This New Solar Battery Stores Energy Without Lithium or the Grid

The challenge of solar-powered energy has always been the means to store it. And the intermittency of solar and wind energy makes that storage capability essential. Energy from the sun and wind can only be created — and stored — when the sun shines or the wind blows.

But that technological gap may be closing thanks to scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who have created a “rechargeable solar battery” that stores sunlight in molecules and later releases enough heat to boil water.