this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Plan to commercialize supercapacitors in the next few years

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The team worked out that a 45 cubic meter material block of nanocarbon-black-doped concrete would have enough capacity to store about 10kWh of energy, which is reckoned to be the average daily electricity usage for a household, so remote off-grid houses with batteries in the foundations could operate using windmills or solar panels.

That's ~1600ft^3 for those of us unfortunate enough to have an innate sense of freedom units and not logical units; a lot of concrete!

I'm very curious about the longevity and durability of these bricks, and safety considerations. Such a house could potentially, (pun intended,) instantly discharge a lot of electricity into someone who comes in to contact with its foundation. Don't use that masonry drill, it might kill you!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or alternatively, can it even discharge fast enough to provide a meaningful enough amount of electricity?

What does the charge/ discharge cycle do to the integrity of the concrete?

What special conditions are necessary for is curing? Whats the yield? Because the consequences of having a 45 cubic meter block of concrete that was supposed to be a battery sitting in my yard but isn't are not trivial.

Whats the carbon footprint of adding 45 additional cubic meters of concrete to every structure? It takes a shit ton of energy to rip off the necessary electrons from lime stone to make lime.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

They're saying it coule be part of the foundation.

Basically for the average American house I think that would just be a slightly thicker foundation (if it could work like that)