Comments
We need to find better ways to store electricity to be able to fight climate change. This looks like a good way to store renewable energy until it is needed.
The humble house brick has been turned into a battery that can store electricity, raising the possibility that buildings could one day become literal powerhouses.
The new technology exploits the porous nature of fired red bricks by filling the pores with tiny nanofibres of a conducting plastic that can store charge. The first bricks store enough electricity to power small lights. But if their capacity can be increased, they may become a low-cost alternative to the lithium-ion batteries currently used.
Strictly speaking, the power bricks are supercapacitors rather than batteries. Supercapacitors store electricity as a static charge in solids.