Insight
Swaminathan: Malta extends storage duration cheaply by adding salt tanks
“Whereas in our system, what you can do is just to add more salt and more coolant. And you extend duration while keeping the power portion of it. That is the machinery, the turbo machinery, the heat exchangers. You keep those all constant, but let's say you wan…”
Assertion Supported
Swaminathan: Only 3% of the 79,000 US dams generate electricity
“What we had really understood through the process of you know, and advancing this hydro kinetics business plan was that there's 79,000 dams in the United States, and only three percent of them have power.”
Assertion Supported
Swaminathan: Malta's technology replaces grid inertia and time-shifts power
“Malta helps not only time shift that power, as we were talking about moving solar that's available during the day to being available at night, but we're also replacing the inertia, which helps maintain the reliability of the grid.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Swaminathan: Grid lithium-ion storage typically tops out at four to eight hours
“10 hours would be long for lithium ion. So lithium ion actually, yeah, lithium ion actually started really in the one hour space. They've extended to now four hours, and you do see some six, maybe even eight hour applications in the world today for lithium ion…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Swaminathan: Malta is a direct replacement for coal and gas plants
“Malta's plant integrates really well into the existing legacy grid system because our system is, is comprised of parts and pieces, systems and subsystems that are used in power plants all over the world, including the United States. So for grid operators and u…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Swaminathan: Displaced coal workers can easily transition to Malta plants
“And because Malta's plant looks, feels, acts, and is operated and maintained just like a traditional thermal asset, you can actually incorporate all those incumbent workers into the plant.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Swaminathan: Molten Salt Storage Will Never Scale Down to Homes or Vehicles
“I don't see it ever really at the scale of a single home, but I do see it at the scale of, you could have, for example, a large town or a small city being able to essentially have a microgrid that is disconnectable from the overall electricity grid and support…”
Insight
Swaminathan: Time-shifting power is the linchpin to unlocking renewable energy
“The ability to time shift, to take power when it's widely available, so in the middle of a day, for example, at the maximum irradiation, And move that to a time where it's not available, like in the middle of the night when the sun doesn't shine, is in many wa…”
Assertion Supported
Swaminathan: Malta Inc. originated at Google's X incubator
“They had in-house at X, the Moonshot Factory, what they called Project Malta, which then ultimately became the company I now lead, Malta Inc.”
Assertion Supported
Swaminathan: Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin conceived Malta's core technology
“The technical insight that formed the foundation of what Malta's working on today in terms of our technology was actually the brainchild of a professor at Stanford. He's a Nobel Prize winner. His name is Robert Laughlin.”
Assertion Supported
Swaminathan: Dubai's DEWA Solar Plant Provides 700MW With 12-Hour Storage
“The largest such plant actually is, I think, still under construction or recently commissioned. It's in Dubai. It's called the Dewa plant, and it 700 megawatts with 12 hours of storage.”
Assertion Supported
Swaminathan: Daytime Solar Curtailment in Spain Enables Zero-Cost Storage Charging
“And actually in, in places like Spain, for example, there is so much solar being produced that they are curtailing solar production during the day. So actually it is possible to charge for some hours of the day at zero cost, or perhaps in some places, even at …”
Prediction Open · timeframe Dec 2027
Swaminathan hopes Malta's first plant begins construction in 2024, operating by 2027
“Yeah, so I hope to start construction on our first plant towards the end of next year with the first fully in service by twenty-twenty-seven.”
