A team of Chinese scientists is making progress toward solar redox flow batteries (SRFBs), according to Interesting Engineering.
Traditional solar panels turn sunlight directly into electricity. This design can lead to supply and demand issues that require additional storage within the grid.
Instead, SRFBs turn sunlight directly into storage through a unique photochemical process.
The technology's efficiency is still lower than solar panels, but the researchers tested a new SRFB device and recorded a relatively high conversion efficiency of 4.2%, Interesting Engineering reported.
The full findings were published in Electrochimica Acta.
If this science continues to improve, SRFBs could find a home in the growing solar industry as a consistent energy storage solution.
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"The successful fabrication of this … device paves the way for the continued advancement of innovative solar-to-chemical energy conversion technologies," researchers wrote.
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