New thermal battery and solar tech help mining companies get rid of diesel

New thermal battery and solar tech help mining companies get rid of diesel

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247Solar launches HeatStorE™, a long duration thermal battery made for adding more renewables to remote mining operations, industrial and grid solutions than is feasible with conventional batteries HeatStorE, a robust new battery from 247Solar Inc., a spinoff of MIT, operates almost like an electrochemical battery but has significant advantages at longer durations. The basic principle of the thermal battery is rather simple. Electric resistance coils heat an inexpensive thermal storage medium (silica sand) using low-cost excess electricity, e.g., from intermittent solar and wind power sources. Energy is stored as ultra-high temperature heat (up to 1000℃/1850℉) – at a fraction of the cost of batteries. Whenever needed, a specialized turbine reconverts the heat to electricity. Uniquely, the innovative turbine can do this without combustion, as atmospheric-pressure air is passed through the “Thermal Storage” and drives the “Turbine” to generate electricity. In remote mining, reliability is critical to uninterrupted operations, and turbines are well known for their high reliability and low maintenance costs. “HeatStorE combines two inventions that are part of 247Solar’s Ultra-High Temperature Technology Platform, the 247Solar Heat2Power™ Turbine and the 247Solar Thermal Storage System”, points out Bruce Anderson, 247Solar’s CEO. “Combining these two proven technologies ensures that HeatStorE is also extremely reliable. We expect more than 20-year operations with little or no performance degradation.”
Links
https://www.247solar.com/247Solar/heatstore.html
247SolarOVERVIEW: 247Solar, Inc. was formed in 2015 by solar industry pioneer Bruce Anderson to commercialize the 247Solar Plant™, using technology originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Bruce began his solar career with his master’s thesis at MIT on the subject of solar energy. In 1985, Bruce became the first recipient of the American Solar Energy Society’s Lifetime Solar Contribution Award. He later served on the National Advisory Board of the Solar Energy Research Institute, now the National Renewable Energy Institute (NREL).  In 2009, Anderson realized that a breakthrough high-efficiency heat exchanger, invented by MIT mechanical engineering professor Dr. David Gordon Wilson, and being developed by the company they formed together, Wilson TurboPower, would enable an entirely new approach to concentrated solar power (CSP) with higher performance and lower cost.  In 2010 the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the company $6 million to further advance the technology, and the engineering of key components began. In 2015, Anderson formed 247Solar and acquired Wilson TurboPower’s solar technology.  In 2018, 247Solar received private investment capital to enable the engineering and construction of its first full-scale 247Solar Plant. The Commercial Demonstrator, under construction at the Company’s Arizona facility, will commence operation in early 2022.  

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