Firebrick thermal vitality storage might attain 170 GW within the U.S. by 205 – pv journal Worldwide

September 23, 2024 William Driscoll

From pv journal USA

Firebrick warmth storage for industrial processes will change about 14% of battery capability worldwide in 2050 in a 100% renewable vitality system, in comparison with the bottom case with out firebricks, in accordance with a research by a Stanford professor Mark Jacobson and three Stanford colleagues.

Firebricks are constituted of widespread supplies, and the price of a firebrick storage system is lower than one-tenth the price of an equal-capacity battery system, the research says. Firebricks may be heated to excessive temperatures with exterior resistance heaters, whereas a sort of electrically conductive firebricks may be heated utilizing an electrical present that dissipates the warmth.

The US Department of Energy might present as much as $75 million to assist two scorching firebrick storage tasks, saying the know-how is “very promising.”

Firebrick methods powered by renewable vitality could possibly be utilized in as much as 90% of business scorching course of functions, the Stanford research mentioned. Meeting that demand within the US would require a firebrick system capability of two.6 TWh, with a peak discharge fee of 170 GW.

Producing industrial warmth with renewables will cut back industrial combustion emissions, which at present account for 9.6% of all US sector emissions.

Worldwide, firebrick methods for industrial course of warmth can attain 2,100 GW of most energy discharge capability beneath a 100% renewable vitality system, the research tasks.

At that scale, firebrick methods not solely change 14% of battery capability but additionally cut back annual hydrogen manufacturing for grid electrical energy by about 31% and underground warmth storage capability by about 27%.

Cost comparability

The present worth of firebrick warmth storage capability can be $6/kWh of electrical energy equal within the 2020 to 2050 interval, the research says.

That value projection begins with a projected 2035 value for a battery system. An put in battery pack will value about $60/kWh, or $240/kW for 4-hour batteries, in 2035, the research tasks, and can use that worth for the interval from 2020 to in 2050. The research says that costs in 2035 can be decrease. than $60/kWh, citing a report that lithium-iron-phosphate battery pack costs from Chinese producers CATL and BYD had been round $56/kWh in January.

The subsequent research makes use of an estimate from firebrick system developer Rondo Energy that the associated fee per kWh-thermal of a firebrick system may be one-third of the associated fee per kWh-electricity of a battery system.

Since one-tenth of $60 is $6, the research makes use of in its evaluation a $6/kWh value for firebrick methods.

The research additionally mentions a 2019 research that claims preliminary value estimates at the moment present that the firebrick system prices round $10/kWh.

The open-access article, revealed in PNAS Nexus, is titled “Effects of firebricks for industrial course of warmth on the price of matching vitality demand in all sectors with 100% air-water provide -solar in 149 international locations.”