The rapid expansion of wind and solar power has created a unique challenge: utilities often have more electricity than they can use. At times, they even pay other power plants to stay idle. The race is on to find cost-effective ways to store this surplus energy, making renewable power available around the clock and potentially driving coal and natural gas out of business. Enter Cache Energy, a startup with a fresh approach to energy storage. Unlike traditional methods that store power as heat in materials like sand or bricks, Cache stores energy in chemical bonds within lime-based pellets. Founder and CEO Arpit Dwivedi refers to this innovative method as "coal without consequences." “It’s a low-cost solid that can produce heat and utilizes similar infrastructure built for fossil fuels,” Dwivedi told TechCrunch. The pellets are versatile and can be stored in piles or silos, transported via conveyor belts, or shipped in rail cars. Dwivedi notes that as long as they’re covered— even with something as simple as a tarp— they can retain their energy charge indefinitely. Cache Energy, founded in 2021 while Dwivedi was completing his PhD at the University of Illinois, has been operating in stealth mode until now. The company aims to replace fossil fuels in providing heat for homes and industries. Cache starts with calcium hydroxide, a widely available material used in various industries, from papermaking to food processing. Initially, the material is a fine powder, which isn’t ideal for energy storage, so Cache developed a method to bind it into durable pellets. The size of the pellets is crucial for efficiency. If they’re too small, they could blow away; if too large, they hinder the energy storage and release process. After extensive testing, Cache found the ideal pellet size. https://github.com/stacksimplify/azure-devops-github-acr-aks-app1/issues/14 https://github.com/qbzzt/qbzzt.github.io/issues/9 https://github.com/raml-apis/GitHub/issues/10 https://github.com/Asabeneh/10-days-of-git-and-github/issues/30 https://github.com/hocchudong/git-github-for-sysadmin/issues/13 https://github.com/nick-jonas/nick-jonas.github.com/issues/15 https://pastelink.net/b6azizff https://linksome.me/ewfsesawsdw