The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is testing an energy storage technology which provides a different approach to addressing one of renewable energy’s main challenges.

Donald Sadoway, a professor at the institute, suggested that the solution technology – liquid battery – opens an entire window of possibilities especially for utility-scale operations.

The plan is to develop a new kind of battery with key components to be maintained in high temperatures that will maintain its liquid form.

The idea is a liquid battery will store energy in liquid metals layered with two different metal alloys and salt inside a container. But Mr. Sadoway did not elaborate on the liquid metals used apart from saying they are low-cost and widely available.

The device is kept at a temperature of around 700°C in order to retain the molten layers.

The battery reportedly has the potential of breaking high-cost large-scale energy storage.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency has granted $7 million dollars to Mr. Sadoway for his research on the utility batteries. French oil company Total also announced a $4 million dollar joint project with the M.I.T. to develop a smaller version of the same technology for public use, specifically residential homes.

Mr. Sadoway said research on batteries is currently geared towards mobile or portable gadgets like laptops and cell phones but the system requirement for such devices is different in grid scale systems.

The design is currently being tested in Mr. Sadoway’s lab. Experiments of this kind have reportedly not yet been done before.

Researchers have been pursuing methods for storing power renewable energy generates. So far, the results have been insufficient, plagued by problems on cost, limited capabilities or difficulty in meeting the power demand.

-   Alula Love M. Dela Cruz