Turning Buildings into Batteries

A new concept is being developed by researchers at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology: cement-based batteries. If it works, the notion could turn an entire building into something like a giant battery. Here’s more from SlashGear:

The concept involves a cement-based mixture with small amounts of short carbon fibers added to increase the conductivity and flexural toughness of the material. Also embedded inside the cement mixture is a metal-coated carbon-fiber mesh with iron for the anode and nickel for the cathode. Other research has investigated concrete batteries in the past, but they had very low performance.

Researchers at Chalmers had to come up with a new way to produce the electrode. The idea they came up with created a rechargeable system using an idea that hadn’t been explored. The cement-based battery has an average energy density of seven watthours per square meter, which is about ten times better than previous concrete batteries can produce.

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