I enjoyed the read as well. He noted that it's only 40-45% efficient when it comes to transferring the heat back into electricity, "but sometimes the steady supply of electricity is worth the...
I enjoyed the read as well. He noted that it's only 40-45% efficient when it comes to transferring the heat back into electricity, "but sometimes the steady supply of electricity is worth the tradeoff".
I'd like to see this idea continue to expand. I guess I'm not a huge fan of heating dirt to 600C, but hey, you only have to sterilize the microbes and all life out of that soil and turn it into dirt once, right?
It seems like a very smart idea. I hope we can find ways to economically produce PV panels domestically in the future.
I also hope we can build enough of these Standard Thermal plants powering things off the grid (as is their design, such to be operational quickly) that we start to really consider how to dramatically improve the interconnection process.
Austin Vernon describes what his startup, Standard Thermal, has been building for the last two years. (There appears to be no news coverage yet, but here is their website.) ... ... ... ... ...
Austin Vernon describes what his startup, Standard Thermal, has been building for the last two years. (There appears to be no news coverage yet, but here is their website.)
Our technology works by storing energy as heat in the least expensive storage material available - large piles of dirt. Co-located solar PV arrays provide energy (as electricity) and are simpler and cheaper than grid-connected solar farms. Electric heating elements embedded in the dirt piles convert electricity to heat. Pipes run through the pile, and fluid flowing through them removes heat to supply the customer. The capital cost, not including the solar PV, is comparable to natural gas storage at less than $0.10/kilowatt-hour thermal and 1000x cheaper than batteries.
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We have been continuously prototyping designs at our 100-kilowatt test site in Oklahoma since last fall and are nearing our modular commercial form factor. It will be built and tested in the next several months, then it will be ready for copying and pasting at customer sites.
Orca Sciences is incubating our company. We plan to spin out and close on fundraising early in 2026.
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Batteries will handle much of the daily electricity storage and firming. But several other technologies are required for solar PV to reach its full potential. One of those is a very inexpensive, reasonably efficient storage system that can hold a few months' worth of energy to flatten seasonal differences in solar production (a niche usually served by fuels). We believe thermal storage is the way to accomplish that.
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A typical site is a factory, power plant, or town with a large earthen mound at the edge. The mound might be the size of a house for a smaller factory, and up to many football fields for a large power plant. Surrounding the earthen mound will be high-density, low-profile solar arrays.
Electricity from the solar arrays flows to heating elements in the earthen mound, building up heat. The storage temperature is 600 °C or higher. The outer mass of the mound, plus a favorable volume-to-area ratio, insulates and minimizes heat loss. Pipes embedded in the mound carry fluid that delivers heat to users.
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A significant portion of human energy demand is for heat, whether that is for factories or heating buildings. Thermal storage is very efficient at delivering heat to these users. There is an efficiency penalty converting back to electricity; round-trip efficiency is 40%-45%, but sometimes the steady supply of electricity is worth it.
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Lab-scale tests of heating dirt are easy. But, heat flow in a large mound can be more complex with much longer diffusion paths, especially during the early phases (heating the first time is like making bricks in situ).
This is nuts. I'm amazed that this actually works efficiently enough to be useful.
It's like man-made geothermal energy.
I enjoyed the read as well. He noted that it's only 40-45% efficient when it comes to transferring the heat back into electricity, "but sometimes the steady supply of electricity is worth the tradeoff".
I'd like to see this idea continue to expand. I guess I'm not a huge fan of heating dirt to 600C, but hey, you only have to sterilize the microbes and all life out of that soil and turn it into dirt once, right?
It seems like a very smart idea. I hope we can find ways to economically produce PV panels domestically in the future.
I also hope we can build enough of these Standard Thermal plants powering things off the grid (as is their design, such to be operational quickly) that we start to really consider how to dramatically improve the interconnection process.
He says it’s a similar process to making bricks, except that the soil doesn’t go anywhere.
I also like Eric’s comparison to geothermal.
Austin Vernon describes what his startup, Standard Thermal, has been building for the last two years. (There appears to be no news coverage yet, but here is their website.)
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