The skyscrapers of the future will charge themselves from the concrete

In the future there will be buildings that will charge themselves and will store energy, as well as massive batteries. All of it starting from a special concrete, which works as an energy storage. The study arrives from the Sweden and it was made by two researchers. Let’s discover it together.

The study about the skyscrapers of the future

The study was realized by two researchers of the University Chalmers of Technology in Goteborg, in Sweden, Emma Zhang and Luping Tang.

The project uses a special concrete which is able to store energy. The material created by the two researchers is detailed described on the website of the Chalmers University.

According to the two scientists the concrete can be used to realize the skyscrapers of the future which will charge themselves as big batteries. And then they will use the energy stored for the building itself.

The normal concrete and the chargable concrete

Let’s start from the normal concrete. It’s a material made by a mixture of calcium silicate and calcium aluminates. They were previously obtained from the limestone and the clay heated.

We start from the normal concrete because it was right from there that the two researchers of the University of Goteborg started.

To the normal concrete they added a minimum part of carbon fibers. The carbon fibers increase its conductive properties. The new concrete, then, it was put inside a grind of carbon fiber.

To it, then, they added even other two materials: iron and nichel, that respectively are the anode and the cathode, right like the two sides of the battery.

The special concrete then can be used to realize walls, roofs and floors.

A battery as big as a skyscraper

Basically, build a skyscraper by using this special concrete means to build a massive battery. It works exactly like a normal battery, but much bigger.

By the way for now it seems that the final result isn’t that great. Or better, the researchers believe that the project works very well, but the building won’t store enough energy to sustain itself (which is the target to reach).

While today the best batteries arrive to store up to 265 Wh/Kg, the chargable concrete can only store 7 Wh for square meter.

But the researchers believe that they can improve their product, by arriving to increase the store capacity of 10 times.

For now there is only a scale model built with the chargeble concrete

We are far away from its practical usage. For now Emma Zhang and Luping Tang, the two researchers of the Chalmers University were only able to realize a scale model.

More than one, in reality, to arrive to the results published on the website of the university. And now they are still working, to reach their target as soon as possible.

The skyscrapers of the future will store the energy in the concrete… and it will be green

All of it must added to the saveguard of the environment. The two researchers, infact, specified that their concrete is able to store the energy that comes from different sources, but it’s better if they are renewable.

In their project, infact, the future skyscrapers will be equipped with solar panels that will create the energy during the day, to store it in the concrete of the structure of the building during the night.

But they believe the energy might even come from the wind.

Once stored the energy will be used to supply of electricity the whole building.

Like we said we are far away from use the chargable concrete, but the idea is nice and we hope that in the future the buildings will arrive to a selfsustain very similar to the one thought by the two researchers.

This post is also available in: Italiano