Energy storage

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Energy storage media are matter that store some form of energy that can be drawn upon at a later time to perform some useful operation. A device that stores energy is sometimes called an accumulator. All forms of energy are either potential energy (eg. chemical, gravitational or electrical energy) or kinetic energy (eg. thermal energy). A wind up clock stores potential energy (in this case mechanical, in the spring tension), a battery stores readily convertible chemical energy to keep a clock chip in a computer running (electrically) even when the computer is turned off, and a hydroelectric dam stores power in a reservoir as gravitational potential energy. Ice storage tanks store ice (thermal energy)at night to meet peak demand for cooling . Even food is a form of energy storage, chemical in this case.

For more information about Energy storage, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with energy storage

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Nanotube defects equal better energy and storage systems

Nanotube defects equal better energy and storage systems

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people would like to be able to charge their cell phones and other personal electronics quickly and not too often. A recent discovery made by UC San Diego engineers could lead to carbon ...


Liquid battery big enough for the electric grid?

Liquid battery big enough for the electric grid?

Technology / Energy

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- There's one major drawback to most proposed renewable-energy sources: their variability. The sun doesn't shine at night, the wind doesn’t always blow, and tides, waves and currents fluctuate. ...


Battery Research Aims To Store Renewable Energy

Battery Research Aims To Store Renewable Energy

Technology / Energy

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (13) | comments 5

The biggest chemical battery in the United States is located near Interstate 90 in the small town of Luverne, Minn. The 80 ton device -- the size of two tractor-trailers stacked on top of each other -- stores ...


Toward home-brewed electricity with 'personalized solar energy'

Toward home-brewed electricity with 'personalized solar energy'

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Nov 04, 2009 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (10) | comments 5

New scientific discoveries are moving society toward the era of "personalized solar energy," in which the focus of electricity production shifts from huge central generating stations to individuals in their ...


Improved redox flow batteries for electric cars

Improved redox flow batteries for electric cars

Technology / Energy

created Oct 13, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (20) | comments 14

A new type of redox flow battery presents a huge advantage for electric cars. If the rechargeable batteries are low, the discharged electrolyte fluid can simply be exchanged at the gas station for recharged ...


Team Finds Unexpected Hydrides Become Stable Metals at Pressure Near One Quarter Required to Metalize Pure Hydrogen Alone

Unexpected Hydrides Become Stable Metals at Pressure Near One Quarter Required to Metalize Pure Hydrogen Alone

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Oct 12, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- From detailed assessments of electronic structure, researchers at the University at Buffalo, Cornell University, Stony Brook University and Moscow State University discovered that unexpected ...


Panasonic Develops High Energy Lithium-ion Battery Module  with High Reliability

Panasonic Develops High Energy Lithium-ion Battery Module with High Reliability

Technology / Engineering

created Oct 01, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Panasonic Corp. has developed a 1.5 kWh battery module from 18650-type (18 mm in diameter x 65 mm in length) lithium-ion battery cells, which are widely used in laptop computers, to provide energy storage ...


Harnessing nanopatterns

Harnessing nanopatterns: Tiny textures can produce big differences

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Sep 24, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Research at MIT has uncovered new information about how nanoscale patterns on the surface of a material can produce significant changes in the way it interacts with liquids. The discovery ...


Springs built from nanotubes could provide big power storage potential

Springs built from nanotubes could provide big power storage potential

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Sep 21, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (15) | comments 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research by MIT scientists suggests that carbon nanotubes -- tube-shaped molecules of pure carbon -- could be formed into tiny springs capable of storing as much energy, pound for pound, ...


Researchers Hope to Mass-Produce Robots on a Chip

Researchers Hope to Mass-Produce Tiny Robots

Electronics / Robotics

created Aug 28, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (26) | comments 31

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny robots the size of a flea could one day be mass-produced, churned out in swarms and programmed for a variety of applications, such as surveillance, micromanufacturing, medicine, cleaning, ...


Harnessing carbon nanomaterials for drug delivery systems, oxygen sensors

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Aug 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two nanoscale devices recently reported by University of Pittsburgh researchers in two separate journals harness the potential of carbon nanomaterials to enhance technologies for drug or imaging agent delivery ...


Computer game taps creativity of scientists to solve energy problems

Technology / Other

created Aug 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

The American Chemical Society's (ACS) 238th National Meeting will be the site of a rare "thought experiment" intended to focus the creative genius of hundreds of scientists on solutions to one of the 21st Century's most ...


GE Home

General Electric Plans Net-Zero Energy Home by 2015

Technology / Energy

created Jul 16, 2009 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (16) | comments 9

(PhysOrg.com) -- Using solar panels, wind turbines, appliance monitoring, and on-site energy storage, General Electric has a plan to enable homeowners to cut their annual energy consumption (from the electric ...


Khatib MEMS

A Glimpse of the Future MEMS-based Storage: Totally Green & Thumbnail Size

Technology / Engineering

created Jun 23, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (13) | comments 0

The University of Twente--Enschede, The Netherlands published newly conferred PhD Mohammed Ghiath Khatib's thesis, "MEMS-based Storage Devices: Integration in Energy-Constrained Mobile System". The new MEMS, ...


Researchers study salt's potential to store energy

Physics / Condensed Matter

created Jun 02, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- When the wind blows, it blows — sometimes to a fault. The same is true for the sun: It can beat down relentlessly, scorching everything — and everyone-beneath its intense rays.