Diamonds, Energy Storage’s Best Friend?

Energy storage remains one of the main challenges to overcome toward a 100 percent renewable energy-based future. Due to the fact that the sun does not shine every hour and wind settles, gaps in energy generation occur. Storing energy, would have massive benefits. At the moment, there are no best options for storage, so the search for the best technologies continue. Australian scientists are examining an unusual source for storage: diamonds.

Currently, Lithium-ion batteries are often favored by most in the renewable energy industry, reported GreenTech Media. While this is not an ineffective option, lithium-ion batteries are expensive if a large-scale operation wishes to store energy for many hours. Every battery represents a cost on its own and has a limited life cycle. Bloomberg analyzed that the cost of batteries will decrease significantly over time, while their storage capacity increases. In fact, battery prices have already fallen quite a bit, making battery storage a feasible business today. “With falling battery prices in the last years, longer-term storage applications became economically feasible and are now the most dynamic market,” said MER interviewee Herwig Ragossing, Head of Business Development for Smart Energy in Latin America of NEC Energy Solutions. This company is not the only one that focuses on battery storage solutions, as others like Fronius are involved here in the Mexican context as well.

Nonetheless, the energy sector is not willing to put all its eggs in one basket. Other developments, therefore, continue to be sought out. Science Daily reported on studies made by researchers at the Queensland University of Technology that involve diamonds as the basis of potential energy storage. The research involved using a potential carbon nanostructure made from diamond nano threads, which could in the future be used for more than just energy storage - wearable technologies and biomedical applications are in the cards as well.

Dr. Haifei Zhan explains how this structure could be efficient for energy storage. “Similar to a compressed coil or children's wind-up toy, energy can be released as the twisted bundle unravels,” he said, adding that if a system to control the power would be made around it, it could be a safe and stable form of energy storage. Since it does not rely on chemicals, as Lithium-ion batteries do, there are plenty of biomedical applications as well.

The nanothread bundle’s energy density was found to be high by Dr. Zhan and his colleagues: 1.76 MJ/kg. Science Daily states that this is up to three times higher than that of Lithium-ion batteries. For the energy sector, the potential applications are promising, both in terms of batteries as in next-generation power-transmission lines. The team plans to spend the next two to three years attempting to build a control mechanism so the system can store energy.