394
Solar energy storage breakthrough could make European households self-sufficient (sifted.eu)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
73 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I wonder what's the volumetric energy density, historically that has been a bigger issue than gravimetric energy density.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
    •
  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    @JohnDClay

    Good question, this article is pretty fluffy, not a lot of hard data. Reads kind of like a fluffed up press release honestly.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    According to their site:

    A storage system of 3 m3 can store up to 10,000 kWh of energy

    So about 3.33 MWh per cubic meter, 3.33 kWh per liter, or 3.33 Wh per cubic centimeter.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    Hmm, if that's correct, that's even higher than liquid hydrogen, which would be really impressive.

    Energy densities

    Edit: Looks like their gravimetric energy density is 3.5kWh/kg

    Edit 2: here's a comparison for batteries

    Battery Cell Energy Density

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Since it's solid hydrogen I think it's to be expected, however I didn't see any information regarding energy losses which I imagine would be quite high when you have those kinds of cooling requirements.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    This is why I hate marketing pushes. If they're a good-faith business, the efficiency needs to be within shooting distance of reasonable against costs. But as we learned from the artificial meat industry (that ultimately admitted we've already probably reached lifetime price/quality/scale limits from the methodologies they're using) brutal honesty doesn't get you investors.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    The article is light on details, but it claims they're storing the hydrogen as a solid - not as a gas. Solids are generally about a thousand times more compact than a gas.

    That's hardly a revolutionary thing - there are hydrogen powered cars on the road and those don't use hydrogen as a gas either. Those cars don't make much sense compared to lithium, but mostly only because there's almost nowhere in the world you buy hydrogen for your car. That's not an issue if you're producing your own hydrogen at home.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    They don't? When the Toyota hydrogen cars were introduced here around 2015, one of the issues were that a full tank of gas would dilute through the tank walls within a week. From the marketing material of the latest Toyota Mirai, it seems that they still use Hydrogen stored in gas form, boasting improvements in a 3-layer tank that is tested for 235% of the pressure that the gas is stored at, compared to 150% for regular gas containers.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    They don't. They use hydrogen fuel cells to generate electric power.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Yeah and what does that have to do with the Hydrogen being stored in gas form? The fuel cell converts it, it isn't a storage mechanism. Hydrogen has a boiling point of -253C, are you saying that Hydrogen powered cars are fitted with a power hungry cryo chamber to cool down the fuel to a liquid form?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •