So, its after one month that we came to the blog. Last month was really a lot of work. So, last night our son in his Halloween party dressed as iron man (he is a second grader). I saw the paladium thingi (plastic in this case) on iron man's chest and thought we should spend some time on batteries/cells/source of power generically.
Lets see what is going around the world.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been studying the properties of a molecule called fulvalene diruthenium in the hopes of developing a rechargeable battery that can store heat rather than electricity. Such a battery could be used for solar thermal devices to allow it to provide a stable source of renewable energy. Fulvalene diruthenium, which was discovered in 1996, works to store and release heat on demand. The molecule undergoes a structural transformation when it absorbs sunlight, putting it into a higher-energy state where it can remain stable indefinitely.
The fact is: if we get heat as the source of energy and it is easier to store heat that may be a better form than to store electricity which I guess has already been proven takes more or less some unitary amount of volume growth against energy growth.
If I may slightly digress: I like this idea because it reminds me of the following research about finding an optimum Hamiltonian Path by bees when they collect necter.
http://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/items/se/38864.html
Its just solving the same problem by defining it differently and approaching differently.
Anyhow enough of digration.
If we study the recent events we see that (just taking a short sighted view purposively:)
- SBI Energy predicts the fuel cell market will double to $1.22 billion in four years.
- McPhy Energy gains ground for expansion after pocketing $17.2 million in second funding round.
- A major focus off late has been shifted from traditional hydrogen fuel cells into
- Producing Hydrogen from bio degradables using bio components (microbes specifically). Example: Scientists at Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University produce hydrogen using specialized bacteria.
- Sea water could become a major source of energy if the previous one works correctly.
- Purdue scientists develop new process to generate and store hydrogen without use of a catalyst
- Developing new organic fusable components that help in lighter production of energy storage ( lets face it, major problem of storage today is the bulkiness - we need to trim it down).
- In United States, California, Connecticut, New York, Ohio and South Carolina are leading states for fuel cell technology.
- Some transactions (from SBI report).
- The portable sector boasts of the fastest growth in the fuel cell market due to toys and educational devices powered by low-watt fuel cells. Companies such as Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies and Thames & Kosmos have created fuel cell car kits that allow children to assemble the cars while learning about the basics of the technology.
- However, the largest demand for fuel cells is for power generation units. In August, Ballard Power System shipped the largest fuel cell system to an Ohio utility for a five-year trial run. The system can produce as much as 1 megawatt of electricity – enough to power 500 homes.
In summary, storage of energy will act as a major factor in responding to energy demand response apart from the rate (in fact it may influence rate and rate will become a dependent variable to the storage capability) as we explored in previous blog entry about smart grid architecture.
Now, lets all get back to work. Have a wonderful week ahead.
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