A University of South Australia team that has developed an energy storage system costing a tenth of more traditional batteries has won the 2015 ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology.
Associate Professor Frank Bruno, Dr Martin Belusko and Dr Steven Tay are using salt in their novel energy storage system. While this isn’t new – some solar farms already use molten salt batteries – the process is a little different.
Instead of heating the salt as in the case of solar farms, the system is charged by freezing the saline solution and discharged by melting it.
The system, which has already been successfully tested on a farm, will enable Australian produce companies to reduce their refrigeration electricity costs by up to 50% by “charging” the system with off-peak electricity. Nationally, the savings could mean billions as Australia’s refrigeration electricity costs are an estimated $14 billion per year.
Additionally, the team says the system can help resolve the mismatch between generation hours and electricity use, allowing more solar and wind power to be established in the national generation grid. It can also go towards smoothing out electricity use; meaning less expensive infrastructure to address instances of particularly high electricity consumption. $11 billion in electricity infrastructure in Australia caters for peak events that last just a handful of days each year.
Associate Professor Frank Bruno is the Leader of the Thermal Energy Storage Group within the Barbara Hardy Institute, which brings together world-leading researchers to work in multidisciplinary teams on real-world issues.
Other finalists in the ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology included Professor Martin Green (sometimes referred to as the “father of photovoltaics”) and Dr Mark Keevers from the University of New South Wales) for their work in splitting a single light beam to generate power from two different types of solar cell.
Professor Green took out the 2010 CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science.
Presented annually by the Australian Museum, the Eureka Prizes were established in 1990 to reward outstanding achievements in Australian science and science communication.
