Researchers have succeeded in transforming red bricks – a familiar building material for houses – into batteries capable of storing energy. The breakthrough enables us to imagine what the future would look like if our buildings functioned as power plants.
Despite the reduction in the cost of lithium batteries and pumped-storage hydroelectricity, the storage of significant quantities of electricity remains one of the main challenges of our time. But what if the solution was right under our nose? Or rather right around us and our home? A team of international researchers have developed a prototype of a brick that is capable of storing electricity, allowing basic bricks to essentially function like batteries.