Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are once again entering the solar technology field to help solve one of solar’s most pressing questions: how can we efficiently store and transport solar energy?
MIT’s Associate Professor of Power Engineering Jeffrey Grossman is leading a research team that is developing what they hope becomes the world’s first liquid solar storage battery – able to infinitely store and transport solar power captured by photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. The research comes just three months after MIT’s SENSEable City Lab unveiled “Seaswarm“- a solar-powered, oil-sucking robot that would be able to clean up future oil spills similar to the Gulf Coast oil disaster this past summer.
The research team has discovered that fulvalene diruthenium – a molecule that comes out of the rare transition metal, ruthenium – absorbs sunlight and changes it into what Discoverycalls a, “semi-stable condition.” Then, when a catalyst is added to the stable power, the energy reverts back to its original form and can be used for heaters or appliances. Here’s how Professor Grossman proposes the technology be used in liquid form:
”…one possible picture would be that the fuel could be placed out in the sun in deep pools, and throughout the day the fuel would get charged by the sunlight. Once charged it can be pumped and delivered (through pipes, or other means) to a point of use — that could be nearby or far away.”
Grossman’s “far away” transportation plan is the key element here. Less than a week ago, Arizona State University Assistant Research Professor Matt Croucher published his research in the Electricity Journal saying that, if the United States is ever to realize its full solar potential, Arizona would have to transport a major percentage of its solar energy to states with high utility rates.
The news out of MIT concerning the liquid battery research comes on the heels of a report released by one panel of the American Physical Association (APA) saying the United States Department of Energy (DOE) must develop grid-level energy storage with a review of different battery chemistries – much like the chemistry being used by the MIT team.
The one catch with this new method is that diruthenium is an extremely expensive molecule. So now the search is on for a cheaper alternative to replicate the process. Stay tuned…
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