An Adelaide manufacturer, 1414 Degrees, has developed a silicon battery it claims costs a tenth as much as a lithium ion battery to store the same energy, according to a report by AFR.
The company has created a molten silicon battery, which it is currently testing at the Tonsley Innovation Hub in Adelaide. The technology is based on patented CSIRO research.
1414 Degrees says its battery prototype can store 500 kilowatt hours of energy in a 70-centimetre cube of molten silicon. This storage is 36 times the capacity of the Tesla’s 14KWh Powerwall 2 lithium ion home storage battery in about the same storage space.
The company’s chairman Ken Moriarty claimed that the battery storage is a significant technology improvement.
“There’s no comparison. Except for a few specialised circumstances it will make them totally uneconomic frankly,” Moriarty said.
“I don’t think it’s dawned on the market yet and it won’t until we get them into a real-world situation.”
1414 Degrees has raised A$500,000 of $2 million seed capital issue that it hopes to complete by the end of March 2017.
It is negotiating with a hydroponic herb farm and wind farm suppliers about pilot commercial scale trials of its technology. It is also planning a $10 million public share issue to fund construction of the first two 200 megawatt hour units.