Store renewable energy economically and efficiently is the main objective of the researcher Iván García Vara, who has obtained 40.000 euro Leonardo Scholarship from BBVA Foundation to develop your project. He assured that one of the main obstacles Renewable energy This is how they store the energy generated. Photovoltaic panels and windmills are here to stay, but they have one problem: The electricity they generate is intermittent, i.e. either it is used at the moment or it is lost. García Vara believes he has something on his hands that could change the rules of the game. latent heat battery Which store that energy efficiently, so that it can be released when it is needed. According to the researcher from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, this could mean a complete replacement of fossil fuels for renewable energy.
In this investigation, Ivan and his team of 8 focus on one element of the battery: converters, installed inside. Converters is the part that converts electricity into heat and heat into electricity. The hypothesis Ivan’s team works on is that if electricity generated from renewable energy is converted into heat, it can store energy on a large scale and very efficiently, They have been working on the first prototypes of the converters since September and have already started getting promising results. They are also going to present their findings at a conference in the United States in June. García Vara assures that their first prototypes are very efficient and that they have managed to figure out what they need to change to make their converters even better.
Silicon battery and not lithium
The latent heat battery he works with his team on is manufactured from Silicon, a material that is abundant on Earth And it’s cheap too. Most of the batteries we know of, such as those found in cell phones or cars, are lithium, but the problem is that the material is rare and expensive, For this reason, this system of energy storage through heat could represent a giant leap forward for renewable energy. It’s an idea that, when carried out on a large scale, would be cheaper and more efficient than others, as the energy would be stored as latent heat in the high-temperature molten silicon. For the time being, investigations in this sense have not yielded positive results, since a lot of energy was lost when converting latent heat into electricity.
100% electrification of homes and neighborhoods with renewable energy
The latent heat battery that García Vara is investigating thanks to his Leonardo Grant can have any shape desired. it means that A battery can be made for a small house, a big house, giant batteries that supply electricity to the entire building Or even a neighborhood. There is no limit and hence electrification of our cities with renewable energy can be a reality in the years to come. More and more photovoltaic panels are being installed and the renewable energy sector is booming.
Leonardo Scholarship
Leonardo Scholarship from BBVA Foundation They are focused on promoting the most innovative projects in the field of scientific research and cultural creation with 40,000 Euros. For example, in other versions, research grants have been awarded to detect diseases through breathing or projects that seek to make people with disabilities walk. Again by modifying stem cells. are desired Projects that benefit society Every year more than 1,000 candidates apply for these scholarships and only a few are selected.
