The most efficient battery in the world gets 19 million in funding from Bill Gates
Funding from Bill Gates' Energy Innovation Initiative has been awarded to an innovative battery technology that uses liquid tin and holds the Guinness World Record for storing energy at very high temperatures.
US company Fourth Power has secured $19 million in Series A funding to “bring its innovative, cost-effective thermal battery technology to scale,” we read in a statement announcing the Done. DCVC led the investment round, joined by Gates' Breakthrough Energy Venture and the Black Venture Capital Consortium.
Designed by Asegun Henry, Ph.D., during his tenure as a professor at Georgia Tech and currently affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Fourth Power's thermal battery technology boasts numerous awards, most notably the Guinness World Record for highest temperature pumping of liquid metal at 1200 degrees Celsius (°C), which acts as a heat accumulator.
In addition to helping expand the company's thermal energy storage technology, the investment will kickstart the creation of a 1 MWh-e (megawatt-hour equivalent) prototype plant near Boston, which is expected to be completed by 2026.
Thermal battery
Fourth Power's technology transforms renewable energy into thermal energy, efficiently stored for future use. The innovative system uses liquid tin to accumulate heat. Then the liquid metal is circulated through a network of tubes to heat stacks of carbon blocks until they radiate intense heat. Next, the system uses thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells exposed to the glowing carbon blocks to convert the thermal energy into electricity.
The liquid tin acts as a heat accumulator, which is then transferred to the graphite when it comes to generating energy.
“It is similar to traditional solar generation, but uses light from very hot graphite – up to 2400°C – rather than that of the sun to produce electricity. At nearly half the temperature of the sun, we are essentially storing the sun in a box,” the company's website reads.
Designed to optimize the value of renewable energy production, this solution offers grid operators cost-effective control and flexibility over alternative energy storage methods.
The system is modular and scalable, capable of increasing the duration of storage by incorporating additional carbon blocks, ensuring perfect alignment with the growing grid and increasing renewable energy production.
Fourth Power's solution efficiently captures renewable energy that could be lost due to reduced production, storing it for an extended period (over a month) and allowing discharge for varying durations, from a few hours to several days, all at an optimal cost.
In particular, Fourth Power is able to satisfy both current short-term needs (5 hours) and anticipate future longer-term storage requests (100 hours). According to the company, its near-instantaneous discharge capability provides valuable flexibility to grid operators working to maintain a reliable 24/7 power grid.
In addition to the creation of the inaugural 1 MWh-e plant, the financing will support comprehensive life assessments and the expansion of the company's engineering team to meet growing market demands.
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The article The world's most efficient battery ends up with 19 million in funding from Bill Gates comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-batteria-termina-piu-efficiente-al-mondo-ottiene-un-finanziamento-da-19-milioni-da-bill-gates/ on Sun, 17 Dec 2023 06:30:50 +0000.