Canberra-Sana
Engineers at the University of Newcastle, Australia, have created a material to store thermal energy in the form of blocks.
“The most important components of the block known as (mixing gap alloys) are aluminum particles that provide the latent heat, fusion energy and graphite,” Reuters quoted Eric Casey, CEO of MGA Thermal, one of the co-inventors, as saying. Hardened thousands of times during its life but held in place by means of graphite.
Each block weighs about 6 kilograms and contains a kilowatt-hour of stored thermal energy, and the team hopes the invention will facilitate the transition from coal-fired energy through thermal energy storage.