Wind and solar powered generation is expanding,
but one challenge we face
is how to store that energy
when the sun isn't shining
or the wind isn't blowing.
Here are three innovative companies
searching for breakthroughs to solve this
challenge.
For the first time ever,
renewable power is cheaper
than fossil intensive fuel sources.
I mean that's a remarkable statement.
Malta's mission is to enable the supply
of reliable, resilient, and affordable electricity
anywhere in the world.
And we're doing that
by developing an energy storage technology
that is long duration and cost competitive.
The Malta system is very simple.
On the front end as the electricity comes
in
it basically operates a heat pump.
What you're doing is taking the hot side
and storing that in molten salt
and salt stores heat very well.
And you're taking the cold side
and storing that in an antifreeze solution.
And then when the electricity is needed
to go back out to the grid,
what you're doing is basically reversing that
process.
Quidnet is taking the largest form of energy
storage today,
which is called pumped hydro storage.
Effectively running water up and down a hill.
And we're just bringing that to regions
where there are no hills and it's all flat
terrain.
For pumped hydro storage
the majority of the cost
is building the dam and constructing on the
side,
and on the top of the mountain.
With Quidnet's subsurface, geo-mechanical
pump storage
we take that cost and bring it down about
an order of magnitude.
A Quidnet facility essentially involves a
surface pond,
a mechanical room, and a well.
When the system is charging
water is pulled from the pond
and pumped down into the well
and kept at high pressure.
When we're discharging,
the high-pressure water is allowed to come
back up through the well,
flowing through the turbine, and back into
the pond.
Form Energy's bidirectional power plants
are quite different from other kinds of energy
storage.
Lithium ion is one that most people know.
Whereas lithium ion batteries are fantastic
sprinters
you would never take a sprinter
and ask that sprinter to run a marathon.
In our case what we are going after
is a very different kind of race.
In that marathon racer is a different electrochemical
challenge.
To smooth out those intermittencies over long
periods of time.
Days, weeks, or potentially even months.
The bidirectional power plant
operates under the same principles
that any energy storage device does.
You have a source of charging
and then it's discharged
according to the value maximizing algorithm
that we have developed.
We use earth abundant elements
and we use elements which are non-toxic and
very benign.
Every day I can wake up and tell myself
that I'm doing something about climate change.
That I'm doing something that matters,
that will matter to my children's generation.
The window for solving these problems isn't
that long.
Being able to dedicate our capabilities by
doing something about that
is what finally keeps us going and excited.
Humans are incredibly and endlessly inventive.
I do like the idea that we're just going to
go do it.
