Regardless of how you feel about Elon Musk, his desire to save the human race from the perils of climate change and beyond-our-control AI scenarios has resulted in  some of the world’s most impressive technological feats. High on the list? Tesla’s Powerwall home battery that successfully stores solar energy, so even when the sun is not shining, a home’s energy needs can be independently met.

While the Powerwall’s advance is impressive, the ability to store solar energy in batteries on a large scale—not just generate the energy—remains a pressing need. Research teams far and wide are on the case, but only in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has the hunt for solar power storage veered into the realm of sci-fi, while simultaneously generating some promising results.

Solar and the UAE

The UAE is known around the world primarily for two things: desert and oil. While it certainly has vast quantities of both, the UAE also has a massive amount of sunshine. In an attempt to harness the power of this sunshine, the UAE has invested billions of dollars in renewable energy and required rooftop solar panels all across Dubai.

While those efforts are certainly impressive, the UAE’s solar power reign is just beginning to warm up. As His Highness Sheikh Mohammed, the Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai put it, “We, in the UAE, have no such word as ‘impossible.’“

Enter the Masdar Institute and all that sand in the desert.

Mr. Sun, Mr. Sandman and the Teeny, Tiny Battery

Researchers at the UAE’s Masdar Institute recently chose to tackle the problem of solar energy storage in a unique way. What if, they wondered, desert sand could be put to the task of acting like a battery?

The question garnered a very good answer.

Sand—particularly the sand that makes up a vast quantity of the United Arab Emirates—actually makes for an amazing storehouse for solar energy. Thanks to the heat-absorption qualities of the fine carbonate and quartz in it, each miniscule grain can be transformed into a kind of teeny, tiny battery.

In other words, if harnessed and utilized well, the UAE’s deserts could usher in a new era of solar power energy storage.  

You Down With CSP?

This approach to solar energy takes advantage of technology and solar power’s easy alliance through what’s called “concentrating solar power” or CSP. A marriage of up-to-the-minute solar power technology and billions-of-years-old nature, the CSP power plants in the United Arab Emirates are looking to generate and store massive amounts of solar energy in grains of sand.

Here’s how it works: Through the use of solar concentrators, extremely high temperatures are achieved quickly and efficiently in a select location. This concentrated solar energy is then stored as thermal energy in the sand. The sand the researchers in the UAE used can reach temperatures up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit—an impressive amount of thermal energy captured and stored in a material that is both free and ubiquitous.

From that point, the thermal energy in the sand would be stored until it was disseminated as electricity. The research team at the Masdar Institute is currently developing the first commercial prototype. If they succeed, the sands of the desert could one day soon be transformed into one of the country’s most valuable resources.

Want to know more about solar power and how switching to solar can help you drive your electric bill down to zero? Contact us today for a free quote.