December 1, 2022: Mechanical power storage firm Quidnet Vitality will obtain $10 million in US federal funding to commercialize its expertise, the corporate introduced on November 29.
Quidnet stated the funding from the US Division of Vitality’s Superior Analysis Tasks Company-Vitality (ARPA-E) is a part of the ARPA-E ‘seeding crucial advances for main power applied sciences with untapped potential’ program, which gives further funding to tasks which has beforehand been decided to be possible for widespread deployment and commercialization.
The funding will assist the corporate scale up Quidnet’s pilot geomechanical pumped storage expertise right into a 1MW/10MWh industrial system that may present San Antonio-based CPS Vitality – the biggest municipal utility within the US – with 10-plus hours of long-term power storage.
Houston-based Quidnet makes use of extra renewable power to retailer underground water below stress.
The corporate says that with out renewable power, this pressurized water can be utilized to energy hydroelectric generators, which generate electrical energy to help the grid “at a fraction of the price of lithium ion batteries and for longer intervals”.
The corporate is a proponent of mechanical power storage within the Lengthy Length Vitality Storage Council, whose formation was introduced in November 2021.
Picture description:
1 – When there may be a whole lot of electrical energy, it’s used to pump water from a pond to a properly and to a physique of rock.
2 – The properly is closed, storing the power saved below stress between the layers of rock as wanted.
3 – When electrical energy is required, the properly is opened in order that pressurized water passes via a turbine to generate electrical energy, and returns to the pond prepared for the subsequent cycle.
