The future of Energy lies in clean, renewable
energy without a doubt.
How do thermal batteries fit into the future of renewable energy
Each year renewable energy makes up more and
more of the total energy produced throughout
the world.
Apart from hydroelectric energy, renewable
energy sources such as solar energy and wind
energy are among the most commonly used.
Due to being intermittent energy sources it
cannot be utilized to its full potential yet.
The sun does not always shine, and the wind
is not always blowing.
If this intermittent energy can be stored
it can be employed even during times during
which the sources are not actively providing
energy.
Thermal Energy Storage is a viable solution.
What is Thermal Energy Storage?
It can be described as storing energy as heat
or cold in a storage medium to be used later.
Thermal Energy Storage’s main use is to
overcome the imbalance between energy generation
and energy use.
A few essential requirements for an effective
Thermal Energy Storage system is a storage
material with a high energy density, very
good insulation to ensure minimal heat loss,
a storage material that is chemically stable
as well as a completely reversible process
that can be repeated numerous times.
From here on forward a Thermal Energy Storage
System will be referred to as a Thermal Battery.
There is 3 main Thermal Energy Storage Types,
Sensible Heat Storage, dealing with a mild
increase or decrease in the temperature of
a storage material, Latent Heat Storage which
involves the phase change of a storage material
and thermochemical energy storage where a
reversible chemical reaction with high energy
involved is used to store energy.
Latent Heat Storage is the focus of this video.
Choosing the Phase Change Material that stores
the energy as heat and release it once cooled
is a crucial parameter.
What is the ideal Phase Change Material?
Second to Oxygen this material is the most
abundant element in the earth’s crust.
Each material unit area can store 2.3 times
more energy than a Li-ion battery, 10 times
more than Lead Acid batteries and 7.3 times
that of Nickel Cadmium batteries.
This mystery material is roughly 75% the cost
of a lithium-ion battery of the same size.
This mysterious material is silicon and is
ideal to use as the storage material.
With Silicon having a melting point of roughly
1400 Celsius, to change its phase from a solid
to a liquid will require a lot of energy.
What are the complications of this theoretical
solution?
To fully operate as a battery the system should
be able to charge and discharge, thus energy
will be transferred from electrical to thermal
and back to electrical energy.
Energy losses and energy conversions goes
hand in hand and how this is approached will
greatly influence the efficiency of the thermal
battery.
Will this solution be implemented?
Two Australian companies, CCT Energy Storage
and 1414 Degrees have been working independently
on utilizing this concept of thermal battery
to store thermal energy and use it to rationalize
the energy demand and shave the peak loads.
The former mentioned released a fully operational
thermal battery in early April 2019, whereas
the latter are busy with testing.
According to 1414 degrees, unit costs fall
as energy capacity scales up.
CCT stated that scaling the battery down to
be used in smartphones, laptops and EV’s
are not plausible as a large volume of Silicon
is required to reach the optimal energy density.
Both companies claim that silicon does essentially
not degrade over time as with Lithium-ion
batteries, therefore resulting in additional
cost decrease when compared to a traditional
battery setup.
Thermal Energy Batteries shows immense potential
and will definitely play a vital role in the
future of renewable energy.
The future holds many mysteries and I am sure
in the coming years we will see many remarkable
advancements in battery- and energy storing
technologies.
If you have any topics that you would like
to see discussed on Genius Engineering let
me know in the comments.
If you did find the video entertaining and
informative be sure to click like and subscribe,
for more insight into interesting topics.
