Google’s Parent Company Will Soon Compete With Tesla for Energy Storage Solutions – Futurism

In BriefMalta, a project at Alphabet's "moonshot" factory, hasdeveloped a system that stores renewable energy in molten saltinstead of batteries. The project is now looking for partners totest the commercial viability of their system, which could helpclear one of the major hurdles to widespread clean energy adoption. Maximizing Renewables

Given the dramatic impact human-made carbon emissions are having on our planet, cleaner energy sources have become increasingly popular alternativesto their fossil fuel counterparts. Currently, solar and wind are the most widely used renewable energy sources, but both are dependent on certain conditions. The former can capture energy only during daylight hours, while the latter is more unpredictable,but often peaks at night.

As such, theres a mismatch between when solar and wind energy are available and when energy is needed. The world needs a way to maximize renewable energy usage, and thats whatMalta, a project currently brewing at Alphabet X, the moonshot factory by Googles parent company, is hoping to provide.

The goal of Alphabet X is to develop technologies that could someday make the world a radically better place. The organization follows a three-part blueprint for their moonshot projects that starts with identifying a huge problem and then providing a radical solution that could be implemented using a breakthrough technology.

For Malta, the idea was to find a way to maximize the use of energy generated from renewables. Theirradical solution is bridging the gap between renewable energy and grid-scale energy storage technologies using a breakthrough technology developed by Stanford physicist and Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin.

According to the projects website,this technology is still theoretical and involves storing electricity as either heat within molten salt or cold within a liquid similar to the antifreeze used in cars. They claim this energy could remain stored for up to weeks at a time.

Essentially, Malta is hoping todevelop clean and cost-effective energy storage devices, which is similar to the concept behind Teslas Powerpack. The difference between the Malta projects tech and the Powerpack is mostly whats inside. While Teslas energy storage device uses 16 individual battery pods, Maltas relies on molten salt or the antifreeze-like liquid.

Additionally, the tanks used to store the salt used by Maltas system could potentially last for up to 40 years, which the project claims is three or more times longer than other current storage options. That extended lifespan would make Maltaa cheaper alternative to other renewable energy storage devices.

After two years of developingand designing their system, the Malta team is now gearing up to test the commercial viability of their technology. The next step is to build a megawatt-scale prototype plant which would be large enough to prove the technology at commercial scale, according to their website.

We now have multiple ways to generate energy from renewables, but if we ever hope to fully transition away from traditional energy solutions, we need better storage devices. Though they are clearly betterfor the environment, renewables arent as consistent as fossil fuels, and that unreliability is a huge barrier to widespread adoption.

Storage systems like those proposed by Malta could collect the energy generated by renewables and ensure it is available to power grids whenever needed, putting us one step closer to a future completely free of fossil fuels.

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Google's Parent Company Will Soon Compete With Tesla for Energy Storage Solutions - Futurism