Scientists have created a molecule that can store solar energy for 18 years
The Mars Curiosity Rover has recently discovered carbon-based organic molecules preserved in Martian rocks 3.5 billion years old. Carbon is a building block for life, which means it adds more clues to the Red Planet once being habitable in its ancient past.
Researchers say they have taken a key step forwards in making a molecule that can store solar energy.
Publishing their latest findings in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, the team from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden first showed off their solar-storing molecule last year.
Made from carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, the molecule is transformed into an “energy-rich isomer”, one made of the same atoms but bound in a different way, when it is hit by sunlight. The isomer can then be stored as a liquid, with the energy being used later. Much later.
"The energy in this isomer can now be stored for up to 18 years,” Kasper Moth-Poulsen, the team’s leader, said in a statement. “And when we come to extract the energy and use it, we get a warmth increase which is greater than we dared hope for."
The entire system is called Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage (MOST). Sunlight is captured by the liquid, via a solar thermal collector on the roof of a building. This is essentially a concave reflector with a pipe in the middle, which tracks the Sun’s path like a satellite dish.
The collector focuses the Sun’s rays to a point through the pipe onto the liquid. The liquid is then stored at room temperature to conserve the energy, and when energy is needed a catalyst is used to heat up the liquid.
Report a Typo
