Heat is such an important aspect of our lives. We use it to warm our homes, and cook our food. But did you know that 20% of all industrial energy consumption uses thermal energy to manufacture things? That heat is transient, soon cools away, and is gone. Unless, of course, thermal batteries and energy storage come in to play.
How Thermal Batteries are Firing Up Energy Storage
We can store heat by preventing it from transferring to a cooler object, often the air. Our parents did so by putting woolen ‘cosy’ covers over pots of tea. Thermos flasks were all the rage once for keeping liquids hot. Although now we live in an age of instant gratification.
Thermal batteries and energy storage put a different spin on the ball. If we can store large amounts of heat to use later, then we can generate that energy anytime that suits us. We generate most of our industrial heat using electricity, and we can reduce that cost by purchasing the electricity when it costs less.
That cheaper electricity is increasingly coming from renewable energies like solar and wind. A large industrial complex can manufacture its own ‘free energy’ using renewable resources. But wind and solar ‘go to sleep’ at night. Whereas manufacturing using heat continues around the clock.
That’s Why It Makes Such Sense to Store Heat
Heat is a form of energy we call thermal. We use batteries to store another kind of energy, that is electrical. It is therefore not beyond the bounds of reason to call an old-fashioned thermos flask a ‘battery’ of another kind. But how would these thermal batteries work in practice?
Manufacturing industry uses electricity to generate its heat. When we store that heat, we are keeping that ‘canned electricity’ warm, so we can use it when we need it later. There are a variety of energy storage mediums already on the market or under development, as this exciting alternative evolves further. We will follow up on this later.
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Thermal Heat Batteries Could Be the Next Step
