Those folks at MIT sure are very smart, aren’t they?

In the latest round of “what will scientists think of next”, we are introduced to a potential solution to the looming problem of energy storage – the home as a supercapacitor.

According to a BBC report, MIT researcher Damian Stefaniuk and his colleagues have turned a mix of water, cement, and carbon black, a highly conductive material used in the manufacturing of car tires, into a supercapacitor.

Though it’s not a long-term solution like a lithium-ion battery might be, the amped up concrete can be charged and discharged quickly, making them a flexible and intriguing option alongside more conventional methods.

“If it can be scaled up, the technology can help solve an important issue — the storing of renewable energy,” Stefaniuk told the BBC.

The potential of this product is nearly limitless – as are its applications.

Think of roads being poured with the carbon-cement supercapacitor mix or even building materials. Could the foundation of your home take pressure off of the electrical grid and be used to store green energy?

It’s possible.

In addition to roads that charge cars as they drive them, the goal is “to have walls, or foundations, or columns, that are active not only in supporting a structure, but also in that energy is stored inside them”, says Stefaniuk.

The technology is in its infancy, with the proof-of-concept supercapacitor only able to store enough energy to power a 10-watt LED for 30 hours.

But growth is on the horizon, with Stefaniuk’s team working on 1,590-cubic-feet version that could “meet the daily energy needs of a residential house.”

But nothing is guaranteed, of course.

“Often, new discoveries are problematic when considerations are made to move from lab or bench scale to wider deployment at larger scales and volumes,” Teesside University engineering professor Michael Short told the BBC. “This can be due to manufacturing complexities, resource scarcities, or sometimes due to the underlying physics or chemistry.”

This technology sounds promising and could have a big impact on how we store energy in the very near future!

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