So this work seems to be about demonstrating the engineering aspects of molecular solar thermal energy storage. They put all this work into describing the micro

So this work seems to be about demonstrating the engineering aspects of molecular solar thermal energy storage. They put all this work into describing the microfluidic chip they use, pumps, and other details. They also use an azobenzene derivative for energy storage, which was probably chosen because the synthesis of it was trivial(2 steps) meaning it was easy for them to make enough for the test set up. Azobenzene has been considered for solar thermal energy storage since about 1976, and I suspect even earlier[0]. But there are better molecules out there. In this paper here[1] the same authors develop a molecule based around norbornadiene that has an estimated energy storage efficiency of 3.8%, an energy density of 0.48 MJ/kg, and a half life of 10 months. They even have a molecule with a half life of 18 years in one of their tables. So this publication is probably more in line with the storing solar power for decades from the headline. [0]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0038092X83901561 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/003809... [1]https://research.chalmers.se/publication/510123/file/510123_Fulltext.pdf https://research.chalmers.se/publication/510123/file/510123_...