery pack to the IN terminal, operate an OUT-side switch to connect a V.sub.min battery pack to the OUT terminal, and activate the DC-DC converter to transfer energy from the V.sub.min battery pack to the V.sub.min battery pack. The controller responds to an IN terminal voltage being sufficiently close to a voltage of a first battery pack by operating an IN-side switch to connect the first pack to the IN terminal, and responds to an OUT terminal voltage being sufficiently close to a voltage of a second battery pack by operating an OUT-side switch to connect the second battery pack to the OUT terminal.

Battery cells, each including an electrolyte, first and second working electrodes in the electrolyte, and first and second reference electrodes in the electrolyte, are disclosed. The first and second reference electrodes each comprises an active material on a current collector. The active material of the first reference electrode is different from the active material of the second reference electrode.

An apparatus including a monitoring unit including a voltage detection circuit which detects a voltage of the plurality of battery cells, a balancing unit including a first common resistor element and a switching module, the first common resistor element connected between a first common node and a second common node, and a control unit operably coupled to the monitoring unit and the switching module, the control unit determining a balancing target including at least one of the plurality of battery cells based on the voltage of each of the plurality of battery cells, controlling the switching module to form a current channel between the first common resistor element and the balancing target and determining a maximum number of battery cells that can be included in the balancing target based on resistance of the first common resistor element and the voltage of each of the plurality of battery cells.

A battery system with a large-format Li-ion battery powers attached equipment by discharging battery cells distributed among a plurality of battery packs. The discharging of the battery cells is controlled in an efficient manner while preserving the expected life of the Li-ion battery cells. Each battery pack internally supports a battery management system and may have identical components, thus supporting an architecture that easily scales to higher power/energy. Battery packs may be added or removed without intervention with a user, where one of battery packs serves as a master battery pack and the remaining battery packs serve as slave battery packs. When the master battery pack is removed, one of the slave battery packs becomes the master battery pack. Charging and discharging of the battery cells is coordinated by the master battery pack with the slave battery packs over a communication channel such as a controller area network (CAN) bus.

Batteries according to embodiments of the present technology may include a first battery cell including a first body characterized by a first length and a first width, and a first tab extending from an edge of the first body. The first tab may be characterized by a width less than the first width of the first body. The batteries may also include a second battery cell stacked below the first battery cell. The second battery cell may include a second body characterized by a second length and a second width, and a second tab extending from an edge of the second body. The second tab may be characterized by a width less than the second width of the second body. The second tab may also be characterized by a width greater than the width of the first tab providing an extension of the second tab protruding from below the first tab.

Described herein is a fuel cell and battery hybrid system (1) comprising one or more sets (2) of serially connected fuel cells (FC1-n). The one or more sets (2) of serially connected fuel cells (FC1-n) are further serially connected via a respective fuel cell series enhancer (3). The serially connected sets (2) are further connected in parallel with a battery (4) via a fuel cell power charge controller (5). Each respective set (2) of serially connected fuel cells (FC1-n) is further arranged be controlled by the fuel cell series enhancer (3) to operate electrically independent from other sets (2) of serially connected fuel cells (FC1-n) and at its own unique maximum power point or uniquely selected other operating point, regardless of the operating points of other sets (2) of serially connected fuel cells (FC1-n).

An uninterruptible power supply device (UPS) for feeding a load device when power supply thereto is shut down. The UPS has battery packs, a charge and discharge circuit configured to charge and discharge the battery packs, a regulating discharge circuit including a resistance, and a control unit. When the battery pack is charged to a dischargeable upper limit voltage of the load device, the control device shifts the battery pack to a discharge inhibition condition. In the discharge inhibition condition, the battery pack is continuously charged to full capacity and prevented from being discharged to the load device. When the battery voltage is reduce to the upper limit voltage after being fully charged, the control unit allows the battery pack to discharge the load device.