Innovations for a new era of energy storage - Transforming Business - DW News

[Rhiannon12866]

To store the increasing amount of clean energy coming from renewables, we need batteries. Without them, there’s a risk of stalling the transition away from fossil fuels. Stationary thermal batteries or heat batteries are growing in popularity for industrial processes and district heating. In this episode of Transforming Business, we look at some simple, natural, and cost-effective materials, squirreling away energy as heat to be used when needed. - Aired on 06/24/2024.


Chapters:
0:00: The heat is on
0:36: Sand, the new kid on the block
2:45: The fatal flaw of renewables
3:53: The more established players
8:10: Decarbonizing heat
9:26: Caveat & Credit

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Really interesting. The future should be full of thermal passive storage.

We know the problems with chemical batteries and nuke power.....this seems like an environmentally smart way to store energy....

[Rhiannon12866]

2. That's why this got my attention, the environmental issue. And it seems to be working well.

[Warpy]

3. Heat energy retrieval from heat sinks has been known forever

We used metal cans used for honey, nuts, and maple syrup sold in bulk back in the 70s, just fill them with water and stack them up inside a Trombe-Michel wall. Nothing much helped in New England Dec-Feb, but the rest of the year they provided a huge amount of help with heating.

There is progress being made on the electrical storage front. I came across this one a couple of weeks ago. China claims to be developing the technology on a grid level, we'll see. As this video points out, these batteries won't burn:

No word on how long it takes to recharge one of these.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Wow! Thanks so much! Sounds like a real breakthrough - and certainly safer!

And not only more accessible, rechargeable and better for the environment - and recyclable!

[Warpy]

5. I just hope it pans out

China is way ahead of us in renewable energy development, coal was killing them especially in Beijing. If it works and can be scaled up the way they think it can, it will solve the problem of intermittent solar and wind energy nicely.

South Australia has installed banks of lithium ion batteries to store excess solar energy and is now a net exporter. It would be far better if a simpler storage system could be found. I don't know where we'd get the water around here, but this would fit our needs--again, if it pans out.

The last update from the power company was 2 years ago and we were getting 42% of our energy from renewables. Battery storage would boost that.

Another technology being explored is deep bore geothermal energy.

[Rhiannon12866]

6. Thanks for the additional information

And this yet another essential reason that the Democrats have to win across the board in November - continuing to pursue renewable energy. Australia is an important ally of ours - and most of our allies are working on renewable energy. And we know that the Republicans don't care and, as they have before, will abandon these plans and will only make things worse.

I wish I could talk to my Dad about all this - he was an industrial engineer and ran the power company here in northeastern New York - which was a challenge considering the weather we get here. He was big on hydro and accepted nuclear, but didn't trust solar - yet. However, he was on board with Jimmy Carter, actually started dressing a little like him with the vests and sweaters when the president was setting an example about turning your thermostat down.