Hot Brick Energy Storage

How does a brick store heat?

Thousands of tons of brick are heated directly by this thermal radiation, and store energy for hours or days with very low loss (less than 1% per day). Rondo’s Heat Battery stores heat the way it’s been stored for centuries. Millions of tons of this kind of brick have been used around the world for centuries to store high-temperature heat.

Are hot bricks the future of energy storage?

Hot bricks have been catching the eye of some of the world’s top clean tech investors, attracted by the potential for low cost, long duration energy storage systems. That sounds simple enough. Warmed-up bricks or blocks have been used for centuries to store energy.

How much energy can a brick store a year?

Its scale-up plans are ambitious: In partnership with Siam Cement Group, the company is already producing enough heat-resistant brick to store 2.4 gigawatt-hours of energy a year, which could power more than 200 American homes. It plans to boost production to 90 gigawatt-hours a year in the future.

How much heat does a stacked brick absorb?

Often found in smelting plants, these massive towers of stacked bricks absorb the wasted heat of a blast furnace until it heats to nearly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and then provides over 100 megawatts of heat energy for about 20 minutes.

Can heat-resistant bricks be used as zero-emissions heat batteries?

While heat-resistant bricks are a proven industrial technology, using them as zero-emissions heat batteries will require building more wind and solar plants to generate huge amounts of cheap renewable energy. Electricity reforms would also be needed in many parts of the US to make heat batteries cost-competitive with other forms of industrial heat.

How does thermal radiation heat a brick?

Thermal radiation warms bricks at temperatures up to 1,500°C, storing heat. Heat is delivered whenever it’s needed, on demand, start-stop or continuously. When heat is wanted, air flows up through the brick stack and is superheated to over 1000°C. The heat delivery rate is adjusted easily by changing air flow.