Egypt molten silicon energy storage

Could molten silicon power the grid?

“In theory, this is the linchpin to enabling renewable energy to power the entire grid.” MIT engineers have designed a system that would store renewable energy in the form of molten, white-hot silicon, and could potentially deliver that energy to the grid on demand.

Could liquid silicon be a renewable storage system?

They initially proposed a liquid metal and eventually settled on silicon — the most abundant metal on Earth, which can withstand incredibly high temperatures of over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Last year, the team developed a pump that could withstand such blistering heat, and could conceivably pump liquid silicon through a renewable storage system.

Could solar and wind energy be stored in insulated tanks?

MIT researchers propose a concept for a renewable storage system, pictured here, that would store solar and wind energy in the form of white-hot liquid silicon, stored in heavily insulated tanks.

Could a grid-scale energy storage system be cheaper than lithium-ion batteries?

The researchers estimate that such a system would be vastly more affordable than lithium-ion batteries, which have been proposed as a viable, though expensive, method to store renewable energy. They also estimate that the system would cost about half as much as pumped hydroelectric storage — the cheapest form of grid-scale energy storage to date.

Could a molten liquid tank be made out of graphite?

Henry says the system would require tanks thick and strong enough to insulate the molten liquid within. “The stuff is glowing white hot on the inside, but what you touch on the outside should be room temperature,” Henry says. He has proposed that the tanks be made out of graphite.