A pair of Swedish scientists created a microchip that stores solar energy in liquid and shipped it to China, where it was converted into electricity three months later.
The researchers hope to open a Pandora’s Box of solar-powered electronics and appliances, expanding solar’s use beyond solely base load power generation.
Race to create the best
As PV panels proliferate around the world, scientists and entrepreneurs are still competing to see who can develop the most efficient and effective method of storing solar energy. These include a wide range of projects that GNN has covered, such as molten aluminum ingots and deep tunnels that allow for the lifting and lowering of massive weights.
This latest achievement comes from a Dutch-Chinese design team that was looking for a modest, easy solution to store solar energy for the smaller electronics industry.
New way of generating electricity from solar energy
“This is a completely new approach of generating power from solar energy,” said Kasper Moth-Poulsen, a professor at Chalmers University’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. “It implies we can generate electricity from solar energy regardless of the weather, time of day, season, or geographic location”
Their concept relies around a specially manufactured molecule that changes shape when exposed to sunlight, rearranging carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen to generate an isomer—an energy-dense molecule with a different configuration that maintains its shape when immersed in liquid.
