Eureka Prize winners melt salt to store solar power

Researchers from the University of South Australia were this week recognised by the 2015 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes for their innovative sustainable energy solution. The national science awards each year honour excellence in research and innovation, leadership, science communication and journalism, and school science.

The winners of the 2015 ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology — Associate Professor Frank Bruno, Dr Martin Belusko and Dr Steven Tay — were awarded for the development of a phase-change system that provides energy storage at a tenth of the cost of batteries. The system is said to resolve the mismatch between generation hours and electricity use.

By melting and solidifying an inexpensive liquid salt solution, renewable energy can be stored and released quickly and cheaply. According to the executive director and CEO of the Australian Museum, Kim McKay AO, “The potential this technology offers for renewable energy to form a much larger slice of Australia’s electricity generation through low-cost energy storage is very exciting.”

As well as extending the potential reach of renewable energy, the system also allows Australian produce companies to reduce multibillion-dollar refrigeration electricity costs by ‘charging’ the system (freezing the solution) during inexpensive off-peak hours and ‘discharging’ (re-melting) during expensive peak hours. This will reduce refrigeration electricity costs by up to 50% and reduce the need for peak-driven infrastructure and for extra fossil-fuel generation of power during daylight hours.

The other finalists for the award were:

• Associate Professor Kondo-François Aguey-Zinsou (UNSW), for the development of the Hy-Cycle low-temperature, low-pressure hydrogen storage that can power a motorised bicycle over 120 km on a single, small canister.
• Professor Martin Green and Dr Mark Keevers (UNSW), for splitting a single light beam to generate power from two different types of solar cell.

The South Australian researchers joined 15 other recipients of the national science awards. The full list of winners can be found at http://australianmuseum.net.au/2015-eureka-prizes-winners.