Throw out your batteries - this is much more efficient!

[Corey]

Happened to stumble across this while searching for something totally unrelated.

(note there is no 'e' so this is the element, not the caulking)

Proposal to have a tank of 'cold' liquid silicon at 3500ºF. When storage is needed, use renewable energy to heat that to 4300ºF. When energy recovery is needed, pump it (and by 'it' they mean liquid silicon at 4300ºF...would love to see the seals on that pump!) into tubes and generate electricity through solar cells exposed to the white-hot glow!

https://www.electronicdesign.com/power/sun-box-new-way-store-renewable-energy-grid

 

[CaptSpiff]

So heating salts into liquid at 1000degF is passe for stored energy. Now lets move on to molten silicon metal at 4000degF. OK then....

"The new design stores heat generated by excess electricity from solar or wind power in large tanks of white-hot molten silicon, and then converts the light from the glowing metal back into electricity when it’s needed. The researchers estimate that such a system would be much more affordable than lithium-ion batteries"

Cue the Nimby Moms doing a Support Rally to build a refinery size Molten Metal Energy Storage facility in their township.....

I'll supply the popcorn.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Can we get the guy with the lowest quote to build the storage container for the liquid sun?

 

[Sodbuster]

What type of vessel can hold that kind of heat?

 

[SpaceBus]

Can we get the guy with the lowest quote to build the storage container for the liquid sun?

Prisoners make helmets for the the US military. Nothing is too cheap.

 

[georgepds]

What type of vessel can hold that kind of heat?

"The system would consist of a large, heavily insulated, 10-meter-wide tank made from graphite "

..."
He has proposed that the tanks be made out of graphite. But there are concerns that silicon, at such high temperatures, would react with graphite to produce silicon carbide, which could corrode the tank.

To test this possibility, the team fabricated a miniature graphite tank and filled it with liquid silicon. When the liquid was kept at 3,600 F for about 60 minutes, silicon carbide did form, but instead of corroding the tank, it created a thin, protective liner.

“It sticks to the graphite and forms a protective layer, preventing further reaction,” Henry says. “So you can build this tank out of graphite and it won’t get corroded by the silicon.”



http://news.mit.edu/2018/liquid-silicon-store-renewable-energy-1206