Fourth Power’s sci-fi thermal batteries could be cheaper than pricey natural gas power plants

Fourth powerJames Bond is listening to some long -term energy storage outside the film. Thermal batteries come complete with the superheaded liquid tin and argon-filled harmatically sealed chambers. The target of the organization is too much processing – to save enough electricity to make electricity Solar And air an obvious choice for 24/7 power.

Here is how the technology works here: to save energy, electricity from carbon grid inside the insulating chamber filled with argon gas. When electricity is needed, the system heated 2,400 ° C (4,352 ° F) through graphite pipes in the melted tin-the only expensive material that can withstand this temperature. Devices like special solar panels are known as “thermophotovoltike cells”, then capture white-hot tin infrared light and convert the heat into electricity.

The four-year-old Cambridge, Massachusetts, startup have been refining the technology for the past two years and is now preparing for its first full-scale battery, molten tin and all. If all goes to plan, Fourth power In 2028, customers have plans to provide commercial-scale battery that can reduce both lithium-ion batteries and pick up natural-gas plants.

“Our assumptions are the first type-for the first market-the first market-which they will be expensive competition,” the co-founder and CEO of the fourth power. “Our compressions for these markets are very high.”

In the general operation, the fourth power supplies uninterrupted electricity for about eight hours or more. It is mostly designed for the grid-scale lithium-ion batteries twice. The insulation system made from petroleum coke (a waste product from oil purification), keeps the temperature significantly stable, only 1% stored energy per day.

The company is currently conducting extensive tests in smaller versions of the system. “We are now getting the expected electricity out of the expected amount of electricity and we are now running the cycle to ensure that the system is sustainable.”

In addition to these tests, the company is designing a 1-megawat-hour demonstration battery. To create this project, the fourth power has collected $ 20 million in a round it is calling a series Plus, the company exclusively informed TechCrunch. The round was led by Munich Ray Venture with the Breakthrough Energy Ventures and DCVC participation. Startup previously grown $ 19 million series A In 2023.

In the end, the fourth power hopes that once it hurts a larger production, the cost of conservation of power by using its thermal battery will drop to $ 25 per kilowatt-hour, one-tenth of the cost of lithium-ion battery.

“There is not too much of a running piece. The supply chain does not have a lot of players, which means you can spend the target in a fairly straightforward way,” said Ganesan. “We feel that the $ 25 is fairly straightforward to achieve the goal.”