Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

Re:Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to stor... by ogrisel on Thursday December 20, 2018 @04:54AM (#18723637)

Are you sure sunamp is molten salt? To me, molten salt is to store energy at a very high temperature in insulated containers.

I thought sunamp is some kind of room temperature phase change material that does not require heavy insulation.

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Re:Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to stor... by dangravell on Thursday December 20, 2018 @05:08AM (#18723705)

Was going to mention Sunamp.

It does use a PCM, and that is described as a salt so maybe it's where the confusion comes from.

It also has far better insulation than equivalent devices (hot water cylinders). Typically VIPs, although I've read a few reports about the casing being compromised recently and that wouldn't play nicely with the panel.

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Re:Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to stor... by iainmerrick on Thursday December 20, 2018 @07:03AM (#18724176)

Yes, I glommed onto the use of “salt” in both cases and figured they were similar.

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Re:Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to stor... by ogrisel on Thursday December 20, 2018 @05:04AM (#18723693)

There are other alternative technologies to store energy as heat, in particular molten silicon:

- https://reneweconomy.com.au/mit-team-gains-ground-on-molten-...

- https://1414degrees.com.au/ (which looks like a competitor for malta)

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Re:Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to stor... by iainmerrick on Thursday December 20, 2018 @04:55AM (#18723646)

I’m not at all sure, you’re almost certainly right.

(Not knowing much about the chemistry, I’m naively conflating the two)

Edit to add: Sunamp has non-zero heat loss, so it must be stored hot rather than room temperature, but it might not be very hot.

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