In my previous question, I dealt with the possibility of harvesting the energy of the accretion disk and jets of a quasar Milky Way, by the use of multiple mirrors and panels that are orbiting around the black hole, similar to a Dyson Sphere, but around a Supermassive Black hole. In this question, the problem dealt with how to get the energy. But after the energy is collected, there is another problem- storage.
Harvesting energy is one thing. Storing it is another.
You could get quadrillions of joules of energy from a quasar, and still be able to do absolutely nothing with it, if you can't store this energy. So we need to look for an alternate solution. Fortunately a solution exists, and this thing is known as a battery
However, a problem arises......
Current tech-batteries are terribly inefficient for storing electricity. The conventional lithium-ion battery can store only a few million joules per kg. Millions of joules might sound impressive, but when we are talking of harvesting the energy of a quasar, this sounds terribly inefficient. You would need billions or even trillions of batteries to store the energy of a quasar. And since lithium is really rare in the universe, this would lead to rapid depletion of lithium and probably a complete wastage of material.
What we need to look for is a battery material that has a high energy density, which can store billions or even trillions of joules of energy, be rechargeable and easily available in the Universe. This should perhaps bring the no. of batteries down to a few million at the least
What sort of material should I use in designing really energy-dense and compact batteries to store the energy of a quasar?
Criteria:-
- My battery should be made of a material that is easily available and not rare like lithium.
- It can be recharged.
- Lasts for astronomical times, as in millions of years.
- It is energy dense and compact.
hard-science
tag. It's virtually a brainstorming question, nothing requires citations and equations in asking for an "impossible" energy storage solution. $\endgroup$