The fictional thermal thermal batteries of the fourth power can be cheaper than the energy generation plants. Gases

Fourth powerLong -term power storage seems to be a thing from James Bond. Thermal batteries come in full with liquid liquid tin and rooms filled with argon. The goal of the company, though, is much more – to store electricity cheap enough to make it Solar energy And winds are a clear option for the power of 24/7.

Here is how technology works: to store energy, electricity from the network heating carbon blocks inside isolated rooms full of argon gas. When needed by energy, the molten tin system pumps heating to a incendiary of 2400 ° C (4,352 ° F) through graphite-only effective material in terms of cost that can withstand these temperatures. Special devices that resemble solar panels called “thermal cells of hot cells” and then convert the heat back into electricity by picking the infrared light from the white tin.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, is four -year -old, has improved technology over the past two years, and is now preparing to build its first large -scale battery, molten tin and everything. If everything goes to plan, Fourth power Plans to provide commercial batteries to customers in 2028 at a cost that can undermine both lithium ion batteries and natural gas plants.

“Our expectations are the first of its kind-the first to market-that it will be costly competition,” Aarfin Ganisan, co-founder and executive director of Fourth Power, told Techcrunch. “Our companies for these markets are very high.”

In normal operation, the fourth energy is visible to charging and unloading daily, and providing continuous electricity for eight hours or more. This is twice as long as most of the Li -Ion batteries are in the network scale. The isolation system, made of oil coke (oil is a waste from oil refining), maintains temperatures significantly, and only 1 % of the energy stored daily.

The company is currently conducting extensive tests on smaller versions of the system. “We are now running courses to ensure that we are getting an expected amount of energy and to ensure that the system is solid,” said Ganissan.

Besides these tests, the company designs a single -hour illustrations battery. To build this project, Fourth Power raised $ 20 million on a tour that it invites the A Plus series, and the company told Techcrunch exclusively. The round was led by Munich Ri Ventures with the participation of Breakthrough Energy Ventures and DCVC. The startup was previously raised a Series 19 million dollars a In 2023.

Ultimately, the fourth energy hopes that as soon as it reaches wide production, the cost of storing electricity using its thermal batteries will decrease to $ 25 per kilowatt hour, and ten costs of lithium -ion batteries.

“There is not much moving pieces,” Ganisan said. “We feel that the goal of $ 25 is somewhat clear to achieve it.”