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back to article Boffins build blazing battery bonfire

Energy boffins have proposed an alternative to lithium-ion batteries: Instead of costly electrochemical cells, which have been known to burst into flames, they have devised a "sun in a box" to store energy for power utilities. Imagine a storage tank 10 meters in diameter filled with molten silicon, alongside a few other …

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    1. Cynic_999
      Reply Icon

      "

      A nuclear power station is really just an enormously complex steam engine ... with much more dangerous waste products.

      "

      Wrong. The waste products of nuclear power stations are a darn sight safer and more easily managed than the waste products of coal-fired power stations.

      2 0 Reply
      1. Charles 9
        Reply Icon

        Please elaborate.

        0 0 Reply
  2. wiggers

    Government funding

    Presumably because no one else was daft enough to invest in it!

    0 0 Reply
  3. Christian Berger

    Yeah but Lithium Ion Batteries are among the most expensive

    A fairer comparision would compare it to cheap batteries like lead acid.

    0 0 Reply
  4. Andy 97

    Liquid air?

    I think this could be more of a better solution (unless you own shares in silicone)

    http://energystorage.org/energy-storage/technologies/liquid-air-energy-storage-laes

    1 0 Reply
  5. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    "...costs will need to be about $50 per kWh..."

    Assuming such systems could be used at least 1000 times, you'd think that $0.05 per kilowatt-hour (each use) would be about an order of magnitude more generous than required.

    If 10,000 usages lifetime, even more so...

    So his numbers don't seem reasonable.

    0 0 Reply
  6. Unicornpiss
    Coat

    Why molten silicon..

    ..Anyone who has burnt their mouth on a baked potato knows that they stay ridiculously hot long past what was expected.. Just need a pump to flow the molten butter through a heat exchanger and, well... never mind.

    0 0 Reply

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