Azelio Solar solutions combine electricity generation & storage without Batteries

New technology combines solar power generation & battery free power storage

绿色住宅建筑行业的格局永远在变化，创意来来去去，偶尔也会出现改变游戏规则的技术或产品。最近的大新闻是在可再生能源-太阳能发电，太阳能存储，电动汽车，以及电动工具和重型设备的趋势。随着气候变化带来的风险日益增加，减少温室气体排放、向低碳建筑技术和可再生能源发电过渡的紧迫性不可估量，目前市场上不断出现解决方案。

Solar thermal collectors and Stirling engines generate power

One that really impresses us is from a Swedish company named Azelio that offers a solution to renewable energy power storage in an innovative and more affordable manner than we are used to seeing因为他们改变了发电之后用大而昂贵的电池储存电力的习惯行为。

Instead, Azelio uses photovoltaic (PV) solar energy and converts it into heat in a thermal battery (or TES – Thermal Energy Storage), then they use a Stirling engine (200 year-old technology to convert heat into power) to generate electricity on demand.

随着公用事业公司急于向电网注入更多清洁能源，太阳能发电在国内越来越受欢迎。But, with the exception of a few industry leaders (such as theTesla Solar Roof) and other solar shingle manufacturers, innovation in the industry has been relatively drab looking for decades and has mainly revolved around solar PV efficiencies, panel materials and battery technology.

So far, there have been several encouraginggreen building trends of 2020that caught our attention, notably an increase in PV solar panels on homes. The implications of what Azelio is doing could be quite significant, and in order to explain that properly requires a quick recap of the more common technologies for comparison:

The difference between solar thermal and PV solar panels

Standard photovoltaic panels absorb photons from the sun, which causes a reaction with electrons in the solar cells, and converts that action into electricity.但缺点之一是，这种情况只发生在阳光明媚的时候。为了提供持续的电力供应，需要足够的太阳能电池板来满足夜间使用，而要完全脱离电网，就需要电池为夜间使用储存电力。

Solar thermal collection is a more simple process; it is a matter of absorbing heat directly from the sun in a manner that can be directly stored - but this is really only practical on a direct domestic or small-to-medium sized building,

Solar thermal collection is quite simple; it can bepassive solar home design, orsolar air heatersor solar thermal water heaters. Heat can easily be stored in thermal mass (also known asa thermal battery), which is nothing high tech – concrete, water, stone, wood, etc., are all examples of thermal mass. As a general rule, the denser something is, the more heat it can store.

The Azelio solar electricity storage

The difference with the Azelio storage system is that it can be easily added at a reasonable cost to regionalized clean energy production like solar PV, wind generators or both, and optimized to store excess electric during the day by using it to produce molten aluminum alloy(luaminum is one of the most widely used and recycled metals in the world, and a very common element in the Earth's crust).

Using the Stirling engine, the heat stored in the alloy is converted into electricity during high demand or at night when the solar PV is no longer generating. It's also "clean" and it doesn't rely on mining scarce minerals the way batteries do.

How a Stirling engine works

To understand how a Stirling engine works, imagine a steam engine where water is boiled, and steam turns a piston.斯特林发动机加热和冷却气体，气体随之膨胀和收缩。当气体被热电池加热时，它膨胀并迫使活塞。气体在循环中冷却，然后由热电池再次加热。这个过程大约每秒重复25次。

我们发现这非常令人印象深刻，因为它在一定程度上表明了太阳能热储热系统的复兴，它开始走Netflix时代的VCR的路，因为太阳能电池板的效率提高，价格下降，以及电池存储的可用性——尽管昂贵。To understand how valuable this could be, we first need to look at the current technology, which is all very impressive in its own right.

Phase change building materials

A ‘phase change’ refers to the action of a material changing from liquid to solid to gas, or in the reverse order. Even greater heat storage capacity can come from employingPhase Change Materials (PCMs).

A significant amount of energy is absorbed or released when a material changes phase, which is the central part of Azelio’s process. Heat is stored in a container with a phase change material - in this case molten aluminum, which is heated up to just under 600°C and liquefied by using the electricity from solar PV or wind generators.

Storing renewable energy

One downside of injecting clean, renewable energy into the power grid is that many green power sources lack predictability, making balancing the supply more challenging. Power authorities work hard to anticipate supply and demand so they can provide sufficient power when needed, without over producing.
Hydro electricity can be balanced somewhat without significant changes in water levels, but solar and wind (arguably the more eco-friendly renewable energy sources, but let’s not open that can of worms now) are not overly-predictable, since they rely on weather reports to anticipate supply.

A tip of the hat to meteorologists, but it’s still guesswork and I’m sure we’ve all been stuck in a surprise rain shower at some point while expecting clear skies, so predictability is incredibly valuable. And you can’t simply put a nuclear plant in idle, so overproduction of power can be a big problem. In some cases of overproduction and reduced demand, power needs to be dumped to other states and provinces at discounted rates, assuming they have the capacity to accept it.

这就是Azelio提供的解决方案的优势所在，因为这种热量(或者“潜在电”，如果你愿意的话)可以储存到需要的时候。通过提供均衡的供应，这样的存储电力有助于用更清洁的电力绿化电网。

Home solar batteries

To date, there is no home power storage solution from Azelio, but if this new technology stands the test of time, it is almost a foregone conclusionthat at some point someone will pluck that ripe apple from the tree and develop a residential solution.

PV panels on your roof can reduce your personal energy consumption, but without home power storage you are still reliant on grid power.The latest lithium-ion technology in home batteries而且能量存储的效率仍然不高，因此，它仍然非常昂贵。

The best lithium ion home batteries will run you roughly $10,000 USD to install just one, and to meet the energy consumption needs of most homes you would likely need two of them. We don’t all have 20k burning a hole in our pockets to store power for an emergency; that’s why you don’t see a lot of them just yet, but home power storage is, in our opinion, another one of those inevitable design features of the future.

Future-proofing homes

With increasing global uncertainties in terms of climate change and the "out of our control" destabilization of markets, economies and governments, there is a sub-culture of off-grid preppers that seem less and less nutsto the mainstream population with each passing day.

Proof is in the pudding, and as people now feel vulnerable and scurry to stockpile essentials during the Coronavirus outbreak (which even at this early date in its incubation is already being called the greatest upheaval of a generation) our guides such asvertical wind turbinesandemergency preparationhave been some of the most visited!

Now you know more aboutsolar electricity generation & storage without batteriesand how it can helpreduce the carbon footprint of eco homes & sustainable construction... Find more pagesaboutsustainable and resilient green building techniques here: Off Grid and Zero Energy Homes Future-proof building techniques for a changing climate The Azelio website Resilient design features for new home construction Find more about green home constructionin the EcohomeGreen Building Guide pages- Also, learn more aboutthe benefits of a free Ecohome Network Membership here.