Solar power is one of the cheapest sources of power currently available, however the biggest problem we have with is that it is only available during the day and requires us to store the power in a battery which is not the most efficient way to store energy. Now, after over a year of development a group of Swedish scientists have created a liquid called norbornadiene that allows us to store solar power more efficiently than anything currently possible.
The solar thermal collector named MOST (Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage System) works in a circular manner. A pump cycles the solar thermal fuel through transparent tubes. When sunlight makes contact with the fuel, the bonds between its atoms are rearranged and it transforms into an energy-rich isomer. The sun’s energy is then captured between the isomers’ strong chemical bonds.
Incredibly, the energy stays trapped there even when the molecule cools down to room temperature. To put the trapped energy to use, the liquid flows through a catalyst (also developed by the research team) creating a reaction that warms the liquid by 113 °F (63 °C). This returns the molecule to its original form, releasing energy in the form of heat.
“When we come to extract the energy and use it, we get a warmth increase which is greater than we dared hope for,” the leader of the research team, Kasper Moth-Poulsen, Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering said in the press release.
The fuel is super efficient and can store up to 250 watt-hours per 1 kg of fluid, this is approximately twice the energy capacity of the Tesla’s Powerwall batteries, so you can see how big a breakthrough this is.
The project has been granted 4.3 million Euros from the EU and will last 3.5 years to develop prototypes of the technology for large-scale applications.
More details of the project are available at: Interestingengineering.com.
– Suramya