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Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

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Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#121

Post by TremendousJudge »

nradov wrote: post #118
ramblerman wrote: post #51

The neat little graph showing the rise in global yearly investments up to 2040 is amusing. Nassim Taleb has made me very wary of these things. what's even the calculation behind a projection like that, it even has a little spike in 2035!

I'm guessing it's because the scheduled restrictions on sales and use of ICE vehicles will really kick in around that time. So there will be a corresponding higher demand on the electric grid caused by a growing fleet of electric vehicles. But obviously it's somewhat speculative.

somewhat? it's _completely_ speculative!

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#122

Post by FiatLuxDave »

Does anyone have any information about what kind of heat pump they are using (e.g. multi-stage hydrocarbon, supercritical CO2, etc)? Making a heat pump which can handle a difference of 175+ C and a high side of 200+ C may be straightforward in theory, but it is a non-trivial engineering challenge. I am unaware of any commercial off-the-shelf device which can meet these specs. I'm guessing this is what they need based upon the description. I happen to be in the market for a heat pump like this for my own research, so I am highly interested if anyone has any information.

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#123

Post by QuercusMax »

ars wrote: post #63
lumberjack wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm wondering. Isn't this trademark infringement? EDIT: Definitely trademarked: EU001566702

Trademarked in what industry? Trademarks are not universal, they are only in particular industries.

Exactly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta_(soft_drink)

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#124

Post by PaulHoule »

I have been thinking of ways a "new nuclear" company could have a business plan that gives them an exit in case they run into regulatory or other roadblocks and molten salt handling was one of the ones that seemed most promising.

(Too bad there doesn't seem to be any non-nuclear market for Brayton cycle turbines.)

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#125

Post by ThenAsNow »

lainga wrote: post #6

Oh lord, can't you pick less conflicting names? Why don't I just name my company Jeff Bezos LLC?

Google and their ilk picking these childish cutesy names ("Project Loon", "Project Fi", "Malta") is incredibly grating and needlessly detracts from their objectives. Do it once and maybe it's clever. Do it as a rule, and it's hard to take the work seriously. Not to mention, do any of these so-called "projects" outside of Google's core competencies do well once they meet with the real world?

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#126

Post by hinkley »

nradov wrote: post #118
ramblerman wrote: post #51

The neat little graph showing the rise in global yearly investments up to 2040 is amusing. Nassim Taleb has made me very wary of these things. what's even the calculation behind a projection like that, it even has a little spike in 2035!

I'm guessing it's because the scheduled restrictions on sales and use of ICE vehicles will really kick in around that time. So there will be a corresponding higher demand on the electric grid caused by a growing fleet of electric vehicles. But obviously it's somewhat speculative.

Don’t phaseout dates set in the future create a spike in demand near the deadline?

Either people will be bored of ICEs for other reasons long before and make this a non event. Or, everyone will try to buy a new ICE in the year or two before they stop selling them. Automakers will use this as a justification for trying to move the deadline out. If that happens then the spike in electric drive will come at the next tradein time, not the deadline.

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#127

Post by lyjackal »

MacroAffairs wrote: post #75
ramblerman wrote: post #51

The neat little graph showing the rise in global yearly investments up to 2040 is amusing. Nassim Taleb has made me very wary of these things. what's even the calculation behind a projection like that, it even has a little spike in 2035!

Take it with a grain of salt.

but... molten salt has no grains

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#129

Post by tk75x »

pdpi wrote: post #77
Retric wrote: post #5

The rather extreme losses associated with electricity > heat > heat engine > electricity seem like an absolute deal killer. Assuming they are at an extreme 50% round trip efficiency you need to be extremely cheap to have a hope of breaking even. Worse heat has fairly low energy density and cools over time so they can’t really scale the up or down that much. It might be possible if they where starting with heat, but f…

I don’t know what Malta specifically is doing. The project mentioned elsewhere in here[1] is actually a thermal plant design — it uses mirrors to build a solar furnace and the salt acts as a buffering stage before the heat gets transferred to a conventional steam turbine setup. This eliminates one of the conversion steps. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Solar_Project

Related project

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Morocco

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#130

Post by tk75x »

Retric wrote: post #27
ddp26 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solar can generate heat directly, using Concentrated Solar Power plants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power

Those are horrifically expensive relative to PV and largely abandoned tech. A core issue is you can’t concentrate sunlight on a cloudy day making them even less dependable than PV. The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility even reverts to natural gas, this is while costing 4x what PV does. PS: By abandoned the worldwide concentrating solar power installed over the last 20 years is ~1/2 the amount of PV added every month.

It seems to still be a viable solution in countries with a high percentage of sunny days throughout the year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Morocco

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