CD Designs Blog
Pave The Way For Solar Powered Concrete!
Thermal Energy Storing Driveway? Maybe soon!
Anyone who’s read our blog before will already know that, at CD Designs, we put a lot of thought into making our pattern imprinted concrete driveways, patios and other projects as environmentally friendly as possible. So imagine how excited we were to hear about research going on at the University of Arkansas in America, to develop a improved way of storing thermal energy in concrete. This could reduce the cost and environmental impact of heating homes drastically, and make our good friend concrete even more useful!
Concrete is already used to store thermal energy in Europe, but currently it can only do so with a maximum operating temperature of around 325 degrees C. The proposed new high-performance concrete will aim to push this figure up to 600 degrees C, and scientists are currently experimenting with different mixes to try to find the optimum heat bearing solution. The heat is gathered up by the solar panels, and then transferred to the concrete for storage by steel tubes.
Using such technological advances, the US Department of Energy is aiming to reduce the cost of storing solar energy from a current figure of between 13 and 17 cents per kilowatt hour, to 5 cents per kWh by 2020.
One Response to “Pave The Way For Solar Powered Concrete!”
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Post Date: | 14th July 2011 |
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Tags: | Concrete, Eco-Friendly, Solar Panels, Solar Power, Thermal Energy |
I LIVE IN FLORIDA WHERE THE TEMPERATURE IN THE ASPHALT DRIVE WAYS AND PARKING LOTS GETS VERY HIGH DURING SUMMER AND WINTER,. WHY HAVEN’T SOMEONE THOUGHT TO RUN SOME KIND OF FLEXIBLE YET STURDY PIPING UNDER IT, OR IN IT, AND PUMP WATER INTO IT IN FRONT OF A HOT WATER HEATER . AND USE IT IN HELPING HEAT THE WATER FOR THE SHOWERS AND SUCH. SEEMS TO ME THAT IT WOULD SAVE A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF ENERGY ON A DAILY USAGE.