Savannah River National Laboratory licenses thermal energy storage technology to United Sun Systems

Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) recently announced that it has licensed its metal hydride-based thermal energy storage technology for concentrating solar power to United Sun Systems (USS).

The technology can increase heat storage by more than ten times compared to latent and sensible heat storage technologies (SRNL). It uses metal-hydride materials, chemical compounds containing a metal such as aluminum that are bonded to hydrogen, that store heat in chemical bonds.

“By using our unique expertise, we have been able to develop an inexpensive way to store solar energy that makes this renewable energy source cost competitive with fossil fuels,” SRNL Director Terry A. Michalske said. “We are pleased to be partnering with United Sun Systems and to share our innovation with the solar industry.”

USS plans to use the technology as a “solar battery” solution for large-scale solar energy production. It plans to industrialize and commercialize its new system in a few years, which it expects will produce and distribute electricity continuously at prices that are competitive with fossil fuels and are up to 95 percent less expensive than current photovoltaic systems that use lithium-ion batteries.

“This partnership will allow us to deploy large scale solar energy production that will revolutionize the industry,” United Sun Systems CEO Lars Jacobsson said. “With this technology, we will create more than 2,500 manufacturing jobs in the U.S. during the first five years of system production with many more jobs created through energy production.”