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.
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