The idea is neat but the infrastructure needed is the real revolution waiting to happen. They make bricks that stay industrial levels of hot for long periods of time.
How do the bricks get heated? Does that scale easily?
Do heated bricks get transported or heated onsite?
Can existing industrial hardware like kilns, forges, and steam generators use these bricks with little retrofitting?
This is a tech to watch but don't anticipate an overnight (or even during the decade) switch to hot bricks.
Forsberg said his only concern was whether Electrified Thermal Solutions would be the ones to bring the technology to fruition, noting that many clean energy technologies have been invented in the U.S. only to gain commercial success in China.
Recent government funding has given the company a significant boost.
In January, ETS received a $5 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to help build its first commercial-scale demonstration project at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, an independent organization that provides contract research and development services to government and industrial clients.