{"id":81261,"date":"2023-12-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/climate\/2023\/12\/14\/bill-gates-vc-backs-thermal-energy-storage-startup-fourth-power\/"},"modified":"2023-12-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T00:00:00","slug":"bill-gates-vc-backs-thermal-energy-storage-startup-fourth-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/climate\/2023\/12\/14\/bill-gates-vc-backs-thermal-energy-storage-startup-fourth-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Gates\u2019 VC backs thermal energy storage startup Fourth Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Gates\u2019 VC backs thermal energy storage <\/strong>startup<\/strong>:<\/strong> Bill Gates\u2019 Breakthrough Energy Ventures is backing US-based thermal energy storage startup Fourth Power<\/a>, Bloomberg<\/a> reports. The USD 19 mn Series A funding round was led by DCVC<\/a> along with Breakthrough Energy and Black Venture Capital Consortium. The capital will be channeled toward<\/a> expanding the firm\u2019s engineering team, research and development, and establishing a 1 MWh e-thermal plant in Boston in 2026.<\/p>\n

What does Fourth Power do? <\/strong>The company stores excess renewable power as thermal energy in an enclosed liquid metal heat transfer system<\/a> roughly the size of half a football field, and then stores it in a thermal battery system to be used when needed. Liquid tin is then pumped through a closed-loop plumbing system to transport the energy throughout a utility-scale battery.<\/p>\n

Storing the sun in a box: <\/strong>Fourth Power uses thermophotovoltaic<\/a> panels to turn the light emitted by the plumbing system \u2014 which reaches up to 2.4k\u00b0C \u2014 into power for the grid. \u201cAt almost half the sun\u2019s temperature, we are essentially storing the sun in a box,\u201d the company notes.<\/p>\n

Ten times cheaper than lithium-ion batteries: <\/strong>Fourth Power\u2019s thermal battery system can store for over a month excess power from renewables that would have otherwise gone to waste, discharging it over a period from a few hours to a few days, according to Business Wire<\/a>. The energy is stored at a cost of USD 25\/KWh, which is 10 times cheaper than lithium-ion batteries, the company explains<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Potential to 20x storage capacity:<\/strong> \u201cBy adding graphite blocks to increase storage duration, we provide a modular, scalable solution that can meet today\u2019s short-duration (5-hour) needs and the long-duration energy storage (100-hour) needs of tomorrow,\u201d the company notes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The company will use the funding to expand the firm\u2019s engineering team, research and development, and establish a 1 MWh e-thermal plant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[446,1997,11,73,42,320],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-81261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-your-way-out","tag-bill-gates","tag-breakthrough-energy-ventures","tag-enterpriseclimate","tag-on-your-way-out","tag-solar-energy","tag-thermal-energy","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"4b3a4aec-3395-455f-b444-cb24971cea52","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2023\/12\/936.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Bill Gates\u2019 VC backs thermal energy storage startup Fourth Power","related_issue":[81241],"teaser":"The company will use the funding to expand the firm\u2019s engineering team, research and development, and establish a 1 MWh e-thermal plant","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2023\/12\/.763af570-4f88-4faf-b223-96a842d15da6.mp3"},"yoast_head":"\nBill Gates\u2019 VC backs thermal energy storage startup Fourth Power - 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