Malta Inc. CEO Ramya Swaminathan explains how Malta's molten salt thermal storage system integrates into existing electrical grids.
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: 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…”