MIT Engineers Build a new System that can Store Excess Renewable Resources

Renewable energy is the future of environmental sustainability. Every year, it is claiming more and more share in the power sector; therefore, it has to be stored in an efficient manner. In the recent development, a team of engineers from MIT, have found a new method to store the excess renewable energy in the form of heat and supply it back to the electric grids.

The engineers created an innovative design which can store excess geothermal or hydro and solar and other renewable energy in the form of heat which canbe used for light up homes through electric grids.

As per the engineers, their new system could be more affordable and efficient than the existing lithium-ion batteries. Dubbed as Sun in a box, the system will have large tanks lined with graphite and filled with white-molten silicon. The tanks will have different sections, i.e. cold at 3,500°F and hot at 4,300°F.

The excess renewable energy will be stored as heat in the white-hot molten silicon-based tanks. People can convert the heat to electricity anytime whenever they require power. Furthermore, the system consists of liquid silicon-based insulated graphite tanks, reserved in cold tanks and is transferred to the hot tank by using a bank of tubes.

The engineers have published their new development in the Journal of Energy and Environmental Science.

The new development from the MIT engineers can help boost its use as their single storage system can power a small city of 10,000 homes.