Solar energy is an incredible resource, but one of its weak points is affordable storage options to be able to have a bank of power that can be used when demand is high but the sun is down. A number of high-tech solutions for an energy storage system that can overcome that issue are being developed, but many of them have a high cost or are dependent on expensive materials.
However, an older technology could be a viable way forward for solar energy storage, by using steam piston engines and pressure vessels to accumulate and store the energy for when it's needed.
A group of Australian engineers have been developing this novel energy storage solution, and their startup, Terrajoule, already has one demonstration system in place in California, and is taking aim at some promising cost figures by 2015.
The Terrajoule system couples concentrated solar with steam engines and an integrated storage system using an insulated pressure vessel to deliver cost-effective solar energy 24 hours a day.
According to their website, by 2015, they will be able to deliver this system at apeak watt pricing of $1.50 to $2.00 per watt (depending on a number of variables in each system), and believe the price per watt will be comparable to the price for a photovoltaic system of the same capacity. This could mean a price of net electrical storage capacity from the system for less than $100 per kWh, which is just a fraction of the cost of a battery storage system.
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