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# Electro-concrete

Cement that can store and deliver electricity, electron-conducting carbon concrete, using concrete as a battery, to store electricity, MIT research

### Electro-concrete:

[Using concrete to store electricity ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-mZ853HJqM)- take power directly from your solar panels into your building walls

[Electrifying concrete with carbon black](https://news.mit.edu/2021/electrifying-cement-nanocarbon-black-0420)

[Concrete battery developed at MIT](https://news.mit.edu/2025/concrete-battery-now-packs-ten-times-power-1001)

**MIT researchers really are working on a form of cement that can store and deliver electricity.** It doesn’t generate electricity like a solar panel, but it can **store energy and release it later**, functioning a bit like a giant battery built into buildings or infrastructure.

### The idea: “electron-conducting carbon concrete”

MIT has developed a material called **electron-conducting carbon concrete (ec³)**. It’s made by mixing:

* Cement
* Water
* A liquid electrolyte
* **Ultra-fine carbon black particles**

The carbon particles form a **tiny conductive network inside the concrete**, allowing electrons to move through it. That means the concrete can **store and release electrical energy**, behaving like a **supercapacitor** (a type of fast-charging energy storage device).

### How much electricity can it store?

Recent improvements have dramatically increased the energy capacity:

* Around **5 cubic metres of this concrete can store over 10 kWh of electricity**, roughly a day’s electricity for an average household.
* That is about **10× more storage capacity than earlier prototypes from 2023**.

### Why this is interesting

Concrete is the **most widely used construction material in the world**, so embedding energy storage into it could transform infrastructure.

Possible uses include:

* **Building foundations that store solar energy** for use at night
* **Roads or parking areas that charge electric vehicles**
* **Self-powered buildings** that store renewable energy locally
* **Heated sidewalks or smart infrastructure** that monitors its own structural health

### Important limitations

* It currently acts more like a **supercapacitor than a lithium battery** (good for fast charge/discharge but lower energy density).
* The technology is **still experimental**, not yet widely used in real buildings.


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