Electricity Storage alternative to lithium

[Hillhater]

Thermal power storage is already in use…molten salt, hot rocks, sand, ceramic blocks, etc….but all rely on steam turbines or similar to convert the heat back to electricity at low efficiency. (30% ?)
But it seems that direct heat to electricity is becoming practical using high temperature Thermal Photo Voltaic cells with higher efficiency.(>40%)
Direct heat to electricity!

Thermophotovoltaic efficiency of 40% - Nature

Two-junction TPV cells with efficiencies of more than 40% are reported, using an emitter with a temperature between 1,900 and 2,400 °C, for integration into a TPV system for thermal energy grid storage.

www.nature.com

 

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And since petrol/gasoline is a very energy dense and combustible fuel we can have 'gas' powered evs, deisel heater evs and even coal stoked evs wahey!! even a baked plastic juice fueled ev is on the horizon..

how could that go wrong??

 

[JackFlorey]

Thermal power storage is already in use…molten salt, hot rocks, sand, ceramic blocks, etc….but all rely on steam turbines or similar to convert the heat back to electricity at low efficiency. (30% ?)
But it seems that direct heat to electricity is becoming practical using high temperature Thermal Photo Voltaic cells with higher efficiency.(>40%)

It would make sense if there is another use for the low quality waste heat (for example, in a water heater, or for some industrial process.)

 

[Hillhater]

It would make sense if there is another use for the low quality waste heat (for example, in a water heater, or for some industrial process.)

Sure, but the TPV technology only seems to become efficient to a practical level (40%+), at high temperatures.
and whilst is may be an improvement over existing turbines, ..even then it still “leaves a lot on the table” ..with more than 50% of the energy not recovered !
..So yes , there is a lot of wasted energy still to be captured.