Wind and solar powered generation is expanding, but one challenge we face is how to store that energy when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing. Here are three innovative companies searching for breakthroughs to solve this challenge.
For the first time ever, renewable power is cheaper than fossil intensive fuel sources. I mean that's a remarkable statement.
Malta's mission is to enable the supply of reliable, resilient, and affordable electricity anywhere in the world. And we're doing that by developing an energy storage technology that is long duration and cost competitive.
The Malta system is very simple. On the front end as the electricity comes in it basically operates a heat pump.
What you're doing is taking the hot side and storing that in molten salt and salt stores heat very well. And you're taking the cold side and storing that in an antifreeze solution.
And then when the electricity is needed to go back out to the grid, what you're doing is basically reversing that process. Quidnet is taking the largest form of energy storage today, which is called pumped hydro storage.
Effectively running water up and down a hill. And we're just bringing that to regions where there are no hills and it's all flat terrain.
For pumped hydro storage the majority of the cost is building the dam and constructing on the side, and on the top of the mountain. With Quidnet's subsurface, geo-mechanical pump storage we take that cost and bring it down about an order of magnitude.
Quidnet facility essentially involves a surface pond, a mechanical room, and a well. When the system is charging water is pulled from the pond and pumped down into the well and kept at high pressure.
When we're discharging, the high-pressure water is allowed to come back up through the well, flowing through the turbine, and back into the pond. Form Energy's bidirectional power plants are quite different from other kinds of energy storage.
