Solar energy stored for up to 18 years.

[DeathtoGnomes]

Sounds too good to be true, but proof of concept is at hand.

So expect new battery tech to use solar energy, not to be confused with other forms of energy, read on....

Major solar breakthrough means energy can be stored for up to 18 years

The future of solar has just got brighter with this ‘ultra-thin’ device for converting stored energy into electricity.

www.euronews.com

Its interesting really, if its developed into a battery container, just how long will a battery like this last in actual usage? Granted is a couple decades to fruition.

 

[Shrek]

Thermoelectric efficiency is very low

 

[qubit]

The basic way that this works is to "wind up the molecules" a bit like a coiled spring stores energy using the sunlight and when they unwind them with the catalyst, the energy is released.

Very clever and I hope they can make a useful commercial version sooner rather than later.

 

[Shrek]

How is this different from sodium acetate supercooling?

Click Heat Science - YouTube

 

[qubit]

How is this different from sodium acetate supercooling?

Click Heat Science - YouTube

It’s storing solar energy.

 

[looniam]

chalmers university of technology?

Swedish site rolls out ‘green steel’

LULEA, Sweden -- For hundreds of years, raging blast furnaces -- fed with coking coal -- have forged steel used in cars, railways, bridges and skyscrapers.

www.arkansasonline.com

Residual water from the food industry gives seaweed cultivation a boost

Process water from the food industry is an excellent fertilizer in land-based seaweed cultivation. Not only does the seaweed grow faster; its protein content also multiplies. In this way, process water can go from being a cost to becoming a resource in the food industry.

www.sciencedaily.com

How e-Scooters Can Safely Operate in a City

Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, presents a framework for comparing how different micromobility vehicles, such as e-scooters safety

cleantechnica.com

i think i like that place.

 

[Minus Infinity]

So why would you choose this over storing the energy in a battery? I doubt it will store much energy and how will it delvier the enrgy in a useful manner like a battery?

 

[R-T-B]

So why would you choose this over storing the energy in a battery? I doubt it will store much energy and how will it delvier the enrgy in a useful manner like a battery?

What battery holds a charge for 18 years without trickle charging?

 

[defaultluser]

What battery holds a charge for 18 years without trickle charging?

Why does anyone care?

You're starting-out with 2/3 the efficiency of straight cells->electricity, the cut that by another 35-40% TEC efficiency.

Might as well pay the high costs of local battery installations at power plants(because most stored energy will get used within days, negating the whole purpose!)

As-for your laptop battery replacement, at total efficiency of under 10%, these things would be like the Wireless charges of the cell phone world! They might have trouble being competitive with the energy density of Liion

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Not sure much would be stored seeing much of the production isn't enough to supply demand.

 

[r9]

Storing energy has always been the biggest problem moving away from fossil fuels.

 

[Pawelr98]

Energy storage is several things:
-cost
-capacity
-efficiency
-longevity

Currently, the best storage solution is still the pumped hydro.
80% efficiency, can last for decades, big capacity although high cost.

Hydrogen for example is too low on efficiency, as the gas has to be compressed, requiring energy.
Electrolysis takes some efficiency off as well, so do the fuel cells.

Batteries are too high cost and too short lived.

This thing utlizes thermoelectric generator, which has even lower efficiency.
Sure, you can store the energy, but the cost of that output energy will be say 10 times higher than input price.
Then you go into the payback period, this has to pay for itself and those renewable systems.

 

[R-T-B]

Why does anyone care?

I dunno. I'm sure there is some obscure use case.

 

[R0H1T]

The biggest issue with batteries or really anything related to "storing energy" is energy density. If you can store energy for a decent amount of time without using too much space, or wasting much of it through conversion you're likely going to be the next $100 billionaire

 

[cvaldes]

Aren't dead dinosaurs technically a storage medium for solar energy? After all, most of them were herbivores, right?

 

[DrCR]

Aren't dead dinosaurs technically a storage medium for solar energy? After all, most of them were herbivores, right?

Wha?! That’s like saying solar panel manufacturing isn’t pollution free nor are they (at least in the U.S.) renewable.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Aren't dead dinosaurs technically a storage medium for solar energy? After all, most of them were herbivores, right?

Well yeah, but the manufacturing takes a tad bit longer than most solar storage mediums.

 

[R0H1T]

After all, most of them were herbivores, right?

Where did you get that from? Also if Brontosaurus Rex eats a tree branch & ingests a 1000 insects on it does that technically count as an omnivore or herbivore

 

[CallandorWoT]

This looks fantastic... honestly there is a chance humanity will still make it in the end. Lots of progress in lots of fields. Hopefully its just not too late.

 

[Shrek]

Humanity will make it, just not while doubling the population every 50 years.

 

[cvaldes]

Where did you get that from? Also if Brontosaurus Rex eats a tree branch & ingests a 1000 insects on it does that technically count as an omnivore or herbivore

The definition of an herbivore is an animal whose diet is mostly plants or exclusively plants. The majority of dinosaurs were herbivores with the theropods being the best known class of carnivores.

Refer the Wikipedia entry if you want or the various sources listed in the entry's bibliography.

Note that this distinction isn't specific to dinosaurs. A cow grazes on plants and will also consume the random insect here or there but it's still an herbivore according to scientists because most of its diet comes from plants.

It's not like these animals can carefully take plants to a big sink, rinse off the bugs and carefully inspect them before taking a bite.

 

[R-T-B]

Aren't dead dinosaurs technically a storage medium for solar energy? After all, most of them were herbivores, right?

I'd say the plants moreso than the dinos, the dinos just ate the plant batteries.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

What battery holds a charge for 18 years without trickle charging?

Why would you want to produce electrity today, only to bottle it up and not use it for 18 years? Why not just wait 18 years then produce the electricity?

If you want electricity for 18 years without any new inputs, you're going to use an RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) or "nuclear battery" (also radioactive decay but diamonds convert the particles into electricity):

U.S. Startup Unveils Safe Diamond Nuclear Battery That Could Last Up To 28,000 Years

The radioactive diamond battery will be made from nuclear waste and would be available for demo in 2023.

www.techtimes.com

To the OP, it's a thermal system and thermal systems are always big/bulky. I can't see any practical applications.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I can't see any practical applications.

Its too early to tell to really agree with that statement.

 

[ThrashZone]

Why would you want to produce electrity today, only to bottle it up and not use it for 18 years? Why not just wait 18 years then produce the electricity?

If you want electricity for 18 years without any new inputs, you're going to use an RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator) or "nuclear battery" (also radioactive decay but diamonds convert the particles into electricity):

U.S. Startup Unveils Safe Diamond Nuclear Battery That Could Last Up To 28,000 Years

The radioactive diamond battery will be made from nuclear waste and would be available for demo in 2023.

www.techtimes.com

To the OP, it's a thermal system and thermal systems are always big/bulky. I can't see any practical applications.

Hi,
Indeed for some odd reason some think there is some sort of excess green energy around not being used